The effects of Chinese painting appreciation education on the artistic achievement of junior high school students in Taiwan

For the Chinese, fine art is one of the most important items in human life. The goals of fine arts education enhance the student so that s/he can make reasonable judgments about work, gain knowledge of color and understand the process of designing environmental layouts. Related technique and creativity training are offered students in accordance with individual differences and social expectations.^ Traditionally, Taiwan's junior high school fine art program teaches mainly painting technique. The Ministry of Education in Taiwan determines the curriculum of junior high school fine art education. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of teaching Chinese painting appreciation on the artistic achievements of junior high school students in Taiwan. The subjects were seventh grade students who had never learned Chinese painting before. Two classes were randomly chosen from each target school and were designated as the experimental or control group. Instruction in all groups was delivered by the researcher himself. At the end of the study, data about subjects' related knowledge, creative technique, and feeling toward Chinese painting were systematically collected and analyzed.^ The result of the study was that students in the experimental group were more motivated to learn Chinese painting than were the students in the control group. Students in the experimental group made better progress in the development of creative skill, had better critical ability, and demonstrated better performance in Chinese painting form, set up, stroke and color of related knowledge than did students in the control group. It was therefore concluded that Chinese painting appreciation education can promote better artistic achievement and that this approach should be used in other areas of art education. ^

The acculturation of middle income Hispanic households

Research on the consumer behavior of the Hispanic population has recently attracted the attention of marketing practitioners as well as researchers. This study's purpose was to develop a model and scales to examine the acculturation process of Hispanic consumers with income levels of $35,000 and above, and its effects on their consumer behavior. The proposed model defined acculturation as a bilinear and multidimensional change process, measuring consumers' selective change process in four dimensions: language preference, Hispanic identification, American identification, and familism. A national sample of 653 consumers was analyzed. The scales developed for testing the model showed good to high internal consistency and adequate concurrent validity. According to the results, consumers' contact with Hispanic and Anglo acculturation agents generates change or reinforces consumers' language preferences. Language preference fully mediates the effects of the agents on consumers' American identification and familism; however, the effects of the acculturation agents on Hispanic identification are only partially mediated by individuals' language preference change. It was proposed that the acculturation process would have an effect on consumers' brand loyalty, attitudes towards high quality and prestigious brands, purchase frequency, and savings allocation for their children. Given the lack of significant differences between Hispanic and Anglo consumers and among Hispanic generations, only savings allocation for children's future was studied intensively. According to these results, Hispanic consumers' savings for their children is affected by consumers' language preference through their ethnic identification and familism. No moderating effects were found for consumers' gender, age, and country of origin, suggesting that individual differences do not affect consumers' acculturation process. Additionally, the effects of familism were tested among ethnic groups. The results suggest not only that familism discriminates among Hispanic and Anglo consumers, but also is a significant predictor of consumers' brand loyalty, brand quality attitudes, and savings allocation. Three acculturation segments were obtained through cluster analysis: bicultural, high acculturation, and low acculturation groups, supporting the biculturalism proposition. ^

Relative importance of false positives in the selection process

This study investigated the role of contextual factors in personnel selection. Specifically, I explored if specific job factors such as the wage, training, available applicant pool and security concerns around a job, influenced personnel decisions. Additionally, I explored if the individual differences of decision makers played a role in how the previously mentioned job factors affected their decisions. A policy-capturing methodology was employed to determine the weight participants place on the job factors when selecting candidates for different jobs. Regression and correlational analyses were computed with the beta weights obtained from individual regression analyses. The results obtained from the two samples (student and general population) revealed that specific job characteristics did indeed influence personnel decisions. Participants were more concerned with making mistakes and thus less likely to accept candidates when selecting candidates for jobs having high salary and/or high training requirements.

Students of Haitian Descent in American Schools: Challenges and Issues

This paper examines the ways the reception of students of Haitian descent in this country has shaped their educational careers. Additionally, this paper explores the racial, cultural, and individual differences that need to be understood in order to help educators, parents, and students make their schooling a positive experience.

