Action-Effect Sharing Induces Task-Set Sharing in Joint Task Switching

A central issue in the study of joint task performance has been one of whether co-acting individuals perform their partner’s part of the task as if it were their own. The present study addressed this issue by using joint task switching. A pair of actors shared two tasks that were presented in a random order, whereby the relevant task and actor were cued on each trial. Responses produced action effects that were either shared or separate between co-actors. When co-actors produced separate action effects, switch costs were obtained within the same actor (i.e., when the same actor performed consecutive trials) but not between co-actors (when different actors performed consecutive trials), implying that actors did not perform their co-actor’s part. When the same action effects were shared between co-actors, however, switch costs were also obtained between co-actors, implying that actors did perform their co-actor’s part. The results indicated that shared action effects induce task-set sharing between co-acting individuals

The Roles of Action Selection and Actor Selection in Joint Task Settings

Studies on joint task performance have proposed that co-acting individuals co-represent the shared task context, which implies that actors integrate their co-actor’s task components into their own task representation as if they were all their own task. This proposal has been supported by results of joint tasks in which each actor is assigned a single response where selecting a response is equivalent to selecting an actor. The present study used joint task switching, which has previously shown switch costs on trials following the actor’s own trial (intrapersonal switch costs) but not on trials that followed the co-actor’s trial (interpersonal switch costs), suggesting that there is no task co-representation. We examined whether interpersonal switch costs can be obtained when action selection and actor selection are confounded as in previous joint task studies. The present results confirmed this prediction, demonstrating that switch costs can occur within a single actor as well as between co-actors when there is only a single response per actor, but not when there are two responses per actor. These results indicate that task co-representation is not necessarily implied even when effects occur across co-acting individuals and that how the task is divided between co-actors plays an important role in determining whether effects occur between co-actors

The Cooperation Link: Power and Context Moderate Verbal Mimicry

Drawing on theories of mimicry as a schema-driven process, we tested whether the degree of verbal mimicry is dependent on the congruence between interactants’ power dynamic (symmetric vs. asymmetric), task type (cooperative vs. competitive) and interaction context (negotiation vs. social). Experiment 1 found higher verbal mimicry amongst dyads who successfully completed a cooperative problem-solving task compared to those who did not, but only under conditions of symmetric, not asymmetric, power. Experiment 2 had dyads complete either a cooperative or a competitive negotiation task, under conditions of symmetric vs. asymmetric power. Verbal mimicry was associated with improved negotiation outcomes under conditions of cooperation and symmetry, and competition and asymmetry. Experiment 3 completes this picture by separating cooperative-competitive orientation from the interaction context. Consistent with Experiment 2, verbal mimicry was associated with task success during a negotiation context with asymmetric power, and during a social interaction context with symmetric power. Our results point to the contextual link between verbal mimicry and task outcome

A coach's guide to team building: understanding functions, structure and leadership

In today’s ever-changing workplace, it is important for managers and team leaders to be able to navigate challenges arising from unproductive or dysfunctional behaviour among team members. A Coach’s Guide to Team Building applies a unique coaching perspective to tackle the complex issues facing teams and their leaders. Applying psychology principles in coaching and coaching leadership has the potential to help managers adapt to hybrid teams, flexible working and portfolio careers. With insightful case studies and the utilisation of interview data throughout, this book offers practical tools, solutions to real team problems and shares key learnings from coaching, psychology, and professional practice. The interviewees spanned multiple sectors, with insights into industries such as banking, education and engineering, readers can benefit from the flexible, effective approach to successfully creating and leading teams

Personality profiles and persuasion: An exploratory study investigating the role of the Big-5, Type D personality and the Dark Triad on susceptibility to persuasion

The present study investigated the relationship between personality profiles and susceptibility to persuasion.
 Participants (N = 316) were recruited for an online questionnaire and asked to complete self-reported measures of their personality – Big-5, Dark Triad and Type D. Individual differences in susceptibility to persuasion were also explored using Cialdini's model of persuasion. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct profiles which were labelled Socially Apt, Fearful and Malevolent. These profiles were correlated with scores on the persuasion sub-scales – authority, commitment, liking, scarcity, reciprocity, consensus – and a number of interesting associations were identified. The malevolent profile self-reported as more susceptible to a higher use of scarcity relative to the other principles of persuasion, and was least susceptible to reciprocity and authority. The socially apt profile appear to be more inclined to be persuaded to do something if it is consistent with their beliefs or a prior act whereas individuals in the Fearful profile were more likely to report obeying those in authority and going along with a crowd. Implications for persuasion are discussed along with research on personality types

