Revisiting the factor structure of the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory

The original Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory, used to measure innovative (as opposed to adaptive) individual cognitive styles, has been reported to have three factors: Sufficiency of Originality, Efficiency, and Rule/Group Conformity. In exploring the construct validity of the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory, findings from a 2003 study by Im, Hu, and Toh showed the existence of two subdimensions of the Sufficiency of Originality factor-Idea Generation and Preference for Change. In this study, using a sample of 356 household participants, with an average age of 56.0 yr. (SD = 14.0), average income of dollar 39,700 (SD = dollar 19,200), and average of 15.0 yr. of education (SD = 2), from the Arkansas Household Research Panel, we conducted factor analyses. The results specific to our selected sample indicate that a four-factor model recognizing the two subdimensions of Sufficiency of Originality has a better fit than the original three-factor model.     

Educational attainment and suicide rates in the United States

We examined the relationship between educational attainment and suicide rate in the United States for 2001. Suicide rates, adjusted for age, were compared with percentage of college graduates, median household income, and poverty in 50 states in 2001. The correlations of suicide rates with educational attainment and median household income were both negative and statistically significant. Poverty was not significantly related to suicide rates. We concluded that higher education and income were associated with a decrease in suicide rates in 2001. Data from other years require examination for this conclusion to be generalizable.     

Expressions of life meaning among college students

This study examined the views of 132 undergraduate students (35 men, 97 women) regarding what they considered to be contributing factors to a worthwhile or meaningful life. They rated, on a 5-point Likert scale, their agreement with each of 40 statements. Cluster analysis yielded three clusters which best described the data. One cluster comprised a religious group, and the other two clusters were nonreligious, with one having characteristics of both the religious and nonreligious cluster.     

Internal consistency reliability of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Alcohol among adolescents in Northern Ireland

The Francis Scale of Attitude toward Alcohol was completed by 324 adolescents (M= 17.1 yr., SD=3.6) in Northern Ireland to examine reliability of the measure among this age group. These data support its internal consistency (.89) and suggest that the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Alcohol is psychometrically appropriate for use among this age group.     

Meaning through syntax is insufficient to explain comprehension of sentences with reduced relative clauses: comment on McKoon and Ratcliff (2003)

The authors argue that the meaning through syntax (MTS) model proposed by G. McKoon and R. Ratcliff fails to account for the comprehension of sentences with reduced relative clauses. First, the theory's core assumptions regarding verb-based event representations and how they link to constructions are incompatible with well-established analyses from the lexical semantics literature. Second, the MTS theory provides neither a principled nor a consistent account for why some reduced relatives are hard whereas others are easy. Finally, McKoon and Ratcliff's critique of constraint-based models is flawed in that sometimes they tested a nonexistent theory and sometimes they provided evidence for the constraint-based models against which they were arguing.     

Alan: An Action Language For Modelling Non-Markovian Domains

In this paper we present the syntax and semantics of a temporal action language named Alan, which was designed to model interactive multimedia presentations where the Markov property does not always hold. In general, Alan allows the specification of systems where the future state of the world depends not only on the current state, but also on the past states of the world. To the best of our knowledge, Alan is the first action language which incorporates causality with temporal formulas. In the process of defining the effect of actions we define the closure with respect to a path rather than to a state, and show that the non-Markovian model is an extension of the traditional Markovian model. Finally, we establish relationship between theories of Alan and logic programs.     

Influence of multiple categories on the prediction of unknown properties

Knowing an item's category helps us predict its unknown properties. Previous studies suggest that when asked to evaluate the probability of an unknown property, people tend to consider only an item's most likely category, ignoring alternative categories. In the present study, property prediction took the form of either a probability rating or a speeded binary-choice judgment. In keeping with past findings, the subjects ignored alternative categories in their probability ratings. However, their binary-choice judgments were influenced by alternative categories. This novel finding suggests that the way in which category knowledge is used in prediction depends critically on the form of the prediction.     

Testing the predictions of the central capacity sharing model

The divergent predictions of 2 models of dual-task performance are investigated. The central bottleneck and central capacity sharing models argue that a central stage of information processing is capacity limited, whereas stages before and after are capacity free. The models disagree about the nature of this central capacity limitation. The central bottleneck model claims that central processing acts on only 1 task at a time and, therefore, constitutes a bottleneck that processes tasks serially. The central capacity sharing model postulates that the central stage is a limited-capacity parallel processor that divides resources among to-be-performed tasks. As a result of this difference, in the psychological refractory period paradigm, the central capacity sharing model predicts that lengthening Task 2 precentral processing will improve Task 1 performance at short stimulus onset asynchronies, whereas the central bottleneck model does not. Results of 2 experiments confirm the prediction of the central capacity sharing model.     

Multiple-object tracking is based on scene, not retinal, coordinates

This study tested whether multiple-object tracking-the ability to visually index objects on the basis of their spatiotemporal history-is scene based or image based. Initial experiments showed equivalent tracking accuracy for objects in 2-D and 3-D motion. Subsequent experiments manipulated the speeds of objects independent of the speed of the scene as a whole. Results showed that tracking accuracy was influenced by object speed but not by scene speed. This held true whether the scene underwent translation, zoom, rotation, or even combinations of all 3 motions. A final series of experiments interfered with observers' ability to see a coherent scene by moving objects at different speeds from one another and by distorting the perception of 3-D space. These reductions in scene coherence led to reduced tracking accuracy, confirming that tracking is accomplished using a scene-based, or allocentric, frame of reference.