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The primary purpose of this study is to investigate external and internal factors that act as learning demotivators that can discourage students from learning in Japanese high school English classrooms. More than 1,200 students responded to two questionnaires designed to measure five external demotivators, Teachers, Characteristics of Classes, Experiences of Failure, Class Environment, Class Materials, and one internal demotivator, Learners‘ Lack of Interest. Using the Rasch rating scale model and confirmatory factor analysis, the questionnaire results were analyzed to test the inter-relationships among the six hypothesized demotivators. Qualitative data were also obtained from an open-ended questionnaire asking the participants what demotivated them from learning. Two models, a six-factor and a four-factor demotivation model, were tested. As the four-factor model displayed slightly better fit than the six-factor model, it was selected as the final model. In this model, the first-order latent variable that best explained Demotivation was Experiences of Difficulty (b = .74), which was followed by Class Environment (b = .72), and Loss of Interest (b = .71). In contrast to the findings of previous studies, teachers‘ direct behaviors (b = .51) were the least influential of all the demotivators studied. In a follow up study, relationships between the teacher ratings of students‘ motivation, the students‘ perception of their current motivational level and their motivation in high school were investigated. Although it was anticipated that students‘ self-reported motivational states and teacher ratings of students‘ motivation would have a reasonably strong relationship, a series of regression analyses indicated that the teacher rating of students‘ motivation was not significantly related to either motivational level. While students might appear to be motivated in the classroom from the teachers‘ point of view, the students might feel otherwise. The first important finding concerned the two hypothesized demotivation models that were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. In the final four-factor model, the first-order latent variable that best explained Demotivation was Experiences of Difficulty followed by Loss of Interest, and Class Environment. In contrast to the findings of previous studies, teachers‘ direct behaviors were the least influential of all the demotivators studied. The results revealed that Japanese high school English learners can become demotivated due to difficult experiences they encounter or loss of interest in studying in the classroom. While influences from teacher behaviors can also cause demotivation, it appears that the approach or materials that focus on difficult reading passages and/or vocabulary cause the strongest sense of demotivation. The second important findings concerned group differences. The high and low motivation groups and the male and female groups differed in their perceptions of Class Environment. However, no statistically significant differences were found among the first- and second-year groups, and the students attending academic and non-academic schools. The third finding was from the follow-up study. It was found that the teacher rating of students‘ motivation is not related to the students‘ perception of their current motivational level and their motivation in high school time. While students might appear to be motivated in the classroom from the teachers‘ point of view, the students‘ perception of their current motivational level and their motivation in high school can differ greatly. Overall, the results revealed that Japanese high school English learners can become demotivated due to the difficulties they experience in the English language classroom, or a loss of interest in classroom study. While influences from teacher behaviors can also cause demotivation, this study shows that an approach or materials that focus on difficult reading passages and/or vocabulary cause the strongest sense of demotivation. / CITE/Language Arts

Most consequential decisions are made by more than two people. People frequently argue with each other to make better decisions. However, most decision making research usually only involves small purchases and individual decisions. The lacking of investigation in high-cognition decisions and argumentative settings is the motivation of this research. Researchers studying decision making have largely focused on how the decisions that people make are affected by task characteristics, and how labile decisions are with respect to situational factors. However, the fact that many preferences are constructed does not imply that all constructions are equally good. That people differ from each other in thinking is obvious. How and why they differ is less clear. Therefore, the first two studies are foundational studies in order to find out the most important and germane individual difference factor that may be the best predictor of thinking ability, including argument generation quality, evaluation ability, and debiasing ability. I found that logical reasoning ability is the best predictor of both thinking and debiasing ability. Argumentative Theory (Mercier & Sperber, 2011) claims that when reasoning is used in argumentative contexts, the confirmation bias contributes to an efficient form of division of cognitive labor, and then lead to better decisions and attitude depolarization. In study 3, I provided implication evidence to show that either arguing with the other person or viewing arguments from the opposite perspective may lead to attitude depolarization. Most interestingly, individual differences did moderate the main effects. / Business Administration/Marketing

Navigation proficiency - the ability to find and recall new and familiar locations - varies widely among individuals (e.g., Schinazi, Epstein, Nardi, Newcombe, & Shipley, 2013; Weisberg, Schinazi, Newcombe, Shipley, & Epstein, 2014). The cognitive processes that support effective navigation have been theoretically sketched out (e.g., Wolbers & Hegarty, 2010), but how do those processes contribute to aspects of and individual differences in navigation behavior? Using a virtual environment to assess navigation proficiency (Weisberg et al., 2014), we conducted two studies to investigate whether individual differences in navigating meaningfully relate to memory capacity (Study1) and navigation strategy (Study 2). Results from Study 1 suggest that working memory capacity may limit some participants' ability to build accurate cognitive maps. Using a virtual environment paradigm based on the rodent T-maze (Marchette, Bakker, & Shelton, 2011), Study 2 shows that good navigators do not prefer to use a place-based strategy over a response-based strategy, but there was an interaction between strategy selection and goals found. Good navigators who used a place-based strategy found more goals than good navigators who used a response-based strategy; the opposite was true for bad navigators. Emerging from this set of studies is a richer picture of how individual differences in cognitive traits (i.e., working memory capacity), and strategy choice relate to navigation proficiency. / Psychology

