ScanMatch: A novel method for comparing fixation sequences

We present a novel approach to comparing saccadic eye movement sequences based on the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm used in bioinformatics to compare DNA sequences. In the proposed method, the saccade sequence is spatially and temporally binned and then recoded to create a sequence of letters that retains fixation location, time, and order information. The comparison of two letter sequences is made by maximizing the similarity score computed from a substitution matrix that provides the score for all letter pair substitutions and a penalty gap. The substitution matrix provides a meaningful link between each location coded by the individual letters. This link could be distance but could also encode any useful dimension, including perceptual or semantic space. We show, by using synthetic and behavioral data, the benefits of this method over existing methods. The ScanMatch toolbox for MATLAB is freely available online (www.scanmatch.co.uk).     

A quantitative method for studying the testing supervision process

A quantitative method by Holloway for studying the supervision process in counseling training was adapted for use in psychological testing supervision. Ratings of 80 sessions indicated that most of the 25 potential interactions between the supervisor and trainee occurred in most of the sessions. The rate of occurrence was the lowest for the Emotional Awareness task (21%-24%). The author offers a speculation about how this result may be understood as involving the structured nature of testing. Results suggested that this model could be used as a tool for both practical and theoretical empirical evaluation of the supervision process during training in psychological testing.     

Predicting employee theft: A quantitative review of the validity of a standardized measure of dishonesty

One tool used in the preemployment setting for the prediction of theft is thePersonnel Selection Inventory (PSI) (London House, 1980). The PSI is a paper and pencil measure containing three scales: honesty, violence/emotional instability, and drugs. This paper focussed on the usefulness of the PSI dishonesty scale in the prediction of employee theft. Criterion-related validity data from 1,806 persons across 23 samples were quantitatively summarized. All samples met predetermined decision rules. The data indicated that the validity of the PSI dishonesty scale was dependent on a severity of consequences moderator. Validity coefficients are highest when the subject's responses are anonymous, when the theft criteria are self-report measures, when the subjects are students, and when the subjects are aware that the investigator has another source of information on their honesty. In all analyses, the validity of the PSI scale was found to be in useful ranges and showed little variance across studies.The opinions expressed in the report are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of any organizations with which the authors are associated. This paper was neither sponsored nor endorsed by the Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center. Reprints may be obtained from Michael A. McDaniel, Defense Personnel Security Research and Education Center, 99 Pacific Street, Building 455, Suite E, Monterey, CA 93940.     

AEIM: A new measure and method of scoring abilities-based emotional intelligence

Two hundred and seventy-two undergraduates completed the new Ability Emotional Intelligence Measure (AEIM) (The AEIM is available upon request from the first author. Patent Reference No. SPEP-12359426.), based on Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) EI definition. To facilitate better application of ability EI, limitations with existing measures were addressed via alternative emotion perception and management items, and a new scoring approach combining consensus and confidence protocols. Analyses of overall consensus and confidence scores, and low and high EI groups were undertaken. Confidence scores produced a single general EI component that was reliable, converged with fluid ability, was distinct from personality domains and incrementally predicted stress. Consensus scores produced a general EI and two-component solution. Consensus results converged with fluid and crystallised ability and empathy; were distinct from the Big Five and incrementally predicted loneliness, and GPA. Implications for the application of EI were discussed.     

The quantitative measure of pattern representation in images using orientation-specific color aftereffects

A quantitative method is developed for assessing the quality of pattern information in imagery, using the magnitude of color aftereffects as an objective index. Subjects were given instructions to project imagined bar patterns of particular width and orientation onto adapting color fields, in such a manner as to simulate standard conditions for establishing the McCollough effect. Our control procedures indicate that the resulting orientation-specific complementary color aftereffects cannot be attributed to the conditioning of particular directions of eye scanning movements to color processing during adaptation, or to other possible sources of experimental bias. Furthermore, subjects who rated themselves prior to the adaptation procedure as having relatively vivid imagery showed significantly larger aftereffects than those who reported having relatively low imagery. These results not only provide an important confirmation of our earlier finding that imagination can replace physical pattern information in the formation of basic color-feature associations in the human visual system, but also demonstrate that these aftereffects can provide a practical measure of the fidelity of pattern representation in visual images.     

