Transfer of management training from alternative perspectives.

One hundred seven management training evaluations were meta-analyzed to compare effect sizes for the transfer of managerial training derived from different rating sources (self, superior, peer, and subordinate) and broken down by both study- and training-related variables. For studies as a whole, and interpersonal management skills training studies in particular, transfer effects based on trainees' self-ratings, and to a lesser extent ratings from their superiors, were largest and most varied across studies. In contrast, transfer effects based on peer ratings, and particularly subordinate ratings, were substantially smaller and more homogeneous. This pattern was consistent across different sources of studies, features of evaluation design, and within a subset of 14 studies that each included all 4 rating sources. Across most rating sources, transfer of training was greatest for studies conducted in nonmilitary settings, when raters were likely to have known whether the manager being rated had attended training, when criteria were targeted to training content, when training content was derived from an analysis of tasks and skill requirements, and when training included opportunities for practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Genevan and Cattell-Horn conceptions of intelligence compared: Early implementation of numerical solution aids.

Highlights the similarities and differences of the Genevan and Cattell-Horn theories of intelligence and reports an investigation of the relation of operative level and set of performance on tasks indexing children's knowledge of correspondence relations. 105 children (aged 4 yrs to 7 yrs 11 mo) completed counting, instructional set, conservation of number, and static numerical comparison tasks. Findings indicate that performance on quantitative comparision task reflecting Ss' understanding of correspondence relations was highly related to operative level and that Ss' capacity to implement solution aids in making quantitative comparison was moderated by their level of operative development. While findings lend support to the Genevan theory, this theory tends to neglect issues pertaining to localized functioning such as the question of relative efficacy of rival solution approaches. In contrast, the Cattell-Horn theory emphasizes that well-learned knowledge-producing skills constitute potential solution aids and that children differ in what solution aids they learn to implement. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of age and schooling on the acquisition of elementary quantitative skills.

The influence of school- and age-related variables was examined separately on 2 tasks involving elementary quantitative skills: conservation of number and mental addition. Performance on these tasks was compared by using a cutoff design with 3 groups of kindergarten and Grade 1 children who differed in age but not amount of schooling (grade), in schooling but not age, or in both age and schooling. The effects of age and schooling were distinct. On conservation of number, performance improved as a function of age but not schooling. On mental arithmetic, accuracy improved with schooling rather than age but children's use of various solution procedures (e.g., retrieval, counting) was not influenced by schooling. Thus, in the domain of elementary mathematical skills, the influence of schooling can be very specific, and age-related variables other than schooling play an important role in the development of elementary mathematical skills. Results illustrate the utility of the cutoff design for investigating instructional and developmental influences on cognitive development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drug use, agency, and communality: Causes and consequences among adults.

Certain causes and consequences of drug use may be unique to young adults and might involve gender-role expectations that women are most directed toward communality issues, whereas men are concerned with agentic tasks. Failure in these gender-specific tasks would lead to an increase in future drug use and earlier drug use would hinder the development of these skills for men and women. Data were obtained in 1984 and 1988 from 391 women and 156 men in their early to mid 20s as part of a 12-yr longitudinal study of adolescent development and drug use. Analyses were conducted with structural equation models incorporating repeatedly measured constructs of polydrug use, communality, and agency. Results generally supported these expectations when both specific and general effects were considered. In addition, women's drug use also interfered with their agentic goals and men's drug use damaged their communal relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive talk training in an adult with traumatic brain injury

Social skills often create a barrier to placement in less restrictive environments for persons with TBI. This case study illustrated the use of a positive talk program in the treatment of a person with long-standing social skill deficits. Occupational therapy intervention with speech-language consultation began with an evaluation of the cognitive barriers that influenced the client's social behavior. Work with the client's concrete concept formation, decreased memory, and poor generalization skills led to the development of the positive talk training program described. Through an understanding of the underlying cognitive deficits that influenced the client's behavior, the clinical team was able to develop an individual treatment plan. The intervention resulted in modification of behavior that would have required placing the client in a restricted environment. In the final analysis, the client's social skills improved to a level where he could be discharged to a less restrictive environment.     

Counting on working memory when learning to count and to add: A preschool study.

