Action planning in the presence of distracting stimuli: an investigation into the time course of distractor effects

Humans have a remarkable capability to respond efficiently to a stimulus of interest despite other stimuli competing for neural resources. The current study investigated how the human system copes with distracting stimuli. During each trial, participants viewed 2 sequential stimuli that were each associated with a specific action based on an arbitrary mapping. The 1st stimulus served as a distractor, and the 2nd stimulus required a response (target). When the distractor preceded the target by more than a few hundred milliseconds, response latencies were slower when the 2 stimuli were associated with the same response. The authors propose that this negative compatibility effect stemmed from an inhibitory mechanism that the human system utilizes to prevent the distractor from eliciting an unwanted response.     

Parallels between depression and lament

This article compares the experiences portrayed by the psalmists in Psalm 31 and Psalm 102, both psalms of lament, with the current concept of major depression. It concludes by exploring how the insights of the psalms may be applied in pastoral care directed toward those who suffer from depression.     

THE EFFECTS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL MESSAGES ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE WOMEN'S ADOLESCENT SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

To clarify the relationship between sexual communication and sexual behavior, multiple components of sexual messages recalled from child hood were examined in a community sample of 248 African-American and White women. Respondents were matched on a predesignated set of demographic variables and were interviewed using the Wyatt Sexual History Questionnaire. We anticipated that women's recollections of messages from parents and television would differ both individually and across ethnicity, and that messages recalled from parents would be multidimensional, varying in tone (positive vs. negative) across time (childhood vs. adolescence) and form (verbal vs. nonverbal). We also expected that the presence and tone of specific types of messages re called would be associated with risk-related sexual behavior. Results confirmed predictions concerning differential interpretations of messages, and ethnicity emerged as a strong mediating variable. The implications of the specific types of parental messages influencing behavior are discussed.     

Narcissism and Discrepancy Between Self and Friends' Perceptions of Personality

Most research on narcissism and person perception has used strangers as perceivers. However, research has demonstrated that strangers' ratings are influenced by narcissists' stylish appearance (Back, Schmukle, & Egloff, 2010). In the present study, we recruited participants and their close friends, individuals whose close relationship should immunize them to participants' superficial appearance cues. We investigated the relation between narcissism and personality ratings by self and friends. Participants (N = 66; 38 women; M_age = 20.83 years) completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988) and described their personality on the 100‐item California Adult Q‐Sort (CAQ; Block, 2008). Participants' personality was also described on the CAQ by close friends. The “optimally adjusted individual” prototype was used to summarize participant and friend personality ratings (Block, 2008). Participants with high narcissism scores were ascribed higher optimal adjustment by self than by friends. Narcissistic individuals' self‐ratings were extremely positive and more favorable than friends' ratings of them.     

Information elaboration and team performance: Examining the psychological origins and environmental contingencies

Information elaboration enables functionally diverse teams to transform their breadth of knowledge resources into actionable solutions to complex problems. The current study advances information elaboration theory and research in two ways. First, we identify how team ability and social motivation composition characteristics provide the psychological origins of complex information processing efforts. Second, we identify environmental turbulence as an important boundary condition, clarifying when information elaboration benefits team performance and when it does not. These ideas were tested in a sample of 4-person self-managed teams (N = 68) which were functionally diverse and performed a cooperative strategic decision-making task. Results indicate that cognitive ability equips teams with the “can do” ability for complex elaboration efforts through emergent team mental models, whereas low preferences for self-reliance provide the “will do” motivation for in-depth information exchange through collective leadership. In turn, teams benefited from information elaboration in turbulent but not stable environments.     

Information theory and artificial grammar learning: inferring grammaticality from redundancy

In artificial grammar learning experiments, participants study strings of letters constructed using a grammar and then sort novel grammatical test exemplars from novel ungrammatical ones. The ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings is often taken as evidence that the participants have induced the rules of the grammar. We show that judgements of grammaticality are predicted by the local redundancy of the test strings, not by grammaticality itself. The prediction holds in a transfer test in which test strings involve different letters than the training strings. Local redundancy is usually confounded with grammaticality in stimuli widely used in the literature. The confounding explains why the ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings has popularized the idea that participants have induced the rules of the grammar, when they have not. We discuss the judgement of grammaticality task in terms of attribute substitution and pattern goodness. When asked to judge grammaticality (an inaccessible attribute), participants answer an easier question about pattern goodness (an accessible attribute).     

Exploration of counsellors' perceptions of the redesigned service pathways: a qualitative study of a UK university student counselling service

To address the mental health needs of students, UK universities offer bespoke student counselling services. Economic pressures have led services to find innovative ways of redesigning their service pathway. Few studies have investigated staff perceptions of these changes. The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of staff employed as counsellors at a student counselling service at a UK university that underwent service delivery changes. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with counsellors (n = 5). Framework analysis was used to identify themes and meta-themes. Five meta-themes were identified: the overarching service ethos and service working style; change in the university context; impact of change on working practice; recording and perceived impact on confidentiality; acceptability and effectiveness. Changes to the service resulted in a more efficient service that is perceived to be more acceptable to students. Staff perceptions differed regarding how changes have affected their counselling practice. Despite these differences, the increase in workload was consistently expressed. Tensions remain as staff strive to maintain high standards of service in this changing context. Future research should investigate the process of developing and implementing change as student counselling services strive to evolve sustainable ways of working.     

JPSSM since the beginning: intellectual cornerstones,knowledge structure,and thematic developments

Bibliometric analyses are applied to 35,975 citations from 721 articles published in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, spanning the journal’s first 35 years of existence (1980–2015). For each of three time periods (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), the sales literature’s most influential article publications are objectively identified. Multidimensional scaling is then used to identify key intellectual themes across time. Based on the citation data, historical developments in the literature regarding (1) relationship marketing, (2) sales force technology, (3) sales force control systems, and (4) salesperson role stress are traced and briefly explored in some article-level depth. Co-citation trends and recently influential papers are used to identify opportunities for future research. Altogether, this paper presents a first-of-its-kind view of sales literature’s intellectual cornerstones, knowledge structure, and thematic developments over 35 years.