Learning from your mistakes: does it matter if you’re out in left foot,I mean field?

Studies have shown that generating errors prior to studying information (pencil–?) can improve target retention relative to passive (i.e., errorless) study, provided that cues and targets are semantically related (pencil–ink) and not unrelated (pencil-frog). In two experiments, we manipulated semantic proximity of errors to targets during trial-and-error to examine whether it would modulate this error generation benefit. In Experiment 1, participants were shown a cue (band–?) and asked to generate a related word (e.g., drum). Critically, they were given a target that either matched the semantic meaning of their guess (guitar) or mismatched it (rubber). In Experiment 2, participants studied Spanish words where the English translation either matched their expectations (pariente–relative) or mismatched it (carpeta–folder). Both experiments show that errors benefit memory to the extent that they overlap semantically with targets. Results are discussed in terms of the retrieval benefits of activating related concepts during learning.     

Random noun generation in younger and older adults

We examined age-related changes of executive functions by means of random noun generation. Consistent with previous observations on random letter generation, older participants produced more prepotent responses than younger ones. In the case of random noun generation, prepotent responses are nouns of the same category as the preceding noun. In contrast to previous observations, older participants exhibited stronger repetition avoidance and a stronger tendency toward local evenness—that is, toward equal frequencies of the alternative responses even in short subsequences. These data suggest that at higher adult age inhibition of prepotent responses is impaired. In addition, strategic attentional processes of response selection are strengthened, in particular the application of a heuristic for randomness. In this sense response selection is more controlled in older than in younger adults.     

Components representation of negative numbers: Evidence from auditory stimuli detection and number classification tasks

Past research suggested that negative numbers could be represented in terms of their components in the visual modality. The present study examined the processing of negative numbers in the auditory modality and whether it is affected by context. Experiment 1 employed a stimuli detection task where only negative numbers were presented binaurally. Experiment 2 employed the same task, but both positive and negative numbers were mixed as cues. A reverse attentional spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect for negative numbers was obtained in these two experiments. Experiment 3 employed a number classification task where only negative numbers were presented binaurally. Experiment 4 employed the same task, but both positive and negative numbers were mixed. A reverse SNARC effect for negative numbers was obtained in these two experiments. These findings suggest that negative numbers in the auditory modality are generated from the set of positive numbers, thus supporting a components representation.     

Orthodox Christianity in Italy: historical continuity and social discontinuity

From the historical point of view, the presence of Orthodox churches in Italy is a reality established over several centuries; from the sociological point of view, however, their presence is a new phenomenon. As a result of the significant processes of immigration from Eastern Europe over the last 15 years, their importance within the social and religious contexts has grown considerably, to the point that Orthodoxy is rivalling Islam as the second-largest religion in the country. In this article I aim first of all to provide a historical framework for the relationship between the ‘Western world’, especially Italian, and the ‘Eastern world’ of Orthodoxy. Then I shall briefly analyse two examples of different interactions between Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic context in Italy: the Montaner parish and the monastic community of Bose. Finally I shall present some outcomes from the first research project on the presence of Orthodox churches carried out in Italy during 2011, illustrating the mapping of the spread of the various jurisdictions in the Italian regions, and deepening some elements such as the relationship with the Italian state, the leadership of the various communities and the dynamics of interaction between the Orthodox churches and Catholicism.     

勿以善小而不为：正念与智慧——社会善念与观点采择的链式中介

基于正念的去自我中心机制,提出正念可通过观点采择与社会善念的链式中介对智慧产生正向效应的假设,运用问卷横断自评、正念干预和社会善念的操纵等多种方法从特质与状态层面进行验证(总样本量为909)。研究表明,特质层面的正念与社会善念、智慧两两正相关,可正向预测社会善念与智慧,并验证了社会善念的中介作用(研究1);从状态层面发现正念干预能在短期内有效提升个体的状态社会善念与智慧推理水平,再次验证社会善念的中介效应(研究2);受到操纵的社会善念也能够提升正念对智慧的正向预测效应,不仅验证了社会善念中介作用的稳健性,也验证了社会善念与智慧的因果关联,同时,观点采择与社会善念的链式中介作用也得到了研究结果的支持(研究3),即具备特质正念或进行正念练习时体验状态正念的个体,更易运用观点采择能力,在人际互动中表现出善意关注,由此作出考量他人的智慧决策。     

Enhancing attributional style as a resiliency factor in depressogenic stress generation

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests depression and cognitive vulnerabilities to depression may lead individuals to generate stressful events. However, there has been no study to date that has directly examined factors that may lead individuals to be less likely to generate stressful events. The present study examines whether an enhancing attributional style, the tendency to make global and stable inferences following occurrence of a positive event, functions as a resiliency factor in stress generation. One hundred and sixty-seven female students completed measures of depression symptoms and attributional style at baseline and occurrence of life events since baseline at a four-week follow-up. Results indicated that an enhancing attributional style predicted decreased levels of stressful events over the following four weeks, even when controlling for depression symptoms. The findings of this study suggest that there may be resiliency factors that can help protect individuals from the generation of stressful events.     

Motivating innovation in schools: School principals’ work engagement as a motivator for schools’ innovation

This multisource, multilevel study examines the role of school principals’ work engagement as a motivational catalyst for schools’ innovation. We hypothesize that principals’ work engagement motivates teachers’ creativity which in turn should foster the amount of innovations made in schools. In order to operationalize innovation, we used four measures: teachers’ self-ratings and three school-specific objective indicators of schools’ innovation (school projects, external communication, and internal communication). Eighty-seven principals and 902 teachers from 83 German schools participated in our study. Results of multilevel structural equation modelling showed that principals’ work engagement increases teachers’ idea generation which in turn fosters all of our four aspects of innovation. Idea generation mediated the relationship between principals’ work engagement and self-rated innovation. It can be concluded from our study that both principals’ work engagement and teachers’ creativity can be powerful forces concerning schools’ innovation.     

Differentiating conscientious from indiscriminate responders in existing NEO-Five Factor Inventory-3 data

The mean Inter-Item Standard Deviation (M-ISD; i.e., the mean of several single-scale ISDs) is a post-hoc validity index that statistically differentiates conscientious responders (CRs) from indiscriminate responders (IRs) in psychological questionnaire data. We compared the M-ISD’s effectiveness against four other post-hoc indexes and an embeddable validity scale in three sets of NEO-Five-Factor Inventory-3 data. Results showed the M-ISD has superior classification ability over all other post-hoc indexes and even outperformed the embeddable validity scale. The average classification accuracy of the M-ISD and embeddable scale was 97% and 93%, respectively, whereas only one of the four remaining post-hoc indexes exceeded our classification accuracy criterion of 80%. These findings suggest researchers can use the M-ISD to differentiate valid from invalid data.     

超文本节点大小对网页信息搜索效率的影响

本研究考察了超文本节点大小对网页信息搜索效率的影响效应.采用单变量被试间设计,自变量为超文本节点大小,分为130字左右、260字左右和520字左右三个水平,因变量为被试找到10个相关问题的正确答案所需的时间以及搜索过程中打开的节点个数和重复节点数.结果表明,虽然发现正确答案所需的时间随节点增大而延长,但这种影响没有达到显著的水平(p＞0.05);节点大小对被试打开的节点个数和重复节点数均有显著影响(p＜0.01).结论认为,在超文本网页设计中应充分考虑节点大小对信息搜索效率的影响效应.