Cultures within culture: Unity and diversity of two generations of employees in state-owned enterprises

This study adopts integration and differentiation perspectives to examine why unity and diversity of organizational cultures emerged as a function of economic reform, and how subcultural differences were reflected in employees' perceptions of cultural practices. Data were gathered from in-depth interviews and a large-scale survey in two large, state-owned enterprises in north-east China. Results indicated that, although all employees were oriented towards a common set of cultural themes, the two generations of employees did not exemplify the themes in the same way. Specifically, unity was illustrated by employees' desire to maintain Harmony and to reduce Inequality. Diversity was revealed by first-generation employees' higher ratings on Loyalty, Security and even Bureaucracy. The findings are discussed in the light of traditional Chinese cultural values, political ideology and the social context. Implications are drawn for organizational cultural theory and research.

The independent effects of attention and lead stimulus properties on the acoustic blink reflex

The effects of attention to a lead stimulus and of its sensory properties on modulation of the acoustic blink reflex were investigated. Participants performed a reaction time task cued by an acoustic or a visual lead stimulus. In Experiment 1, half the participants were presented with sustained lead stimuli. For the remainder, the lead stimulus was discrete and consisted of two brief presentations that marked the onset and offset of a stimulus-free interval. In Experiment 2, sustained lead stimuli were presented at a low or high intensity. The attentional demands of the task enhanced blink latency and magnitude modulation during acoustic and visual lead stimuli, with blink modulation being largest at a late point during the lead stimulus. Independent of the attentional effects, blink latency and magnitude modulation were larger during sustained than during discrete acoustic lead stimuli, whereas there was no difference for visual lead stimuli. Increases in the intensity of the lead stimulus enhanced blink modulation regardless of lead stimulus modality. Attention to a lead stimulus and the properties of the lead stimulus appear to have independent effects on blink reflex modulation.

Attentional blink modulation in a reaction time task: performance feedback, warning stimulus modality, and task difficulty

The present research investigated the effect of performance feedback on the modulation of the acoustic startle reflex in a Go/NoGo reaction time task. Experiment 1 (n = 120) crossed warning stimulus modality (acoustic, visual, and tactile) with the provision of feedback in a between subject design. Provision of performance feedback increased the number of errors committed and reduced reaction time, but did not affect blink modulation significantly. Attentional blink latency and magnitude modulation was larger during acoustic than during visual and larger during visual than during tactile warning stimuli. In comparison to control blinks, latency shortening was significant in all modality conditions whereas magnitude facilitation was not significant during tactile warning stimuli. Experiment 2 (n = 80) employed visual warning stimuli only and crossed the provision of feedback with task difficulty. Feedback and difficulty affected accuracy and reaction time. Whereas blink latency shortening was not affected, blink magnitude modulation was smallest in the Easy/No Feedback and the Difficult/Feedback conditions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Attentional blink modulation during sustained and after discrete lead stimuli presented in three sensory modalities

Previous studies found larger attentional modulation of acoustic blinks during task-relevant than during task-irrelevant acoustic or visual, but not tactile, lead stimuli. Moreover, blink modulation was larger overall during acoustic lead stimuli. The present experiment investigated whether these results reflect modality specificity of attentional blink modulation or effects of continuous stimulation. Participants performed a discrimination and counting task with acoustic, visual, or tactile lead stimuli. Stimuli were presented Sustained or consisted of two short discrete stimuli. The sustained condition replicated previous results. In the discrete condition, blinks were larger during task-relevant than during task-irrelevant stimuli in all groups regardless of lead stimulus modality. Thus, previous results that seemed consistent with modality-specific accounts of attentional blink modulation reflect effects of continuous stimulus input.

The effects of unconditional stimulus valence and conditioning paradigm on verbal, skeleto-motor, and autonomic indices of human Pavlovian conditioning

The effects of unconditional stimulus (US) valence (aversive electro-tactile stimulus vs. nonaversive imperative stimulus of a RT task) and conditioning paradigm (delay vs. trace) on affective learning as indexed by verbal ratings of conditional stimulus (CS) pleasantness and blink startle modulation and on relational learning as indexed by electrodermal responses were investigated. Affective learning was not affected by the conditioning paradigm; however, electrodermal responses and blink latency shortening indicated delayed learning in the trace procedure. Changes in rated CS pleasantness were found with the aversive US, but not with the non-aversive US. Differential conditioning as indexed by electrodermal responses and startle modulation was found regardless of US valence. The finding of significant differential blink modulation and electrodermal responding in the absence of a change in rated CS pleasantness as a result of conditioning with a non-aversive US was replicated in a second experiment. These results seem to indicate that startle modulation during conditioning is mediated by the arousal level of the anticipated US, rather than by the valence of the CS. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.

