The relationship between factorial composition of test items and measures of test reliability

For continuous distributions associated with dichotomous item scores, the proportion of common-factor variance in the test,H ², may be expressed as a function of intercorrelations among items.H ² is somewhat larger than the coefficienta except when the items have only one common factor and its loadings are restricted in value. The dichotomous item scores themselves are shown not to have a factor structure, precluding direct interpretation of the Kuder-Richardson coefficient,r _K-R, in terms of factorial properties. The value ofr _K-R is equal to that of a coefficient of equivalence,H ² , when the mean item variance associated with common factors equals the mean interitem covariance. An empirical study with synthetic test data from populations of varying factorial structure showed that the four parameters mentioned may be adequately estimated from dichotomous data.This study was supported in part by an Air Force project (Contract Number AF18(600-170), monitored by the Crew Research Laboratory, Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center, Randolph Air Force Base, Randolph Field, Texas. Permission is granted for reproduction, translation, publication, use and disposal in whole and in part by or for the United States Government. Further support was given by the Northwestern University Graduate School. The computational assistance of Mr. Norman Miller is acknowledged. Professor Meyer Dwass provided mathematical advice both directly and indirectly relevant to the paper.     

Instructional cues modify performance on the Iowa Gambling Task

The current study investigated whether acute alcohol intoxication produces impaired decision-making on tasks assessing ventromedial prefrontal (VMF) cortex functioning and impulsive responding. Participants completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a decision-making test targeting the VMF, and the Newman Perseveration Task (NT), a measure of impulsivity. Personality measures of impulsivity were assessed using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). To encourage natural responding on both tasks, participants were falsely informed that the study was examining the effects of alcohol on memory; the impulsivity tasks were presented as 'distractor' tasks. Advantageous performance on the IGT was related to specific instructional cues as well as to knowledge about the experimental purpose. Performance of intoxicated and sober participants did not differ. A subsequent study in which the true purpose of the experiment was revealed confirmed that alcohol does not affect IGT performance. Most importantly, the instruction-sensitivity of the IGT emphasizes the importance of salient cues for decision-making.     

Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis: Parents’ Preferences Regarding Counseling At the Time of Infants’ Sweat Test

Newborn screening (NBS) protocols for cystic fibrosis (CF) are the first regional population-based programs to incorporate DNA analysis into their procedures. Research about these programs can inform policy and practice regarding how best to counsel families with abnormal NBS results. The grounded theory method guided interviews with 33 families whose infants had abnormal CF NBS results. A dimensional analysis of these interviews provided a theoretical framework describing parents’ preferences regarding counseling during their infant's sweat test appointment. This framework describes the contexts and characteristics of the two main dimensions of parents’ preferences: factual information and emotional support. Factual information included learning about the probability of a CF diagnosis, CF disease facts, sweat test procedure, and CF genetics. Social support consisted of offering parents a choice about the timing and amount of CF information, showing empathy for their distress, instilling hope, personalizing counseling, and providing hospitality. This framework also explains the consequences of counseling that matched versus mismatched parental preferences in these domains. Counseling that matched parents preferences reduced parents’ distress while mismatched counseling tended to increase parents’ worry about their infant.     

Integrating ethics in design through the value-sensitive design approach

The Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) has declared that to achieve accredited status, “engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.” Many engineering professors struggle to integrate this required ethics instruction in technical classes and projects because of the lack of a formalized ethics-in-design approach. However, one methodology developed in human-computer interaction research, the Value-Sensitive Design approach, can serve as an engineering education tool which bridges the gap between design and ethics for many engineering disciplines. The three major components of Value-Sensitive Design, conceptual, technical, and empirical, exemplified through a case study which focuses on the development of a command and control supervisory interface for a military cruise missile.     

Discrimination and exiting homelessness among homeless adolescents

This article examines how newly homeless adolescents' discrimination experiences were associated with exiting homelessness after 6 months. A sample of 262 homeless adolescents, aged 12 to 20 years, were recruited and followed longitudinally (6-month retention rate = 88%). Discrimination was related to being gay, lesbian, or bisexual (LGB). Discrimination from family was related to exiting homelessness. Other than those who were LGB, adolescents who reported discrimination from their families were more likely to exit homelessness than adolescents who did not report such discrimination. Suggestions for future research include focusing on the experiences of LGB homeless adolescents, the role of families in the lives of homeless adolescents, and other aspects of discrimination, including salience, frequency, intensity, and duration.     

Animal models of drug addiction: Where do we go from here?

Compulsion and impulsivity are both primary features of drug addiction. Based on decades of animal research, we have a detailed understanding of the factors (both environmental and physiological) that influence compulsive drug use, but still know relatively little about the impulsive aspects of drug addiction. This review outlines our current knowledge of the relationship between impulsivity and drug addiction, focusing on cognitive and motor impulsivity, which are particularly relevant to this disorder. Topics to be discussed include the influence of chronic drug administration on impulsivity, the mechanisms that may explain drug-induced impulsivity, and the role of individual differences in the development of impulsive drug use. In addition, the manner in which contemporary theories of drug addiction conceptualize the relationship between impulsivity and compulsion is examined. Most importantly, this review emphasizes a critical role for animal research in understanding the role of impulsivity in the development and maintenance of drug addiction.     

Traits and stories: links between dispositional and narrative features of personality

Dispositional traits and life narratives represent two different levels of personality that have not previously been empirically linked. The current study tested five hypotheses connecting Big-Five traits to life-narrative indices of emotional tone, theme, and structure. Students (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) completed a self-report measure of the Big-Five traits and provided extended written accounts of either ten (students) or eight (adults) key life-narrative scenes, including life high points, low points, and turning points. Content analysis of the narrative data revealed that for both samples Neuroticism was positively associated with an emotionally negative life-narrative tone, Agreeableness was correlated with narrative themes of communion (e.g., friendship, caring for others), and Openness was strongly associated with the structural complexity of life narrative accounts. Contrary to prediction, however, Conscientiousness was not consistently associated with themes of agency (e.g., achievement, self-mastery) and Extraversion was unrelated to positive narrative tone. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary research and theorizing on the narrative study of lives and the relation of narrative research in personality to more conventional, trait-based approaches.