Understanding burnout according to individual differences: ongoing explanatory power evaluation of two models for measuring burnout types

AbstractListening comprehension constitutes a considerable challenge for second language learners, but little is known about the relative contribution of individual differences in distinct factors to listening comprehension. Since research in this area is relatively limited in comparison to that focusing on the relationship between reading comprehension and factors such as vocabulary knowledge and working memory, there is a need for studies that seek to fill the gap in our knowledge about the specific contribution of aural vocabulary knowledge, written vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity to explaining listening comprehension. Among 130 non-native speakers of English, the present study examines what proportion of the variance in listening comprehension is explained by aural vocabulary knowledge, written vocabulary knowledge, and working memory capacity. The results show that aural vocabulary knowledge is the strongest predictor of listening comprehension, followed by working memory capacity, while written vocabulary knowledge contributes only marginally. The study discusses implications for the explanatory power of aural vocabulary knowledge and working memory to listening comprehension and pedagogical practice in second language classrooms.

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Partisanship, Individual Differences, and News Media Exposure as Predictors of Conspiracy Beliefs

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly ◽

10.1177/1077699017728919 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 95 (3) ◽

pp. 691-713 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Barry A. Hollander

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Survey Data ◽

Individual Difference ◽

News Media ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Media Exposure ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

Fox News ◽

Political World ◽

Conspiracy Beliefs

Conspiracy theories are woven into America’s social and political fabric. While such beliefs help some individuals organize their political world, their popularity also raise concerns about the health of a democracy when those governed also suspect powerful forces work against their interests. The research here examines national survey data to demonstrate such beliefs have both partisan and individual difference explanations. Generic news media exposure offers little explanatory power, but exposure to Fox News programming predicts greater belief in theories critical of Democrats.

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Sources of individual differences in adults’ ICT skills: A large-scale empirical test of a new guiding framework

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0249574 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. e0249574

Author(s):

Alexandra Wicht ◽

Stephen Reder ◽

Clemens M. Lechner

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Large Scale ◽

Empirical Test ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Ict Skills ◽

Engagement Theory ◽

Ict Use ◽

Information And Communication

We develop an integrative conceptual framework that seeks to explain individual differences in the ability to use information and communication technologies (ICT skills). Building on practice engagement theory, this framework views the continued usage of digital technologies at work and in everyday life (ICT use) as the key prerequisite for the acquisition of ICT skills. At the same time, the framework highlights that ICT use is itself contingent upon individual and contextual preconditions. We apply this framework to data from two recent German large-scale studies (N = 2,495 and N = 2,786, respectively) that offer objective measures of adults’ ICT skills. Findings support our framework’s view of ICT use as a key prerequisite for ICT skills. Moreover, they demonstrate that literacy skills have strong associations with ICT skills, largely by virtue of their indirect associations through ICT use. By comparison, regional digital cultures (as proxied by internet domain registration rates) evince only limited explanatory power for individual differences in ICT skills.

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On the influence of spatial and value attentional cues across individuals

10.31234/osf.io/t7jbe ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Kelly Garner ◽

Michelle Lovell-Kane ◽

Luke Carroll ◽

Paul Edmund Dux

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Clustering Algorithm ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Visually Guided ◽

Combination Strategies ◽

Incentive Value ◽

Priority Map ◽

Bias Attention ◽

Attentional Cues

The visual world provides a myriad of cues every instance that can be used to direct information processing. How does the brain integrate predictive information from disparate sources to modify visual priorities, and are combination strategies consistent across individuals? Previous evidence shows that sensory cues that are predictive of the value of a visually guided task (incentive value) and cues that signal where task-relevant stimuli may occur (spatial certainty) act independently to bias attention. Anticipatory accounts propose that both cues are comparably encoded into an attentional priority map, whereas the counterfactual account argues that incentive value cues instead induce a reactive encoding of losses based on the direction of attention. Here we adjudicate between these alternatives and further determine whether there are individual differences in how attentional cues are encoded. 149 participants viewed two coloured placeholders that specified the potential value of correctly identifying an imminent target if it appeared in that specific placeholder. Prior to the target’s presentation, an endogenous spatial cue indicated the target’s more likely location. The anticipatory and counterfactual accounts were used to motivate parametric regressors that were compared in their explanatory power of the observed data, at the group level and on data stratified by a clustering algorithm applied to identify individual differences. The algorithm revealed 2 subtypes in the population; whereas all individuals use spatial certainty cues a subset does not use incentive value cues. However, when used, the influence of incentive value cues reflects a counterfactual loss function. The data show that spatial certainty and incentive value act independently to influence visual priorities because they act at distinct points in information processing, and that theories of motivated attention must account for the non-uniform influence of incentive value on visual priorities.

