Does Test Anxiety Bias Scholastic Aptitude Test Performance by Gender and Sociocultural Group?

This study examines the commonly held contention that test anxiety may serve as a source of bias in the scholastic aptitude test performance of gender and ethnic minority groups. In addition, this study examines sex and sociocultural group differences in the level and pattern of test anxiety among Israeli college students. The sample was composed of 163 male and 198 female students sitting for scholastic aptitude tests routinely administered to all student applicants as part of their college admissions procedures. About 67% were of Western cultural extraction whereas the remainder were of Eastern extraction. Significant differences in text anxiety scores for males and females were observed, with greater sex group differentiation on the Emotionality than on the Worry scale. Test anxiety scores were not discernible by ethnicity or social class. Furthermore, test anxiety was not differentially related to aptitude test scores by sex or sociocultural group membership. Thus, this study lends little evidence to the common contention that test anxiety differentially debilitates the aptitude test scores of females and ethnic minority student candidates.     

Estimates of the Validity and Utility of the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test in the Assessment of Inattentive and/or Hyperactive-Impulsive Behaviors in Children

This study evaluated the validity and classification utility of the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CCPT) in the assessment of inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive behaviors in children. Significant, positive correlations between the CCPT parameters and behavioral ratings of ADHD behaviors were hypothesized. In addition, it was hypothesized that the CCPT parameters would perform better than a random test (chance) and show fair to moderate utility of classification across the different indices. Participants were 104 children between 6 and 12 years of age who were referred for evaluation of attention problems. The first hypothesis was not supported. There were no significant, positive correlations between the CCPT parameters and parent and teacher ratings of inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive behaviors. The second hypothesis was only partially supported. The CCPT Overall Index and the Omission Errors (84th percentile cutoff) performed better than a random test; however, the utility of the CCPT Overall Index only ranged from poor to slight. Receiver operating characteristic analyses showed the accuracy of the CCPT to be low. The implications and limitations of this study and future research directions are discussed.     

Does the compatibility effect in the race Implicit Association Test reflect familiarity or affect?

In the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) involving race classification (white vs. black), an apparent compatibility effect is found between the “pleasant” attribute and the “white” category. This race IAT effect has been interpreted in terms of “implicit prejudice”—that is, more positive evaluation of whites than of blacks that is not open to consciousness. We suggested instead that the race IAT effect is better interpreted in terms of the salience asymmetry account proposed by Rothermund and Wentura (2004), whereby greater familiarity with the white category makes it more salient. Evidence that has been presented against the familiarity interpretation is considered, and alternative interpretations of findings related to the race IAT effect are discussed.     

Diagnosis of ADHD in Adults: What Is the Appropriate DSM-5 Symptom Threshold for Hyperactivity-Impulsivity?

Objective: To empirically identify the appropriate symptom threshold for hyperactivity-impulsivity for diagnosis of ADHD in adults. Method: Participants were 88 adults (M [SD] age = 41.69 [11.78] years, 66% female, 16% minority) meeting formal DSM-IV criteria for ADHD combined or predominantly inattentive subtypes based on a structured diagnostic interview keyed to DSM-IV (Conners' Adult ADHD Diagnostic Interview for DSM-IV [CAADID]). All participants also completed the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS), which was normed on the general adult population and includes subscales for DSM-IV inattentive and DSM-IV hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. A T-score threshold of 65 (at least 1.5 SD above population mean) on the CAARS DSM-IV hyperactive-impulsive dimension was used to identify participants with empirically elevated symptom severity. Results: Of 88 participating adults, 48 (55%) had a T-score of at least 65 (1.5 SD) on the CAARS DSM-IV Hyperactive-Impulsive scale. Of these, only 25 (52%) met the DSM-IV cutoff of six hyperactive-impulsive symptoms on the CAADID. Thus, approximately half of those who reported empirically elevated hyperactive-impulsive complaints on the CAARS did not concurrently meet the six-symptom DSM-IV cutoff on the CAADID. An alternative cutoff of four hyperactive-impulsive symptoms on the CAADID captured 39 (81%) cases identified by the CAARS. Conclusion: In adults, mandating at least six hyperactive-impulsive symptoms excludes a significant percentage (almost half) of adults who are at least 1.5 SD above the population mean on a dimensional measure of hyperactivity-impulsivity. These data provide a compelling basis for lowering the symptom threshold of hyperactivity-impulsivity for adults in the DSM-5.     

