Selection

What does being initiated severely into a group do? The role of rewards

by Caroline Kamau

Kamau, C. (2012)

Censorship and Book Selection in British Public Librarianship 19191939: Professional Perspectives

by Clare Ravenwood

Abel, D.L., 2010, Constraints vs. Controls, Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal, 4, 14-27

by Dr. David L. Abel

Open Access

  Last accessed Jan, 2012.

The terms constraints and controls should not be used interchangeably. Constraints refer to the cause-and-effect... more The terms constraints and controls should not be used interchangeably. Constraints refer to the cause-and-effect deterministic orderliness of nature, to local initial conditions, and to the stochastic combinatorial boundaries that limit possible outcomes. Bits, bifurcation points and nodes represent “choice opportunities”, not choices. Controls require deliberate selection from among real options. Controls alone steer events toward formal pragmatic ends. Inanimacy is blind to and does not pursue utility. Constraints produce no integrative or organizational effects. Only the purposeful choice of constraints, not the constraints themselves, can generate bona fide controls. Configurable switch-settings allow the instantiation of formal choice contingency into physicality. While configurable switches are themselves physical, the setting of these switches to achieve formal function is physicodynamically indeterminate—decoupled from and incoherent with physicodynamic causation. The mental choice of tokens (physical symbol vehicles) in a material symbol system also instantiates non physical formal Prescriptive Information (PI) into physicality.

Abel, D.L., 2011, The three fundamental categories of reality. In The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control, Abel, D. L., Ed. LongView Press-Academic: Biolog. Res. Div.: New York, N.Y., pp 19-54.

by Dr. David L. Abel

Why would a prebiotic environment have “cared” whether anything functioned? How could an inanimate nature have recognized, valued, pursued or worked to preserve function? Even evolution has no goal. Could “survival of the fittest” explain the generation of the very first organism, fit or unfit? How did hundreds of biochemical pathways and cycles get integrated into such a sustained, cooperative, goal-oriented, holistic metabolism? Can physico-chemical propensities and/or mutations program logic gates for potential function, and integrate circuits? How could chance and/or necessity (the fixed laws of physics) have organized and programmed initial life?

While some scientists might wish to sweep these questions under the rug for being too “metaphysical,” they are as foundational to the science of biology as mathematics is to physics. Addressing such questions is the only path to elucidation of gene emergence and life origin through natural process. These legitimate queries are the subject matter of the new scientific discipline known as ProtoBioCybernetics—the study of the source and types of controls (not mere constraints) and regulation in the very first protocells.

Contingency means that events could unfold in multiple ways in the midst of, and despite, cause-and-effect... more Contingency means that events could unfold in multiple ways in the midst of, and despite, cause-and-effect determinism. But there are two kinds of contingency: Chance and Choice/Selection. Chance and Necessity cannot explain a myriad of repeatedly observable phenomena. Sophisticated formal function invariably arises from choice contingency, not from chance contingency or law. Decision nodes, logic gates and configurable switch settings can theoretically be set randomly or by invariant law, but no nontrivial formal utility has ever been observed to arise as a result of either. Language, logic theory, mathematics, programming, computation, algorithmic optimization, and the scientific method itself all require purposeful choices at bona fide decision nodes. Unconstrained purposeful choices must be made in pursuit of any nontrivial potential function at the time each logic gate selection is made. Natural selection is always post-programming. Choice Contingency (Selection for potential (not yet existing) function, not just selection of the best already-existing function) must be included among the fundamental categories of reality along with Chance and Necessity.

