Group Rapport and Nonverbal Expressivity

The purpose of this thesis was to assess the relationship between group rapport and nonverbal expressivity using three data sources: self-report, observer ratings, and test data. Assessing these constructs using multiple data sources enabled the construction of multitrait-multimethod matrices. These matrices allowed for a critical evaluation of the convergent and discriminant validity of the group rapport and nonverbal expressivity constructs. Participants (N = 162) were randomly assigned to small groups of 5-7 (24 groups total) and tasked with completing a puzzle activity in collaboration with their group members. Rapport has been colloquially defined as the “clicking, chemistry, and harmony” shared between interactants. After the activity, participants rated their rapport experience. Groups were filmed while completing the activity and objective raters assessed the groups on domains derived from the rapport (Tickle-Degnen & Rosenthal, 1987) and entitativity (Campbell, 1958) literatures. Group rapport has been theorized to be relevant for successful group collaboration in many applied contexts (e.g., business, health care, and engineering), therefore the primary outcome (test) measure of group rapport was whether groups successfully completed the puzzle activity before the other groups assigned to complete the same puzzle. It was expected that nonverbal expressivity (defined as the extent to which an individual uses their face, gestures, body, and voice to transmit emotion) would be associated with group rapport because expressive individuals are easier to accurately read and respond to compared to their unexpressive counterparts. Nonverbal expressivity had a weak relationship with group rapport, indicating that nonverbal expressivity may not be as important for effective group collaboration as it is for dyadic exchanges. In addition to the self-reports, observer ratings of group rapport and entitativity based on only ten-second segments (thin slices) of group behavior were associated with whether groups won the puzzle competition. Based on these findings, a development to group rapport theory is proposed that includes entitativity as a primary component of rapport in small groups. It is recommended that future investigations empirically test this supposition in addition to evaluating the utility of short segments of behavior (thin slices) to predict applied group outcomes

Attributional Style and Self-Reported High School and College Grade Point Average

The relationship between causal attributional styles and academic achievement was examined in a data set from a larger project investigating interpersonal sensitivity and emotional intelligence, the Beaver Interpersonal Sensitivity Project (Brown & Bernieri, 2017). Seligman’s (2002) Attributional Style Questionnaire was given to 150 participants who also reported their high school and college cumulative grade point average (i.e., self-report). Tendencies to prefer internal, global, and stable causal explanations for good and bad events were correlated with selfreported GPA (Table 1). The tendency to attribute internal personal causes to events correlated negatively with high school GPA (r = -.17) but positively with college GPA (r = .14). Although the tendency to make global and stable attributions showed no significant relationship with high school GPA, the tendency to view bad events as being caused by global and permanent causes (hopelessness) was negatively correlated with college GPA. No explanation is provided for these results

Linking soil microbial community structure to potential carbon mineralization: A continental scale assessment of reduced tillage

Potential carbon mineralization (Cmin) is a commonly used indicator of soil health, with greater Cmin values interpreted as healthier soil. While Cmin values are typically greater in agricultural soils managed with minimal physical disturbance, the mechanisms driving the increases remain poorly understood. This study assessed bacterial and archaeal community structure and potential microbial drivers of Cmin in soils maintained under various degrees of physical disturbance. Potential carbon mineralization, 16S rRNA sequences, and soil characterization data were collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM). Results showed that type of cropping system, intensity of physical disturbance, and soil pH influenced microbial sensitivity to physical disturbance. Furthermore, 28% of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), which were important in modeling Cmin, were enriched under soils managed with minimal physical disturbance. Sequences identified as enriched under minimal disturbance and important for modeling Cmin, were linked to organisms which could produce extracellular polymeric substances and contained metabolic strategies suited for tolerating environmental stressors. Understanding how physical disturbance shapes microbial communities across climates and inherent soil properties and drives changes in Cmin provides the context necessary to evaluate management impacts on standardized measures of soil microbial activity

