Response bias in sex-role attitude measurement

The widespread use of survey research by social scientists as a means for generating data has prompted an examination of the interview situation for sources of bias. Two potential aspects of the interview have been of particular interest to analysts — dissimilarities between interviewers and subjects on key sociopersonal variables and the nature of the subject matter of the interview. This study examines the impact of sex differences between interviewers and subjects on responses to a sensitive subject-matter area — sex-role orientations — in a telephone interview situation.The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of members of an introductory research methods class at LSU during spring 1980 for their help in gathering the data upon which this article is based.     

More on the measurement of spontaneous alternation

Still and MacMillan (1977) suggested the negative of the Phi coefficient (- φ) as a measure of free-trial spontaneous alternation. This new index is compared with the Adjusted Alternation Ratio (AAR), previously developed by Manning (1973b). It is concluded that there are many situations in which the AAR is a more useful measure. Other issues in assessing spontaneous alternation noted by Still and MacMillan are discussed.     

Response bias and the discrimination of stimulus duration

Pigeons discriminated stimulus duration in a psychophysical choice situation. Following presentation of any duration from a set of short duration (11 to 15 sec), responses on a red key were reinforced intermittently. Following presentation of any duration from a set of long durations (16 to 22 sec), responses on a green key were reinforced intermittently. Relative reinforcement rates were manipulated for choice responses across conditions. As relative reinforcement rates were varied, psychometric functions showed shifts in green-key responses at all durations. A signal-detection analysis showed that sensitivity remained roughly constant across conditions while response bias changed as a function of changes in relative reinforcement rate. Relative error rates tended to match relative reinforcement rates.     

Rational choice and polynomial measurement models

Rational choice behavior is defined in a manner that subsumes rational choice theory as part of general measurement theory. The special class of polynomial measurement problems are defined, and their solutions are reduced to solving polynomial inequalities. An algebraic criterion is given for the solvability of arbitrary finite sets of polynomial inequalities, resolving a conjecture of Tversky.     

Response bias,social desirability and dissimulation

This review set out to review the extensive literature on response bias, and particularly dissimulating a socially desirable response to self-report data. Various terminological differences are discussed as well as the way test constructors attempt to measure or overcome social desirability response sets. As an example of the research in this field, four types of studies measuring social desirability in the Eysenckian personality measures (MPI, EPI, EPQ) are reviewed. Also studies of faking in psychiatric symptom inventories, and a wide range of other tests are briefly reviewed. Various equivocal results from attempts to determine what makes some measures more prone to social desirability than others. However there appears to be growing evidence that social desirability is a relatively stable, multidimensional trait, rather than a situationally-specific response set. Faking studies may also be used to examine people's stereotypes and images of normality and abnormality, and various studies of‘abnormal groups’ perception of normality are examined. Recommendations for further work in this area are proposed.     

Response bias in judging deceptive movements

Two not mutually exclusive explanations, perceptual and motor expertise, account for the finding that experts outperform novices in recognizing deceptive actions from bodily (kinematic) cues. The aim of the present study was twofold: First, we sought to examine the impact of motor and perceptual expertise on distinguishing deceptive and non-deceptive actions. Second, we tested the hypothesis that differences in perceptual judgments on deceptive movements vs. non-deceptive movements do not necessarily need to be caused by either perceptual or motor expertise differences, but can also be a result of response bias. Skilled handball players (field players and goalkeepers) and novices had to detect whether a penalty-taker shot or faked a shot at the goal. Signal detection theory (SDT) analysis revealed that skilled handball players outperformed novices in discriminating shots from fakes. No differences in perceptual sensitivity were found between the goalkeepers and the field players. However, SDT analysis showed that goalkeepers were significantly biased to judge movements as deceptive, while neither field players nor novices showed this response bias.     

Response bias and judgments of the location of clicks in sentences

This study examines the view that response bias is the basis of the “click effect,” i.e., the influence of grammatical structure on subjects’ location of clicks sounded during the presentation of a sentence. It is argued that, since response bias is more likely to operate when one is unsure of one’s perception, if response bias generates the “click effect,” the effect should be weaker for certain than for uncertain responses. Subjects were asked to identify the location of the click and allowed to make more than one response if they were uncertain of their first choice. Using the number of locations selected as an index of uncertainty, it was found that when a subject was less certain, the click was less likely to be judged as having occurred in the major grammatical break. Further, performance was superior when the click had been in the break, and this effect, which was more pronounced for “certain” responses, was not eliminated by correcting for possible response bias. It is concluded that the "click effect" is not attributable solely to response bias.     

