Ethical leadership is an important construct in the literature on behavioral ethics in organizations, given its link with employee attitudes and behaviors. What remains unclear, however, is what leader characteristics are associated directly with ethical leader perceptions and indirectly with employee unethical behavior. In this paper, we use a socio-cognitive lens to integrate goal orientation theory with the literature on ethical behavior in organizations. Specifically, we propose that certain patterns of managers’ goal-oriented behavior provide signals and cues (...) to employees about their managers’ ethical leadership, which then relates to employee displays of more unethical behavior. Using a sample of 265 manager–employee dyads, our findings largely support our claims. We found that leader performance-avoid goal orientation was negatively related to perceptions of ethical leadership and positively related to employee unethical behavior. Moderated mediation tests indicated that the positive indirect effect of leader performance-avoid goal orientation on employee unethical behavior through perceptions of ethical leadership was attenuated by higher levels of leader learning goal orientation. Taken together, these findings suggest that when leaders emphasize avoiding failure while downplaying the importance of personal learning and development, employees perceive them as less ethical and are more willing to engage in ethical misconduct. We discuss implications of our findings for both theory and practice. (shrink)

Ontologies have been successfully used to assign semantics in the Semantic Web context, to support integration of data from different systems or different sources, and to enable reasoning. However, building ontologies is not a trivial task. Ontology reuse can help in this matter. The search and selection of ontologies to be reused should consider the alignment between their scope and the scope of the ontology being developed. In this paper, we discuss how goal modeling can be helpful in this (...) context and we present GO-FOR, a framework in which goals are the central elements to promote ontology reuse. GO-FOR comprises a conceptual architecture, a goal-oriented ontology development process and a supporting tool. In GO-FOR we introduce Goal-Oriented Ontology Patterns as a new type of pattern to be applied to develop ontologies in a goal-oriented approach. Results of the use of GO-FOR to build an ontology used to integrate patient examination data are also shown in this paper. (shrink)

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate time-trial (TT) performance in the presence of one competitor and in a group with competitors of various abilities. Methods: In a randomized order, 24 participants performed a 5-km cycling TT individually (IND), with one similarly matched participant (1v1), and in a group of four participants (GRP). For the GRP session, two pairs of matched participants from the 1v1 session were used. Pairs were selected so that TT duration was considered either inferior (...) (INF) or superior (SUP) compared to the other pair of participants. Results: Overall, TT duration (P = 0.86, ηp2 < 0.01) was not different between conditions, whilst heart rate (HR) was significantly greater in GRP compared to IND (P < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.16). For INF, a large effect size for both mean power (P = 0.07, ηp2 = 0.15) and HR (P = 0.05, ηp2 = 0.16), indicates greatest effort in GRP. Pacing behaviour was affected by competition but similar in 1v1 and GRP for SUP, whilst large effect sizes indicate an increased power output in the initial 750-m for INF in GRP. Additionally, for INF, there was a significant correlation with ego orientation for an increase in TT duration between the GRP session and both the IND (r = 0.43, P = 0.04) and 1v1 (r = 0.54, P = 0.01) sessions. Conclusion: For INF participants, intensity was increased when competing in GRP. Yet, the presence of the SUP competitors resulted in lesser performance improvements for ego oriented INF participants. These findings demonstrate that consideration should be given to the ability of competitors in a group setting to provide adequate motivation. (shrink)

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between flow experience and goal orientation theory, as well as, the differences in flow experience based on the orthogonal model of goal orientation theory. Two hundred and seventy eight athletes completed the Task and Ego Orientation Sport Questionnaire based on how they usually feel. The Flow State Scale was completed thirty minutes after an important competition, along with the challenge-skill ratings, based on how athletes (...) felt during the particular competition. The results indicated that the athletes’ task orientation may be the critical factor for attaining flow in competitive sport, feeling more skillful and estimating the upcoming competition as challenging, while ego orientated athletes lack these elements, which are important for them to get into flow. Additionally, the balance between athletes’ goal orientation preferences seems important for the formation of flow experience. (shrink)

