Assessing the measurement invariance of latent job satisfaction ratings across survey administration modes for respondent subgroups: A MIMIC modeling approach

To date, many studies have assessed the measurement invariance of a wide variety of measures across Internet and paper-and-pencil conditions; however a relative dearth exists in the literature investigating measurement invariance across administration modes for differing subgroups of respondents. Using MIMIC modeling, this study assessed whether gender and age of the respondent systematically influenced responding according to administration mode above and beyond measurement invariance. Consistent with past research, this study demonstrated that job satisfaction ratings were indeed measurement invariant across Internet and paper-and-pencil conditions, however, older respondents tend to differentially rate job satisfaction according to administration mode. Implications are discussed.     

Neural developmental changes in processing inverted faces

We explored developmental changes in neural substrates for face processing, using fMRI. Children and adults performed a perceptual-matching task with upright and inverted face and animal stimuli. Behaviorally, inversion disrupted face processing more than animal processing for adults and older children. In line with this behavioral pattern, the left middle occipital gyrus showed a stronger face than animal inversion effect in adults. Moreover, a superior aspect of this region showed a greater face inversion effect in older than in younger children, indicating a developmental change in the processing of inverted faces. The visual regions recruited for inverted face processing in adults also overlapped more with brain regions involved in the viewing of upright objects than with regions involved in the viewing of upright faces in an independent localizer task. Hence, when faces are inverted, adults recruit regions normally engaged for recognizing objects, possibly pointing to a role for the featural processing of inverted faces.     

The Influence of Autonomy and Supervisor Political Skill on the Use and Consequences of Peer Intimidation in Organizations

Based on social influence theory, we develop a model in which the use of peer intimidation by Machiavellian employees results in greater promotability ratings by supervisors. However, consistent with interdependence theory, we expect that this process is qualified by job autonomy and the political skill of the supervisor making the promotability rating. Based on a sample of 204 supervisor–subordinate dyads, we find that peer intimidation mediates the Machiavellianism–promotability relationship when supervisor political skill is low rather than high, and when job autonomy is high rather than low, thereby yielding a pattern of moderated mediation, and supporting the hypotheses. These results suggest that job autonomy and supervisor political skill represent key interdependent mechanisms that regulate the effectiveness of social influence attempts made with intimidation in organizations.     

Shades of emotion: What the addition of sunglasses or masks to faces reveals about the development of facial expression processing

Three studies investigated developmental changes in facial expression processing, between 3years-of-age and adulthood. For adults and older children, the addition of sunglasses to upright faces caused an equivalent decrement in performance to face inversion. However, younger children showed better classification of expressions of faces wearing sunglasses than children who saw the same faces un-occluded. When the mouth area was occluded with a mask, children under nine years showed no impairment in expression classification, relative to un-occluded faces. An early selective focus of attention on the eyes may be optimal for socialization, but mediate against accurate expression classification. The data support a model in which a threshold level of attentional control must be reached before children can develop adult-like configural processing skills and be flexible in their use of face- processing strategies.