The relationship between learning goal orientation,goal setting,and performance: a longitudinal study

In an educational setting, we examined the relationship of learning goal orientation with goal setting and performance over time. At the first time point, we assessed levels of trait learning goal orientation and asked participants to set performance goals. At each follow‐up time point, we reported to participants their current course grade and allowed them to revise their goals. Learning goal orientation was associated with both setting higher goals and maintaining higher performance over time. Additionally, the relationship of learning goal orientation and performance was found to be mediated by goal setting.     

An Investigation of the Nature of Non-Directive Psychotherapy

An experiment was performed to assess the effects of mental age (MA) and external cues on response inhibition in the mentally retarded. Twelve Ss were presented with an experimental task which required that they withhold responding for five or more seconds before pressing a key to obtain reinforcement. For half the Ss the key was lighted (cued) during the waiting interval, while it was unlighted (uncued) for the other half. The results indicate that (a) response inhibition increased with MA and (b) MA differences might have been due to an inability to mediate the delay interval. The results were interpreted in terms of possible mediating mechanisms and implications for training inhibitory performance in the mentally retarded.     

How crucial is the response format for the testing effect?

Combining study and test trials during learning is more beneficial for long-term retention than repeated study without testing (i.e., the testing effect). Less is known about the relative efficacy of different response formats during testing. We tested the hypothesis that overt testing (typing responses on a keyboard) during a practice phase benefits later memory more than covert testing (only pressing a button to indicate successful retrieval). In Experiment 1, three groups learned 40 word pairs either by repeatedly studying them, by studying and overtly testing them, or by studying and covertly testing them. In Experiment 2, only the two testing conditions were manipulated in a within-subjects design. In both experiments, participants received cued recall tests after a short (~19 min) and a long (1 week) retention interval. In Experiment 1, all groups performed equally well at the short retention interval. The overt testing group reliably outperformed the repeated study group after 1 week, whereas the covert testing group performed insignificantly different from both these groups. Hence, the testing effect was demonstrated for overt, but failed to show for covert testing. In Experiment 2, overtly tested items were better and more quickly retrieved than those covertly tested. Further, this does not seem to be due to any differences in retrieval effort during learning. To conclude, overt testing was more beneficial for later retention than covert testing, but the effect size was small. Possible explanations are discussed.     

High Thrill and Adventure Seeking Is Associated with Reduced Interoceptive Sensitivity: Evidence for an Altered Sex‐specific Homeostatic Processing in High‐sensation Seekers

The personality trait of sensation seeking (SS) has been traditionally linked to the construct of exteroception, that is, sensing of the outside world. Little is known about the relationship between SS and interoception, that is, sensing originating in the body. Interoceptive sensations have strong affective and motivational components that may influence behaviours such as risk taking in SS. This investigation examined whether interoceptive differences contribute to different behavioural characteristics in SS. Using an inspiratory resistive load breathing task, the response to an aversive interoceptive stimulus as a basic homeostatic process was studied in 112 subjects (n = 74 women and 38 men). A linear mixed‐model approach was used to examine the influence of thrill and adventure seeking (TAS) on the interoceptive response across three levels of breathing resistances (10, 20, and 40 cm H₂O/L/second). High‐TAS relative to low‐TAS individuals were less responsive in evaluating intensities of perceived choking with increasing inspiratory resistive loads. This effect was driven by male, but not female, high‐TAS individuals and was particularly associated with reduced interoceptive sensitivity in men. The conceptualization of SS as primarily driven by exteroceptive stimuli can be expanded to a view of an altered homeostasis in SS, specifically in men. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Role of Subsidies in Coordination Games with Interconnected Risk

