Clustering preference data in the presence of response-style bias

Preference data, such as Likert scale data, are often obtained in questionnaire-based surveys. Clustering respondents based on survey items is useful for discovering latent structures. However, cluster analysis of preference data may be affected by response styles, that is, a respondent's systematic response tendencies irrespective of the item content. For example, some respondents may tend to select ratings at the ends of the scale, which is called an ‘extreme response style’. A cluster of respondents with an extreme response style can be mistakenly identified as a content-based cluster. To address this problem, we propose a novel method of clustering respondents based on their indicated preferences for a set of items while correcting for response-style bias. We first introduce a new framework to detect, and correct for, response styles by generalizing the definition of response styles used in constrained dual scaling. We then simultaneously correct for response styles and perform a cluster analysis based on the corrected preference data. A simulation study shows that the proposed method yields better clustering accuracy than the existing methods do. We apply the method to empirical data from four different countries concerning social values.     

Decision bias and personnel selection strategies

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of two decisional biases—framing and cost salience—on personnel selection decisions. One hundred twenty-eight graduate and undergraduate students participated in a personnel selection simulation. Framing was manipulated by inducing participants to use either a “rejecting” strategy (identify those applicants whom you would not interview) or an “accepting” strategy (list those applicants whom you would interview). Cost salience was manipulated by making selection-related costs either implicit or explicit. Results showed that “accepting” strategy subjects selected less applicants to be interviewed than “rejecting” strategy subjects, but only when selection-related costs were made salient. More time was required for subjects to make their selection decisions when selection-related costs were made salient. Framing and cost salience also influenced the success probability thresholds used by subjects to select applicants. Limitations of this research and directions for future study were discussed.     

The elusive matching bias effect in the disjunctive selection task

When reasoning with conditional statements (i.e., if [not] p then [not] q), for example when solving Wason's selection task, subjects tend to display matching bias: Options which match the entities named in the rule tend to be selected irrespective of whether this is logically appropriate. Recently, there have been suggestions that the underlying causes of matching bias reflect a general phenomenon that applies to many types of logical rule, not just conditionals. A study is reported in which performance is investigated for selection tasks with categorical or disjunctive rules. Although matching bias was clearly present for categorical rules, inverted matching bias was identified for disjunctive rules, calling into question the generality of the phenomenon and its explanations. In addition, performance at one task was not correlated with performance at the other, calling into question recent cognitive capacity accounts of selection task performance.     

Sex bias in hiring: Effects of job demands and applicant competence

Managers in a large corporation evaluated application materials representing one of eight hypothetical job candidates. In order to examine the effects of two types of information on sex bias, three factors were manipulated in a factorial design: (1) Applicants were either male or female engineers; (2) they appeared highly competent or moderately competent based on academic performance; (3) they were applying for an engineering job that entailed either technical engineering tasks or managerial tasks in addition to the technical tasks. Greater discrimination against women occurred in evaluations for the technical-managerial job, even with highly competent applicants. These results are explained in terms of ambiguity: Because it was not obvious that applicants would succeed on the additional managerial tasks, the evaluators resorted to stereotypes in order to make their predictions.     

Causal discounting in the presence of a stronger cue is due to bias

People use information about the covariation between a putative cause and an outcome to determine whether a causal relationship obtains. When there are two candidate causes and one is more strongly related to the effect than is the other, the influence of the second is underestimated. This phenomenon is called causal discounting. In two experiments, we adapted paradigms for studying causal learning in order to apply signal detection analysis to this phenomenon. We investigated whether the presence of a stronger alternative makes the task more difficult (indexed by differences in d′) or whether people change the standard by which they assess causality (measured by β). Our results indicate that the effect is due to bias.     

