Loss of Information in Estimating Item Parameters in Incomplete Designs

In this paper, the efficiency of conditional maximum likelihood (CML) and marginal maximum likelihood (MML) estimation of the item parameters of the Rasch model in incomplete designs is investigated. The use of the concept of F-information (Eggen, 2000) is generalized to incomplete testing designs. The scaled determinant of the F-information matrix is used as a scalar measure of information contained in a set of item parameters. In this paper, the relation between the normalization of the Rasch model and this determinant is clarified. It is shown that comparing estimation methods with the defined information efficiency is independent of the chosen normalization. The generalization of the method to other models than the Rasch model is discussed. In examples, information comparisons are conducted. It is found that for both CML and MML some information is lost in all incomplete designs compared to complete designs. A general result is that with increasing test booklet length the efficiency of an incomplete design, compared to a complete design, is increasing, as is the efficiency of CML compared to MML. The main difference between CML and MML is seen in the effect of the length of the test booklet. It will be demonstrated that with very small booklets, there is a substantial loss in information (about 35%) with CML estimation, while this loss is only about 10% in MML estimation. However, with increasing test length, the differences between CML and MML quickly disappear.     

Children’s Gender Identity in Lesbian and Heterosexual Two-Parent Families

This study compared gender identity, anticipated future heterosexual romantic involvement, and psychosocial adjustment of children in lesbian and heterosexual families; it was furthermore assessed whether associations between these aspects differed between family types. Data were obtained in the Netherlands from children in 63 lesbian families and 68 heterosexual families. All children were between 8 and 12 years old. Children in lesbian families felt less parental pressure to conform to gender stereotypes, were less likely to experience their own gender as superior and were more likely to be uncertain about future heterosexual romantic involvement. No differences were found on psychosocial adjustment. Gender typicality, gender contentedness and anticipated future heterosexual romantic involvement were significant predictors of psychosocial adjustment in both family types.     

Visual Attention in Real-World Conversation: Gaze Patterns Are Modulated by Communication and Group Size

Gaze behavior both initiates and maintains conversations, playing a crucial role in real-world collaboration. Hitherto, most findings on social attention stem from research using pictures of faces in the laboratory, however, attention operates differently in the real world. Thus, we know little of how gaze behavior operates in naturalistic interactions. To bridge this gap, we applied mobile eye-tracking to investigate the gaze patterns present in naturalistic conversations. Specifically, we examined gaze behavior of participants in a group of two or five, either sitting together in silence, or engaging in a conversation, in which they took turns either listening or speaking to each other. Results show that participants looked more frequently towards others when the group was communicating compared to when remaining silent, and that they looked at others more frequently when listening compared to when speaking. Furthermore, being part of a dyad led to more social attention being afforded during conversation compared to the group situation, regardless of whether subjects were listening or speaking. Meanwhile, when sitting in silence subjects showed less social gazing in a dyad than in a group of five. Our results provide qualitative and quantitative insights into the patterns of visual attention during dynamic naturalistic conversations.     

Adolescents’ Conflict Resolution Styles Toward Mothers: The Role of Parenting and Personality

In the present research, we examined associations between contextual and individual factors and adolescents’ conflict resolution with mothers. In Study 1, we explored links between maternal responsiveness and psychological control and adolescent conflict resolution styles (positive problem solving, conflict engagement, withdrawal, and compliance) with two informants. In Study 2, we examined the unique contribution of adolescents’ personality above and beyond perceived parenting in the prediction of conflict resolution styles. Results of both studies indicated that responsiveness was related positively to problem solving and negatively to withdrawal. Psychological control was positively associated with destructive resolution styles. Study 2 indicated that extraversion predicted more problem solving and conflict engagement, and less withdrawal. Agreeableness predicted more problem solving and less conflict engagement. Finally, certain personality traits moderated associations between parenting and conflict resolution, indicating that some adolescents are more sensitive to these parenting dimensions than others.     

