Children's understanding that ambiguous figures have multiple interpretations

In three experiments we compared 5- and 6-year-old children's understanding of multiple interpretations arising from an ambiguous figure (e.g., the duck/rabbit) and other ambiguous partial input. Children found it equally easy to switch between alternative interpretations of ambiguous figures and partial views (Experiment 1, N = 19) and more difficult to accept two characters' conflicting interpretations of ambiguous figures, than partial views (Experiment 2, N = 29). Children found it more difficult to accept explicitly that one stimulus could simultaneously give rise to two interpretations, than to switch between them (Experiment 3, N = 40). Children's handling of multiple interpretations was not primarily affected by the type of input, but results suggest that there are two distinct stages in children's handling of multiple interpretations.     

Irony and second-order false belief in children: What changes when mothers rather than siblings speak?

This study explored irony understanding in school-age children, when the irony is used in two different family relations: between a child and the child's mother and between a child and a sibling. Two irony task typologies were used to assess 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds' understanding of the intended and expressed meanings (Study 1: N = 77; Study 2: N = 30). Results proved that the relationship with the mother, more than the relationship with a sibling, supported children's irony understanding. A predictive effect of second-order false-belief understanding on irony comprehension was also found. The findings support the hypothesis that the irony understanding, at least in the acquisition phase, depends on the relational contexts in which it is used. The predictive effect of second-order recursive thinking confirms and extends the role of theory of mind in the management of ironic communication.     

Cybervictimization and body esteem: Experiences of Swedish children and adolescents

This study investigates the relationship between cybervictimization and body esteem among 1076 pupils, ages 10–15. More specifically we investigated if being the victim of cyberbullying was related to body esteem, and if there were any grade and gender differences in these relationships. Additionally, we examined how often pupils' believed that cyberbullying was directed at the victims' appearance, and if this view was more common when girls were cybervictims compared to when boys were cybervictims. Pupils in fourth grade (10-year-olds), sixth grade (12-year-olds) and ninth grade (15-year-olds), from 21 different schools in Gothenburg were surveyed. The main finding was that victims of cyberbullying reported poorer body esteem than non-cybervictims. The results also showed that pupils believed that cyberbullying was directed at the victims' appearance, especially when girls were victims. This study provides unique data concerning the links between being exposed to cyberbullying and body esteem.     

Kinematics matters: A new eye-tracking investigation of animated triangles

Eye movements have been recently recorded in participants watching animated triangles in short movies that normally evoke mentalizing (Frith–Happé animations). Authors have found systematic differences in oculomotor behaviour according to the degree of mental state attribution to these triangles: Participants made longer fixations and looked longer at intentional triangles than at triangles moving randomly. However, no study has yet explored kinematic characteristics of Frith–Happé animations and their influence on eye movements. In a first experiment, we have run a quantitative kinematic analysis of Frith–Happé animations and found that the time triangles spent moving and the distance between them decreased with the mentalistic complexity of their movements. In a second experiment, we have recorded eye movements in 17 participants watching Frith–Happé animations and found that some differences in fixation durations and in the proportion of gaze allocated to triangles between the different kinds of animations were entirely explained by low-level kinematic confounds. We finally present a new eye-tracking measure of visual attention, triangle pursuit duration, which does differentiate the different types of animations even after taking into account kinematic cofounds. However, some idiosyncratic kinematic properties of the Frith–Happé animations prevent an entirely satisfactory interpretation of these results. The different eye-tracking measures are interpreted as implicit and line measures of the processing of animate movements.     

Affective valence of words impacts recall from auditory working memory

Abstract

There is limited evidence on the influence of affective stimuli on auditory working memory. The reported study investigated whether emotional auditory words interfere with ongoing auditory processing of words in auditory working memory. On each trial, words with negative, neutral, and positive affective valence were simultaneously presented on three different speakers. Participants recalled the word presented from the centre speaker first and then recalled the words presented from the side speakers. More negative and positive words compared to neutral words were recalled from the centre speaker. After recall of negative and positive words from the centre speaker, the subsequent first recall of words from the side speakers was reduced, regardless of anxiety level of the participant. The emotional interference effect suggests that emotional words interfere with ongoing central processing due to the attentional dwell on the information in auditory working memory.     

Psychological contract breach,affective commitment to organization and supervisor,and newcomer adjustment: A three-wave moderated mediation model

This study examines the relationship of psychological contract breach to newcomer adjustment outcomes using affective commitments to organizations and supervisors as mediators and also looks at the moderating role of affective commitment to supervisors. Drawing from data collected at three points in time among a sample of newcomers (N = 224), we found that Time 2 affective organizational commitment mediated a positive relationship between Time 1 psychological contract breach and Time 3 turnover intention and emotional exhaustion. Moreover, affective commitment to supervisors interacted with organizational commitment such that the latter was more negatively related to Time 3 outcomes at low levels of commitment to supervisors. Similarly, the indirect relationships of psychological contract breach to Time 3 outcomes were stronger and negative at low levels of commitment to supervisors. Affective commitment's role in the psychological contract breach-outcome relationships during the entry period is discussed.     

Using a Sharp Instrument to Parse Apart Strategy and Consistency: An Evaluation of PPT and Its Assumptions

Potential Performance Theory (PPT) is a general theory for parsing observed performance into the underlying strategy and the consistency with which it is used. Although empirical research has supported that PPT is useful, it is desirable to have more information about the bias and standard errors of PPT findings. It also is beneficial to know the effects of violations of PPT assumptions. The authors present computer simulations that evaluate bias and standard errors at varying levels of strategy, consistency, and number of trials per participant. The simulations show that, when the assumptions are true, there is very little bias and the standard errors are low when there are moderate or large numbers of trials per participant (e.g., N = 50 or N = 100). But when the independence assumption is violated, PPT provides biased findings, although the bias is quite small unless the violations are large.     

Relationships among perceived career support,affective commitment,and work engagement

This study sought to test the predictive effects of perceived career support and affective commitment on work engagement. It was hypothesized that perceived career support would relate positively to work engagement and this relationship would be transmitted through affective commitment. Survey data were collected from 115 full‐time employees enrolled as part‐time graduate students in a large public university in Malaysia. Multiple regression analysis yielded results indicating that the relationship between perceived career support and work engagement was mediated by affective commitment. This finding suggests that employers can promote employee work engagement by ensuring employees perceive their organization to be supportive of their career and increasing employees' level of affective commitment.     

Attitudes Toward Civil Liberties: A Cross-Cultural Study

In a test of the hypothesis that irrational thinking is associated with phobic anxiety, the Rational Behavior Inventory and the Fear Survey Schedule were administered to 128 undergraduates. Although a statistically significant correlation between irrationality and phobic anxiety was found, the result appears to have little clincial meaning. Other evidence is cited which suggests that rational emotive therapy is best suited for the treatment of generalized anxiety, whereas deconditioning treatments are appropriate for most cases of phobic anxiety.