Reconceptualizing of the overjustification effect: A template-matching approach

The paper reviews traditional attributional explanations for the over-justification effect in task motivation, isolates their weaknesses, and proposes an alternative account based on the notion that individuals process task information schematically. It is proposed that task information relating to motivation is interpreted by cognitive schema or “templates,” which identify tasks as being either instrumental or expressive in nature. When the expressive template is evoked, the task is perceived to be playlike and is experienced as inherently motivating. When the instrumental template is evoked, the task is perceived as a means to an end and task motivation results from the perceived value of the task for attaining intrinsic and/or extrinsic rewards. Structural characteristics of these templates are proposed. According to this account, overjustification effects occur when the perceived characteristics of tasks change such that the expressive template is replaced by the instrumental template and expressive motivation is transformed into instrumental motivation.     

Conveying more (or less) than we realize: The role of impression-management in feedback-seeking

This paper reports two studies concerning impression management, impression formation, and feedback-seeking. Study 1 demonstrated that people seek less feedback when being observed and respond to situational norms regarding the appropriate frequency of seeking. However, Study 2 showed that when an individual has a superior performance history, seeking enhances observers' impressions of the seeker's personal characteristics and performance potential in the organization. The implications of these findings for feedback-seeking and the provision of feedback in organizations are discussed.     

Cue selection in verbal discrimination learning of retarded subjects.

A series of experiments was conducted to examine cue function in trigram verbal discrimination learning by retarded subjects. The issue was to determine the factors that control attention in this type of learning situation. The two variables of chief interest were trigram meaningfulness and reinforcement history. The major general conclusion was that retarded subjects employ complex cue selection strategies in solving a verbal discrimination involving compound verbal stimuli. Major findings were as follows: (a) Retarded subjects exhibit a response bias in favor of words over nonsense trigrams; (b) relatively little active cue selection based on meaningfulness was observed; (c) a compound stimulus discrimination was more difficult to learn than a discrimination involving single verbal stimuli; (d) compound and single stimuli may be processed differently in original discrimination learning; (e) cue position probably controls attention in compound discrimination learning; and (f) a frequency theory of verbal discrimination learning is supported by these data.     

Intermittent vision and one-handed catching: the effect of general and specific task experience

In Experiment 1, 15 skilled and 15 less skilled participants performed 1-handed catching in 4 conditions. For both groups, catching performance deteriorated significantly when no visual information was available for 40 ms between 20-ms visual samples (20/40) and continued to decline with subsequent increases in the duration between visual samples (i.e., 20/80 and 20/120). In Experiment 2, 50 participants performed a pretest and a posttest in a 20/80 condition, separated by 4 blocks of practice (N=80). Participants who practiced with intermittent vision (20/40, 20/80, and 20/120) exhibited a significant improvement between pretest and posttest. Although general practice with intermittent vision enabled some adaptation, posttest performance did not equal performance in the 1st block of continuous vision.     

Politics and participation: Some antecedents of young people's attitudes to the political system and political activity

The antecedents of political disaffection and political activism have been extensively studied in adult populations, producing two models of political protest, the ‘dissatisfaction model’, suggesting that protest action is rooted in political disaffection, and the ‘resource model’ which bases interest in politics in a sense of political self-efficacy. There has been a dearth of research extending this theorizing to young people of prevoting age. The present study presents the results of regression analysis applied to longitudinal data collected in a U.K. Programme of research and economic and political socialization, the ESRC 16-19 Initiative. The analysis relates ‘lack of interest in politics’, ‘intention not to vote’ and ‘political activity’, to attitudes, personality characteristics, experience and circumstances measured earlier. It is concluded that political disaffection including lack of interest and intention not to vote, is strongly associated with a growing cynicism about politics rooted in poor educational performance and a working class family background. The connections with activism are negative but much weaker, suggesting the potential for protest activity across a wider spectrum of youth. This lends support to Marsh's (1990) view that given the right circumstances, protest action under both the ‘resource model’, and the ‘dissatisfaction model’, can apply.     

Integration of intermittent visual samples over time and between the eyes

The authors investigated the integration of alternate disparate monocular inputs for binocular perception in 1-handed catching experiments (N = 14, 32, 22, and 15 participants, respectively in Experiments 1-4). They varied the no-vision interval between alternate monocular samples to measure catching performance, and they compared the alternating monocular conditions with binocular and monocular conditions with equal no-vision intervals. They found no evidence of a binocular advantage for one-handed catching in the alternating monocular conditions. Performance in monocular and alternating monocular conditions did not differ across no-vision intervals ranging from 0-80 ms and was particularly worse than performance in binocular viewing conditions when the no-vision interval was 40 ms or more. The authors argue that the dissimilarity between disparate monocular inputs created by the approaching object limited the integration of those inputs and subsequent binocular perception.     

Effects of trazodone on sleep in patients diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Trauma victims frequently report nightmares with experiences of reliving the stressful event in catastrophic dreams. The following day there are exaggerated startle responses and psychic numbing, followed that evening by a reluctance to go to sleep and insomnia. This study found trazodone to be effective in veteran patients with a diagnosis or symptoms of PTSD including sleep disturbance. Among this group of veterans, 20 of the 21 under 60 and 24 out of 27 over 60 had positive responses to bedtime trazodone doses, in that they slept better, including going to sleep more quickly, having fewer nightmares,and had less anger the next day. These benefits may be due to deepened non-REM sleep early in the night as well as delayed REM-sleep onset.     

Upward mobility, status inconsistency, and psychological health

According to much of the theoretical literature, the psychological consequences of intergenerational occupational mobility are associated with poorer psychological health, even when upward mobility is involved. One possible explanation is that mobility results in status inconsistencies that are experienced as stressful. The research reported here reconsiders the notions that mobility is associated with higher levels of stress and that stress results from exposure to status inconsistencies. The results obtained, based on a sample of English men, provide no support for either thesis.