Measuring Cognitive Aptitude Using Unobtrusive Knowledge Tests: A New Survey Technology

by Daniel Martin

Legree, P. J., Martin, D.E. & Psotka, J.  (2000). Measuring cognitive aptitude using unobtrusive knowledge tests: A new survey technology.  Intelligence. Vol.28, No. 4, 291-308

Five knowledge tests and one implicit-reasoning task were developed to be: (1) exceptionally short, (2) correlated... more Five knowledge tests and one implicit-reasoning task were developed to be: (1) exceptionally short, (2) correlated with general cognitive aptitude, (3) unobtrusive, i.e., appear similar to attitudinal survey items as opposed to maximal performance measures, and (4) without formally "correct" 23 answers. The intent was to design scales that could be administered in non-proctored environments to directly measure general cognitive aptitude while avoiding the possibility that participants could use references to provide "good"' answers. The five knowledge tests used a Likert format to assess knowledge in verbal and practical domains, and were scored by computing distances between examinee and reference ratings. The implicit-reasoning task appeared to be a series completion "game"' that required a dichotomous response. The scales were administered to 288 Air Force recruits and were validated against the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Individual unobtrusive knowledge scales and ASVAB tests were substantially correlated with sample correlations ranging to .39 and population correlation estimates to .66 after correcting for range restriction. Two sets of factor scores, which were separately derived from the unobtrusive test battery and the ASVAB, were highly correlated in our sample, .54, yielding a population correlation of .80 after correcting for range restriction. This technology is important because few paper- or Internet-based surveys, and virtually no mail-based surveys accurately measure general cognitive aptitude, while many of these surveys address important social issues and commercial questions that could be better understood given an unobtrusive but accurate estimate of general cognitive aptitude.

Personnel Selection: An Application of the Unobtrusive Knowledge Test

by Daniel Martin

Martin, D.E., Moore, C., Legree, P. J. (2007) Personnel Selection: An Application of the Unobtrusive Knowledge Test Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences Vol 16, No 1, 4-16

While employers recognize the utility, convenience, and efficiency of unproctored testing, implementing unproctored... more While employers recognize the utility, convenience, and efficiency of unproctored testing, implementing unproctored high-stakes tests (such as an Internet-administered intelligence test used for selection) face multiple hurdles. As the percentage of high-complexity jobs continue to increase in the United States, intelligence measures will continue to be in demand for personnel selection purposes. This study further established the validity of a general intelligence measure, the Unobtrusive Knowledge Test (UKT) in support of unproctored and Internet-based personnel employee selection. UKT performance was significantly correlated to an established personnel selection test, the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT), while being perceived as survey, though participants had been told otherwise. Implications are discussed.

Plagiarism, Integrity, and Workplace Deviance: A Criterion Study

by Daniel Martin

Martin, D.E., Rao, A., Sloan, L. R. (2009) Plagiarism, Integrity, and Workplace Deviance: A Criterion Study Ethics and Behavior Vol 19, No 1, 36-51

Plagiarism is increasingly evident in business and academia. While links between demographic, personality, and... more Plagiarism is increasingly evident in business and academia. While links between demographic, personality, and situational factors have been found, previous research has not used actual plagiarism behavior as a criterion variable. Previous research on academic dishonesty has consistently used to self-report measures to establish prevalence of dishonest behavior. In this study we use actual plagiarism behavior to establish its prevalence, as well as relationships between integrity-related personal selection and workplace deviance measures. This research covers new ground in two respects: 1) That the academic dishonesty literature is subject to revision using criterion variables to avoid self bias and social desirability issues, 2) We establish the relationship between actual academic dishonesty and potential workplace deviance/white collar crime.

Traffic Crash Involvement: Experiential Driving Knowledge and Stressful Contextual Antecedents

by Daniel Martin

Legree, P. J., Martin, D.E., Medsker, G. (2003). Tacit Driving Knowledge, Emotional Intelligence and Accident Risk: Traffic Safety Implications. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol 88(1), Feb 2003, 15-26.

Researchers have rarely examined stressful environments and psychological characteristics as predictors of driving... more Researchers have rarely examined stressful environments and psychological characteristics as predictors of driving behavior in the same study. The authors hypothesized that (a) safer drivers more accurately assess physical and emotional traffic hazards and (b) stress and emotional states elevate crash risk. The hypotheses were evaluated with procedural and declarative tacit driving knowledge tests requiring assessment of emotional and contextual hazards and with accident reports describing crash antecedents, including stressful events and environmental conditions. Analyses identified separate driving knowledge factors corresponding to emotional and contextual hazards that were significantly related to the crash criteria. Accident report analyses show that stress significantly elevates at-fault crash risk. The results demonstrate the importance of experiential knowledge acquired without instruction (procedural or tacit knowledge) and provide safety recommendations.

