Sequential Analysis: Monitoring counselling sessions via skin resistance

Very little has been published on the application of the galvanic skin response (GSR) to counselling and psychotherapy, since research has concentrated on applications to lie detection and biofeedback. Dr Ian N. Marshall developed Sequential Analysis in 1968-69, as a system of psychotherapeutic procedures monitored by GSR, but most of his work remains unpublished. Certain meter techniques are described. It is suggested that the ‘paradoxial’ phenomena would be explained by correlating high/low resistance with withdrawal/involvement rather than with relaxation/arousal. The procedures of Sequential Analysis are described briefly. Finally it is suggested that giving oneself sessions is an effective method for training as a counsellor or psychotherapist, because of the experiential understanding of the processes so obtained.     

Empirical Guidance for Time-Window Sequential Analysis of Single Cases

Time-window sequential analyses test whether a target behavior occurs within a temporal window (e.g., within 2 seconds) after an antecedent behavior more than is expected by chance. This type of question is common when we need to know how one person or event may immediately affect another event or person in the natural environment. Theoretically, the significance of sequential associations from time-window analysis can be tested on the single subject level (Bakeman & Quera, 1995). The present Monte Carlo study was conducted to test the Type I error rates and the difference in sequential associations derived from four methods of time-window sequential analysis. The four methods vary according to whether they analyze the duration of antecedent and target behaviors. The results indicate that time-window sequential analysis method is generally valid. The results were most accurate when antecedent duration and target onset was analyzed. Although analyzing duration of the antecedent did affect the results, the effect size for the difference in results due to presence or absence of measuring duration of the antecedent was extremely small. Time-window analysis results appear unaffected by the decision to analyze the duration of the target event.     

Assessing Sequential Knowledge through Performance Measures: The Influence of Short-term Sequential Effects

Studies on implicit sequence learning have employed the methodology oftask dissociations to show that tasks of conscious memory fail to reveal knowledge expressed in performance measures of learning. One critical requirement of this methodology is that the conscious memory tests tap the same type of information that is expressed in performance measures. When a deterministic sequence is being repeated during practice, identification of the exact type of sequential information that is learned can be achieved by a trial-by-trial comparison between the practised sequence and a control sequence. In Experiment 1 we examine whether short-term sequential effects are present in choice response time tasks and may therefore contaminate this trial-by-trial comparison. In Experiment 2 we control for these effects and demonstrate how specification of the exact sub-parts of the sequence that are learned is necessary before testing for task dissociations. Our findings indicate a dissociation between a response time task and a free generation task. This dissociation, however, is obtained for selected sub-parts of the sequence and may be caused by the insensitivity of the free-generation task to low confidence knowledge.     

A Sequential Analysis of Depressive Behaviors Within Adolescent Peer Interactions

This study examined depressive and positive patterns of interactions among clinical and nonclinical adolescent peers within an interpersonal context. Ten clinical dyads with a depressed partner and 10 nonclinical dyads engaged in 16-min audiotaped conversations under positive and negative task instructions discussing positive and negative experiences. Conversations were unitized and coded according to depressive, aggressive, positive, and neutral behaviors. The clinical dyad-group demonstrated over two times more depressive behaviors than did the nonclinical dyad-group. Both dyad-groups exhibited increased depressive interactions during negative task instructions and increased positive interaction during positive task instructions. The loglinear approach to sequential analysis demonstrated significant overall bidirectional influence in the adolescents' dyadic interaction. Specifically, we found that the depressed adolescents' depressive behaviors decreased the likelihood of partners' aggressive behaviors, and increased the likelihood of partners' positive behaviors. Clinical and nonclinical dyad-groups showed reliable patterns of positive interaction sequences. Results demonstrate that depressive and positive behaviors are functional in adolescent dyadic interaction.     

A Sequential Analysis of Externalizing in Narrative Therapy with Children

Externalizing, or separating the person from his/her problem-saturated story, is a central approach in narrative therapy. Michael White, one of the therapy’s founders, lately revised his map of the externalizing process in therapy according to Vygotskian theory. In this study we sought to determine whether White’s proposed process was evident in therapy sessions. Sequential analysis indicated that therapists scaffolded children’s responses according to White’s map, and therapists’ and children’s utterances tended to advance across the levels of the map over the course of a session, indicating that White’s model of narrative therapy matched the therapy’s empirical process.     

