Empirical Priors in Polytomous Computerized Adaptive Tests: Risks and Rewards in Clinical Settings

The use of empirical prior information about participants has been shown to substantially improve the efficiency of computerized adaptive tests (CATs) in educational settings. However, it is unclear how these results translate to clinical settings, where small item banks with highly informative polytomous items often lead to very short CATs. We explored the risks and rewards of using prior information in CAT in two simulation studies, rooted in applied clinical examples. In the first simulation, prior precision and bias in the prior location were manipulated independently. Our results show that a precise personalized prior can meaningfully increase CAT efficiency. However, this reward comes with the potential risk of overconfidence in wrong empirical information (i.e., using a precise severely biased prior), which can lead to unnecessarily long tests, or severely biased estimates. The latter risk can be mitigated by setting a minimum number of items that are to be administered during the CAT, or by setting a less precise prior; be it at the expense of canceling out any efficiency gains. The second simulation, with more realistic bias and precision combinations in the empirical prior, places the prevalence of the potential risks in context. With similar estimation bias, an empirical prior reduced CAT test length, compared to a standard normal prior, in 68% of cases, by a median of 20%; while test length increased in only 3% of cases. The use of prior information in CAT seems to be a feasible and simple method to reduce test burden for patients and clinical practitioners alike.     

Cognitive Offloading: Structuring the Environment to Improve Children's Working Memory Task Performance

Research has shown that adults can engage in cognitive offloading, whereby internal processes are offloaded onto the environment to help task performance. Here, we investigate an application of this approach with children, in particular children with poor working memory. Participants were required to remember and recall sequences of colors by placing colored blocks in the correct serial order. In one condition the blocks were arranged to facilitate cognitive offloading (i.e., grouped by color), whereas in the other condition they were arranged randomly. Across two experiments (total N = 166) the ordered condition improved task performance for children with low working memory ability. In addition, participants in Experiment 2 rated the difficulty of the two arrangements and performed a further condition in which they were given an opportunity to freely arrange the blocks before completing the task. Despite performing better in the ordered condition, children with low working memory ability did not rate the ordered arrangement as easier, nor did they choose an ordered arrangement when given the opportunity to do so. This research shows that cognitive offloading can also be a useful process in populations other than typical adults, and the implications of this work for supporting children with poor working memory are discussed.     

情境与互动：人际互倚及其模

人际互倚理论主要关注群体中个体之间的相互依附关系。文章介绍了互倚理论的历史发展,论述了人际互倚理论发展中研究方法的改进：从结果矩阵到转换细目表。方法的改进推动了重视情境的人际互倚情境模式的发展,使人际互倚理论从研究静态人际互倚关系转向研究动态人际互倚的转换过程。该文还对人际互倚研究进行了评价和展望     

多媒体学习中线索效应的元分析

作为多媒体学习中一种重要的指导性教学设计形式, 线索能否引导学习者的注意并促进学习效果, 目前结论尚不一致。研究运用元分析技术, 分别以保持测验、迁移测验的成绩作为学习效果的结果变量, 以线索区的注视时间、注视次数作为注意引导的结果变量, 探讨多媒体环境中的线索对学习效果和注意引导的影响, 并通过调节效应检验考察线索效应的边界条件。采用严格标准进行文献检索和筛选后, 共获取43篇符合元分析的文献。在保持测验成绩和迁移测验成绩上, 分别生成了44个(3910人)和41个(3906人)独立效应量; 在对线索区的注视时间和注视次数上, 分别生成了14个(938人)和11个(816人)独立效应量。结果发现, 线索的加入显著提高了保持测验成绩(g = 0.53)和迁移测验成绩(g = 0.36), 同时也增加了学习者对线索区的注视时间(g = 0.50)和注视次数(g = 0.70)。调节效应分析发现：在保持测验成绩上, 静态学习材料、陈述性知识、理工科条件下的线索效应分别高于动态学习材料、程序性知识和文科; 在迁移测验成绩上, 时空线索、静态学习材料、陈述性知识条件下的线索效应分别高于物理线索、动态学习材料和程序性知识; 而在眼动指标上, 线索对注意的引导主要受线索类型的调节, 物理线索条件下学习者对线索区的注视时间和注视次数均高于时空线索。结论认为, 线索的加入确实促进了学习者对学习材料的识记和理解效果, 同时也引导了学习者的注意分配; 但线索效应一定程度上受线索类型、学习材料动态性、知识类型、学科属性等因素的调节。未来研究需进一步考察线索效应的其他边界条件。     

