Paul Williamson

The influence of motives and goal orientation on feedback seeking

This study examined the relationships between feedback seeking, goal orientation, performance and four motives which, though generally considered to underlie the feedback seeking process, have not previously been measured comprehensively. Both the likelihood and the number of instances of feedback seeking were measured in two samples (employees and students) in association with perceived or selfassessed above- and below-average performance. Self-assessed performance was a major predictor of feedback seeking; also influential were goal orientation and the goal orientation-performance interaction. Increased feedback seeking was associated with the desire for useful information motive, and reduced feedback seeking with the ego defence and defensive impression management motives. The desire for useful information motive mediated the influence of performance-prove goal orientation for employees, and that of a learning goal orientation for students.

The effects of social support and negative appraisals on acute stress symptoms and depression in children and adolescents

OBJECTIVES To investigate the impact of social support on both acute stress symptoms and depression in children and adolescents following a single-incident trauma as well as the potential mediating effects of negative appraisals. DESIGN A cross-sectional concurrent design was used. METHOD Ninety-seven children (aged 7-17 years) and a parent of each were recruited through the emergency department or in-patient ward of two metropolitan hospitals. Negative appraisals, child perception of social support, parent availability to provide social support, prior trauma and psychological difficulties, depression and acute stress symptoms were measured within 4 weeks of trauma. RESULTS Negative appraisals about the trauma were highly correlated with both acute stress and depression symptoms. Social support was negatively correlated with depression symptoms, but not acute stress symptoms. There was a trend for social support to be negatively correlated with negative appraisals. There was no evidence that negative appraisals mediated the social support-symptoms relationships. CONCLUSIONS The findings lend support to recent cognitive and developmental models of the aetiology of post-traumatic stress disorder, and the possible shared cognitive vulnerability between trauma symptoms and depression. Clinically, the results indicate that, appraisals, social support, and depression symptoms should be assessed in addition to trauma symptoms following single-incident traumatic events. The findings also suggest that when depression symptoms are present following trauma exposure, it may be useful to ensure children have adequate social support. Future research should also develop trauma specific measures of social support.

Does one hour of bright or short-wavelength filtered tablet screenlight have a meaningful effect on adolescents’ pre-bedtime alertness, sleep, and daytime functioning?

Electronic media use is prevalent among adolescent populations, as is the frequency of sleeplessness. One mechanism proposed for technology affecting adolescents’ sleep is the alerting effects from bright screens. Two explanations are provided. First, screens emit significant amounts of short-wavelength light (i.e. blue), which produces acute alertness and alters sleep timing. Second, later chronotypes are hypothesised to be hypersensitive to evening light. This study analysed the pre-sleep alertness (GO/NOGO task speed, accuracy; subjective sleepiness), sleep (sleep diary, polysomnography), and morning functioning of 16 healthy adolescents (M = 17.4 ± 1.9 yrs, 56% f) who used a bright tablet screen (80 lux), dim screen (1 lux) and a filtered short-wavelength screen (f.lux; 50 lux) for 1 hr before their usual bedtime in a within-subjects protocol. Chronotype was analysed as a continuous between-subjects factor; however, no significant interactions occurred. Significant effects occurred between bright and dim screens for GO/NOGO speed and accuracy. However, the magnitude of these differences was small (e.g. GO/NOGO speed = 23 ms, accuracy = 13%), suggesting minimal clinical significance. No significant effects were found for sleep onset latency, slow-rolling eye movements, or the number of SWS and REM minutes in the first two sleep cycles. Future independent studies are needed to test short (1 hr) vs longer (>2 hrs) screen usage to provide evidence for safe-to-harmful levels of screenlight exposure before adolescents’ usual bedtime.

Can Gaze Avoidance Explain Why Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome Can’t Recognise Emotions From Facial Expressions?

Research has shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have difficulties recognising emotions from facial expressions. Since eye contact is important for accurate emotion recognition, and individuals with ASD tend to avoid eye contact, this tendency for gaze aversion has been proposed as an explanation for the emotion recognition deficit. This explanation was investigated using a newly developed emotion and mental state recognition task. Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome were less accurate at recognising emotions and mental states, but did not show evidence of gaze avoidance compared to individuals without Asperger’s Syndrome. This suggests that the way individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome look at faces cannot account for the difficulty they have recognising expressions.

Spatial ability in secondary school students: intra-sex differences based on self-selection for physical education

Past research has demonstrated consistent sex differences with men typically outperforming women on tests of spatial ability. However, less is known about intra-sex effects. In the present study, two groups of female students (physical education and non-physical education secondary students) and two corresponding groups of male students explored a large-scale virtual shopping centre. In a battery of tasks, spatial knowledge of the shopping centre as well as mental rotation ability were tested. Additional variables considered were circulating testosterone levels, the ratio of 2D:4D digit length, and computer experience. The results revealed both sex and intra-sex differences in spatial ability. Variables related to virtual navigation and computer ability and experience were found to be the most powerful predictors of group membership. Our results suggest that in female and male secondary students, participation in physical education and spatial skill are related.