Attentional selection of a peripheral ring overrules the central attentional bias

In visual search, distractors that fall between fixation and the target are more disruptive than distractors that fall at the same eccentricity as the target (Wolfe, O'Neill, & Bennett, 1998). This sensitivity to the relative eccentricity of target and distractor elements originates from a space-based bias favoring stimuli closer to the fovea. We show that this spatial bias can be overruled by cuing attention to a ring-shaped object. We rule out various space-based explanations of these findings, including (1) attention to fronto-parallel planes in depth and (2) serial attention to different portions of a ring. We suggest that attentional selection of a ring-shaped object operates independently of, and can overrule, spatial biases in selection.     

A general linear model for estimating effect size in the presence of publication bias

When the process of publication favors studies with smallp-values, and hence large effect estimates, combined estimates from many studies may be biased. This paper describes a model for estimation of effect size when there is selection based on one-tailedp-values. The model employs the method of maximum likelihood in the context of a mixed (fixed and random) effects general linear model for effect sizes. It offers a test for the presence of publication bias, and corrected estimates of the parameters of the linear model for effect magnitude. The model is illustrated using a well-known data set on the benefits of psychotherapy.Authors' note: The contributions of the authors are considered equal, and the order of authorship was chosen to be reverse-alphabetical.     

Longitudinal direct and indirect pathways linking older sibling competence to the development of younger sibling competence

A 4-wave longitudinal model tested direct and indirect links between older sibling (OS; M = 11.7 years) and younger sibling (YS; M = 9.2 years) competence in 152 rural African American families. Data were collected at 1-year intervals. At each wave, different teachers assessed OS competence, YS competence, and YS self-regulation. Mothers reported their own psychological functioning; mothers and YSs reported parenting practices toward the YS. OS competence was stable across time and was linked with positive changes in mothers' psychological functioning from Wave 1 to Wave 2. Mothers' Wave 2 psychological functioning was associated with involved-supportive parenting of the YS at Wave 3. OS Wave 2 competence and Wave 3 parenting were indirectly linked with Wave 4 YS competence, through Wave 3 YS self-regulation. Structural equation modeling controlled for Wave 1 YS competence; thus, the model accounted for change in YS competence across 3 years.     

The development of ordinal numerical competence in young children

Two experiments assessed ordinal numerical knowledge in 2- and 3-year-old children and investigated the relationship between ordinal and verbal numerical knowledge. Children were trained on a 1 vs 2 comparison and then tested with novel numerosities. Stimuli consisted of two trays, each containing a different number of boxes. In Experiment 1, box size was held constant. In Experiment 2, box size was varied such that cumulative surface area was unrelated to number. Results show children as young as 2 years of age make purely numerical discriminations and represent ordinal relations between numerosities as large as 6. Children who lacked any verbal numerical knowledge could not make ordinal judgments. However, once children possessed minimal verbal numerical competence, further knowledge was entirely unrelated to ordinal competence. Number may become a salient dimension as children begin to learn to count. An analog magnitude representation of number may underlie success on the ordinal task.     

The role of linguistic experience in the development of the consonant bias

Consonants and vowels play different roles in speech perception: listeners rely more heavily on consonant information rather than vowel information when distinguishing between words. This reliance on consonants for word identification is the consonant bias Nespor et al. (Ling 2:203–230, 2003). Several factors modulate infants’ development of the consonant bias, including fine-grained temporal processing ability and native language exposure [for review, see Nazzi et al. (Curr Direct Psychol Sci 25:291–296, 2016)]. A rat model demonstrated that mature fine-grained temporal processing alone cannot account for consonant bias emergence; linguistic exposure is also necessary Bouchon and Toro (An Cog 22:839–850, 2019). This study tested domestic dogs, who have similarly fine-grained temporal processing but more language exposure than rats, to assess whether a minimal lexicon and small degree of regular linguistic exposure can allow for consonant bias development. Dogs demonstrated a vowel bias rather than a consonant bias, preferring their own name over a vowel-mispronounced version of their name, but not in comparison to a consonant-mispronounced version. This is the pattern seen in young infants Bouchon et al. (Dev Sci 18:587–598, 2015) and rats Bouchon et al. (An Cog 22:839–850, 2019). In a follow-up study, dogs treated a consonant-mispronounced version of their name similarly to their actual name, further suggesting that dogs do not treat consonant differences as meaningful for word identity. These results support the findings from Bouchon and Toro (An Cog 2:839–850, 2019), suggesting that there may be a default preference for vowel information over consonant information when identifying word forms, and that the consonant bias may be a human-exclusive tool for language learning.