Moral development, achievement goal, and athletic identity are considered psychological constructs sharing specific cognitive, social, motivational, and behavioral traits. The purpose of the present article is to investigate the relation among moral orientations, athletic identity, and social goal orientations. In addition, the impact of age, gender, type of sport, sport division, and school performance on moral orientation has also been investigated. One hundred forty athletes of artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and acrobatic gymnastics (n?=?29 boys, n?=?111 girls), aged (...) 8 to 17, participated in the research. They belonged to IV, III, II, and I sport divisions. The participants filled in three questionnaires: Moral Orientation Students in Physical Education Questionnaire, Athletic Identity Measurement Scale, and Social Goal Orientation Questionnaire. The results established that moral orientation is related to the athletic identity and achievement social goal constructs, as well as the fact that they affect school performance. (shrink)

This study evaluated how gender is related to children’s intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and academic achievement and whether there are gender differences in how intelligence beliefs and goal orientations are related to academic achievement. The participants, 362 seventh grade students, completed measures regarding their intelligence beliefs and goal orientations at the beginning of the second semester and the grades were collected at the end of the semester. Girls reported higher scores on incremental belief, mastery goal and (...) higher achievement but lower levels of performance avoidance compared to boys. The relations between intelligence beliefs and academic achievement were fully mediated by both performance goals. Further, there were no gender differences in the associations among intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and achievement. The findings reveal that goal orientations are a mechanism that might explain why intelligence beliefs are l... (shrink)

The study takes an interaction perspective to examine possible interaction effects of goal orientation, psychological capital, and organizational innovation climate aimed at enhancing employees’ innovation behavior. A total sample of 398 employees were selected in Chinese enterprises. The descriptive statistical analyses, multiple regression, and bootstrap approach are adopted to test the interactive effects after controlling for gender, age, years for work of employees, type of enterprises, and industry. Results indicate that learning goal orientation and proving (...) class='Hi'>goal orientation have a positive effect on employees’ innovation behavior through psychological capital. The positive relationship between psychological capital and employees’ innovation behavior is stronger when employees perceive more organizational innovation climate. Additionally, the positive effect of learning goal orientation and proving goal orientation on employees’ innovation behavior is stronger in high organizational innovation climate through high-level psychological capital than in low organizational innovation climate. However, the negative effect of avoiding goal orientation on innovation behavior is not significant. Finally, implications and further research are discussed. (shrink)

The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that goal orientation is associated with divergent forms of emotional reactivity under frustration. Goal orientations were assessed using bifurcations of performance goals described earlier. Physiological stress levels were measured via a blood volume pulse analysis after individuals were subjected to a computerized Stroop task using a malfunctioning mouse to induce enhanced frustration. The results indicated that performance-avoidance goals were associated with the highest levels of emotional reactivity, (...) with normative outcome goals being significantly more detrimental than ability goals. We concluded that the motivation to avoid failure or to outperform others is the most detrimental determinant of stress and needs to be avoided by all means. Instead, it is suggested that educators emphasize performance using personal best outcomes or by valuing engagement, deep processing and task completion. (shrink)

Considering failure is a common result in project management, how to effectively learn from failure has becoming a more and more important topic for managers. Drawing on the goal orientation theory and grief recovery theory, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the impact of learning goal orientation on learning from failure. Furthermore, this paper examines the mediating effect of two negative emotion coping orientations and the moderating effect of positive grieving in this relationship. The (...) results indicated that: A learning goal orientation is positively related to learning from failure; As a dual-path mediation model, restoration orientation and loss orientation mediate the relationship between a learning goal orientation and learning from failure; and Positive grieving negatively moderates the relationship between a loss orientation and learning from failure. (shrink)