Dispositional Optimism in Chinese People: What Does the Life Orientation Test Measure?

The Life Orientation Test was back-translated to Chinese and administered to a sample of college students (N = 314) and a sample of normal adults (N = 306) along with measures of personality and symptoms. When subject to factor analysis, the positive items (representing optimism) and the negative items (representing pessimism) emerged as two separate factors. Empirically, optimism and pessimism were moderately correlated and had unique contributions to the explanation of personality and symptom measures, so that the total score of C-LOT was a better predictor of criterion measures than either optimism or pessimism alone. However, C-LOT's relationship with symptoms was eliminated after negative affectivity was controlled in the student sample, but not in the adult sample, thus suggesting some confounding with negative affectivity. Further research is required to improve the measurement of optimism in Chinese people and to clarify the relationship between optimism and pessimism.     

Whither causal models in the neuroscience of ADHD?

In this paper we examine the current status of the science of ADHD from a theoretical point of view. While the field has reached the point at which a number of causal models have been proposed, it remains some distance away from demonstrating the viability of such models empirically. We identify a number of existing barriers and make proposals as to the best way for these to be overcome in future studies. These include the need to work across multiple levels of analysis in multidisciplinary teams; the need to recognize the existence of, and then model, causal heterogeneity; the need to integrate environmental and social processes into models of genetic and neurobiological influence; and the need to model developmental processes in a dynamic fashion. Such a model of science, although difficult to achieve, has the potential to provide the sort of framework for programmatic model-based research required if the power and sophistication of new neuroscience technologies are to be effectively exploited.     

Does Teaming Obscure Low Performance? Exploring the Temporal Effects of Team Performance Diversity

Organizations are increasingly using team-based projects to achieve goals. As such, it is important to understand how team members (e.g., their differences) influence team outcomes such as effectiveness. In the present study, we examine performance diversity, differences in members’ past performance, as an antecedent to team effectiveness. In addition, we assessed the length of time the group performed together as a moderator and social loafing among members as a mediator of the performance diversity—team effectiveness relationship. Using multisource data for 673 individuals in 139 project teams, we found that performance diversity had an increasingly negative effect for groups that were together longer. Specifically, greater diversity resulted in more social loafing, thereby diminishing team satisfaction and supervisor-rated team performance.     

Development of Sustained Attention Assessed Using the Continuous Performance Test among Children 6–15 Years of Age

The Continuous Performance Test (CPT) is a widely used measure of sustained attention, which may rely on the efficiency of cognitive inhibition. We examined the relationships of age and sex with CPT performance among 341 randomly selected school children 6–15 years of age. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the hit rate, false alarm rate, and sensitivity of both the undegraded and the degraded CPT were associated with age by a quadratic relationship. The age–development curves for the hit rate and sensitivity were convex, whereas that for the false alarm rate was concave. Sex was associated with the hit rate and sensitivity on the degraded CPT only. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that sustained attention develops during the primary school ages. The data reported are essential for identifying children with conditions associated with sustained attention deficit, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as those at an increased risk for developing schizophrenia.     

Does substance use affect reliabilities of the Implicit Association Test?

The authors examined whether use of alcohol or marijuana affected reliability of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998). Consistent with research indicating the possibility that marijuana use depletes cognitive resources, the authors found worse reliabilities for participants who recently used marijuana than for those who had not. Recent alcohol users and nonusers demonstrated similar IAT reliability. Subsequent analyses indicated that reliability differences between marijuana users and nonusers were most pronounced when participants began with incongruous tasks and then switched to congruous tasks. Results were consistent with work on the residual costs of task switching that indicates that effortful tasks promote interference with tasks that follow. The authors discussed results in terms of IAT scoring procedures and the prevalence of use of alcohol and marijuana on university campuses.     

Does Conscientiousness Explain the Relationship Between Integrity and Job Performance?

