Overlooking the Obvious: Incentives to Lie

Over the years, people have searched for deception cues in the liar's behavior. However, the sender's incentives to lie might be more revealing than behavior. In Experiment 1, an incentive was developed that was predictive of lying. Judges with access to incentive information in addition to behavior achieved almost perfect lie/truth detection. This was not a result of the speakers' behavior being transparent (Experiment 2) but because incentive information was useful to separate lies from truths (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 3 revealed that people may forego perfectly diagnostic contextual cues to base their judgments on illusory behavioral cues.     

“I Tried to Make it not Confusing by Fixing it”: Describing Six First Graders’ Use of Strategies to Understand Text

This study describes six first-grade students’ use of metacognitive strategies. The students (4 boys and 2 girls) represented low, average, and above-average readers and were enrolled in a rural Midwestern elementary school. A variety of data were collected throughout the year: (a) an informal reading inventory and metacognitive awareness interview were conducted at the beginning and end of the year; and (b) during the school year, think-aloud interview protocols, running records, anecdotal notes, and retellings were conducted. The analysis revealed that these first graders were reporting and using a variety of strategies to read.     

Relating Motivation to Read and Emergent Reading Skills: A Measurement Validation Study

Two studies examined the construct validity of emergent readers' motivation measures. Both studies directly assessed reading skills. Motivation was measured via self-report inventories, including existing and new items derived from the Preschool Reading Attitudes Survey (PRAS), the Motivated Reading Questionnaire (MRQ), and the Motivated Reading Profile (MRP). Parent and teacher measures of emergent readers' motivation were also administered. Study 1 findings indicated significant correlations within readers' self ratings and between teachers' and parents' ratings of children's motivation, but little consistency between these ratings and children's self-ratings. Study 2 replicated many Study 1 findings and indicated stability in children's motivation measures.     

Effects of Hardiness and Years of Military Service on Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in U.S. Army Medics

We examined the effects of hardiness on symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in postdeployed U.S. Army medics (N = 322). Medics endure a high level of work-related stress on and off the battlefield. Hardiness correlated negatively with reports of PTS symptoms and moderated the cumulative effects of years of military service on PTS symptoms. After controlling for socially desirable responding, PTS symptoms increased with years of military service for those with low levels of hardiness and decreased with years of military service for those with very high levels of hardiness. The military’s current resiliency training programs would likely benefit from incorporating hardiness measures and principles into its curriculum.     

Explanatory Multidimensional Multilevel Random Item Response Model: An Application to Simultaneous Investigation of Word and Person Contributions to Multidimensional Lexical Representations

This paper presents an explanatory multidimensional multilevel random item response model and its application to reading data with multilevel item structure. The model includes multilevel random item parameters that allow consideration of variability in item parameters at both item and item group levels. Item-level random item parameters were included to model unexplained variance remaining when item related covariates were used to explain variation in item difficulties. Item group-level random item parameters were included to model dependency in item responses among items having the same item stem. Using the model, this study examined the dimensionality of a person’s word knowledge, termed lexical representation, and how aspects of morphological knowledge contributed to lexical representations for different persons, items, and item groups.     

Sad mood reduces inadvertent plagiarism: Effects of affective state on source monitoring in cryptomnesia

In two experiments, we explored the influence of affective state, or mood, on inadvertent plagiarism, a memory failure in which individuals either misattribute the source of an idea to themselves rather than to the true originator or simply do not recall having encountered the idea before and claim it as novel. Using a paradigm in which participants generate word puzzle solutions and later recall these solutions, we created an opportunity for participants to mistakenly claim ownership of items that were, in fact, initially generated by their computer ‘partner.’ Results of both experiments suggest that participants induced into a sad mood before solving the word puzzles made fewer source memory errors than did those induced into a happy mood. Results of Experiment 2 also imply that sad mood reduces some item memory errors. Implications for appraisal theories, such as the affect-as-information hypothesis, are discussed.     

A multitrait–multimethod study of assessment instruments for complex problem solving

Recently published studies on Complex Problem Solving (CPS) suggest that assessments of CPS using multiple complex systems are only moderately related to tests of classical cognitive abilities. Further, CPS assessments show incremental validity beyond tests of other cognitive abilities when predicting relevant outcomes. However, these empirical accounts have relied on single CPS assessment instruments. We do not know whether these findings will generalize to the construct level across different CPS assessment instruments. To answer this question, we tested a sample of N = 339 German university students who completed three CPS assessment instruments based on multiple complex systems (MicroDYN, the Genetics Lab, and MicroFIN) and the matrices subtest of the Intelligence Structure Test as measure of reasoning. Students further reported their school grades. Analyses including latent multitrait–multimethod models provided support for the conceptualization of CPS as a complex cognitive ability. Results indicated that different CPS assessment instruments showed sufficient convergent validity (with a consistency mostly between .50 and .60). In addition, we found evidence for the divergent validity of CPS from reasoning (reasoning predicted two CPS facets, knowledge and control, β_KNOW = .49 and β_CON = .53, respectively). In the prediction of academic achievement, CPS explained variance in natural science grades after we controlled for reasoning (β_CPS = .22), whereas social science grades were not predicted. Our findings suggest that the validity of CPS generalizes across different measurement instruments.     

Sales Technology Applications: Interactive Video Technology in Sales Training: A Case Study

Interactive video (IV), a new technology for training, has had a recent surge in popularity. The use of interactive video technology has been reported to reduce training costs, increase quality, and decrease the amount of time required for training. The major characteristics of this new technology are presented. A state-of-the-art application of an IV system for sales training developed at BellSouth Services is discussed. The results confirm that IV is a promising new sales training tool.