Shannon K.T. Bailey

Individual Differences in Middle School and College Students’ Texting

The present study surveyed a sample of middle school students on their technology habits, with a primary focus on texting behaviors. A secondary sample of college students was surveyed as a comparison group to examine individual differences in texting behaviors. Results indicate that college students text more frequently than middle schoolers; however, college students’ texting behaviors decrease in frequency as they get older, whereas middle schoolers’ texting behaviors increase in frequency. Females also generally reported texting more frequently than males. Extraversion was found to be predictive of texting in the middle school sample, but both Extraversion and Neuroticism were found to be predictive of texting in the college sample. Results are discussed in the context of previous research and with respect to human factors and developmental psychology, such that the study of technology use could offer insight into the social development of adolescents and young adults.

Perceptions of Mobile Instant Messaging Apps Are Comparable to Texting for Young Adults in the United States

In recent years, text messaging (“texting”) has become the dominant method of communication for young adults. This prevalence of texting has led to research exploring the beneficial and detrimental behaviors associated with texting, indicating wide-ranging social and human factors implications. As texting continues to take precedence over other forms of communication and research begins to address texting behaviors, the question arises about whether people use other mobile instant messaging applications (“IM apps”) similarly. The current study expands on the research of texting behaviors by asking how similarly young adults view apps (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.) to texting. Results indicated that young adults in the United States use texting more frequently than text-based apps, but that these apps are viewed similarly to texting. The implication is that research addressing texting behaviors may apply to other forms of text-based communication; however, texting remains the most prominent mode of communication, justifying its own continued examination.

Unsafe Texting and Socially Problematic Texting: Need for Cognition as an Underlying Predictor

As texting becomes the dominant medium for communication, problematic and unsafe texting habits arise. Understanding who is more likely to engage in problematic texting can give insight into the underlying traits driving these behaviors. The current exploratory study investigated the extent to which texting habits were correlated with an individual difference measure, the Need for Cognition scale. Results indicated endorsement of certain texting behaviors is inversely related to an individual’s need for cognition, or the extent to which a person enjoys and engages in thinking. In particular, texting behaviors related to safety (e.g., texting while walking), avoidance texting (e.g., texting while in a new place), negative behaviors (e.g., texting to insult or gossip), and health (e.g., waking up to respond to texts) were correlated negatively with stronger need for cognition. These and other texting behaviors have human factors implications of health, safety, and interpersonal relations.

Self-reported craft expertise predicts maintenance of spatial ability in old age

AbstractThree hundred and three female participants between the ages of 18 and 77 reported their experience in crafting (sewing, knitting, and crocheting) and completed a measure of spatial ability: The Paper Folding Test. To investigate the connection between spatial ability performance, age, and craft expertise, an ANOVA was conducted for the Paper Folding Test using two levels of crafting expertise (High and Low) and three age categories (younger adults: 18–39, middle-aged adults: 40–59, and older adults: 60–77). Performance on the spatial ability test declined with age as predicted from previous literature. However, there was a significant Age by Expertise interaction. No difference was found between High and Low craft expertise groups in younger adults (18–39), but there was a growing difference between expertise groups in middle-aged adults (40–59) and older adults (60–77). The results suggest that continued hands-on experience in spatial domains is a predictor of maintenance of spatial ability across the life span.

Designing Effective Feedback Messages in Serious Games and Simulations: A Research Review

Taking a value-added approach, we examined the impact of feedback on learning outcomes and performance in serious games and simulations. Although feedback has been demonstrated to be beneficial in traditional learning environments, we explore how feedback has been implemented in game- and simulation-based learning environments. In this review, we discuss critical characteristics that affect the efficacy of feedback, including the content of feedback messages, the modality in which feedback is presented, the timing of feedback presentation, and learner characteristics. General guidelines based on the research evidence are provided, and the theoretical implications are discussed in the context of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML; The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning, Mayer, 2014b).

