THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICALLY BASED INTERVENTION PROGRAMS ON WORKER PRODUCTIVITY: A META-ANALYSIS

A meta-analysis of the effects on worker productivity of 11 types of psychologically based organizational interventions showed that such programs, on average, raised worker productivity by nearly one-half standard deviation. The strength of effects was found to vary by type of intervention, criterion of productivity, contextual factors in organizations, and features of research design. Also discussed in the paper are comparisons of conclusions reached through meta-analysis versus traditional methods of literature review.     

THE EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL ATTRIBUTES ON THE SIZES OF RECOMMENDED SALARY INCREASES

In a series of experiments, college students, line managers, and compensation managers allocated salary increases to hypothetical job holders who varied in the criticality of their positions for accomplishment of organizational goals, occupational marketability, job performance, personal need for money, and increase in capability since the last performance review. Results indicated that though performance had the largest impact, a number of nonperformance factors also influenced the recommendations. Salary recommendations were lower when constrained by a budget, and performance, growth in capabilities, marketability, and criticality were all significantly related to the magnitudes of suggested increases.     

Chromatic perception in relation to an hypothesized cerebral dominance

On the basis of the cerebral dominance, we have hypothesized an asymmetry (for saturation or brightness) between the two eyes in perception of chromatic stimuli. 51 subjects were tested on chromatic perception (green, red, yellow, blue). For each subject also an ocular-dominance score was obtained. The results substantially confirmed the hypothesis of cerebral dominance in color perception. Subjects with high ocular-dominance scores (right- or left-dominant subjects) showed for the green stimulus asymmetric behavior, while subjects with low ocular-dominance scores showed a tendency toward symmetry in perception.     

Visual memory in a spelling matching task: comparison of good and poor spellers

The role of visual memory in learning to spell words was investigated through a matching task on which one nonsense word was presented, then a second word identical in spelling or differing in one letter was presented. Ten pairs of 9th and 10th-grade students, matched for intelligence and sex but of different spelling ability, were asked to indicate whether word pairs were spelled the same or differently. The two words of a pair were either the same or different in print size or letter case. Significant effects were obtained for spelling ability, print size (same or different), and letter case (same or different), and the interaction of size X case, providing evidence for the use of visual memory by both good and poor spellers in learning to spell words. Good spellers were equally able to identify matched and mismatched pairs, while poor spellers showed greater difficulty in identifying mismatches than matches, supporting Frith's (1980) "partial cues" explanation of poor spelling performance.