Social support satisfaction of Australian children

This is the first in-depth study of the social support satisfaction of Australian children, measured using the “My Family and Friends” interview (Reid, Landesman, Treder, & Jaccard, 1989). This, together with the Self-Perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1985), was administered to 70 Adelaide children aged 9–11. A main effect of support provider and an interaction between support type and provider were found. Self-esteem was predicted by both overall social support satisfaction and network size. The Australian children reported lower levels and different patterns of support in comparison with previously published data from the USA. Australian parents were perceived as less “generalist” in their support, giving particularly low levels of companionship support. Friends gave high levels of companionship support but low levels of all other types; this, as in the case of parents, makes Australian friends more “specialist” supporters than their US counterparts.

Metacognitive Processes in Emotion Recognition: Are They Different in Adults with Asperger's Disorder?.

Deficits in emotion recognition and social interaction characterize individuals with Asperger’s Disorder (AS). Moreover they also appear to be less able to accurately use confidence to gauge their emotion recognition accuracy (i.e., metacognitive monitoring). The aim of this study was to extend this finding by considering both monitoring and control processes in emotion recognition among adults with AS. Those with AS were found to have difficulties acting on the basis of their metacognitive monitoring despite showing no deficits in their ability to discriminate accurate from inaccurate decisions. It is suggested that adults with AS have difficulties interacting socially because they are less able to assess when they are making accurate emotion recognition decisions despite having the capability to do so.

What Factors Need to be Addressed to Support Dental Hygienists to Assist Their Patients to Quit Smoking

INTRODUCTION Dental hygienists are well placed to assist their patients to quit smoking. Smoking affects oral health and dental treatments, and hygienists report greater time with patients than dentists with more focus on prevention. However, there has been little research into the extent to which hygienists assist patients to quit smoking and strategies to support them in this role. METHODS A 2-stage survey of Australian dental hygienists was conducted. The first survey measured potential predictors of asking patients about smoking and assisting patients to quit smoking using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework. The second survey measured these behaviors in the past week. Structural equation modeling was used to examine predictors of the two behaviors. RESULTS A total of 362 hygienists returned the first questionnaire. Intentions to ask and assist patients were high. The 273 hygienists who returned the second questionnaire assisted an estimated total of 1,394 patients to quit smoking in 1 week. Predictors within the Theory of Planned Behavior framework explained significant variance in asking (11%) and assisting (29%) behaviors, with self-efficacy the most critical predictor in both cases (β = .27 and .32, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Dental hygienists may be a viable and willing avenue for addressing smoking. Hygienists may be best supported in this role through increasing skills and confidence around asking sensitively about smoking, building rapport, and assisting patients to quit smoking. Incorporation of smoking status into general history taking and adoption of organizational policies on assisting patients to quit smoking could also be encouraged.

The Effect of Expertise on Memory Conformity: A Test of Informational Influence

Conforming to erroneous memory reports of co-witnesses can have serious impacts on subsequent forensic investigation and court reports. One theoretical explanation proposed is that memory conformity arises due to informational influence; the co-witness desires to give accurate information and reports the co-witnesss version because they perceive the co-witness as being more credible. We tested the idea that perceptions of credibility drive memory conformity. We manipulated credibility through expertise; specifically, by telling participants that the (confederate) co-witness had previously worked as either a policeman (high expertise) or an electrician (low expertise). After a discussion with the co-witness, we assessed cued-recall memory and perceptions of credibility about the co-witness and the self. We found that higher expertise led to greater memory conformity. Although higher expertise also led to higher credibility assessments of the co-witness, this was only for perceptions of the credibility as an eye-witness and memory confidence, neither of which predicted memory conformity. By contrast, memory accuracy of the co-witness relative to self-memory accuracy predicted memory conformity, but this was not affected by expertise. These results show support for an informational influence explanation but suggest that expertise perceptions operate differently from our explanation.

Psychics, aliens, or experience? Using the Anomalistic Belief Scale to examine the relationship between type of belief and probabilistic reasoning

A growing body of research has shown people who hold anomalistic (e.g., paranormal) beliefs may differ from nonbelievers in their propensity to make probabilistic reasoning errors. The current study explored the relationship between these beliefs and performance through the development of a new measure of anomalistic belief, called the Anomalistic Belief Scale (ABS). One key feature of the ABS is that it includes a balance of both experiential and theoretical belief items. Another aim of the study was to use the ABS to investigate the relationship between belief and probabilistic reasoning errors on conjunction fallacy tasks. As expected, results showed there was a relationship between anomalistic belief and propensity to commit the conjunction fallacy. Importantly, regression analyses on the factors that make up the ABS showed that the relationship between anomalistic belief and probabilistic reasoning occurred only for beliefs about having experienced anomalistic phenomena, and not for theoretical anomalistic beliefs.