Games teams play: A method for investigating team coordination and performance

Teams are playing an increasingly important role in the workplace. However, reviews of the team performance literature have suggested that there are serious deficiencies in our understanding of team processes and performance (e.g., Dyer, 1984). These difficulties may be attributable, in part, to the lack of laboratory methodologies to investigate team performance. This paper describes the use of low-fidelity simulations as a potentially useful paradigm for researching team coordination and performance. This paradigm is advantageous in that it offers relatively high levels of experimental control and task representation at a low cost.     

Angular homeostasis: IV. Polygonal orbits

Some properties are discussed of regular polygons that may result from angular homeostatic processes in stable orbit. To characterize these homeostatic polygons we need to discuss the winding number, the sidedness (integer, fractional and irrational), multiplicity, envelopes, and density. A regular (i.e., equilateral, equiangular) polygon may be closed in one revolution about its unique center, in multiple revolutions, or not at all. A homeostatic polygon can be generated only if all vertices are included in a single polygon, which occurs if and only if the number of vertices and the number of revolutions required to complete the polygon are relatively prime. For the homeostatic polygon to have a finite number of sides (without repeating itself) the angle subtended by any two successive vertices at the center must be a rational multiple of 2. Biological implications of these properties are illustrated.     

The pursuit of the minor premise a commentary on normality

In this paper are explored the ethical implications of the answers to three questions: Whether or not a diseased state is discrete; the criteria by which that question is answered; and how the diseased state is to be identified. Examples are given showing that some states appear to be clearly discrete, and others equally clearly not discrete. The nature of the pertinent evidence will be affected accordingly. It is shown that a slavish and inappropriate concern with categories leads to anomalous ethics. Finally, it is suggested that many of these problems may be avoided by centering the ethics of medicine on optimizing the welfare of the patient rather than by thinking in terms of categorical disease.     

Naming speed deficits in reading disability: multiple measures of a singular process

Speed of word identification is important in the theories of reading proposed by La Berge and Samuels (1974) and Perfetti (1985), and is substantially correlated with reading skill. However, there is controversy about whether disabled readers have a speed deficit that is restricted to the identification of printed words, or if instead, they have a more general speed deficit in retrieving names of even single digits. To investigate this issue, poor and average readers (N = 43) in grade 2 were assessed on several indices of speed of digit and letter naming, using both continuous-list and discrete-trial methodologies. MANCOVA indicated clear effects of reader group on discrete-trial latencies, as well as an interaction between reader group and the speed with which to-be-named items were presented. A series of hierarchical regression analyses explored the amount of shared variance between various measures of digit naming speed and five indices of reading skill. Latency for word identification shares considerable variance with latency for digit naming, and, in general, accounts for the shared variance of naming speed and several other measures of reading skill. Naming speed contributed variance in reading skill. Naming speed contributed variance in reading skill independently of measures of phonological awareness.     

Skewness and asymmetry of distributions

The ‘skewness’ of a distribution, a poorly-defined term, is conventionally deemed to be invariant under linear transformations. A comparison is made of three criteria of it: the sign of odd central moments; the several relationships of the mean, the median and the mode; and asymmetry proper which is the set of ratios of the probability densities of all pairs of points equidistant above and below some arbitrary point, usually the principal mode. Some useful general relationships are discussed. The skeness of convolutions is briefly discussed. A class of distributions is identified for which the skewness of the minimum ofk competing processes is independent ofk. It has importance in the parametric study of survivorship.     

Absolute and relative cues for the auditory perception of egocentric distance

Three experiments were performed to examine the reverberation cue to egocentric auditory distance and to determine the extent to which such a cue could provide 'absolute', as contrasted with 'relative', information about distance. In experiment 1 independent groups of blindfolded observers (200 altogether) were presented with broadband noise from a speaker at one of five different distances (0.55 to 8 m) in a normal hard-walled room. Half of each group of observers were presented with the sound at 0 deg azimuth, followed (after a delay) by the identical sound at 90 deg azimuth. The order of presentation was reversed for the remaining observers. Perceived distance varied significantly as a function of the physical distance to the speaker, even for the first presentations. The change in the binaural information between the 0 deg and 90 deg presentations did not significantly modify the results. For both orientations, near distances were overestimated and far distances were underestimated. Experiment 2 and 3 were designed to evaluate how much prior auditory exposure to the laboratory environment was necessary. A 200 Hz square-wave signal was presented from one of three distances (1, 2, or 6 m) to observers who had either minimal room information or an exposure which included talking within the room. Perceived distance varied significantly with physical distance regardless to exposure condition.     

Inhibitory control and set shifting describe different pathways from behavioral inhibition to socially anxious behavior

Individuals with a behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament are more likely to develop social anxiety. However, the mechanisms by which socially anxious behavior emerges from BI are unclear. Variation in different forms of top‐down control, specifically executive functions (EF), may play distinct roles and characterize differential pathways to social anxiety. Here 291 children were assessed for BI in toddlerhood (ages 2 and 3), parent‐reported inhibitory control and set shifting during middle childhood (age 7), and multidimensional assessment of socially anxious behavior completed during late childhood and early adolescence (ages 9 and 12). Structural equation modeling revealed that early variation in BI predicted the development of socially anxious behavior through either higher levels of parent‐reported inhibitory control or lower levels of parent‐reported set shifting. These data reinforce the notion that top‐down control does not uniformly influence relations between temperament and socially anxious behavior. These data suggest novel approaches to thinking about the role of EFs and social anxiety outcomes as children approach adolescence.     

Offence and defence in fights between young pigs (Sus scrofa)

Fights were observed between young, unacquainted, domestic pigs. These fights were described in terms of the frequency of bites and the time spent in each of five spatial configurations of the animals. Depending on the rate that bites were given or received, each spatial configuration was characterized as resulting from offence or defence by one of the pigs. Bites were mainly directed at the head and ears, and defensive moves placed these areas out of reach. The most effective offensive move was an attack from the side. Pigs that lost fights tended to turn away from such attacks: winners were as likely to turn towards the attacker. Whether turning away is submission or simply defence is not clear. Factor analysis showed that fights could be described on three dimensions: offence by the loser along with mutual offence and mutual defence: offence by the winner and defence by the loser: and defence by the winner. Long fights involved much offence by the loser and defence by the winner: short fights involved much defence by the loser. When the pigs met again after 24 h, the fights were shorter and involved less offence and more defence by the loser. The transitions between the configurations reflect a balance of offence and defence by the pig responsible making for the transition. This balance is, in turn, affected by attacks from the opponent, fatigue, and the pig's assessment of its relative fighting ability. Retaliation against attacks is partly responsible for the persistence of fighting.