Measuring unconscious knowledge: distinguishing structural knowledge and judgment knowledge

This paper investigates the dissociation between conscious and unconscious knowledge in an implicit learning paradigm. Two experiments employing the artificial grammar learning task explored the acquisition of unconscious and conscious knowledge of structure (structural knowledge). Structural knowledge was contrasted to knowledge of whether an item has that structure (judgment knowledge). For both structural and judgment knowledge, conscious awareness was assessed using subjective measures. It was found that unconscious structural knowledge could lead to both conscious and unconscious judgment knowledge. When structural knowledge was unconscious, there was no tendency for judgment knowledge to become more conscious over time. Furthermore, conscious rather than unconscious structural knowledge produced more consistent errors in judgments, was facilitated by instructions to search for rules, and after such instructions was harmed by a secondary task. The dissociations validate the use of these subjective measures of conscious awareness.     

Measuring HIV stigma: existing knowledge and gaps

The growing recognition of the reduction of HIV stigma as central to effective programs across the HIV/AIDS prevention to care and treatment continuum is leading to an increasing number of programs focused on stigma reduction. Correctly evaluating the impact of these programs depends on having a good set of measures that effectively capture and distinguish the complexities of HIV stigma. This paper reviews the existing literature on HIV stigma measurement and identifies key gaps that remain. There is a need for measures at the general population level that are unambiguous about the cause of the stigmatizing behavior, that capture enacted stigma (discrimination), and that can distinguish compound (layered) stigma. In addition, studies are needed in a wider variety of contexts and on a larger scale that include a comprehensive set of measures to capture the complexity of HIV-related stigma and ensure appropriate evaluation of stigma-reduction programs.     

Processes and outcomes of team learning

The objective of this study was to make a contribution to the question how team learning can be studied. A model of the constituting activities of the team learning process was articulated, and it was explored whether the learning activities relate to learning outcomes. The sample consists of 29 teams of business students who were assigned to fulfill an assignment for a company. We asked them to fill out a questionnaire at the start and at the end of this project. The teams' performance was rated. The relationships between the learning activities reported, the diversity in attitude towards the task, the amount of team learning, and the team's performance were explored. The propositions were partly supported by the data. Central conclusions are that a higher diversity in attitude towards the task is related to a higher experienced amount of learning and that in projects of short duration it is especially storing and retrieving that leads to higher team performance.     

Measuring cancer knowledge: Comparing prompted and unprompted recall

Studies evaluating public knowledge of the warning signs and risk factors associated with cancer have varied in the question format used. Those using a prompted (recognition) format have tended to find higher levels of knowledge than those using an unprompted, recall format. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of prompting on knowledge of the seven warning signs of cancer, and risk factors for breast and bowel cancer, using data from large representative samples of the UK population. We also tested for demographic differences in the effect of prompting, hypothesizing that prompting would have the greatest impact on groups with least knowledge, specifically men, older and younger people, and those with least education. Analysis of data from four ONS surveys (total n = 5,863) demonstrated significantly higher knowledge of all signs and risk factors in the prompted compared with the unprompted condition. Contrary to our hypothesis, the pattern of interaction of prompting with gender and level of education was inconsistent, and the effect of prompting decreased with increasing age. Implications for future research on cancer knowledge and the most appropriate question format are discussed.     

Organization of partner knowledge: relationship outcomes and longitudinal change

This study examined the association between organization of knowledge about a romantic partner (partner structure) and relationship status (ongoing or ended) 1 year later. Ironically, partner structures that were associated with more positive feelings about one's partner at Time 1 were associated with greater rates of breakup by Time 2. These results are interpreted in terms of the vulnerability of compartmentalized partner structures to shifts in the salience of negative beliefs and the hypothesized difficulty of maintaining integrative structures for an extended period of time. Change in partner structure during 1 year's time was consistent with the predictions of the dynamic model that evaluative integration should increase when negative beliefs become salient. Such change (which may represent a transient shift) was associated with couples' longevity when relationship conflict was low, supporting the view that integration reflects a struggle with negative attributes that may or may not be successful.     

Policy theories,knowledge utilization,and evaluation

Frans L. Leeuw (Ph.D. in Sociology) currently is Director of The Netherlands’ Court of Audit Department of Policy Evaluation. He also holds the chair of Professor of Policy Effectiveness Research at Utrecht University. Recent publications on policy theories, similarities and dissimilarities of auditing and evaluation research and on the utilization of policy research by government officials.     

Processes and outcomes in prevention-focused time-limited groups for girls

Processes and outcomes in 8-week prevention-focused, school-based groups for preadolescent girls were assessed in a naturalistic study. Specifically, whether such groups would facilitate their social-emotional development and whether affiliative processes in the groups were related to outcome were explored. In addition to expecting the groups to be effective, it was hypothesized that affiliative processes would be directly related to outcome and, more particularly, that increased positive affiliative feelings from the group toward the individual would be more predictive of positive treatment outcome than increased positive feelings from the individual toward the group. While findings did not support these hypotheses linking process to outcome, ancillary analyses revealed that different patterns of affiliation over time (i.e., U-shape pattern versus inverted U-shape pattern) distinguished the high- versus low-outcome participants, respectively.     

Measuring service learning outcomes: test-retest reliability of four scales

Previous research efforts have developed and validated various scales potentially useful in evaluating service learning outcomes. The developmental efforts reported for the four scales examined in this study did not include the test-retest reliabilities that would provide assurance to service learning researchers of the long-term stability and therefore usefulness of these measures. Summary estimates of 13-wk. test-retest reliabilities for the scales Civic Participation, Self-efficacy Toward Service, Attitude Toward Helping Others, and College Education's Role in Addressing Social Issues provide service learning researchers with evidence of stability of the scales over the typical duration of service learning courses.     

