Awe as a Scientific Emotion

Awe has traditionally been considered a religious or spiritual emotion, yet scientists often report that awe motivates them to answer questions about the natural world, and to do so in naturalistic terms. Indeed, awe may be closely related to scientific discovery and theoretical advance. Awe is typically triggered by something vast (either literally or metaphorically) and initiates processes of accommodation, in which existing mental schemas are revised to make sense of the awe‐inspiring stimuli. This process of accommodation is essential for the kind of belief revision that characterizes scientific reasoning and theory change. Across six studies, we find that the tendency to experience awe is positively associated with scientific thinking, and that this association is not shared by other positive emotions. Specifically, we show that the disposition to experience awe predicts a more accurate understanding of how science works, rejection of creationism, and rejection of unwarranted teleological explanations more broadly.     

Minority representation,tokenism, and well-being in army units

Racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in the US Army and women are moving into more combat roles. This puts minority soldiers at risk for being underrepresented in their work units. Tokenism theory predicts that when a work group has less than 15% representation in a social group, the numerically underrepresented minority (i.e., token) members are subject to three disadvantages: higher visibility, informal isolation, and role encapsulation. In the Army, where many companies contain small numbers of women and racial minorities, some soldiers may face additional stressors and constraints. We explored psychosocial, organizational, and health outcomes of all identifiable token women (N = 4,425) and Black soldiers (N = 5,040). Tokens were remarkably similar to non-tokens and majority soldiers on outcomes such as coping skills, adaptability, organizational trust, sleep, substance use, and pain. The intersection of token status in terms of race and gender was not related to any appreciable differences. One potential explanation is the shared Army culture that emphasizes group unity and the importance of the mission above individual characteristics and goals. The Army depends on cohesion, organizational identification, and commitment to the group in order to reduce stress and anxiety, and to maximize combat performance. For soldiers who have internalized this culture, it could be easier to see past individual differences such as gender and race and identify others in the unit as fellow soldiers primarily.     

The road not taken: creative solutions require avoidance of high-frequency responses

To investigate individual differences in creativity as measured with a complex problem-solving task, we developed a computational model of the remote associates test (RAT). For 50 years, the RAT has been used to measure creativity. Each RAT question presents three cue words that are linked by a fourth word, which is the correct answer. We hypothesized that individuals perform poorly on the RAT when they are biased to consider high-frequency candidate answers. To assess this hypothesis, we tested individuals with 48 RAT questions and required speeded responding to encourage guessing. Results supported our hypothesis. We generated a norm-based model of the RAT using a high-dimensional semantic space, and this model accurately identified correct answers. A frequency-biased model that included different levels of bias for high-frequency candidate answers explained variance for both correct and incorrect responses. Providing new insight into the nature of creativity, the model explains why some RAT questions are more difficult than others, and why some people perform better than others on the RAT.     

Lexical and buffer effects in reading and in writing Noun-Noun compound nouns

Reading and writing Noun-Noun compound nouns was investigated in two Italian aphasic patients: one with phonological dyslexia and the other with phonological dysgraphia. The patients were required to read, write and repeat a list of Noun-Noun compounds and length-matched non-compound nouns. The dyslexic patient RF read compounds better than non-compounds, and his repetition was flawless for both categories. The dysgraphic patient DA wrote non-compounds better than compounds because of a deficit in keeping separate entries at the lemma level. Differential performance when processing compounds and non-compounds is the result of a deficit in different components within the mental lexicon architecture.     

Facial memory deficits in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Prenatal exposure to alcohol may lead to a range of neurobehavioral effects, including impaired learning and memory. Although children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) exhibit both verbal and nonverbal memory impairments, their memory for faces has not been as thoroughly investigated and the extent literature provides inconsistent results. The aim of the current study was to determine whether difficulties in face memory exist in children with FASD and whether the difficulties are mediated by task demands. To address this, we used two measures of immediate and delayed facial recognition memory, the Children's Memory Scale (CMS) and Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL). Compared to typically developing controls, children with FASD showed memory deficits on all tests and were more likely to perform in a clinically significant range. As well, children performed more poorly on the CMS compared to TOMAL, a finding consistent with the greater difficulty of the CMS task. Our results are consistent with our hypothesis that children with FASD show impairment in facial memory, particularly on demanding memory tasks.     

