Relationship between students' self-assessment of their capabilities and their teachers' judgments of students' capabilities in mathematics problem-solving

The study examined the judgments made by four seventh-grade mathematics teachers of their 107 students' competence in solving mathematics problems. Simultaneously, the 107 students made self-efficacy judgments about their capability in solving mathematics problems. The two sets of judgments were tested for predicting students' mathematics performance. Also, students' prior mathematics achievement was studied for its influence on both teachers' and students' judgments and students' mathematics performance. Teachers were asked to make judgments of each student for every mathematics problem solved. Results were consistent with prior research indicating that students' mathematics self-efficacy beliefs were highly predictive of their performance. Path analysis indicated that the mathematics teachers' judgments were also highly predictive of students' performance and self-efficacy. In turn, these variables predicted students' postperformance judgments. Combining students' self-efficacy judgments and teachers' judgments of students increased predictiveness for students' mathematics performance. Educational implications were also discussed.     

Sex differences in household labor time a comparison of rural and urban couples

A sample of 440 full-time employed couples from 11 states was examined to determine the differences between time spent on housework by husbands and wives in rural and urban areas. More time is spent in housework in rural families than in urban families because time spent in housework is greater for rural women than for urban women, while rural and urban husbands' times do not differ. Education of spouses, job status differentials, and age of the younger child do not significantly interact with rural-urban residence and sex of the spouse. However, family income does significantly influence the relationship between time spent on housework for rural and urban husbands and wives.     

Analysis of long-term stress reactions in emergency room patients: An initial study

The psychological stress reactions of 44 family medicine patients who were treated in the emergency room were examined approximately a year after the event. Patients were assessed on several psychological measures, including one for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and on their perception of how stressful the event was initially and now. Results show continuing stress reactions related to the emergency room event. Three patients endorsed symptoms indicating full PTSD and 13 appeared to have at least partial PTSD. Age appeared to be a factor in the presence of stress symptoms and in degree of perceived communication with the physician.     

Dimensional salience as a function of educational attainment and method of discrimination training

The effects of three methods of selective-attention training with 4-sided forms on the salience of an invagination physical dimension in discrimination judgments with a stimulus domain of 12-sided forms were examined for 6-year-old Ss of low and high educational attainment. The results demonstrated that training procedures involving perceptual demonstration or manipulation increase the invagination dimension salience in the 12-sided stimulus domain more than a verbal training procedure for low educational attainment Ss. Implications for the psychophysical study of relatedness of stimulus domains are discussed.     

Aging and rule learning: the case of the multiplicative law

This work examined the effect of age on the ability to learn multiplicative combination rules. Participants learned the multiplicative relationship between daily tobacco intake, daily alcohol intake, and risk of esophageal cancer. The hypothesis was that younger adults would learn to implement a multiplicative combination rule and older adults would not, despite feedback. Among the younger adults, complete rule learning took place. Before receiving feedback, they used an underadditive rule, a result consistent with previous studies. After only a limited amount of feedback, they learned to use a multiplicative rule. Even after receiving feedback, however, the older adults still showed difficulties in using the multiplicative rule. These results strengthen the proposition by Chasseigne, Mullet, and Stewart (1997) that the differences between younger and older adults in function learning are related mainly to flexibility of functioning.     

Minimal mimicry: Mere effector matching induces preference

Both mimicking and being mimicked induces preference for a target. The present experiments investigate the minimal sufficient conditions for this mimicry-preference link to occur. We argue that mere effector matching between one’s own and the other person’s movement is sufficient to induce preference, independent of which movement is actually performed. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants moved either their arms or legs, and watched avatars that moved either their arms or legs, respectively, without any instructions to mimic. The executed movements themselves and their pace were completely different between participants (fast circular movements) and targets (slow linear movements). Participants preferred avatars that moved the same body part as they did over avatars that moved a different body part. In Experiment 3, using human targets and differently paced movements, movement similarity was manipulated in addition to effector overlap (moving forward–backward or sideways with arms or legs, respectively). Only effector matching, but not movement matching, influenced preference ratings. These findings suggest that mere effector overlap is sufficient to trigger preference by mimicry.     

Eliciting and maintaining ruminative thought: the role of social-evaluative threat

This study tested whether a performance stressor characterized by social-evaluative threat (SET) elicits more rumination than a stressor without this explicit evaluative component and whether this difference persists minutes, hours, and days later. The mediating role of shame-related cognition and emotion (SRCE) was also examined. During a laboratory visit, 144 undergraduates (50% female) were randomly assigned to complete a speech stressor in a social-evaluative threat condition (SET; n = 86), in which an audience was present, or a nonexplicit social-evaluative threat condition (ne-SET; n = 58), in which they were alone in a room. Participants completed measures of stressor-related rumination 10 and 40 min posttask, later that night, and upon returning to the laboratory 3-5 days later. SRCE and other emotions experienced during the stressor (fear, anger, and sadness) were assessed immediately posttask. As hypothesized, the SET speech stressor elicited more rumination than the ne-SET speech stressor, and these differences persisted for 3-5 days. SRCE-but not other specific negative emotions or general emotional arousal-mediated the effect of stressor context on rumination. Stressors characterized by SET may be likely candidates for eliciting and maintaining ruminative thought immediately and also days later, potentially by eliciting shame-related emotions and cognitions.     

Predicting others’ actions: evidence for a constant time delay in action simulation

Recent evidence indicates that humans can precisely predict the outcome of occluded actions. It has been suggested that these predictions arise from a mental simulation which might run in real-time. The present experiments aimed to specify the time course of this simulation process. Participants watched transiently occluded point-light actions and the temporal outcome after occlusion was manipulated. Participants were instructed to judge the temporal coherence of the action after a short (Experiment 1) and a long occlusion period (Experiment 2). Both experiments revealed a comparable negative point of subjective equality (PSE), indicating that action simulation took constantly longer than the observed action itself. Such a temporal error was not present when inverted actions were used, (Experiment 3) ruling out a pure visually driven effect. The results suggest that the temporal error is due to costs arising from a switch from action perception to an internal simulation process involving motor representations.     

Work stress,work–home interference and perceptions of organisational culture amongst insurance employees in Zimbabwe

The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between work stress, work-home interference, and perceptions of organisational culture amongst insurance employees in the Zimbabwean context. Data were collected from a sample of 190 employees (females=46%) who completed the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (OSI-R), the Work-Home Interference Questionnaire (SWING), and the Organisational Culture Index (OCI). Data analysis consisted of correlational and standard multiple regression analyses. The results revealed significant positive correlations between the sub-scales Role Overload, Role Insufficiency, Role Ambiguity, Role Boundary, Responsibilities, and Physical Environment of the OSI-R, the sub-scales Positive Work-Home Interference and Negative Work-Home Interference of the SWING, and the sub-scales Bureaucratic, Innovative and Supportive Culture of the OCI. These findings contribute to new knowledge in terms of the work stress experienced by insurance employees who are always under continuous pressure from the industry. Furthermore, it could be used to gain insight to enhance the work-life balance of insurance employees and the effect of organisational culture as perceived by insurance employees.