     

The intervention selection bias: an underrecognized confound in intervention research

Selection bias can be the most important threat to internal validity in intervention research, but is often insufficiently recognized and controlled. The bias is illustrated in research on parental interventions (punishment, homework assistance); medical interventions (hospitalization); and psychological interventions for suicide risk, sex offending, and juvenile delinquency. The intervention selection bias is most adequately controlled in randomized studies or strong quasi-experimental designs, although recent statistical innovations can enhance weaker designs. The most important points are to increase awareness of the intervention selection bias and to systematically evaluate plausible alternative explanations of data before making causal conclusions.     

The development of general competence and domain-specific competencies

The development of competence was studied in a longitudinal sample of 98 children, with measurement points when the children were 7, 10, and 12 years old. Competence was defined in terms of adequate adaptation to developmental tasks, both on a general and on a domain-specijic level. The general form of competence was measured by ego-resiliency, reflecting fexibility and ability to solve developmental problems Domain-specific competencies were measured by school achievement and social preference. The results showed that ego-resiliency was related to the two domain-specific competencies, although the hypothesized causal direction from general competence to specific competencies was not supported. Both domain-specific competencies were found to have a feedback effect on ego-resiliency. This feedback effect was stronger for social preference. These results suggest a transactional relationship between general and domain-specific competencies, and point to the importance of domain-specific competencies (especially social preference by the peer group) in the development of general competence in the child.     

Symptoms and selection bias: The influence of selection towards specialist care on the relationship between symptoms and diagnoses

Observations with respect to the relationship between symptoms and diseases can seriously be biased by selection phenomena. This selection may occur from the general population, via consultation behavior, diagnostic and therapeutic activities of the general practitioner, and by referral. Relationships may be suggested and reproduced even if they do not exist in unselected populations, as a product of diagnostic routines. Correction for selection bias can only be achieved by choosing proper comparison groups. While this can be done in a general practice setting, this is almost impossible after referral, as is demonstrated in this paper. Surprisingly, the most unbiased estimation of the relationship between symptoms and diseases after referral can be made from patient groups that are referred for reason unrelated to the disease under study. Definitive answers for the general practitioner can only be provided by prospective studies from a primary care setting. In the meantime, however, biased relationships can be maintained by teaching knowledge derived from a specialist experience.     

The matching relation and situation-specific bias modulation in professional football play selection

The utility of a quantitative model depends on the extent to which its fitted parameters vary systematically with environmental events of interest. Professional football statistics were analyzed to determine whether play selection (passing versus rushing plays) could be accounted for with the generalized matching equation, and in particular whether variations in play selection across game situations would manifest as changes in the equation's fitted parameters. Statistically significant changes in bias were found for each of five types of game situations; no systematic changes in sensitivity were observed. Further analyses suggested relationships between play selection bias and both turnover probability (which can be described in terms of punishment) and yards-gained variance (which can be described in terms of variable-magnitude reinforcement schedules). The present investigation provides a useful demonstration of association between face-valid, situation-specific effects in a domain of everyday interest, and a theoretically important term of a quantitative model of behavior. Such associations, we argue, are an essential focus in translational extensions of quantitative models.     