Modern Sequential Analysis and Its Applications to Computerized Adaptive Testing

After a brief review of recent advances in sequential analysis involving sequential generalized likelihood ratio tests, we discuss their use in psychometric testing and extend the asymptotic optimality theory of these sequential tests to the case of sequentially generated experiments, of particular interest in computerized adaptive testing. We then show how these methods can be used to design adaptive mastery tests, which are asymptotically optimal and are also shown to provide substantial improvements over currently used sequential and fixed length tests.     

Sequential Tree Analysis of Work Stressors: Exploring Score Profiles in the Context of the Stressor-Stress Relationship

In recent years concerns about whether the different measures of work stressors provide adequate information on the stressors themselves have led a number of reviewers to suggest that old constructs should be reconsidered and alternative approaches to measurement considered. One such alternative approach would be to consider the relationship between different work stressors in terms of score profiles and whether different score profiles emerge at different levels of tension. Sequential tree analysis was used to segment or split a sample into homogeneous subgroups reflecting the stressor or combination of stressors that reflected different levels of tension. The visual display that emerged from this analysis suggests that: (1) when considering the relationship between stressors and tension it is important to recognize that while absolute levels of work stressors scores may be low this is no reason to assume that the stressor-tension relationship will be correspondingly low; and (2) although individuals may report the same overall score for a work stressor, their experience of that stressor may be quite different. Finally, these results point to the need to consider the impact that generalizing work stressor scores may have on intervention strategies.     

CAT中结合贝叶斯方法与序贯监测程序的题库质量监控技术

Zhang(2013)提出了序贯监测程序(SMP)用以检测CAT中的题目在作答过程中是否发生泄漏。然而,该方法会出现虚报且未关注在题目泄漏后,对能力估计精度产生的影响。本研究在SMP基础上引入个人拟合指标,提出SMP_PFI方法,拟在给定的置信度上核实被SMP标记的题目是否真正泄漏,并探查SMP_PFI方法对能力估计精度与被封存题目数量关系的影响。实验结果表明：新方法能够有效降低SMP单独运行时的一类错误。通过控制CPFI值能够平衡能力估计精度与被封存题目数量之间的关系。     

Sequential development of helping behavior: A cognitive-learning approach

It is suggested that cognitive, social-perspective, and moral skills, on the one hand, and a self-regulatory skill on the other, determine the extent, quantity, and quality of helping acts. A framework for the analysis of helping behavior development by integrating cognitive-development- and social-learning approaches is suggested. The framework proposes that altruistic behavior is a specific, highest-level kind of helping behavior. Helping behavior develops sequentially as its quality changes. The quality of the helping behavior is reflected in individuals' motivation to act. Empirical evidence supporting the suggested framework is presented, and the contribution of this framework for the study of prosocial behavior is discussed.     

Sequential lineup advantage: contributions of distinctiveness and recollection

One procedural safeguard that may improve the reliability of eyewitness identification is a sequential lineup. A sequential lineup (view lineup members one at a time) is thought to be superior to a simultaneous lineup (view all lineup members at the same time) because the sequential lineup appears to make it less likely that a witness will choose someone from a lineup when the police have an innocent suspect. A framework developed from Estes' (1997) perturbation model was applied to the data from Gronlund (2004). According to the proposed framework, the sequential lineup advantage results only if distinctive information is encoded and recollection is used to access that information. Implications of this framework for lineup decision processes are discussed. An understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the sequential lineup advantage can strengthen arguments involving adoption of this procedural safeguard and improve its administration. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sequential item selection: Optimal and heuristic policies

This paper considers testing in which the goal is to minimize the number of test items required to establish a learner's state of ability. Focus is on optimal or near optimal selection over a well-defined universe of items or stimuli. Selection policies are determined for the case in which the items have hierarchical or partial hierarchical relationships. Derivation of an optimal policy rests upon techniques from dynamic programming. For situations in which an optimal policy may be too costly to compute, two heuristic approximations are offered. One heuristic counts the hypothetical estimates of ability that remain tenable following a response to each item and chooses the item that minimizes the expectation of that number. The other selects the item that maximizes the statistic of information.     

阅读中的注意分配:序列与平行之争

阅读中的注意分配问题是区分目前占主导地位的两类眼动控制模型的核心因素,基于序列分布假设的眼动控模型与基于平行注意分布的眼动控制模型在对眼动行为的预测中存在一些显著的差异,譬如一次注视下能否深度加工知觉广度内的一个以上词汇的信息.文章围绕两类模型对该问题的不同预测,深入探讨了两类模型的核心差异以及相关实验证据,并概括其它相关领域中在知觉广度内关于序列与平行注意分布的研究,以及对建构中文眼动控制模型的重要意义.     