Uniform Guidelines, Spirituality, and Predictors of Ethical Workplace Behaviors

by Daniel Martin

Martin, D.E., Margolin, J. (2012) Uniform Guidelines, Spirituality, and Predictors of Ethical Workplace Behaviors Journal of Law, Business & Ethics

Spirituality provides descriptions that represent relevant psychological phenomena which can be discretely measured.... more Spirituality provides descriptions that represent relevant psychological phenomena which can be discretely measured. Because of the requirements of the 1978 Federal Uniform Guidelines, the relationship between spirituality and job-related traits and characteristics need to be well understood in the event they are used for decisions affecting personnel . The merit of any metric associated with performance must be established through a validity study (Uniform Guidelines, Sec. 60-3.2 Scope. B, 2000). Accordingly, we consider the construct validity of the aforementioned measures in the context of the uniform guidelines. As hypothesized, religiosity and spirituality instruments are independent of measures commonly used for personnel selection purposes or measures of workplace deviance. We also establish the impact of gender on the measures and provide implications for recruitment and selection.

Human genetic differentiation across the Strait of Gibraltar

by Mathias Currat

Selection into Skill Accumulation: Evidence using Observational and Experimental Data

by Utteeyo Dasgupta

Assessments for Selection and Promotion of Police Officers

by Lily Cushenbery

Jacobs, R. R., Cushenbery, L., & Grabarek, P. E. (2011). Assessments for selection and promotion of police officers. In J. Kitaeff, (Ed.) Handbook of Police Psychology (pp. 193-210). New York: Routledge.

This chapter provides perspective on assessments used for selecting and advancing/promoting employees. We start with a... more This chapter provides perspective on assessments used for selecting and advancing/promoting employees. We start with a broad overview of how employees are selected, then focus on what is going on in today’s police departments. The same strategy is used in our presentation on promotion systems before we move on to specific issues confronted when organizations engage in assessment and use the information to make employment decisions. The chapter concludes with a brief over- view of legal issues facing police agencies as they attempt to identify talent to join the organization or to move up the rank structure and how we can successfully design and implement programs that encompass best practices and avoid legal complications.

Mashing genres up, breaking them down: Habitus and literacy in the age of copy-and-paste

by Elisabetta Adami

forthcoming in the Proceedings of SIGET-VI, International Symposium on Genre Studies

The paper investigates sign-making through selection and recontextualization of (snippets of) previous texts, i.e.,... more The paper investigates sign-making through selection and recontextualization of (snippets of) previous texts, i.e., copy-and-paste; it discusses the underlying semiotic mechanism and the resulting practices, namely forwarding and remix. It further considers the rhetorical effects of these forms of text production and their impact on old and new genres and generic conventions. When representation is produced through selection, (assemblage) and recontextualization, cohesion is no longer a necessary device for coherence, while texts are characterized by fragmentation and modular combination of topics, voices, modes and genres, together with increased intertextuality, implicitness and multi-layered meanings. This holds not only for the single texts we produce, but also for the semiotic environments we interpret and the interactions we participate in. In turn, long, linear and cohesive, mono-thematic, mono-voice, mono-modal and mono-generic texts seem essentially confined to a few formal, educational and academic genres which rely mainly on writing – and even these, although linear and cohesive in their final form, are frequently produced modularly, and are also increasingly read this way. All this opens new challenges for educational contexts. Consequently, the conclusions offer insights on the implications for the learning and teaching of (written) genres.

Evolutionary Mechanisms Affecting the Multivariate Divergence in Some Myotis Species (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)

by Maria Ghazali

Dzeverin I., Ghazali M. 2010. Evolutionary mechanisms affecting the multivariate divergence in some Myotis species (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) – Evolutionary Biology 37(2-3): 100-112.

MHC evolution in three salmonid species: a comparison between class II alpha and beta genes

by Sofia (Sonia) Consuegra del Olmo

Immunogenetics (2005) 8, 531-542