How can you quickly and easily strengthen your ability to remember something?
en people are asked to perform actions, they remember those actions better than if they are asked to talk about the same actions. But when people talk, they often gesture with their hands, thus adding an action component to talking. The question we asked in this study was whether producing gesture along with speech makes the information encoded in that speech more memorable than it would have been without gesture. We found that gesturing during encoding led to better recall,…
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How to be more charismatic during presentations:
e purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of imagery in a leader's speech on listeners' perceptions of the leader's charisma. A former US president's inaugural address was rewritten to create low and high imagery versions, and audio recordings of the two speeches were made. Participants were randomly assigned to high or low speech imagery conditions. After listening to the speech, they provided ratings on various summary leadership measures. The high imagery speech resulted in higher ratings of…
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Do collectivist cultures produce better sports teams?
s: Purpose. Research outside sport psychology indicates that collectivist cultures positively influence group achievements. Because of this results of sports teams from collectivist cultures should be better than those of their counterparts from individualist cultures. This hypothesis was examined in two studies. Basic procedures. (1) In study I, 15 coaches, using the IC Interpersonal Assessment Inventory (ICIAI), enumerated characteristics that a perfect team member should possess. (2) In study II, individual results (achieved between 2001 and 2008) of four top…
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Does a little anxiety during training actually help prevent “choking”?
jective The aim of the study was to examine whether training with mild levels of anxiety helps in maintaining performance under higher levels of anxiety. Methods Novices practiced dart throwing while they were hanging low on a climbing wall either with or without mild anxiety. After training, participants were tested under low, mild, and high anxiety (in the latter case high on the climbing wall). Results Despite systematic increases in anxiety, heart rate, and perceived effort from low to mild…
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Are Hopeful Employees More Creative?
studied how employees' hope explains their creativity at work, both directly and through the mediation of happiness. One hundred and twenty-five individuals reported their hope and happiness, their supervisors having reported their creativity. Factor analyses suggested two hope factors (waypower; composite hope) and three creativity dimensions (novel ideas; creative ideas; ideas championing). The main findings were the following: (a) the composite hope predicted all creativity dimensions, the waypower dimension predicted only the ideas championing dimension; and (b) the composite…
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Do firm muscles equal firm willpower?
ross five studies, we show that firming one’s muscles can help firm willpower and firmed willpower mediates people’s ability to withstand immediate pain, overcome tempting food, consume unpleasant medicines, and attend to immediately disturbing but essential information, provided doing so is seen as providing long term benefits. We draw on theories of embodied cognition to explain our results, and we add to that literature by showing for a first time that our bodies can help firm willpower and facilitate self-regulation…
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What really makes your hairstylist perform at their best?
examined the relations for hairstylists between trust and routine and creative performance and the extent to which these service employees trust their supervisors and customers. We also investigated whether psychological safety mediated these trust-performance relations. Results suggested that trust in supervisors and trust in customers made significant, independent, and joint contributions to employees' creative performance; however, only trust in supervisors was related to routine performance. Moreover, psychological safety mediated the trust in supervisor-performance links, but did not mediate the…
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These Personality Traits Predict Higher Income And Job Satisfaction
e present research addresses the dynamic transaction between extrinsic (occupational prestige, income) and intrinsic (job satisfaction) career success and the Five-Factor Model of personality. Participants (N = 731) completed a comprehensive measure of personality and reported their job title, annual income, and job satisfaction; a subset of these participants (n = 302) provided the same information approximately 10 years later. Measured concurrently, emotionally stable and conscientious participants reported higher incomes and job satisfaction. Longitudinal analyses revealed that, among younger participants,…
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