“Plateau”-related summary statistics are uninformative for comparing working memory models

Performance on visual working memory tasks decreases as more items need to be remembered. Over the past decade, a debate has unfolded between proponents of slot models and slotless models of this phenomenon (Ma, Husain, Bays (Nature Neuroscience 17, 347-356, 2014). Zhang and Luck (Nature 453, (7192), 233-235, 2008) and Anderson, Vogel, and Awh (Attention, Perception, Psychophys 74, (5), 891-910, 2011) noticed that as more items need to be remembered, “memory noise” seems to first increase and then reach a “stable plateau.” They argued that three summary statistics characterizing this plateau are consistent with slot models, but not with slotless models. Here, we assess the validity of their methods. We generated synthetic data both from a leading slot model and from a recent slotless model and quantified model evidence using log Bayes factors. We found that the summary statistics provided at most 0.15 % of the expected model evidence in the raw data. In a model recovery analysis, a total of more than a million trials were required to achieve 99 % correct recovery when models were compared on the basis of summary statistics, whereas fewer than 1,000 trials were sufficient when raw data were used. Therefore, at realistic numbers of trials, plateau-related summary statistics are highly unreliable for model comparison. Applying the same analyses to subject data from Anderson et al. (Attention, Perception, Psychophys 74, (5), 891-910, 2011), we found that the evidence in the summary statistics was at most 0.12 % of the evidence in the raw data and far too weak to warrant any conclusions. The evidence in the raw data, in fact, strongly favored the slotless model. These findings call into question claims about working memory that are based on summary statistics.     

Health Related Quality of Life and Social Support in Pediatric Patients with Pacemakers

Prior research evaluating health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among pediatric patients with internal cardiac devices has primarily focused on children with cardiac defibrillators, with scant attention devoted to pacemaker recipients. Social support has been conceptualized as a protective factor that partially accounts for differences in HRQOL. This study compares the HRQOL of children with pacemakers with that of healthy children, and examines associations between HRQOL and social support. Twenty-seven pediatric pacemaker recipients completed measures of HRQOL and social support. Their parents also completed measures of child HRQOL. High concordance was found for child and parent-proxy reports of child HRQOL. Children with pacemakers and their parents both reported relatively low child HRQOL when compared to published normative data for healthy children and parents of healthy children. Family and friends emerged as the sources of support positively associated with the greatest number of HRQOL domains. In conclusion, these findings suggest that pediatric pacemaker recipients experience lower levels of HRQOL compared to healthy peers, and that social support from those closest to the child is associated with their perceived HRQOL.     

Twenty Years of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings: We Hope You Will Enjoy the Show

The 20th anniversary of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings is celebrated by highlighting the scientist-practitioner philosophy on which it was founded. The goal of the Journal—to provide an outlet for evidence-based approaches to healthcare that underscore the important scientific and clinical contributions of psychology in medical settings—is discussed. The contemporary relevance of this approach is related to the current implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care and its focus on accountability and the development of an interprofessional healthcare workforce; both of which have been foci of the Journal throughout its history and will continue to be so into the future. Several recommendations of future topic areas for the Journal to highlight regarding scientific, practice, policy, and education and training in professional health service psychology are offered. Successfully addressing these topics will support the growth of the field of psychology in the ever evolving healthcare system of the future and continue ensure that the Journal is a key source of professional information in health service psychology.     

The impact of telework on emotional experience: When,and for whom,does telework improve daily affective well-being?

Teleworking has become increasingly popular in organizations around the world. Despite this trend towards working outside of the traditional office setting, research has not yet examined how people feel (i.e., their affective experiences) on days when working at home versus in the office. Using a sample of 102 employees from a large US government agency, we employed a within-person design to test hypotheses about the relationship between teleworking and affective well-being. We also examined four individual differences (openness to experience, rumination, sensation seeking, and social connectedness outside of work) as cross-level moderators. Results show that employees experience more job-related positive affective well-being (PAWB) and less job-related negative affective well-being (NAWB) on days when they were teleworking compared to days they were working in the office. Findings show that several of the individual differences moderated the relationships. Discussion focuses on the need to consider the affective consequences of telework and the characteristics that determine who will benefit more or less from working at home.     

