A Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations on Subjective Well-Being: The Experience of Overnight Visitors to a National Park

According to the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci and Ryan 1985), intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can be differentiated with levels along a continuum representing distinct self-regulatory styles for behavior. Behavioral regulations consider different degrees to which they represent autonomous or self-determined functioning and specifically intrinsic motivations are characterized by the highest level of self-determination. Past research into the SDT has highlighted correlations between reasons with high levels of autonomy or self-determination for engaging in a particular behavior and enhanced Subjective Well-Being (SWB), as well as positive behavioral outcomes. Little is known about the relationship between visitors’ reasons for visiting a national park, associated self-regulatory styles and their self-appraisals of SWB. Therefore, the present research investigates the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for visiting the Kruger National Park (KNP), associated self-regulatory styles and self-evaluations of SWB among 389 overnight visitors. A structural equation model (SEM) is proposed to examine both the cognitive (life satisfaction) and affective (positive and negative feelings) components of SWB in association to motivations with different degrees of self-determination. Reflecting previous research, the results show that overnight visitors who are more intrinsically motivated have higher life satisfaction levels, higher positive feelings and lower negative feelings. In contrast, overnight visitors who are less intrinsically motivated have lower life satisfaction levels, lower positive feelings and higher negative feeling. The practical implications of these findings are highlighted.     

Spatial inattention abolishes voice adaptation

Adaptation to male voices causes a subsequent voice to be perceived as more female, and vice versa. Similar contrastive aftereffects have been reported for phonetic perception, and in vision for face perception. However, while aftereffects in the perception of phonetic features of speech have been reported to persist even when adaptors were processed inattentively, face aftereffects were previously reported to be abolished by inattention to adaptors. Here we demonstrate that auditory aftereffects of adaptation to voice gender are eliminated when the male and female adaptor voices are spatially unattended. Participants simultaneously heard gender-specific male or female adaptor voices in one ear and gender-neutral (androgynous) adaptor voices in the contralateral ear. They selectively attended to the adaptor voices in a designated ear, by either classifying voice gender (Exp. 1) or spoken syllable (Exp. 2). Voice aftereffects were found only if the gender-specific voices were spatially attended, suggesting capacity limits in the processing of voice gender for the unattended ear. Remarkably, gender-specific adaptors in the attended ear elicited comparable aftereffects in test voices, regardless of prior attention to voice gender or phonetic content. Thus, within the attended ear, voice gender was processed even when it was irrelevant for the task at hand, suggesting automatic processing of gender along with linguistic information. Overall, voice gender adaptation requires spatial, but not dimensional, selective attention.     

Contextual cueing under working memory load: Selective interference of visuospatial load with expression of learning

In a series of experiments, we investigated the dependence of contextual cueing on working memory resources. A visual search task with 50 % repeated displays was run in order to elicit the implicit learning of contextual cues. The search task was combined with a concurrent visual working memory task either during an initial learning phase or a later test phase. The visual working memory load was either spatial or nonspatial. Articulatory suppression was used to prevent verbalization. We found that nonspatial working memory load had no effect, independent of presentation in the learning or test phase. In contrast, visuospatial load diminished search facilitation in the test phase, but not during learning. We concluded that visuospatial working memory resources are needed for the expression of previously learned spatial contexts, whereas the learning of contextual cues does not depend on visuospatial working memory.     

Neural substrates for episodic encoding and recognition of unfamiliar faces

Functional MRI was used to investigate brain activation in healthy volunteers during encoding of unfamiliar faces as well as during correct recognition of newly learned faces (CR) compared to correct identification of distractor faces (CF), missed alarms (not recognizing previously presented faces, MA), and false alarms (incorrectly recognizing newly presented faces, FA). Encoding was associated with frontal, occipital/fusiform, thalamic, and cerebellar activation. CR produced activation in frontal and cerebellar regions, whereas CF activated frontal and occipitotemporal regions as well as the thalamus. In contrast, MA was associated with frontal and thalamic activation, and FA with frontal activation. The CR minus CF comparison showed left lateral prefrontal and parietal activation, while no suprathreshold positive signal changes were detected when subtracting the other conditions (CR minus MA, CR minus FA, and vice versa). These results support the view that the successful episodic retrieval of newly learned faces is based on a dorsal visual stream mechanism.     

An extension of uncertainty management theory to the self: the relationship between justice, social comparison orientation, and antisocial work behaviors

A multisource field study of 103 employees and their supervisors tested an extension of uncertainty management theory (E. A. Lind & K. Van den Bos, 2002; K. Van den Bos & E. A. Lind, 2002). According to this theory, persons high in social comparison orientation (F. X. Gibbons & B. P. Buunk, 1999) experience chronic uncertainty about the self. It was hypothesized that this should strengthen the effects of interactional and procedural justice perceptions on antisocial work behaviors. As predicted, the negative relationship between employee perceptions of interactional justice and supervisory ratings of antisocial work behaviors was stronger for people who are high as compared with low in social comparison orientation. Results provide evidence for an extension of uncertainty management theory to the self-domain.     

