Natural, unnatural, and supernatural concepts

Five experiments investigating information-processing consequences of concept naturalness and unnaturalness are reported. In particular, an attempt is made to examine the separate and joint effects of simplicity and entrenchment upon reasoning with natural and unnatural concepts. The experiments employed four variants of a concept-selection task in which subjects characterized the state of an object at some future time on the basis of information about the object at that time and at some earlier time. In all five experiments, both simplicity and entrenchment affected ease of information processing. The last two experiments showed that the effect of simplicity was greater than that of entrenchment. An informationprocessing model of task performance provided a very good account of the latency and error data. Scores from the concept-selection task correlated with scores from a set of psychometric inductive-reasoning tests; indeed, the correlations were higher than those usually found between cognitive task performance and psychometrically measured intelligence. Processing of nonentrenched concepts may provide a useful means for studying the nature of intelligent performance.     

Isolating the components of intelligence

In a recent volume (Sternberg, 1977b), I proposed a method called componential analysis that provides a means to isolate the components of intelligent performance. The method was described in detail, and then tested in a series of experiments. But an important question was left unanswered by this early work: Is componential analysis generalizable to tasks other than analogies? More recently, I have been investigating the generalization of the methodology to other tasks, and have also been engaged in extending the methodology in order to increase its flexibility of application. The present article (a) briefly summarizes the structure of a componential analysis, (b) describes the method of precuing, the method originally used for isolating the components of intelligence, and (c) describes new methods that have also been successful in isolating these components in a variety of reasoning tasks.     

The development of analogical reasoning processes.

Two experiments were conducted to test the generalizability to children of a theory of analogical reasoning processes originally proposed for adults (R. J. Sternberg, Psychological Review, 1977a, 84, 353–378; R. J. Sternberg, Intelligence, information processing, and analogical reasoning: The componential analysis of human abilities, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1977b) and to examine the development of analogical reasoning processes in terms of five proposed sources of cognitive development: (a) availability of component operations; (b) strategy for combining multiple component operation; (c) strategy for combining multiple executions of the same component operation; (d) consistency in use of strategy; (e) component-operation latency and difficulty. Between 15 and 21 subjects in each of grades 2, 4, 6, and adulthood (ages 8, 10, 12, and 19 years, respectively) were tested in their ability to solve analogies of systematically varied difficulty. Performance was measured in terms of latencies for items solved correctly, latencies for all items solved, and error rates. A slightly modified version of the Stenberg, 1977(a), Stenberg, 1977(b) theory was found to be applicable to the data for each of the age levels tested. In analogies with perceptually separable attributes, change over age was found in sources (d) and (e) noted above. In analogies with perceptually integral attributes, change over age was found in sources (a), (c), (d), and (e). Developmental trends were discussed in terms of past theory and findings, and possible reasons for differences in developmental patterns between the two kinds of analogies were suggested.     

Perceived fraudulence in young adults: is there an "imposter syndrome"?

This investigation consists of two studies designed to examine perceived fraudulence, its measurement, and the personality traits associated with the experience in young adults. For Study 1, the Perceived Fraudulence Scale (PFS), a new measure constructed for this study, was administered to a sample of 50 college undergraduates, along with several other self-report measures; a semistructured interview and thought-listing exercise were added to provide convergent assessments of perceived fraudulence. Correlational patterns and regression analyses supported the investigators' conceptualization of perceived fraudulence as involving a combination of fraudulent ideation, depressive tendencies, self-criticism, social anxiety, achievement pressures, and self-monitoring skills. Study 2, in which 100 college undergraduates completed several personality questionnaires, replicated the factor structure of the PFS and provided some evidence for the discriminant validity of the construct of perceived fraudulence.     

Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances the quality of investigative interviews with alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Britain

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (aged 4–13; M = 9.3 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) structured interview Protocol, whereas the other children, matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses, were interviewed by investigators following the Memorandum of Good Practice. Protocol‐guided interviews elicited more information using free‐recall invitations and less information using directive, option‐posing and suggestive questions than did standard Memorandum interviews. There were no age differences in the proportion of total information provided in response to open‐ended invitations in either condition, but there was a significant increase with age in the proportion of central information provided in response to open‐ended invitations. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of mental and physical context reinstatement in forensic interviews with alleged victims of sexual abuse

Forensic interviews with 142 alleged victims of sexual abuse, ranging from 4.0 to 13.5 years of age, were conducted under three different interviewing conditions: at the scene of the incidents (Physical Context Reinstatement; PCR group), in the investigator's office with mental context reinstating instructions (MCR group), and in the office without contextual cueing (Control group). Children in the PCR, MCR, and Control groups did not differ significantly with respect to the total number of informative details reported. Children in the MCR condition provided more detailed responses to the main invitation and in their first narrative than did children in the PCR condition, however. They also provided proportionally more detailed responses to open‐ended invitations and fewer details in response to directive prompts than did children in the two other conditions. The MCR procedures were thus associated with greater improvements in the quality of information retrieval than were the PCR procedures. In all interviewing conditions, children aged 7 to 13 years provided significantly more details than 4‐ to‐6‐year‐old children did. The youngest children provided fewer details in response to invitations and directive utterances, and proportionally more details in response to option‐posing and suggestive utterances. No significant interactions between age and interviewing condition were apparent. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organizational culture, creative behavior, and information and communication technology (ICT) usage: a facet analysis.

Despite the prominence of organizational culture (OC), this concept is controversial and its structure has yet to be systematically analyzed. This study develops a three-pronged formal definitional framework on the basis of facet theory (FT) and explores behavior modality, referent, and object. This facet analysis (FA) of OC accounts successfully for variation in both creative behavior at work and the usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs). An analysis of data collected from 230 employees in the financial industry indicates that a radex structure was obtained for work and ICT. The behavior modality facet ordered the space from center to periphery, and referents facet relates to the direction angles away from the origin.     

Measuring Creativity: A 40+ Year Retrospective

This article describes how, as theories of creativity evolved, so have measures of creativity. Measures thus reflect the theories that generated them.     

A systems model of leadership: WICS

This article reviews a systems model of leadership. According to the model, effective leadership is a synthesis of wisdom, creativity, and intelligence (WICS). It is in large part a decision about how to marshal and deploy these resources. One needs creativity to generate ideas, academic (analytical) intelligence to evaluate whether the ideas are good, practical intelligence to implement the ideas and persuade others of their worth, and wisdom to balance the interests of all stakeholders and to ensure that the actions of the leader seek a common good. The article relates the current model to other extant models of leadership.     

Culture and intelligence

Intelligence cannot be fully or even meaningfully understood outside its cultural context. Work that seeks to study intelligence acontextually risks the imposition of an investigator's view of the world on the rest of the world. Moreover, work on intelligence within a single culture mayfail to do justice to the range of skills and knowledge that may constitute intelligence broadly defined and risks drawing false and hasty generalizations. This article considers the relevance of culture to intelligence, as well as its investigation, assessment, and development. Studies that show the importance of understanding intelligence in its cultural context are described; the author concludes that intelligence must be understood in such context.