In this study, the author aimed at measuring how much limited working memory capacity constrains early numerical development before any formal mathematics instruction. To that end, 4- and 5-year-old children were tested for their memory skills in the phonological loop (PL), visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSSP), and central executive (CE); they also completed a series of tasks tapping their addition and counting skills. A general vocabulary test was given to examine the difference between the children’s numerical and general vocabulary. The results indicated that measures of the PL and the CE, but not those of the VSSP, were correlated with children’s performance in counting, addition and general vocabulary. However, the predictive power of the CE capacity was significantly stronger than that of the PL capacity. Poor CE capacity should thus be taken into consideration when identifying children at risk of experiencing learning disabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of children's understanding of basic-subordinate inclusion relations.

Four studies focused on developmental differences in the representation of basic-subordinate inclusion relations. Tests of comprehension and production of category names, induction, and responses to direct questions pertaining to inclusion revealed a marked developmental gap between the production of subordinate category names and complete understanding of basic-subordinate inclusion relations. However, even 3-year-olds showed rudimentary knowledge of the asymmetry of inclusion. Discrepancies between children's performance on categorization tasks involving familiar and unfamiliar subordinate categories suggest that understanding of the logical nature of inclusion relations is constructed through the integration of categorical knowledge from familiar domains. Interactions among the knowledge base, pragmatic sensitivity, and information processing efficiency in the development of inclusion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in counting.

Five experiments investigated the effects of articulatory suppression and unattended speech on performance in simple counting tasks. Results were consistent in showing substantial disruption of counting performance by concurrent articulatory suppression. However, when response errors occurred, they tended to be numerically close to the correct figure, suggesting that performance was not totally disrupted by suppression. A small effect of unattended speech on counting was obtained when the unattended speech was phonologically similar to numbers used in counting. A larger effect on counting was observed when the unattended speech consisted of random number sequences; however, this effect was much less than that found with suppression. These results are tentatively interpreted in terms of two separate components of the counting task: subvocalization of a running total and priming of the most recently accessed numbers in an input register or long-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Limitations on preschool children's knowledge about counting: Using counting to compare two sets.

Possible limitations on preschool children's understanding of counting were examined by asking twenty 3-year-olds and twenty 4-year-olds to judge the appropriateness of counting carried out by a puppet. The puppet was asked to count either to find out how many objects were present altogether or to find out whether every object in one subset could have a corresponding object from the other subset. Within each counting task, half of the time the puppet counted all of the objects together and half of the time it counted the two subsets separately. Children at both ages showed some differentiation between the two counting tasks and performed at an above-chance level on the how-many task but not on the compare-sets task. The most common individual response pattern among the 3-year-olds was to judge both kinds of counts to be appropriate on both tasks, whereas the most common individual response pattern among the 4-year-olds was to judge counting of all the objects together to be appropriate and counting of the two subsets separately to be inappropriate on both tasks. The fact that children managed to differentiate appropriately between the two counting tasks despite using these basically undifferentiated strategies suggests that correct judgment processes coexisted with their predominant strategies and competed with them to determine performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis of bile acid 24-acyl glucuronides

The role of a surgeon is a complex one. A variety of skills and abilities in a different array of performance tasks is required before he can be competent in his job. As such, there is no simple rule of thumb that can be used to assess a surgeon's performance. As performance assessment and appraisal become increasingly important both for manpower decisions and personal development, it is important that we recognise the different roles a surgeon plays. Only then are we able to subdivide a surgeon's job demands into small manageable portions for analysis. This paper examines the multi-faceted aspects of a surgeon's job, and how each facet should be individually assessed and appraised.     

Children's numerical estimation: Flexibility in the use of counting.

Tested the hypothesis that increased skill and strategy use in counting would be associated with greater accuracy in estimation. 61 children in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 3 played a game of "darts" on a microcomputer in which they had to estimate the ordinal position of a point along a vertical line segment on which only the endpoints were numerically labeled. Each S was presented with 21 trials, representing all possible target positions along the line segment. Ss were asked to report how they made their estimates and also were given an inventory of forward- and backward-counting skills. Results show developmental differences in accuracy of estimation, fluency in counting, and sophistication of self-reported strategy use. Third graders were very accurate at estimating targets at both ends of the line segment and also relatively accurate at middle-range targets, whereas younger Ss were accurate only within the small range of target positions. It appears that the older Ss' flexibility in adjusting the direction and starting point of their counting sequences provided them an advantage in estimating ordinal number. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between children's counting skills and mathematical understanding. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental Dynamics of Math Performance From Preschool to Grade 2.