This study investigates the relationship between motivation, goal orientation, and perceived autonomy support from the coach among junior elite hockey players. The study is based upon the theory of self-determination and the goal orientation theory. The first aim of the study was to investigate whether high scores on task involvement and perceived autonomy support from the coach may explain the intrinsic motivation of the players. Secondly, we sought to discover whether the most autonomous extrinsic motives may (...) be explained by high scores on task involvement and perceived autonomy support from the coach. Lastly, we investigated whether the most controlling extrinsic motives may be explained by greater ego involvement or by both ego and task involvement and less perceived autonomy support from the coach. A total of 401 players aged 14–18 took part in the survey. The results show that intrinsic motivation can be explained by high scores on both task and ego involvement. The two most autonomous extrinsic motives—integrated and identified regulation—were both explained by task and ego involvement and perceived autonomy support from the coach. The two most controlled motives—introjected and external regulation—were both explained by high scores on task and ego involvement. (shrink)

The purpose of the present study was to predict and explain the academic cheating behaviors of elementary school students with learning disabilities by applying the cusp catastrophe model. Participants were 32 students with identified LD from state governmental agencies although all both them and the typical students participated in the experimental manipulation. Academic cheating was assessed using an empirical paradigm where true achievement was subtracted from achievement in a test without proper invigilation. Data analysis supported the proposed cusp catastrophe models, (...) where mastery-related motives acted as asymmetry and performance goals as bifurcation variables respectively. These findings were confirmed with application of the interactive goal hypothesis, where the interactive approach and avoidance performance goal term functioned as a splitting factor in the relationship between adaptive motivation and performance. (shrink)

The complexity and challenges of the external environment accelerate the awakening of the new generation of enterprise employees’ self-consciousness. Facing the continuous expansion of the information-based work mode, the traditional management mechanism of enterprises has a more limited impact on employee performance. Based on the goal-oriented theory, developing and excavating the creative personality traits of employees, making full use of goal-oriented behavior to improve their own innovation performance management path, are expected to become a new path to continuously (...) enhance the innovation ability of enterprises. In this study, we take the employees of high-tech enterprises as samples to explore the influence mechanism of creative personality traits, goal orientation and employee innovation performance. The results show that goal orientation significantly moderates the relationship between creative personality traits and innovation performance. The mediating effects of learning goal orientation, performance certification orientation, and performance avoidance orientation are all significant. (shrink)

Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in achievement goal orientation correlates. What is not yet clear is the detailed relationships among students’ goal orientation, students’ personality traits, and parenting style. In so doing, this research responds to the need to analyze the importance of parenting styles and students’ traits in explaining the achievement goal orientations. In the exploratory correlational study, 586 Iranian students along with their parents were selected as the sample so as to (...) evaluate the structure of the relationships between these variables. The results indicate that students’ psychoticism and neuroticism predict students’ goal orientations while extraversion did not. Only the authoritative style predicts mastery approach and psychoticism trait. Permissive and authoritarian styles do not directly or indirectly predict students’ goal orientations. (shrink)

Background Ethical nurse leaders play a pivotal role in helping their nurse employees deliver high-quality healthcare services. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the mediating and moderating mechanisms by which ethical leadership improves job performance. Purpose This study aims to investigate: (1) whether ethical leadership would enhance nurses’ job performance; (2) whether learning goal orientation acts as a mediator; and (3) whether co-worker support operates as a moderator. Participants and research context We collected two-wave data from (...) 218 nurses working in hospitals located in Jiangsu, China. Research design A time-lagged study based on an online survey design was utilized for data collection between September 2022 and January 2023. PROCESS Model 5 was employed to test the research hypotheses. Ethical considerations We obtained ethics approval from the University Ethics Committee. The nursing participants were assured that their survey responses were completely anonymous. Results and discussion Ethical leadership is not significantly correlated with job performance. However, ethical leadership has an indirect impact on nurses’ job performance through the mediator (learning goal orientation). Moreover, co-worker support moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and job performance. Conclusion The conceptual model provides us with a fine-grained understanding of the relationship between ethical leadership and nurses’ job performance. We highlight the mediating role of learning goal orientation and the moderating role of co-worker support. We suggest that healthcare organizations should devote more efforts to promoting ethical leadership, co-worker support, and learning goal orientation. (shrink)

