Flexible Work Arrangements Availability and their Relationship with Work‐to‐Family Conflict,Job Satisfaction,and Turnover Intentions: A Comparison of Three Country Clusters

The present study explored the availability of flexible work arrangements (FWA) and their relationship with manager outcomes of job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and work‐to‐family conflict (WFC) across country clusters. We used individualism and collectivism to explain differences in FWA availability across Latin American, Anglo, and Asian clusters. Managers from the Anglo cluster were more likely to report working in organisations that offer FWA compared to managers from other clusters. For Anglo managers, flextime was the only FWA that had significant favorable relationships with the outcome variables. For Latin Americans, part‐time work negatively related with turnover intentions and strain‐based WFC. For Asians, flextime was unrelated to time‐based WFC, and telecommuting was positively associated with strain‐based WFC. The clusters did not moderate the compressed work week and outcome relationships. Implications for practitioners adopting FWA practices across cultures are discussed.     

Generating complex three-dimensional stimuli (Greebles) for haptic expertise training

An apparatus is described that accurately measures response times and video records hand movements during haptic object recognition using complex three-dimensional (3-D) forms. The apparatus was used for training participants to become expert at perceptual judgments of 3-D objects (Greebles) using only their sense of touch. Inspiration came from previous visual experiments, and therefore training and testing protocols that were similar to the earlier visual procedures were used. Two sets of Greebles were created. One set (clay Greebles) was hand crafted from clay, and the other (plastic Greebles) was machine created using rapid prototyping technology. Differences between these object creation techniques and their impact on perceptual expertise training are discussed. The full set of these stimuli may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Concept-based behavioral planning and the lateral prefrontal cortex

Many lines of evidence implicate the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in the executive control of behavior. In early studies, neuronal activity in this area was thought to retain information about forthcoming movements for a short period until they were executed. However, later studies have stressed its role in the cognitive aspects of behavioral planning, such as behavioral significance, behavioral rules and behavioral goals. The consequence of the intended action (i.e. a change in the state of the target object), rather than the intended movement, is primarily represented in the LPFC during planning. Recent studies show that the LPFC is involved in more abstract aspects of conceptual processes, such as in representing categories of multiple actions at the stage of behavioral planning.     

Pragmatic Competency and Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: A Comparative Assessment with Normal Controls

Unlike such cognitive impairments as autism and schizophrenia, the speech pattern in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has largely remained underrepresented. We examined the pragmatic competence of OCD-affected individuals under two variant modes: pragmatic recognition and pragmatic production. In the recognition phase, the informants completed a discourse completion test around two speech acts of request and apology (20 high power distance situations). The production phase was carried out through an interview during which the informants’ communication behaviors were rated on the basis of the Orion’s pragmatic language skills checklist (OPLS) subscales. No significant difference was observed between the normal and OCD groups in terms of pragmatic recognition. Moreover, considering the OPLS subscales, although the normal controls significantly outperformed in non-verbal communication and expressive skills, the overall pragmatic production ability of the two groups was statistically alike. The results are discussed in relation to the two competing disorders of autism and social anxiety.     

Internet use and loneliness in older adults.

Use of the Internet by seniors as a communication technology may lead to changes in older adult social relationships. This study used an online questionnaire to survey 222 Australians over 55 years of age on Internet use. Respondents primarily used the Internet for communication, seeking information, and commercial purposes. The results showed negative correlations between loneliness and well-being. Multiple regression analyses revealed that greater use of the Internet as a communication tool was associated with a lower level of social loneliness. In contrast, greater use of the Internet to find new people was associated with a higher level of emotional loneliness.     

Fundamental Values of the Healthcare and Medical Education System: Evolution of the Iranian-Religious Progress Model

Journal of Religion and Health - Iranian culture and religious teachings lead to a unique value-laden model in health and medical education systems. This research aimed to determine these...     

Response-specific sources of dual-task interference in human pre-motor cortex

It is difficult to perform two tasks at the same time. Such performance limitations are exemplified by the psychological refractory period (PRP): when participants make distinct motor responses to two stimuli presented in rapid succession, the response to the second stimulus is increasingly slowed as the time interval between the two stimuli is decreased. This impairment is thought to reflect a central limitation in selecting the appropriate response to each stimulus, but not in perceptually encoding the stimuli. In the present study, it was sought to determine which brain regions are specifically involved in response selection under dual-task conditions by contrasting fMRI brain activity measured from a response selection manipulation that increased dual-task costs, with brain activity measured from an equally demanding manipulation that affected perceptual visibility. While a number of parieto-frontal areas involved in response selection were activated by both dual-task manipulations, the dorsal pre-motor cortex, and to a lesser extent the inferior frontal cortex, were specifically engaged by the response selection manipulation. These results suggest that the pre-motor cortex is an important neural locus of response selection limitation under dual-task situations.     

Psycho-Linguistic Model of Reading Strategies Awareness in EFL Contexts

With the advent of learner-centered approaches to language learning and life skills education paradigm in psychology, language classrooms are conceived a fitting educational setting for life skills intervention. This study investigated reading strategies awareness, as a legacy of humanistic psychology and learner-centered movement, of language learners in relation to autonomy, problem solving ability, and reading comprehension achievement. Learning Autonomy Questionnaire, Problem Solving Inventory, Survey of Reading Strategies, and a Reading Comprehension Test Battery were used. Multivariate regression and follow-up SEM analyses showed no significant relationship between SA and autonomy but substantiated its predictive power for problem solving and reading comprehension.     

Internally driven strategy change

The behavioural analysis of normal adults solving a combinatorial game—the subtraction game—that was previously studied by Gneezy, Rustichini, and Vostroknutov (2010 Gneezy, U., Rustichini, A. and Vostroknutov, A. 2010. Experience and insight in the race game. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 75: 144–155.  [Google Scholar]) allows one to identify the transition from one strategy to a novel strategy. Based on protocol analysis and debriefing, two different strategies used by participants in this task are identified and compared with behavioural measurements (reaction times, accuracy, and mouse movements). One is a (forward) exploration strategy and the other is a more complex but efficient backward induction procedure. The clear determination of the transition from the standard forward exploration strategy to a novel internally generated strategy is established by both protocol reports and behavioural measurements. It allows for the potential investigation of the underlying transition to be carried out by cognitive neuroscience methods. A set of characteristics of such transitions to internally generated novel strategies are discussed.     

Adolescents' secure-base behavior from the perspective of information processing

Secure-base behavior in adolescents was examined from the perspective of information processing. The secure-base behavior was operationally defined as accessibility to attachment-related information and assessed by reaction time to target stimuli. Study 1 was conducted on 37 undergraduates (10 classes as Secure, 12 men, M age = 19.3 yr.) to investigate whether differences in attachment styles would show different forms of information processing. There was a difference in reaction time to negative targets between Secure and Insecure participants. Study 2 was conducted on 45 undergraduates (8 classed as Secure, 22 men, M age = 19.4 yr.) to investigate whether activation of the internal working models would show different forms of information processing. There was a difference between Secure and Insecure participants in patterns of reaction time to stimuli for positive and negative relationships. Results were discussed on the basis of secure-base behavior.