Attachment Theory Shaping Adult Development: Impact on Mentoring Experiences

Mentoring is increasingly used for career and psychosocial development. Very few studies that have investigated the role of individual differences in mentoring relationships have addressed the attachment styles of mentors and protégés. The purpose of this study is to find the connections between attachment styles, adult development, and mentoring experiences.

Time orientation in organizations: Polychronicity and multitasking

This dissertation consists of four studies examining two constructs related to time orientation in organizations: polychronicity and multitasking. The first study investigates the internal structure of polychronicity and its external correlates in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 732). Results converge to support a one-factor model and finds measures of polychronicity to be significantly related to extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience. The second study quantitatively reviews the existing research examining the relationship between polychronicity and the Big Five factors of personality. Results reveal a significant relationship between extraversion and openness to experience across studies. Studies three and four examine the usefulness of multitasking ability in the prediction of work related criteria using two organizational samples (N = 175 and 119, respectively). Multitasking ability demonstrated predictive validity, however the incremental validity over that of traditional predictors (i.e., cognitive ability and the Big Five factors of personality) was minimal. The relationships between multitasking ability, polychronicity, and other individual differences were also investigated. Polychronicity and multitasking ability proved to be distinct constructs demonstrating differential relationships with cognitive ability, personality, and performance. Results provided support for multitasking performance as a mediator in the relationship between multitasking ability and overall job performance. Additionally, polychronicity moderated the relationship between multitasking ability and both ratings of multitasking performance and overall job performance in Study four. Clarification of the factor structure of polychronicity and its correlates will facilitate future research in the time orientation literature. Results from two organizational samples point to work related measures of multitasking ability as a worthwhile tool for predicting the performance of job applicants.

The relationship between job structure, burnout, and coping methods among public school county bus drivers, bus aides, mechanics, and clerical workers

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the structure of jobs and burnout, and to assess to what extent, if any this relationship was moderated by individual coping methods. This study was supported by the Karasek's (1998) Job Demand-Control-Support theory of work stress as well as Maslach and Leiter's (1993) theory of burnout. Coping was examined as a moderator based on the conceptualization of Lazarus and Folkman (1984). ^ Two overall overarching questions framed this study: (a) what is the relationship between job structure, as operationalized by job title, and burnout across different occupations in support services in a large municipal school district? and (b) To what extent do individual differences in coping methods moderate this relationship? ^ This study was a cross-sectional study of county public school bus drivers, bus aides, mechanics, and clerical workers (N = 253) at three bus depot locations within the same district using validated survey instruments for data collection. Hypotheses were tested using simultaneous regression analyses. ^ Findings indicated that there were statistically significant and relevant relationships among the variables of interest; job demands, job control, burnout, and ways of coping. There was a relationship between job title and physical job demands. There was no evidence to support a relationship between job title and psychological demands. Furthermore, there was a relationship between physical demands, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment; key indicators of burnout. ^ Results showed significant correlations between individual ways of coping as a moderator between job structure, operationalized by job title, and individual employee burnout adding empirical evidence to the occupational stress literature. Based on the findings, there are implications for theory, research, and practice. For theory and research, the findings suggest the importance of incorporating transactional models in the study of occupational stress. In the area of practice, the findings highlight the importance of enriching jobs, increasing job control, and providing individual-level training related to stress reduction.^

