Modeling the Information Preferences of Parents of Children with Mental Health Problems: A Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment

Although materials informing parents about children’s mental health (CMH) problems can improve outcomes, we know relatively little about the design factors that might influence their utilization of available resources. We used a discrete choice conjoint experiment to model the information preferences of parents seeking mental health services for 6 to 18 year olds. Parents completed 30 choice tasks presenting experimentally varied combinations of 20 four-level CMH information content, transfer process, and outcome attributes. Latent class analysis revealed three segments with different preferences. Parents in the Action segment (43%) chose materials providing step-by-step solutions to behavioral or emotional problems. They preferred weekly meetings with other parents and coaching calls from a therapist. The Information segment (41%) chose materials helping them understand rather than solve their child’s problems. These parents were more sensitive to logistical factors such as receiving information in groups, the location where information was available, the modality in which the information was presented, and the time required to obtain and use the information. The Overwhelmed segment (16%) reported more oppositional and conduct problems, felt their children’s difficulties exerted a greater adverse impact on family functioning, and reported higher personal depression scores than those in the Action or Information segments. Nonetheless, they did not choose information about, or solutions to, the problems their children presented. Simulations predicted that maximizing utilization and realizing the potential benefits of CMH information would require knowledge transfer strategies consistent with each segment’s preferences.

A computational model of spatial visualization capacity

Visualizing spatial material is a cornerstone of human problem solving, but human visualization capacity is sharply limited. To investigate the sources of this limit, we developed a new task to measure visualization accuracy for verbally-described spatial paths (similar to street directions), and implemented a computational process model to perform it. In this model, developed within the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) architecture, visualization capacity is limited by three mechanisms. Two of these (associative interference and decay) are longstanding characteristics of ACT-R’s declarative memory. A third (spatial interference) is a new mechanism motivated by spatial proximity effects in our data. We tested the model in two experiments, one with parameter-value fitting, and a replication without further fitting. Correspondence between model and data was close in both experiments, suggesting that the model may be useful for understanding why visualizing new, complex spatial material is so difficult.     

Using confirmatory factor analysis to understand executive control in preschool children: I. Latent structure

Although many tasks have been developed recently to study executive control in the preschool years, the constructs that underlie performance on these tasks are poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear whether executive control is composed of multiple, separable cognitive abilities (e.g., inhibition and working memory) or whether it is unitary in nature. A sample of 243 normally developing children between 2.3 and 6 years of age completed a battery of age-appropriate executive control tasks. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare multiple models of executive control empirically. A single-factor, general model was sufficient to account for the data. Furthermore, the fit of the unitary model was invariant across subgroups of children divided by socioeconomic status or sex. Girls displayed a higher level of latent executive control than boys, and children of higher and lower socioeconomic status did not differ in level. In typically developing preschool children, tasks conceptualized as indexes of working memory and inhibitory control in fact measured a single cognitive ability, despite surface differences between task characteristics.     

Myopic biases in competitions

In three studies using both laboratory and field data, we show that the focal competitor’s strengths and weaknesses feature more prominently in predictions of the outcomes of future competitions than do the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents. People are more confident when their own side is strong, regardless of how strong the competition is. We show that this effect is driven by the fact that people have better information about their own side than the other side, in part because they preferentially seek out information about their own side. Implications for theories of decision making in competitive settings are discussed.     

Aging: I don’t want to be a cyborg!

Examination is made of a range of cyborg solutions to bodily problems due to damage, but here with particular reference to aging. Both technological and animal implants, transplants and prosthetic devices are phenomenologically analyzed. The resultant trade-off phenomena are compared to popular culture technofantasies and desires and finally to human attitudes toward mortality and contingency. The parallelism of resistance to contingent existence and to becoming a cyborg is noted.     

Chunking, rule learning, and multiple item memory in rat interleaved serial pattern learning

Nonhuman animals, like humans, appear sensitive to the structure of the elements of sequences, perhaps even when the structure relates nonadjacent elements. In the present study, we examined the contribution of chunking, rule learning, and item memory when rats learned serial patterns composed of two interleaved subpatterns. In one group, the first interleaved subpattern was a formally simple sequence, whereas in two other groups the first subpattern was formally more complex, containing 2 or 4 violation elements, respectively. In all groups, the second interleaved subpattern encountered was formally simple. Evidence from the study suggests that rats chunked their interleaved patterns into component subpatterns, that is, they cognitively sorted pattern elements to form chunks based on nonadjacent structural relationships that can be characterized as rules. They also learned interitem associations via traditional discrimination learning to use adjacent elements as compound or configural cues for later events in the sequence. Thus, the evidence suggests that rats used chunking, rule learning, and interitem association learning concurrently to master these complex patterns.     

The relevancy of holland's theory to a nonprofessional occupation

The authors examined job satisfaction and workers' perceptions of a nonprofessional occupation using the Position Classification Inventory (PCI; G. D. Gottfredson & J. L. Holland, 1991). Results revealed high job satisfaction scores and suggest that the PCI shows promise as a method of classifying working‐class occupations according to J. L. Holland's (1985, 1997) theory.     

The changing face of Chinese immigrants in Canada

This paper analyzes the changing characteristics of Chinese immigrants to Canada between 1980 and 2001. It reveals that recent Chinese immigrants to Canada constitute a substantially different group from those of former years. They are no longer a homogeneous group from the rural areas of Mainland China, but in fact citizens of 132 countries, speaking 100 different languages and dialects. This study also reveals significant differences among Chinese subgroups. Given Canada’s time dependent immigration selection procedures, these differences are rationalized on the basis of a proposed single and double selection theory.     

Overconfidence and underconfidence: When and why people underestimate (and overestimate) the competition

It is commonly held that people believe themselves to be better than others, especially for outcomes under their control. However, such overconfidence is not universal. This paper presents evidence showing that people believe that they are below average on skill-based tasks that are difficult. A simple Bayesian explanation can account for these effects and for their robustness: On skill-based tasks, people generally have better information about themselves than about others, so their beliefs about others’ performances tend to be more regressive (thus less extreme) than their beliefs about their own performances. This explanation is tested in two experiments that examine these effects’ robustness to experience, feedback, and market forces. The discussion explores the implications for strategic planning in general and entrepreneurial entry in particular.     

Not so above average after all: When people believe they are worse than average and its implications for theories of bias in social comparison

Recent research calls into question the generally accepted conclusion that people believe themselves to be better than average. This paper reviews the new theories that have been proposed to explain the fact that better-than-average effects are isolated to common behaviors and abilities, and that people believe themselves to be below average with respect to rare behaviors and uncommon abilities. These new theories are then used to revisit prior findings of better-than-average effects. When viewed in light of recent work, the evidence suggests that prior findings overstated the degree to which people engage in self-enhancement by believing that they are better than others when in fact they are not. Prior studies have often confounded desirability with commonness and have used subjective measures of comparative judgment that capitalize on people’s tendency to conflate relative with absolute self-evaluation.