Assessment of Multiple Membership Multilevel Models: An Application to Interviewer Effects on Nonresponse

Multilevel multiple membership models account for situations where lower level units are nested within multiple higher level units from the same classification. Not accounting correctly for such multiple membership structures leads to biased results. The use of a multiple membership model requires selection of weights reflecting the hypothesized contribution of each level two unit and their relationship to the level one outcome. The Deviance Information Criterion (DIC) has been proposed to identify such weights. For the case of logistic regression, this study assesses, through simulation, the model identification rates of the DIC to detect the correct multiple membership weights, and the properties of model variance estimators for different weight specifications across a range of scenarios. The study is motivated by analyzing interviewer effects across waves in a longitudinal study. Interviewers can substantially influence the behavior of sample survey respondents, including their decision to participate in the survey. In the case of a longitudinal survey several interviewers may contact sample members to participate across different waves. Multilevel multiple membership models are suitable to account for the inclusion of higher-level random effects for interviewers at various waves, and to assess, for example, the relative importance of previous and current wave interviewers on current wave nonresponse. To illustrate the application, multiple membership models are applied to the UK Family and Children Survey to identify interviewer effects in a longitudinal study. The paper takes a critical view on the substantive interpretation of the model weights and provides practical guidance to statistical modelers. The main recommendation is that it is best to specify the weights in a multiple membership model by exploring different weight specifications based on the DIC, rather than prespecifying the weights.     

Observer Effects without Demand Characteristics: An Inductive Investigation of Video Monitoring and Performance

Purpose

The purpose of these two studies was to explore the relationship between video monitoring and quantity of performance in the absence of demand characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered via two experiments involving business students working on a motor task. Participants were randomly assigned to the monitored and unmonitored conditions. Experiment 1 (n = 75) was inductive while Experiment 2 (n = 139) was partially inductive.

Findings

Experiment 1 showed that monitored participants’ performance was lower than that of unmonitored participants. Further, monitoring reduced outliers, increased interquartile variance, and normalized the distribution. Experiment 2 replicated the effect of monitoring on performance controlling for cognitive ability and emotions, demonstrated that negative emotions interacted with monitoring condition, and suggested that differences in performance were not due to cheating or variation in task-related strategies. We offer a grounded theory of video monitoring proposing that different implicit decision rules are activated when people are monitored as compared to when they are not monitored.

Implications

Future research needs to determine the extent to which our results extend to similar settings in the workplace and to other forms of observation. At this time, we believe organizations should carefully consider the consequences of electronic monitoring. Controlling expectations in the lab or workplace does not necessarily eliminate the independent effect of monitoring. Therefore, researchers must beware misinterpretation of effect sizes and overlooking the role of observation in their data.

Originality/value

These studies demonstrate that video monitoring can create observer effects in the absence of demand characteristics. Our inductive approach revealed the nature of the effects beyond mean differences and served as the basis for developing a testable theory of monitoring that goes beyond what was previously known.     

Interviewer evaluations of interviewee nonverbal behavior

Personnel representatives (N = 52) were shown one of four videotaped job interviews in which the verbal content of the 16-min interview was identical, but the interviewee's nonverbal behavior was manipulated. A “low nonverbal” interviewee was defined by minimal eye contact, low energy level, lack of affect and voice modulation, and a lack of speech fluency. The “high nonverbal” interviewee demonstrated the opposite behavior on each of these components. The subjects were asked to rate the videotaped candidates on dimensions previously identified as critical in influencing a job interviewer's decisions. Nonverbal behavior was found to have a significant effect on almost every rating made by subjects in this study. After reviewing the entire 16-min interview, 23 of the 26 subjects who saw the “high nonverbal” candidate would have invited him/her for a second interview. All 26 of the subjects who saw the “low nonverbal” candidate would not have recommended a second interview.     

A Simple Measure of Interviewer and Interviewee Speech Durations

A hypothesis that peer pressure affects delay-of-gratification behavior was tested by comparing the private vs. public responses of Cree children to the offer of an immediate reward or a larger delayed reward. One group of children was twice tested in private. Another group was first tested in private and then in public. In both testings approximately 65% of the control group chose an immediate reward. The experimental group, however, although preferring an immediate reward in private, in public elected to go along with the choices of their classmates, many reversing themselves and choosing a delayed rather than immediate reward.     

The Influence of Applicant Communication Style and Interviewer Characteristics on Hiring Decisions1

This study examined the influence of the gender and communication style of job applicants, as well as the gender and sex-role stereotyping of interviewers, on hiring decisions. Fifty-six personnel officers viewed videotapes of simulated employment interviews, in which male and female candidates used either aggressive, assertive, or nonassertive styles of communication. Personnel officers rated job candidates on likeability, similarity to the officers themselves, and hireability. Interviewers were most likely to employ assertive applicants, and the sex-role stereotypes of interviewers did not influence their perceptions of these candidates. Sex-role beliefs, however, did affect evaluations of aggressive and nonassertive job applicants. Interviewers who were low in sex-role stereotyping were more likely to hire a nonassertive than an aggressive candidate, while interviewers with higher levels of sex-role stereotyping were more likely to hire aggressive candidates. For assertive candidates, judgments by the interviewers of the perceived similarity of the candidate to themselves and their liking for the applicant both influenced their decision to hire the candidate. For aggressive and nonassertive candidates, however, the interviewers' liking toward the candidate mediated the relationship between perceived similarity and hiring decisions.     