Work Creativity as a Dimension of Job Performance

To stay competitive, many employers are looking for creative and innovative employees to add value to their organization. However, current models of job performance overlook creative performance as an important criterion to measure in the workplace. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct two separate but related studies on creative performance that aim to provide support that creative performance should be included in models of job performance, and ultimately included in performance evaluations in organizations. Study 1 is a meta-analysis on the relationship between creative performance and task performance, and the relationship between creative performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Overall, I found support for a medium to large corrected correlation for both the creative performance-task performance (ρ = .51) and creative performance-OCB (ρ = .49) relationships. Further, I also found that both rating-source and study location were significant moderators. Study 2 is a process model that includes creative performance alongside task performance and OCB as the outcome variables. I test a model in which both individual differences (specifically: conscientiousness, extraversion, proactive personality, and self-efficacy) and job characteristics (autonomy, feedback, and supervisor support) predict creative performance, task performance, and OCB through engagement as a mediator. In a sample of 299 employed individuals, I found that all the individual differences and job characteristics were positively correlated with all three performance criteria. I also looked at these relationships in a multiple regression framework and most of the individual differences and job characteristics still predicted the performance criteria. In the mediation analyses, I found support for engagement as a significant mediator of the individual differences-performance and job characteristics-performance relationships. Taken together, Study 1 and Study 2 support the notion that creative performance should be included in models of job performance. Implications for both researchers and practitioners alike are discussed.

The acculturation of middle income Hispanic households

Research on the consumer behavior of the Hispanic population has recently attracted the attention of marketing practitioners as well as researchers. This study's purpose was to develop a model and scales to examine the acculturation process of Hispanic consumers with income levels of $35,000 and above, and its effects on their consumer behavior. The proposed model defined acculturation as a bilinear and multidimensional change process, measuring consumers' selective change process in four dimensions: language preference, Hispanic identification, American identification, and familism. A national sample of 653 consumers was analyzed. The scales developed for testing the model showed good to high internal consistency and adequate concurrent validity. According to the results, consumers' contact with Hispanic and Anglo acculturation agents generates change or reinforces consumers' language preferences. Language preference fully mediates the effects of the agents on consumers' American identification and familism; however, the effects of the acculturation agents on Hispanic identification are only partially mediated by individuals' language preference change. It was proposed that the acculturation process would have an effect on consumers' brand loyalty, attitudes towards high quality and prestigious brands, purchase frequency, and savings allocation for their children. Given the lack of significant differences between Hispanic and Anglo consumers and among Hispanic generations, only savings allocation for children's future was studied intensively. According to these results, Hispanic consumers' savings for their children is affected by consumers' language preference through their ethnic identification and familism. No moderating effects were found for consumers' gender, age, and country of origin, suggesting that individual differences do not affect consumers' acculturation process. Additionally, the effects of familism were tested among ethnic groups. The results suggest not only that familism discriminates among Hispanic and Anglo consumers, but also is a significant predictor of consumers' brand loyalty, brand quality attitudes, and savings allocation. Three acculturation segments were obtained through cluster analysis: bicultural, high acculturation, and low acculturation groups, supporting the biculturalism proposition.

Preschooler’s Comprehension of Spatial Terms

This study aims to understand individual differences in preschooler’s early comprehension of spatial language. Spatial language is defined as terms describing location, direction, shape, dimension, features, orientation, and quantity (e.g location, shape). Spatial language is considered to be one of the important factors in the development of spatial reasoning in the preschool years (Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011). In recent years, research has shown spatial reasoning is an important predictor of successes in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields (e.g. Shea, Lubinski & Benbow, 2001; Wai, Lubinksi &Benbow, 2009). The current study focuses on when children begin to comprehend spatial terms, while previous work has mainly focused on production of spatial language. Identifying when children begin to comprehend spatial terms could lead to a better understanding of how spatial reasoning develops. We use the Intermodal Preferential Looking paradigm (IPLP) to examine three-year-old children’s ability to map spatial terms to visual representations. Fourteen spatial terms were used to test these abilities (e.g. bottom, diamond, longer). For each test trial children were presented with two different stimuli simultaneously on the left and right sides of a television screen. A female voice prompted the child to find the target spatial relation (e.g. “can you find the boy pointing to the bottom of the window”; Figure 1). A Tobii X60 eye-tracker was used to record the child’s eye gaze for each trial. For each child the proportion of looking to the target image divided by their total looking during the trial was calculated; this served as the dependent variable. Proportions above .50 indicated that the child had correctly mapped the spatial term to the target image. Preliminary data shows that the number of words comprehended in the IPLP task is correlated to parental report of the child’s comprehension of spatial terms (r[14]=.500, p<.05).

