Lack of sleep and unethical conduct

We draw from the Ego Depletion model and research on sleep physiology to predict a relationship between lack of sleep and individuals’ unethical behavior. Laboratory studies showed that sleep quantity is positively related to self-control resources and negative associated with unethical behavior. In a cross-sectional field study examining unethical behavior in a variety of work settings, low levels of sleep, and low perceived quality of sleep, were both positively related to unethical behavior as rated by the supervisor, and cognitive fatigue mediated the influence of sleep quantity. In an experience sampling field study, we found similar effects within-individuals. We discuss the role of lost sleep in better understanding unethical behavior in organizations.     

Effects of spatial frequency content on classification of face gender and expression

The role of different spatial frequency bands on face gender and expression categorization was studied in three experiments. Accuracy and reaction time were measured for unfiltered, low-pass (cut-off frequency of 1 cycle/deg) and high-pass (cutoff frequency of 3 cycles/deg) filtered faces. Filtered and unfiltered faces were equated in root-mean-squared contrast. For low-pass filtered faces reaction times were higher than unfiltered and high-pass filtered faces in both categorization tasks. In the expression task, these results were obtained with expressive faces presented in isolation (Experiment 1) and also with neutral-expressive dynamic sequences where each expressive face was preceded by a briefly presented neutral version of the same face (Experiment 2). For high-pass filtered faces different effects were observed on gender and expression categorization. While both speed and accuracy of gender categorization were reduced comparing to unfiltered faces, the efficiency of expression classification remained similar. Finally, we found no differences between expressive and non expressive faces in the effects of spatial frequency filtering on gender categorization (Experiment 3). These results show a common role of information from the high spatial frequency band in the categorization of face gender and expression.     

Overconcern with weight and shape is not the same as body dissatisfaction: evidence from a prospective study of pre-adolescent boys and girls

Overconcern with weight and shape and body dissatisfaction have both emerged as significant predictors of disordered eating. However, it is unclear how these constructs relate to each other, and if each has different antecedents and consequences. This study aimed to identify prospective predictors of each construct and to determine their relative importance in predicting dietary restraint and binge eating. Eight- to 13-year-old boys and girls (N = 259) were assessed at baseline and one-year follow-up, using a range of measures that included the Child Eating Disorder Examination. Psychosocial variables predicted overconcern with weight and shape whilst objective weight predicted body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction and weight and shape concern predicted restraint, and weight and shape concern and restraint predicted binge eating. Findings provide support for the theoretical differences between body dissatisfaction and overconcern with weight and shape, and highlight the importance of focusing on specific body image variables.     

Psychological impact of illness intrusiveness in epilepsy - comparison of treatments

Chronic illnesses are associated with multiple stressors that compromise quality of life (QOL). Implicit in many of these is the concept of illness intrusiveness, the disruption of lifestyles and activities attributable to constraints imposed by chronic disease and its treatment. This study tested the illness intrusiveness theoretical framework in epilepsy and compared the impact of pharmacological and surgical treatments on illness intrusiveness and QOL. Cross-sectional data compared three epilepsy groups (N = 145): (a) 40 patients admitted for presurgical evaluation to an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit; (b) 52 patients treated pharmacologically; and (c) 53 post-surgical patients. Illness intrusiveness differed significantly across epilepsy patients with the differences primarily related to seizure control. Illness intrusiveness varied inversely with seizure control (p < .05). Seizure freedom, whether achieved by surgical or pharmacological treatments, was associated with maximal reduction of illness intrusiveness. Increased illness intrusiveness correlated significantly with decreased QOL and increased depressive symptoms. Perceived control over diverse life domains correlated positively with QOL and psychosocial outcomes. Path analysis supported the validity of the illness intrusiveness theoretical framework in epilepsy. Illness intrusiveness is an important determinant of the psychosocial impact of epilepsy and its treatment. Effective pharmacological or surgical treatment may reduce illness intrusiveness in epilepsy. Findings also offer encouragement that QOL in epilepsy, as in other chronic conditions, may be enhanced by multidisciplinary bio-psychosocial efforts. Health care providers should consider multifaceted interventions to reduce illness intrusiveness and, thereby, improve QOL.     