Revisions and Regret: The Cost of Changing your Mind

Decision reversals often imply improved decisions. Yet, people show a strong resistance against changing their minds. These are well‐established findings, which suggest that changed decisions carry a subjective cost, perhaps by being more strongly regretted. Three studies were conducted to explore participants' regret when making reversible decisions and to test the hypothesis that changing one's mind will increase post‐outcome regret. The first two studies employed the Ultimatum game and the Trust game. The third study used a variant of the Monty Hall problem. All games were conducted by individual participants playing interactively against a computer. The outcomes were designed to capture a common characteristic of real‐life decisions: they varied from rather negative to fairly positive, and for every outcome, it was possible to imagine both more and less profitable outcomes. In all experiments, those who changed their minds reported much stronger post‐outcome regret than those who did not change, even if the final outcomes were equally good (Experiments 2 and 3) or better (Experiment 1).This finding was not because of individual differences with respect to gender, tendency to regret, or tendency to maximize. Previous studies have found that those who change from a correct to wrong option regret more than those who select a wrong option directly. This study indicates that this finding is a special case of a more general phenomenon: changing one's mind seems to come with a cost, even when one ends up with favorable outcomes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

General self-concept and life satisfaction for boys with differing levels of physical coordination: the role of goal orientations and leisure participation

Participation in leisure-time activities, self-concept perceptions and individual dispositional goal orientations were examined as mediators of relationships between physical coordination and self-evaluations of life satisfaction and general self-concept for 173 boys aged 10-13 years. Participants completed seven-day activity diaries and 12-month retrospective recall questionnaires recording participation in leisure-time activities. Self-report measures of self-concept, global life satisfaction and dispositional goal orientations were also completed. Results showed that boys with moderate to severe physical coordination difficulties had significantly lower self-concept perceptions of physical ability and appearance, peer and parent relations and general self-concept, as well as lower life satisfaction than boys with medium to high levels of physical coordination. The relationships between boys' physical coordination and their self-perceptions of life satisfaction and general self-concept were significantly influenced by individual self-concept appraisals of physical ability and appearance, peer and parent relations. Adopting task-oriented goals was found to positively change the relationship between physical coordination and both general self-concept and life satisfaction. Team sport participation positively mediated the relationship between physical coordination and life satisfaction. The potential for team sport participation and adoption of task-oriented goals to influence life satisfaction for boys with differing levels of physical coordination was discussed.     

The development of perceptual sensitivity to second-order facial relations in children

This study investigated children’s perceptual ability to process second-order facial relations. In total, 78 children in three age groups (7, 9, and 11 years) and 28 adults were asked to say whether the eyes were the same distance apart in two side-by-side faces. The two faces were similar on all points except the space between the eyes, which was either the same or different, with various degrees of difference. The results showed that the smallest eye spacing children were able to discriminate decreased with age. This ability was sensitive to face orientation (upright or upside-down), and this inversion effect increased with age. It is concluded here that, despite early sensitivity to configural/holistic information, the perceptual ability to process second-order relations in faces improves with age and constrains the development of the face recognition ability.     

Visual‐motor and executive functions in children born preterm: The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test revisited

Böhm, B., Lundequist, A. & Smedler, A.‐C. (2010). Visual‐motor and executive functions in children born preterm: The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test revisited. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 376–384. Visual‐motor development and executive functions were investigated with the Bender Test at age 5½ years in 175 children born preterm and 125 full‐term controls, within the longitudinal Stockholm Neonatal Project. Assessment also included WPPSI‐R and NEPSY neuropsychological battery for ages 4–7 ( Korkman, 1990 ). Bender protocols were scored according to Brannigan & Decker (2003) , Koppitz (1963) and a complementary neuropsychological scoring system (ABC), aimed at executive functions and developed for this study. Bender results by all three scoring systems were strongly related to overall cognitive level (Performance IQ), in both groups. The preterm group displayed inferior visual‐motor skills compared to controls also when controlling for IQ. The largest group differences were found on the ABC scoring, which shared unique variance with NEPSY tests of executive function. Multiple regression analyses showed that hyperactive behavior and inattention increased the risk for visual‐motor deficits in children born preterm, whereas no added risk was seen among hyperactive term children. Gender differences favoring girls were strongest within the preterm group, presumably reflecting the specific vulnerability of preterm boys. The results indicate that preterm children develop a different neurobehavioral organization from children born at term, and that the Bender test with a neuropsychological scoring is a useful tool in developmental screening around school start.     

Creative thought in Artists

One hundred and eleven subjects, 14 and 15 years of age, were administered the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and two questionnaires, modified from Bienvenu's Adolescent Communication Inventory, eliciting adolescents’ perceptions of their communication with both parents. The 10 males and 10 females with the highest self-esteem scores, and the 10 males and 10 females with the lowest scores were identified to form two groups: the High Self-Esteem Group and the Low Self-Esteem Group. Parents of these students completed questionnaires concerning parent-adolescent communication and marital communication and adjustment.

The five hypotheses tested were strongly supported. Adolescents with low self-esteem viewed communication with their parents as less facilitative than did adolescents with high self-esteem. Parents of adolescents with low self-esteem perceived their communication with their spouses as less facilitative, and rated their marriages as less satisfying, than did parents in the High Self-Esteem Group. There was lack of congruence between the perceptions of adolescents with low self-esteem and those of their parents; both mothers and fathers in the Low Self-Esteem Group viewed parent-adolescent communication as more facilitative than did the adolescents themselves.