Recognition and approach responses toward threatening objects

Previous research suggests that positive stimuli are often approached as well as recognized faster than negative stimuli. We argue that this effect does not hold if negative stimuli are associated with threat. Based on fear module theory ( Öhman &amp; Mineka, 2001 , 2003 ), we argue that individuals recognize threatening stimuli faster than positive stimuli because of a constant monitoring of the environment for threatening objects. Moreover, based on the assumption of a motivational account underlying approach-avoidance responses ( Krieglmeyer &amp; Deutsch, 2010 ), we assume the recognition then directly evokes a careful and slow approach of threatening objects. Applying a response time task that measures approach movement and recognition times within the same task, we found that individuals recognize threatening pictures faster than positive pictures, but approach the threatening pictures slower than the positive pictures. </jats:p

Führungsstrategien und Personalentwicklung in der Hochschule

In Hochschulen werden Konzepte zur Unternehmensführung entwickelt und gelehrt. Angewendet werden sie jedoch häufiger in Wirtschaftsunternehmen als in Hochschulen. Dieser Artikel diskutiert ein Modell zur Übertragung von Führungsstrategien und Grundprinzipien der Personalentwicklung auf Hochschulen. Als Basis einer erfolgreichen Hochschulentwicklung sehen wir die Vereinbarung von klaren Leitlinien, deren Umsetzung in der Verantwortung von Hochschullehrern und Führungsverantwortlichen liegt. Die Vereinbarung von Zielen auf der Ebene der Mitarbeiter bietet die Möglichkeit der Ausrichtung der Tätigkeiten der Mitarbeiter und des optimierten Einsatzes von Ressourcen. Hochschullehrer und Führungsverantwortliche haben dabei nicht nur Vorbildfunktion; sie müssen ihr Handeln auch transparent und fair gestalten. Darüber hinaus ist die Förderung der Entwicklung der Mitarbeiter eine wesentliche Quelle für die Exzellenz einer Hochschule. 23.06.2006 | Arnd Florack & Claude Messner (Basel

Towards a Composite Index for Digital Maturity: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach

In recent years, a considerable amount of research has explored the negative effects associated with the use of ICTs and linked it to several health issues that can pose consequences at the social level as well as on an individual level. Despite the negative effects, the use of ICTs also provides a range of benefits and researchers are in particular interested in how we can help young people with obtaining a beneficial digital engagement with ICTs. Motivated by the advantages ICTs bring, a new concept named Digital Maturity has been proposed. Digital maturity is a multidimensional concept that consists of three capabilities. The first capability focuses on young people’s ability to make autonomous choices about using mobile devices and exercising autonomy within digital contexts. The second capability involves digital literacy, individual growth in digital contexts, digital risk awareness, and support-seeking regarding digital problems. Finally, the third capability consists of the regulation of negative emotions and aggressive impulses in digital contexts, respect towards others in digital contexts, and digital citizenship for adequate interaction with others and contribution to society. To measure digital maturity based on these ten dimensions, a composite index named digital maturity inventory (DIMI) has been constructed. As a composite index, DIMI can be used to gain an overview of the aggregated level of digital maturity in young people in a country or region by applying experts’ opinions on how much weight each dimension should be given. The challenge that remains in the construction of composite indexes is that expert’s proposed weights not always are in line with the relative importance of the synthesized dimensions. In this paper, we examine the optimal interplay between the ten dimensions from a data-driven perspective with an interest in obtaining an optimal fit for predicting young peoples’ digital maturity. Our result demonstrates a misfit between experts’ opinions and the importance of competencies. Thus, we propose an adjustment of the DIMI based on our empirical evidence and real-world data

Reaching for the (Product) Stars: Measuring Recognition and Approach Speed to Get Insights Into Consumer Choice

In three studies, an easy-to-apply response time task that differentiates between recognition and approach speed was applied. The results indicate that individuals recognized and approached positive stimuli faster than negative stimuli (Pilot Study). But, when the choice options differed less in valence, approach movement time was a better predictor of consumer choice and willingness to pay than recognition time (Study 1) and a better predictor of consumer choice than self-reports when the choice was made with an affective compared to a cognitive focus (Study 2). Moreover, approach movement time, but not recognition time correlated with other implicit measures

I Am More than Who I Am Here and Now: The Representational Structure of Social, Temporal and Spatial Selves via modified redundancy gain paradigms

The ability to project oneself into an alternative situation is an essential capacity. While research showing that such abilities base human decision making is abundant, the cognitive organization of the self across social, temporal, and spatial domains constituting the basic materials for self-projection is not clear. The current study introduces a new paradigm to gauge the representational overlaps among social (me myself), temporal (me now) and spatial (me here) selves by utilizing a shape-label matching task. Based on the level of redundancy gain effects, we infer a representational structure of social, temporal and spatial selves as systematically organized constructs. Our results showed that the spatial self resides at the core of the self-representation which conceptually extends to the temporal and ultimately, to the social domain, echoing the human developmental stages of self-representation. This novel finding advances the understanding and theorizing of the self-concept as an orderly structured mental construct

Immediate Self-information is Prioritized over Expanded Self-information across Temporal, Social, Spatial, and Probability Domains

People construct self-representation beyond the experiential self and the self-concept can expand to interpersonal as well as intrapersonal dimensions. The cognitive ability to project oneself onto expanded selves in different time points and places plays a crucial role in planning and decision making situations. However, no research to date has shown evidence explaining the early mechanism of how processing the experiential self-information differs from processing the expanded self-information across temporal, social, spatial, and probability domains. We report novel effects showing a systematic information prioritization towards the experiential selves (i.e., The self that is now, here, and with highest certainty) compared to the expanded selves (i.e., The self that is in the future, at a distant location, and with lower certainty; Experiments 1a, 2, and 3). Implicit prioritization biases lasted over time (Experiment 1b; i.e., 4 months) indicating a trait-like more than a state-like measure of individual differences. Different biases, however, did not consistently correlate with each other (Experiments 1a to 3) suggesting separate underlying mechanisms. We discuss potential links to the basic structure of self-representation and individual differences for implications