Appropriateness measurement: Review,critique and validating studies

The test-taking behaviour of some examinees may be so unusual that their test scores cannot be regarded as appropriate measures of their ability. Appropriateness measurement is a model-based approach to the problem of identifying these test scores. The intuitions and basic theory supporting appropriateness measurement are presented together with a critical review of earlier work and a series of interrelated experiments. We conclude that appropriateness measurement techniques are robust to errors in parameter estimation and robust to the presence of unidentified aberrant examinees in the test norming sample. In addition, the frequently criticized ‘three-parameter logistic’ latent trait model was found to be adequate for the detection of spuriously low scores in actual test data.     

The informative functions of research procedures: Bias and the logic of conversation

Conversational rules of everyday communication are applied to the interaction between experimenters and subjects. According to these rules, contributions to a communication should be informative, relevant, true, and unambiguous. It is assumed that subjects determine the pragmatic meaning of instructions and questions on the basis of these rules and the provided context. In contrast to most natural settings, standardized experimental procedures rarely allow for an interactive determination of pragmatic meaning and often preclude feedback as a corrective device. As a consequence, subjects are required to rely heavily on general rules, and even subtle cues may become informationally loaded. The information extracted from context cues may often not be intended by the experimenter. Thus subjects may infer more than they are supposed to, resulting in discrepancies between the experimenter's intended and subjects' inferred meaning of the instructions. If researchers are not sensitive to the information provided by verbal and non-verbal context cues, their interpretation of research results may be based on biased data. Evidence from different research domains is reported to support the presented assumptions and their implications for bias avoiding strategies are discussed.     

A proposed variation of the matching technique

A matching procedure is proposed by which a judge may use the same items in different matches. TheK items in one group most likely to include the correct match with each item in the other are selected. Inclusion of the correct match among theK items chosen is defined as a success. The distribution of the number of successes is discussed. Tables are presented showing the number of successes needed for significance for various values ofK and ofN, the number of items in each group.     

On Stalnaker’s Simple Theory of Propositions

Robert Stalnaker recently proposed a simple theory of propositions using the notion of a set of propositions being consistent, and conjectured that this theory is equivalent to the claim that propositions form a complete atomic Boolean algebra. This paper clarifies and confirms this conjecture. Stalnaker also noted that some of the principles of his theory may be given up, depending on the intended notion of proposition. This paper therefore also investigates weakened constraints on consistency and the corresponding classes of Boolean algebras.

     

Effects of therapist‐worn protective equipment during functional analysis of aggression

The effects of therapist‐worn protective equipment (PE) on functional analysis (FA) outcomes for aggression were evaluated. Independent FAs with and without PE were conducted concurrently. Both FAs showed the same function of aggression for all participants. These results suggest that therapists may wear PE during FAs of aggression to reduce risk without altering the interpretation of the analysis.     

Culture, trust, and social networks

Although the role of trust in group processes has been well established, less is known about the role of trust in social network processes. Trust, conceptualized to have generalized and particularistic aspects, was measured by generalized trust (people can be trusted in general) and relationism (people can be trusted if one has relationships), and their relations with social network characteristics of network homogeneity (extent to which one has a number of friends with similar attitudes) and network closure (extent to which one's social network is closed) were examined in three Western (Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom) and two East Asian countries (Japan and Korea). Although generalized trust was shown to be positively related to network closure across the five countries, generalized trust and relationism had different relations with network homogeneity in different cultures. The results were interpreted in terms of social institutional and cultural differences.     

Impulse and Self-Control From a Dual-Systems Perspective

ABSTRACT— Though human beings embody a unique ability for planned behavior, they also often act impulsively. This insight may be important for the study of self-control situations in which people are torn between their long-term goals to restrain behavior and their immediate impulses that promise hedonic fulfillment. In the present article, we outline a dual-systems perspective of impulse and self-control and suggest a framework for the prediction of self-control outcomes. This framework combines three elements that, considered jointly, may enable a more precise prediction of self-control outcomes than they do when studied in isolation: impulsive precursors of behavior, reflective precursors, and situational or dispositional boundary conditions. The theoretical and practical utility of such an approach is demonstrated by drawing on recent evidence from several domains of self-control such as eating, drinking, and sexual behavior.