Number comparison and number ordering as predictors of arithmetic performance in adults: Exploring the link between the two skills,and investigating the question of domain-specificity

Recent evidence has highlighted the important role that number-ordering skills play in arithmetic abilities, both in children and adults. In the current study, we demonstrated that number comparison and ordering skills were both significantly related to arithmetic performance in adults, and the effect size was greater in the case of ordering skills. Additionally, we found that the effect of number comparison skills on arithmetic performance was mediated by number-ordering skills. Moreover, performance on comparison and ordering tasks involving the months of the year was also strongly correlated with arithmetic skills, and participants displayed similar (canonical or reverse) distance effects on the comparison and ordering tasks involving months as when the tasks included numbers. This suggests that the processes responsible for the link between comparison and ordering skills and arithmetic performance are not specific to the domain of numbers. Finally, a factor analysis indicated that performance on comparison and ordering tasks loaded on a factor that included performance on a number line task and self-reported spatial thinking styles. These results substantially extend previous research on the role of order processing abilities in mental arithmetic.     

The promise of qualitative inquiry for positive psychology: Diversifying methods

Abstract

This article offers a corrective for positive psychology, viewing qualitative methods as a paradigm of equal value to quantitative methods for psychologists interested in better understanding human strengths. Gergen, Josselson, and Freeman’s framework for qualitative psychology in general, along with other qualitative theory, will be utilized as a basis for application to positive psychology in particular. Qualitative inquiry’s potential for enriching positive psychology will be described, noting several qualitative research approaches. Then, the role of qualitative psychology in promoting the flourishing of positive psychology will be examined, discussing implications for theoretical advancements, building community, and enhancing psychology through interdisciplinarity. Finally, the possibility for qualitative methods in positive psychology to build relationships between academia and society will be explored; in particular, the nature of this collaboration, and the communication of positive psychology to the public will be noted. The conclusion notes how such potentials may be realized given current realities.     

学业自我概念的建构:内/外参照模型研究述评

内/外参照模型在理论上同时考虑了社会比较和维度比较两种比较方式在建构个体学业自我概念过程中的作用。近年来,对内/外参照模型的研究进展主要体现在三个方面:对该模型进行跨文化一致性检验;提出了维度比较理论;与大鱼小池效应相整合。这些研究表明学业自我概念具有学科特异性,研究者要更加注重学业自我概念及其它学业变量的学科特异性研究,并加强内/外参照模型的调节因素研究,教师及家长要引导学生合理选择比较方式。     

社交网站中的上行社会比较与抑郁的关系:一个有调节的中介模型及性别差异

为明确社交网站中的上行社会比较对青少年抑郁的作用机制,本研究构建了一个有调节的中介模型,重点考察了妒忌在二者关系中的中介作用、反刍思维的调节作用及其性别差异。以836名高中生为被试(M=16.34岁,SD=1.06),采用问卷法对社交网站中的上行社会比较、妒忌、反刍思维以及抑郁进行调查。结果显示:(1)在控制性别、年龄、年级、社交网站好友数量以及平均每天使用社交网站频率、时间后,社交网站上行社会比较对抑郁具有显著的正向预测作用;(2)妒忌能够在社交网站上行社会比较与抑郁的关系中起中介作用,且这种间接效应会受到反刍思维的调节;(3)有调节的中介模型存在性别差异:与男生相比,妒忌的中介效应在女生被试群体中更显著;在男生被试群体中,妒忌的中介作用会受到反刍思维的调节作用的影响,而在女生被试群体中,该调节效应不显著。     

A Multi-Cultural Study of Salespeople's Behavior In Individual Pay-For-Performance Compensation Systems: When Managers Are More Equal And Less Fair Than Others

In this research, we examine salespeople's behavior in individual pay-for-performance compensation systems and show how perceived management fairness seems to energize sales employees in some environments but not in others. We use a large multicountry database of individual-level remuneration for more than 2,500 salespeople across four B2B industry sectors to demonstrate cultural adaptations of the effect of perceived management fairness. The results indicate that top management should be concerned with employees' perceptions of fairness in addition to the more typical concerns of control and motivation widely acknowledged in the microeconomics-based sales-force compensation literature. In particular, we show that perceptions of management fairness are key to salespeople's proportion of total pay generated by pay-for-performance formulas.     

Local dominance effects on self-evaluations and intrinsic motivation

Previous research indicates that local comparisons with one or a few people in the immediate environment have a stronger influence on self-evaluations than general comparisons with larger samples. Two studies examined whether this local dominance effect extends to intrinsic motivation. Study 1 suggests that local comparisons have a stronger effect on both self-evaluations and task enjoyment than general comparisons. Study 2 suggests that local comparisons have a stronger effect on intrinsic motivation than general comparisons and that local comparisons have a significant indirect effect on persistence via intrinsic motivation. Altogether, the present findings are among the first to demonstrate the contribution of local social comparisons to intrinsic motivation. We highlight the implications of these findings for social comparison theories.     

Examining different types of comparison questions in a field study of CQT polygraph technique: Theoretical and practical implications

Two types of questions are most important in the CQT polygraph examination, relevant questions that deal directly with the case under query and comparison questions, which usually deal with past probable misdeeds of the examinees that they choose to deny. The simplistic core reasoning behind the CQT is that the risk of being detected for lying is a threatening situation and like any kind of threat, it automatically triggers the autonomic nervous system to respond with the “fight or flight” type of reaction. For the deceptive examinee, the relevant questions pose the main threat, whereas the truthful examinee, knowing that he is telling the truth on the relevant issue while probably lying to the comparison questions, perceives the latter as more threatening, considering his goal to appear truthful on the test. Accordingly, the deceptive examinee reactions are focused on the relevant questions, whereas the truthful focuses them on the comparison ones. Results of the current field study suggest that at least with truthful examinees, comparison questions, which do not incorporate any lies to be afraid of their exposure, or any lies at all, might function similarly to probable lie questions, by just increasing their salience in a manner that presumably creates some concerns about them. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in line with the RIG strength notion (Ginton, 2009 ).     

Internationalizing professional codes in engineering

Professional engineering societies which are based in the United States, such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME, now ASME International) are recognizing that their codes of ethics must apply to engineers working throughout the world. An examination of the ethical code of the ASME International shows that its provisions pose many problems of application, especially in societies outside the United States. In applying the codes effectively in the international environment, two principal issues must be addressed. First, some Culture Transcending Guidelines must be identified and justified. Nine such guidelines are identified Second, some methods for applying the codes to particular situations must be identified Three such methods are specification, balancing, and finding a creative middle way.     

Negative congruence effects in letter and pseudo-letter recognition: the role of similarity and response conflict

Letters and pseudo-letters were presented in three experiments using a sequential same-different task. While first items were always presented in isolation, the second item was either presented in isolation or surrounded by geometrical non-target shapes that could be congruent or incongruent to the target. In two experiments, a physical sameness criterion was used. In Experiment 1, in one condition, different pairs were always distinct in shape, in another they were similar in shape. Negative congruence effects were obtained for different pairs that are similar. In Experiment 2, this effect is replicated within participants. In this experiment, similar and dissimilar stimuli were mixed. The results were explained in terms of the difficulty of responding different to stimuli that are similar in shape: when the second item is surrounded by a congruent shape, the similarity is emphasized, making this response even more difficult. In Experiment 3, the same stimuli were presented using a categorical sameness criterion. This reduces the role of physical similarity and thus eliminates the response conflict. As a result, negative congruence effects were no longer observed. Taken together, the three experiments identify another source of negative congruence effects besides the ones recently reported in the literature.