There is a meta-analytic evidence that scores on integrity tests are related to measures of overall job performance, but it is not clear why this relationship exists. One hypothesis that would account for this correlation is that both integrity and performance measures are related to the personality trait conscientiousness, and that statistically controlling for conscientiousness would substantially reduce the integrity-performance correlation. To test this hypothesis, we used the results of three meta-analyses to estimate the components needed to calculate the partial correlation between integrity and performance, controlling for conscientiousness. Partialling had little effect; the best estimate of the corrected zero-order and partial correlations between integrity and performance were 0.34 and 0.28, respectively. Sensitivity analyses suggest that imprecision in the estimates of the various components of this partial correlation cannot reasonably explain the small effects of partialling.     

Social Problems in ADHD: Is it a Skills Acquisition or Performance Problem?

Recent models suggest that social skills training’s inefficacy for children with ADHD may be due to target misspecification, such that their social problems reflect inconsistent performance rather than knowledge/skill gaps. No study to date, however, has disentangled social skills acquisition from performance deficits in children with ADHD. Children ages 8–12 with ADHD (n?=?47) and without ADHD (n?=?23) were assessed using the well-validated social behavioral analysis framework to quantify cross-informant social skills acquisition deficits, performance deficits, and strengths. Results provided support for the construct and predictive validities of this Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS) alternate scoring method, including expected magnitude and valence relations with BASC-2 social skills and ADHD symptoms based on both parent and teacher report. Acquisition deficits were relatively rare and idiosyncratic for both the ADHD and Non-ADHD groups, whereas children with ADHD demonstrated cross-informant social performance deficits (d?= 0.82–0.99) on several specific behaviors involving attention to peer directives, emotion regulation, and social reciprocity. Relative to themselves, children with ADHD were perceived by parents and teachers as exhibiting more social strengths than social acquisition deficits; however, they demonstrated significantly fewer social strengths than the Non-ADHD group (d?=??0.71 to ?0.89). These findings are consistent with recent conceptualizations suggesting that social problems in ADHD primarily reflect inconsistent performance rather than a lack of social knowledge/skills. Implications for refining social skills interventions for ADHD are discussed.     

Does a Positive Bias Relate to Social Behavior in Children With ADHD?

This study examines whether positively biased self-perceptions relate to social behaviors in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as compared to control children. The social behaviors of children with ADHD (n = 87) were examined relative to control children (CTL; n = 38) during a laboratory-based dyadic social interaction task. Children with ADHD were subgrouped into those with a positive illusory bias (PIB) in their self-perceptions (ADHD + PIB) versus those without such a bias (ADHD – PIB). Using a behavioral coding system adapted for this study, ADHD + PIB, ADHD – PIB, and CTL participants were compared on objectively coded social behaviors occurring within the context of the social interaction task. Whereas both ADHD groups displayed more disruptive behavior than controls, only the ADHD + PIB group displayed less prosocial behavior and less effortful behavior. This study breaks new ground by examining positively biased self-perceptions as they relate to social behavior in children with ADHD and provides promising new insight into the social problems experienced by these children.     

Is attention impaired in ADHD?

Explanations of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in terms of a weakness in Executive Function (EF) or related concepts, such as inhibition, are briefly reviewed. Some alternative views are considered, in particular a proposal by Manly and others that ADHD is a weakness primarily of sustained attention (plus control of attention), but not of selective attention, as measured by the Test of Everyday Attention in Children (TEA-Ch; Manly et al., 2001). The underlying structure of the TEA-Ch is analysed and it is concluded that the distinction between selective attention, sustained attention, and control of attention in this battery is not well-founded. Furthermore, evidence from studies by Wilding and others, from visual search tasks similar to those employed by Manly et al. to measure selective attention, demonstrates that, while unimpaired- and impaired-attention groups do not differ in speed of performance on such tasks (the measure employed in the TEA-Ch), they do differ reliably in accuracy. Available evidence from other visual search tasks comparing such groups is reviewed and found to be inconsistent. An attempt is made to resolve the inconsistencies and it is suggested that search tasks including demands that engage EF processes are more likely to demonstrate differences between these groups. It is concluded therefore that the most plausible explanation at present of impaired attention is in terms of weaknesses in EF. Suggestions for improving the precision and detail of this type of explanation are offered.     

