Motivated information processing, social tuning, and group creativity.

The extent to which groups are creative has wide implications for their overall performance, including the quality of their problem solutions, judgments, and decisions. To further understanding of group creativity, we integrate the motivated information processing in groups model (De Dreu, Nijstad, & Van Knippenberg, 2008) with work on epistemic social tuning (Lunn, Sinclair, Whitchurch, & Glenn, 2007). Three propositions were advanced: (a) Groups produce more ideas when members have high rather than low epistemic motivation, especially when members also have a prosocial rather than pro-self motivation; (b) these ideas are more original, appropriate, or feasible when a group norm favors originality, appropriateness, or feasibility; and (c) originality is valued more in individualistic cultures (e.g., the Netherlands), whereas appropriateness is valued more in collectivist cultures (e.g., Korea). Four studies involving 3-person groups generating ideas supported these propositions: Epistemic motivation (mild vs. intense time pressure; presence vs. absence of process accountability) stimulated production and originality, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present and participants were Dutch or originality norms were experimentally primed. When appropriateness norms were primed or participants were Korean, epistemic motivation stimulated production and appropriateness, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present. We discuss implications for research on group processes and for work on culture and creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work–family conflict in work groups: Social information processing, support, and demographic dissimilarity.

We used social information processing theory to examine the effect of work–family conflict (WFC) at the work group level on individuals’ experience of WFC. Consistent with hypotheses, results suggest that WFC at the work group level influences individual WFC over and above the shared work environment and job demands. It was also observed that work group support and demographic dissimilarity moderate this relationship. Moderator analyses suggest that work group social support buffers WFC for individuals but is also associated with a stronger effect of work group WFC on individuals’ WFC. Moreover, the work group effect on individuals’ WFC was shown to be stronger for individuals who were demographically dissimilar to the work group in terms of sex and number of dependents. The interpretations and implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social information processing mediates the intergenerational transmission of aggressiveness in romantic relationships.

This study explored the K. A. Dodge (1986) model of social information processing as a mediator of the association between interparental relationship conflict and subsequent offspring romantic relationship conflict in young adulthood. The authors tested 4 social information processing stages (encoding, hostile attributions, generation of aggressive responses, and positive evaluation of aggressive responses) in separate models to explore their independent effects as potential mediators. There was no evidence of mediation for encoding and attributions. However, there was evidence of significant mediation for both the response generation and response evaluation stages of the model. Results suggest that the ability of offspring to generate varied social responses and effectively evaluate the potential outcome of their responses at least partially mediates the intergenerational transmission of relationship conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naive causal understanding of valenced behaviors and its implications for social information processing.

People bring to bear on their understanding of others' behaviors naive theories of the causes of valenced behaviors. Generally, positive behaviors are understood to be caused by social demands, whereas negative behaviors are understood to be caused by people's dispositions. Various research findings are reviewed in support of the idea that people possess such naive theories. The analysis is extended to establish how these sense-making tendencies affect the manner in which people approach and process information about others. A second set of studies is reviewed in support of these implications for person perception. Comparisons to other models of social inference are considered, implications of the framework are examined, and the framework is situated within a general model of the attribution process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contraints on information processing under alcohol in the context of response execution and response suppression.

This study tested the degree that alcohol restricts information processing on tasks requiring response execution and response suppression. A dual task required 12 participants to respond to 2 task stimuli (Tasks 1 and 2) presented in close succession. The task was performed before and after receiving 3 alcohol doses (placebo, 0.45 g/kg, and 0.65 g/kg) administered on separate days in a counterbalanced order. Alcohol increased task interference, as evidenced by increased time to respond to Task 2. Impairment was comparable regardless of whether Task 1 required a response to be executed or suppressed. The evidence supports a resource limitation account that argues that alcohol reduces capacity to process information required for execution and suppression of responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family-of-origin maltreatment, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, social information processing deficits, and relationship abuse perpetration.

