Equipercentile equating via data-imputation techniques

In the design of common-item equating, two groups of examinees are administered separate test forms, and each test form contains a common subset of items. We consider test equating under this situation as an incomplete data problem—that is, examinees have observed scores on one test form and missing scores on the other. Through the use of statistical data-imputation techniques, the missing scores can be replaced by reasonable estimates, and consequently the forms may be directly equated as if both forms were administered to both groups. In this paper we discuss different data-imputation techniques that are useful for equipercentile equating; we also use empirical data to evaluate the accuracy of these techniques as compared with chained equipercentile equating.A paper presented at the European Meeting of the Psychometric Society, Barcelona, Spain, July, 1993.     

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) Remember Two Near-Target Landmark Constellations

A set of experiments tested whether honeybees can remember two different landmark constellations within the same room, or whether the two constellations are mixed together in a single composite memory. Bees were trained to find a reward location with two different landmark arrays. For example, when the blue landmark was north of the yellow one, the reward was to the east; when the yellow landmark was north of the blue one, the reward was to the west. On occasional unrewarded tests, either one of the training arrays was presented (control tests), or else a training array rotated by 90° (rotated tests). A rotated array consisted of part of one training array added to a part of the other training array. Should honeybees form a single composite memory by combining the two training arrays, they should search as much at the target location on rotated tests as on control tests. Results refute this and suggest that they had two separate memories.     

Covariation in natural causal induction.

The covariation component of everyday causal inference has been depicted, in both cognitive and social psychology as well as in philosophy, as heterogeneous and prone to biases. The models and biases discussed in these domains are analyzed with respect to focal sets: contextually determined sets of events over which covariation is computed. Moreover, these models are compared to our probabilistic contrast model, which specifies causes as first and higher order contrasts computed over events in a focal set. Contrary to the previous depiction of covariation computation, the present assessment indicates that a single normative mechanism--the computation of probabilistic contrasts--underlies this essential component of natural causal induction both in everyday and in scientific situations.     

Dichotic listening with Chinese and English tasks

In this dichotic listening study, monosyllabic tasks were conducted in both English and Chinese to evaluate (1) the effects of processing two acoustically different languages and (2) the effects of bilingualism. One subject group included 28 bilingual speakers of English and Chinese, and a second group in cluded 29 monolingual English speakers. Three pairs of monosyllabic words were presented such that each ear received a different word at the same time. Twenty such sets in both languages were presented, with recall order irrelevant. The results show that the monolingual English subjects demonstrated a significant right ear advantage when identifying English words dichotically, suggesting a left hemisphere processing component. However, there was no ear effect when the English-Chinese speakers performed the dichotic listening tasks in both Chinese and English. It appears that, with the acquisition of a second language, right ear dominance seems to be replaced by interhemispheric processing.I would like to express my deep appreciation to John Ryalls for his efforts in the preparation of this article. Thanks also go to Stuart Davis, Steven Chin, Sven Anderson, David Pisoni, and two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments on previous drafts.     

The social context of Hong Kong's booming elderly home industry

Hong Kong experienced a rapid increase in private homes for elderly people in recent years. This paper examines the social background of that development. Private elderly homes thrived in a context of rising demand due to changing demographics, particularly massive emigration secondary to political instability, which created a large potential market of elderly people in need of residential care. However, entrepreneurs would not be attracted unless it is a profitable business, and much of that profit is likely derived from social security payments to elderly people. Because the amount of social security benefits is way below the level required for purchasing good quality service in the private sector, many elderly people are bound to live in very poor residential settings. The preparation of this article was supported in part by CPHK Grant No. 903089. I am grateful to Alfred Chan, Man-fuk Leung, Alice Chong, Nicky Hamid, Murray Levine, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the article.     

Why Causation Need Not Follow from Statistical Association: Boundary Conditions for the Evaluation of Generative and Preventive Causal Powers

In experimental design, a tacit principle is that to test whether a candidate cause c (i.e., a manipulation) prevents an effect e, e must occur at least some of the time without the introduction of c. This principle is the preventive analogue of the explicit principle of avoiding a ceiling effect in tests of whether c produces e. Psychological models of causal inference that adopt either the covariation approach or the power approach, among their other problems, fail to explain these principles. The present article reports an experiment that demonstrates the operation of these principles in untutored reasoning. The results support an explanation of these principles according to the power PC theory, a theory that integrates the previous approaches to overcome the problems that cripple each.     

五四以来传统中医的命运与选择（对话）

通过五四以来传统中医境遇的回顾,分析了作为传统文化构件之一的中医学与现代生活的冲突、沟涌、融合,从思想史的层面审视了各种文化姿态、学风旨趣的价值支撑,揭示出人类医学多元共生的兼容特性。     

Gender-Role Differences in Susceptibility to the Influence of Support Availability on Depression

Previous gender-role research on depression has revealed a consistent inverse relationship between masculinity and depression, but a non-significant relationship between femininity and depression. In light of the stronger affiliative needs for feminine individuals, received social support was speculated to moderate the relationship between femininity and depression in the present research. In a longitudinal study of a sample of Hong Kong college students, the relationships among gender-role orientation, received social support, and depression were examined. Consistent with previous findings, masculinity and androgyny were inversely related to depression. Moreover, the present study supplemented previous research by revealing that femininity was related to depression through its interaction with received social support. When the amount of received social support was increased, femininity was associated with a reduction in depression level over time. In contrast, when the amount of received social support was decreased, depression tended to increase with femininity over time. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the gender-role literature.     

Landmark-based spatial search in honeybees. II.

Honeybees were trained to find sugar water at a fixed location in front of a rectangular block or a gap in a row of rectangular blocks aligned east-west. Bees learned to use both blocks and gaps to pinpoint a target place. In approach, the bees tended to head directly towards the block but not the gap. In approaching the gap, they tended to approach the wall, and then fly parallel to the wall until the gap was encountered. In approaching the block, they approached from varying directions. When the width of the block or gap was doubled, bees still searched at the same perpendicular distance from the landmark. When the height of the block was doubled, they searched farther away but not as far as double the distance on control tests, with variations across individuals. Near the target area, the bees tended to face almost parallel to the gap or block, turned slightly towards the landmark by 0–30°. In all setups, bees showed a tendency to search near the landmark, and to search on average closer than the training distance. The results confirm the basic processes identified for landmark-based search in bees, but show variations in how the steps are carried out.     

Role of Perceived Social Support on Depression in Chinese Adolescents: A Prospective Study Examining the Buffering Model

In response to the dearth of attempts to examine functions of perceived social support on depression in Chinese adolescents, a prospective study was conducted to examine the relationship among stressful life events, perceived social support, and depression. The present results provided support for the buffering model, indicating that the function of perceived social support in mitigating subsequent depression was prominent only under high stress levels. These results were discussed in terms of the socialized role of Chinese adolescents, as well as the function of esteem enhancement of perceived social support in alleviating depression. Reciprocal relationships between initial depression levels and subsequent levels of social support were also discussed. Possible counseling and prevention programs for Chinese adolescents are proposed.