Clerks, Jews, and farmers: projects of Jewish agricultural settlement in Poland

This essay discusses the development of policies regarding Jewish agricultural settlement in the Kingdom of Poland during the first half of the nineteenth century, focusing on the gaps between legal rulings and administrative practices, as well as on declared and hidden motivations. It argues that official policy toward Jewish agricultural settlement reflected the tensions present in so many discussions of the “Jewish question” in Poland between declared ideology and subconscious phobias and stereotypes. As proponents of Enlightenment ideology, Polish liberals advocated projects meant to reform Jewish society, including productivization. At the same time, they expressed misgivings that the strengthening of Jewish society might harm Christians. The result was striking ineffectiveness, which led to repeated failures, a growing disillusionment in Jewish circles, and the failure of the reform projects themselves.     

Implementation intentions and the willful pursuit of prosocial goals in negotiations

Three studies examined whether the self-regulation strategy of forming implementation intentions (i.e., if-then plans) facilitates the attainment of prosocial goals when a limited resource is to be distributed between two parties who hold adverse cognitive orientations. In three experiments, pairs of negotiators were assigned prosocial goals that either had to be supplemented with plans (if-then plans, Gollwitzer, 1999) on how to act on these goals or not. Experiment 1 used a mixed-frames negotiation paradigm in which one negotiation partner operated on a gain-frame, the other on a loss-frame. When participants had the prosocial goal to find fair agreements and furnished it with a respective if-then plan, unfair agreements in favor of the loss-frame negotiator no longer occurred. Experiment 2 used a same-frame negotiation paradigm, where both negotiation partners had either a loss or a gain-frame. When loss-frame pairs had furnished their prosocial goals to cooperate with the negotiation partner with a respective if-then plan, reduced profits as compared to gain-frame pairs of negotiators were no longer observed. In addition, negotiators who had formed implementation intentions were more likely to use the integrative negotiation strategy of logrolling (i.e., making greater concessions on low rather than high priority issues). Experiment 3 used a computer-mediated negotiation task in order to analyze the effects of prosocial goals and respective implementation intentions on the course of the negotiation. Again, implementation intentions facilitated the pursuit of prosocial goals in the face of adversity (i.e., loss frames) by use of the integrative negotiation strategy of logrolling. The present research adds a self-regulation perspective to the research on negotiation by pointing out that the effects of negotiation goals can be enhanced by furnishing them with respective plans (i.e., implementation intentions).     

Parent-report measure of Theory of Mind: Adaptation to Polish of the Children’s Social Understanding Scale

The main aim of the study was to investigate whether the Children’s Social Understanding Scale (CSUS), a parent report technique, is a valid and reliable measure of Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in Polish-speaking children. Additionally, the role of language abilities in ToM development was explored. A group of 225 parents of approximately 3.5-year-old Polish children was tested using the Polish version of the CSUS. Their children were tested with a word comprehension test and five behavioural ToM tasks. Satisfactory psychometric properties of the Polish CSUS were observed and positive correlations between the CSUS and behavioural ToM tasks were found. A two-factor structure was found in the CSUS: Mental State Talk (MST) and Mental State Comprehension. The MST factor was significantly related to word comprehension. The utility of the Polish version of the CSUS for future cross-cultural research with this population is discussed.     

Exploring the effect of testing on forgetting in vocabulary learning: an examination of the bifurcation model

ABSTRACT

Research on the testing effect demonstrated a stronger decrease in performance for repeated studying compared to repeated testing. The bifurcation model attributes this test-delay interaction to different distributions of item memory strength. The present study tested the assumptions of the bifurcation model for learning foreign language vocabulary. We hypothesised an elimination or reduction of the interaction in a test/feedback condition because feedback prevents the bifurcation of item memory strength. Our experiment based on a 3 (Learning Method within: Test, test/feedback, copy)?×?3 (Retention Interval between: Immediate, 1-week, 2-weeks) mixed factorial design with a sample of N = 122. The greatest long-term retention was achieved in the test/feedback condition. The bifurcation model was supported by a reduced test-delay interaction for the test/feedback condition. Further evidence for the bifurcation model is needed as interpretations on the dropout rates of items with different recall success were limited due to a floor effect.