Ambidextrous firms are those that can simultaneously manage exploitative and explorative innovation, which is why ambidexterity is key for firms that desire to pursue strategic entrepreneurship. Researchers have explored many of the reasons why some firms are more ambidextrous than others. However, little attention has been devoted to understanding how attributes of top decision makers can influence their firms' ambidexterity. By drawing on upper echelons theory and goal orientations research, we explain how firms' ambidexterity can be affected by top (...) decision makers' motivations in achievement situations. Testing our hypotheses on a sample of 274 top decision makers of firms in the United States, we find that top decision makers' learning goal orientation – their desire to take risks and maximize learning–has an inverted U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity while top decision makers' performance prove goal orientation – their desire to demonstrate competence with existing skills – has a U-shaped relationship with ambidexterity. These effects are weaker for top decision makers who have greater role experience. (shrink)

Understanding the goals of others is fundamental for any kind of interpersonal interaction and collaboration. From a neurocognitive perspective, intention understanding has been proposed to depend on an involvement of the observer’s motor system in the prediction of the observed actions. An open question is if a similar understanding of the goal mediated by motor resonance can occur not only between humans, but also for humanoid robots. In this study we investigated whether goal-oriented robotic actions can induce motor (...) resonance by measuring the appearance of anticipatory gaze shifts to the goal during action observation. Our results indicate a similar implicit processing of humans’ and robots’ actions and propose to use anticipatory gaze behaviour as a tool for the evaluation of human-robot interactions. Keywords: Humanoid robot; motor resonance; anticipation; proactive gaze; action understanding. (shrink)

The implementation of corporate social responsibility objectives within companies is often managed by a CSR leader or a small team of CSR leaders. The effectiveness of these CSR leaders depends to a large extent on their competencies. Previous studies have identified the competencies these professionals need, yet it remains unclear how these competencies can be developed. Therefore, the aim of this survey study was to reveal how CSR leaders develop their competencies and to explore which learning activities CSR leaders engage (...) in. The results showed that informal learning activities that center on learning with and from peers outside the company are particularly emphasized. In addition, this study examines whether and how dimensions of companies’ learning climates and CSR leaders’ learning goal orientation affect the competence of CSR leaders. We found significant interaction effects between the learning climate dimensions. Furthermore, we found an even stronger and positive connection between LGO and CSR competence, highlighting the importance of attracting CSR leaders with a strong LGO for driving the CSR implementation process. Moreover, a supportive learning climate further stimulates CSR leaders’ engagement in continuous learning, which is necessary for coping with the complexities associated with implementing CSR. (shrink)

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we contribute to the behavioral ethics literature by examining how and why organizational socialization processes can affect newcomers’ adoption of unethical behaviors. Specifically, we contend that quality peer coaching provides newcomers with enhanced self-resources that diminishes emotional exhaustion and thus indirectly reduces newcomer unethical conduct. Conversely, peer coach unethical conduct increases newcomers’ emotional exhaustion, and thus indirectly increases newcomers’ own unethical acts. Our research also identifies newcomers’ goal orientations as important individual differences that (...) moderate the proposed mediation effects. Newcomers with high mastery orientations respond to high emotional exhaustion by harnessing more resources and identifying new work strategies, thereby engaging in less unethical conduct. Conversely, newcomers with high performance orientations give into emotional exhaustion and engage in unethical conduct as a way of outperforming others while conserving resources. We tested our theoretical model using a sample of peer coaches and newcomers from the Real Estate industry, using objective reporting of peer coaches’ and newcomers’ unethical conduct over a nine-month period. (shrink)

ObjectiveTo explore the relationship between adolescents’ social mobility belief and their learning engagement, as well as the mediating effect of achievement goal orientation and the moderating effect of psychological capital.MethodA sample of 895 adolescents from Hunan, Jiangxi, Hainan, Henan, and Guangdong provinces were assessed using the social mobility belief questionnaire, the achievement goal orientation questionnaire, the adolescents’ psychological capital questionnaire, and the adolescents’ learning engagement questionnaire.ResultsFirst, adolescents’ social mobility belief was positively related to their learning engagement (...) ; Second, the two achievement goal orientations-mastery goal orientations and performance goal orientations-had mediating effects between social mobility belief and learning engagement ; Third, the relationship between achievement goal orientation and learning engagement was regulated by psychological capital. Adolescents with high psychological capital had higher learning engagement.ConclusionAdolescents’ social mobility belief can directly affect their learning engagement, and it can also indirectly affect their learning engagement through achievement goal orientation moderated by their level of psychological capital. Our findings highlighted the importance of providing adolescents with guidance in setting up positive social values and definitions of success while stimulating their psychological capital as a part of the teaching process. (shrink)