Going beyond the Human: Christians and Other Transhumanists

Abstract

Today's transhumanists ask good questions about the human future. What about their answers? Is their version of transhumanism useful or acceptable to Christian theology today? No, at least not in its usual form. Transhumanism and Christianity divide on how we think about the cause of the changes that lie ahead for humanity. For transhumanists, the cause or the agent of human transcendence is technology. For Christians, it is grace, the underserved goodness of God who gives life and wholeness to the creation. Our core question is whether it is proper for Christian theology to see technology as contributing in any way to the future that a gracious God has in store for the creation. Does God work through technology? Yes. We may contribute through technology to what God is doing; but it is always God's doing.     

Dyadic Causal Sequencing of Depressive Symptoms and Relationship Satisfaction in Romantic Partners Across Four Years

Abstract

Causal sequencing between relationship satisfaction and depressive symptoms has important ramifications for couples therapy. Using dyadic data from the Pairfam study (N?=?1,876 German couples), an auto-regressive cross-lagged model was used to test the causal sequencing of these associations annually across four years. Although depressive symptoms had a significant bidirectional association with relationship satisfaction both within and between partners, depressive symptoms tended to serve as a stronger and more consistent predictor of relationship satisfaction than the reverse direction. Thus, clinically focusing on reducing depressive symptoms in couples’ therapy may serve to help prevent future deterioration in relationship quality.     

Time Theft in Organizations: The development of the Time Banditry Questionnaire

Time banditry has recently been introduced as a conceptually distinct construct in the counterproductive work behavior literature. An employee is engaged in time banditry if s/he pursues unsanctioned and/or unethical nonwork activities during work time. An analysis of the time banditry construct would be facilitated by the rigorous development of a measure of this construct. The purpose of this research was to develop and refine a multidimensional measure of time banditry. Items were generated through an extensive literature review and numerous workplace discussions with a diverse sample of employees. Through this process, we developed a 45‐item time banditry scale (Time Banditry Questionnaire; TBQ) and utilized it with a diverse sample. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the construct of time banditry is multidimensional, exhibiting three distinct factors (classic, technology, and social). The TBQ demonstrated an internal consistency reliability of .90. Implications for the use of the TBQ in future research and application in organizations are discussed. The most salient suggestion in this study is that time banditry is more closely related to situational variables and personality variables than it is related to demographic variables.     

Neuropsychological profiles of children with depressive and anxiety disorders

The neuropsychological functioning of 56 children and young adolescents with diagnoses of unipolar depression (n = 17), anxiety disorder (n = 19), or comorbid anxiety/depressive disorder (n = 20) was examined. The neuropsychological profiles of the three groups were parallel, but not equal in level of performance. The three groups displayed similar patterns of performance with profiles suggesting diminished attention abilities. The groups, however, were not equal in level of performance. While subjects with an anxiety or a depressive disorder were similar in level of performance, subjects with a comorbid anxiety/depressive disorder generally performed worse than those with either an anxiety or depressive disorder alone. There was no significant evidence of asymmetrical cerebral dysfunction in any of the diagnostic groups. Results are discussed in relation to adult models of psychopathology with an emphasis on the importance of considering developmental factors when formulating models of childhood psychopathology.     

In search of those boundary conditions that might influence the effectiveness of supportive supervision

Supportive supervision is doubtlessly beneficial in many instances in organizations. Paustian‐Underdahl, Shanock, Rogelberg, Scott, Justice, and Altman ( 2013 ) have examined the predictors of supportive supervision. We might suggest that they have underidentified those factors that impact the potential influence of supportive supervision and suggest a more comprehensive approach to this important variable.