Peter A. Bibby

Predicting future blood donor returns: past behavior, intentions, and observer effects.

A prospective design was used to explore the efficacy of 6 factors (e.g., intentions) to predict the number of future blood donations in an initial sample of 630 blood donors. Differential predictions are made for the roles of past behavior and intentions with respect to occasional (4 or fewer previous blood donations) and regular (5 or more previous blood donations) blood donors. Intentions were predictive for occasional donors, and past behavior was predictive for regular donors. Furthermore, for regular donors only, an inverted U-shaped curve explained the relationship between past behavior and future behavior. Finally, it is reported that observing others fainting produces a reduction in the number of future donations for occasional donors. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Information technology and multiple representations: new opportunities – new problems

Abstract Computer environments that employ multiple representations have become commonplace in the classroom. This article reviews the arguments and evidence for the benefits of such software and describe what the associated learning demands are likely to be. By describing the results of two evaluation studies in primary mathematics, the authors show that children as young as six can, in the right circumstances, benefit from multi- representational software. The authors discuss the features of the learning environments that influenced performance and consider how teachers could support learning with these types of environments.

An application of the theory of planned behaviour to truck driving behaviour and compliance with regulations

A questionnaire study was conducted with truck drivers to help understand driving and compliance behaviour using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Path analysis examined the ability of the TPB to explain the direct and indirect factors involved in self-reported driving behaviour and regulation compliance. Law abiding driving behaviour in trucks was related more to attitudes, subjective norms and intentions than perceived behavioural control. For compliance with UK truck regulations, perceived behavioural control had the largest direct effect. The differing results of the path analyses for driving behaviour and compliance behaviour suggest that any future interventions that may be targeted at improving either on-road behaviour or compliance with regulations would require different approaches.

Dispositional Factors in the Use of Social Networking Sites: Findings and Implications for Social Computing Research

The paper presents findings of a study that relates dispositional factors such as extroversion, stability, self-esteem and narcissism to the use of social networking sites (SNSs). Each of these dispositional factors is shown to be related to different types of usage of SNSs. It is argued that attempts to model the use of SNSs and thereby target particular information to particular users would benefit greatly from using modeling techniques that can parameterize such dispositional factors.

Openness to experience and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis and requivalent from risk ratios and odds ratios

OBJECTIVES To test the prediction that Openness to Experience (O) is a protective factor with respect to all-cause mortality. To provide a method of calculating a standard effect size estimate (r(equivalent) ) from relative risk (RR) and odds ratios (OR). METHODS A meta-analysis of 11 (N= 19, 941) studies linking O to all-cause mortality is reported. Analyses are conducted on the total sample and on sub-samples with and without other mortality risk factors (e.g., age, social class) controlled. The same analyses are also conducted on the studies that used indices of O based on standard measures of the five-factor model (FFM: NEO and Goldbergs adjective markers). This paper also provides a means of calculating an r(equivalent) from RR and OR. RESULTS The results show that for all studies O is a protective factor (r= .051) and this effect is slightly higher (r= .064) when only FFM measures are used. When risk factors are not controlled, the protective effect for O is .091 for all studies and .097 for FFM indices. However, a predicted attenuation is observed when standard mortality risk factors are controlled to .028 for all measures and .036 for FFM measures. CONCLUSIONS While O is protective with respect to all-cause mortality, the effect is attenuated by other mortality risk factors and future work needs to explore the complex independent, moderating, and mediating processes linking O to all-cause mortality.

instruction and Practice in learning to Use a Device

We explore the extent to which Anderson’s (1987) theory of knowledge compilotion con account for the relationship between instructions and practice in learning to use a simple device. Bibby and Payne (1993) reported experimental support for knowledge compilation in this domain. This article replicates the finding of a performance cross-over between instruction type and task type that disappears with practice on the tasks. The research is extended by using verbal protocols to model the strategies of novice and more experienced individuals. Production system models of these strategies suggest that knowledge compilation only provides an adequate account of practice for one of two Instruction groups. To model the strategy shifts for the second group, we employ a “procedure modification heuristic” (after Neches, 1987). which relies on access to a declarative model of the configuration of the device. This suggests that instructionally derived declarative knowledge may have a subtle ongoing effect on the changes in procedural knowledge with practice.

Promoting the communication skills of children with moderate learning difficulties

This paper presents the results of an intervention programme designed to promote the communication skills of a group of children with moderate learning difficulties. Thirty children were involved in a 12-week programme of supported peer-communication activities which aimed to improve the childrens regulatory skills during peer interaction. By the end of the pro gramme, the children were talking more, asking more appropriate questions and responding to ambiguous utterances more effectively. The results of the study demonstrate that a programme for children with learning difficulties in which pairs of children working together are encouraged to use and reflect on regulatory strategies can provide an effective context for intervention.

