Extension of Luria's Psycholinguistic Studies in Poland

One of Luria's basic interests was the organization of human cognitive processes, and thinking in particular. He believed that language and thought are closely related, and hence the manner in which we speak reflects the way we think. To verify this assumption, he and his collaborators performed a number of interesting psycholinguistic experiments with subjects of various ages and cultural backgrounds. The tasks used made the evaluation of both receptive and expressive language possible. The Narrative Ability Test described here stems from Luria's observations to a considerable degree. The test was administered to preschool children (N = 106), schoolchildren (N = 143), adolescents (N = 89), adults (N = 126), and older persons (N = 175). Findings of the 20-year studies with normal and deviant populations indicate close relationships among thought, language, and self-control. It was found that difficulty in developing narratives corresponds with a disability to process complex information. Correlations between narrative skills and age, sex, and social background were also noted.     

自控摄入小剂量酒精影响熟练驾驶行为的实验研究

一个小样本受试者内设计实验,受试者在实验允许的酒精剂量范围内自由选择摄入量。实验安排饮酒前,酒后３０分钟、１１０分钟和１７０分钟四个测试阶段,分别检验受试者在模拟驾驶和实际驾驶两项任务中的认知行为。酒后３０分钟实际驾驶的技能与其他三个测试期相比存在有意义的差别显著性;模拟测试任务中酒后对红、黄两种信号灯的认知反应时之间呈现显著性差别,酒后１１０分钟对黄色信号灯的反应明显延迟。研究提示：受试对酒精感受性的估计是不可靠的,小剂量酒精也能对驾驶行为构成伤害。     

元认知在画图表征策略和小学生数学问题解决能力中的中介作用

该研究采用自然实验和问卷调查法,对268名小学五年级学生进行画图表征策略训练,在此基础上根据策略学习情况筛选出掌握了该策略的218名学生,以这些学生为被试,探讨元认知在画图表征策略和小学生数学问题解决能力中的作用。结果表明:(1)策略学习后,小学生的画图表征策略水平和数学问题解决成绩均显著高于策略学习前。(2)画图表征策略通过元认知这一中介变量对小学生数学问题解决能力有显著的促进作用。     

Personal Debt,Cognitive Delinquency and Techniques of Governmentality: Neoliberal Constructions of Financial Inadequacy in the UK

In the UK in recent years, there has been a considerable and sustained increase in both levels of personal debt and over‐indebtedness. This commentary argues that recent UK policy formulation on personal debt management has sidelined problematic macroscopic political and economic changes by locating personal debt as a problem of individual financial incompetence. Through specific institutions, tools, techniques and practices, certain configurations of people in debt have been rendered knowable and changeable. In doing so, public policies that have brought about a greater need for a greater number of people to rely on personal debt remain largely beyond public view and have instead been reconstituted as problems of access to financial capability training. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Study of Clinical Supervision Techniques and Training in Substance Abuse Treatment

Data from 57 clinical supervisors in licensed substance abuse treatment programs indicate that 28% had completed formal graduate course work in clinical supervision and 33% were professionally licensed or certified. Findings raise concerns about the scope and quality of clinical supervision available to substance abuse counselors.     

The nonlinear effects of conscientiousness on overall job performance and performance dimensions in the Chinese context

The relationship between conscientiousness and job performance has been found to be nonlinear in the West, which challenges conceptually and empirically the traditional assumption of the single linear relationship. In this research, we examined the nonlinear effects of conscientiousness on both overall job performance and performance dimensions (i.e., task performance, adaptive performance and contextual performance) in the Chinese context. The results of our two studies supported some evidence for the nonlinear effect of conscientiousness on overall job performance. In addition, it was found that conscientiousness has different (linear or nonlinear) effects on performance dimensions. These findings suggest that the nonlinear effects of conscientiousness on job performance deserve further investigation, and a distinction should be made with regard to job performance in personnel evaluation. Results are discussed in terms of the significance of considering the nonlinear relationship between conscientiousness and performance criteria.     

Work-Family Conflict,Locus of Control,and Women's Weil-Being: Tests of Alternative Pathways

Abstract

The author tested for the 3 possible pathways (i.e., direct, moderator, and mediator effects) in which locus of control can influence the relationship between work-family conflict and well-being. The author predicted that work-family conflict would be negatively correlated with well-being. In a sample of 310 Malaysian employed women with families, work-family conflict was a significant predictor of both job satisfaction and distress–negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to symptoms of distress. More important, the results provided support for the effects of all 3 pathways of control on the relationship between work-family conflict and well-being, depending on the outcome measure: For job satisfaction, locus of control had direct effects, acted as a partial mediator, and played a significant moderating role. In contrast, only the direct effect of locus of control predicted distress. The author discusses those findings with reference to the literature on work-family conflict, locus of control, and the issue of stress-distress specificity.     

Using individual differences to predict job performance: correcting for direct and indirect restriction of range

The present study investigates the relationship between individual differences, indicated by personality (FFM) and general mental ability (GMA), and job performance applying two different methods of correction for range restriction. The results, derived by analyzing meta-analytic correlations, show that the more accurate method of correcting for indirect range restriction increased the operational validity of individual differences in predicting job performance and that this increase primarily was due to general mental ability being a stronger predictor than any of the personality traits. The estimates for single traits can be applied in practice to maximize prediction of job performance. Further, differences in the relative importance of general mental ability in relation to overall personality assessment methods was substantive and the estimates provided enables practitioners to perform a correct utility analysis of their overall selection procedure.