@article{BauerStammVirnichetal.2006, author = {Bauer, Joachim and Stamm, Axel and Virnich, Katharina and Wissing, Karen and M{\"u}ller, Udo and Wirsching, Michael and Schaarschmidt, Uwe}, title = {Correlation between burnout syndrome and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms among teachers}, issn = {0340-0131}, doi = {10.1007/s00420-005-0050-y}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Objectives: Psychosomatic disorders and symptoms that correlate with the so-called burnout syndrome turned out to be the main cause of increasing rates of premature retirement of school teachers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between occupational burden and psychological strain of teachers who are still in work. Methods: A sample of 408 teachers at ten grammar schools (am: High school; German: Gymnasium) in south-western Germany was evaluated. To determine the styles of coping with occupational burden we used the measure of coping capacity questionnaire (MECCA). To analyse the psychopathological and psychosomatic symptom load we applied SCL 90 R questionnaire. Results: According to the MECCA questionnaire, 32.5\% of the sample suffered from burnout (type B), 17.7\% suffered severe strain (type A), 35.9\% showed an unambitious (type S) and 13.8\% showed a healthy-ambitious coping style (type G). Burnout was significantly higher among women, divorced teachers and teachers working part-time. As part of the MECCA, teachers were asked to rate what they regarded as the strongest factor resulting in occupational burden. Teachers indicated that, besides high numbers of pupils in one class, they regarded destructive and aggressive behaviour of pupils as the primary stress factor. According to the SCL 90 R, 20\% of the sample showed a severe degree (defined as > 70 points in the SCL90R GSI) of psychological and psychosomatic symptoms. MECCA type B (burnout) correlated significantly with high psychological and psychosomatic symptom load according to the SCL90R. Conclusions: In school teachers, burnout syndrome, a construct that derived from occupational psychology and occupational medicine, is significantly correlated with psychological and psychosomatic symptoms. Teachers rate destructive and aggressive behaviour of pupils as the primary stress factor.}, language = {en} } @article{KraheAltwasser2006, author = {Krah{\´e}, Barbara and Altwasser, Colette}, title = {Changing negative attitudes towards persons with physical disabilities: an experimental intervention}, issn = {1052-9284}, doi = {10.1002/casp.849}, year = {2006}, abstract = {An experimental study was designed and tested to change negative attitudes towards the physically disabled. A pre-post-test intervention was conducted including three conditions: (a) cognitive intervention; (b) cognitive and behavioural intervention involving equal-status contact with the target group; (c) no-intervention control. The sample consisted of 70 ninth grade students. Following baseline assessments of attitudes, attitude change was measured immediately following the intervention and at a follow-up three months post-intervention. The cognitive intervention provided information about physical disability and challenged stereotypic conceptions about the physically disabled. The behavioural intervention consisted of engaging in three paralympic disciplines under the instruction of a group of disabled athletes. The cognitive intervention alone did not result in significant changes in attitudes towards the physically disabled. However, the combined cognitive-behavioural intervention resulted in greater attitude change than the no-intervention condition, both immediately post-intervention and at a three months follow-up. The findings are discussed with regard to models of attitude change through equal-status contact.}, language = {en} } @article{KraheAbrahamScheinbergerOlwig2006, author = {Krah{\´e}, Barbara and Abraham, Charles and Scheinberger-Olwig, Renate}, title = {Can safer-sex promotion leaflets change cognitive antecedents of condom use? : an experimental evaluation}, issn = {1359-107X}, year = {2006}, abstract = {An experimental evaluation of a safer sex promotion leaflet was undertaken to assess its capacity to change antecedent cognitions of condom use. The leaflet was identified in a previous study as addressing research-based cognitive antecedents of condom use. A pre-post-test experimental study including three conditions was conducted: (a) presentation of the leaflet; (b) presentation of the leaflet plus incentive for systematic processing; (c) no-leaflet control. The leaflet was evaluated in terms of its capacity to change eight cognitive correlates of condom use identified in a recent meta-analysis. The sample consisted of 230 tenth-grade students. Following baseline assessments, leaflet-induced change was measured immediately following the intervention and at a follow up 4 weeks post-intervention. The target leaflet alone did not result in significant changes in the cognitive antecedents of condom use compared with the control condition. However, in combination with an incentive for systematic processing, the target leaflet had a greater impact on cognitive antecedents than the no-leaflet control condition. The findings are discussed with regard to the development and evaluation of research-based health-promotion materials}, language = {en} } @article{HoernigOberauerWeidenfeld2006, author = {Hoernig, Robin and Oberauer, Klaus and Weidenfeld, Andrea}, title = {Between reasoning}, series = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, volume = {59}, journal = {The quarterly journal of experimental psychology}, number = {10}, publisher = {SAGE Publishing}, address = {Thousand Oaks, CA}, issn = {1747-0218}, doi = {10.1080/17470210500416151}, pages = {1805 -- 1825}, year = {2006}, abstract = {In two experiments we investigated three-term reasoning with spatial relational assertions using the preposition between as compared to projective prepositions (such as to the left of). For each kind of assertion we distinguish the referent expression (i.e., the grammatical subject) from the relatum expression (i.e., the internal argument of the preposition; e.g., [The hedgehog](referent)_(expression) is to the left of [the frog](relatum)_(expression); [the snake](referent)_(expression) is between [the donkey and the deer](relatum)_(expression)). Previous research has shown that integrating premises with projective prepositions is easier (a) when the relatum expression of the second premise denotes an element already given by the first premise (relatum = given), and (b) when the term denoting a given element precedes the term denoting a new element (given - new). Experiment 1 extended this finding to second premises with the preposition between. In Experiment 2, between figured in the first premise. In this case, participants built an initial preferred model already from the first premise, although such a premise is indeterminate with respect to the array that it describes. Since there is no need left for integrating the second premise, this premise is instead used to verify the initial model and to modify it when necessary. A further investigation of conclusion evaluation times showed that conclusions were evaluated faster when they first mentioned the element that was included most recently into the mental model of the premises. The use of premises with between permitted the separation of recency of model inclusion from recency of appearance of an element in a premise.}, language = {en} } @article{CliftonFanselowFrazier2006, author = {Clifton, Charles and Fanselow, Gisbert and Frazier, Lyn}, title = {Amnestying superiority violations : processing multiple questions}, issn = {0024-3892}, doi = {10.1162/002438906775321139}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Two experiments investigated the acceptability of multiple questions. As expected, sentences violating the Superiority Condition were accepted less often than sentences obeying it. The status of the Superiority violations was not improved by the addition of a third wh, regardless of whether the third wh was an adjunct or an argument, though it was improved by the addition of a second question (e.g., and when). Further, in a small pilot study directly comparing a sentence with adjacent final wh-phrases that may induce a stress clash (I'd like to know who hid it where when) with a sentence violating Superiority but avoiding the final adjacent wh-phrases (I'd like to know where who hid it when), half the participants indicated that the Superiority violation sentence sounded better. This suggests that the status of some additional-wh sentences may appear to improve simply because the comparison sentence with adjacent final wh-phrases is degraded. Overall, the results of the studies suggest that there is no need to complicate syntactic theory to account for the additional-wh effect, because there is no general additional-wh effect}, language = {en} } @article{OberauerKliegl2006, author = {Oberauer, Klaus and Kliegl, Reinhold}, title = {A formal model of capacity limits in working memory}, series = {Journal of Memory and Language}, volume = {55}, journal = {Journal of Memory and Language}, number = {4}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0749-596X}, doi = {10.1016/j.jml.2006.08.009}, pages = {601 -- 626}, year = {2006}, abstract = {A mathematical model of working-memory capacity limits is proposed on the key assumption of mutual interference between items in working memory. Interference is assumed to arise from overwriting of features shared by these items. The model was fit to time-accuracy data of memory-updating tasks from four experiments using nonlinear mixed effect (NLME) models as a framework. The model gave a good account of the data from a numerical and a spatial task version. The performance pattern in a combination of numerical and spatial updating could be explained by variations in the interference parameter: assuming less feature overlap between contents from different domains than between contents from the same domain, the model can account for double dissociations of content domains in dual-task experiments. Experiment 3 extended this idea to similarity within the verbal domain. The decline of memory accuracy with increasing memory load was steeper with phonologically similar than with dissimilar material, although processing speed was faster for the similar material. The model captured the similarity effects with a higher estimated interference parameter for the similar than for the dissimilar condition. The results are difficult to explain with alternative models, in particular models incorporating time-based decay and models assuming limited resource pools.}, language = {en} }