Contextual determinants of strategic choice: Some moderators of the availability bias

Three studies explored how the influence of the ‘availability heuristic’ on frequency judgement is mediated and moderated by the perceived meaning of the task, the perceived relevance of information for the task, and the salience of differential memorability of information. All studies adapted the ‘fumous names ’paradigm (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973) in which subjects are required to listen to a list of names of known personalities of both sexes and then judge the frequency of men and women. The availability heuristic (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973) posits that classes whose instances are easy to imagine or recall will be perceived as relatively frequent, so that when names of one sex are more famous and thus memorable this category will be rated as more numerous even when it occurs less frequently. Consistent with the notion that the use of availability is sensitive to task interpretation, we showed that the availability effect is eliminated over successive trials (Study 1) and moderated when task instructions render different categories salient (Study 2). In the third study it is shown that conditions which facilitate awareness of the biasing relationship between gender and fame (memorability), decrease the use of the availability heuristic by moderating frequency estimates of the more famous category. Results of these studies emphasize the context-bound and strategic aspects of judgement.     

Response bias and hemispheric differences in dot localization

A series of studies investigated the accuracy of dot localization in left and right visual fields. The left visual field superiority previously reported for this task was found to be small and statistically inconsistent. It was unaffected by the presence of a frame of reference, the location of the response card, or the sex of the subject. It was observed, however, that the majority of subjects showed a response bias favoring the report of items in the left visual field. This suggests that the right hemisphere is less critical than the left in its assessment of incoming information, and may provide a basis for understanding previous reports of right hemispheric superiority on dot localization. It is concluded that dot localization does not provide a reliable measure of right hemisphere performance.     

Temporal constraint on choice: Sensitivity and bias in multiple schedules

In multiple schedules of reinforcement, ratios of responses in successive components are relatively insensitive to ratios of obtained reinforcers. An analysis is proposed that attributes changes in absolute response rates to concurrent interactions between programmed reinforcement and extraneous reinforcement in other components. The analysis predicts that ratios of responses in successive components vary with reinforcer ratios, qualified by a term describing the reinforcement context, that is, programmed and extraneous reinforcers. Two main predictions from the analysis were confirmed in an experiment in which pigeons' responses were reinforced in the components of a multiple schedule and analog extraneous reinforcement was scheduled for an alternative response in each component. Sensitivity of response and time ratios to reinforcer ratios in the multiple schedules varied as a function of the rate of extraneous reinforcers. Bias towards responding in one component of the multiple schedule varied as an inverse function of the ratios of extraneous reinforcer rate in the two components. The data from this and previous studies of multiple-concurrent performance were accurately predicted by our analysis and supported our contention that the allocation of behavior in multiple-schedule components depends on the relative values of concurrently-available reinforcers within each component.     

Response processing stages in choice reactions

An experiment is reported on the mutual relations between the effects of semantic S-R compatibility, average movement velocity and foreperiod duration on choice reaction time. The major aim of the study was to investigate whether the response code which is selected on the basis of the stimulus code is specific to the particular velocity demands of the ensuing movement. The results show additive effects of all three variables. The additivity of S-R compatibility and average velocity suggests that the selected response code is abstract to specific kinematic movement parameters. From the additive effects of average velocity and foreperiod duration it may be inferred that motor preparation is at least a two-stage process: a programming stage which specifies the particular motor control parameters and a motor adjustment stage which modulates the intensity of preparation at a specific moment in time. The observed relations fit a linear stage model of choice reaction processes.     

Response bias in self-report measures of general health

This study set out to examine the susceptability of two widely used, self-report, psychiatric inventories to response set bias. Subjects were requested to either fake well (physically and psychologically fit), fake psychologically ill, fake physically ill or respond honestly on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Langner Scale of Distress (L-22). Predictably subjects who faked well had significantly lower scores than either of the other two experimental groups, however there was no difference between the Fake Well and Control group on the GHQ total or the Somatic and Depression scales. Subjects who faked psychologically ill showed 4 out of 11 significant differences between those who faked physically ill. All of the comparisons between the two Fake Ill groups, and the Well and Control groups, were statistically significant the former reporting higher incidences of distress than the latter. The results are discussed in terms of questionnaire design, subject motivation and alternative methods of assessing mental health.     

Using forced choice to test belief bias in syllogistic reasoning

In deductive reasoning, believable conclusions are more likely to be accepted regardless of their validity. Although many theories argue that this belief bias reflects a change in the quality of reasoning, distinguishing qualitative changes from simple response biases can be difficult (Dube, Rotello, & Heit, 2010). We introduced a novel procedure that controls for response bias. In Experiments 1 and 2, the task required judging which of two simultaneously presented syllogisms was valid. Surprisingly, there was no evidence for belief bias with this forced choice procedure. In Experiment 3, the procedure was modified so that only one set of premises was viewable at a time. An effect of beliefs emerged: unbelievable conclusions were judged more accurately, supporting the claim that beliefs affect the quality of reasoning. Experiments 4 and 5 replicated and extended this finding, showing that the effect was mediated by individual differences in cognitive ability and analytic cognitive style. Although the positive findings of Experiments 3–5 are most relevant to the debate about the mechanisms underlying belief bias, the null findings of Experiments 1 and 2 offer insight into how the presentation of an argument influences the manner in which people reason.