The present article attempts to examine the relationship between learning agility and authentic leadership development. The recent rise in the cases of fraud involving leaders at various levels in the organizations, and the resulting distrust among the employees towards their leaders, points to the need to have authentic leaders, given the positive organizational outcomes associated with this leadership approach. Further, scholars have suggested that leadership development is possible through learning from one’s life experiences. The developmental definition of authentic leadership also (...) reflects the importance of learning from past experiences. Yet, studies have largely overlooked to explore the association between learning agility and authentic leadership development. This paper further tries to analyze the moderating effects of learning goal orientation and organizational culture on this relationship. Therefore, based on the existing research, the associations among these factors have been delineated and a conceptual model has been presented along with several propositions. Implications for future research and limitations of this work have also been discussed towards the end. (shrink)

Many scholars have investigated education management. Scholars in the education field have made significant achievements in contributing to multiple educational reform policies, while other scholars discuss teacher-related issues from the perspective of organizational behavior. The teaching innovation of high school teachers plays a critical role in students’ learning attitude and motivation, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers need to utilize more diversified teaching methods to enable students to carry out effective learning. In order to examine teachers’ teaching (...) innovation, this study explores teaching innovation intentions and performance from the perspective of individual and social factors in combination with goal-oriented behavior and social identity theory. This study conducts questionnaires with a sample of Chinese coastal high school teachers, and obtains a total of 475 responses. The research results show that innovation attitude, positive anticipated emotion, group norms and social identity positively affect teachers’ teaching innovation intention; furthermore, teachers’ teaching innovation intention also positively affects their teaching innovation performance. Based on the comprehensive research findings, this research proposes corresponding theoretical and practical implications. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effects of goal orientations and self-efficacy between competitive cognitive anxiety and motor performance under conditions featuring different levels of ego-threat. Eighty-one collegiate-level basketball players completed Sport Competitive Anxiety Test, Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and General Self-Efficacy Scale prior to the experiment. Athletes participated in two sessions of free-throw tasks. After the first session, which was under a control condition, participants performed in a free-throw competitive session while being (...) provided opponents’ scores that induced different levels of competitive cognitive anxiety. Performance is defined as the accuracy in two free-throw sessions. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that high level of task-orientation and low level of ego-orientation can buffer the impairment of competitive cognitive anxiety on motor performance. The relationship between competitive cognitive anxiety and motor performance did not vary with self-efficacy. An a repeated-measured analysis of covariance after cluster analysis revealed that a high-task/low-ego profile benefited athletes the most regarding the impairment of competitive cognitive anxiety. Together, ego- and task-orientations and “goal profile” moderate the relationship between competitive cognitive anxiety and motor performance; however, self-efficacy may not serve as a moderator variable in between. (shrink)

Teachers’ job satisfaction has been the subject of many studies that tried to identify its main sources. Based on the social cognitive career theory, the present study aimed to investigate the relationships between personality traits, goals orientation, and teachers’ job satisfaction. A total of 321 Romanian teachers completed an online questionnaire. The results demonstrated new insights regarding the relationships between psychological variables and teachers’ job satisfaction. Cognitive rigidity, as a mechanism to resistance to change, mediates between conscientiousness and teachers’ (...) job satisfaction. Moreover, the moderation role of learning goals orientation manifests in the relation between conscientiousness and job satisfaction. These findings emphasize that school management needs to offer teachers information and explain the change’s benefits if they want to prevent individual resistance to change and decrease satisfaction related to their work. (shrink)

