Intraindividual reaction time variability predicts prospective memory failures in older adults

This study investigated the relationship between intraindividual variability (IIV) in reaction time and prospective memory errors in older adults using data from the Zurich Longitudinal Study of Cognitive Aging (n = 336 individuals aged 66–81 years). The results indicated that increased IIV measured from independent tasks was associated with a greater proportion of prospective memory errors. These significant findings were not influenced by age and did not vary according to prospective memory cue type. Variability is thought to reflect fluctuations in attentional and executive control and these attentional processes may also impact on prospective memory through failure to detect the target cue. The findings suggest, therefore, that measures of variability may have some potential in the identification of older persons who are more vulnerable to everyday errors such as prospective memory failures.     

Incremental validity of new clinical assessment measures

The authors address conceptual and methodological foundations of incremental validity in the evaluation of newly developed clinical assessment measures. Incremental validity is defined as the degree to which a measure explains or predicts a phenomenon of interest, relative to other measures. Incremental validity can be evaluated on several dimensions, such as sensitivity to change, diagnostic efficacy, content validity, treatment design and outcome, and convergent validity. Indices of incremental validity can vary depending on the criterion measures, comparison measures, and individual differences in samples. The authors review the rationale for, principles, and methods of incremental validation, including the selection of comparison and criterion measures, and address data analytic strategies and the conditional nature of incremental validity evaluations in the selection of measures. Incremental validity contributes to, but is different from, cost-benefits, which reflect the cost of acquiring the data and the benefits from the data. The impact of an incremental validity index on whether a measure is selected will be moderated by the cost of acquiring the new data, the importance of the measured phenomenon, and the clinical utility of the new data.     

Community Happens: Anatomy of a Remarkable Teaching Experience

There is no pedagogical philosophy or technique that ensures the emergence of genuine community in the religious studies classroom. But teachers can engage in activities that create the conditions for community and student transformation. Among these is strategic self‐disclosure – the practice of revealing one's own orientation toward a subject matter, a discipline, or the institutional context in which teaching and learning take place. But strategic self‐disclosure is not without risks. It can permanently alter the classroom environment and may tap into the teacher's insecurities. The author explores these matters by analyzing a remarkable teaching experience in which community happened. The editors welcome readers’ comments and responses on this article (e‐mail: wabashcenter@wabash.edu).     

Trait Goal Orientation, Self-Regulation, and Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to meta-analytically examine trait goal orientation constructs and their relationships with the self-regulation variables of self-monitoring, self-evaluations, self-reactions, and self-efficacy as well as task performance across a range of contexts.

Design, Methodology, Approach

Data were gathered from published and unpublished research examining the goal orientation construct and self-regulation and/or task performance. Effect sizes from 102 research reports involving over 16,000 participants were included.

Findings

In general the mastery-approach goal orientation construct was positively related to the self-regulation and performance variables. Conversely, negative relationships were found between the performance-avoid goal orientation and those variables. Relationships between goal orientation and self-regulation tended to be higher compared to those found for goal orientation and performance. Overall, the findings support the discriminant validity of the three factors of goal orientation (mastery-approach, performance-approach, performance-avoid).

Practical Implications

Practitioners and researchers will benefit from learning that mastery-approach goal orientation consistently relates to self-regulation and task performance. The findings indicate that a mastery-approach goal orientation could serve as a meaningful predictor in selection processes or as an explanatory variable of motivation.

Originality/Value

The present study updates and expands upon past research by focusing on relationships of trait goal orientation across a variety of contexts. The results extend meta-analytic results to a wider range of self-regulatory variables.     

Middle Response Functioning in Likert-responses to Personality Items

Two studies examined whether the middle response option in graphic rating scales indicates a moderate standing on a trait/item, or rather a “dumping ground” for unsure or non-applicable (N/A) responses. Study One identified middle response-option dysfunction. Study Two indicated that respondents use the middle response option as an N/A proxy, even under implicit ‘skip if you do not know’ instructional sets. Although middle response category ‘misuse’ did not adversely affect reliability and validity in these studies, it is recommended that assessment developers (especially in on-line administration contexts) regularly include an N/A response option when administering graphic rating scales.

An R package to compute commonality coefficients in the multiple regression case: An introduction to the package and a practical example

Multiple regression is a widely used technique for data analysis in social and behavioral research. The complexity of interpreting such results increases when correlated predictor variables are involved. Commonality analysis provides a method of determining the variance accounted for by respective predictor variables and is especially useful in the presence of correlated predictors. However, computing commonality coefficients is laborious. To make commonality analysis accessible to more researchers, a program was developed to automate the calculation of unique and common elements in commonality analysis, using the statistical package R. The program is described, and a heuristic example using data from the Holzinger and Swineford (1939) study, readily available in the MBESS R package, is presented.