<p dir="ltr">Feedback seeking is an essential process for employees to improve performance and clarify expectations (Renn & Fedor, 2001; Ashford & Tsui, 199). Certain factors such as ego and image defense limit feedback seeking in the workplace due to avoidance of negative outcomes (Ashford & Cummings, 1983), however we know less about whether feedback seeking does lead to actual negative outcomes for the employee (Ashford, De Stobbeleir, & Nujella, 2016). The current study examines the existence of actual costs to the seeker for seeking more frequently and adds to the literature by examining whether supervisor individual differences are related to perceptions of seeking behavior, namely implicit person theory and feedback orientation. With a sample of 275 adult supervisors recruited from Mturk, the current study measured participants on these individual differences and assessed perceptions of a fictional employee who either sought feedback with high or low frequency. The employee was rated on a selection of performance potential outcomes related to promotability, expectations of future performance, willingness to mentor, and candidacy for career development opportunities. Findings suggest there is a cost associated with seeking feedback at a higher frequency which manifests as a decrease in perceptions of confidence in the employee. Additionally, this perception of lower confidence from seeking feedback could contribute to more significant downstream outcomes such as expectations of lower quality performance and lower likelihood of being promoted. By understanding more about individuals’ perceptions of feedback seeking behavior, we may train supervisors how to be more receptive of different feedback seeking behavior. This could assist in fostering a performance improvement environment that ultimately improves organizational performance.</p>

This exploratory study aims to elucidate the mental processes of wayfinding in an outdoor area and the effects of map contour representations, map color, individual differences of users (gender, brain dominance, experience level, and cultural differences), and environmental cues using a field study in an established trail network in Jefferson National Forest. Six maps with three different contour representations (contour lines, shaded relief, and schematic) and two color codes (color and black-and-white) were tested for wayfinding performance. Thirty-six participants of different nationalities (Locals versus Internationals), experience in map usage (experienced versus novice), handedness, and gender took part in the study. Three out of ten junctions on the test route had directional signs while the rest had no sign. The participants performed wayfinding tasks in a national forest trail park, using the think aloud and retrospective protocols to obtain the information processes used by the participants during wayfinding. Subjective feedback was also obtained to find out users' map preferences and opinions on their experience during the experiment. Multiple regression analyses were used to predict the relationship of the predictor variables to wayfinding performance. It was found that cultural differences and signage presence were significant predictors of decision-making accuracy at trail junctions. The rest of the predictors were not significant in predicting total time of completion, time for decision-making at junction, accuracy of decision-making, and time deviated from route due to choosing a wrong path at junction. Cultural differences were also significant in the prediction of the time deviated from route. It was also found that the participants were using maps to derived route information for wayfinding. They utilized structural matching of the map with the terrain, by orientation principle, to continuously check the current position on the map. There was some evidence of participants gaining survey knowledge from the map during wayfinding but this could not be confirmed by the study. A set of design guidelines were given for map and trail design to improve the wayfinding performance of recreational users. / Master of Science

Attracting and retaining talent has been one of the most critical elements for business success. As organizations have different cultures within themselves, the organizational career culture communicates the organizational beliefs and practices valued for career success through organizational signals about career priorities. Using a scenario-based study, we explore individual preferences regarding four career cultures built on two dimensions of career signals: assimilation versus differentiation and intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards. We choose group beliefs, desirability of control, competitiveness, and protean career orientation as important traits because they clearly relate to the career signals and fit nicely in the organization’s career cultures. We found that individuals with high group beliefs perceived significantly higher person-organization fit and attraction, and marginally significantly higher career culture fit in cultures with high assimilation and intrinsic rewards. Individuals high in the desirability of control perceived higher career culture fit in Prestige career cultures (high in both assimilation and extrinsic rewards). High competitive individuals perceived higher career culture fit in cultures high in extrinsic rewards. Lastly, individuals high in protean career orientation had no perceived preferences regarding the two dimensions. The findings are important for both companies and individuals. Companies can create a unique culture that communicates the critical organizational processes and strategic outcomes to gain a competitive advantage while improving the general organizational culture with motivated employees with a favorable view of the organization. The present research provides an essential foundation for the future, offering critical insights and motivating future investigations to enrich the literature on organizational career culture and personality research.