Basketball training increases striatum volume

The striatum is associated with the learning and retention of motor skills. Several studies have shown that motor learning induces neuronal changes in the striatum. We investigated whether macroscopic change in striatum volume occurs in a segment of the human population who learned basketball-related motor skills and practiced them throughout their entire athletic life. Three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging volumetry was performed in basketball players and healthy controls, and striatum volumes were compared based on basketball proficiency, region and side. We identified morphological enlargement in the striatum of basketball players in comparison with controls. Our results suggest that continued practice and repetitive performance of basketball-related motor skills may induce plastic structural changes in the human striatum.     

Brain lateralization of phonological awareness varies by maternal education

Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to influence language skills, with children of lower SES backgrounds performing worse on language assessments compared to their higher SES peers. While there is abundant behavioral research on the effects of SES, whether there are differences in the neural mechanisms used to support language skill is less established. In this study, we examined the relation between maternal education (ME), a component of SES, and neural mechanisms of language. We focused on Kindergarten children, at the beginning of formal reading education, and on a pre‐reading skill, phonological awareness—the ability to distinguish or manipulate the sounds of language. We determined ME‐related differences in neural activity by examining a skill‐matched sample of typically achieving 5‐year‐old children as they performed a rhyme judgment task. We examined brain lateralization in two language processing regions, the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG). In the IFG, lateralization was related to ME but not skill: children with low ME showed bilateral activation compared to children with higher ME who showed leftward lateralization. In the STG, there was a skill by ME interaction on lateralization, such that children with high ME showed a positive relation between rightward lateralization and skill and children with low ME showed a positive relation between leftward lateralization and skill. Thus, we demonstrated ME is related to differences in neural recruitment during language processing, yet this difference in recruitment is not indicative of a deficit in linguistic processing in Kindergarten children.     

The Effects of Anxiety on Attention Problems and Rule-Breaking Behavior: The Moderating Effect of Work Adjustment in the Workplace

We investigated the relationship between anxiety and attention problems and rule-breaking in a population of subclinical employees and identified the moderating role of work adjustment. After screening 9938 employees at a power company, we obtained a subclinical sample of 269. Our results demonstrate that anxiety is related to attention problems and rule-breaking behavior, and that work adjustment moderates these relationships. Study findings extend our knowledge of adjustment in the workplace, which may act to protect technicians from factors that affect occupational functioning.     

Internal and External Networking Differentially Predict Turnover Through Job Embeddedness and Job Offers

Although the career benefits associated with professional networking are relatively well established, the repercussions of this highly regarded career management activity for voluntary turnover have rarely been examined. Given the potential costs associated with voluntary turnover, this study sought to clarify the roles of networking behaviors in relation to voluntary turnover by focusing on the distinction between internal and external networking. Based on survey responses of industrial and organizational psychology professionals, we found that internal and external networking behaviors differentially predicted decisions to voluntarily leave employers 2 years later: The likelihood of voluntary turnover was negatively predicted by internal networking and positively predicted by external networking. Furthermore, to shed light on the reasons why employee networking behaviors differentially predicted turnover decisions, this study also examined 4 turnover antecedents (job satisfaction, job embeddedness, perceived employment opportunities, and job offers) as potential mediating mechanisms. Results revealed that the relationships of internal and external networking with voluntary turnover were mediated by job embeddedness and job offers, respectively. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and managing employee networking and retention.     

The Psychological Cost of Racial Discrimination: What is the Role of Residential Segregation?

