Development of a Response Inconsistency Scale for the Personality Inventory for DSM–5

The advent of a dimensional model of personality disorder included in DSM–5 has necessitated the development of a new measurement scheme, specifically a self-report questionnaire termed the Personality Inventory for DSM–5 (PID–5; Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, &; Skodol, 2012 Krueger, R. F., Derringer, J., Markon, K. E., Watson, D., &; Skodol, A. E. (2012). Initial construction of a maladaptive personality trait model and inventory for DSM–5. Psychological Medicine, 42, 1879–1890. doi:10.1017/S0033291711002674[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, there are many threats to the validity of a self-report measure, including response inconsistency. This study outlines the development of an inconsistency scale for the PID–5. Across both college student and clinical samples, the inconsistency scale was able to reliably differentiate real from random responding. Random responses led to increased scores on the PID–5 facets, indicating the importance of detecting inconsistent responding prior to test interpretation. Thus, this inconsistency scale could be of use to researchers and clinicians in detecting inconsistent responses to this new personality disorder measure.     

Uncertainty forecasts improve weather-related decisions and attenuate the effects of forecast error

Although uncertainty is inherent in weather forecasts, explicit numeric uncertainty estimates are rarely included in public forecasts for fear that they will be misunderstood. Of particular concern are situations in which precautionary action is required at low probabilities, often the case with severe events. At present, a categorical weather warning system is used. The work reported here tested the relative benefits of several forecast formats, comparing decisions made with and without uncertainty forecasts. In three experiments, participants assumed the role of a manager of a road maintenance company in charge of deciding whether to pay to salt the roads and avoid a potential penalty associated with icy conditions. Participants used overnight low temperature forecasts accompanied in some conditions by uncertainty estimates and in others by decision advice comparable to categorical warnings. Results suggested that uncertainty information improved decision quality overall and increased trust in the forecast. Participants with uncertainty forecasts took appropriate precautionary action and withheld unnecessary action more often than did participants using deterministic forecasts. When error in the forecast increased, participants with conventional forecasts were reluctant to act. However, this effect was attenuated by uncertainty forecasts. Providing categorical decision advice alone did not improve decisions. However, combining decision advice with uncertainty estimates resulted in the best performance overall. The results reported here have important implications for the development of forecast formats to increase compliance with severe weather warnings as well as other domains in which one must act in the face of uncertainty.     

How Evangelicals from Two Churches in the American Southwest Frame Their Relationship with the Environment

In this article, we analyze the ways in which Evangelicals frame a rhetoric of environmental concern and environmental apathy, with a larger focus on the latter. Heeding calls to further explore within-Evangelical differences, we compare environmental narratives of 20 leaders and laity of a predominantly white Southern Baptist congregation and 20 leaders and laity from an African American Baptist church, both located in a Southwestern American city. We find, especially on the topic of climate change, that most Evangelicals in our study readily evince environmental apathy, which we explore in depth. In particular, we find a belief in a rigid hierarchy of God, humans, and then the environment; a belief in the sovereignty of God; and evangelical eschatological beliefs help generate narratives of environmental apathy. There are different environmental narratives, between the two congregations, that are framed in terms of political affiliation and socioeconomic status. But we find little evidence to suggest that religious beliefs foster different environmental attitudes across the two congregations. We conclude with future research directions and implications for those who wish to foster environmental concern among Evangelicals.     

Correlational and exploratory factor analyses (EFA) of commonly used empathy questionnaires: New insights

Empathy is a concept whose history has been marred by conceptual inconsistencies. Dispositional measures of empathy have varied in constituent subscales and have been suggested to conflate with other related constructs. The current investigation consists of correlational and exploratory factor analyses with self-report empathy measures to assess the commonalities between these measures. Four hundred ninety-seven university undergraduates completed a battery of self-report dispositional empathy measures, along with situational and dispositional sympathy measures. The novel findings include moderate correlations between scales purporting to measure empathy, an interpretable six-factor structure which represent subcomponents of these empathy scales, and the modest ability of existing questionnaires to contribute to these factor structures. The retained factor structure is not consistent with previous definitions of empathy, and it appears that self-report empathy measures do not adequately measure a uniform, consistent construct.     