Measuring incremental changes in word knowledge: Experimental validation and implications for learning and assessment

The goal of this study was to test a new technique for assessing vocabulary development. This technique is based on an algorithm for scoring the accuracy of word definitions using a continuous scale (Collins-Thompson & Callan, 2007). In an experiment with adult learners, target words were presented in six different sentence contexts, and the number of informative versus misleading contexts was systematically manipulated. Participants generated a target definition after each sentence, and the definition-scoring algorithm was used to assess the degree of accuracy on each trial. We observed incremental improvements in definition accuracy across trials. Moreover, learning curves were sensitive to the proportion of misleading contexts, the use of spaced versus massed practice, and individual differences, demonstrating the utility of this procedure for capturing specific experimental effects on the trajectory of word learning. We discuss the implications of these results for measurement of meaning, vocabulary assessment, and instructional design.     

Metacognition, risk behavior, and risk outcomes: the role of perceived intelligence and perceived knowledge.

The present study explores 2 key variables in social metacognition: perceived intelligence and perceived levels of knowledge about a specific content domain. The former represents a judgment of one's knowledge at an abstract level, whereas the latter represents a judgment of one's knowledge in a specific content domain. Data from interviews of approximately 8,411 female adolescents from a national sample were analyzed in a 2-wave panel design with a year between assessments. Higher levels of perceived intelligence at Wave 1 were associated with a lower probability of the occurrence of a pregnancy over the ensuing year independent of actual IQ, self-esteem, and academic aspirations. Higher levels of perceived knowledge about the accurate use of birth control were associated with a higher probability of the occurrence of a pregnancy independent of actual knowledge about accurate use, perceived intelligence, self-esteem, and academic aspirations.     

Measuring up: The unique emotional and regulatory outcomes of different perceived partner-ideal discrepancies in romantic relationships

Guided by the ideal standards model (Simpson, Fletcher, & Campbell, 2001), the present research investigated the emotional and regulatory consequences of different forms of perceived partner discrepancies in a relationship context. Studies 1 (dating sample) and 2 (married sample) demonstrated that perceiving one's partner to be the source of a partner discrepancy (i.e., a PD-partner) was associated with dejection emotions, whereas perceiving oneself to be the source of the partner discrepancy (i.e., a PD-self) was associated with agitation emotions. Study 3 provided experimental support for the findings of Studies 1 and 2 by demonstrating that participants primed with either a PD-partner or a PD-self exhibited facilitated responses to dejection and agitation emotions, respectively. Studies 4 and 5 provided experimental support for the prediction that a PD-partner also results in a promotion focus regulatory style, whereas a PD-self results in a prevention focus regulatory style. The importance of understanding the emotional and regulatory ramifications of evaluation outcomes within a romantic relationship context is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Measuring organisational climate and employee engagement: Evidence for a 7 Ps model of work practices and outcomes

This study presents evidence supporting the psychometric properties of the Voice Climate Survey: an employee opinion survey that measures work practices and outcomes. The tool is tested across 13,729 employees from 1,279 business units representing approximately 1,000 organisations. Exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analyses and internal reliability analyses support 31 lower‐order work practices and outcomes that aggregate into seven higher‐order work systems broadly covering practices and outcomes such as organisational direction, ethics, resources, involvement, recognition, development, teamwork, wellness, work/life balance, change management, customer satisfaction, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and employees' intention to stay. External validation of the tool is demonstrated by linking scores from the employee survey with independent manager reports of turnover, absenteeism, productivity, health and safety, goal attainment, financial performance, change management, innovation and customer satisfaction.     

Some fallibilist knowledge: Questioning knowledge-attributions and open knowledge

Synthese - We may usefully distinguish between one’s having fallible knowledge and having a fallibilist stance on some of one’s knowledge. A fallibilist stance could include a...     

Exploring the relationship between children's knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes

This paper presents a study of 88 British 10–12‐year‐old children's knowledge of text message (SMS) abbreviations (‘textisms’) and how it relates to their school literacy attainment. As a measure of textism knowledge, the children were asked to compose text messages they might write if they were in each of a set of scenarios. Their text messages were coded for types of text abbreviations (textisms) used, and the ratio of textisms to total words was calculated to indicate density of textism use. The children also completed a short questionnaire about their mobile phone use. The ratio of textisms to total words used was positively associated with word reading, vocabulary, and phonological awareness measures. Moreover, the children's textism use predicted word reading ability after controlling for individual differences in age, short‐term memory, vocabulary, phonological awareness and how long they had owned a mobile phone. The nature of the contribution that textism knowledge makes to children's word reading attainment is discussed in terms of the notion of increased exposure to print, and Crystal's (2006a) notion of ludic language use.     

Inducing Thought Processes: Bringing Process Measures and Cognitive Processes Closer Together

The challenge in inferring cognitive processes from observational data is to correctly align overt behavior with its covert cognitive process. To improve our understanding of this overt–covert mapping in the domain of decision making, we collected eye‐movement data during decisions between gamble‐problems. Participants were either free to choose or instructed to use a specific choice strategy (maximizing expected value or a choice heuristic). We found large differences in looking patterns between free and instructed choices. Looking patterns provided no support for the common assumption that attention is equally distributed between outcomes and probabilities, even when participants were instructed to maximize expected value. Eye‐movement data are to some extent ambiguous with respect to underlying cognitive processes. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.