Preschooler’s Comprehension of Spatial Terms

This study aims to understand individual differences in preschooler’s early comprehension of spatial language. Spatial language is defined as terms describing location, direction, shape, dimension, features, orientation, and quantity (e.g location, shape). Spatial language is considered to be one of the important factors in the development of spatial reasoning in the preschool years (Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011). In recent years, research has shown spatial reasoning is an important predictor of successes in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields (e.g. Shea, Lubinski & Benbow, 2001; Wai, Lubinksi &Benbow, 2009). The current study focuses on when children begin to comprehend spatial terms, while previous work has mainly focused on production of spatial language. Identifying when children begin to comprehend spatial terms could lead to a better understanding of how spatial reasoning develops. We use the Intermodal Preferential Looking paradigm (IPLP) to examine three-year-old children’s ability to map spatial terms to visual representations. Fourteen spatial terms were used to test these abilities (e.g. bottom, diamond, longer). For each test trial children were presented with two different stimuli simultaneously on the left and right sides of a television screen. A female voice prompted the child to find the target spatial relation (e.g. “can you find the boy pointing to the bottom of the window”; Figure 1). A Tobii X60 eye-tracker was used to record the child’s eye gaze for each trial. For each child the proportion of looking to the target image divided by their total looking during the trial was calculated; this served as the dependent variable. Proportions above .50 indicated that the child had correctly mapped the spatial term to the target image. Preliminary data shows that the number of words comprehended in the IPLP task is correlated to parental report of the child’s comprehension of spatial terms (r[14]=.500, p<.05).

Abordando o sono no ensino médio: proposta de unidade didática contextualizada com o tema saúde

Biological rhythms are part of the life from the simplest to the most complex living beings. In humans, one of the most important biological rhythms is the sleep-wake cycle (SWC), which represents an indispensable behavior for health, since sleep deprivation can lead to deficits in attention and memory, mood and daytime sleepiness which may affect school performance. Nevertheless, the SWC is a content rarely discussed in schools. Thus, the aim of this research was to address contents of the sleep-wake cycle, related to the content of Health to encourage healthy sleep habits. This study was conducted in a public school with 33 students of the 3rd year of high school and is divided into four stages: 1st) Study and analysis of the content of the textbook adopted by the school to subsidize the activities covered in the teaching unit (TU) and approximation with the biology teacher from the class to evaluated the feasibility of schedules for the development of TU; 2nd) Survey of students' prior knowledge, through a questionnaire, to guide the development of the TU; 3rd) Development and implementation of a TU based on meaningful learning and characterization of the students sleep habits, 4th) Evaluation of the TU as a viable proposal to teach biological rhythms concepts. Previous knowledge of students about the SWC are scarce and this content is not covered in the books adopted by the school. Alternative conceptions were observed, particularly with regard to individual differences in sleep, which may contribute to the occurrence of inadequate sleep habits, as reported by the adolescents in this study. The activities developed during UD were well received by the students who showed participative, motivated and evaluated positively the procedures used by the researcher. After the TU, students' knowledge about the concept of biological rhythms has been increased and they started to identify that the SWC changes throughout life and occur due biological and socio-cultural factors. Thus, the UD elaborated in this study represents a viable proposal to teach the concepts of biological rhythms contextualized to the content of Health, in high school

Grabbing Your Attention: The Impact of Finding a First Target in Multiple-Target Search