Predictors of Views about Punishing Animal Abuse

ABSTRACT The current study used scenarios of animal cruelty based on actual events to explore what factors predict perceptions of punishments for animal cruelty. Five hundred thirty-eight university undergraduates participated in the study. Participants read scenarios based on an actual event of animal cruelty and with information on statutes addressing animal cruelty in their state. Participants were then asked to give ratings for punishment of the animal cruelty perpetrator. A canonical correlation analysis was used to test the multivariate shared relationship between the set of eight predictor variables and the criterion variable set of 15 punishment ratings. The response distributions were highly skewed for seven of the 15 criterion variables, highlighting the strong sentiments participants expressed against animal cruelty. The canonical correlation analysis identified significant criterion variables that were predicted by two of the empirically manipulated predictor variables (Perpetrator Age and Location of Crime) along with one subject variable (Participant Femininity). This set of predictor variables correlated with the criterion variable set that included Allowed with Children and Amount of Fine for Suffering. There was a main effect for Perpetrator Age, such that the degree to which participants thought a perpetrator of animal cruelty should be allowed alone with children depends on the age of the perpetrator. Mean responses were stronger for scenarios with perpetrators aged 28 than with perpetrators aged 12. The average response to Amount of Fine for Suffering was larger when the animal cruelty happened at a pet kennel than if the crime occurred at an animal shelter. Implications for these significant predictor and criterion variables are discussed in the context of interdisciplinary theory and practical implications for public policy.

Differences in the Performance of Older and Younger Adults in a Natural vs. Synthetic Speech Dichotic Listening Task

It has been suggested that older adults have more difficulty processing synthetic (computerized) speech than natural speech. One of the reasons for this is that with age, understanding and interpreting speech require additional working memory resources. As synthetic speech is often listened to when one is engaged in an additional task, it is important to understand how adults process and understand it. The impact of synthetic speech to break into attention while shadowing speech, and blocking out an additional stimulus in a dichotic listening task has previously been examined with a younger adult population (Sinatra, Sims, Najle & Chin, 2011). In order to examine if the ability to process unattended stimuli differs with age, the current study has replicated this task and compared the performance of older adults to that of younger. It was found that while younger adults were able to process details and semantic information from unattended audio, older adults were only able to process physical characteristic information, such as pitch. This research suggests that as we age less unattended information (such as the content of an alert) will be processed than when we are younger.

The Impact of Synthetic and Accented Speech on Unattended Recall in a Dichotic Listening Task

Synthetic speech is a commonly used form of computer-generated speech. Synthetic speech is different than natural speech as it has a different pacing and lacks intonation. English natural speech with a foreign accent also has a different pacing and pronunciation than an American’s own natural accented speech. A study was performed to determine if unattended synthetic speech was more difficult to process than unattended natural speech when one is engaged in an activity that demands a great deal of attention. Participants engaged in a dichotic listening task where they wore headphones and repeated information from one ear (attended), while ignoring information from their other ear (unattended). It was found that the presence of natural speech in the unattended ear resulted in participants reporting more low-threshold information from the task, and that accent did not impact the amount reported. It was concluded that synthetic speech is inherently different than natural speech, as degrading the natural speech by including a foreign accent did not result in the same deficits as synthetic speech.

Reconsidering the “Conventional Wisdom” of the Relationship between False Alarms and Risk Beliefs

The purpose of this research was to examine how false alarm experience of weather-related emergencies affects the relationship between perceived danger and desire for warnings. Participants reported how dangerous they perceived each event to be, whether they believed warnings should be distributed, whether they had experienced the event, and whether they had experienced a false alarm of the event. Participants indicated strong agreement for the desire for weather warnings. Although the literature implies that people who have experienced many false alarms may perceive that danger as less severe in the future due to the “crywolf effect,” our data suggest that people have a heightened risk perception and desire for warnings of those events. Because memories inform mental representations that guide decision-making in uncertain situations, it is imperative that future research continue to examine what people have stored in memory of false alarm experiences to settle debates in the contentious literature of false alarms and risk perception.

Measurement of Technology Behaviors: A Look at Texting Scales

The measurement of technology behaviors occurs in everyday interactions with websites and smart devices, and can be applied to customize interfaces to improve users’ experiences as well as increasing revenues via targeted ads. This is possible because technology behaviors can reflect underlying personal and psychological characteristics about users that can be utilized to deliver custom-tailored content to each user. Texting is a one technology behavior that has been shown to be associated with a variety of psychological variables, including personality, depression, and anxiety, and has been shown to relate to socio-developmental differences among different age groups. Thus, the measurement of texting behaviors could have potential applications for researchers and practitioners. The present study examined a new scale to measure texting behavior: the Texting Behaviors Index (TBX; Schroeder & Sims, 2017), alongside two scales that measure problematic aspects of mobile phone use (Merlo, Stone, & Bibbey, 2013) and motivations for texting (Reid & Reid, 2007). Results indicate that measures from the TBX converge with the other texting scales, and support the TBX’s usefulness as a measure of texting behavior.