Sequential decision making: An aggregate scheduling methodology

Recent studies of sequential decision making performance have utilized optimal dynamic programming solutions as the criteria for evaluating the quality of human decisions. The difficulties incumbent in increasing the dimensionality of dynamic programming formulations effectively prohibit their extension beyond the case of a single decision variable. In the following article an alternative optimization formulation for a two-decision-variable case is presented, followed by the development of a corresponding one-decision-variable problem. In addition, related methodological problems limiting the comparability of results among previous studies are presented. It is suggested that the proposed problem formulation and its accompanying interpretation for the decision maker largely eliminate these previous methodological problems. Furthermore, the problem formulation permits quantification of the relative weights that should optimally be placed on future decision periods in the multiple-stage decision problem.     

Sequential effects in naming: a time-criterion account

S. J. Lupker, P. Brown, and L. Colombo (1997) reported that target naming latencies are strongly affected by the difficulty of the other stimuli in a trial block, an effect they attributed to readers' strategic use of a time criterion to guide responding. In the present research, the authors asked whether there are also trial-by-trial ("sequential") effects by examining naming latency as a function of the difficulty of the preceding stimulus. In Experiment 1, both nonwords and high-frequency regular words were named more rapidly following a word than a nonword. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 were parallel experiments involving a variety of stimulus types (e.g., high- and low-frequency inconsistent words, easy and hard nonwords). In all cases, similar sequential effects were observed (i.e., all stimulus types had shorter latencies following an easier-to-name than a harder-to-name stimulus). In terms of the time-criterion account, criterion placement appears to be affected by the relative difficulty of the preceding stimulus in a way that is independent of stimulus type.     

Sequential estimations of time

Sequential estimations of intervals stored and reproduced by either counting or not counting are compared in experiments with single and repeated presentation of the standard interval. In a non-counting condition the estimates show a negative correlation with the last occurring trial throughout the series after one presentation of the standard. Consequently, in an ongoing process the capacity for (the storage and) the recall of time appears to be limited to the most recent event corresponding with the previous estimate. Correlations are lacking when the standard is presented after every estimate because the most recent information is an external constant. The correlations with the last trial recur when relatively long intervals are used, stored on the basis of various sensory cues. When the difference between the number of these cues is minimized, the correlation disappears. Counting never shows sequential correlations since it favors the coding and storage of time as a number of subjective units. The temporal equivalent of that number is constructed from trial to trial, a representation of the complete interval is not available and the subject does not remember his counting rate.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Awkward Silence A Replication Using Revised Lag Sequential Analysis

McLaughlin and Cody's (1982) study of antecedents and consequences of awkward silence is replicated in this study. McLaughlin and Cody concluded that behavioral sequences before silence in dyads with multiple silences were characterized by a pattern of minimal response by one participant. They also concluded that posts/fence sequences were characterized by the presence of question-answer adjacency pairs. Advances made in our understanding of lag sequential analysis (Allison & Liker, 1982; Morley, in press; Sackett, in press) since their study was conducted indicate that statistics other than those employed in their study are more appropriate. A study of the antecedents and consequences of silence for dyads with multiple silences is reported and analyzed using reuised lag sequential analysis. This study found that silences were preceded by minimal responses at lag 1 and followed by questions at lag 1. However, silences were not followed by answers at lag 2. Additionally, the significant dependencies between minimal responses and silence, and silence and questions accounted for only a very small amount of the variance. Thus, although statistically significant, these dependencies are not theoretically meaningful.     

Lexical integration: Sequential effects of syntactic and semantic information

Both semantic and syntactic context constraints can influence word processing at the level of lexical integration. In event-related brain potentials (ERPs), semantic integration is reflected by a negativity around 400 msec (N400), whereas phrase structure assignment and syntactic integration are assumed to be reflected by an early left anterior negativity and a late positivity (P600), respectively. An ERP study is presented in which participants read different types of sentences whose terminal verb was either congruent with the preceding context or incongruent due to a phrase structure violation, a semantic violation, or both. The main finding was that only the pure semantic violation condition, but not the combined semantic and syntactic violation condition, elicited a large N400. The two conditions containing phrase structure violations were predominantly characterized by a P600. Both semantic violation conditions, moreover, displayed a late negativity around 700 msec that overlapped with the P600 in the double violation condition. The absence of an N400 effect for elements that are syntactically as well as semantically incongruent with prior context suggests an early influence of phrase structure information on processes of lexical-semantic integration. The present data are discussed in comparison to previous ERP findings, and a new view of lexical integration processes is proposed.