A study of space as an element in plastic design

The history of man is the story of an expanding universe. Between the very narrow concept of the universe held by primitive man and the cosmic concept that we hold today there lie centuries of slow but steady development. The desire to discover the physical units, and to attain to the spiritual limits of his universe has motivated countless excursions into the unknown and has gained for man a vast knowledge of the world in which he lives. "We possess today the most constructive and clear understanding of ourselves and our universe that man has ever held."1 Physically, our universe now knows no bounds. Man no longer seeks the limits of the seas or the continents; he knows already the measurements of the earth. It is rather towards the heavens that scientists turn their giant eyes to probe further the mysteries of the cosmos. Whether it is finite or infinite has not yet been determined but the vastness of the space already perceived, the complexity of the system in which groups of galaxies move with other groups and within other solar systems move with our own is an overwhelming phenomena

Escherichia coli lacking the AcrAB multidrug efflux pump also lacks nonproteinaceous, PHB–polyphosphate Ca2+ channels in the membrane

AbstractPHB(polyP) complexes bind calcium and form calcium channels in the cytoplasmic membrane in Escherichia coli and are likely to be important in Ca2+ homeostasis in this organism. E. coli N43, which lacks the AcrA component of a major multidrug resistance pump, was shown to be defective in calcium handling, with an inability to maintain submicromolar levels of free Ca2+ in the cytoplasm. Therefore, using an N-phenyl-1-napthylamine (NPN)-dependent fluorescence assay, we measured temperature-dependent phase transitions in the membranes of intact cells. These transitions specifically depend on the presence of PHB(Ca2+polyP) complexes. PHB(Ca2+polyP) channel complexes, particularly in stationary phase cultures, were detected in wild-type strains; however, in contrast, isogenic acrA− strains had greatly reduced amounts of the complexes. This indicates that the AcrAB transporter may have a novel, hitherto undetected physiological role, either directly in the membrane assembly of the PHB complexes or the transport of a component of the membrane, which is essential for assembly of the complexes into the membrane. In other experiments, we showed that the particular defective calcium handling detected in N43 was not due to the absence of AcrA but to other unknown factors in this strain

A pilot evaluation of simulation-based interprofessional education for occupational therapy, speech pathology and dietetic students: improvements in attitudes and confidence

© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Many higher education institutions struggle to provide interprofessional practice opportunities for their pre-licensure students due to demanding workloads, difficulties with timetabling, and problems with sourcing suitable placements that provide appropriate practice opportunities. A series of complex unfolding video-based simulation scenarios involving a patient who had experienced a stroke was utilized as a case study for a three-hour interprofessional practice workshop. 69 occupational therapy (OT), speech pathology (SP) and dietetics (DT) students participated in a mixed-methods study comparing interprofessional attitudes before and after the workshop. Attitudes toward interprofessional practice improved pre- vs. post-workshop and overall. Students were highly satisfied with the workshops contribution toward learning, although OT and SP students were more satisfied than DT students. Focus groups confirmed students liked the format and structure of the workshop, suggested that students better understood the role of other professions and improved role clarification, increased their confidence to practice in interprofessional practice settings, but noted the experience could have been improved with the incorporation of nursing and smaller groups to better facilitate participation. There is widespread support for implementing interprofessional education (IPE) in the health sciences, yet widespread implementation is not yet a reality. This research suggests that a simulation-based, three-hour IPE workshop can have an immediate benefit on confidence and attitudes toward interprofessional practice for allied health students

How emotional are emoji?: Exploring the effect of emotional valence on the processing of emoji stimuli.

Emoji are vastly becoming an integral part of everyday communication, yet little is understood about the extent to which these are processed emotionally. Previous research shows that there is a processing advantage for emotionally-valenced words over neutral ones, therefore if emoji are indeed emotional, one could expect an equivalent processing advantage. In the Pilot Study, participants (N = 44) completed a lexical decision task to explore accuracy and response latency of word, face and emoji stimuli. This stimuli varied in emotional valence (positive vs. neutral). Main effects were found for stimuli type and valence on both accuracy and latency, although the interaction for accuracy was not significant. That is, there were processing advantages of positively-valenced stimuli over neutral ones, across all stimuli types. Also, faces and emoji were processed significantly more quickly than words, and latencies between face and emoji stimuli, irrespective of valence were largely equivalent. The Main Study recruited 33 participants to undertake a modified and extended version of the lexical decision task, which included three valence conditions (positive, negative and neutral) per stimuli type. Although no main effects were found for accuracy, there was a significant main effect found for stimuli but not for valence on latency. Namely, that word stimuli irrespective of valence were processed significantly more slowly than face or emoji stimuli. There was not a significant interaction between stimuli and valence, however. Therefore, overall although there was partial support for a processing advantage of emoji stimuli, this was not replicated across the studies reported here, suggesting additional work may be needed to corroborate further evidenc