In this study, the authors examined the interrelations among family-of-origin maltreatment variables, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, social information processing deficits, and male-to-female psychological and physical intimate relationship abuse perpetration in adulthood among a community sample of 164 men and their partners. In bivariate analyses, higher family-of-origin childhood parental rejection was associated with the perpetration of psychological and physical abuse in adulthood, and childhood exposure to interparental violence was also associated with adult psychological abuse perpetration. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that when childhood variables and other study variables were considered together, only childhood parental rejection was associated with the abuse perpetration outcomes, and these effects were indirect through PTSD symptoms and social information processing deficits. Results indicate a need for further investigation into the mechanisms accounting for the impact of early maltreatment on the development of abusive intimate relationship behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrepancies between explicit and implicit self-concepts: Consequences for information processing.

Individuals with discrepancies among their explicit beliefs often engage in greater elaboration of discrepancy-related information in a presumed attempt to reduce the discrepancy. The authors predicted that individuals with discrepancies between explicit and implicit self-conceptions might similarly be motivated to engage in processing of discrepancy-related information, even though they might not be aware of the discrepancy. Four studies were conducted in which various self-dimensions were assessed with explicit and implicit measures. Across several different self-dimensions (e.g., need to evaluate, self-esteem), the authors found that as the discrepancy between the explicit and implicit measure increased (regardless of direction), people engaged in more thinking about information framed as related to the self-dimension on which the discrepancy existed. This research suggests that individuals might be motivated to examine relevant information as a strategy to minimize the implicit doubt that accompanies an inconsistency between explicit and implicit self-conceptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social information processing and cardiac predictors of adolescent antisocial behavior.

The relations among social information processing (SIP), cardiac activity, and antisocial behavior were investigated in adolescents over a 3-year period (from ages 16 to 18) in a community sample of 585 (48% female, 17% African American) participants. Antisocial behavior was assessed in all 3 years. Cardiac and SIP measures were collected between the first and second behavioral assessments. Cardiac measures assessed resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate reactivity (HRR) as participants imagined themselves being victimized in hypothetical provocation situations portrayed via video vignettes. The findings were moderated by gender and supported a multiprocess model in which antisocial behavior is a function of trait-like low RHR (for male individuals only) and deviant SIP. In addition, deviant SIP mediated the effects of elevated HRR reactivity and elevated RHR on antisocial behavior (for male and female participants). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social choice conceived as a level of aspiration.

Hypotheses concerning antecedents of interpersonal choice were derived, by analogy, from theories of achievement motivation and level of aspiration. Results of a laboratory experiment on 6-person groups of male high school seniors confirmed hypotheses that (a) more competent persons are perceived by S to be less available to him as task partners, and (b) the person S prefers as a partner is more competent than the person he chooses. 2 sets of motive types of choosers (need for achievement versus fear of failure, and need for affiliation versus fear of rejection), each set conceived as an approach-avoidance dimension, were significantly related to competence of preferred partners. Only the 1st set of motive types was significantly related to competence of chosen partners. The relationships were linear, contrary to prediction. Need for affiliation, originally conceived as an approach motive, was interpreted as an approach-avoidance conflict. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time course of perceptual choice: The leaky, competing accumulator model.

The time course of perceptual choice is discussed in a model of gradual, leaky, stochastic, and competitive information accumulation in nonlinear decision units. Special cases of the model match a classical diffusion process, but leakage and competition work together to address several challenges to existing diffusion, random walk, and accumulator models. The model accounts for data from choice tasks using both time-controlled (e.g., response signal) and standard reaction time paradigms and its adequacy compares favorably with other approaches. A new paradigm that controls the time of arrival of information supporting different choice alternatives provides further support. The model captures choice behavior regardless of the number of alternatives, accounting for the log-linear relation between reaction time and number of alternatives (Hick's law) and explains a complex pattern of visual and contextual priming in visual word identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neural correlates of individual differences in strategic retrieval processing.