Stem-completion priming for words studied in sentences: The context deletion effect under direct and indirect memory instructions

Two studies investigated the context deletion effect, the attenuation of priming in implicit memory tests of words when words have been studied in text rather than in isolation. In Experiment 1, stem completion for single words was primed to a greater extent by words studied alone than in sentence contexts, and a higher proportion of completions from studied words was produced under direct instructions (cued recall) than under indirect instructions (produce the first completion that comes to mind). The effect of a sentence context was eliminated when participants were instructed to attend to the target word during the imagery generation task used in the study phase. In Experiment 2, the effect of a sentence context at study was reduced when the target word was presented in distinctive format within the sentence, and the study task (grammatical judgment) was directed at a word other than the target. The results implicate conceptual and perceptual processes that distinguish a word from its context in priming in word stem completion.

Attending to the distractor and old/new discriminations in negative priming

When participants ignore an irrelevant distractor they typically show impaired responding to that item if it becomes the relevant stimulus on a subsequent trial. In Experiment 1 (N = 64), a masked white colour name was presented briefly before a Stroop display. Negative priming in colour naming occurred when the colour of the lettering for the Stroop stimulus matched the colour name displayed in the first display, consistent with the proposal of temporal discrimination theory that negative priming arises because a recurrence of an unattended stimulus cannot readily be classified as old or new. Experiment 2 (N = 32) replicated negative priming in the interleaved-word display where participants had to name the red word from a pair of red and green words. In Experiment 3 (N = 32) and Experiment 4 (N = 28) the participants were required to attend to but not respond to the words in the prime display and name one of two interleaved words in the probe display. Negative priming was observed in this arrangement, consistent with the episodic retrieval theory of negative priming. The temporal discrimination model may need to be extended to situations in which the attended stimuli have different responses attached to them.

A genetic two-factor model of the covariation among a subset of Multidimensional Aptitude Battery and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised subtests

The phenotypic and genetic factor structure of performance on five Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) subtests and one Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) subtest was explored in 390 adolescent twin pairs (184 monozygotic [MZ]; 206 dizygotic (DZ)). The temporal stability of these measures was derived from a subsample of 49 twin pairs, with test-retest correlations ranging from .67 to .85. A phenotypic factor model, in which performance and verbal factors were correlated, provided a good fit to the data. Genetic modeling was based on the phenotypic factor structure, but also took into account the additive genetic (A), common environmental (C), and unique environmental (E) parameters derived from a fully saturated ACE model. The best fitting model was characterized by a genetic correlated two-factor structure with specific effects, a general common environmental factor, and overlapping unique environmental effects. Results are compared to multivariate genetic models reported in children and adults, with the most notable difference being the growing importance of common genes influencing diverse abilities in adolescence. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What do students remember? Episodic memory and the development of schematization

Research examining changes in memory and memory awareness during learning suggests that early in the process, students primarily have representations that are episodic in nature and experience, 'remember' awareness during recall. However, as learning continues and schematization occurs, students' knowledge is more likely to be dominated by semantic memory representations and 'just know' awareness is experienced during recall. The greater the amount of remembering experienced early in learning, the more likely it is that the shift to knowing will occur in students. In this study, university students studied either material rich in distinctive features that may serve as cues to episodic memory, or material lacking in these features. Students' knowledge was tested after a 2-day and a 5-wk interval. In contrast to students who studied the material lacking distinctive features, students who studied the distinctively rich material showed a predominance of remember awareness on the first test, and on the follow-up test showed a predominance of know awareness and were able to recall more details of the learning material. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

The concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of a visuospatial working memory task

To determine whether the visuospatial n-back working memory task is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive processes believed to underlie intelligence, this study compared the reaction times and accuracy of perforniance of 70 participants, with performance on the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB). Testing was conducted over two sessions separated by 1 week. Participants completed the MAB during the second test session. Moderate testretest reliability for percentage accuracy scores was found across the four levels of the n-back task, whilst reaction times were highly reliable. Furthermore, participants' performance on the MAB was negatively correlated with accuracy of performance at the easier levels of the n-back task and positively correlated with accuracy of performance at the harder task levels. These findings confirm previous research examining the cognitive basis of intelligence, and suggest that intelligence is the product of faster speed of information processing, as well as superior working memory capacity. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of context in producing item interactions and false memories

Cued recall with an extralist cue poses a challenge for contemporary memory theory in that there is a need to explain how episodic and semantic information are combined. A parallel activation and intersection approach proposes one such means by assuming that an experimental cue will elicit its preexisting semantic network and a context cue will elicit a list memory. These 2 sources of information are then combined by focusing on information that is common to the 2 sources. Two key predictions of that approach are examined: (a) Combining semantic and episodic information can lead to item interactions and false memories, and (b) these effects are limited to memory tasks that involve an episodic context cue. Five experiments demonstrate such item interactions and false memories in cued recall but not in free association. Links are drawn between the use of context in this setting and in other settings.

