Random Walker Test: A computerized alternative to the Road-Map Test

The Road-Map Test (RMT) is a popular neurological assessment of left-right orientation, using a simplified road map. Inspired by the RMT, we developed a new computerized navigation test, the Random Walker Test (RWT), for further quantitative assessment of left-right orientation ability. RWT provides verbal or nonverbal instructions for the direction (left, right, or front) in which to proceed, and participants must judge the spatially correct direction. Perspectives rotate by 90° during navigation. Verbal judgments demand verbal-to-spatial mapping of left/right/front and, if necessary, egocentric perspective rotation. Using the RWT, we evaluated the left-right orientation of normal male participants. The RWT reliably recorded the response times and error rates for participant performance and also revealed egocentric perspective rotation as an unreliable mental process with large intra- and interpersonal variability. These results indicate that the RWT may be useful in investigating left-right orientation and/or egocentric perspective rotation in both normal participants and neuropathological patients.     

经验取样法——一种收集“真实”数据的新方法

经验取样法是一种有效的密集纵向研究数据收集方法。该方法的优点正逐渐被广大研究者所认同,国外运用经验取样法取得的研究成果越来越多,而国内学者对经验取样法的研究尚处于探索阶段,运用此方法的实证研究更是凤毛麟角。通过对《应用心理学期刊》(Journal of Applied Psychology)最近5年(2010~2014年)发表的26篇采用经验取样法的实证研究论文的内容分析,发现这些文章全面体现了经验取样法的特点、研究内容、样本量、激励方式、数据收集和操作过程等该方法的操作要素。对其进行总结不仅有利于对经验取样法在组织行为学中的应用状况进行总结,而且也能促进这一方法在未来的组织行为学和人力资源管理中的发展和应用。     

A computer program for determining optimal data transformations minimizing skew

A program is presented that solves for an optimal transformation of data that minimizes skew. Various possible transformations are represented by a function that depends upon a single parameter, λ. A process of iterative approximations is employed to find a value of λ that will transform the data so as to produce a third moment equal to zero. The transformation found by this process may be used as computed or used to indicate which of the commonly employed transformations will most adequately counteract skew. The use of this program in processing data before analysis of variance is discussed.     

RSCORE-J: Pooled rating-method data: A computer program for analyzing pooled ROC curves

RSCORE-J, a computer program for a signal-detection analysis of pooled rating-method data, is listed and described. RSCORE-J computes jackknife estimates of ROC parameters and their standard errors from rating-method data pooled over a group of observers.     

A computer program to synthesize American Sign Language

A program is described that allows experimenters to generate American Sign Language forms by computer. The computer synthesis of such signs could allow major advances in the experimental investigation of the perception of sign language, much as computer-generated speech has done for the study of speech perception.     

TETCORR: A computer program to compute smoothed tetrachoric correlation matrices

Although many programs exist for computing tetrachoric correlations, these programs typically lack one or more of the following features: (1) efficient processing of a large number of variables and computing of a matrix of coefficients; (2) a matrix-smoothing capability; (3) an accurate, reliable computing algorithm; (4) the ability to handle missing data; and (5) nominal cost. TETCORR, which combines an algorithm developed by Brown (1977) with starting values obtained from Divgi (1979a) for more efficient computation, was created to address these and other user concerns.     

FACTOR: A computer program to fit the exploratory factor analysis model

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is one of the most widely used statistical procedures in psychological research. It is a classic technique, but statistical research into EFA is still quite active, and various new developments and methods have been presented in recent years. The authors of the most popular statistical packages, however, do not seem very interested in incorporating these new advances. We present the program FACTOR, which was designed as a general, user-friendly program for computing EFA. It implements traditional procedures and indices and incorporates the benefits of some more recent developments. Two of the traditional procedures implemented are polychoric correlations and parallel analysis, the latter of which is considered to be one of the best methods for determining the number of factors or components to be retained. Good examples of the most recent developments implemented in our program are (1) minimum rank factor analysis, which is the only factor method that allows one to compute the proportion of variance explained by each factor, and (2) the simplimax rotation method, which has proved to be the most powerful rotation method available. Of these methods, only polychoric correlations are available in some commercial programs. A copy of the software, a demo, and a short manual can be obtained free of charge from the first author.