Stair-rod dislocations in perovskite films on LaAlO3 substrates

Two types of stair-rod dislocation formed at junctions of {111} stacking faults in SrTiO₃-SrRuO₃ two-layer films on LaAlO₃ substrates have been studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The first type, formed by the interaction of two stacking faults situated at the flat SrRuO₃-LaAlO₃ interface without any step, has a Burgers vector (a/3)<110>. The other type, formed by the interaction of two stacking faults, of which one starts from the SrRuO₃-LaAlO₃interface area involving an interface step, has a Burgers vector (a/3)<120>. The formation mechanism of the stair-rod dislocations and the effect of the step are discussed.     

Buying Life Experiences for the “Right” Reasons: A Validation of the Motivations for Experiential Buying Scale

Although numerous studies have demonstrated the hedonic benefits of spending money on life experiences instead of material possessions, there has been no attempt to determine how different motivations for experiential consumption relate to psychological need satisfaction and well-being. Across five studies (N = 931), guided by self-determination theory, we developed a reliable and valid measure of motivation for experiential consumption—the Motivation for Experiential Buying Scale—to test these relations. Those who spend money on life experience for autonomous reasons (e.g., “because they are an integral part of my life”) report more autonomy, competence, relatedness, flourishing, and vitality; however, those who spend money on life experiences for controlled (e.g., “for the recognition I’ll get from others”) or amotivated reasons (e.g., “I don’t really know”) reported less autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These results demonstrated that the benefits of experiential consumption depend on why one buys life experiences.     

Mixture Factor Analysis for Approximating a Nonnormally Distributed Continuous Latent Factor With Continuous and Dichotomous Observed Variables

Mixture factor analysis is examined as a means of flexibly estimating nonnormally distributed continuous latent factors in the presence of both continuous and dichotomous observed variables. A simulation study compares mixture factor analysis with normal maximum likelihood (ML) latent factor modeling. Different results emerge for continuous versus dichotomous outcomes. For dichotomous outcomes, normal ML path estimates have bias that worsens as latent factor skew/kurtosis increases and does not diminish as sample size increases, whereas the mixture factor analysis model produces nearly unbiased estimators as sample sizes increase (500 and greater) and offers near nominal coverage probability. For continuous outcome variables, both methods produce factor loading estimates with minimal bias regardless of latent factor skew, but the mixture factor analysis is more efficient. The method is demonstrated using data motivated by a study on youth with cystic fibrosis examining predictors of treatment adherence. In summary, mixture factor analysis provides improvements over normal ML estimation in the presence of skewed/kurtotic latent factors, but due to variability in the estimator relating the latent factor to dichotomous outcomes and computational issues, the improvements were only fully realized, in this study, at larger sample sizes (500 and greater).     

Relative Leader–Member Exchange Within Team Contexts: How and when Social Comparison Impacts Individual Effectiveness

A multilevel model was developed to examine how and when a focal individual's leader–member exchange (LMX) relative to the LMXs of coworkers within the team (relative LMX, or RLMX) influences individual in‐role performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and job satisfaction. Results, based on a sample of 275 leader–member dyads within 35 teams of a beverage company, largely supported the hypotheses. Specifically, using multilevel polynomial regression analyses, the results showed that self‐efficacy partially mediated the relationship between RLMX and in‐role performance and job satisfaction, and fully mediated the relationship between RLMX and OCB. Furthermore, the results demonstrated that team identification attenuated RLMX's direct effect on self‐efficacy, and indirect effects on in‐role performance and OCB and team supportive behavior attenuated RLMX's direct effect on self‐efficacy and indirect effect on in‐role performance.     

A Comparison of Imputation Strategies for Ordinal Missing Data on Likert Scale Variables

This article compares a variety of imputation strategies for ordinal missing data on Likert scale variables (number of categories = 2, 3, 5, or 7) in recovering reliability coefficients, mean scale scores, and regression coefficients of predicting one scale score from another. The examined strategies include imputing using normal data models with naïve rounding/without rounding, using latent variable models, and using categorical data models such as discriminant analysis and binary logistic regression (for dichotomous data only), multinomial and proportional odds logistic regression (for polytomous data only). The result suggests that both the normal model approach without rounding and the latent variable model approach perform well for either dichotomous or polytomous data regardless of sample size, missing data proportion, and asymmetry of item distributions. The discriminant analysis approach also performs well for dichotomous data. Naïvely rounding normal imputations or using logistic regression models to impute ordinal data are not recommended as they can potentially lead to substantial bias in all or some of the parameters.     

