Alexandra Kibbe

Two Languages, Two Minds Flexible Cognitive Processing Driven by Language of Operation

People make sense of objects and events around them by classifying them into identifiable categories. The extent to which language affects this process has been the focus of a long-standing debate: Do different languages cause their speakers to behave differently? Here, we show that fluent German-English bilinguals categorize motion events according to the grammatical constraints of the language in which they operate. First, as predicted from cross-linguistic differences in motion encoding, bilingual participants functioning in a German testing context prefer to match events on the basis of motion completion to a greater extent than do bilingual participants in an English context. Second, when bilingual participants experience verbal interference in English, their categorization behavior is congruent with that predicted for German; when bilingual participants experience verbal interference in German, their categorization becomes congruent with that predicted for English. These findings show that language effects on cognition are context-bound and transient, revealing unprecedented levels of malleability in human cognition.

Evaluating Environmental Knowledge Dimension Convergence to Assess Educational Programme Effectiveness

One aim of environmental education is fostering sustainable environmental action. Some environmental behaviour models suggest that this can be accomplished in part by improving peoples knowledge. Recent studies have identified a distinct, psychometrically supported environmental knowledge structure consisting of system, action-related and effectiveness knowledge. Besides system knowledge, which is most often the focus of such studies, incorporating the other knowledge dimensions into these dimensions was suggested to enhance effectiveness. Our study is among the first to implement these dimensions together in an educational campaign and to use these dimensions to evaluate the effectiveness of a programme on water issues. We designed a four-day environmental education programme on water issues for students at an educational field centre. We applied a newly developed multiple-choice instrument using a pre-, post-, retention test design. The knowledge scales were calibrated with the Rasch model. In addition to the commonly assessed individual change in knowledge level, we also measured the change in knowledge convergence, the extent to which the knowledge dimensions merge as a persons environmental knowledge increases, as an innovative indicator of educational success. Following programme participation, students significantly improved in terms of amount learned in each knowledge dimension and in terms of integration of the knowledge dimensions. The effectiveness knowledge shows the least gain, persistence and convergence, which we explain by considering the dependence of the knowledge dimensions on each other. Finally, we discuss emerging challenges for educational researchers and practical implications for environmental educators.

Capturing the Environmental Impact of Individual Lifestyles: Evidence of the Criterion Validity of the General Ecological Behavior Scale

Do behavioral measures of ecological lifestyles reflect actual environmental impact? Three convenience samples of German adults (N = 881) completed such a measure, the General Ecological Behavior (GEB) scale. Their household electricity consumption was self-reported (Study 1), assessed by a smart-meter (Study 2), or reported by the power company (Study 3). The latter two studies controlled for income, which can boost consumption just as it opens possibilities for behaving ecologically. Within and across studies, analyses revealed a negative association between self-reported ecological behavior and electricity consumption (−.18 ≤ rs ≤ −.22), even with adjustment for income. Furthermore, customers in a green electricity program reported more ecological engagement and consumed one third less electricity than did regular customers. These results indicate the criterion validity of the GEB scale for a highly practically relevant criterion and encourage the use of generic behavior measures in efforts to understand and foster more ecological lifestyles.

Self-Determined, Enduring, Ecologically Sustainable Ways of Life: Attitude as a Measure of Individuals’ Intrinsic Motivation

Behavior is thought to be intrinsically motivated when it helps an actor attain a goal that has arisen from within the actor him/herself. In this chapter, we argue that two identical formal attributes—(a) behavioral means-goal correspondence and (b) degree of intentionality—designate the intensity with which a person both is intrinsically motivated and embraces an attitude to protect the environment. We suggest that the intrinsic motivation to protect the environment be conceptualized as an attitude that can be directly derived from verbal acts (e.g., self-reports of past environmentally protective behavior) as this will ensure that the assumptions that are made can be tested statistically. As presumed, people who are determined to protect the environment will claim to engage in increasingly more activities as well as more demanding ones aimed at the environmental protection goal. This presumed link between a person’s inherent determination or intentionality and the behaviors he/she reports can be formally captured with the Rasch model. A Rasch-model test is, as we argue, preferable to self-reflection-based assessments of the self-embedment of people’s reasons for protecting the environment. As one would expect of a measure that is supposed to reflect a person’s inherent intention to protect the environment, it largely overlaps with conventional intention measures and is durable over time. Moreover, as one would hope, it shows in actual environmentally protective behavior and in the overall electricity consumption of individuals. Thus, when lasting change toward more self-determined, ecologically sustainable individual ways of life is the target, strategies that help advance people’s intrinsic motivation to protect the environment are essential.

Geld in der Psychologie: Vom Homo oeconomicus zum Homo sufficiensis

Der Beitrag ist mit der Bedeutung des Geldes in der Psychologie befasst. Hierzu werden die Rolle der Wahrnehmung und die Bedeutung von Geld fur das personliche Gluck und die individuelle Zufriedenheit erortert. Es wird diskutiert, ob Geld das individuelle Verhalten anderen gegenuber und sogar das eigene Befinden verandert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Einschatzung des Geldwertes subjektiv ist und sich zudem nach der Wirtschaftskraft einzelner Lander unterscheidet. Entgegen der weitlaufigen Meinung, dass Geld glucklich macht, sind die Zusammenhange zwischen Geld und Zufriedenheit eher schwach. Geld kann uber die Entwertung kleiner Glucksmomente unsere Zufriedenheit sogar senken. Zudem wird gezeigt, inwiefern die Wirkung von Geld mit den Zielen psychologischer Untersuchungen konkurriert, da sie womoglich nur das Weltbild des Homo oeconomicus anspricht und damit als eine Art Gegenspieler der Psychologie fungiert. Der Beitrag diskutiert deshalb den Homo sufficiensis als einen Gegenentwurf zum Homo oeconomicus. Der Homo sufficiensis ist nachhaltigkeitsmotiviert und verzichtet auf personlichen Gewinn, um der Umwelt, anderen Menschen und zukunftigen Generationen etwas Nutzliches zu erweisen. Daher werden abschliesend Moglichkeiten beleuchtet, die Nachhaltigkeitsmotivation und den freiwilligen Geldverzicht zu fordern.

Pro-Environmental Behavior

Abstract Pro-environmental behavior can be approached from either an observers outside or an actors inside viewpoint. When behavior is defined from the outside by its ecological consequences (i.e., its impact), even seemingly similar behaviors such as glass, paper, and battery recycling fall into distinct categories. When behavior is defined from the inside by the actors environmentally protective intentions, even diverse acts such as recycling and solar-panel ownership appear to belong to one class of actions. Correspondingly, there are two distinct research traditions that differ substantially.