When are workload and workplace learning opportunities related in a curvilinear manner? The moderating role of autonomy

Building on theoretical frameworks like the Job Demands Control model and Action Theory we tested whether the relationship between workload and employees' experiences of opportunities for workplace learning is of an inverted u-shaped nature and whether autonomy moderates this relationship. We predicted that – at moderate levels of autonomy – workload was positively associated with learning opportunities at low levels of workload, but negatively at high levels of workload. Also, we predicted that low autonomy prevents positive effects of moderate workload from materializing whereas high autonomy makes high workload less destructive to the learning process. Furthermore, we examined whether learning opportunities increase particularly as a function of higher matched levels of workload and autonomy and whether mismatch between workload and autonomy is particularly detrimental to the learning process. We found support for these ideas in two large and heterogeneous samples of working adults using moderated and polynomial regression analyses and subsequent response surface methodology. These results integrate conflicting prior findings and extend Karasek's (1979) active learning hypothesis. They also have clear implications for job redesign practices aiming to promote workplace learning opportunities.     

Saving for your future self: The role of imaginary experiences

Despite increased longevity, many people fail to save the funds necessary to support their retirement. In an attempt both to elucidate and remedy this failing, research exploring the “future-self continuity” hypothesis has revealed that temporal discounting is decreased and saving increased when connections between one’s current and future self are strengthened. Here, we explored the possibility that a basic component of mental imagery – spatial visual perspective – may be an important determinant of people’s decisions to spend now or save for the future. The results of two experiments supported this prediction. Rates of saving were enhanced when a distant-future event was generated from a third-person vs. first-person vantage point, an effect that was mediated by visual bodily awareness during mental imagery.     

Distribution and Correlates of Self-Reported Crimes of Trust

This study examines the distribution and correlates of a special class of property crimes, crimes of trust, using longitudinal and cross sectional self-report data from a national sample. We begin by defining crimes of trust and consider their conceptual relationship to "conventional" property crimes, which we here characterize as crimes of stealth, and to white collar crimes, which are defined in terms of the social status of the perpetrators. Crimes of trust are here defined as property crimes that typically involve deliberate contact with the victim or, where there is more than one victim, with at least one or more victims, in which there is typically more of a focus on concealing the fact that a crime has been committed than on concealing the identity of the perpetrator (as is the case in crimes of stealth), without regard to the socioeconomic status of the perpetrator (thus including but not limited to white collar crimes). The focus here is on crimes of trust committed by individuals (as opposed to corporate crime). We first examine their distribution by sociodemographic characteristics, then examine the correlation of crimes of trust with other types of illegal behavior, using data from the National Youth Survey Family Study, including (1) longitudinal self-report data from a nationally representative panel of individuals who were 11-18 years old in 1976-77 and who were followed through early middle age (ages 36-44) in 2002-2003, plus (2) cross-sectional data on these individuals plus their parents, spouses, and children age 11 and older in 2002-2003 (total age range 11-88). The results suggest that crimes of trust have a different age-crime curve from conventional crimes, and that they are not as strongly correlated with problem substance use, gender, and other socioeconomic indicators as conventional crimes.     

Absolute Time: The Limit of Kant's Idealism

I examine here if Kant can explain our knowledge of duration by showing that time has metric structure. To do so, I spell out two possible solutions: time's metric could be intrinsic or extrinsic. I argue that Kant's resources are too weak to secure any intrinsic, transcendentally‐based temporal metrics; but he can supply an extrinsic metric, based in a metaphysical fact about matter. I conclude that Transcendental Idealism is incomplete: it cannot account for the durative aspects of experience—or it can do so only with help from a non‐trivial metaphysics of material substance.     

Do dispositional attributions regarding peer endorsers influence product evaluations?

The effect of a peer endorsement advertisement on research participants' attitudes toward the advertised product was examined. An advertisement for a Seiko watch and a questionnaire were administered to participants. The degree of dispositional attributions regarding the endorser's motivation and participants' subsequent attitudes associated with the Seiko watch were measured. In addition, other factors that might affect product evaluation were measured. Whether product evaluation could be accounted for by correspondence bias was investigated. The results showed that the degree of dispositional attributions correlated with product evaluations. There was no correspondence bias. Possible causes for the lack of correspondence bias are discussed and a model suggesting factors accounting for participants' product evaluations is presented.     

Correction to: In Search of the Trinity: A Dilemma for Parfit’s Conciliatory Project

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice -     

Trust maintenance as a function of construal level and attributions: The case of apologies

When do recipients of an apology (“trustors”) base their decision to trust a perpetrator (a “trustee”) on the attributional information embedded in an apology? Attributions provide a detailed account of the trustee's causal involvement in committing a transgression. We therefore argue that trustors in a low construal level mindset use this information in their trusting decision. However, trustors in a high construal level mindset likely consider all apologies as simple statements of regret, regardless of the attributional information they contain. We find support for this argument in four laboratory experiments. This research nuances the idea that to restore trust by means of an apology, the trustee must only use an effective attribution for a negative outcome. We also present a more realistic understanding of the process leading from apologies to trust than has been offered in previous work by simultaneously considering the role of the trustor and that of the trustee in the trust restoration process.     

Tracks to a Medical Diagnosis: Expertise Differences in Visual Problem Solving

This study focuses on the visual problem‐solving process of clinical pathologists. Its aim is to find expertise‐related differences in the temporal arrangement of this process, with a special focus on the orientation phase. A theoretical model of the visual diagnostic process of medical specialists is extended with general problem‐solving theory. Participants were 13 experts, 12 intermediates, and 13 novices, who all diagnosed seven microscopic images. Their microscope movements and thinking aloud were recorded. To study temporal arrangement of the process, we applied a time‐grid to the data. The results reflected several aspects of general problem‐solving theory. Experts and intermediates showed a more extensive orientation phase and more refined schemata than novices. Intermediates also showed a control phase at the end of the diagnostic process. Novices showed a uniform process. These phases were reflected in microscope navigation and thinking aloud, which justifies the extension of the theoretical model.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.