Too Good to Be True? Using Realism to Enhance Applicant Attraction

Research that has examined the effects of realism on pre-hire outcomes has suggested that it does not harm recruitment. We present evidence that realistic information may, under certain circumstances, increase organizational attractiveness. Participants (N = 225) evaluated one of two recruitment messages, positive only or realistic, and reported their perceptions of organizational attractiveness, source credibility, and perceptions of the challenge inherent in the job. Consistent with our hypothesis, the realistic recruitment message led to higher organizational attractiveness than the positive only message. Contrary to expectations, however, this effect appears to be mediated through perceptions of challenge in the job, rather than perceptions of source credibility.     

Effects of Performance Context on Processing Speed and Performance Ratings

The present study demonstrated that the presence of evaluatively polarized context performances not only produces contrast and halo effects on judgments of a target performance, but also causes judgments to be made much faster. Processing speed and positive halo were highly correlated, supporting the notion that halo in performance ratings results from raters' recall and use of a single, general impression. Furthermore, regression analyses demonstrated that processing speed mediates the relationship between context and halo. The relationship between these findings, halo, processing speed, and general impressions, as well as implications for performance appraisals, are discussed.     

Perceptual Grouping: It's Later Than You Think

Recent research on perceptual grouping is described with particular emphasis on the level at which grouping factors operate. Contrary to the standard view of grouping as an early, two-dimensional, image-based process, experimental results show that it is strongly influenced by binocular depth perception, lightness constancy, amodal completion, and illusory figures. Such findings imply that at least some grouping processes operate at the level of conscious perception rather than the retinal image. Whether classical grouping processes also operate at an early, preconstancy level is an important, but currently unanswered question.     

Affective guidance of intelligent agents: How emotion controls cognition

How do emotions and moods color cognition? In this article, we examine how such reactions influence both judgments and cognitive performance. We argue that many affective influences are due, not to affective reactions themselves, but to the information they carry about value. The specific kind of influence that occurs depends on the focus of the agent at the time. When making evaluative judgments, for example, an agent’s positive affect may emerge as a positive attitude toward a person or object. But when an agent focuses on a cognitive task, positive affect may act like feedback about the value of one’s approach. As a result, positive affect tends to promote cognitive, relational processes, whereas negative affect tends to inhibit relational processing, resulting in more perceptual, stimulus-specific processing. As a consequence, many textbook phenomena from cognitive psychology occur readily in happy moods, but are inhibited or even absent in sad moods (149).     

a test of holland's theory of vocational personalities and work environments

This study investigated the validity of J. L. Holland's (1997) theory of vocational personalities and work environments. The sample consisted of 241 randomly selected members of the National Association of School Psychologists, each of whom completed a demographic data form, the Self‐Directed Search‐Revised (SDS‐R; J. L. Holland, 1994) and a modified short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (D. J. Weiss, R. V. Dawis, G. W. England, & L. H. Lofquist, 1967). Only limited support was found for major constructs associated with Holland's theory, although the study found several significant relationships between 3‐letter SDS‐R codes and desired role function as would be predicted by Holland's theory.     

Holistic processes in the perception and transformation of disoriented figures

Two experiments tested whether mental rotation of complex, hierarchical stimuli occurs holistically or separately at global and local levels of structure. Large (global) letters were constructed from spatial arrangements of small (local) letters. Reflection conditions (normal vs. reflected) were produced by varying the two levels independently. The task was structured so that subjects could rotate one level of the stimulus in some conditions but had to rotate both levels in other conditions. Experiment 1 showed that rotation rate was not affected by the number of levels that had to be rotated to make a reflection decision. This result implies that the rotation of global and local levels occurred together rather than sequentially. Experiment 2 showed that the rotation of the two levels was holistic as opposed to parallel and independent. The results also demonstrate that global information is processed faster than local information regardless of whether or not a rotation is performed. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of mental rotation and global precedence.     

The role of cognitive abilities in children's inferences about social atypicality and peer exclusion and inclusion in intergroup contexts

Children aged 6–7 years judged a loyal and a partially disloyal member of a school in terms of how typical they are within the school group and their likely acceptance by peers from the same school and a different school. Second‐order mental‐state understanding (SOMSU) predicted whether children thought atypical members would be included differently in the two groups. Counterfactual reasoning ability, multiple classification ability, and working memory ability did not predict children's judgements of group members. Moreover, as predicted by the developmental subjective group dynamics model, only children with higher levels of SOMSU and who discerned differences in the typicality of normative and deviant ingroup members inferred that peers would differently include atypical individuals from the same and different groups.     

Children's responses to social atypicality among group members – advantages of a contextualized social developmental account

Abrams, Rutland, Palmer, Ferrell, and Pelletier (2014) showed that better second‐order mental state understanding facilitates 6–7‐year‐olds' ability to link a partially disloyal child's atypicality to inclusive or exclusive reactions by in‐group or outgroup members. This finding is interpreted in terms of predictions from the developmental subjective group dynamics model. We respond to thoughtful commentaries by Rhodes and Chalik, Patterson, and Rakoczy. Children face a significant developmental challenge in becoming able to recognize and interpret social atypicality in intergroup contexts. Researching that ability to contextualize judgements raises new questions about the nature of peer inclusion and exclusion, about children's social cognition, and about the way that social cognitive development and social experience combine. Rather than individual‐focused cognition taking priority over category‐based cognition, we argue the two become more systematically integrated during development. We note that loyalty is but one example of typicality, and we also consider the role of more advanced perspective taking among older children, and the role of multiple classification skill among younger children, as well as potential implications for intervention to reduce peer victimization and prejudice.     

Stress management: Approaches and interventions

The different approaches, possible interventions and subsequent evaluation problems related to stress management and counselling are discussed in relation to the other symposium papers.