Impact of semantic or phonemic cues in picture-naming tasks on the calculation of the objective age-of-acquisition norms: A cross-linguistic study

In picture-naming tasks, participants name a picture as quickly as possible. In several studies, when the participant did not provide the picture name in the first seconds after object presentation, the examiner provided phonemic or semantic cues. Under these conditions, word retrieval should be easier, thus lowering the age of acquisition (AoA). The goal of the present study was to collect objective norms of AoA in French without any kind of cue. The results were then compared with other European databases that relied on picture-naming tasks conducted with phonemic or semantic cues. Globally, the data of all the databases are significantly correlated. However, the AoA measures in these databases are always lower than in our study, except in Álvarez and Cuetos (2007), who did not provide any assistance to the participant. Therefore, giving phonemic and/or semantic cues lowers the AoA values, indicating that the values from different databases in this domain should be taken with caution. The objective AoA norms from this study may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society’s Archive of Norms, Stimuli, and Data, www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Different Media for Organizational Communication: Perceptions of Quality and Satisfaction

We examined the satisfaction in and perceived quality of information about one’s job, business unit, and company, as well as perceived quality of urgent news (i.e., news about changes in business and generally considered legally sensitive material), communicated via different media. Results from 598 fulltime employees revealed that rich media (e.g., face-to-face) was most related to satisfaction in information about one’s job and business unit and in perceived quality of information from the supervisor; lean media (e.g., company newsletter) was most related to satisfaction in and quality of information from top management, while moderate media (e.g., e-mail) was only significantly related to perceived quality of urgent news. Trust in top management was positively related to satisfaction in and quality of information shared by management. Lean media most strongly related to quality of urgent news, over and above rich communication.The authors would like to thank Monica Moloney for her support on this project.     

Why opening a door is as easy as eating an apple: A reply to Thompson-Schill and Botvinick (2006)

Martin and Cheng (2006) present evidence suggesting that difficulty in verb generation is related to the strength of associative links between nouns and verbs and not to competition from alternative verb responses. Specifically, they show that latencies for verb generation are related to the associative strength of the most frequently produced verb and not to the ratio of the strength of the first to the second most frequently produced verb. Thompson-Schill and Botvinick (2006) have provided modeling results indicating how the findings of Martin and Cheng might be accommodated in a competitive model. Here we discuss how two noncompetitive models account for the findings and why such models should be preferred.     

Influences of grasp selection in typically developing children

When reaching towards an object, adults favour grasps which, following the intended action, end in a comfortable position even when this requires them to start in an uncomfortable position (the end-state-comfort effect). However, this strategy is not consistently used by children who instead seem to favour a minimal pre-contact rotation of the hand, even when this results in an uncomfortable end position. In terms of multiple movements, the strategies used for grip selection are unclear; adults may still grasp for end-state-comfort given their propensity to plan to the end of a movement; however, children who are less able to concatenate movement may tend to start-state-comfort movements. The current study considered grip selection in children ranging from 4 to 12 years and in a group of adults. Participants were asked to rotate a disc so that an arrow pointed towards a specific target(s), the number of sequences in a movement was increased from one to three. Planning for end-state-comfort was seen in all participants and a clear developmental trajectory was identified whereby the relative comfort of an end position could be directly predicted by age in months. Adults and 10–12-year-olds favoured an end-state-comfort strategy whereas the younger children gave equal weighting to end-state-comfort, start-state-comfort and no initial rotation strategies. All groups were able to end a movement comfortably when it was composed of three steps; however, the proportion of movements relying on an end-state-comfort strategy decreased as sequence length increase whereas the proportion of start-state-comfort and no initial rotation strategies increased. The current data support the concept that a mechanism for planning grasps may be based on motor experience.