Processes engaged when information is encoded into memory are an important determinant of whether that information will be recovered subsequently. Also influential, however, are processes engaged at the time of retrieval, and these were investigated here by using event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure a specific class of retrieval operations. These operations were revealed by contrasts between ERPs elicited by new (unstudied) test items in distinct tasks, the assumption being that these contrasts index operations that are engaged in service of retrieval and that vary according to the demands of different retrieval tasks. Specific functional accounts of this class of retrieval processing operations assume that they influence the accuracy of memory judgments, and this experiment was designed to test for the first time whether this is in fact the case. Toward this end, participants completed 2 retrieval tasks while ERPs were acquired, and the extent to which processes were engaged differentially across tasks in service of retrieval was operationalized as the magnitude of the differences between the new-item ERPs that were elicited. This measure correlated positively with response accuracy on the tasks, which provides strong evidence that this class of retrieval processing operations benefits the accuracy of memory judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's social information processing: Family antecedents and behavioral correlates.

Little research has examined whether social information processing (SIP) measures from early childhood predict externalizing problems beyond the shared association with familial risk markers. In the present study, family antecedents and first-grade externalizing behaviors were studied in relation to preschool and 1st-grade SIP using data from the U.S. National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (N=1,364). A subgroup of low-risk children reported only benign attributions in preschool and had few externalizing problems in 1st grade according to both teacher and mother reports. After controlling for gender and cognitive functioning, the authors found that maternal education and authoritarian attitudes were key predictors of this "Pollyanna preschooler" status and of SIP in 1st grade. However, small effect sizes for SIP variables underscore the need for new approaches to measurement and for further research on moderators of the link between SIP and children's behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental set and creative thought in social conflict: Threat rigidity versus motivated focus.

According to the traditional threat-rigidity reasoning, people in social conflict will be less flexible, less creative, more narrow-minded, and more rigid in their thinking when they adopt a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set. The authors propose and test an alternative, motivated focus account that better fits existing evidence. The authors report experimental results inconsistent with a threat-rigidity account, but supporting the idea that people focus their cognitive resources on conflict-related material more when in a conflict rather than a cooperation mental set: Disputants with a conflict (cooperation) set have broader (smaller) and more (less) inclusive cognitive categories when the domain of thought is (un)related to conflict (Experiment 1a-1b). Furthermore, they generate more, and more original competition tactics (Experiments 2 - 4), especially when they have low rather than high need for cognitive closure. Implications for conflict theory, for motivated information processing, and creativity research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment and the processing of social information across the life span: Theory and evidence.

Researchers have used J. Bowlby's (1969/1982, 1973, 1980, 1988) attachment theory frequently as a basis for examining whether experiences in close personal relationships relate to the processing of social information across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We present an integrative life-span–encompassing theoretical model to explain the patterns of results that have emerged from these studies. The central proposition is that individuals who possess secure experience-based internal working models of attachment will process—in a relatively open manner—a broad range of positive and negative attachment-relevant social information. Moreover, secure individuals will draw on their positive attachment-related knowledge to process this information in a positively biased schematic way. In contrast, individuals who possess insecure internal working models of attachment will process attachment-relevant social information in one of two ways, depending on whether the information could cause the individual psychological pain. If processing the information is likely to lead to psychological pain, insecure individuals will defensively exclude this information from further processing. If, however, the information is unlikely to lead to psychological pain, then insecure individuals will process this information in a negatively biased schematic fashion that is congruent with their negative attachment-related experiences. In a comprehensive literature review, we describe studies that illustrate these patterns of attachment-related information processing from childhood to adulthood. This review focuses on studies that have examined specific components (e.g., attention and memory) and broader aspects (e.g., attributions) of social information processing. We also provide general conclusions and suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes: A meta-analysis of research findings.

A meta-analysis of 41 studies examined the effect of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes in a variety of settings with both child and adult samples. Results indicated that providing choice enhanced intrinsic motivation, effort, task performance, and perceived competence, among other outcomes. Moderator tests revealed the effect of choice on intrinsic motivation was stronger (a) for instructionally irrelevant choices compared to choices made between activities, versions of a task, rewards, and instructionally relevant options, (b) when 2 to 4 successive choices were given, (c) when rewards were not given after the choice manipulation, (d) when participants given choice were compared to the most controlling forms of control groups, (e) for children compared to adults, (f) for designs that yoked choice and control conditions compared to matched designs in which choice was reduced or designs in which nonyoked, nonmatched controls were used, and (g) when the experiment was conducted in a laboratory embedded in a natural setting. Implications for future research and applications to real-world settings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

You focus on the forest when you're in charge of the trees: Power priming and abstract information processing.

