Negative Consequences of Felt Violations: The Deeper the Relationship,the Stronger the Reaction

Drawing from past research suggesting that high prior commitment leads to stronger reactions to unfairness in the workplace (Brockner, Tyler, & Cooper‐Schneider, 1992), we predicted that those forming relational as opposed to transactional psychological contracts would exhibit stronger detrimental effects of felt violation on job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and job performance. We also predicted a combined effect of personality and violation on these outcomes. Self‐ and supervisor‐reported data (N= 331 dyads) collected from a variety of organisations supported our predictions. In general, relational contract terms were associated with stronger violation–outcome relationships, and transactional contract terms were associated with weaker relationships. Similarly, four of the Big Five dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness to experience) moderated the violation–outcome relationships such that it was stronger for higher levels of these traits.     

Detection and recognition: Concurrent processes in perception

In two experiments, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects performed a simultaneous detection and recognition task. Ten subjects listened to pure tones in noise and reported both whether a target tone had occurred (using a four-category confidence rating scale) and whether the target was one of two (Experiment 1) or four (Experiment 2) tones differing in frequency. The amplitudes of three ERP components were found to be differentially related to detection and recognition performance. The early N100 component varied with processing related only to detection, while the late P300 varied with both detection and recognition, and a later slow positive shift varied only with recognition and not with detection. While the latenciee of both N100 and P300 increased for less confident target detections, there were no differences in the latencies of these ERP components between correctly and incorrectly identiffed targets. Recognition performance was above the level expected by chance even when subjects reported that no target had been presented. The results indicate that brain potential components can be used to disclose temporal features of the processing of a stimulus by the nervous system and support the view that detection and recognition are partially independent, concurrent processes in perception.     

Behavioral changes over several successful agonistic encounters between male mice: Effects of type of “standard opponent”

This study assessed whether two types of non-aggressive “standard opponents” (“intact” and “anosmic” group-housed males) produced similar behavioral changes in isolated OF1 male mice given several experiences of victory. Experimental groups confronted either intact or anosmic opponents every two days until they had completed four encounters. The behavioral changes were recorded using a detailed ethologically inspired analysis. These changes were clearly different depending on the opponent type. When intact opponents were used, experimental subjects increased the time spent in digging, non-social exploration, explore from a distance, and attack over encounters, but showed decreased time spent in threat and a decreased latency to the first attack. In encounters with anosmic opponents, only declines in the latencies to threat and attack were noted. Moreover, the experimental groups differed in their behaviors over encounters. Those confronting intact opponents spent less time in social investigation, more time in explore from a distance and threat, and showed a shorter latencies to threat and attack than counterparts confronting anosmics. These results suggest that, although both types of “standard opponents” are similar in their non-aggressiveness, they elicit rather different behavioral responses in their adversaries. These findings provide additional support for the view that the type of opponent used in studies on intermale aggression is of paramount importance. Indeed, the use of different types of “standardized non-aggressive opponents” appears to be an important source of variability between studies. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Testosterone and cortisol responses to competitive fighting in human males: A pilot study

Serum testosterone and cortisol levels were measured by radioimmunoassay in 14 young male judo competitors, in samples taken 10 minutes before and 45 minutes after two different procedures. The first involved physical exercise and the second competitive fighting. Both procedures were of 5 minutes duration and sessions took place at the same time (between 10:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. local time) but on different days. Comparing the two situations over all subjects revealed that testosterone increased after exercise and decreased slightly after Competition. Between subject comparisons suggested that contrary to previous claims, winning or losing did not significantly change the testosterone and cortisol levels. Comparisons of subjects who were members of the Regional Team with individuals who were not part of that group confirmed that members increased their testosterone levels after competition, whereas the nonmembers showed a significant decrease. Moreover, success of the individuals, in their sporting record, correlated positively and significantly with the changes of testosterone observed during the competition. These preliminary results suggest that previous personal experience of success can influence the pattern of the psychoendocrine response to a contest situation.     

Ethical Decision Making in Autonomous Vehicles: The AV Ethics Project

Science and Engineering Ethics - The ethics of autonomous vehicles (AV) has received a great amount of attention in recent years, specifically in regard to their decisional policies in accident...     

Revisiting the constraint attunement hypothesis: reply to Ericsson, Patel, and Kintsch (2000) and Simon and Gobet (2000)

This article is part of an exchange concerning the contributions of the constraint attunement hypothesis (CAH) to the understanding of expertise effects in memory recall. K. A. Ericsson, V. Patel, and W. Kintsch (2000) and H. A. Simon and F. Gobet (2000) claim that the CAH is not novel and that existing theories of this phenomenon do not have the limitations that were attributed to them. In this reply, the CAH is argued to be the only theory of expertise effects in memory recall to adopt the abstraction hierarchy as a theory of the environment, a feature that has important theoretical implications. Also, other theories focus on psychological mechanisms but have not satisfied the burden of scientific proof required of process theories. Progress can be made by integrating the complementary advantages of existing theories into a unified theory that acknowledges the equally important roles of the organism and the environment.     

Beyond heritability: neurotransmitter genes differentially modulate visuospatial attention and working memory

A cued, visuospatial attention task and a working memory task were administered to 89 healthy adults genotyped for a T-to-C polymorphism in CHRNA4, a nicotinic receptor subunit gene. Increasing gene dose of the C allele of the CHRNA4 gene (i.e., no C alleles, one C allele, two C alleles) was associated with increased reaction time (RT) benefits of valid attentional cuing and reduced RT costs of invalid cues, but was not associated with working memory performance. In a second experiment, 103 healthy persons were genotyped for a G-to-A polymorphism of the dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) gene. Increasing gene dose of the G allele of the DBH gene was associated with increased working memory accuracy at a high memory load. However, there was no consistent association between the DBH gene and visuospatial attention. Thus, a double dissociation was observed, with visuospatial attention associated with CHRNA4 but not the DBH gene and, conversely, working memory associated with the DBH gene but not CHRNA4. The results show that normal allelic variations in single neurotransmitter genes modulate individual differences in processing components of cognitive functions in healthy individuals.     

Measuring Impulsivity in School-Aged Boys and Examining Its Relationship with ADHD and ODD Ratings

Seven different laboratory measures of impulsivity were administered to a group of 165 school-aged boys. Parents' and teachers' ratings of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional/Defiant Disorder were also obtained. Factor analyses of impulsivity measures revealed the existence of a strong Inhibitory Control Factor including measures derived from Stop Task, the Continuous Performance Test, the Matching Familiar Figures Test, and the Circle Tracing Task. Other forms of impulsivity like resistance to interference, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and efficiency in the DRL Task loaded on a second independent factor. The Inhibitory Control factor was correlated with ADHD ratings, whereas the second factor was slightly related to the presence of ODD symptoms. Discussion is focused on the relevance of inhibitory control in impulsivity and ADHD research.     

The multidimensional nature and multicultural validity of a new measure of social anxiety: the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults

Much has been written about the situations most often feared by persons with social phobia, and several self-report measures are frequently used to assess such feared situations. However, it is not clear whether the situations feared by persons with social phobia form unidimensional or multidimensional factors. If these situations are multidimensional, reliance on a total score of feared situations would not reflect important differences between those dimensions. This research examined the multidimensional nature and multicultural validity of a newly developed instrument (the Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults [SAQ-A]) in two studies with a total of 539 patients diagnosed with social phobia and 15,753 nonpatients from 20 different countries. The structure (five clear and solid factors) and psychometric properties of the final instrument (the SAQ-A30) support the multidimensional nature of social anxiety and provide a new perspective in the assessment of social phobia.