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Looking Back Key to Moving Forward
New Research from Kellogg School of Management Finds Counterfactual Reflection is Critical to Institutional Prosperity Despite modest economic gains, gloomy unemployment numbers and low workplace morale still loom large within corporate America. Whether or not companies can capitalize on the momentum of this fragile financial revitalization is dependent on more than enhancing consumer confidence or introducing new products to the marketplace—it falls largely on employees working for organizations and their level of commitment to corporate success.
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Measuring the Suicidal Mind
People who are contemplating killing themselves often conceal their suicidal thoughts, but scientists have adapted a widely used implicit association test to predict a person’s suicide risk.
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Motivation by Anticipation: Expecting Rapid Feedback Enhances Performance
There are a number of factors that influence how well we do in school, including the amount of time we study and our interest in a subject. Now, according to new findings in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, how quickly we expect to receive our grades may also influence how we perform. Psychological scientists Keri L. Kettle and Gerald Häubl of the University of Alberta in Canada wanted to investigate how the timing of expected feedback impacts individuals’ performance. For this experiment, they recruited students enrolled in a class that required each student to give a 4-minute oral presentation.
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It’s the Thought That Counts: Helping Behavior in Infants May Be Determined by Previous Interactions
We are usually eager to assist people who have helped us in the past. These reciprocal relationships are an important part of adult interactions and foster cooperation in society. New findings, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that this reciprocal behavior may have early beginnings and can be demonstrated in children as young as 21-months-old. Psychological scientists Kristen A. Dunfield and Valerie A. Kuhlmeier from Queen’s University in Canada wanted to examine the specificity of infants’ helping behavior — that is, if they are likelier to help one person over another.
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Study Suggests Environment May Impact Apes’ Ability to Understand Declarative Communication
When we notice somebody pointing at something, we automatically look in the direction of the gesture. In humans, the ability to understand this type of gesturing (known as declarative communication) may seem to be an automatic response, but it is actually a sign of sophisticated communication behavior. Numerous studies have tried to determine if great apes (for example, chimpanzees and bonobos) are able to understand declarative communication, but results have been mixed.
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Talking Your Way to Happiness: Well-being Is Related to Having Less Small Talk and More Substantive Conversations
Is a happy life filled with trivial chatter or reflective and profound conversations? Psychological scientists Matthias R. Mehl, Shannon E. Holleran, and C. Shelby Clark from the University of Arizona, along with Simine Vazire of Washington University in St. Louis investigated whether happy and unhappy people differ in the types of conversations they tend to engage in. Volunteers wore an unobtrusive recording device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) over four days. This device periodically records snippets of sounds as participants go about their lives.