In an effort to bolster employee creativity, companies like Google and Groupon have adopted indoor work spaces that incorporate slides, swings, and unconventional design. While it may be costly and time-consuming to change certain aspects of a firm's work environment to aid creativity and brainstorming, it is relatively easy for managers to encourage employees to engage in certain forms of unstructured recreation immediately prior to creative-based tasks for a new product development. This research addresses an important oversight in the literature (...) by exploring the effect of cognitive game playing and goal orientation on subsequent new product development creativity. It was found that a cognitive game that engenders a greater degree of fun results in greater creativity on a subsequent new product development task, compared with both a cognitive-based game that engenders less fun and a control group. Furthermore, it was found that, for a cognitive-based game that engenders a high degree of fun, individuals who are primed with a process goal orientation are more likely to be creative on a subsequent new product development task than those who are primed with an outcome goal orientation. (shrink)

As the sensitivity to corporate social responsibility continues to grow, the goal of enterprises has expanded beyond the sole pursuit of economic value. Corporate social goal orientation has therefore come to occupy a central position in entrepreneurs’ psychology and the transition away from a market-only economy. This study uses secondary data from 4,288 samples of 725 Chinese-listed companies from 2009 to 2020 to explore the driving factors in social goal orientation based on the characteristics of (...) sample companies and their industry groups from the perspective of stakeholder relationships. The results can be summarized as follows: there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between government stakeholder relationships and social goal orientation, and there is a significant positive relationship between financial stakeholder relationships, market stakeholder relationships, and corporate social goal orientation. The correlation between single-dual stakeholder relationships and social goal orientation is not consistent. In light of the nature of the roles of government and the market, the correlation between the government–market dual relationship and corporate social goal orientation is not significant. However, there is a significant correlation between the finance–government dual stakeholder relationship and social goal orientation; that is, the dual stakeholder relationship maintains the existence of non-institutional capital and corporate financial capital. Moreover, there is no significant correlation between the market–finance dual relationship and corporate social goal orientation, and there is substitutability between market and financial stakeholder relationships. With the deepening of our understanding of CSR, the core goal of enterprises is no longer confined to the pursuit of economic value, and their social goal orientation has come to be regarded as a major driving force in sustainable development. This study enriches the research on the relationship between stakeholder relationships and shows that stakeholder relationships also have important significance to both achieving corporate goals and shaping entrepreneurs’ psychology. (shrink)

Mental health problems are frequent obstacles in medical students’ careers as doctors. Given that previous studies overlook the mediation of stress perception, the current study expanded previous goal orientation researches by addressing an unexplored mechanism. This study aims to examine the mediational roles of stress perception on the relationship between achievement goal orientation and depression in medical students. A total of 1,015 Chinese 2-year medical students completed a multi-section questionnaire. Hypotheses were examined by structural equation modeling. (...) The findings suggest that performance-avoidance goal orientation and perceived stressors both demonstrated direct facilitative effects on depression, whereas stress-related cognition demonstrated direct obstructive effects on depression. Both perceived stressors and stress-related cognition mediated the relationship between achievement goal orientation and depression. The findings spark a new perspective on motivational intervention that assist students in adopting mastery-approaching strategy as well as ways of coping with stressful academic situations. Identifying students with achievement goal orientation and providing them with the appropriate supportive services may help them to manage stress and mitigate or prevent depression. (shrink)

The present study aims to analyze the psychometric properties of the Goal orientation Scales in a sample of 2,170 Ecuadorian undergraduate students. The Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the four-factor structure of the GOS, and the scale exhibited an adequate factorial invariance for gender. The multidimensional Rasch analysis revealed that one item showed misfit, and the distribution of items did not correspond well with the levels of achievement goals. The current research addresses a formal gap (...) related to the validation of the GOS in a Latin American country and provides advanced psychometric information to further improve the scale for its application to Spanish-speaking samples. (shrink)

Knowledge sharing is critical for consulting companies to develop sustainable competitive advantages. While the importance of KS in the information communication technology sector has been proved, the assumed linear relationships in KS mechanisms are confronted with KS dilemmas: consultants’ intention to maximize personal gains from KS resulting in restrained KS efforts, for fear of losing value after sharing knowledge with colleagues. Drawing on motivation theory and goal orientation perspective, this study examines the roles of learning goal (...) class='Hi'>orientation and incentive schemes in KS among ICT consultants. The multiple regression analyses of 389 consultants’ responses from 14 Chinese and 8 Korean ICT consulting companies demonstrated an inverted U-shape relationship between LGO and knowledge sharing; incentive schemes moderate this relationship. The findings shed light on the knowledge-sharing dilemma, with theoretical implications to research regarding goal-orientation, knowledge sharing, and managerial practices about the motivation and incentives of ICT consultants. (shrink)