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Individual differences are more important than the emotional category for the perception of emotional expressions

Interaction Studies ◽

10.1075/is.18.2.01mol ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 161-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elena Moltchanova ◽

Christoph Bartneck

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Communication Channel ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Emotional Expressions ◽

Virtual Agents ◽

Content Type ◽

Emotional Category ◽

The Individual ◽

Gender Influences ◽

Emotion Type

Emotional facial expression are an important communication channel between artificial characters and their users. Humans are trained to perceive emotions. Robots and virtual agents can use them to make their inner states transparent. Literature reported that some emotional types, such as anger, are perceived as being more intense than others. Other studies indicated that gender influences the perception. Our study shows that once the individual differences amongst participants are included in the statistical analysis, then the emotion type has no further explanatory power. Artificial characters therefore should adapt to their specific users.

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Dopaminergic modulation of hemodynamic signal variability and the functional connectome during cognitive performance

10.1101/130021 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mohsen Alavash ◽

Sung-Joo Lim ◽

Christiane Thiel ◽

Bernhard Sehm ◽

Lorenz Deserno ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Functional Integration ◽

Explanatory Power ◽

Bold Signal ◽

Network Efficiency ◽

Cortical Dynamics ◽

Functional Connectome ◽

Signal Variability

AbstractDopamine underlies important aspects of cognition, and has been suggested to boost cognitive performance. However, how dopamine modulates the large-scale cortical dynamics during cognitive performance has remained elusive. Using functional MRI during a working memory task in healthy young human listeners (N=22), we investigated the effect of levodopa (L-dopa) on two aspects of cortical dynamics, blood oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability and the functional connectome of large-scale cortical networks. We here show that enhanced dopaminergic signaling modulates the two potentially interrelated aspects of large-scale cortical dynamics during cognitive performance, and the degree of these modulations is able to explain inter-individual differences in L-dopa-induced behavioral benefits. Relative to placebo, L-dopa increased BOLD signal variability in task-relevant temporal, inferior frontal, parietal and cingulate regions. On the connectome level, however, L-dopa diminished functional integration across temporal and cingulo-opercular regions. This hypo-integration was expressed as a reduction in network efficiency and modularity in more than two thirds of the participants and to different degrees. Hypo-integration co-occurred with relative hyper-connectivity in paracentral lobule and precuneus, as well as posterior putamen. Both, L-dopa-induced BOLD signal variability modulation and functional connectome modulations proved predictive of an individual’s L-dopa-induced gain in behavioral performance, namely response speed and perceptual sensitivity. Lastly, L-dopa-induced modulations of BOLD signal variability were correlated with L-dopa-induced modulation of nodal connectivity and network efficiency. Our findings underline the role of dopamine in maintaining the dynamic range of, and communication between, cortical systems, and their explanatory power for inter-individual differences in benefits from dopamine during cognitive performance.

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The challenge of accounting for individual differences in folk-economic beliefs

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000523 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Benjamin C. Ruisch ◽

Rajen A. Anderson ◽

David A. Pizarro

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Individual Variation ◽

Political Ideologies ◽

Economic Beliefs ◽

Existing Data

AbstractWe argue that existing data on folk-economic beliefs (FEBs) present challenges to Boyer & Petersen's model. Specifically, the widespread individual variation in endorsement of FEBs casts doubt on the claim that humans are evolutionarily predisposed towards particular economic beliefs. Additionally, the authors' model cannot account for the systematic covariance between certain FEBs, such as those observed in distinct political ideologies.

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Individual differences, social attention, and the history of the social motivation hypotheses of autism

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18002509 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Peter C. Mundy

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Early Development ◽

Emotional Development ◽

Social Motivation ◽

Social Attention ◽

Social Emotional Development ◽

Social Emotional ◽

Precise Understanding ◽

The Social ◽

History Of

Abstract The stereotype of people with autism as unresponsive or uninterested in other people was prominent in the 1980s. However, this view of autism has steadily given way to recognition of important individual differences in the social-emotional development of affected people and a more precise understanding of the possible role social motivation has in their early development.

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Elaborating the role of reflection and individual differences in the study of folk-economic beliefs

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000274 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Author(s):

Kevin Arceneaux

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Evolutionary History ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

History Of ◽

Economic Beliefs

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.

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Inter-individual variation shapes the human microbiome

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x1800287x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Emily F. Wissel ◽

Leigh K. Smith

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Individual Variation ◽

Human Microbiome ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Microbiota Composition ◽

Target Article ◽

Microbiome Research

Abstract The target article suggests inter-individual variability is a weakness of microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) research, but we discuss why it is actually a strength. We comment on how accounting for individual differences can help researchers systematically understand the observed variance in microbiota composition, interpret null findings, and potentially improve the efficacy of therapeutic treatments in future clinical microbiome research.

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