An In-Depth Look at Dispositional Reasoning and Interviewer Accuracy

Dispositional reasoning is defined as general reasoning about traits, behaviors, and situations. Although earlier accuracy studies found that it predicted interview judgment accuracy, they did not distinguish between its underlying components (i.e., trait induction, trait extrapolation, and trait contextualization). This drawback has hampered insight into the nature of the dispositional reasoning construct. Therefore, we use a componential approach to test if dispositional reasoning adheres to classical criteria for an intelligence. Results from 146 managerial interviewers who observed videotaped interviewees showed that the dispositional reasoning components had positive manifold and predicted interview accuracy. Moreover, they demonstrated discriminant validity with personality and incremental validity over cognitive ability in predicting interview accuracy. Together, findings suggest that dispositional reasoning broadly adheres to the classical criteria for an intelligence.     

The Influence of Applicant and Interviewer Characteristics on the Use of Impression Management1

This study investigated the relationship between characteristics of applicants and interviewers, and type and amount of impression management (IM) used by applicants in the employment interview. Specifically, applicant self-monitoring, self-esteem, locus of control, age, and training, and interviewer communication apprehension, interpersonal communication skill, age, and experience all were expected to influence the type and amount of IM behavior exhibited by applicants in the employment interview. Data from 64 field interviews confirmed that characteristics of the interviewer and, to a lesser extent, characteristics of the applicants were related to the use of IM tactics by applicants.     

The Employment Interview Context: Social and Situational Influences on Interviewer Decisions1

The employment interview context is broad and multifaceted, and it includes a number of social, situational, and affective influences which generate from the interviewee, interviewer, nature of the job in question, and interactions among these factors. The employment interview is proposed to be influenced by nonverbal and self-promotion behaviors of the applicant, interviewer training, and the requirements of the job. These variables then influence the intermediate variables of applicant similarity to the interviewer, perceived competence of the applicant, and interviewer affect toward the applicant. The intermediate variables then influence the perceived job suitability of the applicant. The present study tested and found support for modeling the employment interview context and how it affects interviewer decisions. The contributions and limitations of the present study are discussed, in addition to directions for future research.     

The Mediating Processes Linking Applicant Personality Traits and Interviewer Evaluation

This study examines interview preparations (i.e., social preparation and background preparation) and impression management (IM) tactics (i.e., self‐focused IM and other‐focused IM) as the mechanisms between applicant personality characteristics and interviewer evaluation. Data were collected from both actual job applicants and interviewers. Results show that personality characteristics (i.e., extraversion and conscientiousness) have indirect effects on interviewer evaluation in terms of perceived person–job fit (P–J fit) and interpersonal liking through these two types of applicant behaviors. This study accomplishes two goals: (1) it extends the socioanalytic theory of personality ( Hogan, 1996 ) by testing the intervening roles played by applicants' behaviors that correspond to getting along with and getting ahead of others; and (2) it suggests that these applicant behaviors might be important cues for practical interviewers' effective assessment of applicants' performance‐related characteristics.     

Interviewer Knowledge and Preschoolers' Reasoning About Knowledge States Moderate Suggestibility

Fifty-one preschoolers listened to a story and were interviewed about the details by a knowledgeable and a naı̈ve interviewer. Half the questions were straightforward and half were misleading. One-week later, children completed a recognition test to measure story memory and a set of theory-of-mind tasks to measure reasoning about mental states related to knowing. All children showed a misinformation effect at the initial interview. At the recognition test, a knowledgeable interviewer misled children who passed false-belief tasks more often than a naı̈ve interviewer did. Knowledgeable and naı̈ve interviewers misled children who failed false-belief tasks equally often. False-belief scores predicted the tendency to be misled more often by a knowledgeable interviewer relative to a naı̈ve interviewer, after controlling for age and memory when not misled. Elaborated cognitive processing and/or memory source monitoring may mediate the results.     

Effects of Action Video Game Experience on Change Detection

Reflected sounds are often treated as an acoustic problem because they produce false localization cues and decrease speech intelligibility. However, their properties are shaped by the acoustic properties of the environment and therefore are a potential source of information about that environment. The objective of this study was to determine whether information carried by reflected sounds can be used by listeners to enhance their awareness of their auditory environment. Twelve listeners participated in two auditory training tasks in which they learned to identify three environments based on a limited subset of sounds and then were tested to determine whether they could transfer that learning to new, unfamiliar sounds. Results showed that significant learning occurred despite the task difficulty. An analysis of stimulus attributes suggests that it is easiest to learn to identify reflected sound when it occurs in sounds with longer decay times and broadly distributed dominant spectral components.     

