Who’s bringing the donuts: The role of affective patterns in group decision making

Two studies examined how intragroup affective patterns influence groups’ pervasive tendency to ignore the unique expertise of their members. Using a hidden profile task, Study 1 provided evidence that groups with at least one member experiencing positive affect shared more unique information than groups composed entirely of members experiencing neutral affect. This occurred because group members experiencing positive affect were more likely to initiate unique information sharing, as well as information seeking. Study 2 built upon this base by showing that confidence mediates the relationship between positive affect and the initiation of unique information sharing. Additionally, Study 2 investigated the role of negative affect in group decision making and how negative and positive affect concurrently influence decision making when groups are composed of members experiencing each. The results are discussed in terms of the role affect plays in influencing group behavior and the resultant importance of investigating specific affective patterns.     

Working memory and vocabulary development in Greek preschool and primary school children

The present research investigated the relative contributions of verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) to vocabulary development in the early years among Greek-speaking children. Participants were 5.5-, 7.5-, 8.5- and 9.5-year-old (N = 216) native speakers of Greek, a language differing from English in which most investigations have been conducted. Children were assessed with a receptive vocabulary task, four verbal STM measures (word, digit, and non-word list recall, as well as word list matching), and three verbal WM tasks (listening, counting, and backward digit recall). Results offer support to the view that both STM and WM influence vocabulary development in early stages. Vocabulary was associated with verbal STM at 7.5 and 8.5 years, but only with verbal WM at 5.5 years. Associations declined with age (by 9.5 years), earlier than in English-speaking children. Findings are discussed in relation to Greek language characteristics, demonstrating the importance of cross-cultural investigations.     

Variation in verbal fluency: A latent variable analysis of clustering,switching, and overall performance

Verbal fluency tasks have long been used to assess and estimate group and individual differences in executive functioning in both cognitive and neuropsychological research domains. Despite their ubiquity, however, the specific component processes important for success in these tasks have remained elusive. The current work sought to reveal these various components and their respective roles in determining performance in fluency tasks using latent variable analysis. Two types of verbal fluency (semantic and letter) were compared along with several cognitive constructs of interest (working memory capacity, inhibition, vocabulary size, and processing speed) in order to determine which constructs are necessary for performance in these tasks. The results are discussed within the context of a two-stage cyclical search process in which participants first search for higher order categories and then search for specific items within these categories.     

Emotional intelligence,cognitive ability and information search in tactical decision-making

Emotional intelligence (EI) may promote more effective decision-making under stress. In the present study, 167 participants completed a situation judgment test for EI, and performed a decision-making task based on an Antarctic rescue scenario. Participants were assigned to either a negative or neutral feedback group. Negative feedback significantly increased distress and impaired decision-making. EI failed to moderate the impacts of negative feedback, but higher EI was associated with greater information-search activity irrespective of feedback condition. It is concluded that ability EI may have a motivational component that may support more exhaustive analysis of both social and non-social stimuli.     

La décision médicale et la relation médecin–patient en oncologie

The announcement of the cancer diagnosis and his treatment is an important moment in the set up of the doctor–patient relationship. The law of contracts has long governed the relationship between the doctor and the patient. But the legislature clearly demonstrated its will to consider the patient as full actor of his health, leaving the regime of medical decision, the shared decision. This shared decision is based on an obligation to inform the patient on his health and knows many exceptions (minor patients or adults under guardianship, emergency). In Oncology, the medical decision is a decision coordinated between doctors in the multidisciplinary consultation meetings. This decision is considered as a guarantee of the quality of the medical care. It does not preclude the time of the doctor–patient relationship.     

Tailoring the Mode of Information Presentation: Effects on Younger and Older Adults' Attention and Recall of Online Information

Previous studies have mainly focused on tailoring message content to match individual characteristics and preferences. This study investigates the effect of a website tailored to individual preferences for the mode of information presentation, compared to 4 nontailored websites on younger and older adults' attention and recall of information, employing a 5 (condition: tailored vs. text, text with illustrations, audiovisual, combination) × 2 (age: younger [25–45] vs. older [≥65] adults) design (N = 559). The mode‐tailored condition (relative to nontailored conditions) improved attention to the website and, consequently, recall in older adults, but not in younger adults. Younger adults recalled more from nontailored information such as text only or text with illustrations, relative to tailored information.     

Language facilitates introspection: Verbal mind-wandering has privileged access to consciousness

Introspection and language are the cognitive prides of humankind, but their interactions in healthy cognition remain unclear. Episodes of mind-wandering, where personal thoughts often go unnoticed for some time before being introspected, offer a unique opportunity to study the role of language in introspection. In this paper, we show that inner speech facilitates awareness of mind-wandering. In two experiments, we either interfered with verbal working memory, via articulatory suppression (Exp. 1), or entrained it, via presentation of verbal material (Exp. 2), and measured the resulting awareness of mind-wandering. Articulatory suppression decreased the likelihood to spontaneously notice mind-wandering, whereas verbal material increased retrospective awareness of mind-wandering. In addition, an ecological study using smartphones confirmed that inner speech vividness positively predicted mind-wandering awareness (Exp. 3). Together, these findings support the view that inner speech facilitates introspection of one’s thoughts, and therefore provides empirical evidence for a positive relation between language and consciousness.     

Stopping rule use during information search in design problems

Information search is critical in most decision-making tasks. An important aspect of information search is the stopping rule used by the decision maker to terminate information acquisition. Decision-making problems may be usefully decomposed into design problems and choice problems. The distinction is critical because the goals of stopping behavior in the two types of problems are quite different. In design problems, the focus is on the sufficiency of information obtained for problem structuring and generating alternatives, while choice problems focus on convergence toward a solution. While previous research has studied stopping behavior in choice problems, the present research is concerned with stopping rule use during information search in design problems. To build theory in this area, we conducted two experiments. In the first, we presented professional systems analysts with an information search problem in a systems development context and asked them to gather information for a proposed system. Protocols of the search sessions were analyzed, and stopping rules used and information gathered by the analysts were identified. Results indicated that the use of certain stopping rules resulted in greater quantity and quality of information gathered. Additionally, stopping rule use, rather than analyst experience, accounted for the quantity and quality of information elicited. Finally, stopping rule use differed between more experienced and less experienced analysts. To apply our findings about stopping rules from the first experiment, we performed a second experiment in which we investigated stopping rule use in a consumer information search task on the world wide web. Results indicated the use of the same stopping rules as in the first experiment, although in different proportions. Implications for information search theory and practice are discussed.     

The extent of working memory deficits associated with Williams syndrome: exploration of verbal and spatial domains and executively controlled processes

The present study investigated verbal and spatial working memory (WM) functioning in individuals with the neuro-developmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS) using WM component tasks. While there is strong evidence of WM impairments in WS, previous research has focused on short-term memory and has neglected assessment of executive components of WM. There is a particular lack of consensus concerning the profile of verbal WM functioning in WS. Here, WS participants were compared to typically developing participants matched for (1) verbal ability and (2) spatial ability (N = 14 in each of the 3 groups). Individuals with WS were impaired on verbal WM tasks, both those involving short-term maintenance of information and executive manipulation, in comparison to verbal-matched controls. Surprisingly, individuals with WS were not impaired on a spatial task assessing short-term maintenance of information in memory (remembering spatial locations) compared to spatial-matched controls. They were, however, impaired on a spatial executive WM task requiring the manipulation of spatial information in memory. The present study suggests that individuals with WS show WM impairments that extend to both verbal and spatial domains, although spatial deficits are selective to executive aspects of WM function.