Does Childhood Executive Function Predict Adolescent Functional Outcomes in Girls with ADHD?

We prospectively followed an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of preadolescent girls with ADHD (n = 140) and matched comparison girls (n = 88) over a period of 5 years, from middle childhood through early/mid-adolescence. Our aim was to examine the ability of measures of childhood executive function (EF) to predict functional outcomes in adolescence. Measures of neuropsychological functioning comprised the childhood predictors, with academic, social, and global functioning serving as adolescent criterion measures. Results indicated that childhood EF predicted (a) academic achievement and social functioning across our entire sample (independent of diagnostic group status) and (b) global functioning only in girls with ADHD (independent of IQ). These results highlight the non-specificity of EF deficits and suggest the importance of assessing and developing interventions that target EF impairments, particularly in those at high-risk for negative outcomes, in order to prevent long-term difficulties across a range of important functional domains.     

Africa Humiliated? Misrecognition in Development Aid

Critiques of development aid from its recipient’s sometimes draw our attention to the perception of paternalism on the part of ‘development industry’ actors. Even within participatory project designs, critical voices recount experiences of clear power divides and informal hierarchies determining the content and form of ‘cooperation’. While neoliberal as well as neo-Marxist scholars base their critiques on a distributive scheme of global justice, post-development theory emphasizes respect and recognition as the central aspect of justice Indeed, post-development theorists continue to complain of neo-colonial power structures between nations as well as on a micro-level between the ‘experts’ and local people. The latter feel misrecognized in being judged according to the parameters of Western actors within the international community. This article explores how charges of misrecognition within development cooperation challenge the assumption by many liberal political theorists that more global justice could be achieved through more aid.     

Does the Defining Issues Test Measure Ethical Judgment Ability or Political Position?

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the construct validity of the Defining Issues Test of ethical judgment (DIT/DIT-2). Alleging a political bias in the test, Emler and colleagues (1983, 1998, 1999, 2007), show that conservatives score higher when asked to fake as liberals, implying that they understand the reasoning associated with “higher” moral development but avoid items they see as liberally biased. DIT proponents challenge the internal validity of faking studies, advocating an explained-variance validation. This study takes a new approach: Adult participants complete the DIT-2, then evaluate the raw responses of others to discern political orientation and ethical development. Results show that individuals scoring higher on the DIT-2 rank others' ethical judgment in a way consistent with DIT-2-based rankings. Accuracy at assessing political orientation, however, is low. Results support the DIT-2's validity as a measure of ethical development, not an expression of political position.     

Does the Defining Issues Test measure ethical judgment ability or political position?

This article addresses the construct validity of the Defining Issues Test of ethical judgment (DIT/DIT-2). Alleging a political bias in the test, Emler and colleagues (1983, 1998, 1999, 2007), show that conservatives score higher when asked to fake as liberals, implying that they understand the reasoning associated with "higher" moral development but avoid items they see as liberally biased. DIT proponents challenge the internal validity of faking studies, advocating an explained-variance validation. This study takes a new approach: Adult participants complete the DIT-2, then evaluate the raw responses of others to discern political orientation and ethical development. Results show that individuals scoring higher on the DIT-2 rank others' ethical judgment in a way consistent with DIT-2-based rankings. Accuracy at assessing political orientation, however, is low. Results support the DIT-2's validity as a measure of ethical development, not an expression of political position.     

Does familiarity change in the revelation effect?

The revelation effect describes the increased tendency to call items "old" when a recognition judgment is preceded by an incidental task. Past findings show that d' for recognition decreases following revelation, evidence that the revelation effect is due to familiarity change. However, data from receiver operating characteristic curves from 3 experiments produced no evidence of changes in recognition sensitivity. The authors illustrate how the use of a single-point measure like d' can be misleading when familiarity distribution variances are unequal. Also investigated was whether the effect depends on the revelation materials used. Neither the memorability of the revelation items, their similarity to recognition probes, nor the difficulty of the task changed the size of the effect. Thus, the revelation effect is not the result of a memory retrieval mechanism and seems to be generic and all-or-nothing. These characteristics are consistent with response bias rather than familiarity change.