Peer Assessment of Aviation Performance: Inconsistent for Good Reasons

Research into expertise is relatively common in cognitive science concerning expertise existing across many domains. However, much less research has examined how experts within the same domain assess the performance of their peer experts. We report the results of a modified think‐aloud study conducted with 18 pilots (6 first officers, 6 captains, and 6 flight examiners). Pairs of same‐ranked pilots were asked to rate the performance of a captain flying in a critical pre‐recorded simulator scenario. Findings reveal (a) considerable variance within performance categories, (b) differences in the process used as evidence in support of a performance rating, (c) different numbers and types of facts (cues) identified, and (d) differences in how specific performance events affect choice of performance category and gravity of performance assessment. Such variance is consistent with low inter‐rater reliability. Because raters exhibited good, albeit imprecise, reasons and facts, a fuzzy mathematical model of performance rating was developed. The model provides good agreement with observed variations.     

Training the next generation of counseling psychologists in the practice of telepsychology

Training programs that integrate the use of technology are needed to prepare students for the future of service delivery in psychology. Training opportunities in telepsychology can equip students to develop, implement, and evaluate innovative modalities for mental health care. However, few options are available for trainees seeking to acquire these experiences, and while guidelines for service provision using technology are emerging, guidelines for and documented examples of training programs in telepsychology are virtually non-existent. The Telehealth Counseling Clinic, located at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, has developed a training model to prepare the next generation of psychologists to work with new technology to provide counseling services to low-income and uninsured individuals living in designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas in rural Texas. Training competencies necessary to serve this population through telepsychology are discussed and preliminary evaluation data of the training program are presented.     

The “Good” Psychologist, “Good” Torture,and “Good” Reputation—Response to O’Donohue,Snipes, Dalto,Soto, Maragakis,and Im (2014) “The Ethics of Enhanced Interrogations and Torture”

O’Donohue et al. (2014) sought to derive, from classical ethical theories, the ethical obligation of psychologists to assist “enhanced interrogations and torture” (EIT) in national defense scenarios under strict EIT criteria. They asked the American Psychological Association to adopt an ethics code obligating psychologists to assist such EIT and to uphold the reputation of EIT psychologists. We contest the authors’ ethical analyses as supports for psychologists’ forays into torture interrogation when (if ever) the EIT criteria obtain. We also contend that the authors’ application of these ethical analyses violates the Geneva Conventions, contravenes military doctrine and operations, and undermines psychology as a profession. We conclude that “good” public reputation is not owed to, or expected by, “good” intelligence professionals, and collaborating operational psychologists must share their providence.     

Rhythm deficits in 'tone deafness'

It is commonly observed that 'tone deaf' individuals are unable to hear the beat of a tune, yet deficits on simple timing tests have not been found. In this study, we investigated rhythm processing in nine individuals with congenital amusia ('tone deafness') and nine controls. Participants were presented with pairs of 5-note sequences, and were required to detect the presence of a lengthened interval. In different conditions the sound sequences were presented isochronously or in an integer-ratio rhythm, and these were either monotonic or varied randomly in pitch. It was found that the 'tone deaf' participants exhibited inferior rhythm analysis for the sequences that varied in pitch compared to those that did not, whereas the controls obtained equivalent thresholds for these two conditions. These results suggest that the rhythm deficits in congenital amusia result from the pitch-variations in music.     

Intact attentional control of working memory encoding in schizophrenia

This study reports evidence that individuals with schizophrenia (SC) demonstrate intact attentional selection for visual working memory (WM) storage. A group of 62 participants with SC and 55 control participants without SC were studied in a series of 5 experiments that examined the ability to use top-down and bottom-up cues to guide WM encoding, as well as the ability to spontaneously select a subset of representations for storage. Participants with SC exhibited a consistent and robust ability to use selective attention in the control of WM in all 5 experiments, demonstrating a remarkable island of preserved functioning given the broad spectrum of impairments of attention and WM that have been widely reported in those with SC. These findings indicate that attention is not globally impaired in SC and make it possible to delineate more precisely the nature of the specific impairment of attention in this disorder.