Carbon-sensitive pedotransfer functions for plant available water

Currently accepted pedotransfer functions show negligible effect of management-induced changes to soil organic carbon (SOC) on plant available water holding capacity (θAWHC), while some studies show the ability to substantially increase θAWHC through management. The Soil Health Institute\u27s North America Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements measured water content at field capacity using intact soil cores across 124 long-term research sites that contained increases in SOC as a result of management treatments such as reduced tillage and cover cropping. Pedotransfer functions were created for volumetric water content at field capacity (θFC) and permanent wilting point (θPWP). New pedotransfer functions had predictions of θAWHC that were similarly accurate compared with Saxton and Rawls when tested on samples from the National Soil Characterization database. Further, the new pedotransfer functions showed substantial effects of soil calcareousness and SOC on θAWHC. For an increase in SOC of 10 g kg–1 (1%) in noncalcareous soils, an average increase in θAWHC of 3.0 mm 100 mm–1 soil (0.03 m3 m–3) on average across all soil texture classes was found. This SOC related increase in θAWHC is about double previous estimates. Calcareous soils had an increase in θAWHC of 1.2 mm 100 mm–1 soil associated with a 10 g kg–1 increase in SOC, across all soil texture classes. New equations can aid in quantifying benefits of soil management practices that increase SOC and can be used to model the effect of changes in management on drought resilience

The relationships between synchrony, rapport, and small group performance

The purpose of this dissertation was to estimate the extent to which group-level synchrony predicts specific group outcomes. Synchrony is broadly defined as the coordination of biological and behavioral processes during social contact (Feldman, 2017). In this dissertation, biological coordination is defined as, “the spontaneous synchronization of physiological signals (e.g., heartrate, brain activity, respiration, electrodermal response) in social interactions” (Helm et al., 2018) and is referred to as “physiological synchrony.” Behavioral coordination is defined as, “gestalt like harmoniousness or meshing of interpersonal behaviors” (Bernieri et al., 1988) and is referred to as “nonverbal synchrony.” The specific group outcomes of interest were a) group rapport and b) group performance. Participants were recruited from Oregon State University’s subject pool and arranged in small groups of two to three (N = 47 groups). This fulfilled the secondary purpose of this work which was to examine whether commonly studied interpersonal phenomena in dyads extended to triads. Groups engaged in three sequential activities: a getting-to-know-you interaction, a social perception competition (the performance measure), and a “plan a trip” activity. During the social perception competition, groups watched a series of clips that displayed everyday social behavior and were tasked with collaboratively making accurate judgments on each clip. During the plan a trip activity, groups were given play money and instructed to plan a trip around the world with their group members. Participants were asked to rate the rapport they experienced with their group member(s) after both the social perception competition and the plan a trip activities. It was expected that nonverbal synchrony would be positively associated with group rapport because of the consistent relationship between these two constructs reported in the literature (Bernieri et al., 1988; Vacharkulksemsuk & Fredrickson, 2012; Stosic, 2021). It was also expected that physiological synchrony would be positively associated with performance because a recent meta-analysis revealed it is a consistent predictor of performance tasks (Mayo et al., 2021). The data revealed that nonverbal synchrony was reliably predictive of group rapport across both the social perception competition and plan a trip activities, however physiological synchrony was unrelated to group performance. Unexpectedly, group rapport was negatively associated with performance. Groups that reported higher rapport performed worse on the collaborative social perception task. An analyses of other self-report data suggested that this may have been due to these groups having a stronger motive to maintain harmony and cohesion than their motivation to engage in spirited discussions that would have likely improved their rational decision-making processes (i.e., performance). The importance of synchrony as a mechanism of interaction satisfaction and social belongingness is also discussed

Can You Accurately Recognize Emotions?

Emotion recognition accuracy refers to the ability to correctly identify the emotions of others (Bänziger, 2016). For this study, we attempted to determine whether existing tests of emotion recognition predict this ability in a live setting; e.g., the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy 2 (Nowicki & Duke, 2001; DANVA2) and the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (Rosenthal et al., 1979; PONS). Unacquainted participants were arranged in groups of 5-7 and rated the emotional states of each other during their very first meeting and then again later after speaking with each other one-on-one for five minutes. Scores from the DANVA2 (but not the PONS) predicted how accurate participants were at reading the emotions reported by their group members. A near-significant interaction effect indicated that the DANVA2 was more predictive of men’s accuracy than women’s accuracy. These results validate the DANVA2 and emphasize the importance of comparing existing psychological measures to live tasks

sj-docx-1-amp-10.1177_25152459241231581 – Supplemental material for Careless Responding: Why Many Findings Are Spurious or Spuriously Inflated

