Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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The optimal strategy in a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task is to focus on one semantic subcategory at a time and adaptively switch from one subcategory to another. This task has therefore been...Show moreThe optimal strategy in a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task is to focus on one semantic subcategory at a time and adaptively switch from one subcategory to another. This task has therefore been used as a measure of self-directed executive functioning. Previous studies have found that SVF performance improves through childhood and adolescence. This developmentalimprovement has been observed both in the total number of words produced during the task and in switching between subcategories. The present online study tested the hypothesis that the agerelated improvement in SVF performance is partly driven by an improved ability to select between competing word representations. The study included three age groups: 8–10-year-olds (n=26), 12–14-year-olds (n=17), and young adults (n=31). The semantic blocking effect in the blocked cycling naming task was used as a measure of selection abilities. Measures of vocabulary and general processing speed were included as control variables. Age-related differences in SVF performance were only partly replicated: there were signs of age-related differences in the total word count but not in switching. The semantic blocking effect was replicated across age groups. However, there were no signs of age-related differences in the magnitude of this effect, suggesting that word selection abilities did not differ between age groups. Moreover, the magnitude of the semantic blocking effect did not predict SVF performance. Thus, although further research is needed, the present study does not support the hypothesis that the age-related improvement in SVF would be driven by an improvement in selection abilities.Show less
When it comes to teamwork, it is vital to communicate well with one another, especially when the lives of patients are in your team’s hands. In order to communicate well, hospital workers must feel...Show moreWhen it comes to teamwork, it is vital to communicate well with one another, especially when the lives of patients are in your team’s hands. In order to communicate well, hospital workers must feel psychologically safe enough within their team to address questions, problems, and errors, and must feel free to make suggestions and give feedback. This study investigates, by the means of a survey on psychological safety and network ties, whether social network ties within and between teams can predict the psychological safety of hospital workers, as they work with colleagues outside of their team as well. Asking for advice from (different) team members and being friends with team members was hypothesised to indicate that the team psychological safety is adequate. Having difficulties with team members was expected to lower the perception of psychological safety. Over the course of three weeks, 70 hospital workers answered the survey via Mechanical Turk and the results from the linear regressions suggest that advice ties positively affect and difficulty ties negatively affect team psychological safety, but only when psychological safety scores were at the lower end of the scale. Team tenure did not moderate the effect that network ties have on psychological safety while larger team sizes may weaken this effect. Future tools for improving psychological safety in hospital teams can make use of the knowledge that advice ties and difficulty ties are possible ingredients of a low psychological safety team moving to a desired level of psychological safety.Show less
