Fitting the Reduced RUM with Mplus: A Tutorial

The Reduced Reparameterized Unified Model (Reduced RUM) is a diagnostic classification model for educational assessment that has received considerable attention among psychometricians. However, the computational options for researchers and practitioners who wish to use the Reduced RUM in their work, but do not feel comfortable writing their own code, are still rather limited. One option is to use a commercial software package that offers an implementation of the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm for fitting (constrained) latent class models like Latent GOLD or Mplus. But using a latent class analysis routine as a vehicle for fitting the Reduced RUM requires that it be re-expressed as a logit model, with constraints imposed on the parameters of the logistic function. This tutorial demonstrates how to implement marginal maximum likelihood estimation using the EM algorithm in Mplus for fitting the Reduced RUM.     

Depletion from Self‐Regulation: A Resource‐based Account of the Effect of Value Incongruence

Value incongruence between employees and organizations has been identified as a negative work condition. An attitude‐based account suggests that value incongruence gives rise to negative attitudes toward organizations and thus causes low performance. To complement this mechanism, we propose a resource‐based account based on ego‐depletion theory, which suggests that value incongruence consumes an individual's regulatory resources and leads to low work performance. In support of this view, results from 2 survey studies and a vignette experiment reveal that value incongruence is positively associated with ego depletion, which in turn is negatively related to work performance. The mediation effect of ego depletion is independent of the attitude‐based mechanism as represented by job satisfaction and affective commitment. Consistent with the affective consistency perspective, the relationship between value incongruence and ego depletion is stronger among employees high in positive affectivity and weaker among employees high in negative affectivity. The corresponding moderated mediation analysis shows that the indirect effects of value incongruence on work performance through ego depletion vary as a function of positive and negative affectivity. This investigation unravels the self‐regulatory consequence of value incongruence and shows that the resource‐based mechanism of value incongruence operates differentially as a function of dispositional affectivity.     

Inserting mastered targets during error correction when teaching skills to children with autism

Research has identified a variety of effective approaches for responding to errors during discrete‐trial training. In one commonly used method, the therapist delivers a prompt contingent on the occurrence of an incorrect response and then re‐presents the trial so that the learner has an opportunity to perform the correct response independently. Some authors recommend inserting trials with previously mastered targets between the prompted response and opportunities to respond independently, but no studies have directly examined the benefits of this approach. In this study, we manipulated the placement of trials with mastered targets during discrete‐trial training to compare the effectiveness of error correction with and without this recommended insertion procedure. Four children with autism participated, and each was taught 18 targets across 3 target sets. Results indicated that embedding trials with mastered targets into error correction may not confer benefits for most children and that doing so may lead to less efficient instruction.     

The Invisible Hand: Toddlers Connect Probabilistic Events With Agentive Causes

Children posit unobserved causes when events appear to occur spontaneously (e.g., Gelman & Gottfried, 1996). What about when events appear to occur probabilistically? Here toddlers (M = 20.1 months) saw arbitrary causal relationships (Cause A generated Effect A; Cause B generated Effect B) in a fixed, alternating order. The relationships were then changed in one of two ways. In the Deterministic condition, the event order changed (Event B preceded Event A); in the Probabilistic condition, the causal relationships changed (Cause A generated Effect B; Cause B generated Effect A). As intended, toddlers looked equally long at both changes (Experiment 1). We then introduced a previously unseen candidate cause. Toddlers looked longer at the appearance of a hand (Experiment 2) and novel agent (Experiment 3) in the Deterministic than the Probabilistic conditions, but looked equally long at novel non‐agents (Experiment 4), suggesting that by 2 years of age, toddlers connect probabilistic events with unobserved agents.     

Gender and marital status differences in depression: The effects of chronic strains

Although women evidently have higher depression levels than men and singles have higher depression levels than the married, the reasons for these differences are yet unclear. This paper investigates whether differences in the stress-producing circumstances of the lives of men and women, and the married and unmarried, might explain the differences in their levels of depression. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we found that gender differences in depression were accounted for by chronic strains. Family-based strains and economic hardship are significant predictors of higher distress in women. Chronic strains also explain why variations in depression are more pronounced among the married than among the unmarried.Bowling Green State University     

小学儿童“互反可逆性“发展的研究

本文运用成分分析法研究经典的皮亚杰有关儿童“互反可逆性”的理论。     

公众的智力观──北京普通居民对智力看法的调查研究

本研究采用调查分折法,对城市普通居民的智力观念和对高智力者重要特征的评定情况作了调查。研究发现,在对高智力成人和高智力儿童重要特征的评定中,①前１０项儿童和成人的最重要特征中有五项是共同的,体现出高智力者的共有特征;②对儿童特征和成人特征重要性次序的评定不同,表现出对两者智力活动要求的不同,并且在不同年龄层的受调查者中有较大差异,③１５项成人高智力特征可以聚为思维开放性特征群,智力信息加工特征群和非认知因素特征群三类．研究结果表明：总体而言,城市普通居民的智力观念及对智力的理解与心理专家的看法有相似之处,并且与现代认知心理学的智力观有一定的一致性。     

提高智慧的再次研究

本文是关于提高智慧的第二次实验报告。这次实验所得结果与上次所得结果完全一致。这次实验历时三个月,总共进行了大约了个半小时的动脑筋练习。两个实验班的智商分别提高了6分和5分,再次证明了智商是可以通过动脑筋练习而得到提高的。这样提高的智商与学习成绩的提高是否有一致关系,不但是个理论问题,也是个重要的实际问题。研究这个问题,虽然不在我们这次实验计划之中,根据这次实验结果,我们也作了一些分析。结果表明:智商提高与期末考试成绩之间,没有明显的一致关系;不过随着智商的提高而增加考试分数的趋势,似乎是存在的。     

作文评分中主观性问题的研究

本文是关于作文评分中主观性问题的研究,包括三部分内容: 1.作文评分中差异性的特点。 2.不同类型主观性暗示效应差异特点原因分析。 3.不同暗示程度与年龄、性别、教龄、文化程度,任教年级的关系分析。     

口语对书面言语的支持作用——来自脑损伤病人言语障碍的神经语言学分析

听、说、读、写是有文化的正常人言语交际的四个基本环节。言语行为有两个方面即:口语行为和书面言语行为。这两个方面有着各自的神经结构基础。但就个体言语发展来看,从听语到口语,到书面言语却又是相继形成,相互推动,相互制约的统一的大脑过