Mood and realism of confidence judgements of one''s own answers to general knowledge questions

This study examines the effect of a depressed mood on the realism of subjects' confidence judgements of the correctness of answers to general knowledge questions. Research conducted on how mood influences cognitive processes gives reason to expect that a depressed mood might increase the realism of individuals' confidence ratings. Sixty subjects were divided into three conditions, two of which were given mood induction, one condition into an elated-happy mood and one condition into a depressed-sad mood. As evidenced by subjects' responses to mood scales only the depressed condition was affected by the mood induction. All subjects answered 93 general knowledge questions and rated their confidence in the correctness of the answer given. Subjects were instructed to think aloud when answering the last 31 questions. The conditions did not differ with respect to the proportion of questions answered correctly, mean level of confidence, nor with respect to three measures of the realism in subjects' confidence ratings (calibration, over/underconfidence and resolution). The results were the same when questions answered with and without think aloud instructions were analysed separately.     

Matching-to-sample and oddity-from-sample in goldfish.

Acquisition of three-alternative simultaneous matching-to-sample and oddity-from-sample was investigated. Five goldfish were trained on matching and five on oddity for a minimum of 70 days. Subsequently, six of the fish were trained for 70 days on the other task. Acquisition was similar for oddity and matching. Correct responding started at about chance level and slowly increased to about 75%, with some animals performing at levels of over 85%. Acquisition of oddity following matching and matching following oddity began below chance. Maximal level of performance on second-task oddity was comparable to that on first-task matching. By contrast, the maximal levels of performance when matching was the second task were not as high as that of the same subjects at the end of first-task oddity. All fish exhibited strong color preferences during matching acquisition but not during oddity acquisition. The data demonstrated that goldfish can acquire a discrimination in which the stimulus associated with reinforcement depends on the identity of a second stimulus.     

TEACHING PEDESTRIAN SKILLS TO RETARDED PERSONS: GENERALIZATION FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT1

Little attention has been given to teaching adaptive community skills to retarded persons. In this study, five retarded male students were taught basic pedestrian skills in a classroom. Training was conducted on a model built to simulate city traffic conditions. Each subject was taught five specific skills involved in street crossing in sequence, viz. intersection recognition, pedestrian-light skills, traffic-light skills, and skills for two different stop-sign conditions. Before, during, and after training, subjects were tested on generalization probes on the model and under actual city traffic conditions. Results of a multiple-baseline design across both subjects and behaviors indicated that after receiving classroom training on the skills, each subject exhibited appropriate pedestrian skills under city traffic conditions. In addition, training in some skills appeared to facilitate performance in skills not yet trained.     

The stages of acquisition in stimulus fading

Pigeons were exposed to a stimulus fading procedure in which control of responding was transferred from red and black stimuli to lines of different angular orientation. After superimposing one line on the red stimulus and the other line on the black stimulus, the intensity of the lines was gradually increased and that of the red stimulus was gradually reduced. Probes consisting of red and line stimuli presented separately were used during the course of fading to assess control exerted by each element of the compound. As the lines were faded in, they did not acquire control of responding. As red was faded out, control of responding was acquired first by the lower intensity red stimuli in combination with the line stimulus, and finally by the angular orientation of the lines. Probes also determined the point at which the line stimuli, presented alone, would maintain a high degree of stimulus control. The results demonstrated that new stimuli in fading acquire dimensional control of responding in two sequential stages. Acquisition of stimulus control in fading was explained in terms of attenuation of stimulus blocking.     

Eye tracking provides no evidence that young infants understand path obstruction

In two experiments with 47 4-month-olds, we investigated attention to key aspects of events in which an object moved along a partly occluded path that contained an obstruction. Infants were familiarized with a ball rolling behind an occluder to be revealed resting on an end wall, and on test trials an obstruction wall was placed in the ball's path. In Experiment 1, we did not find longer looking when the object appeared in an impossible location beyond the obstruction, and infants did not selectively fixate the object in this location. In Experiment 2, after rolling one or two balls, we measured infants' fixations of a two-object outcome with one ball in a novel but possible resting position and the other in a familiar but impossible location beyond the obstruction. Infants looked longer at the ball in the possible but novel location, likely reflecting a looking preference for location novelty. Thus we obtained no evidence that infants reasoned about obstruction and identified a violation on that basis.     