Can subsidies promote Pareto‐optimum coordination? We found that partially subsidizing the cooperative actions for two out of six players in a laboratory coordination game usually produced better coordination and higher total social welfare with both deterministic and stochastic payoffs. Not only were the subsidized players more likely to cooperate (choose the Pareto‐optimum action), but the unsubsidized players increased their expectations on how likely others would cooperate, and they cooperated more frequently themselves. After removal of the subsidy, high levels of coordination continued in most groups with stochastic payoffs but declined in deterministic ones. This carry‐over disparity between the deterministic and stochastic settings was consistent with the economic theories that agents were more likely to keep the status quo option under uncertainty than without uncertainty. Hence, players with stochastic payoffs were more likely to keep the high coordination level (status quo) brought by the subsidy in the previous subsidy session. A post‐game survey also indicated that with stochastic payoffs, players focused on risk reduction. Temporary subsidies promoted lasting coordination because even after subsidy was removed, players still assumed that others players would prefer reduced risks from cooperation. With deterministic payoffs, however, the subsidy might crowd out other rationales for coordination, with many players indicating that the subsidy was the only reason for anyone to cooperate. Hence, the coordination level dropped when the subsidy was removed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religiousness,collectivism, and helping behavior: The invigorating role of abusive supervision

IntroductionVoluntary helping behaviors are important for spurring organizational effectiveness.ObjectivesThis study investigates how employees’ religiousness and collectivism might enhance their propensity to help their peers on a voluntary basis, as well as how this relationship might be invigorated by the presence of abusive supervision.MethodsSurvey data were collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan-based organizations. The hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression analysis.ResultsReligiousness relates positively to helping behavior, and this relationship is stronger when employees experience abusive supervision, possibly because their religiousness motivates them to protect their colleagues against the hardships created by such a resource-draining leadership style. Although collectivism does not have a direct significant relationship with helping behavior overall, abusive supervision invigorates this relationship.ConclusionFor organizations seeking to increase voluntary work behaviors, the results show that religiousness and collectivism are two personal resources that can enhance an organizational culture that promotes collegiality and mutual support, particularly when employees believe that their supervisors are hostile to followers and abuse their leadership positions.     

Scaling movement amplitude: adaptation of timing and amplitude control in a bimanual task

Participants traced two circles simultaneously and the diameter of one circle was scaled as the diameter of the other circle remained constant. When the scaled circle was larger, amplitude error shifted from overshooting to undershooting, while shifting from undershooting to overshooting when this circle was smaller. Asymmetric coordination was unstable when the left arm traced a circle larger than the right arm, yet stable when the left arm traced a smaller circle. When producing symmetric coordination and the left arm traced the larger circle, relative phase shifted by 30°, but a right arm lead predominated. When the left arm traced the smaller circle and symmetric coordination was required, a 30° shift in relative phase occurred, but hand lead changed from left to right. The modulation of movement amplitude and relative phase emerged simultaneously as a result of neural crosstalk effects linked to initial amplitude conditions and possibly visual feedback of the hands' motion.     

How to measure post-error slowing: A confound and a simple solution

In many response time tasks, people slow down after they make an error. This phenomenon of post-error slowing (PES) is thought to reflect an increase in response caution, that is, a heightening of response thresholds in order to increase the probability of a correct response at the expense of response speed. In many empirical studies, PES is quantified as the difference in response time (RT) between post-error trials and post-correct trials. Here we demonstrate that this standard measurement method is prone to contamination by global fluctuations in performance over the course of an experiment. Diffusion model simulations show how global fluctuations in performance can cause either spurious detection of PES or masking of PES. Both confounds are highly undesirable and can be eliminated by a simple solution: quantify PES as the difference in RT between post-error trials and the associated pre-error trials. Experimental data are used as an empirical illustration.     

The testing effect as a function of explicit testing instructions and judgments of learning

During study, people monitor their learning; the output of this monitoring is captured in so-called judgments of learning (JOLs). JOLs predict later recall better if they are made after a slight delay, instead of immediately after study (the delayed JOL effect). According to the self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) hypothesis delayed JOLs are based on covert retrieval attempts from long-term memory, and successful retrieval attempts in themselves enhance learning (the testing effect). We compared memory for 40 Swahili-Swedish paired associates after a week as a function of three different learning conditions, namely study plus (i) explicitly instructed self-testing, (ii) delayed JOLs, or (iii) less self-testing. We showed that repeated delayed JOLs lead to a memory improvement that does not differ significantly from a comparable condition where the participants are explicitly testing memory, and both the latter groups performed reliably better than a group that self-tested less. The results suggest that delayed JOLs improve long-term retention as efficiently as explicit memory testing and lend support to the SFP hypothesis.