Cortisol response and psychological distress predict susceptibility to false memories for a trauma film

For eyewitness testimony to be considered reliable, it is important to ensure memory remains accurate following the event. As many testimonies involve traumatic, as opposed to neutral, events, it is important to consider the role of distress in susceptibility to false memories. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cortisol response following a stressor would be associated with susceptibility to false memories. Psychological distress responses were also investigated, specifically, dissociation, intrusions, and avoidance. Participants were allocated to one of three conditions: those who viewed a neutral film (N?=?35), those who viewed a real trauma film (N?=?35), and a trauma “reappraisal” group where participants were told the film was not real (N?=?35). All received misinformation about the film in the form of a narrative. Participants provided saliva samples (to assess cortisol) and completed distress and memory questionnaires. Cortisol response was a significant predictor of the misinformation effect. Dissociation and avoidance were related to confabulations. In conclusion, following a stressor an individual may differ with regard to their psychological response to the event, and also whether they experience a cortisol increase. This may affect whether they are more distressed later on, and also whether they remember the event accurately.     

Members Matter in Team Training: Multilevel and Longitudinal Relationships Between Goal Orientation,Self‐Regulation,and Team Outcomes

Longitudinal data from 338 individuals across 64 teams in a simulation‐based team‐training context were used to examine the effects of dispositional goal orientation on self‐regulated learning (self‐efficacy and metacognition). Team goal orientation compositions, as reflected by average goal orientations of team members, were examined for moderating effects on these individual‐level relationships. Finally, individual‐level self‐regulation was investigated for its influence on multiple team‐level outcomes across time. Results showed generally positive effects of learning goal orientation and negative effects of avoid performance and prove performance goal orientations on rates of self‐regulation during team training. However, several of these individual‐level relationships were moderated by team goal orientation composition. The importance of self‐regulation in teams was displayed by results showing the average level of self‐regulation among a team's members over time was positively associated with team efficacy, team cooperation quality, and team decision making.     

Prospective memory in young and older adults: the effects of ongoing-task load

Prospective memory involves remembering to perform intended actions in the future. Previous work with the multinomial model of event-based prospective memory indicated that adult age-related differences in prospective-memory performance were due to the prospective (not the retrospective) component of the task (Smith & Bayen, 2006 , Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 623). However, ongoing-task performance was also lower in older adults in that study. In the current study with young and older adults, the difficulty of the ongoing task was manipulated by varying the number of colors per trial to create easier and harder versions of the ongoing task for each age group. The easier version included 2 colors per trial for older adults and 4 colors for young adults. The harder version included 4 colors for older adults and 6 colors for young adults. By adjusting the ongoing-task difficulty, older adults were able to perform the ongoing task as well or better than the young adults. Analyses with the multinomial model revealed that making the ongoing task easier for older adults (or more difficult for young adults) did not eliminate age-related differences in prospective-memory performance and the underlying prospective component.     

Kant on the bounds of promise making: A Mendelssohnian account

In this essay, I argue that Kant holds one of the following two theses: A promise to do something that violates the moral law (a) is impossible or (b) can be conscientiously broken. On this issue, I put Kant in dialogue with Moses Mendelssohn in order to show, against recent suggestions, that Kant's account is distinctly Mendelssohnian.     

Crime location choices: A geographical analysis of German serial killers

The present study examined whether there are different processes operating in the crime location choices between body‐disposing and non‐body‐disposing serial killers and between sexual serial killers and acquisitive serial killers. A sample of 49 series of solved German serial killings is used to examine the differences in travelled distances between these groups of killers. Nonparametric tests revealed that body‐disposing and non‐body‐disposing serial killers and sexual and acquisitive serial killers did not constitute subgroups of serial killers regarding their spatial behaviour. The results suggest that the compared groups are subjected to the same factors that influence their travelled distances. Furthermore, the possible role of planning and anticipated emotions in crime location choices of serial killers is discussed, as well as the limitations of the study and recommendations for future research.     

The Performance Appraisal Milieu: A Multilevel Analysis of Context Effects in Performance Ratings

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to take an inductive approach in examining the extent to which organizational contexts represent significant sources of variance in supervisor performance ratings, and to explore various factors that may explain contextual rating variability.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Using archival field performance rating data from a large state law enforcement organization, we used a multilevel modeling approach to partition the variance in ratings due to ratees, raters, as well as rating contexts.

Findings

Results suggest that much of what may often be interpreted as idiosyncratic rater variance, may actually reflect systematic rating variability across contexts. In addition, performance-related and non-performance factors including contextual rating tendencies accounted for significant rating variability.

Implications

Supervisor ratings represent the most common approach for measuring job performance, and understanding the nature and sources of rating variability is important for research and practice. Given the many uses of performance rating data, our findings suggest that continuing to identify contextual sources of variability is particularly important for addressing criterion problems, and improving ratings as a form of performance measurement.

Originality/Value

Numerous performance appraisal models suggest the importance of context; however, previous research had not partitioned the variance in supervisor ratings due to omnibus context effects in organizational settings. The use of a multilevel modeling approach allowed the examination of contextual influences, while controlling for ratee and rater characteristics.

     

On being guided – a typology of career guidance in EU discourses*

With this article we want to illustrate how the central publications of the European Union legitimate a role of Career Guidance Services (CGS) that help in establishing a desired form of social order. Using the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse, we reconstructed four typical metaphorical conceptualisations of CGS that go along with desirable and taken-for-granted subject positions. The results reveal the assigned active role of CGS in establishing a specific vision of and in transforming the European society. We conclude by outlining the ways in which critique is expressed within the discourse and by highlighting the inherent ambivalences of these practices of critique.