Racial discrimination is known to harm health, but to what extent the health burden of racial discrimination is contingent on residential contexts is understudied. This study examines the moderating role of racial residential segregation in the relationship between racial discrimination and psychological distress. Nationally representative data from the 2002–2003 National Latino and Asian American Study were merged with metropolitan-level data from the U.S. Census. Logistic regression models were used to test the independent and joint contributions of racial discrimination and residential segregation to psychological distress among Asians and Latinxs, stratified by nativity status. Higher residential segregation (measured by the interaction index) is associated with lower odds of distress among U.S.-born Asians but not among other groups. As for the moderating effect, residential segregation exacerbates the positive association between discrimination and distress among foreign-born Asians (measured by the dissimilarity index) and foreign-born Latinxs (measured by the interaction index), but not among their respective U.S.-born counterparts. Taken together, the present study highlights that strategies to mitigate the psychological burden of racial discrimination need to move beyond individual-level efforts to incorporate neighborhood-based approaches. In particular, results provide empirical support for efforts to reduce residential segregation, particularly among immigrants who are discriminated against.     

Buber from the Cartesian Perspective? A Critical Review of Reading Buber’s Pedagogy

The positive reception of Buber??s philosophy does not fully match Buber??s intention in terms of overcoming the problem of the subject?Cobject binary. In other words, a number of authors have remained within the traditional way of thinking by merely replacing the subject and object with Buber??s I and You, establishing a more dogmatic normative subjectivity, paradoxically going against Buber??s intent and even seemingly not noticing this problem. In this article, we will investigate the reasons for these paradoxical readings of Buber. By focusing on the structure and significance of Buber??s ontology of between-humane, we will study the concept of I?CYou and I?CIt, suggesting that these are not intentionality-oriented concepts, but a radically relationship-centered one. The theoretical problem caused by Buber himself in the process of adaptation of his dialog-philosophy to his dialog-pedagogy, namely the impossibility of complete mutuality in the educational relationship will be critically examined, based on Buber??s own declaration in his ??Afterword?? (1957) in I and Thou (1923). With this, we will reflect on the problematic situation of post-Buberian literature in contemporary pedagogy to pave a way to modernize Buber??s dialog-pedagogy.     

Aging and Semantic Cueing during Learning and Retention of Verbal Episodic Information

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of semantic cues provided at encoding and during retention for older adults' memory. For the California Verbal Learning Test-II, participants received semantic or nonsemantic cues that were varied across groups at encoding and during the retention interval. Provision of a semantic cue at encoding led to greater semantic clustering at learning, but not increased recall performance. Providing a semantic cue during the retention interval led to better delayed free recall and greater semantic clustering. No group differences in recall or semantic clustering were found at delayed cued recall. The current findings suggest that semantic cues can be beneficial for recalling unstructured information when administered during the retention interval.     

Openness to Experience: Its Lower Level Structure,Measurement, and Cross-Cultural Equivalence

Openness to Experience is an important but relatively poorly understood personality construct. Advances in openness research require further construct clarification as well as establishment of a common framework for conceptualizing and measuring the lower level structure of the construct. In this article, we present data from 3 studies to address this research need. In Study 1, we identify 6 facets of Openness to Experience—intellectual efficiency, ingenuity, curiosity, aesthetics, tolerance, and depth—based on a factor analysis of 36 existing Openness-related scales. In Study 2, we present further validity evidence for the 6-facet structure based on a newly developed measure of Openness. Data from this study also suggest the presence of 2 intermediate-level factors (i.e., aspects) of Openness: intellect and culture. In Study 3, we present a short form of the newly developed measure, retaining items that showed the highest internal consistency and measurement invariance across 3 samples: U.S. undergraduates, Chinese MBA students, and Chinese undergraduates. Together these 3 studies offer a more nuanced understanding of the multifaceted nature of the Openness construct.     

Validity of Six Openness Facets in Predicting Work Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

To illustrate the importance of facet-level investigations in predicting organizational outcomes and the need for more primary studies on this topic, we conducted a meta-analysis that took an exploratory look at differential relationships among 7 organizational criteria and Openness traits varying in breadth. Nine Openness predictors—the global dimension, 2 aspects (intellect and culture), and 6 facets (intellectual efficiency, ingenuity, curiosity, aesthetics, tolerance, and depth)—were examined in relations with various organizational criteria such as traditional performance outcomes (task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive work behavior), turnover, leadership effectiveness, training performance, and adaptive performance. Our results support the idea that Openness facets could exhibit differential validity for many organizational outcomes.