Context reinstatement and memory for intrinsic versus extrinsic context: The role of item generation at encoding or retrieval

According to many theoretical accounts, reinstating study context at the time of test creates optimal circumstances for item retrieval. The role of context reinstatement was tested in reference to context memory in several experiments. On the encoding phase, participants were presented with words printed in two different font colors (intrinsic context) or two different sides of the computer screen (extrinsic context). At test, the context was reinstated or changed and participants were asked to recognize words and recollect their study context. Moreover, a read‐generate manipulation was introduced at encoding and retrieval, which was intended to influence the relative salience of item and context information. The results showed that context reinstatement had no effect on memory for extrinsic context but affected memory for intrinsic context when the item was generated at encoding and read at test. These results supported the hypothesis that context information is reconstructed at retrieval only when context was poorly encoded at study.     

Service job lawyers are happier than money job lawyers,despite their lower income

Giving too much emphasis to extrinsic values and too little emphasis to intrinsic values is known to depress well-being. But is simply working in an extrinsic job also risky, even if that job delivers the money? We compared 1414 ‘Money’ (extrinsic) lawyers, 1145 ‘Service’ (intrinsic) lawyers, and 3415 ‘Other’ lawyers as to their income, values, well-being, and drinking behavior. Although service lawyers had much lower incomes, they also experienced more well-being and less negative affect compared to money lawyers, and drank less and less often. ANCOVAs showed that the intrinsic vs. extrinsic job-type effects were independent of rated intrinsic vs. extrinsic values, current income, years of work experience, and class rank at graduation, suggesting that the job-contexts themselves were operative. We discuss the difficult choice that pre-professional students face, between two versions of the American dream: one emphasizing wealth and status, and the other, service and personal development.     

收入与幸福的关系及其现实意义

收入与幸福的关系一直饱受争议。文章在分析已有研究成果的基础上,总结出收入与幸福之间的曲线关系:在低收入水平下,收入的增加会导致幸福水平的显著提升,当收入一旦达到能够满足人们基本生活需要的水平之后,它对幸福的积极效应就会被社会比较、适应和欲望等心理因素削弱。基于这种关系,要提高中国人民的幸福感,一方面需要社会的人文关怀与公平调整,特别是制度设计,另一方面需要个人的努力奋斗和心理调节。     

Patriarchal influences on the lives of African adolescent girls from child-headed households

This study examined the gendered experiences of patriarchal family life by adolescent girls from a low socio-economic status (SES) neighbourhood in South Africa. The informants were nine girls from an urban setting, three of whom were from child-headed homes. The six others lived with extended family and served to provide typical experiences for girls from the same community. Data on the girls’ experience of patriarchal values were gathered using focus group discussions and a photo-voice booklet. Thematic analysis of the data suggested pervasive patriarchal value influences on the adolescent girls – including pressure from within themselves to prove their academic abilities, as well as being competent and responsible in daily living responsibilities. The informant girls perceived their greater educational aspirations to be discounted by their male peers, who did not seem to take them seriously.     

Parental Involvement and Children's Academic Achievement in a South Africa Setting

The study ascertained the association between parental involvement and academic achievement of high school students. Structured questionnaire was the main instrument employed to gather information from 115 parents (men = 25; women = 90; age range = 28–45 years) and their 115 children (boys = 38; girls = 77; age range = 15–18 years). Correlation analysis was used to estimate the extent of association between parental involvement and their children's academic achievement. Parental involvement positively correlated with students' academic achievement. Children of parents involved in the home-based learning support activities and direct communication with their children had superior school grades than those from less involved parents.     

The Existential Function of Intrinsic Religiousness: Moderation of Effects of Priming Religion on Intercultural Tolerance and Afterlife Anxiety

Managing existential concerns is theorized to be a key function of religion. We posit that priming religion should be related to greater existential security for those high in intrinsic religiosity. In Experiment 1, priming religion increased intercultural tolerance among individuals who were highly intrinsically religious but decreased it for those low in intrinsic religiousness. In Experiment 2, intrinsic religiousness again moderated the effects of the prime, suggesting that priming religion resulted in attenuated afterlife anxiety for intrinsically religious individuals but greater anxiety for individuals low in intrinsic religiousness. Religious reminders appeared to provide existential security—evidenced by tolerance and reduced death anxiety—only to those high in intrinsic religiousness and can be threatening to those low in intrinsic religiousness. Existential outcomes are a specific case in which intrinsic religiousness can moderate the effects of religious primes, suggesting that religion plays a different existential role for different people.     

