Developing a Computer-Based TTCT: Promises and Problems*

The purposes of the present study were to examine the equivalence of paper-pencil and computer-based versions of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), Figural Forms A and B, and to investigate the patterns of responses involved in the computer-based TTCT. The participants were 34 fifth- and sixth-grade students currently enrolled in two public schools in southern Texas. The computer-based TTCT was developed to present all the features of the paper-pencil TTCT with the additional benefits offered by computer-based testing. Means, variances, test-retest reliability, and attitudinal differences were analyzed to investigate equivalence between the paper-pencil and computer-based TTCT. Response patterns involved in the figural tasks were explored based on data collected from the computer-based test (e.g., latency, tool using patterns, correction activities). The findings of the study indicated that the results obtained from the computer-based TTCT were not equivalent with the paper-pencil version. However, additional information regarding response patterns obtained from the computer-based TTCT showed clear indication of different response tendencies among different groups of students and between the two alternate test forms (A and B).     

SELECTION ACROSS TWO CULTURES: ADAPTING THE SELECTION OF AMERICAN ASSEMBLERS TO MEET JAPANESE JOB PERFORMANCE DEMANDS

Obstacles related to cultural differences between Japanese management concepts and American selection practices were overcome to develop a selection system for hiring American workers in a Japanese-American joint venture assembly plant. Job analysis procedures and traditional selection system design procedures were modified to accommodate the Japanese culture and management philosophy. This paper describes the process used to develop a cross-culturally valid selection system and outlines problems presented in validating the selection system to ensure compatibility with Japanese management demands regarding productivity, team orientation, quality standards, and formal employee performance evaluations.     

THE PERCEPTION OF PEARSON PRODUCT MOMENT CORRELATIONS FROM BIVARIATE SCATTERPLOTS

Perceptions about the Pearson product moment correlation, r , from bivariate scatterplots were investigated through the use of a questionnaire. It was found that subjects who are relatively sophisticated in psychometric techniques tend to underestimate the magnitude of r , with most pronounced disparity in the range .2 < |r| < .6. Additionally, estimates of r from specially designed scatterplots indicated that subjects (1) correctly estimated the effects of range restriction, (2) underestimated the effects of attenuating outliers, (3) incorrectly reduced estimates of r when the regression slope was relatively high or low, and (4) often failed to consider the effects of removing the middle third of the data. Several implications of these generally conservative estimations are discussed.     

On the generality of some memory laws

Several memory laws have been established for the free recall of word lists. The generality of some of these laws were tested, using tasks which the subjects performed (SPTs) as to-be-recalled list items. SPT recall obeyed one law of word recall in showing a strong positive recency effect in immediate free recall, which appeared to be due to these events being in a temporary state of high accessibility. Differences between word and SPT recall were: 1) The reliable primacy effect associated with word recall did not appear in SPT recall; 2) Subjects reported using active memorisation strategies for word lists, but not for SPT lists; 3) Unlike word recall, diverting the subject's attention to so-called deep or shallow features of the SPTs during presentation did not affect the level of their recall. These results considered together with Cohen & Stewart's (1981) finding that SPT recall was not age-sensitive were taken to indicate that SPTs should be regarded as a different class of memory event than words, and that memory models dealing with SPT recall should de-emphasize the importance of encoding, stressing instead retention, and retrieval operations.     

ITEM BIAS INDICES BASED ON TOTAL TEST SCORE AND JOB PERFORMANCE ESTIMATES OF ABILITY

Researchers (e.g., Ironson, 1982; Tenopyr, 1990) have suggested that item bias investigators equate subgroups on external criteria such as job performance rather than total test scores before considering subgroup passing rates on test items. In a study comparing these two approaches to studies of item bias, we found little evidence of bias using total test score as the estimate of overall examinee ability, but nearly all items were biased in comparisons of white and African-American subgroups on Numerical, Verbal, and Mechanical Reasoning tests and in male-female comparisons on a Mechanical Reasoning test when job performance was used to select "equally able" examinees. However, the use of job performance as the ability index is analogous to performance-based approaches to test bias (Hartigan & Wigdor, 1989; Thorndike, 1971) and directly equivalent to the Darlington (1971) and Cole (1973) test bias definition, the logical inconsistencies of which have been previously described (Hunter & Schmidt, 1976; Peterson & Novick, 1976). We conclude that performance matching as a basis of forming "equal ability" groups is inappropriate.     

A Meta-Analysis of Research on Protection Motivation Theory

This article reports the first meta-analysis of the literature on protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975, 1983; Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997), a model of disease prevention and health promotion that has generated research for over two decades. The literature review included 65 relevant studies ( N = approximately 30,000) that represented over 20 health issues. The mean overall effect size ( d += 0.52) was of moderate magnitude. In general, increases in threat severity, threat vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy facilitated adaptive intentions or behaviors. Conversely, decreases in maladaptive response rewards and adaptive response costs increased adaptive intentions or behaviors. This held true whether the measures were based on intentions or behaviors, and suggests that PMT components may be useful for individual and community interventions.     

IS LIBERAL NATIONALISM INCOMPATIBLE WITH GLOBAL DEMOCRACY?

Abstract: To respond to globalization-related challenges, many contemporary political theorists have argued for forms of democracy beyond the level of the nation-state. Since the early 1990s, however, political theory has also witnessed a renewed normative defense of nationhood. Liberal nationalists have been influential in claiming that the state should protect and promote national identities, and that it is desirable that the boundaries of national and political units coincide. At first glance, both positions—global democracy and nationalism—seem to contradict each other. We do not share this oppositional picture. Developing a more harmonic picture of nationalist ideals and cosmopolitan visions is the aim of this essay.