Charles Calderwood

Use it or lose it? Wii brain exercise practice and reading for domain knowledge.

We investigated the training effects and transfer effects associated with 2 approaches to cognitive activities (so-called brain training) that might mitigate age-related cognitive decline. A sample of 78 adults between the ages of 50 and 71 completed 20 one-hr training sessions with the Nintendo Wii Big Brain Academy software over the course of 1 month and, in a second month, completed 20 one-hr reading sessions with articles on 4 different current topics (order of assignment was counterbalanced for the participants). An extensive battery of cognitive and perceptual speed ability measures was administered before and after each month of cognitive training activities, along with a battery of domain-knowledge tests. Results indicated substantial improvements on the Wii tasks, somewhat less improvement on the domain knowledge tests, and practice-related improvements on 6 of the 10 ability tests. However, there was no significant transfer of training from either the Wii practice or the reading tasks to measures of cognitive and perceptual speed abilities. Implications for these findings are discussed in terms of adult intellectual development and maintenance.

Too anxious to help? Off-job affective rumination as a linking mechanism between work anxiety and helping

Tooanxious tohelp?Off-jobaffective ruminationas a linking mechanism between work anxiety and helping Charles Calderwood* , Andrew A. Bennett , Allison S. Gabriel, John P. Trougakos and Jason J. Dahling Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA Strome College of Business, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA Department of Management, University of Toronto-Scarborough, Ontario, Canada Department of Psychology, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, USA

Modeling intraindividual variation in unsafe driving in a naturalistic commuting environment.

Commuting to work by car is a frequently occurring activity that poses a salient risk to worker safety. Although general stress perceptions have been linked to indicators of unsafe commuting in cross-sectional studies, little is known about whether and how day-to-day variability in stressor exposure and subjective and affective strain reactions covary with intraindividual variability in unsafe driving while commuting over time. A major contributor to this knowledge gap is the lack of a validated methodology to link subjective self-report variables to objective driving performance criteria in a naturalistic commuting environment. Data were collected from university staff employees (N = 50) over a 2-week sample of daily experiences and objective recordings of unsafe driving behaviors. We applied a multilevel methodology to evaluate a model in which exposure to daily hindering and challenging components of work stress, end-of-workday psychological distress, and end-of-workday negative affect influence objectively monitored unsafe driving behaviors in a naturalistic commuting environment. Results indicated that employees were less likely to drive unsafely during their postwork commute on days in which they encountered more challenge stressors at work (odds ratio = .63). However, employees who experienced heightened negative affective spillover were more likely to drive unsafely during their postwork commute (odds ratio = 1.96). We discuss the theoretical, practical, and methodological implications of our findings for research on employee commuting safety. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Relative Salience of Daily and Enduring Influences on Off-Job Reactions to Work Stress.

Work stress is an important determinant of employee health and wellness. The occupational health community is recognizing that one contributor to these relationships may be the presence of negative off-job reactivity to work, which we argue involves continued thoughts directed towards work (cognitive reactivity), continued negative mood stemming from work (affective reactivity), and the alteration of post-work behaviours in response to work factors (behavioural reactivity). We explored the relative contributions of daily work stressors, affective traits, and subjective job stress perceptions to negative off-job reactivity. These relationships were evaluated in a study of hospital nurses (n = 75), who completed trait measures and then provided self-assessments of daily work stress and off-job reactions for four work days. The results of several multilevel analyses indicated that a main-effects model best described the data when predicting cognitive, affective, and behavioural reactivity from daily work stressors, affective traits, and subjective job stress perceptions. A series of multilevel dominance analyses revealed that subjective job stress perceptions dominated the prediction of behavioural reactivity, while trait negative affect dominated the prediction of affective reactivity. Theoretical implications and the relative salience of daily and enduring contributors to negative off-job reactivity are discussed. Copyright