Personality, fear of missing out and problematic internet use and their relationship to subjective well-being

The current research examines how an individuals personality, their internet use and the extent to which they are inclined to fear missing out impacts subjective well-being overall and in terms of emotional, physical, and personal relationship well-being. A total of 495 participants aged 18 to 30 (69% female) completed an online questionnaire via the Qualtrics website that included measures of the Big-5 personality dimensions (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability), fear of missing out, and problematic internet use. Participants were recruited through posting messages on the Facebook social media site linking to the Qualtrics website. Multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between these factors and the measures of subjective well-being. With respect to overall subjective well-being, neither age nor sex were significant predictors. Conscientiousness, extraversion, emotional stability and agreeableness were positively related to overall subjective well-being. Importantly, both fear of missing out and problematic internet use made additional significant negative contributions to overall subjective well-being. Fear of missing out and problematic internet were both negatively correlated with emotional well-being and personal relationships well-being but not physical well-being. Overall, while personality directly impacts subjective well-being both fear of missing out and problematic internet negatively affect subjective well-being above and beyond personality. Fear of missing out and problematic internet use are negatively related to subjective well-being.Personality traits, especially emotional stability, are positively related to SWB.Personality was a stronger predictor of SWB than either FOMO or PIU.

Fast to Forgive, Slow to Retaliate: Intuitive Responses in the Ultimatum Game Depend on the Degree of Unfairness

Evolutionary accounts have difficulty explaining why people cooperate with anonymous strangers they will never meet. Recently models, focusing on emotional processing, have been proposed as a potential explanation, with attention focusing on a dual systems approach based on system 1 (fast, intuitive, automatic, effortless, and emotional) and system 2 (slow, reflective, effortful, proactive and unemotional). Evidence shows that when cooperation is salient, people are fast (system 1) to cooperate, but with longer delays (system 2) they show greed. This is interpreted within the framework of the social heuristic hypothesis (SHH), whereby people overgeneralize potentially advantageous intuitively learnt and internalization social norms to ‘atypical’ situations. We extend this to explore intuitive reactions to unfairness by integrating the SHH with the ‘fast to forgive, slow to anger’ (FFSA) heuristic. This suggests that it is advantageous to be prosocial when facing uncertainty. We propose that whether or not someone intuitively shows prosociality (cooperation) or retaliation is moderated by the degree (certainty) of unfairness. People should intuitively cooperate when facing mild levels of unfairness (fast to forgive) but when given longer to decide about anothers mild level of unfairness should retaliate (slow to anger). However, when facing severe levels of unfairness, the intuitive response is always retaliation. We test this using a series of one-shot ultimatum games and manipulate level of offer unfairness (50:50 60:40, 70:30, 80:20, 90:10) and enforced time delays prior to responding (1s, 2s, 8s, 15s). We also measure decision times to make responses after the time delays. The results show that when facing mildly unfair offers (60:40) people are fast (intuitive) to cooperate but with longer delays reject these mildly unfair offers: ‘fast to forgive, and slow to retaliate’. However, for severely unfair offers (90:10) the intuitive and fast response is to always reject.

Do Personality Traits Predict Individual Differences in Excitatory and Inhibitory Learning

Conditioned inhibition (CI) is demonstrated in classical conditioning when a stimulus is used to signal the omission of an otherwise expected outcome. This basic learning ability is involved in a wide range of normal behavior – and thus its disruption could produce a correspondingly wide range of behavioral deficits. The present study employed a computer-based task to measure conditioned excitation and inhibition in the same discrimination procedure. CI by summation test was clearly demonstrated. Additionally summary measures of excitatory and inhibitory learning (difference scores) were calculated in order to explore how performance related to individual differences in a large sample of normal participants (n = 176 following exclusion of those not meeting the basic learning criterion). The individual difference measures selected derive from two biologically based personality theories, Gray’s (1982) reinforcement sensitivity theory and Eysenck and Eysenck (1991) psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism theory. Following the behavioral tasks, participants completed the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral activation system (BIS/BAS) scales and the Eysenck personality questionnaire revised short scale (EPQ-RS). Analyses of the relationship between scores on each of the scales and summary measures of excitatory and inhibitory learning suggested that those with higher BAS (specifically the drive sub-scale) and higher EPQ-RS neuroticism showed reduced levels of excitatory conditioning. Inhibitory conditioning was similarly attenuated in those with higher EPQ-RS neuroticism, as well as in those with higher BIS scores. Thus the findings are consistent with higher levels of neuroticism being accompanied by generally impaired associative learning, both inhibitory and excitatory. There was also evidence for some dissociation in the effects of behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition on excitatory and inhibitory learning respectively.