How much woe when we go: A quantitative method for predicting culture shock

Culture shock is defined as the confusion and discomfort caused by the conflict in perceived motives and expected behaviors between the home culture and the foreign culture. Several quantitative and graphical methods employing techniques of cluster analysis and similarity mapping are offered for predicting the magnitude of culture shock between pairs of countries using data extracted from Hofstede's 1980–83 studies of national cultural values. Implications for business, politics, and personal stress management are discussed.     

Pupillary dilation as a measure of attention: a quantitative system analysis

It has long been known that the pupil dilates as a consequence of attentional effort. But the function that relates attentional input to pupillary output has never been the subject of quantitative analysis. We present a system analysis of the pupillary response to attentional input. Attentional input is modeled as a string ofattentional pulses. We show that the system is linear; the effects of input pulses on the pupillary response are additive. The impulse response has essentially a gamma distribution with two free parameters. These parameters are estimated; they are fairly constant over tasks and subjects. The paper presents a method of estimating the string of attentional input pulses, given some average pupillary output. The method involves the technique of deconvolution; it can be implemented with a public-domain software package, Pupil.     

Rainbows in the society: A measure of hope for society

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a measure of social hope. Previous studies have extensively reported on personal hope and its outcomes. Although a few studies have suggested the concept of collective or social hope, there is no instrument to assess the construct. In this study, we created a 5‐item scale, drawing on Snyder's hope theory, and collected two sets of survey data online. Analysis of these data sets revealed that the new scale was structurally unidimensional and internally consistent. In association with Snyder's State Hope Scale, the Social Hope Scale showed convergent and discriminant validity. The social hope construct also exhibited theoretically meaningful relationships with political efficacy and self‐construal (concurrent validity). Finally, social hope was higher for those who had participated in certain types of social activism than it was for those who had not (predictive validity). These results suggest that the Social Hope Scale is a reliable and valid self‐report measure of hopeful thinking for society.     

A simple and sensitive method to measure timing accuracy

Timing accuracy in presenting experimental stimuli (visual information on a PC or on a TV) and responding (keyboard presses and mouse signals) is of importance in several experimental paradigms. In this article, a simple system for measuring timing accuracy is described. The system uses two PCs (at least Pentium II, 200 MHz), a photocell, and an amplifier. No additional boards and timing hardware are needed. The first PC, a SlavePC, monitors the keyboard presses or mouse signals from the PC under test and uses a photocell that is placed in front of the screen to detect the appearance of visual stimuli on the display. The software consists of a small program running on the SlavePC. The SlavePC is connected through a serial line with a second PC. This MasterPC controls the SlavePC through an ActiveX control, which is used in a Visual Basic program. The accuracy of our system was investigated by using a similar setup of a SlavePC and a MasterPC to generate pulses and by using a pulse generator card. These tests revealed that our system has a 0.01-msec accuracy. As an illustration, the reaction time accuracy of INQUISIT for a few applications was tested using our system. It was found that in those applications that we investigated, INQUISIT measures reaction times from keyboard presses with millisecond accuracy.     

The spiritual experience index: A measure of spiritual maturity

The Spiritual Experience Index was developed to measure spiritual maturity in persons of diverse religious and spiritual beliefs. The scale was constructed from a developmental rather than a multidimensional conceptualization of faith. Initial findings from a religiously heterogeneous college sample indicated good reliability for the SEI and supported its use as a unidimensional measure. Higher scores on the SEI were significantly related to lower dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity. The SEI was also moderately related to higher religious participation and positively correlated with intrinsicness and quest. However, compared with the intrinsic and quest scales, the SEI emerged as the strongest indicator of adaptive spiritual functioning. Directions for future research are suggested.     

