Concurrent schedules: short- and long-term effects of reinforcers

Five pigeons were trained on concurrent variable-interval schedules in a switching-key procedure. The overall rate of reinforcement was constant in all conditions, and the ratios of reinforcers obtainable on the two alternatives were varied over seven levels. Each condition remained in effect for 65 sessions, and the last 50 sessions of data from each condition were analyzed. The most recently obtained reinforcer had the largest effect on current preference, but each of the eight previously obtained reinforcers had a small measurable effect. These effects were larger when the reinforcer ratio was more extreme. A longer term effect of reinforcement was also evident, which changed as a function of the reinforcer ratio arranged. More local analyses showed regularities at a reinforcer-by-reinforcer level and large transient movements in preference toward the just-reinforced alternative immediately following reinforcers, followed by a return to stable levels that were related to the reinforcer ratio in effect. The present data suggest that the variables that control choice have both short- and long-term effects and that the short-term effects increased when the reinforcer ratios arranged were more extreme.     

A synthetic validity approach to testing differential prediction hypotheses

A new method is presented for conducting differential prediction analyses that makes it possible to test differential prediction hypotheses with adequate statistical power even when the sample size within a job or a job family is very small. This method, called synthetic differential prediction analysis, represents an application of the logic of synthetic validation to differential prediction analyses. The authors explain this new method and describe its application in a selection-system validation study conducted in a large organization.     

Item‐level Frame‐of‐reference Effects in Personality Testing: An investigation of incremental validity in an organizational setting

A recent line of research has investigated the frame‐of‐reference effect on personality scale scores, in which self‐report personality items are contextualized to the specific performance setting (e.g., work, school) within which the performance criterion is gathered. Contextualization has been shown to increase both the reliability and the criterion‐related validity of the personality scale scores by facilitating the self‐presentation of respondents, and by more closely measuring the personality construct relevant to the performance domain. The current research extends this area of personality research in two ways. First, this study tests the generalizability of the effectiveness of item‐level contextualization within an organizational setting. Second, this study also provides the necessary test of the incremental validity of this contextualized approach to personality measurement above and beyond the traditional, noncontextualized approach. The results confirm that a work‐specific personality measure, contextualized at the item level, adds to the prediction of job performance above and beyond that obtained by a noncontextual measure of the same personality traits. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

How to assess children’s virtue literacy: methodological lessons learnt from the Knightly Virtues programme

Character education is of growing importance in educational discourse. The Knightly Virtues programme draws on selected classic stories to teach eight moral virtues to nine- to 11-year-olds; it has proved to be hugely popular with UK schools. A finding of the trial was the different levels of ‘virtue literacy’ in faith and non-faith schools. This article outlines the key features of this trial which yielded the positive results and details its methodological strengths and potential shortcomings. Overall, statistical concerns are less problematic than the practical concerns of running trials designed to measure the impact of character education interventions. Of greatest theoretical interest is the conflation of general and virtue-specific literacy; in addition, we tease apart differences in understanding and motivation. The article highlights and discusses the challenges of running trials designed to measure character education, as well as providing insights into promising methodological approaches.     

Aloha teachers: teacher autonomy support promotes Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students’ motivation,school belonging,course-taking and math achievement

Among 110 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, teacher autonomy support in 9th grade significantly predicted intrinsic motivation for math in 9th grade as well as math course-taking over the next 2 years, both of which in turn significantly predicted math achievement by 11th grade. In a second model, teacher autonomy support was positively associated with sense of school belonging; however, school belonging did not predict math achievement. Because of the Hawaiian cultural concept of Aloha and the effect of teacher autonomy support on intrinsic motivation, school belonging, math course-taking, and math achievement, researchers may wish to develop interventions for Hawaiian students that focus on elevating intrinsic motivation and belonging via increasing teacher autonomy support. Because Native Hawaiians and most other Pacific Islanders are involuntary minorities, this research may have implications for other involuntary minorities across the world, such as the Buraku in Japan, and the Maori people of New Zealand.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Profile Analysis via Multidimensional Scaling

This paper describes the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) parameterization of the Profile Analysis via Multidimensional Scaling (PAMS) model to demonstrate validation of profile pattern hypotheses derived from multidimensional scaling (MDS). Profile Analysis via Multidimensional Scaling (PAMS) is an exploratory method for identifying major profiles in a multi-subtest test battery. Major profile patterns are represented as dimensions extracted from a MDS analysis. PAMS represents an individual observed score as a linear combination of dimensions where the dimensions are the most typical profile patterns present in a population. While the PAMS approach was initially developed for exploratory purposes, its results can later be confirmed in a different sample by CFA. Since CFA is often used to verify results from an exploratory factor analysis, the present paper makes the connection between a factor model and the PAMS model, and then illustrates CFA with a simulated example (that was generated by the PAMS model) and at the same time with a real example. The real example demonstrates confirmation of PAMS exploratory results by using a different sample. Fit indexes can be used to indicate whether the CFA reparameterization as a confirmatory approach works for the PAMS exploratory results.     

Reinforcement: Food Signals the Time and Location of Future Food

It has long been understood that food deliveries may act as signals of future food location, and not only as strengtheners of prefood responding as the law of effect suggests. Recent research has taken this idea further—the main effect of food deliveries, or other “reinforcers”, may be signaling rather than strengthening. The present experiment investigated the ability of food deliveries to signal food contingencies across time after food. In Phase 1, the next food delivery was always equally likely to be arranged for a left‐ or a right‐key response. Conditions were arranged such that the next food delivery was likely to occur either sooner on the left (or right) key, or sooner on the just‐productive (or not‐just‐productive) key. In Phase 2, similar contingencies were arranged, but the last‐food location was signaled by a red keylight. Preference, measured in 2‐s bins across interfood intervals, was jointly controlled by the likely time and location of the next food delivery. In Phase 1, when any food delivery signaled a likely sooner next food delivery on a particular key, postfood preference was strongly toward that key, and moved toward the other key across the interreinforcer interval. In other conditions in which food delivery on the two keys signaled different subsequent contingencies, postfood preference was less extreme, and quickly moved toward indifference. In Phase 2, in all three conditions, initial preference was strongly toward the likely‐sooner food key, and moved to the other key across the interfood interval. In both phases, at a more extended level of analysis, sequences of same‐key food deliveries caused a small increase in preference for the just‐productive key, suggesting the presence of a “reinforcement effect”, albeit one that was very small.