Cross-Validation of the Reactions to Faculty Incivility Measurement through a Multidimensional Scaling Approach

Incivility in the academic arena elicits a wide range of reactions: it interferes with learning, increases stress, feelings of disrespect and helplessness. Although reactions to incivility were mainly tested in workplaces, an extensive, robust framework to explain and measure responses to faculty incivility (FI) is yet to be offered. This study used Facet theory (FT) approach with a multidimensional scaling method of smallest space analysis (SSA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the theoretical structure of reactions to FI. A mapping sentence was constructed expressing the composite of three individual facets based on the theoretical framework: Facet A including four types of reactions (1)Exit (2) Voice (3) Loyalty and (4) Neglect (EVLN); Facet B reflecting the destructiveness – constructiveness dimension, and Facet C illustrating a dimension ranging from passive to active responses. Data were gathered by a scale measuring students’ reactions to FI. According to the findings, the CFA result presented four relatively interpretable factors (EVLN) while the SSA showed these factors as well as additional facets (B and C).     

Action selection and action awareness

Human actions are often classified as either internally generated, or externally specified in response to environmental cues. These two modes of action selection have distinct neural bases, but few studies investigated how the mode of action selection affects the subjective experience of action. We measured the experience of action using the subjective compression of the interval between actions and their effects, known as ‘temporal binding’. Participants performed either a left or a right key press, either in response to a specific cue, or as they freely chose. Moreover, the time of each keypress could either be explicitly cued to occur in one of two designated time intervals, or participants freely chose in which interval to act. Each action was followed by a specific tone. Participants judged the time of their actions or the time of the tone. Temporal binding was found for both internally generated and for stimulus-based actions. However, the amount of binding depended on whether or not both the choice and the timing of action were selected in the same way. Stronger binding was observed when both action choice and action timing were internally generated or externally specified, compared to conditions where the two parameters were selected by different routes. Our result suggests that temporal action–effect binding depends on how actions are selected. Binding is strongest when actions result from a single mode of selection.

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Instruction-induced feature binding

In order to test whether or not instructions specifying the stimulus-response (S-R) mappings for a new task suffice to create bindings between specified stimulus and response features, we developed a dual task paradigm of the ABBA type in which participants saw new S-R instructions for the A-task in the beginning of each trial. Immediately after the A-task instructions, participants had to perform a logically independent B-task. The imperative stimulus for the A-task was presented after the B-task had been executed. The present data show that the instructed S-R mappings influence performance on the embedded B-task, even when they (1) have never been practiced, and (2) are irrelevant with respect to the B-task. These results imply that instructions can induce bindings between S- and R-features without prior execution of the task at hand.     

Differences in adults’ spatial scaling based on visual or haptic information

Cognitive Processing - The present study examined differences in adults’ spatial-scaling abilities across three perceptual conditions: (1) visual, (2) haptic, and (3) visual and haptic....     

Speed discrimination in 6- and 10-month-old infants follows Weber's law

The speed of a moving object is a critical variable that factors into actions such as crossing a street and catching a ball. However, it is not clear when the ability to discriminate between different speeds develops. Here, we investigated speed discrimination in 6- and 10-month-old infants using a habituation paradigm showing infants events of a ball rolling at different speeds. The 6-month-olds looked longer at novel speeds that differed by a 1:2 ratio than at the familiar ones but showed no difference in looking time to speeds that differed by a 2:3 ratio. In contrast, the 10-month-olds succeeded at discriminating a 2:3 ratio. For both age groups, discrimination was modulated by the ratio between novel and familiar speeds, suggesting that speed discrimination is subject to Weber's law. These findings show striking parallels to previous results in infants' discrimination of duration, size, and number and suggest a shared system for processing different magnitudes.