Evidence from a response choice task reveals a selection bias in the attentional cueing paradigm

In a typical attentional cueing paradigm, irrelevant peripheral cues produce early facilitation (fast responses) followed by later inhibition (slow responses) to cued locations. Here we examine whether cues not only influence the speed with which responses are produced, but also impact or bias which location is ultimately selected as requiring a response. Specifically, can cues influence not only the speed with which we respond but also influence the behavior produced? To examine this question, a choice localization task was used in which no targets were presented, and subjects were asked to choose which effector (left hand, right hand) to use in response to a centrally presented tone. Thus, following either a left or right peripheral cue, and then a central tone, subjects were free to respond with either their left or right hand. Early facilitation and later inhibition with this choice procedure were found in both response times and the proportion of responses to the cued and uncued locations. These results suggest that there are processes which initially bias response selection toward cued locations and then subsequently bias response selection away from cued locations.     

Conditional reasoning and the Wason selection task: Biconditional interpretation instead of reasoning bias

Two experiments were conducted to show that the IF … THEN … rules used in the different versions of Wason's (1966 Wason, P. C. 1966. “Reasoning”. In New horizons in psychology I, Edited by: Foss, B. M. Harmondsworth, , UK: Penguin.  [Google Scholar]) selection task are not psychologically—though they are logically—equivalent. Some of these rules are considered by the participants as strict logical conditionals, whereas others are interpreted as expressing a biconditional relationship. A deductive task was used jointly with the selection task to show that the original abstract rule is quite ambiguous in this respect, contrary to deontic rules: the typical “error” made by most people may indeed be explained by the fact that they consider the abstract rule as a biconditional. Thus, there is no proper error or bias in the selection task as it is still argued, but a differential interpretation of the rule. The need for taking into account a pragmatic component in the process of reasoning is illustrated by the experiments.     

Motor competence predicts self-esteem during childhood in typical development children

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to study the relationship between motor competence (MC) and self-esteem in children between 7 and 13 years of age.MethodsThis is five years mixed longitudinal study, although only the last two years were included in the analysis. Participants were N = 144 of both sexes (69 girls) divided in 6 cohorts. At baseline the youngest and the oldest cohorts had 4 and 9 years of age respectively. MC was assessed with KTK. Self-esteem and self-worth were assessed with the Portuguese version of Physical Self-Perception Profile for Children and Youth (PSPP-CY). Cross-lagged models were used to find out whether MC predicts self-esteem and self-worth, or the reverse. Linear mixed models were applied.ResultsOverall, only self-esteem was predicted by MC across age. Results show that self-esteem had a significant decrease between 7 and 13 years of age (−0.56) and that MC is positively associated with self-esteem (b = 0.006).ConclusionsMC had a mitigating effect on the decrease of self-esteem. Promoting MC during childhood and adolescence might have a positive effect on children's well-being and mental health and prevent them to dropout from physical activities.     

Not all emotions are created equal: the negativity bias in social-emotional development

There is ample empirical evidence for an asymmetry in the way that adults use positive versus negative information to make sense of their world; specifically, across an array of psychological situations and tasks, adults display a negativity bias, or the propensity to attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive information. This bias is argued to serve critical evolutionarily adaptive functions, but its developmental presence and ontogenetic emergence have never been seriously considered. The authors argue for the existence of the negativity bias in early development and that it is evident especially in research on infant social referencing but also in other developmental domains. They discuss ontogenetic mechanisms underlying the emergence of this bias and explore not only its evolutionary but also its developmental functions and consequences. Throughout, the authors suggest ways to further examine the negativity bias in infants and older children, and they make testable predictions that would help clarify the nature of the negativity bias during early development.     

Learning by explaining: Impacts of explanations on the development of a competence

IntroductionPrevious research has mainly studied the impact of activity explanation on performances (e.g., Chi, 2009), but little research has been done to examine its impact on the development of a competence.ObjectiveA model of dynamic analysis of competence (Coulet, 2011) has been used to measure the impact of activity explanation on the development of a technical competence.MethodExplanation of tasks of varying complexity has been manipulated in two experimental studies; effects of activity explanation have been measured on objective performance, perceptions related to the task and final explanations.ResultsParticipants who explained their activity not only performed better on the tasks, but also showed more positive perceptions of their relations to the task and a better ability to produce didactic explanations.ConclusionPsychological processes involved in explaining activity and their implications are examined and discussed.