Intrinsic Religiosity and Volunteering During Emerging Adulthood: A Comparison of Mormons with Catholics and Non‐Catholic Christians

Emerging adulthood is a period when religious beliefs are likely to be shaped. Studying the influence of religious culture on prosocial behavior among emerging adults aids our understanding of the process and effects of religious socialization. Mormon religious culture places a particularly strong emphasis on caring for family and fellow Mormons. Because intrinsically religious individuals internalize their religious community's values, we hypothesized that the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and volunteering would be stronger among Mormons than among Catholics or non‐Catholic Christians. We tested this hypothesis using a sample of Mormon (N = 118), Catholic (N = 304), and non‐Catholic Christian (N = 542) emerging adults (18–29 year olds) across three volunteering contexts (religious, family, and secular). Controlling for extrinsic religiosity and worship attendance, the relationship between intrinsic religiosity and frequency of volunteering was greater among Mormons than Catholics and non‐Catholic Christians in the context of religious and family volunteering. However, intrinsic religiosity was not a significant predictor of secular volunteering. Our findings suggest that Mormon culture influences the frequency and type of volunteering engaged in by young Mormon adults.     

Motor Learning as a Function of KR Schedule and Characteristics of Task-Intrinsic Feedback

Forty participants (age range = 18–35 years) practiced 1 of 2 versions of an aiming task (with or without spring resistance). Knowledge of results (KR) was provided to them either immediately or after a delay of 2 trials. Immediate KR led to significantly more accurate performance during the 80 trials in acquisition but significantly less accurate performance on a 40-trial retention test given 24 hr after practice. In addition, the spring version of the task was performed significantly less accurately than the no-spring version on the 24-hr retention test. Most important, a significant interaction on the 24-hr retention test revealed that performance of the no-spring version of the task, when KR had been given after a 2-trial delay, was significantly more accurate than performance of the other 3 combinations of task version and KR schedule. The results suggest that KR dependency in motor skill learning is related to familiarity with task-intrinsic feedback in addition to the schedule on which KR is presented.     

Adaptive Dynamics of the Leg Movement Patterns of Human Infants: I. The Effects of Posture on Spontaneous Kicking

This is the first of two articles in which we describe how infants adapt their spontaneous leg movements to changes in posture or to elicitation of behaviors by a mechanical treadmill. In this article, we compare the kinematics of kicks produced by 3-month-old infants in three postures, supine, angled (45°), and vertical, and examine the changes in muscular and nonmuscular force contributions to limb trajectory. By manipulating posture we were able to assess the sensitivity of the nascent motor system to changes in the gravitational context. The postural manipulation elicited a distinct behavioral and dynamic effect. In the more upright postures, gravitational resistance to motion at the hip was 4 to 10 times greater than resistance met in the supine posture, necessitating larger muscle torques to drive hip flexion. Kicks produced in the vertical posture showed a reduction in hip joint range of motion and an increase in synchronous joint flexion and extension at the hip and knee. At the same time, hip and knee muscle torques were also more highly correlated in kicks performed in the vertical than in the supine or angled posture. This increased correlation between muscle torques at the hip and knee implicates anatomical and energetic constraints—the intrinsic limb dynamics—in creating coordinated limb behavior out of nonspecific muscle activations.     

When ‘fit’ leads to fit,and when ‘fit’ leads to fat: How message framing and intrinsic vs. extrinsic exercise outcomes interact in promoting physical activity

A unique aspect of exercise is that people may choose to engage in it to achieve a variety of outcomes, ranging from extrinsic (appearance, health) to intrinsic (satisfaction, enjoyment). We examined how the impact of gain- vs. loss-framed messages depends on the type of outcome emphasised. Drawing from regulatory focus theory (Higgins, E.T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280–1300; Higgins, E.T. (2000). Making a good decision: Value from fit. American Psychologist, 55, 1217–1230), we predicted that gain-framed messages would ‘fit’ with intrinsic outcomes and loss-framed messages would ‘fit’ with extrinsic outcomes, but the effect of such fit on physical activity would depend on the participants’ need for cognition (NC). We tested these hypotheses with a sample of 176 sedentary young adults who read an exercise message with randomly assigned frame (gain/loss) and outcome (intrinsic/extrinsic). Participants provided daily reports of exercise over the following week. The predicted interaction between frame, outcome and NC was found (p?=?0.001) such that a ‘fit’ message promoted somewhat, but not significantly, greater exercise for those with high NC, but a ‘non-fit’ message promoted significantly greater exercise for those with low NC. Furthermore, differences in physical activity were partially mediated by attitudes towards exercise. Findings shed light on how the outcomes and motivations associated with physical activity shape people's behavioural responses to framed health communications.