Test anxiety and the validity of cognitive tests: A confirmatory factor analysis perspective and some empirical findings

The validity of cognitive ability tests is often interpreted solely as a function of the cognitive abilities that these tests are supposed to measure, but other factors may be at play. The effects of test anxiety on the criterion related validity (CRV) of tests was the topic of a recent study by Reeve, Heggestad, and Lievens (2009) (Reeve, C. L., Heggestad, E. D., & Lievens, F. (2009). Modeling the impact of test anxiety and test familiarity on the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests. Intelligence, 37, 34?41.). They proposed a model on the basis of classical test theory, and concluded on the basis of data simulations that test anxiety typically decreases the CRV. In this paper, we view the effects of test anxiety on cognitive ability test scores and its implications for validity coefficients from the perspective of confirmatory factor analysis. We argue that CRV will be increased above the effect of targeted constructs if test anxiety affects both predictor and criterion performance. This prediction is tested empirically by considering convergent validity of subtests in five experimental studies of the effect of stereotype threat on test performance. Results show that the effects of test anxiety on cognitive test performance may actually enhance the validity of tests.     

Decision-related action orientation predicts police officers' shooting performance under pressure

Background and Objectives: We aimed to test whether police officers’ trait self-control strength decreases negative effects of high pressure (HP) on state anxiety, shooting behavior, and shooting performance. Design and Methods: Forty-two officers performed a shooting test under both high and low-pressure (LP) conditions. Self-control strength was assessed with the decision-related action orientation (AOD) scale of the Action Control Scale (ACS-90). Effects of AOD on perceived anxiety, heart rate, shooting time, and shot accuracy were estimated and controlled for those of other individual difference measures (i.e. age, police working experience, trait anxiety, and threat-related action orientation). Results: After controlling for baseline values in the LP condition as well as the other individual difference measures, AOD significantly predicted shot accuracy in the HP condition. Conclusions: Results suggest that trait self-control strength in the form of AOD helps officers cope with anxiety and maintain perceptual-motor performance under HP.     

Noise-robust fixation detection in eye movement data: Identification by two-means clustering (I2MC)

Eye-tracking research in infants and older children has gained a lot of momentum over the last decades. Although eye-tracking research in these participant groups has become easier with the advance of the remote eye-tracker, this often comes at the cost of poorer data quality than in research with well-trained adults (Hessels, Andersson, Hooge, Nyström, & Kemner Infancy, 20, 601–633, 2015; Wass, Forssman, & Leppänen Infancy, 19, 427–460, 2014). Current fixation detection algorithms are not built for data from infants and young children. As a result, some researchers have even turned to hand correction of fixation detections (Saez de Urabain, Johnson, & Smith Behavior Research Methods, 47, 53–72, 2015). Here we introduce a fixation detection algorithm—identification by two-means clustering (I2MC)—built specifically for data across a wide range of noise levels and when periods of data loss may occur. We evaluated the I2MC algorithm against seven state-of-the-art event detection algorithms, and report that the I2MC algorithm’s output is the most robust to high noise and data loss levels. The algorithm is automatic, works offline, and is suitable for eye-tracking data recorded with remote or tower-mounted eye-trackers using static stimuli. In addition to application of the I2MC algorithm in eye-tracking research with infants, school children, and certain patient groups, the I2MC algorithm also may be useful when the noise and data loss levels are markedly different between trials, participants, or time points (e.g., longitudinal research).     

Is pain-related fear a predictor of somatosensory hypervigilance in chronic low back pain patients?

Pain-related fear has been found to be associated with increased disability and increased pain perception in patients with chronic low back pain. A possible mechanism by which pain-related fear could lead to increased pain perception is heightened attention to somatosensory sensations. In the present study, chronic pain patients reporting either a high or low level of pain related fear and control participants performed an auditory reaction time task, while occasionally non-painful electrical stimuli--accompanied by threatening instructions--were given to the arm or back. In the primary task condition, participants had to perform the auditory task while ignoring the electrical stimuli. Next, the task was presented under dual task conditions in which participants had to respond both to tones as well as to detection of electrical stimuli. It was hypothesized that for the primary task, high fearful patients would show greater disruption of performance on the auditory task than low fearful patients and controls when stimuli were presented to the back. For the dual task, slower reaction times for the auditory task, in combination with faster detection of electrical stimuli was expected. The hypotheses were not confirmed but patients scoring high on pain-related fear did show an overall increase in reaction time for all conditions of the primary task, with or without simultaneous stimulation. Regression analyses demonstrated that high pain-related fear was associated with increased reaction time to tones both in patients and healthy controls, and that within patients pain-related fear was a better predictor of reaction time to tones than present pain intensity. The findings may be interpreted as showing that patients with elevated levels of pain-related fear habitually attend to somatic sensations, giving less priority to other attention-demanding tasks.     