For over 50 years, the Satisfaction of Search effect, and more recently known as the Subsequent Search Miss (SSM) effect, has plagued the field of radiology. Defined as a decrease in additional target accuracy after detecting a prior target in a visual search, SSM errors are known to underlie both real-world search errors (e.g., a radiologist is more likely to miss a tumor if a different tumor was previously detected) and more simplified, lab-based search errors (e.g., an observer is more likely to miss a target ‘T’ if a different target ‘T’ was previously detected). Unfortunately, little was known about this phenomenon’s cognitive underpinnings and SSM errors have proven difficult to eliminate. However, more recently, experimental research has provided evidence for three different theories of SSM errors: the Satisfaction account, the Perceptual Set account, and the Resource Depletion account. A series of studies examined performance in a multiple-target visual search and aimed to provide support for the Resource Depletion account—a first target consumes cognitive resources leaving less available to process additional targets.

To assess a potential mechanism underlying SSM errors, eye movements were recorded in a multiple-target visual search and were used to explore whether a first target may result in an immediate decrease in second-target accuracy, which is known as an attentional blink. To determine whether other known attentional distractions amplified the effects of finding a first target has on second-target detection, distractors within the immediate vicinity of the targets (i.e., clutter) were measured and compared to accuracy for a second target. To better understand which characteristics of attention were impacted by detecting a first target, individual differences within four characteristics of attention were compared to second-target misses in a multiple-target visual search.

The results demonstrated that an attentional blink underlies SSM errors with a decrease in second-target accuracy from 135ms-405ms after detection or re-fixating a first target. The effects of clutter were exacerbated after finding a first target causing a greater decrease in second-target accuracy as clutter increased around a second-target. The attentional characteristics of modulation and vigilance were correlated with second- target misses and suggest that worse attentional modulation and vigilance are predictive of more second-target misses. Taken together, these result are used as the foundation to support a new theory of SSM errors, the Flux Capacitor theory. The Flux Capacitor theory predicts that once a target is found, it is maintained as an attentional template in working memory, which consumes attentional resources that could otherwise be used to detect additional targets. This theory not only proposes why attentional resources are consumed by a first target, but encompasses the research in support of all three SSM theories in an effort to establish a grand, unified theory of SSM errors.

Fluidity in Women's Sexuality

Sexual fluidity has been proposed as a key component of women’s sexuality. However, not all women acknowledge or experience fluidity in their sexual attractions and behaviors. Because this is the case, what proportion of women are experiencing sexual fluidity? Research has concluded that a “sizeable minority” of women are experiencing sexual fluidity, with the highest levels found among those that identify as a sexual minority. Furthermore, certain individual differences have been found to be associated with a heightened (or weakened) likelihood of experiencing or embracing sexual fluidity. Through extensive literature reviews on women’s sexuality and sexual fluidity, it has been concluded that sexual orientation identity status, as well as psychological, biological, and social factors, all play roles in the expression or degree of sexual fluidity experienced. This means that certain personal and environmental factors have the ability to both hinder and/or nurture fluidity in a woman’s sexual attractions, behaviors, and experiences. Accepting that women’s sexuality is fluid and teaching about the variability sometimes observed in women’s sexuality allows us to not only see that experiencing same-sex attractions, desires, or experiences is not necessarily abnormal, but also that it may be more common than originally assumed, which has the potential to reduce societal stigma associated with homosexuality.

Decoding Spontaneous Emotional States in the Human Brain.

Pattern classification of human brain activity provides unique insight into the neural underpinnings of diverse mental states. These multivariate tools have recently been used within the field of affective neuroscience to classify distributed patterns of brain activation evoked during emotion induction procedures. Here we assess whether neural models developed to discriminate among distinct emotion categories exhibit predictive validity in the absence of exteroceptive emotional stimulation. In two experiments, we show that spontaneous fluctuations in human resting-state brain activity can be decoded into categories of experience delineating unique emotional states that exhibit spatiotemporal coherence, covary with individual differences in mood and personality traits, and predict on-line, self-reported feelings. These findings validate objective, brain-based models of emotion and show how emotional states dynamically emerge from the activity of separable neural systems.