Near‐ and Far‐Transfer Effects of Working Memory Updating Training in Elderly Adults

Age‐related declines in working memory, especially with regard to updating ability, affect many high‐level aspects of cognition in elderly adults. Recent studies have demonstrated that training might improve working memory. We investigated the effects of 20 days of adaptive training of working memory updating in healthy elderly adults. Comparing the performance on cognitive function tests before and after training in a trained group and a non‐trained group, significant positive training effects were observed in a numerical updating task and a digit‐span test, but not in a non‐verbal reasoning test. The results suggest beneficial effects of working memory updating training to working memory tasks that use different content material and task formats than those used during training. However, confirming the results of previous studies, transfer effects to other higher order cognitive processes seem to be absent in elderly adults. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interdependent self‐construal moderates coping with (but not the initial pain of) ostracism

Ostracism – being excluded and ignored – can cause psychological distress. There has been little research examining how a person's concept of self might influence the effects of ostracism. In the current study, we sought to examine the effect of self‐construal on the distress created by ostracism. Specifically, we assessed the potential moderating effects of self‐construal on both the initial distress of ostracism and the coping process. Participants, recruited in China, completed a self‐construal measure and were either included or ostracized in an online ball‐tossing game. They then reported need‐satisfaction both immediately following the game and after a filler task. Interdependent self‐construal facilitated participants' recovery from some of the negative effects of ostracism, but did not have an impact on the initial pain.     

Dealing with laughter and ridicule in adolescence: relations with bullying and emotional responses

We investigated the fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), the joy in being laughed at (gelotophilia), and the joy in laughing at others (katagelasticism) in adolescent students (N = 324, 13–15 years). Gelotophobia was associated primarily with the victim and katagelasticism with the bully-role (self- and peer reports). Gelotophobia correlated with laughing at oneself if experiencing an embarrassing situation. Gelotophilia increased with the propensity to laugh if observing or experiencing embarrassment; katagelasticism increased with laughing if observing something embarrassing in another person. Imagining potentially embarrassing situations was associated with greater feelings of anxiety, shame, sadness, and embarrassment; gelotophilia with joy and cheerfulness. The study breaks the ground for a better understanding on how adolescent students deal with laughter and ridicule.     

BOOK REVIEWS

This paper deals with the traumatic departures of Jews from Morocco during the 1950s and 1960s. The issue is analyzed through a set of diverse oral narrations. The study is based on several interviews conducted both among Jews who left Morocco and Muslims still living in the city of Meknes. The repression of the memory by Muslims of two young Jews murdered in 1967 in Meknes is questioned. In fact, although the perceptions concerning the Jews' departure differs according to the interviewee's social class, a common feeling appears to be shared by different societal sectors regarding this specific issue, which still comes across as a sensitive one today. The representation of Jews traditionally depicted as “fearful” and “weak” turns into “courageous” and “strong” during the Six‐Day War. This new representation perturbed the Muslim population, which seemed to be unable to deal with the new status Jews were acquiring. In fact, emigration was commonly considered to betray a lack of virility. The paper argues that the unexpected departure of an historic component of Moroccan society has left an open wound in Morocco. Even the memory of the “events” by the Jewish population appears to be fragmented into ambiguous constructions, leading, on the one hand, to perceptions of fear and uncertainty and, on the other, to images of affectionate relationships and intense nostalgia.     

The source of dual-task limitations: Serial or parallel processing of multiple response selections?

Although it is generally recognized that the concurrent performance of two tasks incurs costs, the sources of these dual-task costs remain controversial. The serial bottleneck model suggests that serial postponement of task performance in dual-task conditions results from a central stage of response selection that can only process one task at a time. Cognitive-control models, by contrast, propose that multiple response selections can proceed in parallel, but that serial processing of task performance is predominantly adopted because its processing efficiency is higher than that of parallel processing. In the present study, we empirically tested this proposition by examining whether parallel processing would occur when it was more efficient and financially rewarded. The results indicated that even when parallel processing was more efficient and was incentivized by financial reward, participants still failed to process tasks in parallel. We conclude that central information processing is limited by a serial bottleneck.     

Weibull analysis of the biaxial fracture strength of a cast p-type LAST-T thermoelectric material

This is the first study applying Weibull statistics to the strength distribution of a thermoelectric (TE) material and to determine the fracture strength of a member of the LAST-T (lead–antimony–silver–tellurium–tin) family of high-temperature TE compounds. The p-type TE material Ag_0.9Pb₉Sn₉Sb_0.6Te₂₀ was cast from the melt and specimens cut from the resulting ingot were fractured in a ball-on-ring biaxial fracture test. The Weibull parameters (characteristic strength and Weibull modulus) were obtained from the fracture data. Implications of the Weibull analysis on the fabrication of TE devices are discussed.     

Entitlement to Self‐Knowledge and Brute Error

Abstract

I discuss Burge’s argument that our entitlement to self‐knowledge consists in the constitutive relation between the second‐order review of thoughts and the thoughts reviewed, and defend it against Peacocke’s criticism. I then argue that though our entitlement to self‐knowledge is neutral to different environments, as Burge claims, the consideration of Burge’s own notion of brute error shows that Burge’s effort to reconcile externalism and self‐knowledge is not successful.     

Job Stressors,Organizational Innovation Climate,and Employees’ Innovative Behavior

This study attempted to examine the influence of job stressors and organizational innovation climate on employees’ innovative behavior. Data were obtained from 282 employees in 4 cities of China. Results indicated that the nature of stressors matters in predicting employees’ idea generation. Specifically, stressors that employees tend to appraise as challenges were positively related to idea generation, whereas stressors that employees tend to appraise as hindrances were negatively related to idea generation. In addition, hindrance stressors moderated the relationship between organizational innovation climate and innovative behavior. The beneficial effect of organizational innovation climate on innovative behavior became weaker for idea implementation and totally disappeared for idea generation when confronting with high hindrance stressors. Implications of this study are also discussed.     

Histrionic Managers Wreak Havoc in the Workplace: Identifying the Phenomenon

Histrionic thinking and behavior derive more from emotion than from reason, creating a condition that causes problems for both those who display this emotional style and those they interact with. When histrionic people “manage” others in the workplace, a destructive dynamic often supervenes as employee and manager pursue the goals of work, frequently at cross purposes. In a naturalistic study, three incidents from my experience with histrionic managers are described and the underlying phenomenon of the histrionic manager is identified. This phenomenon is postulated to be universal, which is to say that managers with a histrionic style will be found wherever work is done.