Understanding print: early reading development and the contributions of home literacy experiences

This study explored the development of children's early understanding of visual and orthographic aspects of print and how this is related to early reading acquisition. A total of 474 children, ages 48 to 83 months, completed standardized measures of phonological awareness and early reading skills. They also completed experimental tasks that tapped their understanding of what constitutes "readable" print. The parents of participants completed a questionnaire regarding their children's home literacy experiences. The data showed systematic development in children's understanding of print conventions and English orthography and spelling. Regression analyses indicated that print knowledge was related to early reading skill, even after accounting for variance due to age and phonological awareness. Furthermore, parents' ratings of the extent of their children's involvement in activities that led to practice in reading and writing most consistently predicted the development of emerging literacy skills, including understanding of the conventions of the English writing system. Little relation between print knowledge and the frequency of storybook reading by adults was observed.     

Item-specific control of automatic processes: Stroop process dissociations

The influence of word reading on Stroop color naming decreases as a function of the proportion of test items that are incongruent. This proportion-congruent effect is usually ascribed to strategies (e.g., maintaining task set) that operate at a general level to moderate the extent to which participants are influenced by word reading. However, in three experiments, effects at the level of specific items were found. Interference and facilitation were smaller for color names usually presented in an incongruent color than for color names usually presented in their congruent colors. This item-specific proportioncongruent manipulation affected the process dissociation (PD) estimate of the influence of word-reading processes but not that of color-naming processes. The results (1) indicate that item-specific, as opposed to general, mechanisms can reduce the influence of word-reading processes on Stroop performance and (2) demonstrate the PD procedure’s utility in studying Stroop phenomena.     

Aging, subjective experience, and cognitive control: dramatic false remembering by older adults

Recent research suggests that older adults are more susceptible to interference effects than are young adults; however, that research has failed to equate differences in original learning. In 4 experiments, the authors show that older adults are more susceptible to interference effects produced by a misleading prime. Even when original learning was equated, older adults were 10 times as likely to falsely remember misleading information and were much less likely to increase their accuracy by opting not to answer under conditions of free responding. The results are well described by a multinomial model that postulates multiple modes of cognitive control. According to that model, older adults are likely to be captured by misleading information, a form of goal neglect or deficit in inhibitory functions.     

Mathematics instruction in Head Start: Nature,extent, and contributions to children's learning

This study employed the most recent (2006) cohort of the nationally representative Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) to explore the nature of mathematics instruction in Head Start and the child, family, and teacher factors that contribute to children's mathematics learning over the preschool year. In total, 2501 preschoolers and their families, as well as their teachers (n = 335), participated in the study from fall 2006 to spring 2007. Results showed that teachers reported frequent mathematics instruction, although direct observations did not entirely confirm this frequency. A variety of factors predicted children's mathematics knowledge at Head Start entry, and several – including instructional quality – were linked to learning over time. No thresholds in instructional quality emerged. Overall, this study provides new information about classroom mathematics instruction and child learning among the nation's most vulnerable early learners.     

Mary – ‘Mother of the Church’: challenging conciliar ecclesiology

On 21 November 1964, at the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (LG), was solemnly adopted together with its final chapter on Mary. Simultaneously, Pope Paul VI proclaimed the Marian title Mater Ecclesiae. This article will both review the Council’s debate and identify the specifics of the title Mater Ecclesiae. The Council had rejected the idea of awarding this title to Mary, even though chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium mentions her ‘function as mother’ (LG 60). In proclaiming this title, Paul VI did not follow the Council, which had located Mary within the Church. The question therefore arises as to whether Mary, as the ‘Mother of the Church’, is now placed outside the Church.