Efficacy of a Train-the-Trainer Curriculum for Increasing Occupational Therapists’ Mental Health Knowledge

The marked prevalence and under detection of affective disorders including depression in older adults is associated with poor functional outcomes and patient mortality. Although occupational therapists are trained in mental health assessment and intervention, these skills are underutilized in practice. A two-group wait-list control design was used to test a DVD-based educational curriculum to increase knowledge about depression in a sample of occupational therapists. The educational intervention was delivered using a train-the-trainer model. The train-the-trainer model was found to be effective and study results showed that knowledge increased significantly after the DVD training.     

动态测验对“数学学习困难”儿童的进一步甄别

本研究意在考查动态测验对数学学习困难儿童作进一步程度区分的有效性。以传统且常用的数学学习困难鉴别方式和标准选取30名四年级数学学习困难儿童为实验组,30名同年级智力匹配儿童为对照组,以Swanson认知加工测验(S-CPT)的4个子测验为测量工具对被试进行动态测验。结果发现：(1)在传统数学学习困难鉴别方式的基础上,动态测验的“潜在认知能力”指标可以对儿童数学成绩增加19%的预测力;(2)以“潜在认知能力”指标为依据能够将数学学习困难儿童进一步区分为“发展落后”和“发展缺陷”两个水平;(3)“发展落后”儿童一年内数学成绩发生了增长性变化,与正常儿童水平相当,而“发展缺陷”儿童的数学成绩没有变化。研究证实关注潜能指标的动态测验范式在快速、准确甄别数学学习困难儿童上具有独特效用。     

Bifactor Models of Personality and College Student Performance: A Broad Versus Narrow View

Research in the area of personality traits and academic performance has been supported by consistent meta‐analytic evidence demonstrating positive relationships between Conscientiousness and grade point average (GPA). However, academic performance is not solely a function of GPA but also a number of other important intellectual, interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviours. This wider criterion space opens up the possibility for many personality factors and their underlying facets to relate to academic performance. Using bifactor latent variable modelling, the current study investigates the six‐factor HEXACO model of personality, along with their 24 underlying facets, for predicting students' academic performance. Model results reveal interpretable and meaningful relationships between both broad factors and narrow personality facets in predicting college student outcomes. Implications for measurement, modelling and prediction are discussed. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

预测癌症患者静脉血栓栓塞的生物标记

癌症患者发生静脉血栓与肺栓塞的危险性增加.为预测不同类型肿瘤患者的静脉血栓栓塞（VTE）发生率,特别研究了一些生物标记.已证实血细胞计数（白细胞与血小板计数升高）是有用的预测因子.D-二聚体、凝血酶原片段1＋2、可溶性P选择素、FⅧ、凝血酶水平升高与未来VTE风险相关.组织因子微粒与VTE风险的关系因肿瘤类型不同而不同：组织因子微粒与胰腺癌VTE风险有相关性已被证实;与胶质母细胞瘤、结直肠癌、胃癌的相关性未获证实.目前建立了包含临床与试验室标记物的预测VTE的风险评估模型,为便于应用抗凝剂预防VTE,危险分层需进一步改进以更好地鉴别VTE患者.     

An Illustration of Diagnostic Classification Modeling in Student Learning Outcomes Assessment

The assessment of higher-education student learning outcomes is an important component in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of academic and general education programs. This study illustrates the application of diagnostic classification models, a burgeoning set of statistical models, in assessing student learning outcomes. To facilitate understanding and future applications of diagnostic modeling, the log-linear cognitive diagnosis model used in this study is presented in a didactic manner. The model is applied in a context where undergraduate students were assessed along four learning outcomes related to psychosocial research across two time points. Results focus on implications and methods to aid stakeholders’ interpretation of the analyses. Contrasts to traditional measurement models and potential future applications are also discussed.     

