Cognitive ability, personality, and academic performance in adolescence

Does positive thinking predict variance in school grades over and above that predicted by cognitive ability? Six hundred and thirty nine high school students participated in a three-year longitudinal study that predicted grades using cognitive ability and three positive thinking variables – self-esteem, hope, and attributional style. Hope, positive attributional style and cognitive ability predicted higher grades, whilst self-esteem was a less consistent predictor of academic performance. Structural equation modelling revealed significant paths from cognitive ability, gender, and a second order positive thinking factor to grades. The results suggest that intelligence, gender, and positive thinking each play a unique role in predicting academic performance in youth. Some suggestions for further research are made.     

品牌信任的前因后果驱动机制研究

本研究通过大样本问卷调查,采用结构方程建模的方法探讨品牌信任的前因后果驱动机制.结果表明:品牌的直接经验和间接经验通过品牌态度和品牌信任的中介作用对品牌绩效发生影响,其中品牌直接经验比品牌间接经验对品牌态度的影响更大.这说明只有消费者对品牌产生了亲身体验以后,才会实质性地改变对品牌的态度和信任.品牌信任是导致品牌绩效的直接因素.     

Shame as a predictor of post-event rumination in social anxiety

Evidence shows that people with high social anxiety levels ruminate about distressing social events, which contributes to the maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. The present study aimed to explore the role of shame in maintaining post-event rumination (PER) following a negative social event (an impromptu speech with negative feedback) in a student sample (N?=?104). Participants reported negative rumination related to the event one day and one week after the speech. PER measured one day after the speech was not associated with social anxiety symptoms and state anxiety. One week later, participants with clinically relevant social anxiety symptoms experienced greater PER. State shame was the only significant predictor of PER in a regression equation that also included social anxiety symptoms, state anxiety and self-evaluation of performance. Possible explanations and implications are discussed in light of cognitive models of social anxiety.     

创造性任务情境下社会惰化影响因素研究

研究一,采用单因素组间设计(合作组、名义组、个人组)检验创造性任务情境下是否存在社会惰化效应,结果显示:合作组状态下个体努力水平显著低于名义组,与个人组差异不显著;研究二,采用三因素组间设计(4×2×3)探讨创造性任务情境下社会惰化影响因素,结果显示:目标难度、绩效评估变量主效应显著且存在交互作用,而中期评估变量主效应不显著。研究结果提示:高难度目标、评估个体对群体的贡献可减弱创造性任务情境下的社会惰化效应。     

Hope, but not optimism, predicts academic performance of law students beyond previous academic achievement

This longitudinal study examined the relative associations of initial levels of hope and optimism with subsequent academic performance and life satisfaction among first-year law students (N = 86). Path analysis showed that hope, but not optimism, predicted better academic performance, while controlling for Law School Admission Test scores and undergraduate grades. Both hope and optimism uniquely predicted greater life satisfaction at the end of the first semester.     

Locomotor strategies in response to altered lower limb segmental mechanical properties

The present study sought to use stilt walking as a model to uncover modifications to gait dynamics caused by changes in lower limb anthropometrics. We examined 10 novice and 10 expert stilt walkers, each walking with and without stilts, to determine the specific adaptations brought about by experience. Three-dimensional kinematics and force platform data were used to calculate the intersegmental forces, net joint moments and moment powers at the ankle, knee and hip. Spatio-temporal data were computed to aid the interpretation of these data. Non-dimensional scaling was used to facilitate comparison between stilt- and normal-walking. In general, the stilts induced largely the same alterations in the locomotor patterns of both novices and experts, which did not allow for the conclusion that the experts employed locomotor dynamics that were better suited to the challenges imposed by alterations to limb length, mass and mass moment of inertia induced by the stilts. Nevertheless, the experts exhibited a lesser reduction in dimensionless stride length and velocity and generated larger concentric knee flexor and hip extensor powers, relative to the novices, which may be indicative of enhanced dynamic stability control.     

It depends on your perspective: The role of self-relevance in stereotype-based underperformance

Much research has examined how stereotype threat leads to the underperformance of stereotyped targets. The underlying cause for this effect, however, remains unclear. Some researchers argue that stereotype threat can be explained from a behavioral-priming perspective, while others claim that it necessarily involves concerns about confirming a negative self-relevant stereotype. The current experiment highlights the critical role of self-relevance in distinguishing between stereotype priming and stereotype threat. Results showed that when participants wrote about a stereotyped target from a first-person perspective, both targets and non-targets performed poorly under stereotype threat conditions, because writing from a first-person perspective made the stereotype self-relevant for non-targets. But when participants wrote about a stereotyped target from a third-person perspective, only targets underperformed since the stereotype was already self-relevant. Moreover, when the stereotype was made self-relevant non-targets experienced the same threat-based concerns that targets experience under stereotype threat conditions.     

责任心子维度与绩效的关系研究中存在的争议

在责任心及其子维度与工作绩效的关系研究中,研究者在下面四个方面还存在争议：1．责任心的结构定义,也就是责任心总维度包含哪些子维度？2．为什么子维度的信度系数比责任心总维度的低？3．对于具体的,较细的工作绩效效标,大维度还是小维度有更好的预测效度？4．用于检验哪一种预测源更有效的方法,计算简单相关系数还是增量效度？文章主要就这些问题进行讨论。     

Separating the Developmental and Evaluative Performance Appraisal Uses

The multiple uses of performance appraisal (PA) have been the focus of much research, often yielding conflicting findings and conclusions. This study used an untreated control group design to examine the effects of separating the developmental and evaluative PA uses (in time and by person) on employee attitudes and behavioral intentions. Results indicated no effect on employee attitudes, however, employees in the separated PA group reported they were less likely to use development in the future.     

Clustering in the output of behavior

Pigeons exposed to fixed-interval schedules of 3, 5, 15, 40, and 120 minutes all maintained considerable variability in daily response rates for as many as 104 sessions. However, variations did not occur at random. Instead, rate in a session appeared dependent on those occurring previously. The series displayed a wave-like form arising because a group of high rates was followed by a group of low rates and vice versa. These sequential relations produced a curve having irregular periodicity, sometimes superimposed on a declining or rising linear trend. Whether grouping of response rates stemmed from experimental or extra-experimental sources was not determined. If the phenomenon was either totally or partially produced by the schedule itself, it suggests that response rate is determined by a combination of positive and negative feedback. Control by factors extrinisic to the experiment itself implies that response rate may be influenced by some rhythmic physiological process.