A counterintuitive hypothesis about employment interview validity and some supporting evidence

This study found mixed support for the hypothesis that the difference in criterion-related validity between unstructured and structured employment interviews is due solely to the greater reliability of structured interviews. Using data from prior meta-analyses, this hypothesis was tested in 4 data sets by using standard psychometric procedures to remove the effects of measurement error in interview scores from correlations with rated job performance and training performance. In the 1st data set. support was found for this hypothesis. However, in a 2nd data set structured interviews had higher true score correlations with performance ratings, and in 2 other data sets unstructured interviews had higher true score correlations. We also found that averaging across 3 to 4 independent unstructured interviews provides the same level of validity for predicting job performance as a structured interview administered by a single interviewer. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Conditions affecting the revelation effect for autobiographical memory

In four experiments involving 184 participants, people rated their confidence that particular events had happened in their childhood (e.g., "Broke a window playing ball"). If participants had to unscramble a key word in a phrase just before rating it (e.g., "Broke a nwidwo [window] playing ball"), confidence ratings increased-the revelation effect. However, the pattern of revelation effects depended on the particular way in which participants processed key words (e.g., visualizing vs. counting vowels in the word window) approximately 10 min prior to rating life events that contained those words. Prior exposure to key words never in itself directly affected confidence ratings. These results demonstrate that one can manipulate the revelation effect by altering the processing that participants perform on words prior to unscrambling them. These results also pose difficulties for many accounts of the revelation effect. The major puzzle posed by our present findings is that unscrambling key words increases confidence that an event has happened in childhood, whereas prior exposure to these words does not.     

Intergenerational transmission of prejudice, sex role stereotyping, and intolerance

The attitudes of 111 ninth and eleventh graders and both of their biological parents were independently assessed for prejudice against people with HIV/ AIDS, homosexuals, Blacks, and fat people, as well as for male and female sex role stereotyping. This study corrected for two shortcomings in previous research: neglecting to assess both parents and assessing only a single domain of prejudice. We addressed the intergenerational transmission of prejudice and stereotyping using three competing models: same-sex, parent equivalent, and differential effects. Using multiple regressions in which parents' scores were entered separately, along with control variables, different maternal and paternal influences were detected. Mothers were the primary influence for prejudice regarding HIV/AIDS, fatness, and race, and fathers were the primary influence for male and female stereotyping and prejudice against homosexuals, supporting the differential effects model. We also established that prejudice and stereotyping in specific domains reflected a more general proclivity to be intolerant. In contrast to prejudice and stereotyping in specific domains, fathers and mothers about equally shaped the adolescents' intolerance, supporting the parent equivalent model.     

Resolution of conflicts between internal and external information sources on a time reproduction task: the role of perceived information reliability and attributional style

Erroneous knowledge of results (KR) that conflicts with other internal or external information sources is preferentially used and misguides performance on motor and mental timing tasks. Buekers et al. [J. Motor Behavior 26 (1994) 27] hypothesized that KR is used preferentially because participants deem it to be the most reliable information source. We tested this hypothesis in two experiments. We manipulated subjective reliability of information and information content and demonstrated that both reliability and content are assessed and used. In a third experiment we examined whether attributional style affected the use of internal and external information. While KR was present, attributional style was unrelated to performance. However, when erroneous KR was withdrawn, participants who scored high in internal attributional style or high in controllability showed more accurate performance. Whereas evaluation of information quality is explicit, information provided by the KR, whether accurate or not, may influence both implicit and explicit aspects of the tasks.     

The time course and significance of cannabis withdrawal

Withdrawal symptoms following cessation of heavy cannabis (marijuana) use have been reported, yet their time course and clinical importance have not been established. A 50-day outpatient study assessed 18 marijuana users during a 5-day smoking-as-usual phase followed by a 45-day abstinence phase. Parallel assessment of 12 ex-users was obtained. A withdrawal pattern was observed for aggression, anger, anxiety, decreased appetite, decreased body weight, irritability, restlessness, shakiness, sleep problems, and stomach pain. Onset typically occurred between Days 1-3, peak effects between Days 2-6, and most effects lasted 4-14 days. The magnitude and time course of these effects appeared comparable to tobacco and other withdrawal syndromes. These effects likely contribute to the development of dependence and difficulty stopping use. Criteria for cannabis withdrawal are proposed.     

Effects of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 on employee attitudes

Much has been stated in the popular press about the effects of the events of 9/11/01 on employee attitudes about work. This study examined a large sample (N = 70,671) of employees of a multinational manufacturer whose annual employee survey data collection was interrupted by the events. After demonstrating measurement equivalence across time and countries, changes in attitudes pre- and post-9/11 were examined. Only negligible differences were found in Job Satisfaction, Supervisor Evaluation, Stress, and Organizational Commitment to Diversity for U.S. employees or for employees worldwide. Demographic differences in response to events were not found. Implications for understanding effects of stressful external events on employee perceptions of work are discussed.     

Assumed policy similarity and voter preference

The effects of attitude similarity on voters' preferences were examined. Using secondary analyses, the authors created measures of assumed similarity across 6 issues between voters and U.S. presidential candidates (in 1972). Greater similarity was associated with greater attraction (operationalized in terms of voters' presidential preferences). In 2 independent analyses, perceived similarity resulted in predictive accuracy of 84% to 88%. In a 3rd analysis, the predictive efficiency of each of 6 similarity measures was determined and used to develop a model that accurately predicted voters' actions in a hold-out sample. Findings demonstrate the importance of perceived attitude similarity in determining voter preferences and suggest the utility of earlier similarity-attraction research for the development of models of policy choice behavior.     

Assessing the age-related effects of proactive interference on working memory tasks using the Rasch model

Inhibition-reduction theory (L. Hasher & R. Zacks, 1988) hypothesizes that the age-related decline in working memory (WM) span is a result of a decrease in the ability to inhibit irrelevant information in WM. Using the Rasch psychometric model, this study found that later trials on 2 WM span tasks were more difficult for older adults than for younger adults, consistent with inhibition-reduction theory's hypothesis that older adults are more susceptible to the effects of proactive interference (PI). Furthermore, after accounting for differential susceptibility to the effects of PI, age-related variance in WM span was reduced by about half. These results suggest that differential susceptibility to PI may account for a substantial portion, although not all, of the age-related decline in WM span.     

Scoring reliability on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III)

Nineteen psychologists and 19 graduate students scored two Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition patient protocols. Mean IQs and indexes were similar across groups, but the ranges for Verbal IQ (VIQ), Performance IQ (PIQ), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) on one protocol were 25, 22, and 11 points, respectively. For both protocols taken together, percentages of agreement with the "actual" IQs for psychologists were only 26.3 for VIQ, 36.8 for PIQ, and 42.1 for FSIQ. For students, percentages were 15.8 for VIQ, 23.7 for PIQ, and 31.6 for FSIQ. The percentages of FSIQs that fell within +/- 1 standard error of measurement of the actual IQs were 89.5 for psychologists and 76.3 for students. Scoring error also had a negative impact on index scores. Both groups were confident about their scoring accuracy.