Feature-based inhibition underlies the affective consequences of attention

Rapid selection of a target in the presence of similar distractors can cause subsequent affective evaluation of a distractor to be more negative than that for the selected object. This distractor devaluation effect has previously been attributed to an association of attentional inhibition with the distractor's representation. Here, we investigated whether the associated inhibition leading to distractor devaluation is object based or feature based. Using colour-tinted face and building stimuli in a two-item simple visual search, followed by evaluation of face stimuli on a trustworthiness scale, we report that emotional evaluation was modified by prior attention whenever the search stimuli and the to-be-evaluated face shared the distractor feature, regardless of whether face identity seen in the two successive tasks matched or not. These data support the notion that inhibition can be feature-based and show that such inhibition can have emotional consequences.     

Personality functioning in people living with HIV

This investigation adopted a multiple case study approach to determine the personality functioning in people living with HIV/ AIDS (PLWHA). Participants comprised a convenience sample of four PLWHA (male?=?3, female?=?1). The majority of the participants were white (n?=?3) and one was black African. Only one participant was married at the time of participation. Data on aspects such as their suicidal ideation, affect, problem solving styles, ego functioning, self-perception, and interpersonal functioning were collected using the Rorschach inkblot test and clinical interview. The data were actuarially analysed and organised under themes, namely; dominant personality style, capacity for control and stress, situational related stress, affect, interpersonal relations and self-perception. Findings revealed that participants had high levels of potential mood disorders and interpersonal difficulties for which targeted psychological services may be needed.     

Early Reminiscing in Cultural Contexts: Cultural Models,Maternal Reminiscing Styles,and Children's Memories

The present study examined conversations of 164 mothers from seven different cultural contexts when reminiscing with their 3-year-old children. We chose samples based on their sociodemographic profiles, which represented three different cultural models: (1) autonomy (urban middle-class families from Western societies), (2) relatedness (rural farming families from non-Western societies), and (3) autonomy-relatedness (urban middle-class families from non-Western societies). The results showed that mothers from the autonomous contexts predominantly adopted an elaborative-evaluative reminiscing style (variable-oriented approach) and pattern (person-oriented approach). Mothers from the relational contexts mainly adopted a repetitive reminiscing style and pattern. There was greater heterogeneity for style variables among mothers from autonomous-relational contexts; in addition, the person-oriented approach revealed that the majority of mothers from autonomous-relational contexts showed hybrid style patterns. Thus, the cultural models, and their respective orientations towards autonomy and relatedness, were reflected in the way mothers reminisced with their children. The children's provision of memory elaborations was high in the autonomous contexts, low in the relational contexts, and moderate in the autonomous-relational contexts. Across contexts, maternal evaluations prompted children to contribute memory elaborations. Maternal elaborations were an additional predictor for children's memory, but only for families from the relational cultural model.     

Quantitative work demands,emotional demands,and cognitive stress symptoms in surgery nurses

In surgery, cognitive stress symptoms, including problems in concentrating, deciding, memorising, and reflecting are risks to patient safety. Recent evidence points to social stressors as antecedents of cognitive stress symptoms in surgery personnel. The current study tests whether cognitive stress symptoms are positively associated with emotional abuse, emotional- and task-related demands and resources in surgery work. Forty-eight surgery nurses from two hospitals filled out the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire in its German version. Task-related and emotional demands were positively related to cognitive stress symptoms. In a stepwise, multiple, linear regression of cognitive stress symptoms on task-related and emotional demands, emotional abuse and emotional demands were unique predictors (p < .05). Efforts to increase patient safety should address emotional abuse, emotional demands, and, therefore, communication and cooperation team climate in surgery personnel.     

The impact of social relationships on Ugandan children’s sharing decisions

Recent studies provided evidence for an impact of social relations on preschool children’s sharing behavior. Children have been shown to be more generous towards friends than nonfriends or strangers. As evidence comes largely from studies with western children, little is known about cross-cultural differences and commonalities in this pattern. Here, we show that preschool and elementary school aged Ugandan children show high levels of generosity independent of the social relationships with the recipient. This finding points to societal differences in early sharing. The results are discussed in terms of a formative impact of cultural traditions on the early development of sharing in the preschool years.     

Binge eating as a consequence of unfulfilled basic needs: The moderating role of implicit achievement motivation

The present study hypothesized that unfulfilled basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (SDT, Deci and Ryan, Psychol Inq 11:227–268, 2000) are associated with the impulse to eat and with binge eating. In addition, we assumed that individuals with a high achievement motive, who are characterized by high self-control competences, have the same impulse to eat when confronted with unfulfilled basic needs, but are better able to control the impulse to binge eat than individuals with a low achievement motive. In accordance with these hypotheses, unfulfilled basic needs significantly positively predicted the impulse to eat as well as binge eating behavior. As also expected, the achievement motive did not moderate the effect of unfulfilled needs on the impulse to eat, but did influence the effect of unfulfilled needs on binge eating. The results are discussed in terms of a broader debate about the interaction between basic needs and implicit motives.     

Judgments of learning reflect encoding fluency: conclusive evidence for the ease-of-processing hypothesis

According to the ease-of-processing hypothesis, judgments of learning (JOLs) rely on the ease with which items are committed to memory during encoding--that is, encoding fluency. Conclusive evidence for this hypothesis does not yet exist because encoding fluency and item difficulty have been confounded in all previous studies. To disentangle the effects of encoding fluency and item difficulty on JOLs, we used a variant of the learner-observer-judge method in which participants observed the study phase of another participant and indicated his or her JOLs. At the same time, the to-be-studied word pairs were concealed by strings of symbols. Our experiment revealed that participants use self-paced study time as a cue for JOLs when they themselves have studied and recalled word pairs before. This metacognitive monitoring of study time provides strong support for the ease-of-processing hypothesis.     

Transnational Discourses of Knowledge and Learning in Professional Work: Examples from Computer Engineering

Taking a Foucauldian framework as its point of departure, this paper discusses how transnational discourses of knowledge and learning operate in the profession of computer engineering and form a certain logic through which modes of being an engineer are regulated. Both the knowledge domain of computer engineering and its related labour market is heavily internationalised and characterised by a general focus on universalism and standardisation. Moreover, rapid shifts in technologies and institutional arrangements contribute to an embracement of more wide-ranging discourses related to lifelong learning and the enterprising self. Thus, dominant discourses of knowledge and learning within this profession reflect processes of globalisation and take a transnational character. The paper discusses how the discourses in play constitute mechanisms of governmentality that present certain expectations to professionals and shape their energies, efforts and desires in certain directions. In order to be influential, however, the discourses depend on individuals who take up the subject positions offered and enact them in locally relevant and partially creative ways. Thus, careful analyses of the discourses in specific knowledge communities, as well as of their interrelated subject positions, may enhance our understanding of the more epistemic dimensions of globalisation and how these come to influence the imaginations of individuals as ‘citizens of the world.’