Psychological contracts and innovative behavior: a moderated path analysis of work engagement and job resources

This study explored the relationships between psychological contract types and innovative behavior. We focused on the mediating effect of work engagement and the moderating effect of job resources (organizational and social resources). Participants were 267 dyads of research and development engineers and their supervisors from 30 high‐tech companies. Moderated path analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Findings showed that: (a) work engagement fully mediated the negative relationship between transactional contracts and innovative behavior; in addition, it also fully mediated the positive relationship between relational contracts and innovative behavior; and (b) job resources attenuated the former and strengthened the latter mediating effects. These findings contribute to understanding how, why, and when psychological contract types lead to innovative behavior via work engagement.     

不同回忆任务下小学生即时学习判断的准确性

学习判断是指对当前已经学习的项目在以后测验中成绩的预见性判断。本研究以小学五年级学生为被试,选取正向词对和反向词对为实验材料,考察不同回忆任务下小学生学习判断的准确性及偏差。研究发现,小学五年级学生的即时学习判断的准确性受到词对类型和回忆任务的影响:(1)小学生线索回忆任务下的学习判断中,正向词对的准确性较好,反向词对出现了高估,表现出了学习判断的预见偏差;(2)自由回忆任务下的学习判断中,两种词对都出现了显著的高估。研究结果丰富和细化了流畅性假说对学习判断加工机制的解释,并提出即时学习判断准确性的偏差是由于编码流畅性和提取流畅性的差异造成的。     

小学低年级学生自我监控与监控他人的发展研究

元认知监控包括自我监控和监控他人。本研究用两个实验分别探讨了小学低年级学生自我监控和监控他人之间的关系及其发展趋势。实验一采用100以内加减法的计算任务,来探讨小学低年级学生的自我监测和监测他人。实验二采用难度不同、分值不同的计算任务,来探讨学生的自我控制和控制他人。研究发现:第一,小学低年级学生的自我监测和监测他人都会以前期任务表现为依据,支持MPT假说。而且,自我监测和监测他人都在二年级表现出了明显的转化和提高。第二,小学低年级学生在监测他人时,逐渐由以自我信息为依据调整到以他人认知状态为依据。第三,元认知控制能力的发展落后于监测能力。二年级和三年级学生仍旧不能很合理地进行自我执行和计划他人。     

Effects of a ‘Learn to Think’ intervention programme on primary school students

Background. Methods for teaching thinking may be described as out‐of‐context or infusion. Both approaches have potential to raise students’ general cognitive processing ability and so raise academic achievement, but each has disadvantages. Aims. To describe and evaluate a theory‐based learn to think (LTT) curriculum for primary school students, which draws on the strengths of both out‐of‐context and infusion approaches. Sample. One‐hundred and sixty‐six students in three classes of Grade 1 (6+ years old), Grade 2 (7+ years old), and Grade 3 (8+ years old) in a primary school in Shanxi province, China, randomly ascribed to experimental (90) and control (76) groups. Methods. All students were pre‐tested for non‐verbal intelligence and academic achievement. Experimental students followed the LTT curriculum (one activity every 2 weeks) for 4 school years. All were post‐tested on three occasions for thinking ability and four times for academic achievement. Results. Grade 1 and Grade 2 students showed effects of LTT from 1 year after their start and increasing: on thinking ability d= .78–1.45; on Chinese d= .68–1.07; on maths .58–.87. Grade 3 students showed effects from 6 months after their start: on thinking ability .90–1.37; Chinese .77–1.32; maths .65–1.29. The effects were concentrated in students in the middle band of initial ability. Conclusions. A curriculum for teaching thinking based on a structured theoretical model that combines elements of out‐of‐context and infusion methods has been shown to have long‐term far transfer effects on students’ thinking ability and academic achievement. More work is needed to meet the needs of a wider range of abilities.