Imaginary relish and exquisite torture: The elaborated intrusion theory of desire

The authors argue that human desire involves conscious cognition that has strong affective connotation and is potentially involved in the determination of appetitive behavior rather than being epiphenomenal to it. Intrusive thoughts about appetitive targets are triggered automatically by external or physiological cues and by cognitive associates. When intrusions elicit significant pleasure or relief, cognitive elaboration usually ensues. Elaboration competes with concurrent cognitive tasks through retrieval of target-related information and its retention in working memory. Sensory images are especially important products of intrusion and elaboration because they simulate the sensory and emotional qualities of target acquisition. Desire images are momentarily rewarding but amplify awareness of somatic and emotional deficits. Effects of desires on behavior are moderated by competing incentives, target availability, and skills. The theory provides a coherent account of existing data and suggests new directions for research and treatment.

Does the type of concurrent task affect preferred and cued gait in people with Parkinson's disease?

Difficulty performing more than one task at a time is common in people with Parkinson's disease, resulting in interference with one or both tasks. While studies have shown that greater interference in gait occurs with more complex concurrent tasks, the impact of the type of concurrent task is unclear in the Parkinson's population. Thus the first purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the concurrent task (calculation, language, or motor) on gait in people with Parkinson's disease. As visual cues are commonly used to aid stride regulation in people with Parkinson's disease, the second purpose of this study was to determine whether this method of increasing stride length was still effective if other tasks were performed simultaneously. Sixteen patients with Parkinson's disease and 16 gender- and age-matched controls performed six cognitive and motor concurrent tasks when seated, walking 10 m, and walking over visual cues. Stride length decreased in people with Parkinson's disease when performing the concurrent calculation and language tasks, but not with the motor task. The language task was more complex than the calculation task, thus the effect was not due to task complexity alone. Visual cues were effective in improving stride length whist maintaining velocity in people with Parkinson's disease, even when performed under dual task conditions. These findings highlight the importance of the task when assessing and retraining dual tasking during gait, and suggest that retraining dual tasking can occur whilst simultaneously using visual aids to regulate stride length.

The mismatch negativity (MMN) response to complex tones and spoken words in individuals with aphasia

Background: The mismatch negativity (MMN) is a fronto-centrally distributed event-related potential (ERP) that is elicited by any discriminable auditory change. It is an ideal neurophysiological tool for measuring the auditory processing skills of individuals with aphasia because it can be elicited even in the absence of attention. Previous MMN studies have shown that acoustic processing of tone or pitch deviance is relatively preserved in aphasia, whereas the basic acoustic processing of speech stimuli can be impaired (e.g., auditory discrimination). However, no MMN study has yet investigated the higher levels of auditory processing, such as language-specific phonological and/or lexical processing, in individuals with aphasia. Aims: The aim of the current study was to investigate the MMN response of normal and language-disordered subjects to tone stimuli and speech stimuli that incorporate the basic auditory processing (acoustic, acoustic-phonetic) levels of non-speech and speech sound processing, and also the language-specific phonological and lexical levels of spoken word processing. Furthermore, this study aimed to correlate the aphasic MMN data with language performance on a variety of tasks specifically targeted at the different levels of spoken word processing. Methods M Procedures: Six adults with aphasia (71.7 years +/- 3.0) and six healthy age-, gender-, and education-matched controls (72.2 years +/- 5.4) participated in the study. All subjects were right-handed and native speakers of English. Each subject was presented with complex harmonic tone stimuli, differing in pitch or duration, and consonant-vowel (CV) speech stimuli (non-word /de:/versus real world/deI/). The probability of the deviant for each tone or speech contrast was 10%. The subjects were also presented with the same stimuli in behavioural discrimination tasks, and were administered a language assessment battery to measure their auditory comprehension skills. Outcomes O Results: The aphasic subjects demonstrated attenuated MMN responses to complex tone duration deviance and to speech stimuli (words and non-words), and their responses to the frequency, duration, and real word deviant stimuli were found to strongly correlate with performance on the auditory comprehension section of the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB). Furthermore, deficits in attentional lexical decision skills demonstrated by the aphasic subjects correlated with a word-related enhancement demonstrated during the automatic MMN paradigm, providing evidence to support the word advantage effect, thought to reflect the activation of language-specific memory traces in the brain for words. Conclusions: These results indicate that the MMN may be used as a technique for investigating general and more specific auditory comprehension skills of individuals with aphasia, using speech and/or non-speech stimuli, independent of the individual's attention. The combined use of the objective MMN technique and current clinical language assessments may result in improved rehabilitative management of aphasic individuals.