IQ on the rise: the Flynn effect in rural Kenyan children

Abstract - Multiple studies have documented significant IQ gains over time, a phenomenon labeled the Flynn effect. Data from 20 industrialized nations show massive IQ gains over time, most notably in culturally reduced tests like the Raven's Progressive Matrices. To our knowledge, however, this is the first study to document the Flynn effect in a rural area of a developing country. Data for this project were collected during two large studies in Embu, Kenya, in 1984 and 1998. Results strongly support a Flynn effect over this 14-year period, with the most significant gains found in Raven's matrices. Previously hypothesized explanations (e.g., improved nutrition; increased environmental complexity; and family, parental, school, and methodological factors) for the Flynn effect are evaluated for their relevance in this community, and other potential factors are reviewed. The hypotheses that resonate best with our findings are those related to parents' literacy, family structure, and children's nutrition and health.     

“Being tied to experience”: towards a subjective account of the phenomenology of the event

Continental Philosophy Review - In this text, Heidegger's notion of the event is understood as a rupture on an ontological level. From this follows the aporia of whether the event concerns the...     

Psychopathy and COVID-19: Callousness,impulsivity, and motivational reasons for engaging in prevention behavior

Two direct replication studies were conducted to investigate the associations of psychopathic traits with engagement in COVID-19 prevention behavior and motivational reasons for engaging in such behavior. College undergraduate students completed two self-report measures of psychopathic traits based on the four-factor conceptualization of psychopathy (callous affect, manipulative tendency, erratic lifestyle, criminal tendency) and the triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy (meanness, disinhibition, boldness). Participants then reported the degree to which they engaged in COVID-19 prevention behavior currently and in the past, and reported their self-focused and other-focused motivational reasons for doing so. Results aggregated across both studies (N = 292) revealed that traits reflecting emotional callousness and impulsivity independently predicted lower levels of other-focused reasons for engaging in prevention behavior. Moreover, controlling for other-focused reasons appreciably reduced negative associations of emotional callousness and impulsivity with prevention behavior. The results provide insight into points of convergence in conceptualization and measurement of psychopathy from multiple theoretical perspectives and the importance of considering the impact of divisive personality traits on motivation to protect others during pandemics.     

Reducing color-color interference by optimizing selection for action

Color-color interference refers to the finding that the naming of a target color is hampered by the simultaneous presentation of an incongruent distractor color somewhere else in the visual field. This interference effect has been attributed to an imperfect input selection (selection-for-processing). We test an alternative account in which it is assumed that (a) target and distractor are identified in parallel without mutual interference, (b) the identified target color has to be selected to control the naming response (selection-for-action), and (c) this selection process takes more time and is less accurate in the incongruent condition than in the control conditions. Experiment 1 shows that color-color interference is obtained when a target color, presented at the point of fixation, is flanked by incongruent colors. In Experiments 2 and 3, the central target position is indicated by an additional exogenous selection cue. The results show that an abrupt-onset cue, presented at the central target position 160 ms after the onset of the target and distractors, reduces the interference effect. This finding is interpreted as supporting evidence for a selection-for-action account of color-color interference.     

Apparent distance reduction with moving stimuli (Tandem Effect): Evidence for an attention-shifting model

Summary When two vertical rods move through a horizontal window in close succession, the Tandem Effect can be observed. It consists of a spatial illusion (distance between the rods looking smaller than it actually is) and a temporal illusion (under certain conditions both rods are seen simultaneously in the window, though the first rod has left the window before the second rod enters it). We report six experiments that explored the distance-reduction illusion and tested an attentional model of the effect. It assumes that attention is initially focused on the first rod and then shifted to the second, when it enters the window. The percept of the pair of rods is integrated from the first rod's position at the beginning, and the second rod's position at the end, of the focus shift. Consequently their subjective distance will be smaller than their physical distance by the distance that they travel during the focus shift. Experiments 1 and 2 established the Tandem Effect as an empirical phenomenon and showed that its size depends on stimulus parameters such as window size and movement speed. Experiments 3–5 tested specific predictions from the attentional model. Experiment 6 examined a further illusion, the Fröhlich Effect, and showed that it can be subsumed under the model. The experiments produced some unexpected effects and some predictions from the model were only partly confirmed. It is shown that the main findings can be combined into two quantitative functions that describe the course of focusing. One implication is that visual attention does not move from one object to another; rather all attention shifts originate in the fovea. We discuss several alternative interpretations of our data and show that they are less satisfactory than the attentional model.     

An attribute frequency model for the abstraction of prototypes

An attribute frequency model for the abstraction of prototypes is proposed as an alternative to the prototype-plus-transformation model. A specific model is tested in a Franks and Bransford visual pattern paradigm under conditions in which the two models generate contrasting predictions. The results support the attribute frequency model. Application of the model to reported data obtained in other paradigms is illustrated and discussed.     

Communal Orientation and the Burnout Syndrome Among Nurses: A Replication and Extension1

The present study focused on the distinction between two equity considerations in “people” jobs: the relationship with the recipients with whom one works and the exchange relationship with the organization for which one works. The sample consisted of nurses who were employed in one particular nursing home for mentally retarded patients. The results show that perceived inequity in both types of relationships is linked to emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. As expected, individual differences in communal orientation differentiate when nurses feel inequitably treated in their relationships with their patients. Moreover, the results suggest that low communally oriented nurses restore equity in their relationships with patients by withdrawing emotionally (depersonalization). In contrast, nurses who felt inequitably treated in the employee-employer relationship reported a higher intent to quit. No direct link between burnout symptoms and the intention to quit was observed.