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-amp-10.1177_25152459241231581 for Careless Responding: Why Many Findings Are Spurious or Spuriously Inflated by Morgan D. Stosic, Brett A. Murphy, Fred Duong, Amber A. Fultz, Summer E. Harvey and Frank Bernieri in Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science</p

Linking soil microbial community structure to potential carbon mineralization: A continental scale assessment of reduced tillage

Potential carbon mineralization (Cmin) is a commonly used indicator of soil health, with greater Cmin values interpreted as healthier soil. While Cmin values are typically greater in agricultural soils managed with minimal physical disturbance, the mechanisms driving the increases remain poorly understood. This study assessed bacterial and archaeal community structure and potential microbial drivers of Cmin in soils maintained under various degrees of physical disturbance. Potential carbon mineralization, 16S rRNA sequences, and soil characterization data were collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM). Results showed that type of cropping system, intensity of physical disturbance, and soil pH influenced microbial sensitivity to physical disturbance. Furthermore, 28% of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), which were important in modeling Cmin, were enriched under soils managed with minimal physical disturbance. Sequences identified as enriched under minimal disturbance and important for modeling Cmin, were linked to organisms which could produce extracellular polymeric substances and contained metabolic strategies suited for tolerating environmental stressors. Understanding how physical disturbance shapes microbial communities across climates and inherent soil properties and drives changes in Cmin provides the context necessary to evaluate management impacts on standardized measures of soil microbial activity.Foundation for Food and Agriculture ResearchOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

An evaluation of carbon indicators of soil health in long-term agricultural experiments

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is closely tied to soil health. However, additional biological indicators may also provide insight about C dynamics and microbial activity. We used SOC and the other C indicators (potential C mineralization, permanganate oxidizable C, water extractable organic C, and β-glucosidase enzyme activity) from the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements to examine the continental-scale drivers of these indicators, the relationships among indicators, and the effects of soil health practices on indicator values. All indicators had greater values at cooler temperatures, and most were greater with increased precipitation and clay content. The indicators were strongly correlated with each other at the site-level, with the strongest relationship between SOC and permanganate oxidizable C. The indicator values responded positively to decreased tillage, inclusion of cover crops, application of organic nutrients, and retention of crop residue, but not the number of harvested crops in a rotation. The effect of decreased tillage on the C indicators was generally greater at sites with higher precipitation. The magnitude and direction of the response to soil health practices was consistent across indicators within a site but measuring at least two indicators would provide additional confidence of the effects of management, especially for tillage. All C indicators responded to management, an essential criterion for evaluating soil health. Balancing the cost, sensitivity, interpretability, and availability at commercial labs, a 24-hr potential C mineralization assay could deliver the most benefit to measure in conjunction with SOC.Samuel Roberts Noble FoundationOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Evaluation of aggregate stability methods for soil health

Aggregate stability is a commonly used indicator of soil health because improvements in aggregate stability are related to reduced erodibility and improved soil–water dynamics. During the past 80 to 90 years, numerous methods have been developed to assess aggregate stability. Limited comparisons among the methods have resulted in varied magnitudes of response to soil health management practices and varied influences of inherent soil properties and climate. It is not clear whether selection of a specific method creates any advantage to the investigator. This study assessed four commonly used methods of measuring aggregate stability using data collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements. The methods included water stable aggregates using the Cornell Rainfall Simulator (WSACASH), wet sieved water stable aggregates (WSAARS), slaking captured and adapted from SLAKES smart-phone image recognition software (STAB10), and the mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates (MWD). Influence of climate and inherent soil properties at the continental scale were analyzed in addition to method responses to rotation diversity, cash crop count, residue management, organic nutrient amendments, cover crops, and tillage. The four methods were moderately correlated with each other. All methods were sensitive to differences in climate and inherent soil properties between sites, although to different degrees. None measured significant effects from rotation diversity or crop count, but all methods detected significant increases in aggregate stability resulting from reduced tillage. Significant increases or positive trends were observed for all methods in relation to cover cropping, increased residue retention, and organic amendments, except for STAB10, which expressed a slightly negative response to organic amendments. Considering these results, no single method was clearly superior and all four are viable options for measuring aggregate stability. Therefore, secondary considerations (e.g., cost, method availability, increased sensitivity to a specific management practice, or minimal within-treatment variability) driven by the needs of the investigator, should determine the most suitable method.General Mills IncOpen access articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]