Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Creativity: Test of a Multilevel Moderated Mediation Model

Using multisource data, this article examined the relationship of two types of employee perceptions of overall fairness (i.e., fairness of the organization and fairness of the department), with supervisor ratings of in-role task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). We also examined whether high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships compensate for negative effects of fairness on job performance and citizenship behaviors. Focusing on a sample of 154 health care workers, we found that only employee perceptions of overall fairness regarding the department were related to supervisory ratings of OCB and in-role task performance. Moreover, LMX moderated the relationships between fairness perceptions and (a) task performance, (b) organization-focused OCB, but not (c) individual-focused OCB. We discuss implications for research and the potential for reducing negative effects of low fairness perceptions on job performance through positive LMX.     

Repetition blindness for novel objects

When visual stimuli (letters, words or pictures of objects) are presented sequentially at high rates (8–12 items/s), observers have difficulty in detecting and reporting both occurrences of a repeated item: This is repetition blindness. Two experiments investigated the effects of repetition of novel objects, and whether the representations bound to episodic memory tokens that yield repetition blindness are viewpoint dependent or whether they are object centred. Subjects were shown coloured drawings of simple three‐dimensional novel objects, and rate of presentation (Experiment 1) and rotation in depth (Experiment 2) were manipulated. Repetition blindness occurred only at the higher rate (105 ms/item), and was found even for stimuli differing in orientation. We conclude that object‐centred representations are bound to episodic memory tokens, and that these are constructed prior to object recognition operating on novel as well as known objects. These results are contrasted with those found with written materials, and implications for explanations of repetition blindness are considered.     

Acetylcholine and olfactory perceptual learning

Olfactory perceptual learning is a relatively long-term, learned increase in perceptual acuity, and has been described in both humans and animals. Data from recent electrophysiological studies have indicated that olfactory perceptual learning may be correlated with changes in odorant receptive fields of neurons in the olfactory bulb and piriform cortex. These changes include enhanced representation of the molecular features of familiar odors by mitral cells in the olfactory bulb, and synthetic coding of multiple coincident odorant features into odor objects by cortical neurons. In this paper, data are reviewed that show the critical role of acetylcholine (Ach) in olfactory system function and plasticity, and cholinergic modulation of olfactory perceptual learning at both the behavioral and cortical level.     

When perspective taking increases taking: reactive egoism in social interaction

Group members often reason egocentrically, believing that they deserve more than their fair share of group resources. Leading people to consider other members' thoughts and perspectives can reduce these egocentric (self-centered) judgments such that people claim that it is fair for them to take less; however, the consideration of others' thoughts and perspectives actually increases egoistic (selfish) behavior such that people actually take more of available resources. A series of experiments demonstrates this pattern in competitive contexts in which considering others' perspectives activates egoistic theories of their likely behavior, leading people to counter by behaving more egoistically themselves. This reactive egoism is attenuated in cooperative contexts. Discussion focuses on the implications of reactive egoism in social interaction and on strategies for alleviating its potentially deleterious effects.     

Cumulative semantic inhibition in picture naming: experimental and computational studies

We report an experiment in which subjects named 120 pictures, consisting of series of five pictures drawn from each of 24 semantic categories (and intermixed with 45 fillers). The number of intervening trials (lag) between successive presentations of members of the same category varied from two to eight. Subjects' naming latencies were slowed by 30 ms for each preceding member of the category. This effect was both cumulative and linear, and unrelated to the lag elapsing since the previous presentation of a category member. These results definitively demonstrate the occurrence of cumulative interference for word retrieval by prior retrieval of other exemplars of the same semantic category-cumulative semantic inhibition. We claim that this inhibition effect could only occur if the spoken word production system possesses three specific properties (competition, priming, and sharing of semantic activation). We provide computational-modelling evidence in support of this claim. We show that no current theory of spoken word production has all of these properties. In their current form, all these theories are falsified by these results. We briefly discuss the obstacles that may be encountered by current models were they modified to account for our findings.     

Clients' attributions of recalled important or helpful events in a counseling interview

Clients' causal explanations for recalled important or helpful events between those of early and of late sessions of counseling interview have been examined. We predicted that (a) for clients' recalled important or helpful events, there will be more internal attribution in late than in early sessions and (b) clients' evaluation of counseling sessions would be positively related to their internal attribution of the recalled important or helpful events. Data were generated from 84 sessions of therapy, with 12 counselor-client dyads conducting seven sessions of therapeutic interviews each. Immediately after each interview, clients were requested to recall and explain the most important or helpful events that happened during the session. Clients' causal explanations of the events were analyzed by two trained judges. Results showed no statistically significant differences in frequencies of internal attribution. Similarly, internal attribution did not covary with clients' evaluation of counseling sessions. The implications of the results are discussed.     

The nonconscious influence of religious symbols in motivated performance situations

Anthropological, sociological, and psychological theories suggest that religious symbols should influence motivational processes during performance of goal-relevant tasks. In two experiments, positive and negative religious (Christian) symbols were presented outside of participants' conscious awareness. These symbols influenced cardiovascular responses consistent with challenge and threat states during a subsequent speech task, particularly when the speech topic concerned participants' mortality, and only for Christian participants; similar images lacking Christian meaning were not influential. Results suggested that these effects were due to the learned meaning of the symbols and point to the importance of religion as a coping resource.     

The self-fulfilling influence of mother expectations on children's underage drinking

This research examined whether mothers' expectations about their children's drinking behavior influenced their children's future alcohol use through self-fulfilling prophecies. It also investigated whether children's self-esteem, family social class, or the valence of mother expectations moderated this process. Analyses of longitudinal data from 505 mother-child dyads yielded results consistent with a self-fulfilling prophecy. The inaccurate portion of mother expectations predicted children's future alcohol use after accounting for relevant control variables. Moderation analyses indicated that this effect was stronger among higher self-esteem children and when mother expectations were positively valenced (i.e., when mothers underestimated their children's future alcohol use). The findings are discussed in terms of parent-child relationship quality, peer influences, self theories, and out-group stereotypes.