A short measure of the need for affect

Two studies are presented to introduce a 10-item short form of the Need for Affect Questionnaire (NAQ-S; cf. Maio & Esses, 2001 ). Study 1 was based on 4 independent samples (German or English language; N (total) = 2,151) and demonstrated the expected factorial structure of the NAQ-S; its measurement invariance with respect to gender, age, and education; and the predicted associations with relevant personality measures. A latent state-trait analysis conducted in Study 2 (N = 140) suggests that most of the reliable variance of the NAQ-S represents stable individual differences.     

The effectiveness of creativity training: A quantitative review

Over the course of the last half century, numerous training programs intended to develop creativity capacities have been proposed. In this study, a quantitative meta‐analysis of program evaluation efforts was conducted. Based on 70 prior studies, it was found that well‐designed creativity training programs typically induce gains in performance with these effects generalizing across criteria, settings, and target populations. Moreover, these effects held when internal validity considerations were taken into account. An examination of the factors contributing to the relative effectiveness of these training programs indicated that more successful programs were likely to focus on development of cognitive skills and the heuristics involved in skill application, using realistic exercises appropriate to the domain at hand. The implications of these observations for the development of creativity through educational and training interventions are discussed along with directions for future research.     

The brachium of the inferior colliculus: The human auditory pathways: A quantitative study

Counts of nerve fibers in the brachium of the inferior colliculus in man from birth to 97 years (28 brains) revealed an average on the right of 168,311/mm² and an average of 168,593/mm² on the left. The total fiber population for each level studied averaged 350,562 for section A (immediately adjacent to the inferior colliculus), 452, 372 for section B (center of brachium), and 559,242 for section C (immediately adjacent to the medial geniculate body). These figures were averaged from brains whose ages ranged from 11 to 89 years. The area of the brachium, as well as its total fiber population, increased as the medial geniculate body was approached. This indicates that fibers were entering the brachium at various points along its course from the inferior colliculus to the medial geniculate body or were leaving in the reverse direction. A lower fiber density was found in infant brains, and a loss of nerve fibers was evident in the 91- and the 97-year-old specimens.     

Conditioned tilt naming: A modified absolute judgment method is used to measure the oblique effect

Two naive human observers were conditioned to report on the slant of a 3.8-cpd sinusoidal grating viewed monocularly with a light-adapted eye and presented at various orientations extending from ?45 to +135 deg. The procedures used yielded a baseline measure of performance and measures obtained during conditioning, extinction, and reconditioning of the tilt-naming response. Both subjects learned rapidly, achieving a level of performance that permits efficient measurement of meridional differences in perceived orientation Ithe oblique effect) at a large number of angles.     

iMap: a novel method for statistical fixation mapping of eye movement data

Eye movement data analyses are commonly based on the probability of occurrence of saccades and fixations (and their characteristics) in given regions of interest (ROIs). In this article, we introduce an alternative method for computing statistical fixation maps of eye movements—iMap—based on an approach inspired by methods used in functional magnetic resonance imaging. Importantly, iMap does not require the a priori segmentation of the experimental images into ROIs. With iMap, fixation data are first smoothed by convolving Gaussian kernels to generate three-dimensional fixation maps. This procedure embodies eyetracker accuracy, but the Gaussian kernel can also be flexibly set to represent acuity or attentional constraints. In addition, the smoothed fixation data generated by iMap conform to the assumptions of the robust statistical random field theory (RFT) approach, which is applied thereafter to assess significant fixation spots and differences across the three-dimensional fixation maps. The RFT corrects for the multiple statistical comparisons generated by the numerous pixels constituting the digital images. To illustrate the processing steps of iMap, we provide sample analyses of real eye movement data from face, visual scene, and memory processing. The iMap MATLAB toolbox is editable and freely available for download online ().     

The bimean: A measure of central tendency that accommodates outliers

Observations that depart considerably from the center of a distribution demand special consideration. They may be retained, trimmed, or weighted less than other data. This article provides a BASIC program that implements Mosteller and Tukey’s (1977) technique for weighting observations less as they depart from the middle of a distribution. Influence curves for this “bisquare-weighted mean,” or “bimean,” are displayed and compared with more traditional measures of central tendency.