Subliminal priming of motivational orientation in educational settings: Effect on academic performance moderated by mindfulness

Recent literature indicates that a motivational orientation can be unconsciously primed. This study examined whether motivational priming influences students’ academic performance within an educational setting and whether this effect is moderated by students’ degree of mindfulness. Two randomly assigned groups of students received an identical lesson. However, the teacher’s slideshow contained different subliminal words according to the condition (autonomous vs. controlled motivation). Results demonstrated an interaction between students’ dispositional mindfulness and priming conditions. The more mindful students were immune to the manipulation whereas the less mindful students were affected by the priming: those primed with autonomous motivation obtained better results than those primed with controlled motivation. These findings contribute to priming research specifying individual differences of priming responsiveness.     

Cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories and autobiographical memory: specificity, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective

Autobiographical memory (AM) specificity is impaired in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Previous studies emphasised the role of cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories in this impairment. This study aimed to examine the association of cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories with specificity, autonoetic consciousness, and self-perspective. A total of 38 healthy participants were given the revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R) and an AM task designed to assess positive and negative memories regarding specificity, autonoetic consciousness (remember/know procedure), and self-perspective (field/observer procedure). Taking into account age, verbal IQ, mood, harm avoidance, and executive resources, the IES-R avoidance subscale was negatively correlated with specificity and remember responses for positive memories, and with remember and field responses for negative memories. These findings suggest that cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories is associated with a decrease of the episodic components of AM retrieval.     

The biology of visual perspective and depression: A reply to Sutin

A recent meta-analysis by Munafò, Durrant, Lewis, and Flint (2009) [Munafò, M. R., Durrant, C., Lewis, G., & Flint, J. (2009). Gene × environment interactions at the serotonin transporter locus. Biological Psychiatry, 65, 211–219] questioned the meaning of studies searching for endophenotypes associated with the serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region (5-HTTLPR) polymorphism, including our study on visual perspective during autobiographical memory retrieval. However, the association of 3rd person perspective with vulnerability for depression does not rely only on genetics. External consistency is provided by the influence of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism on brain regions involved in emotion regulation and autobiographical memory retrieval (e.g. the medial prefrontal cortex). Internal consistency is provided by the increased prevalence of 3rd person perspective in both currently and previously depressed patients, as well as in depression-prone individuals. Further studies should examine therapeutic opportunities.     

Visual laterality responses to different emotive stimuli by red-capped mangabeys, Cercocebus torquatus torquatus

Hemispheric asymmetry in emotional perception has been put forward by different theories as the right hemisphere theory or the valence theory. But no consensus was found about the role played by both hemispheres. So, in order to test the different theories, we investigated preferential use of one eye in red-capped mangabeys, at the individual as well as at the group level. In this study we investigated the influence of the emotional value of stimuli on the direction and strength of visual preference of 14 red-capped mangabeys. Temporal stability of the bias of use of a given eye was evaluated by comparing our current results to those obtained 2.5 months previously. Two experimental devices, a tube and a box, tested five different stimuli: four food types varying in palatability and a neutral stimulus. The subjects’ food preferences were evaluated before testing the laterality. The mangabeys used their left eyes predominantly at the group level for the tube task. The majority of the subjects showed a visual preference at the individual level for the box task, but this bias was not present at the group level. As the palatability of the stimuli increased, the number of lateralized subjects and the number of subjects using preferentially their left eye increased. Similarly, the strength of laterality was related to food preference. Strength of laterality was significantly higher for subjects using their left eye than for subjects using their right eye. Preferential use of a given eye was stable over short periods 2.5 months later. Our data agree with reports on visual laterality for other species. Our results support the valence theory of a hemispheric sharing of control of emotions in relation to their emotional value.     