Using Automated Essay Scores as an Anchor When Equating Constructed Response Writing Tests

Assessments consisting of only a few extended constructed response items (essays) are not typically equated using anchor test designs as there are typically too few essay prompts in each form to allow for meaningful equating. This article explores the idea that output from an automated scoring program designed to measure writing fluency (a common objective of many writing prompts) can be used in place of a more traditional anchor. The linear-logistic equating method used in this article is a variant of the Tucker linear equating method appropriate for the limited score range typical of essays. The procedure is applied to historical data. Although the procedure only results in small improvements over identity equating (not equating prompts), it does produce a viable alternative, and a mechanism for checking that the identity equating is appropriate. This may be particularly useful for measuring rater drift or equating mixed format tests.     

Guidelines Versus Practices in Cross-Lingual Assessment: A Disconcerting Disconnect

The International Test Commission's Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (2010) provide important guidance on developing and evaluating tests for use across languages. These guidelines are widely applauded, but the degree to which they are followed in practice is unknown. The objective of this study was to perform a systematic review of published articles to determine whether the methodologies related to test adaptation and evaluation of cross-lingual measurement bias have improved since the initial publication of the Guidelines. Results demonstrated that although reporting reliability estimates and statistically analyzing construct equivalence improved since publication of the Guidelines, the majority of test development and validation practices in the published literature have not embraced the recommendations put forth by the International Test Commission. Overall, these findings call into question many of the inferences derived from cross-linguistic comparisons and clearly signal a need for better dissemination mechanisms of the Guidelines.     

Measuring slips and lapses when they occur – Ambulatory assessment in application to cognitive failures

Cognitive failures are lapses in attention, cognition, and actions that everybody experiences in everyday life. Self-reports are mainly used for assessment but those instruments are memory-biased and more related to personality aspects than to actual behavior. Ambulatory assessment is already used for capturing emotions or addictive behavior, but not yet for cognitive failures. The newly developed Questionnaire for Cognitive Failures in Everyday Life (KFA) was applied via mobile phones (electronic KFA) wherein an acoustic signal asked participants (N = 91, 60–76 years) 4 times daily to answer 13 questions for 1 week. The new instrument showed satisfying reliability and was compared with a self-report method (Cognitive Failures Questionnaire; Broadbent, Cooper, Fitzgerald, and Parkes, 1982) in terms of correlations with cognitive abilities (working memory capacity, short-term memory, switching ability, and reasoning), personality traits, and demographical aspects. Although further validation is needed, first results are promising and eKFA enriches cognitive failures research.     

The testing effect with authentic educational materials: A cautionary note

Despite considerable evidence that testing benefits subsequent retrieval of information, it remains uncertain whether this effect extends to topically related information with authentic classroom materials. In the current study we first profile the way in which quizzing is used in the classroom through a survey of introductory psychology instructors. The survey results indicate that, instructors frequently use related but different questions on quizzes and tests unlike many laboratory experiments that use identical questions. In two subsequent experiments, participants studied information from a college biology textbook, were quizzed twice, and given a final test. The items on the final test were either identical to or were related but different than the quiz items. Experiment 1 showed that testing produced the typical robust testing effect for repeated items, but there was no significant effect of testing for topically related items. In Experiment 2, participants could use their quizzes to guide restudy, and there was still no positive effect of testing for topically related information.     

Spousal influence on employees’ career paths in dual ladder systems: a dyadic model

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional field study examines the influence of employee and spousal characteristics on employees’ career-related motivations in dual ladder systems. We go beyond “constraints-based” explanations of spousal influence and focus on the degree to which the spouse has aspirations for the focal employee’s career – referred to as spousal career aspirations. Using a dyadic study design, we tested a model that specifies the influence of both partners’ career salience and materialism on an employee’s motivation for a particular career path: as manager or technical specialist. According to survey responses from a matched sample of 207 employees and their spouses, the spouse’s career salience and materialism (the latter only for women) were associated with higher levels of spousal career aspirations. In turn, those employees whose spouses aspired for them to have a career were less motivated to obtain a specialist position. Employees’ own career salience was positively associated with their motivation for a managerial position and, in combination with high levels of spousal career aspirations, pulled employees away from a career on the technical ladder. Our results shed light on the family-relatedness of career decisions and have notable implications for dual ladder organizations.