Accuracy of and confidence in mock jailhouse informants' recall of criminal accounts

While much research has explored how well earwitnesses can identify perpetrators' voices, little published research has examined how well they can recall criminal admissions. This exploratory study examined the effects of two variables relevant to criminal investigations—rehearsal and length of retention interval between witnessing and reporting an event—on the recall of details and strength of the accuracy–confidence (AC) relationship for such details from a perpetrator's criminal admission. Results suggest that confidence can be a reasonable predictor of accuracy, depending on whether the admission is rehearsed, the length of retention interval, and the centrality of details to the crime recounted. Substantial variance was found in how the above factors affected recall accuracy and confidence of individual details as well. While much research is still needed, our findings provide preliminary support for practical suggestions that may assist in credibility assessments of earwitnesses to criminal accounts, such as jailhouse informants. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of motivation,self-beliefs,and instructional practices on science achievement of adolescents in Canada

This study examined the effects of motivation to learn science, science self-beliefs, and science instructional practices on science achievement of 13,985 15-year-old students from 431 schools across Canada. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses, while controlling for student- and school-level demographic characteristics, revealed the substantial predictive effects of motivation to learn science, science self-beliefs, and science instructional practices on science achievement of adolescents. Motivational beliefs—self-efficacy and self-concept—and enjoyment of science had substantial positive predictive effects on science achievement. In contrast, general interest in science had a negative predictive effect on science achievement in the context of other variables. Whereas science teaching using hands-on activities had a substantial positive predictive effect on science achievement, science teaching using student investigations had a substantial negative predictive effect in the context of other variables. The final HLM model indicated that only 8% of the variance in science achievement was between schools and 92% of the variance involved students within schools.     

Introducing couples to group therapy: pursuing passion through the neo-cortex

Revolutionary developments in the study of neurobiology and relationships have led to new approaches in the treatment of couples. This paper describes a program of couples groups that utilizes a neurobiological perspective in combining education with group experience. The educational part of the program integrates findings from neurobiology, a biological view of affect dysregulation and attachment theory, and helps partners learn to slow down their physiological intensity before taking risks and exploring attachment to one another.     

USE OF SOUNDING OUT TO IMPROVE SPELLING IN YOUNG CHILDREN

We examined the effects of teaching 5 typically developing elementary students to sound out their spelling words while writing them using the cover‐copy‐compare (CCC) method to practice spelling. Each student's posttest performance following practice with sounding out was compared to that student's posttest performance following practice with no sounding out. For every student, posttest accuracy was higher following practice with sounding out, indicating that it is an effective and easily implemented strategy to improve spelling instruction.     

Self‐reference and group membership: evidence for a group‐reference effect

Two experiments were designed to explore whether encoding information in reference to a group would facilitate the later recall of that information to the same extent as encoding with reference to the self. In both experiments, participants encoded adjectives with reference to the self, semantic properties, or a group and were subsequently given a surprise‐free recall test. In Experiment 1 (N = 37), the participants' university served as the reference group. In Experiment 2 (N=41), the participants' family served as the reference group. In both experiments, self‐reference resulted in better recall than semantic processing, replicating the typical self‐reference effect (SRE). More importantly, strong evidence for a group‐reference effect (GRE) was found in that group‐reference resulted in better recall than semantic processing and in fact facilitated recall to the same extent as self‐referencing. The existing explanations (schemas, organization, elaboration, mental cueing, and evaluation) for the SRE were compared with regard to their viability in accounting for the GRE patterns. We discuss additional features that may be important in the explanation of the SRE and suggest future directions for research on group‐referencing. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is the DOSPERT gender invariant? A psychometric test of measurement invariance

It is well established in the risk literature that men tend to take more risks than women. This gender difference, however, is often qualified by its domain specificity. Considering recent research on the domain generality of risk taking as a disposition, there is a need to examine the degree to which men take more risks than women, in general. In order to make substantive conclusions about the gender differences in risk‐taking propensity, one must first establish measurement invariance, which is required for the meaningful interpretation of observed group differences. In this paper, we examined the measurement invariance of the Domain‐Specific Risk‐Taking scale (DOSPERT)—one of the most popular measures of individual differences in risk taking. We found that the DOSPERT violated configural invariance in a bifactor model, indicating that the underlying factor structure of the DOSPERT differs between men and women. Even after removing the social risk dimension, DOSPERT still failed to reach scalar invariance. Taken together, these findings suggest that score differences in the DOSPERT may be due to response artifacts rather than true differences in the latent construct. Therefore, gender differences in the DOSPERT must be interpreted with caution. Implications for the measurement of risk taking are discussed.     

Telling stories to communicate the value of the pre‐employment structured job interview

In an effort to bridge the scientist–practitioner gap in the employee selection, some researchers have advocated telling stories to better communicate the value of evidence‐based hiring practices to human resource (HR) professionals. In this paper, we conducted two experiments that examine the efficacy of storytelling for overcoming managers’ resistance to use structured job interviews. In two experiments, we found that participants who read a story regarding the effectiveness of structured interviews, as opposed to receiving evidence‐based advice, reported more favorable attitudes toward structured job interviews. Serial mediation analysis revealed that the observed attitude change was mediated by an increase in narrative transportation and reduction in counterarguing. Implications for using stories in communicating the value of evidence‐based HR practices are discussed.