Dynamic properties of language anxiety

This article begins by examining previous empirical studies to demonstrate that language anxiety, or the negative emotional reaction learners experience when using a second language (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1999), is a dynamic individual difference learner variable. I show that it forms part of an interconnected, constantly-in-flux system that changes unpredictably over multiple time scales. While at certain times this system might settle into an attractor state that accommodates contradictory conditions, perturbations that arise may lead to development and change with the curious possibility that minor disruptions generate large effects while major alterations go unnoticed. In essence, language anxiety (LA) is part of a continuous complex system in which each state evolves from a previous one. After I establish LA as a dynamic variable using the aforementioned criteria, I outline the implications and challenges for researching LA using a dynamic paradigm, which include focusing on individuals, transforming LA research questions, designing interventions and re-thinking data gathering methodologies. I conclude with implications for language teaching that emphasize: 1) raising awareness of the importance of decoding nonverbal behavior to identify moment-by-moment shifts in learner emotion; 2) remaining vigilant concerning variables that are interacting with LA that make this factor part of a cyclical process; 3) understanding that anxiety co-exists with positive emotions to varying degrees and that language tasks are not unanimously enjoyed or universally anxiety-provoking; and 4) incorporating positive psychology activities that proactively encourage buoyancy and resilience for moment-by-moment daily perturbations as well as debilitating disruptions that result in long-lasting influences

High intelligence prevents the negative impact of anxiety on working memory

Using a large sample and the confirmatory factor analysis, the study investigated the relationships between anxiety, working memory (WM) and (fluid) intelligence. The study showed that the negative impact of anxiety on WM functioning diminishes with increasing intelligence, and that anxiety can significantly affect WM only in people below average intelligence. This effect could not be fully explained by the sheer differences in WM capacity (WMC), suggesting the importance of higher-level cognition in coping with anxiety. Although intelligence moderated the impact of anxiety on WM, it was only weakly related to anxiety. In contrast to previous studies, anxiety explained the substantial amount of WMC variance (17.8%) in less intelligent participants, but none of the variance in more intelligent ones. These results can be explained in terms of either increased motivation of intelligent but anxious people to cope with a WM task, or their ability to compensate decrements in WM

Conceptual metaphor and spatial representations of time : the role of affect

Conceptual metaphor involves understanding abstract concepts (e.g., time) in terms of more concrete bodily experiences (e.g., spatial location and movement). Research has identified two different spatio-temporal metaphorical perspectives on time, as reflected in the contrast between ”Christmas is coming” and “We are approaching Christmas”. It has been found that which perspective is chosen can depend on the perceiver’s situation and experience. Four recent studies (Hauser, Carter, & Meier, 2009; Lee & Ji, 2014; Margolies & Crawford, 2008; Richmond, Clare Wilson, & Zinken, 2012) examined the role of emotion on choice of temporal perspective. The current project sought to address the anomalous results and several key issues arising from those studies. First, a series of critical questions were developed and discussed from interrogating the wider research literature on the two spatio-temporal metaphors and from conducting a research synthesis that examined methodological and statistical issues in that wider literature. This was followed by two experiments. The first experiment tested which of two emotion-induction methods, text or film, would be more effective. The second experiment examined the effect of induced emotion (via text) and event valence on choice of spatio-temporal metaphor. Participants (n = 504) were randomly assigned to one of nine experimental conditions, each participant having either a positive, negative, or neutral emotion induced and responding about an event that was either positive, negative or neutral. Additional measures were taken of trait test anxiety, social anxiety, and more general negative emotional states. Emotion induction was effective and there was a significant difference in some responses for traits and for more general negative emotional states. No other significant differences were found. The combined results of the literature interrogation, research synthesis, and experiments are discussed in light of the changing climate in psychology favouring a broader approach to science that includes conceptual analysis, null results, and replications. It is argued that the project has highlighted a previously unacknowledged relationship between emotion, event valence, and temporal perspective, and has revealed a general misunderstanding regarding the interpretation of responses on the standard measures used. This suggests redirection along more fruitful lines of future research into the effect of emotion on choice of spatio-temporal metaphor

Resistance to change: a functional analysis of reponses to technical change in a Swiss bank

This thesis demonstrates the signal function and diagnostic value of user resistance in a software development project. Its starting point is the critical analysis of managerial common sense which negates resistance, or sees resistance to change as a 'nuisance' and as the manifestation of an individual or structural 'deficiency'; these notions prohibit change agents from appreciating the signal function of resistance to change in organisational processes. The first source of evidence is the literature on impacts, attitudes, and acceptance of information technology internationally and in particular in Switzerland. The second source is the tradition of psychological field theory which I reconstruct as the 'feeding the reluctant eater' paradigm, a form of social engineering. The third source is an empirical study of the semantics (semantic differential and free associations) of 'resistance to change' among management trainees in the UK, Switzerland and the USA (N=388). The thesis develops and investigates a concept of resistance that is based a pain analogy, and on the notions of self-monitoring and self-active systems. An organization which is implementing new technology is a self-active system that directs and energetizes its activities with the help of internal and external communication. The functional analogy of the organismic pain system and resistance to change is explored. The analogy consists of parallel information processing, filtering and recoding of information, a bimodal pattern of attention over time, and the functions of attention allocation, evaluation, alteration and learning. With this analogy I am able to generate over 50 hypotheses on resistance to change and its effects on organisational processes. The evidence for some of these hypotheses is explored in an empirical study of a Swiss banking group. The implemention of computer services between 1983 and 1991 is reconstructed in the central bank and 24 branches. Data includes the analysis of two opinion surveys (1985 n=305; 1991 n=326), documents (n=134), narrative interviews (n=34), job analyses (n=34), field observations and performance data (n=24). A method is developed to describe the varying structure of organisational information processing through time. The content analysis allows me to describe when in relation to the action, how intense, and in what manner 'resistance' becomes an issue between 1983 and 1991. The fruitfulness of the pain analogy is demonstrated (a) by shifting the analysis of resistance from structure to process and to that of an independent rather than to that of a dependent variable; (b) by shifting the focus from from motivation to communication; (c) by eroding the a priori assumption that resistance is a nuisance; and (d) by indicating the diagnostic value of "bad news" in organisational communication; resistance is diagnostic information; it shows us when, where and why things go wrong

