Organizational trust among job seekers: The role of information‐seeking and reciprocation wariness

This study explores job seekers’ information‐seeking and pre‐hire trust, and the role of reciprocation wariness in the development of pre‐hire trust. Individuals seeking a job with a technology company (N = 192) reported their perceptions of the organization’s website usability and perceived similarity to their recruiter, organizational trustworthiness and trust, and intent to accept a job offer. Wariness moderated the relationship between website usability perceptions and trustworthiness. Unexpectedly, the interaction was in the opposite direction of what we predicted. In addition, job seekers’ perceived similarity to their recruiter related to trustworthiness, and trust related to intent to accept a job offer. Our findings suggest that to some extent, recruiting organizations can encourage trust perceptions in the pre‐hire context.     

Association and dissociation between detection and discrimination of objects of expertise: Evidence from visual search

Expertise in face recognition is characterized by high proficiency in distinguishing between individual faces. However, faces also enjoy an advantage at the early stage of basic-level detection, as demonstrated by efficient visual search for faces among nonface objects. In the present study, we asked (1) whether the face advantage in detection is a unique signature of face expertise, or whether it generalizes to other objects of expertise, and (2) whether expertise in face detection is intrinsically linked to expertise in face individuation. We compared how groups with varying degrees of object and face expertise (typical adults, developmental prosopagnosics [DP], and car experts) search for objects within and outside their domains of expertise (faces, cars, airplanes, and butterflies) among a variable set of object distractors. Across all three groups, search efficiency (indexed by reaction time slopes) was higher for faces and airplanes than for cars and butterflies. Notably, the search slope for car targets was considerably shallower in the car experts than in nonexperts. Although the mean face slope was slightly steeper among the DPs than in the other two groups, most of the DPs’ search slopes were well within the normative range. This pattern of results suggests that expertise in object detection is indeed associated with expertise at the subordinate level, that it is not specific to faces, and that the two types of expertise are distinct facilities. We discuss the potential role of experience in bridging between low-level discriminative features and high-level naturalistic categories.     

Everyday Life Cognitive Instability Predicts Simple Reaction Time Variability: Analysis of Reaction Time Distributions and Delta Plots

The goal of this study is to understand the interface between subjectively assessed and objectively measured attention functioning. To this end, we assessed both self‐report data using the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and sustained‐attention performance using a low‐demand psychomotor vigilance task that required participants to respond to visual targets. Unlike previous studies, reliability of task performance was ensured, testing individuals twice within a retest interval of 1 week. Given that everyday life attentional lapse tendencies vary even in normal‐population samples, we asked whether there is a relationship with laboratory performance, in general and as a consequence of time on task (TOT). As a result, low (versus high) CFQ scorers were somewhat different in their average response speed but became particularly prone to lapsing during the task period, as reflected in standard measures of response‐speed variability as well as ex‐Gaussian parameters of distributional skewness. In conclusion, we argue that persistence to sustained demand might be an important aspect of construct validity that must be evoked by a manipulation of TOT, which may be useful for the evaluation of questionnaires in ecologically valid situations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Case-Based Knowledge and Ethics Education: Improving Learning and Transfer Through Emotionally Rich Cases

Case-based instruction is a stable feature of ethics education, however, little is known about the attributes of the cases that make them effective. Emotions are an inherent part of ethical decision-making and one source of information actively stored in case-based knowledge, making them an attribute of cases that likely facilitates case-based learning. Emotions also make cases more realistic, an essential component for effective case-based instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of emotional case content, and complementary socio-relational case content, on case-based knowledge acquisition and transfer on future ethical decision-making tasks. Study findings suggest that emotional case content stimulates retention of cases and facilitates transfer of ethical decision-making principles demonstrated in cases.     

Toward a Positive Military Psychology

The present study used an informant method of psychiatric assessment to evaluate Saddam Hussein, and these results were compared to a posthumous assessment of Adolf Hitler. Eleven Iraqi adults who lived under Hussein's influence for a median of 24 years completed the Coolidge Axis II Inventory, a measure of 14 personality disorders. The mean consensus among the 11 raters was r = .57. It revealed that Hussein probably reached diagnostic threshold for the sadistic (T score M = 81.0), paranoid (T score M = 79.3), antisocial (T score M = 77.4), and narcissistic (T score M = 74.2) personality disorders. The correlation between the consensus profile for Hussein and a consensus profile of 5 Hitler experts was r = .79, indicating a very strong similarity between the two profiles. It was concluded that Saddam Hussein had many of the same personality disorders or their features as Adolf Hitler, although sadistic features were stronger in Hussein than Hitler. It appeared that a “Big Four” personality disorders constellation emerged for these two dictators, and they were sadistic, antisocial, paranoid, and narcissistic. It was also found that Hussein might have had some traits or features of paranoid schizophrenia. Implications for diplomacy and negotiations with persons with similar personality profiles are proffered.     

Role of contextual imagery in associative recall

The advantage of interactive over separation imagery in associative recall was markedly diminished when a unique imaginary context was provided for each imaged pair of words. Separation imagery was much more sensitive to contextual redundancy than was interactive imagery. Context was viewed as facilitating organization at encoding as well as affecting cue loading at retrieval. A three-element associative model is described.     

The accidental transgressor: morally-relevant theory of mind

To test young children’s false belief theory of mind in a morally relevant context, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, children (N = 162) at 3.5, 5.5, and 7.5 years of age were administered three tasks: prototypic moral transgression task, false belief theory of mind task (ToM), and an “accidental transgressor” task, which measured a morally-relevant false belief theory of mind (MoToM). Children who did not pass false belief ToM were more likely to attribute negative intentions to an accidental transgressor than children who passed false belief ToM, and to use moral reasons when blaming the accidental transgressor. In Experiment 2, children (N = 46) who did not pass false belief ToM viewed it as more acceptable to punish the accidental transgressor than did participants who passed false belief ToM. Findings are discussed in light of research on the emergence of moral judgment and theory of mind.