Why do people change their strategies for solving problems? In this research, we tested whether negative feedback and the context in which learners encounter a strategy influence their likelihood of adopting that strategy. In particular, we examined whether strategy adoption varied when learners were exposed to a target strategy in isolation, in…

Manual dexterity is known to gradually progress with developmental age. In this study, we evaluate the performance of unimanual and bimanual actions under perturbed and unperturbed conditions in children between 4 and 10 years of age. Behavior was assessed by means of trajectory measurements and degree of bimanual coupling. The results showed that…

Ultramarathon running, competing in distances beyond the 26.2 mile marathon, is one of the fastest growing segments of endurance competition. The sport has more than tripled in entrant size over the past 12 years and now attracts over 26,000 athletes on an annual basis. However, there is a limited understanding of what motivates individuals to…

Protection motivation theory proposes that a perceived threat to health activates cognitive appraisals of the severity of the threatened event, the probability of its occurrence, and the efficacy of a coping response; a recent reformulation of the theory incorporates self-efficacy expectancy as a fourth mediating cognitive process. To test the…

Experimental research has firmly established the role of expectancies in determining the behavioral consequences of alcohol consumption. To ascertain whether these alcohol expectancies derive from direct pharmacological experience with alcohol or from nonpharmacological, social-learning factors, an adolescent expectancy questionnaire was…

Shows that attributions about the causes of another person's behavior are only moderately good predictors of behavior. Reviews a particular area, showing the effects of a leader's attributions about a subordinate's behavior on the leader's actions towards that subordinate. Other factors are as important in predicting behavior as attributions.…

Literature from organizational and social psychology has suggested that three types of factors influence performance, i.e., cognitive, affective and behavioral. A model was developed to test a set of propositions concerning the relationship between the three kinds of factors, and included attributions, expectancies, general emotional responses to…

Examines people's behavior in the Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD), in which a person must make two decisions to win a prize. In a series of five studies, found that people misapprehend probabilities in the MHD. Discusses the MHD's relation to illusion of control, belief perseverance, and the status quo bias. (RJM)

Investigated the role of behavioral style and cognitive performance as predictors of cognitive development in extremely low-birth-weight children assessed at age 2 and again at age 4. Found stability of cognitive performance from 2 to 4 years of age; this as well as behavior style and orientation-engagement predicted subsequent cognitive…

Drawing upon the processing, distancing, and affective streams of writing research, a study examined the relationships among key variables in the writing of sixth through twelfth grade students: grade level, writing ability, knowledge of appropriate and inappropriate writing behaviors, and writing apprehension. Subjects, 496 students from an urban…