No description available.

Diss. Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2004.

Using postulations formulated by Harlow, very few investigators have experimented with discriminative learning in relation to various levels of human mental abilities to the pattern of forming a set. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of different levels of mental abilities on the formation of these sets, using mental retardates, and analyzing the formation of these sets and the abilities of these retardates to shift dimension of cues by reversing the response conditions.

Licentiatavhandling Stockholm : Kungliga tekniska högskolan, 2005.

No description available.

The aim of this investigation was to analyze the effects of induced physical exertion on the performance of an immediate mathematical mental ability task among second-grade students. The purpose of the study was to gain information concerning the effects of physical exertion on a mathematical mental task and to evaluate each of four experimental treatment periods (twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty minutes) used to induce physical exertion. Another purpose was to determine whether males or females were more affected by experimentally induced treatments of physical exertion. It was concluded that fifty minutes of prolonged physical exertion as induced by relay game activities had a positive effect on certain mathematical tasks. This conclusion was based on the comparison of the fifty minute treatment performance to the pre-test treatment performed without induced physical exertion. Another conclusion derived from the data was that physical exertion periods of twenty, thirty, and forty minutes had no significant positive or negative effect on certain mental performance when compared to a non-induced physical exertion treatment. It was also concluded that there were no significant differences between male and female mean difference performances.

Decision-making in the context of leadership, has received scant attention in the management literature, which has traditionally centered on general mental ability and personality as predictors of effectiveness. This research effort bridges the neuroscientific and management literatures to offer an alternative, neuropsychological profile of effective leadership by proposing prefrontal brain processes (executive function) as a key component and predictor of complex decision-making and leadership effectiveness. While the management literature has largely viewed decision-making as a cognitive ability, neuroscience informs us that this complex function emerges from the integration of affective and cognitive signals in the prefrontal cortex. In an attempt to identify the neural predictors of effective leadership decision-making, 105 corporate leaders were assessed on a robust array of neuropsychological indices of prefrontal brain function. These were in turn correlated with their leadership and decision-making abilities after controlling for general mental ability and personality, utilizing structural equation modeling. Executive function incrementally predicts complex decision-making and transformational leadership effectiveness, above and beyond general mental ability. Complex decision-making does not appear to be central to leadership effectiveness, while extraversion emerges as the strongest predictor of transformational leadership followed by executive function. Executive function, extraversion and general mental ability do not predict transactional leadership. These results would need replication in a larger dataset to establish their validity, especially in the case of executive function. While the heritability of leadership ability has emerged as fairly significant, this opens the field to unearthing the biological variables and predictors of leadership ability. Neuroscience thus has the potential to offer biomarkers and metrics of leadership that can further not only our foundational knowledge of organizational behavior, but can also find useful applications in recruitment, training and development practice, though this cross-disciplinary initiative is in its infancy. Based on the preliminary results from this study, executive function (which has so far remained in the domain of neurology) has the potential to inform and measure leadership effectiveness.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Automated video interviews (AVIs) use machine learning algorithms to predict interviewee personality traits and social skills, and they are increasingly being used in industry. The present study examines the possibility of expanding the scope and utility of these approaches by developing and testing AVIs that score ability from interviewee verbal, paraverbal, and nonverbal behavior in video interviews. To advance our understanding of whether AVI ability assessments are useful, I develop AVIs that predict ability (GMA, verbal ability, and interviewer-rated intellect) and investigate their reliability (i.e., inter-algorithm reliability, internal consistency across interview questions, and test retest reliability). Then, I investigate the convergent and discriminant-related validity evidence as well as potential ethnic and gender bias of such predictions. Finally, based on the Brunswik lens model, I compare how ability test scores, AVI ability assessments, and interviewer ratings of ability relate to interviewee behavior. By exploring how ability relates to behavior and how ability ratings from both AVIs and interviewers relate to behavior, the study advances our understanding of how ability affects interview performance and the cues that interviewers use to judge ability.

Grading within a single school was studied by comparing the grades with the policy of grading recommended by the high school, and the relationship between the grades and two tests administered by the school. Six hundred fifty-five graduates from the 1964, 1965 and 1966 graduating classes made up the sample. The grades used were those received during their three years in high school. The tests were the Henmon-Nelson Test of Mental Ability administered in the tenth grade and the American College Test which was taken in the twelfth grade. The Pearson r Correlation Coefficient was used to make the correlations. The number of A and B grades given in all subject areas were beyond that recommended by the school policy. A t test showed the differences in grading between required subjects and nonacademic elective subjects in the lower 25 percent of each graduating class to be significant at the .01 percent level. In the upper 25 percent the differences were not significant. The required subjects area grades correlated highest with scores from both tests.