The mouse attentional-set-shifting task: A method for assaying successful cognitive aging?

Humans exhibit considerable variance in cognitive decline with age, with some exhibiting little disruption and others becoming significantly impaired. In aged rodents, individual differences in spatial memory have been used to identify putative compensatory mechanisms underlying successful hippocampal aging. However, there are few parallel rodent models of cognitive decline in frontal-cortex-mediated functions. We tested the hypothesis that, like aged humans, aged mice would exhibit greater variance in executive function measures, as compared with young mice. We examined the performance of young and aged C57BL/6N mice in the attentional-set-shifting task. Whereas young and old mice did not differ on trials-to-criterion performance, aged mice exhibited significantly greater variance in mean correct latency—selective to the extradimensional shifting stage—as compared with their younger counterparts. Thus, this task may be used to identify mechanisms underlying individual differences in decline of frontal-mediated performances with age.     

Theoretical developments in decision field theory: comment on Tsetsos, Usher, and Chater (2010)

Tsetsos, Usher, and Chater (2010) presented several criticisms of decision field theory (DFT) involving its distance function, instability under externally controlled stopping times, and lack of robustness to various multialternative choice scenarios. Here, we counter those claims with a specification of a distance function based on the indifference and dominance dimensions. Using this distance function, we show that the instability problems do not arise when using the internally controlled stopping rule. In conclusion, we argue that the predictions of DFT do not conflict with the data presented and that the model yet provides a coherent and accurate account of multialternative choice phenomena.     

Assessing individual differences in categorical data

In cognitive modeling, data are often categorical observations taken over participants and items. Usually subsets of these observations are pooled and analyzed by a cognitive model assuming the category counts come from a multinomial distribution with the same model parameters underlying all observations. It is well known that if there are individual differences in participants and/or items, a model analysis of the pooled data may be quite misleading, and in such cases it may be appropriate to augment the cognitive model with parametric random effects assumptions. On the other hand, if random effects are incorporated into a cognitive model that is not needed, the resulting model may be more flexible than the multinomial model that assumes no heterogeneity, and this may lead to overfitting. This article presents Monte Carlo statistical tests for directly detecting individual participant and/or item heterogeneity that depend only on the data structure itself. These tests are based on the fact that heterogeneity in participants and/or items results in overdispersion of certain category count statistics. It is argued that the methods developed in the article should be applied to any set of participant 3 item categorical data prior to cognitive model-based analyses.     

The voice of confidence: Paralinguistic cues and audience evaluation

A standard speaker read linguistically confident and doubtful texts in a confident or doubtful voice. A computer-based acoustic analysis of the four tapes showed that paralinguistic confidence was expressed by increased loudness of voice, rapid rate of speech, and infrequent, short pauses. Under some conditions, higher pitch levels and greater pitch and energy fluctuations in the voice were related to paralinguistic confidence. In a 2 × 2 design, observers perceived and used these cues to attribute confidence and related personality traits to the speaker. Both text and voice cues are related to confidence ratings; in addition, the two types of cue are related to differing personality attributes.     

The role of phonology in the activation of word meanings during reading: evidence from proofreading and eye movements.

Six experiments explored the role of phonology in the activation of word meanings when words were embedded in meaningful texts. Specifically, the studies examined whether participants detected the substitution of a homophone mate for a contextually appropriate homophone. The frequency of the incorrect homophone, the frequency of the correct homophone, and the predictability of the correct homophone were manipulated. Also, the impact of reading skill was examined. When correct homophones were not predictable and participants had a range of reading abilities, the evidence indicated that phonology plays a role in activating the meanings of low-frequency words only. When the performance of good and poor readers was examined separately, the evidence indicated that good readers primarily activate the meanings of words using the direct route, whereas poor readers primarily activate the meanings of words using the phonological route.