What the eyes already ‘know’: using eye movement measurement to tap into children's implicit numerical magnitude representations

To date, a number of studies have demonstrated the existence of mismatches between children's implicit and explicit knowledge at certain points in development that become manifest by their gestures and gaze orientation in different problem solving contexts. Stimulated by this research, we used eye movement measurement to investigate the development of basic knowledge about numerical magnitude in primary school children. Sixty‐six children from grades one to three (i.e. 6–9 years) were presented with two parallel versions of a number line estimation task of which one was restricted to behavioural measures, whereas the other included the recording of eye movement data. The results of the eye movement experiment indicate a quantitative increase as well as a qualitative change in children's implicit knowledge about numerical magnitudes in this age group that precedes the overt, that is, behavioural, demonstration of explicit numerical knowledge. The finding that children's eye movements reveal substantially more about the presence of implicit precursors of later explicit knowledge in the numerical domain than classical approaches suggests further exploration of eye movement measurement as a potential early assessment tool of individual achievement levels in numerical processing. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The State-Trait Depression Scales: An International Comparison

Equivalent English and German versions of the State-Trait Depression Scales (STDS) were developed and presented to samples of American and German students who were comparable with regard to gender and age. Factorial structure and equivalence of the two versions were determined by confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). The CFAs included multiple group analyses which were employed to compare factor patterns, loadings, factor variances and covariances across the two samples. In addition, statistical and psychometric properties of the items and scales were determined and mean differences between nationalities and genders on these scales were tested. In order to obtain information about the external validity, relationships between the STDS and tests which already exist in English and German (several depression scales as well as the State-Trait Personality Inventory, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, and the Mainz Coping Inventory) were analysed.     

Cultural Influences on Number Preferences: Christmas and Grading Systems

People consistently prefer numbers associated with themselves (e.g., birth dates) over other numbers. We argue that such number preferences are also shaped by cultural influences, such as customs regarding the day on which Christmas is celebrated and customs regarding ranking of numerals used in national school’s grading system. Across 6 different countries (N = 657), the day on which Christmas is celebrated had an influence on the preference for the numbers 24 vs. 25, and numbers used for better grades were uniformly rated better than numbers used for poorer grades. If grading did not involve numbers (e.g., letters A to F), then no effect appeared.

     

To help or not to help an outgroup member: The role of the target's individual attributes in resolving potential helpers' motivational conflict

When people are faced with the decision of whether or not to help an outgroup member, they often experience conflicting motivational tendencies due to the concurrent presence of factors prompting help and factors prompting non‐help. We argue that one way of how people deal with this conflict is by taking a closer look at the target's individual attributes, especially at those indicating the target's benevolence. Findings of Experiment 1 (N = 96), in which we manipulated intercultural dissimilarity between participants and a (fictitious) recipient of help and normative pressure to help as two factors affecting motivational conflict, support this basic assumption. Specifically, response latencies analyses confirmed that participants assigned a culturally highly dissimilar target spent more time on inspecting target‐related information when normative pressure, and thus motivational conflict, was high than when it was low. Experiment 2 (N = 141) extended these findings by demonstrating that providing potential helpers with explicit information about an outgroup member's benevolence increased helping intentions through reducing their negative interaction expectancies (and thus motivational conflict). As expected, this mediational relationship could only be observed for participants assigned a culturally highly dissimilar target. Experiment 3 (N = 46) replicated these mediation findings in a within‐subjects design. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensory Discrimination,Working Memory and Intelligence in 9‐Year‐Old and 11‐Year‐Old Children

More than a century ago, Galton and Spearman suggested that there was a functional relationship between sensory discrimination ability and intelligence. Studies have since been able to confirm a close relationship between general discrimination ability (GDA) and IQ. The aim of the present study was to assess whether this strong relationship between GDA and IQ could be due to working memory (WM) demands of GDA tasks. A sample of 140 children (seventy 9‐year‐olds and seventy 11‐year‐olds) was studied. Results showed that there was a significant overlap between WM, GDA and fluid intelligence. Furthermore, results also revealed that WM could not explain the relationship between GDA and fluid intelligence as such, but that it acted as a bottleneck of information processing, limiting the influence of GDA on the prediction of fluid intelligence. Specifically, GDA's influence on the prediction of intelligence was only visible when WM capacity was above a certain level. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.