Autonomic, subjective, and expressive responses to emotional films in older and younger Chinese Americans and European Americans

Previously, the authors found that during idiosyncratic emotional events (relived emotions, discussions about marital conflict), older European American adults demonstrated smaller changes in cardiovascular responding than their younger counterparts (R. W. Levenson, L. L. Carstensen, W. V. Friesen, & P. Ekman, 1991; R. W. Levenson, L. L. Carstensen, & J. M. Gottman, 1994). This study examined whether such differences held when the emotional events were standardized, and whether they extend to another cultural group. Forty-eight old (70-85 years) and 48 young (20-34 years) European Americans and Chinese Americans viewed sad and amusing film clips in the laboratory while their cardiovascular, subjective (online and retrospective), and behavioral responses were measured. Consistent with previous findings, older participants evidenced smaller changes in cardiovascular responding than did younger participants during the film clips. Consistent with earlier reports, old and young participants did not differ in most subjective and behavioral responses to the films. No cultural differences were found.     

Different Brain Wave Patterns and Cortical Control Abilities in Relation to Different Creative Potentials

Contemporary understanding of brain functions provides a way to probe into the mystery of creativity. However, the prior evidence regarding the relationship between creativity and brain wave patterns reveals inconsistent conclusions. One possible reason might be that the means of selecting creative individuals in the past has varied in each study. By distinguishing creative potential as open-ended versus closed-ended based on theoretical views, this study examined different brain wave patterns and cortical control abilities in relation to different creative potentials by using electroencephalogram (EEG) biofeedback equipment. The results demonstrated that participants’ performance on the open-ended creative problem was positively related to EEG alpha frequencies, whereas performance on the closed-ended creative problem was related to larger variability in EEG dynamics between alpha and beta waves when performing either open-ended or closed-ended creativity tasks. Further, better control in changing states of brain wave activities according to the EEG biofeedback signals could predict closed-ended creativity performance. Open-ended creativity was related only to the enhancement of alpha signals. These results help clarify previous inconsistent findings, reveal different natures of distinct creativities, and further suggest ways to improve different aspects of creativity with modified biofeedback procedures.     

A method for evaluating the effectiveness of educational software

A method for executing a detailed evaluation of educational software is described. Several issues are discussed, including the use of an experimental setting versus a field study, and the design of assessment instruments suited to evaluation of educational software. The instruments include a test of remedial skills, a 103-item test of conceptual understanding, and a system for recording students’ use of the software. The method was used to evaluate ConStatS, a program for teaching conceptual understanding of probability and statistics. Preliminary results of the evaluation are presented.     

An item response tree model with not-all-distinct end nodes for non-response modelling

The non-response model in Knott et al. (1991, Statistician, 40, 217) can be represented as a tree model with one branch for response/non-response and another branch for correct/incorrect response, and each branch probability is characterized by an item response theory model. In the model, it is assumed that there is only one source of non-responses. However, in questionnaires or educational tests, non-responses might come from different sources, such as test speededness, inability to answer, lack of motivation, and sensitive questions. To better accommodate such more realistic underlying mechanisms, we propose a a tree model with four end nodes, not all distinct, for non-response modelling. The Laplace-approximated maximum likelihood estimation for the proposed model is suggested. The validation of the proposed estimation procedure and the advantage of the proposed model over traditional methods are demonstrated in simulations. For illustration, the methodologies are applied to data from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The analysis shows that the proposed tree model has a better fit to PISA data than other existing models, providing a useful tool to distinguish the sources of non-responses.     

A multichannel PC tachistoscope with high resolution and fast display change capability

The number of channels that PC tachistoscopes can have has increased recently (Bokhorst, 1995; Myors, 1998); however, neither the quality of display nor speed of image switching has been improved. This article shows the capability of VESA’s VBE 3.0 standard (1998) for increasing the number of channels of high-quality images. And the refresh rate can be set to the fastest cathode ray tube (CRT) scanning rate the monitor can tolerate in order to reduce the timing delay of changing display. A PCTSCOPE library was written in C to provide these capabilities, which is compatible with conventional DOS real mode. The PC tachistoscope can have numbers of channels with various resolutions and colors and different refresh rates. For example, 25 images with the resolution of 640 × 480 pixels and 256 colors can be loaded to video memory, and vertical refresh rate can be set to 180 Hz. It takes less than 6 msec to change the display among 25 channels in synchronizing with the start of the video scanning frame. In this library, the number of channels, the resolution of the images, and the speed of changing display all are improved. The multichannel PC tachistoscope with this technique is especially suitable for research requiring high-quality images and rapid successive presentation of stimuli.     

Effect of external motion on correspondence between infant actigraphy and maternal diary

Correspondence between infant actigraphy and mother-recorded diary differed significantly when receiver–operator function area under the curve, correlation, and logistic regression was calculated with and without excluding periods of external motion. External motion occurred in 40% of recording time and significantly changed activity count per epoch.     

Market Openness, Transition Economies and Subjective Wellbeing

This study attempts to examine the impact on subjective wellbeing (SWB) of economic openness as a social institution. The empirical testing of the liberal argument for the importance of market openness in human wellness is based on a cross-national design. Average scores of ‘feeling of happiness’ in 65 countries and ‘life satisfaction’ in 76 countries measured during the 1990s that are drawn from the World Database of Happiness overseen by Veenhoven (2006) are modeled as dependent variables. Regression analysis generates favorable results for the liberal argument in that length of being an open economy (versus closed economy) boosts the level of happiness, while transition to openness augments life satisfaction. Although the post communist countries registered less happiness in the early phase of transition towards the market economy, in general, our model specification indicates that an open market in itself was not responsible for this region’s unpleasant psychology.