The development of reasoning heuristics in autism and in typical development

Reasoning and judgment under uncertainty are often based on a limited number of simplifying heuristics rather than formal logic or rule-based argumentation. Heuristics are low-effort mental shortcuts, which save time and effort, and usually result in accurate judgment, but they can also lead to systematic errors and biases when applied inappropriately. In the past 40 years hundreds of papers have been published on the topic of heuristics and biases in judgment and decision making. However, we still know surprisingly little about the development and the cognitive underpinnings of heuristics and biases. The main aim of my thesis is to examine these questions. Another aim is to evaluate the applicability of dual-process theories of reasoning to the development of reasoning. Dual-process theories claim that there are two types of process underlying higher order reasoning: fast, automatic, and effortless (Type 1) processes (which are usually associated with the use of reasoning heuristics), and slow, conscious and effortful (Type 2) processes (which are usually associated with rule-based reasoning). This thesis presents eight experiments which investigated the development of reasoning heuristics in three different populations: typically developing children and adolescents between the age of 5 and 16, adolescents with autism, and university students. Although heuristic reasoning is supposed to be basic, simple, and effortless, we have found evidence that responses that are usually attributed to heuristic processes are positively correlated with cognitive capacity in the case of young children (even after controlling for the effects of age). Moreover, we have found that adolescents with autism are less susceptible to a number of reasoning heuristics than typically developing children. Finally, our experiments with university students provided evidence that education in statistics increases the likelihood of the inappropriate use of a certain heuristic (the equiprobability bias). These results offer a novel insight into the development of reasoning heuristics. Additionally, they have interesting implications for dual-process theories of reasoning, and they can also inform the debates about the rationality of reasoning heuristics and biases

I am not your Student-Athlete: An Investigation of Social Identity Complexity as a Stereotype Threat Mitigation Strategy and Individual Differences that may moderate the effect

Collegiate athletes must contend with negative stereotypes during their academic career (Comeaux, 2012). Such stereotypes depict student-athletes as unintelligent (Yopyk & Prentice, 2005) and overlook the benefits and variability of the collegiate athletic experience. Student-athletes are multifaceted and more than their sport. Unfair depictions can influence student-athletes’ behavior, especially in the classroom. Research shows that student-athletes’ academic performance is affected by stereotype threat (Riciputi & Erdal, 2017); which is the apprehension of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s social group (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Currently, there is no published evidence-based research on stereotype threat mitigation strategies tailored to student-athletes. Expanding the work of Gresky et al. (2005), this study explored a self-concept map activity, based on the social identity complexity theory, as one potential strategy for collegiate athletes (exploring multiple social identities). Division I student-athletes (N = 70) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: 1) threat-no mitigation, 2) threat-mitigation, and 3) no threat-no mitigation (control). Factorial ANOVA was employed to assess differences in participants’ scores on an SAT-style examination (writing/language and mathematics) across conditions. Academic self-concept, gender identity, and race/ethnicity served as grouping variables and potential moderators. Results showed no significant differences in overall test performance across experimental conditions, or between gender identity (female and male). Results revealed several main effects of academic self-concept and race/ethnicity on components of performance, especially on difficult test items. Specific to the main hypothesis, a marginally significant (p = .052) interaction effect of condition by race/ethnicity was observed on the difficult math items. Post-hoc analyses showed that African American student-athletes had significantly poorer scores in the control condition than Caucasian student-athletes (p = .010), and in the threat condition than did Caucasian (p = .001) and Hispanic (p = .004) student-athletes. There was no difference between these groups in the mitigation condition. African American participants’ performance on difficult math items in the mitigation condition was significantly better than their performance in the threat condition (p = .02). These results suggest that stereotype threat mitigations may work, but strategies should be culturally-specific and tailored to the challenge of the academic tasks

The Digital Transformation of Search and Recombination in the Innovation Function: Tensions and an Integrative Framework*

Search and recombination are important mechanisms in the creativity phase of innovation. Digital transformation and the resulting pervasive digitalization of the innovation function have often been associated with increasing possibilities for search and recombination. In this paper, by systematically integrating the search and recombination literature with the literature on digitalization, we demonstrate that digitalization may engender new idiosyncratic tensions in the organizational antecedents of search and recombination and, by implication, in their likely outcomes. We propose that, depending on the interactions among the idiosyncratic tensions identified herein, knowledge recombination might spur very different outcomes, including knowledge layering, knowledge integration, knowledge grafting, or even no recombination at all (which we label “search for the sake of search”). These outcomes may not always be the initially planned desired outcomes. Finally, we provide implications of our integrative framework pertaining to product development and to organizing for innovation