Task-specific EMG-characteristics during mental training

Despite a sixty-year tradition of research into ideomotor reaction it is not yet clear, whether myoelectric activity measured during mental training contains only inner-organismic or in addition task-specific information.Our investigation involved one group trained actively in a sensorimotor task (paced contour-tracking), another group which was intermediately instructed to train on a mental level, and a third (control) group which had no instruction for training in the intermediate performances. Measurements were taken of the muscular activity (EMG) of the main working muscle (m. biceps) synchronously to the motion of the target in all three groups.The data were submitted to several time series analysis procedures: auto-correlative measures and power spectra. Correlations were found between the filtered time series of the track and the EMG-activity in the mental training performances. The frequency distribution in the power spectra of the track was found in the power spectra of the active as well as in the mental training groups but not in those of the controls. The results indicate that the myoactivity during mental training clearly shows a task-specific frequency distribution.     

Clinical pastoral education and social structures

Since the contemporary church no longer reflects the simple and clear attitudes to social structure evident in the creeds and confessions, is it possible for clinical pastoral education (CPE) and the insights and understandings it represents to contribute to the quest for new structures? In the areas of motivation, power, confrontation, and conflict management, the possibility for contribution seems real. At the same time, CPE must take social structures more seriously and broaden its understanding of the minister's role.     

Positive und negative Rückmeldung bei Alternativdiskriminationen

Zusammenfassung Die Untersuchungen befassen sich mit dem Einfluß der verbalen Rückmeldungen richtig und falsch auf das Erlernen von Alternativdiskriminationen in Blank-trial-Experimenten. Dabei wird insbesondere die Wechselwirkung der Rückmeldungskombinationen (richtig/fehlende Rückmeldung vs. falsch/fehlende Rückmeldung) mit der Rückmeldungsproportion untersucht. Die Rückmeldungsproportion ist definiert als das Verhältnis der Anzahl der S-R-Verbindungen einer Lernliste, auf die eine verbale Rückmeldung erfolgt, und der Anzahl der S-R-Verbindungen, bei denen die verbale Rückmeldung fehlt. Die Rückmeldungsproportion wird zwischen 119 und 191 systematisch variiert. Unsere Experimente ergeben u. a., daß bei kleiner Rückmeldungsproportion die Kombination richtig/fehlende Rückmeldung und bei großer Rückmeldungsproportion die Kombination falsch/fehlende Rückmeldung die Lernleistung erhöhen. Dieser Befund wurde nach theoretischen Annahmen über die Lernstrategie der Vpn erwartet. Eine alternative theoretische Interpretation der Befunde wird nach einem Zusatzexperiment verworfen. Insgesamt bestätigen die Untersuchungen, daß (a) die relative Wirksamkeit von Rückmeldungskombinationen stark von den jeweiligen experimentellen Randbedingungen abhängt, daß (b) von einer automatischen Wirksamkeit verbaler Rückmeldung keine Rede sein kann und daß (c) theoretische Annahmen über die kognitive Verarbeitung verbaler Rückmeldungen und über entsprechende Lernstrategien für die Interpretation der untersuchten Lernvorgänge erfolgversprechend sind.

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Positive and negative feedback in discrimination between alternativesFeedback proportion and learning strategy

Summary This study is concerned with the influence of the verbal feedback modes of right and wrong on the acquisition of alternative discriminations in blank-trial experiments, with special reference to the interaction between the feedback combinations (right/non-feedback as against wrong/non-feedback) and feedback proportion is investigated. Feedback proportion is defined as the ratio of the S-R connections of a learning list succeeded by verbal feedback to the S-R connections succeeded by non-feedback. Feedback proportion was systematically varied between the ratios of 119 and 191.Results showed that at a low feedback proportion learning score is increased with the combination right/non-feedback while in contrast at a high feedback proportion learning score is increased with the combination wrong/non-feedback. These results are in accordance with theoretical expectations on learning strategies of Ss. An alternative interpretation was not confirmed by the results of an additional experiment.In general, our investigations showed that (a) the relative effectiveness of feedback combinations is strongly dependent on the particular experimental conditions; (b) an automatic effect of verbal feedback cannot be assumed; (c) a cognitive interpretation of verbal feedback effects in terms of learning strategies seems very promising.