Elevated power increases the psychological distance one feels from others, and this distance, according to construal level theory (Y. Trope & N. Liberman, 2003), should lead to more abstract information processing. Thus, high power should be associated with more abstract thinking-focusing on primary aspects of stimuli and detecting patterns and structure to extract the gist, as well as categorizing stimuli at a higher level-relative to low power. In 6 experiments involving both conceptual and perceptual tasks, priming high power led to more abstract processing than did priming low power, even when this led to worse performance. Experiment 7 revealed that in line with past neuropsychological research on abstract thinking, priming high power also led to greater relative right-hemispheric activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation between exposure to violence and social information processing among incarcerated adolescents.

Combining evidence from social learning theory with reports of the association between community violence exposure and aggressive behavior development, the authors examined the link between specific characteristics of violence exposure and social information-processing mechanisms (N. R. Crick & K. A. Dodge, 1994; K. A. Dodge, 1980, 1986) in a sample of highly aggressive, incarcerated adolescent boys (N?=?110). Results demonstrated that victimization by severe violence was significantly related to approval of aggression as a social response, problems with the interpretation of social cues, and maladaptive social goals. Witnessing severe violence, in contrast, was related to perceived positive outcomes for the use of aggression. These data suggest the importance of examining the severity and modality of exposure to community violence for understanding patterns of social–cognitive functioning among adolescents exposed to violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Control, motivation, affect, and strategic self-regulation in the college classroom: A multidimensional phenomenon.

This study of 397 undergraduate students examined relations between self-reported control, goal orientation, future time perspective, affect, and strategic self-regulation. Five patterns were found in three canonical dimensions. The high end of bipolar Dimension 1 linked high self-regulated strategy use and study effort to high self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and effort causal attribution; high mastery and performance approach and low work avoidance goal orientations; and positive affect. The low end of Dimension 1 linked low strategy use and effort to low self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and effort causal attribution; high work avoidance goal orientation; and low affect. The high end of bipolar Dimension 2 linked knowledge-building strategies, but not active self-regulation or study effort, to high self-efficacy, outcome expectancy for learning but not grades, and affect causal attribution; high mastery goal orientation; and positive affect. The low end of Dimension 2 linked surface learning, consisting of active self-regulation and study effort but not personal knowledge building, to high effort causal attribution but low self-efficacy and outcome expectancy. Unipolar Dimension 3 linked learned helplessness to high outcome expectancy and external causal attribution but low self-efficacy; high work avoidance goal orientation; and high negative affect and anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consequences of specific processing of emotional information: Impact of general versus specific autobiographical memory priming on emotion elicitation.

The relation between emotion intensity and the voluntary activation of personal memories was investigated in 2 experiments. Two hypotheses were compared: the specificity hypothesis, which states that emotion intensity is positively related to the specificity of personal memories, and the strategic inhibition hypothesis, which postulates that specifying past experiences requires the inhibition of emotion. Study 1 showed that priming a specific (vs. overgeneral) access mode to autobiographical memory results in less emotion during a subsequent mental imagery trial. Study 2 replicated Study 1 with a wider array of emotions and a different method of emotion induction (films). Overall, results support the strategic inhibition hypothesis. The notion of specificity is discussed as well as implications for cognitive theories of emotion and their clinical applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multidimensional latent-construct analysis of children's social information processing patterns: Correlations with aggressive behavior problems.

Social information processing (SIP) patterns were conceptualized in orthogonal domains of process and context and measured through responses to hypothetical vignettes in a stratified sample of 387 children (50% boys; 49% minority) from 4 geographical sites followed from kindergarten through 3rd grade. Multidimensional, latent-construct, confirmatory factor analyses supported the within-construct internal consistency, cross-construct discrimination, and multidimensionality of SIP patterns. Contrasts among nested structural equation models indicated that SIP constructs significantly predicted children's aggressive behavior problems as measured by later teacher reports. The findings support the multidimensional construct validity of children's social cognitive patterns and the relevance of SIP patterns in children's aggressive behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)