This study investigated the developmental dynamics of mathematical performance during children's transition from preschool to Grade 2 and the cognitive antecedents of this development. 194 Finnish children were examined 6 times according to their math performance, twice during each year across a 3-year period. Cognitive antecedents, that is, counting ability, visual attention, metacognitive knowledge, and listening comprehension, were tested at the first measurement point. The results indicated that math performance showed high stability and increasing variance over time. Moreover, the growth of math competence was faster among those who entered preschool with an already high level of mathematical skills. The initial level of math performance, as well as its growth, was best predicted by counting ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of group and individual differences in emerging fraction skills.

Results from a 2-year longitudinal study of 181 children from 4th through 5th grade are reported. Levels of growth in children's computation, word problem, and estimation skills by means of common fractions were predicted by working memory, attentive classroom behavior, conceptual knowledge about fractions, and simple arithmetic fluency. Comparisons of 55 participants identified as having mathematical difficulties to those without mathematical difficulties revealed that group differences in emerging fraction skills were consistently mediated by attentive classroom behavior and conceptual knowledge about fractions. Neither working memory nor arithmetic fluency mediated group differences in growth in fraction skills. It was also found that the development of basic fraction skills and conceptual knowledge are bidirectional in that conceptual knowledge exerted strong influences on all 3 types of basic fraction skills, and basic fraction skills exerted a more modest influence on subsequent conceptual knowledge. Results are discussed with reference to how the identification of potentially malleable student characteristics that contribute to the difficulties that some students have with fractions informs interventions. Also, results will contribute to a future theoretical account concerning how domain-general and domain-specific factors influence the development of basic fraction skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological working memory in very young children.

This study was designed to establish whether phonological working memory skills could be assessed in children below 4 yrs of age. A group of 2- and 3-yr-old children were tested on 3 phonological memory measures (digit span, nonword repetition, and word repetition) and were also given tasks that tapped other cognitive skills. Scores on the 3 phonological memory tasks were closely related. In addition, repetition performance was linked with both vocabulary knowledge and articulation rate. Results indicate that phonological memory skills can be reliably assessed in very young children by using conventional serial span and repetition procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the whats and hows of retrieval in the acquisition of a simple skill.

Two general views on the role of memory in cognitive skills—an instance-based theory and an associative perspective—were compared with respect to their general assumptions about the information involved and the processes that operate on that information. Characteristics of memory information were examined in terms of predictions for transfer to various stimulus forms as a function of 2 types of learning conditions. Characteristics of memory processes were examined using a set of general process models. Results of 4 experiments indicate that (a) neither theoretical perspective was capable of accounting for all the observed transfer effects, indicating needed refinements to informational assumptions, and that (b) 1 class of process assumptions was consistently supported, whereas other classes were consistently contradicted, indicating a general set of process characteristics that can be used in further model development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fostering a Culture Shift: Assessment of Competence in the Education and Careers of Professional Psychologists.

What is professional competence and how should it be assessed? Professionalism in psychology requires the habitual and judicious use of knowledge and skills as well as ongoing assessment. The authors synthesize discussions of the Assessment of Competence Workgroup that met during the Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology. The workgroup discussed how to establish a culture of competence and elaborated principles and considerations necessary for the development of methods to assess competence. Principles identified include maintaining a developmental perspective, practicing multicultural sensitivity, and conducting formative and summative, career-long assessment. Recommendations are offered that support a "culture shift" from the current levels of competence assessment to an embracing of continual assessment of professional knowledge and skills over the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of interpersonal orientation and the sex-type of the task on choosing to work alone or in groups.

The preferences of men and women for working alone or with others were examined. 150 undergraduates were presented with masculine and feminine tasks and were offered the choice of working alone or with others on the tasks. A cognitive model predicted that the congruence between gender and the sex-type of the task would affect expectancies of success, which, in turn would affect choice. From an individual difference perspective, it was predicted that interpersonal orientation would affect choice. The cognitive perspective model was supported, whereas interpersonal orientation had little effect on choice. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for task perceptions and gender differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)