In this paper we present a framework for the dynamic and automatic generation of novel knowledge obtained through a process of commonsense reasoning based on typicality-based concept combination. We exploit a recently introduced extension of a Description Logic of typicality able to combine prototypical descriptions of concepts in order to generate new prototypical concepts and deal with problem like the PET FISH (Osherson and Smith, 1981; Lieto & Pozzato, 2019). Intuitively, in the context of our application of this logic, the (...) overall pipeline of our system works as follows: given a goal expressed as a set of properties, if the knowledge base does not contain a concept able to fulfill all these properties, then our system looks for two concepts to recombine in order to extend the original knowledge based satisfy the goal. (shrink)

Cilj ovoga istraživanja bio je ispitati povezanost osobina ličnosti, motivacije i strategija učenja kod učenika osnovnoškolske dobi. Ukupno 193 učenika ispunilo je Upitnik za ispitivanje osobina ličnosti kod djece, Upitnik za ispitivanje ciljnih orijentacija i Upitnik za ispitivanje strategija učenja. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da su učenici, u odnosu na učenice, skloniji ciljevima usmjerenima na druge i neakademskim ciljevima. Učenice, u odnosu na učenike, češće koriste meta-kognitivnu kontrolu i dubinsko procesiranje. Mlađi učenici važnijima su procijenili i ciljeve usmjerene na sebe (...) i na druge, a češće koriste i sve tri strategije učenja. Regresijske su analize pokazale da i osobine ličnosti i ciljne orijentacije učenika zasebno doprinose objašnjenju dijela varijance svih strategija učenja pri čemu su se od osobina ličnosti najvažnijim prediktorima pokazale savjesnost i emocionalna stabilnost. Ciljevi usmjereni na sebe značajni su prediktori meta-kognitivne kontrole i dubinskog procesiranja, dok su ciljevi usmjereni na druge značajan prediktor površinskog procesiranja. (shrink)

Of the many possible individual factors bearing on test preparation, one is how individuals’ motivational and cognitive perceptions affect test-driven preparation practices. This study reports an investigation into test preparation of a high-stakes writing test from the perspective of expectancy-value theory. Undergraduate students on their test preparation for the writing tasks of China’s Graduate School Entrance English Examination were recruited voluntarily from 11 universities in mainland China. The perceptions of GSEEE test takers, which included goal, task value, task demand, (...) and expectation of success, were identified. Five types of preparation practices were identified for the GSEEE writing tasks: memorizing practice, test familiarization, comprehensive learning, skills development and drilling practice. Structural equation modeling revealed that the expectancy-value model held up well for the paths from test takers’ perceptions to test-driven preparation practices, which were not construct-oriented but goal-motivated. The GSEEE test takers’ goal, determined by the high-stakes nature of admission test, explained their motivation and determined their behavior toward test preparation. Results also indicated that task demand was inadequate to be termed a strong factor in affecting test preparation. As such, the findings of this study offer evidence regarding how an expectancy-value model fit into test preparation mechanism and provide insights into the nature and scope of test preparation for high-stakes writing tests. (shrink)

This issue of Christian Bioethics explores foundational debates regarding the orientation and application of Christian bioethics. Should Christian bioethics be approached as essentially a human activity, grounded in scholarly study of theological arguments and religious virtues, oriented toward practical social ends, or should Christian bioethics be recognized as the result of properly oriented prayer, fasting, and asceticism leading to an encounter with God? The gulf between these two general perspectives—the creation of immanent human goods versus submission to a fully (...) transcendent God—is significant and, as ongoing debate in Christian Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality over the past nearly three decades has made clear, the implications are both intellectually engaging and spiritually profound. (shrink)