Cognitive-emotional dysfunction among noisy minds: Predictions from individual differences in reaction time variability

Mental noise can be defined as less reliable information processing. Individuals with high levels of mental noise are thought to be disadvantaged in cognitive, emotional, and behavioural realms. The present five studies (total N=298) investigated such potential disadvantages among normally functioning college undergraduates. Mental noise was operationalised in terms of the reaction time coefficient of variation (RTCV), a measure of RT variability that corrects for average levels of mental speed. Individuals with higher RTCV exhibited less effective cognitive control (Studies 1 and 5), less controlled behaviour (Study 2), and were more prone to negative emotional experiences (Study 3) and depressive symptoms (Study 4). Study 5 extended these results and found that individuals higher (versus lower) in RTCV were more adversely affected by their attentional lapses in daily life. Results converge on the idea that mental noise is an important individual difference dimension with multiple adverse correlates and consequences.     

Reading Comprehension: Effects of Individualized,Integrated Language Arts as a Reading Approach with Struggling Readers

This study examined the effects of individualized, integrated language arts as a reading approach on struggling readers' comprehension scores obtained from oral narrative, silent narrative, and silent expository passages at three levels: below-grade, on-grade, and above-grade levels. Students (N = 93) in grades four through eight, who were reading below grade level, participated in the study. Treatment group students (n = 51) received individualized, integrated language arts as a reading approach once a week in place of basal reading instruction. Comparison group students (n = 42) received basal reading instruction for the duration of the study. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze posttest Analytical Reading Inventory (ARI) comprehension scores. Several statistically significant (p < .001) differences in comprehension performance were found for on-grade-level scores and for above-grade-level scores, but few differences were found between treatment and comparison groups on below-grade-level scores. All statistically significant differences favored students in the treatment group. The findings of the study strongly suggest that the use of individualized, integrated language arts as a method for teaching reading is an effective approach for improving the reading comprehension performance of struggling readers.     

Reliability of Ratings of Children’s Expressive Reading

This study examined ratings of fourth graders’ oral reading expression. Randomly assigned participants (n = 36) practiced repeated readings using narrative or informational passages for 7 weeks. After this period raters used the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS) on two separate occasions to rate students’ expressive reading of four equivalent passages. Results of this generalizability study showed that a minimum of two and preferably three equivalent passages, two raters, and one rating occasion are recommended to obtain reliable ratings. This research substantiates the reliability of the MFS and demonstrates the importance of raters collaborating and finding texts at students’ independent reading levels.     

Multiple Personality Disorder and One Analyst's Paradigm Shift

Joseph Sandler elegantly integrated clinical experience and psychoanalytic theory in his three-box model. He unites topographical, structural, and object relations theory with the patient's experience of the lack of safety from humiliation and shame in the psychoanalytic relationship. In the three-box model, the danger of humiliation and shame is reduced by an affect of safety that is promoted by the analyst. By adding recent ideas about a developing self, I demonstrate the clinical usefulness of the three-box model.     

Children's Mechanistic Reasoning

Reasoning about mechanisms is one of the hallmarks of disciplined inquiry in science and engineering, but comparatively little is known about its precursors and development. Children at grades 2 and 5 predicted and explained the motion of simple mechanical systems composed entirely of visible linkages (levers). Students' explanations of device behavior suggested four forms of knowledge: simple recognition of device components, noting of structural relations among components, construction of cause-effect rules derived by observation of regularities in device behavior, and identification of essential system components and interactions among components that accounted for cause–effect rules. Only a few children coordinated multiple essential components to constitute a mechanistic causal scheme. Mechanistic causal schemes, in turn, were associated with successful prediction of the output motion of a system. Device tracing via gesture and talk appeared to support this form of knowledge development, and hence may inform future instructional design.     

The donor is in the details

Recent research finds that people respond more generously to individual victims described in detail than to equivalent statistical victims described in general terms. We propose that this “identified victim effect” is one manifestation of a more general phenomenon: a positive influence of tangible information on generosity. In three experiments, we find evidence for an “identified intervention effect”; providing tangible details about a charity’s interventions significantly increases donations to that charity. Although previous work described sympathy as the primary mediator between tangible information and giving, current mediational analyses show that the influence of tangible details can operate through donors’ perception that their contribution will have impact. Taken together with past work, the results suggest that tangible information of many types promotes generosity and can do so either via sympathy or via perceived impact. The ability of tangible information to increase impact points to new ways for charities to encourage generosity.     

Under Siege: A Woman's Beauty and Health

The weave of a woman's health and beauty is the theme of this study. Its specific focus is the menace to a woman's entire existence that the marriage of late capitalism and the western patriarchy generates. A plethora of commercial enterprises take advantage of the idiosyncratic appearance and uneven distribution of beauty to exploit it and create harm to a woman's health.     

The Process of Personal Change Through Reading Fictional Narratives: Implications for Psychotherapy Practice and Theory

This qualitative study provides an understanding of how and when individuals experience transformational change as a consequence of reading narratives. Six participants who attributed significant personal changes to reading were recruited and interviewed. The investigators used grounded theory method to analyze these interviews and identify processes through which change unfolded. The core category of the analysis was identification with characters' experiences created a safe venue to consider threat and experiment with new possibilities and perspectives. Empathizing with protagonists enabled readers to integrate new modes of responding to personally difficult situations. Implications for bibliotherapy and narrative therapy are discussed.     

The Moderating Role of Locus of Causality in the Relationship Between Source of Information and Psychological Contract Breach Perceptions

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of information-seeking behaviors on the relationship between personality and psychological contract (PC) breach.

Approach

This study takes an interactionist (person × situation) perspective to examine how PC breach can be reduced in organizations. Survey data were obtained from 184 graduate students from psychology departments across the United States on variables related to personality, information-seeking behaviors, and PC breach.

Findings

Results indicated that external locus of causality (LoCa) is positively associated with PC breach, while information seeking from supervisors is negatively associated with breach. From an interactionist perspective, the positive association of external LoCa attribution style with breach was lessened as information seeking from supervisors increased, but heightened for participants who obtained information from peers, but not supervisors.

Implications

Such knowledge can potentially be used to help inform norm-setting strategies of organizations to possibly reduce the unwanted negative effects of PC breach.

Originality

This finding helps advance our theoretic understanding of the intersection between individual differences and situations and is the first study to examine interactions between LoCa and information sources with respect to PC breach.