视频游戏训练对执行功能的迁移效应

视频游戏训练是一种正处于探索阶段的执行功能训练方案,其对工作记忆和认知灵活性能产生迁移效应,对抑制的迁移结论尚不明确,这一结果不同无法通过考察迁移发生的泛化还是具体化机制得到解决,差异更有可能来自游戏训练本身。虽然真实游戏经验能产生迁移,但训练不一定能模拟经验对执行功能的迁移。这一方面受训练游戏类型的影响,另一方面与训练剂量有关。建议从丰富迁移机制等角度提高迁移效应。     

Short- and Long-Term Effects of Video Game Violence on Interpersonal Trust

Two studies investigate the psychological processes underlying short- and long-term effects of video game violence on interpersonal trust. Study 1 demonstrates that interacting with physically aggressive virtual agents decreases players' trust in subsequent interactions. This effect was stronger for players who were dispositionally sensitive to victimization. In Study 2, long-term effects of adolescents' frequent exposure to video game violence on interpersonal trust and victim sensitivity were investigated. Cross-lagged path analyses show that the reported frequency of playing violent video games reduced interpersonal trust over a period of 12 months, particularly among victim-sensitive players. These findings are in line with the sensitivity to mean intentions (SeMI) model, and they suggest that interpersonal mistrust is a relevant long-term outcome of frequent exposure to video game violence.     

亲社会视频游戏对玩家人性化知觉水平的影响

为了探讨亲社会视频游戏对玩家人性化知觉的影响, 研究以大学生为被试, 通过两个实验, 分别采用自陈报告法和单类别内隐联想测验技术考察了亲社会视频游戏对玩家自我及他人外显及内隐人性化知觉的影响。结果发现:(1)相对于中性游戏, 不论是普遍人性, 还是独特人性, 亲社会视频游戏均可提高玩家对自我及他人外显的人性化知觉水平;(2)相对于中性游戏, 亲社会游戏可显著提高玩家对自我及他人独特人性的内隐知觉水平, 也可提升对自我普遍人性的内隐知觉水平, 但对他人普遍人性的内隐知觉的效应不明确。这些结果表明, 亲社会视频游戏对于提升玩家对自我和他人的人性化知觉水平具有重要作用。     

Visual Aids to Learning in a Second Language: Adding Redundant Video to an Audio Lecture

Korean high school students (Experiment 1) and college students (Experiment 2a) received a 16‐minute lesson on Antarctica that consisted of English audio only (audio group) or English audio with corresponding video depicting the scenes and objects described in the audio (audio + video group). The audio + video group scored significantly (d = 0.33 in Experiment 1) or marginally higher (d = 0.42 in Experiment 2a) than the audio group on a subsequent comprehension test. The mean difficulty rating of the audio + video group was significantly less than that of the audio group (d = 0.62 in Experiment 1 and d = 0.96 in Experiment 2a); the mean effort rating of the audio + video group was significantly greater than that of the audio group (d = 0.60 in Experiment 1 and d = 0.79 in Experiment 2a). When the audio was in Korean, comprehension scores of college students did not benefit from added video (d = ?0.03 in Experiment 2b). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

测验与反馈在分段视频学习中的作用

分段原则是多媒体和视频学习中通过分段促进学习的重要原则。本研究探讨了测验和反馈对分段的影响。实验1对比了观看分段视频和在分段中进行测验两种情境,结果表明分段中测验会提高学习表现。实验2对比了分段视频、分段中测验和分段中测验并提供反馈三种情境。结果发现分段组与分段测验组之间没有差异,接受反馈的学习者学习表现最好。结果表明在分段视频中测验和反馈具有积极效应,对多媒体和线上学习具有潜在的意义。     

Ingratiation and Self‐Promotion in the Selection Interview: The Effects of Using Single Tactics or a Combination of Tactics on Interviewer Judgments

This paper investigates the relative effectiveness of the use of 2 impression‐management tactics—ingratiation and self‐promotion—on interviewers' evaluations of an applicant in a laboratory setting. It was suggested that the use of a single tactic would be better than the use of no tactic; that the use of self‐promotion would be more successful than the use of ingratiation; and, finally, that the use of a combination of tactics would lead to the best evaluations. Results were largely in line with our hypotheses. Interviewer ratings and action recommendations were more positive in the combination condition, followed by the self‐promotion condition, the ingratiation condition, and the neutral condition. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

电子游戏的消极影响及争议

国内外的心理学者对暴力与非暴力电子游戏的消极影响做了大量研究, 随着一般学习模型的出现, 电子游戏的积极影响研究开始兴起, 同时也产生了对电子游戏消极影响的激烈争议。通过对近年来电子游戏消极影响研究中存在的问题进行分析, 认为争议的原因主要在于相关研究未能与真实社会情境结合, 研究设计与方法存在异议, 研究范围狭窄, 研究结果相互矛盾等。将研究领域扩展至电子游戏积极影响方面, 以及大范围的纵向研究将是解决这一争议的关键和这一领域未来的研究方向。