Applicant Reactions in Saudi Arabia: Organizational attractiveness and core‐self evaluation

This paper reports findings from a survey into applicant reactions of working adults in Saudi Arabia. A sample of 193 participants from four job functions was obtained, with measures of organizational attractiveness, core‐self evaluation, and applicant reactions to four popular selection methods in the country – interviews, résumés, work sample tests, and references – being included. Findings indicate a notably similar pattern of preference reactions to previous studies in other (Western) countries, affirming arguments for so‐called reaction generalizability. Work sample tests were rated the most favorably followed by interviews, résumés, and references. For specific procedural dimensions, résumés were perceived as the most favorable, followed by work sample tests, interviews, and references. Several significant differences were found across job functions, mostly for interviews and résumés. Significant effects were found between reactions and organizational attractiveness, and between reactions and core‐self evaluation, including some interaction effects. Implications for future research and for practice in employee selection are considered in the conclusion.     

An Investigation of Student-Selected and Parent-Delivered Reading Interventions

In this study, we examined whether individualized, student-selected, parent-delivered reading interventions would produce generalized oral reading fluency improvements. Three 3rd-grade students received reading fluency interventions (repeated readings, modeling, error correction, and flashcard instruction) 1 at a time and were shown the results that each intervention produced. The students then selected the intervention strategies they wanted their parents to use. We trained parents in the student-selected reading intervention package who delivered the interventions for 4–5?weeks, and students were given the opportunity to earn rewards for generalized performance improvements at the end of each week in school. Using an alternating treatments design, results of parent tutoring were compared to a control condition that included a reinforcement contingency for generalized performance improvements to control for reinforcement effects across conditions. Generalized improvements in oral reading fluency (to high-word-overlap passages) were found for all participants. Results are discussed in terms of how educators can improve parent-tutoring outcomes by influencing students’ motivation to engage in tutoring procedures.     

A neural predictor of cultural popularity

We use neuroimaging to predict cultural popularity — something that is popular in the broadest sense and appeals to a large number of individuals. Neuroeconomic research suggests that activity in reward-related regions of the brain, notably the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, is predictive of future purchasing decisions, but it is unknown whether the neural signals of a small group of individuals are predictive of the purchasing decisions of the population at large. For neuroimaging to be useful as a measure of widespread popularity, these neural responses would have to generalize to a much larger population that is not the direct subject of the brain imaging itself. Here, we test the possibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to predict the relative popularity of a common good: music. We used fMRI to measure the brain responses of a relatively small group of adolescents while listening to songs of largely unknown artists. As a measure of popularity, the sales of these songs were totaled for the three years following scanning, and brain responses were then correlated with these “future” earnings. Although subjective likability of the songs was not predictive of sales, activity within the ventral striatum was significantly correlated with the number of units sold. These results suggest that the neural responses to goods are not only predictive of purchase decisions for those individuals actually scanned, but such responses generalize to the population at large and may be used to predict cultural popularity.     

Genetic Counseling for Personal Genomic Testing: Optimizing Client Uptake of Post-Test Telephonic Counseling Services

The field of genetic counseling faces a broad challenge: many potential clients may not be aware of the value and benefit of genetic counseling services, and therefore may not utilize those services. Navigenics is a personal genomic testing company that provides telephonic genetic counseling services for multifactorial diseases and pharmacogenetics. When first offered in 2008, utilization of the Navigenics genetic counseling service was less than expected. To explore the basis for under-utilization and potential mechanisms for increasing uptake, Navigenics initiated a quality improvement study, in which three different methods of engaging clients in the uptake of genetic counseling services were assessed over the course of 1 year. Outcomes showed significant differences in uptake rates between methodologies (7.5%, 24.6%, and 60.1%), yielding an 8-fold increase in service utilization when post-test telephonic outreach to all clients was performed. Further, utilization spanned all risk levels based on client results, evidence that not only clients with high-risk results were motivated to engage in the genetic counseling service. This research indicates that implementing strategies to educate clients about genetic counseling can positively impact client engagement and utilization of available services.