Browsing by Subject "Psychology, General"

The Systems Dynamics literature demonstrates that individuals have difficulty understanding and working with systems concepts. To model Systems Dynamics (SD), researchers suggest that clients contract with a modeling team to formulate the problem, elicit the mental models of employees at the client, and use software-based simulation tools. This approach is both time-intensive and costly, limiting its use by organizations. This two-part study piloted the Independent Systems Dynamics Elicitation Method (ISDEM), a new method that may be self-administered by teams to reveal individuals' mental models. The first study, a between-subjects design, compared undergraduate participants' responses on the Systems-Based Inquiry Protocol (S-BI) to the ISDEM. Participants reported more relationships and feedback loops using the ISDEM, and obtained significantly higher Systemic Reasoning Level scores. In Study 2, groups of undergraduate participants were asked to brainstorm and develop a collective model of an issue of university interest, using either their typical brainstorming methods, or the ISDEM. Independent coders rated the ISDEM significantly more informative, clear and useful than the control models. In sum, the ISDEM did a significantly better job eliciting individuals' mental models of systems dynamics than traditional measures, and is a valuable new tool for organizations to use to map systemic phenomenon.

Consumers often lack objective information about product acquisition costs. In such cases, consumers must rely on estimates of acquisition costs in making their choices. The current work examines the influence of mental simulations of product acquisition on estimates of acquisition costs. We suggest that simulations of product acquisition lead estimates to reflect the influence of consumers' current physical states on the experience of a particular cost. Specifically, carrying a heavy burden leads consumers to estimate higher distances to targets when they engage in simulation of walking to targets, but not when they do not engage in such simulation.

Simulation can be either deliberate or spontaneous. Deliberate simulation is engaged when consumers intentionally simulate an action. Spontaneous simulation requires particular conditions for its occurrence, but does not require conscious intent. The specific conditions for the occurrence of spontaneous simulation are the availability of situational inputs and that action be possible in the given situation. We support these ideas in a series of studies.

Study 1 demonstrates preference shifts that occur as a consequence of participants carrying heavy burdens. Participants in this study shifted their preference from an option located a visible but undefined distance away towards one that was available at their current location. Study 2 supports the theory that this shift occurs as a consequence of alterations in estimates of acquisition costs by showing that burdened participants estimate distances as greater than do unburdened participants.

Study 3 provides evidence for the role of mental simulation in producing such changes in estimated acquisition costs by showing that the distance expansion first demonstrated in study 2 occurs when targets are visible, but not when targets are not visible. This result is consistent with the central contention of this dissertation that visibility is critical for spontaneous simulation. Together, the studies support the role of spontaneous simulation in burden leading to distance expansion. Study 4 provides further support for the role of simulation in producing the effects of physical state on estimated acquisition costs by showing deliberate simulation results in similar distance to that of spontaneous simulation.

Studies 5 and 6 further demonstrate the dual roles of spontaneous and deliberate simulation on distance expansion. They show that expansion does not occur when targets are not reachable because they are up in the air (study 5). However, deliberate simulation of realistic (climbing - study 5) or unrealistic (flying - study 6) action restores distance expansion in those circumstances, supporting the role of simulation in leading to consideration of physical state in estimated acquisition costs.

The final study ties together these results by demonstrating the effects of both spontaneous and deliberate simulation in a single setting. Varying both the availability of conditions supporting spontaneous simulation and instructions for deliberate simulation the study allows an examination of the comparative effects of the two types of simulation and of their potential interaction. The study finds that deliberate simulation may produce effects that are larger than those of spontaneous simulation, but spontaneous simulation does not seem to enhance the effects of deliberate simulation.

A pervasive aspect of daily life is searching for a specific target amongst an array of distracting items. Studying such visual searches offers a useful and powerful tool for revealing the underlying aspects of visual attention. Understanding how factors influence accurate target detection serves to both enhance real-world search tasks and inform basic cognitive psychology. The goal of the research presented herein is to examine the effects of expectation, experience, and environment on search behavior. The experiments are conducted in controlled laboratory environments, but are designed to simulate real-world searches, with the express goal of informing the implementation of search tasks in everyday life. First, expectation is explored by manipulating target prevalence and measuring the resultant change in behavior as participants' biases shift. Second, experience is tested by comparing individuals with and without extensive video game exposure, specifically on their susceptibility to the pressures of rare target search. Lastly, environment is examined by utilizing multiple simultaneous targets. This manipulation has been shown to induce errors in radiology, and here the generality of this effect is explored to establish the various pressures to which it is sensitive. Collectively, these data serve to inform how different influences modulate visual search performance, and the results can directly inform the training, recruitment, and execution of real-world search tasks such as those in radiology, cytology, and airport security.

Prior research has found that children who pursue revenge goals in minor conflicts with peers are less accepted, have fewer friends, and have friendships of lower quality. Very little research has been devoted to understanding what factors might increase a child's tendency to seek revenge in minor conflicts of interest or in more provocative situations. The present study was designed to assess several variables that may increase revenge motivations in two contexts: minor conflicts of interest and major provocation situations. Of particular interest were the interpretations that children make in conflict, especially interpretations of rejection and disrespect. Two personal dispositions were also investigated, rejection sensitivity and disrespect sensitivity. The latter was assessed using a measure designed for this study. The study also examined whether beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression and beliefs about negative reciprocity moderate the association between negative interpretations and revenge goals.

Participants were seventh-grade adolescents (n = 367) from a middle school in a midwestern suburban school district. Students were shown vignettes (hypothetical situations) depicting conflict-of-interest situations and major provocation situations. In response to each vignette, participants rated how they would feel, how they would interpret the person's behavior, what their goals would be in the situation, and what behavioral strategies they would enact. Students also completed measures of rejection sensitivity, disrespect sensitivity, reciprocity beliefs, and beliefs about the legitimacy of aggression. Additionally, students indicated which of their grademates were sensitive to rejection and which were sensitive to disrespect.

Results indicated that adolescents endorsed more rejection and disrespect interpretations, revenge goals, and aggressive strategies in the major provocation situations than in the conflict-of-interest situations. Boys more strongly endorsed revenge goals and aggressive strategies than did girls, although there were not gender differences in rejection or disrespect interpretations. Both rejection and disrespect interpretations were significantly related to revenge goals in both types of situations. In both conflicts of interest and major provocation situations, rejection interpretations mediated the link between rejection sensitivity and revenge goals. In conflicts of interest, disrespect interpretations partially mediated the association between disrespect expectations and revenge goals. In major provocation situations, disrespect interpretations mediated the link between situational disrespect and revenge goals. Although rejection and disrespect interpretations were highly related, when their shared variance was partialed out "disrespect-free" rejection interpretations were associated with revenge goals in both conflicts of interest and in major provocation situations, whereas "rejection-free" disrespect only remained associated with revenge goals in conflict-of-interest situations. Additionally, both legitimacy of aggression beliefs and negative reciprocity beliefs were independently associated with revenge goals in both conflicts of interest and major provocation situations, even after controlling for gender differences and negative interpretations. Further, negative reciprocity beliefs moderated the association between negative interpretations and revenge goals such that adolescents who were high on negative reciprocity beliefs and negative interpretations were much more likely to seek revenge than adolescents who were low on negative reciprocity beliefs and high on negative interpretations. These findings suggest that the continued comparison of disrespect and rejection experiences is warranted and highlight the need to study the personal dispositions and beliefs that may increase revenge goals and vengeful behavior.