The relationship of GMA to counterproductive work behavior revisited

Recent research reported that general mental ability (GMA) predicted counterproductive work behavior (CWB), whereas some previous studies failed to find such a relationship. We tested occupational homogeneity of the sample and criterion measurement as two potential explanations for these inconsistencies. Study 1 replicated major design features of one previous study, which found no GMA–CWB relation in a heterogeneous sample, with occupationally homogeneous groups. Results confirmed previous null findings, indicating no effect of sample homogeneity. In Study 2, using a controlled laboratory setting, GMA was again unrelated to self‐reported CWB, but partially predicted observed CWB negatively. Combined findings suggest that GMA is consistently unrelated to CWB self‐reports but may predict objectively measured CWB independently of the likelihood of being caught. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three indications for the existence of God in causal metaphysics

With the emergence of modern physics a conflict became apparent between the Principle of Sufficient Cause and the Principle of Physical Causal Closure. Though these principles are not logically incompatible, they could no longer be considered to be both true; one of them had to be false. The present paper makes use of this seldom noticed conflict to argue on the basis of considerations of comparative rationality for the truth of causal statements that have at least some degree of philosophico-theological relevance and can be taken to indicate (not prove) the existence of God. The paper’s comparatively modest aim is to establish belief in the existence of God as a rational metaphysical option, not as a rational obligation. In its final section, enriched causal considerations lead to an indication (not proof) of God as that which guarantees the unified continuance of the physical world.     

Fishing for the right words: decision rules for human foraging behavior in internal search tasks

Animals depleting one patch of resources must decide when to leave and switch to a fresh patch. Foraging theory has predicted various decision mechanisms; which is best depends on environmental variation in patch quality. Previously we tested whether these mechanisms underlie human decision making when foraging for external resources; here we test whether humans behave similarly in a cognitive task seeking internally generated solutions. Subjects searched for meaningful words made from random letter sequences, and as their success rate declined, they could opt to switch to a fresh sequence. As in the external foraging context, time since the previous success and the interval preceding it had a major influence on when subjects switched. Subjects also used the commonness of sequence letters as a proximal cue to patch quality that influenced when to switch. Contrary to optimality predictions, switching decisions were independent of whether sequences differed little or widely in quality.     

Erfassung der sozialen Ungleichheit in empirischen Untersuchungen

Background

The interrelationship between social inequality and health problems is well known. This paper evaluates how current empirical studies in the context of social psychiatry, psychosomatics and medical sociology respond to this issue in terms of taking characteristics of socio-economic status (SES) into account.

Material and methods

All empirical studies published in the German journals Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Medizinische Psychologie and Psychiatrische Praxis in 2005 and 2006 were evaluated regarding the use of characteristics of SES.

Results

Of the 113 studies examined, 70 (62%) covered characteristics of the SES. The majority included characteristics of both formal and professional education, but often in only few categories. Some studies used a combination of formal and professional education. Half of the studies included categories of occupational status or gainful employment, also often in few categories and 11% of studies included net family income. Three studies formed an index of social class using the categories lower class, middle class and upper class.

Conclusion

Determination of characteristics of SES can be improved both quantitatively and qualitatively. Comparability of population studies can be improved by an increased orientation on demographic standards.     

Individual differences in metacontrast masking are enhanced by perceptual learning

In vision research metacontrast masking is a widely used technique to reduce the visibility of a stimulus. Typically, studies attempt to reveal general principles that apply to a large majority of participants and tend to omit possible individual differences. The neural plasticity of the visual system, however, entails the potential capability for individual differences in the way observers perform perceptual tasks. We report a case of perceptual learning in a metacontrast masking task that leads to the enhancement of two types of adult human observers despite identical learning conditions. In a priming task both types of observers exhibited the same priming effects, which were insensitive to learning. Findings suggest that visual processing of target stimuli in the metacontrast masking task is based on neural levels with sufficient plasticity to enable the development of two types of observers, which do not contribute to processing of target stimuli in the priming task.     

Hippocampal activation of immediate early genes Zenk and c-Fos in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) during learning and recall of a spatial memory task

Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are able to learn the position of food by orienting on spatial cues in a ‘dry water maze’. In the course of spatial learning, the hippocampus shows high expression of the immediate early genes (IEGs) Zenk and c-Fos, indicating high activation of this area during learning. In contrast, the IEG activity is nearly absent if the birds do not have to rely on spatial cues. In the present experiment it was investigated whether hippocampal activation can also be observed if the learned spatial task is recalled. For this purpose, the hippocampal Zenk and c-Fos activation of birds in an early learning stage was compared with that of others having well reached their maximal performance. The results show that the avian hippocampus is also active during recall of a learned spatial task, but the activation is significantly lower than in animals learning actually. As in previous experiments, hippocampal IEG expression showed strong variation not only in the position of the active patches of neurons, but also in size and cell density. The observed difference contributes to the view that immediate early genes may not be indicators of activation alone, but may be due to a combination of activation and plastic changes.     

Examining explanatory mechanisms of positive and expressive writing: Towards a resource-oriented perspective

This study tested the hypothesis that benefits of positive and expressive writing accrue when the intervention matches or activates the participant’s personal resources. Students were randomly assigned to keep a newly developed resource diary (RD, n = 114), which asked the participants to write about positive experiences and personal resources, or an expressive writing diary (ED, n = 114), which asked the participants to engage with negative emotional experiences, at home on three consecutive days per week for four weeks. Participants keeping the RD perceived significantly more social support and reported a significantly better mood at post-test than participants keeping the ED. Compared to a control group (n = 81) treatment effects of both writing interventions were higher for participants with lower pre-test values of well-being and brooding as well as for participants who wrote in an ‘atmosphere of activated resources.’ It is suggested that research should move away from testing deficit-compensating hypotheses towards a stronger resource orientation.     

Logic Without Contraction as Based on Inclusion and Unrestricted Abstraction

On the one hand, the absence of contraction is a safeguard against the logical (property theoretic) paradoxes; but on the other hand, it also disables inductive and recursive definitions, in its most basic form the definition of the series of natural numbers, for instance. The reason for this is simply that the effectiveness of a recursion clause depends on its being available after application, something that is usually assured by contraction. This paper presents a way of overcoming this problem within the framework of a logic based on inclusion and unrestricted abstraction, without any form of extensionality. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On Different Intuitionistic Calculi and Embeddings from Int to S4

In this paper, we compare several cut-free sequent systems for propositional intuitionistic logic Intwith respect to polynomial simulations. Such calculi can be divided into two classes, namely single-succedent calculi (like Gentzen's LJ) and multi-succedent calculi. We show that the latter allow for more compact proofs than the former. Moreover, for some classes of formulae, the same is true if proofs in single-succedent calculi are directed acyclic graphs (dags) instead of trees. Additionally, we investigate the effect of weakening rules on the structure and length of dag proofs.The second topic of this paper is the effect of different embeddings from Int to S4. We select two different embeddings from the literature and show that translated (propositional) intuitionistic formulae have sometimes exponentially shorter minimal proofs in a cut-free Gentzen system for S4than the original formula in a cut-free single-succedent Gentzen system for Int. Moreover, the length and the structure of proofs of translated formulae crucially depend on the chosen embedding.