Tapping into the interplay of lexical and number knowledge using fast mapping: A longitudinal eye-tracking study with two-year-olds

Language skills and mathematical competencies are argued to influence each other during development. While a relation between the development of vocabulary size and mathematical skills is already documented in the literature, this study further examines how children’s ability to map a novel word to an unknown object as well as their ability to retain this word from memory may be related to their knowledge of number words. Twenty-five children were tested longitudinally (at 30 and at 36 months of age) using an eye-tracking-based fast mapping task, the Give-a-Number task, and standardized measures of vocabulary. The results reveal that children’s ability to create and retain a mental representation of a novel word was related to number knowledge at 30 months, but not at 36 months while vocabulary size correlated with number knowledge only at 36 months. These results show that even specific mapping processes are initially related to the acquisition of number words and they speak for a parallelism between the development of lexical and number-concept knowledge despite their semantic and syntactic differences.     

Triggering Creative Self-Efficacy to Increase Employee Innovation Behavior in the Hospitality Workplace

This study investigated how creative personality, psychological empowerment, and job stress affect creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior in hospitality employees. A hypothesized moderating role of knowledge-sharing role in the relationship between creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior was also tested. Three hundred and thirty-nine employees and 89 supervisors employed by International Tourist Hotels in Taiwan participated in the study. A structural equation modeling analysis indicated that creative self-efficacy significantly mediates the effects of creative personality and psychological empowerment on innovative behavior in the hospitality industry. The positive effect of creative self-efficacy on innovative behavior was larger in high knowledge-sharing work environments than in low knowledge-sharing work environments. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.     

Getting social in selection: How social networking website content is perceived and used in hiring

The use of social networking websites (SNWs) during employee selection is gaining popularity in organizations. Using a foundation that integrates identity and situational strength theories, we develop a conceptual framework that differentiates SNW information from information gathered through traditional selection procedures, and distinguishes between SNW types. Research questions and hypotheses are tested using a survey of 291 hiring professionals. Results indicate that SNW content is considered useful and is regularly utilized during hiring. Some SNW content is viewed positively (e.g., information supporting qualifications), while other information leads to negative perceptions (e.g., discriminatory comments). Finally, results support a differentiation between personal and professional SNW, as the kind of information sought and the effectiveness of assessing various work‐related constructs differs between these SNW categories.     

Metacognitive components of writing: Construction and validation of the Metacognitive Components of Planning Writing Self-inventory (MCPW-I)

IntroductionWriting and metacognition play an essential function in the learning process, in that writers engage arduous cognitive efforts by selecting and organizing ideas, then reviewing and readjusting them.ObjectiveThe present research aimed to construct and validate a self-report instrument to measure some specific metacognitive processes implicated in writing planning. Two categories of metacognitive components were considered: metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation strategies.MethodBased on exploratory and confirmatory analyses, the Metacognitive Components of Planning Writing Self-inventory (MCPW-I) was constructed and validated. This instrument is composed of three factors: Metacognitive Conditional Knowledge – MCK (6 items), Covert Self-regulation – CSF (4 items), and Environmental self-regulation – ESF (5 items). 1022 undergraduates students engaged in various programs of a French university filled in the inventory.ResultsThe alpha coefficients indicated a reliable internal consistency and the test-retest reliability showed a good temporal stability. Correlational analyses revealed that the CRS factor was related to ESR and MCK factors, and these last two were not correlated with each other. After the analysis of variance, the responses relative to ESR and MCK dimensions differed according to gender, but no differences relatively to the academic disciplines considered was found. Concerning the predictive validity, CSF and MCK were correlated with writing performance.ConclusionThe results confirm the validity and reliability of the MCPW-I which constitutes a new research tool for the study of metacognitive processes of writing.     

Disentangling the far transfer of language comprehension gains using latent mediation models

While we know that interventions targeting oral language can be effective, little is known about what drives these effects. In this study, we examine whether gains in transfer measures are mediated through the specific words that are trained in a language intervention. Based on a large‐scale randomized controlled trial of language intervention in 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children, latent mediation models were used to disentangle oral language gains in transfer measures. The results first showed that the effects of the language intervention and the transfer effects are generated through expressive rather than receptive measures of language. Second, we found that the effects of the intervention on intermediate transfer measures of language were mediated through the ability to define the trained words. Third, and critically, for far transfer measures that did not contain any of the trained words, the effects were mediated through the trained words. The findings relate to theories of transfer and support the idea that far transfer is possible, at least within the same domain. In addition, it seems that effects on receptive language skills are difficult to obtain and that what is improved is instead the children's ability to express themselves and use procedures to explain words. Thus, to optimize intervention effects, future studies should focus on expressive language.