L’apport des tests d’aptitudes dans le recrutement : l’exemple de la NV5-R

From the observation of a limited use of aptitude tests in the recruitment process, this article attempts to illustrate the relevance of such tests from applied research on the recruitment of sales persons. Thus, 32 candidates have participated in the recruitment process that is traditionally practiced by the organization, to which we have added three of the subtests of the battery NV5-R. The comparison of the scores at this test and the results of the classical procedure of recruitment for each subject shows that similar information is obtained by these two methods of selection. The contribution of aptitude tests in selection procedures has been discussed in terms of these results while laying the limitations of this study.     

The genetics and evolution of the general factor of personality

Three studies tested the hypothesis that a general factor of personality (GFP) underlies diverse individual differences including altruism, the Big Five factors of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability, and the EAS temperament traits of Emotional Stability, Activity, and Sociability. In Study 1, 214 university students completed 36 personality scales. In Study 2, 322 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins completed 29 5-point rating scales plus questionnaires. In Study 3, 575 pairs of 2- to 9-year-old Korean twins were rated by their mothers on 25 temperament scales. Factor analyses revealed a hierarchical organization with GFP at the apex and the Big Five and/or EAS temperament scales intermediate. The twin data show GFP has an early age of onset with 50% of the variance attributable to non-additive (dominance) genetic influence and 50% to unique, non-shared environmental influence. We discuss a life history matrix encompassing brain size, maturational speed, and longevity, plus emotional intelligence and the personality disorders, and suggest natural selection acted directionally to endow people with more cooperative and less contentious personalities than their archaic ancestors, or nearest living relatives, the chimpanzees.     

Actual environments do affect motivation and psychological adjustment: A test of self-determination theory in a natural setting

This study examined the impact of the actual environment on changes in psychological adjustment over time. According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan, Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, 1985a, Plenum, New York; J Res Pers 19:109–134, 1985b; Psychol Inq 11:227–268, 2000), environments that are objectively supportive of autonomy should facilitate psychological adjustment through their impact on people’s subjective perceptions of autonomy and self-determined motivation. The present study tested this hypothesis using a prospective design with nursing homes residents. Results from structural equation modeling showed that actual autonomy-supportive nursing home environments were positively associated with residents’ perceptions of autonomy that in turn predicted self-determined motivation in major life domains. Self-determined motivation, in turn, predicted increases in psychological adjustment over a one-year period. Theoretical implications of the present findings are discussed in line with SDT.

A General Factor of Personality (GFP) from two meta-analyses of the Big Five: and

In two studies, we used structural equation models to test the hypothesis that a General Factor of Personality (GFP) occupies the apex of the hierarchy of personality. In Study 1, we found a GFP that explained 45% of the reliable variance in a model that went from the Big Five to the Big Two to the Big One in the 14 studies of inter-scale correlations (N = 4496) assembled by Digman (1997). A higher order factor of Alpha/Stability was defined by Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Agreeableness, with loadings of from 0.61 to 0.70, while Beta/Plasticity was defined by Openness and Extraversion with loadings of 0.55 and 0.77. In turn, the GFP was defined by Alpha and Beta with loadings of 0.67. In Study 2, a GFP explained 44% of the reliable variance in a similar model using data from a published meta-analysis of the Big Five (N = 4000) by Mount, Barrick, Scullen, and Rounds (2005). Strong general factors such as these, based on large data sets with good model fits that cross validate perfectly, are unlikely to be due to artifacts and response sets.     

ALTERNATIVE AXIOMATICS AND COMPLEXITY OF DELIBERATIVE STIT THEORIES

We propose two alternatives to Xu’s axiomatization of Chellas’s STIT. The first one simplifies its presentation, and also provides an alternative axiomatization of the deliberative STIT. The second one starts from the idea that the historic necessity operator can be defined as an abbreviation of operators of agency, and can thus be eliminated from the logic of Chellas’s STIT. The second axiomatization also allows us to establish that the problem of deciding the satisfiability of a STIT formula without temporal operators is NP-complete in the single-agent case, and is NEXPTIME-complete in the multiagent case, both for the deliberative and Chellas’s STIT.