Investigating How Test-Takers Change Their Strategies to Handle Difficulty in Taking a Reading Comprehension Test: Implications for Score Validation

This article investigates how test-takers change their strategies to handle increased test difficulty. An adult sample reported their test-taking strategies immediately after completing the tasks in a reading test. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling specifying a measurement-invariant, ability-moderated, latent transition analysis in Mplus (Muthén & Asparouhov, 2011). It was found that almost half of the test-takers (47%) changed their strategies when encountering increased task-difficulty. The changes were characterized by augmenting comprehending-meaning strategies with score-maximizing and test-wiseness strategies. Moreover, test-takers' ability was the driving influence that facilitated and/or buffered the changes. The test outcomes, when reviewed in light of adjusted test-taking strategies, demonstrated a form of process-based validity evidence.     

儿童版特里尔社会应激测试对儿童唾液皮质醇、唾液α-淀粉酶和情绪的影响

研究以150名五、六年级的学生为被试,考察儿童版特里尔社会应激测试（TSST-C）对儿童客观生理反应（唾液皮质醇和唾液α-淀粉酶）和主观情绪反应的影响。结果发现,TSST-C引起了儿童显著的应激反应,包括皮质醇和唾液α-淀粉酶水平的升高,以及主观消极情绪（如焦虑和紧张）的增加,这表明TSST-C在中国儿童中的适用情况良好,能够有效诱发儿童的应激反应。同时,研究也发现,皮质醇反应和唾液α-淀粉酶反应不存在相关,生理反应和情绪反应之间也不存在相关。     

建构反应题中能力估计准确性的影响因素:评分者人数和项目个数的交互作用

采用康春花、孙小坚和曾平飞(2016)提出的等级反应多水平侧面模型探讨了评分者人数和项目个数对被试能力估计准确性的影响。模拟研究的结果表明:(1)随着项目个数的增加,估计值与真值之间的相关也不断增加;(2)评分者人数和项目个数在平均绝对偏差(MAB)和误差均方根(RMSE)上的主效应均显著,两者间的交互效应也显著;(3)简单效应分析发现,当项目较少时,3个评分者条件下的能力估计准确性最好; 随着项目个数的增加,4个评分者的估计误差迅速下降,且表现变为最好。     

Temperament,coping, and involuntary stress responses in preadolescent children: the moderating role of achievement goal orientation

Background and objectives: Developmental theorists posit that temperament contributes to preadolescent’s stress response styles. Findings from empirical studies, however, have yielded mixed results, thus indicating a need to consider moderators of this relation. Utilizing an analytic framework guided by resiliency theory [Zimmerman, M. A. (2013). Resiliency theory: A strengths-based approach to research and practice for adolescent health. Health Education &; Behavior, 40, 381–383], this study examined achievement goal orientation as a moderator of the relation between temperament and stress response styles.

Methods: 96 preadolescent–parent dyads (M_age?=?10.30 years, range?=?9–12 years) participated in the study. Preadolescents reported on their achievement goal orientation, coping and involuntary stress responses (ISRs) styles and a parent reported on children’s temperament.

Results: Multiple regressions revealed that effortful control positively predicted preadolescent’s predominant use of engagement coping and negatively predicted predominance of ISRs, but only for children with a predominant mastery goal orientation. For preadolescents with a predominant performance goal orientation, effortful control negatively predicted the predominant use of engagement coping and positively predicted predominance of ISRs. Negative affectivity and its interaction with goal orientation did not predict coping or ISR styles.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that a predominant mastery goal orientation may function as a promotive factor by enhancing the contribution of effortful control to engagement coping styles and buffering against unmanaged reactivity.     

多级评分项目的多维CAT选题策略开发

本研究开发了两种新的适用于多级评分项目的多维计算机化自适应测验（PMCAT）的选题策略——修正的连续熵（RCEM）和修正的后验期望KL信息（MKB）方法,并与以往PMCAT的选题策略进行了对比研究。Monte Carlo实验结果表明：两种新开发的选题策略比原方法估计精度更高,并且RCEM方法在所有选题策略中曝光率最低。新开发的选题策略具有较理想的估计精度和曝光控制效果,为PMCAT在实践中的应用提供了新的方法支持。     

Autonomic and subjective responsivity to emotional images in people with dissociative seizures

People with dissociative seizures (DS) report a range of difficulties in emotional functioning and exhibit altered responding to emotional facial expressions in experimental tasks. We extended this research by investigating subjective and autonomic reactivity (ratings of emotional valence, arousal and skin conductance responses [SCRs]) to general emotional images in 39 people with DS relative to 42 healthy control participants, whilst controlling for anxiety, depression, cognitive functioning and, where relevant, medication use. It was predicted that greater subjective negativity and arousal and increased SCRs in response to the affective pictures would be observed in the DS group. The DS group as a whole did not differ from controls in their subjective responses of valence and arousal. However, SCR amplitudes were greater in ‘autonomic responders’ with DS relative to ‘autonomic responders’ in the control group. A positive correlation was also observed between SCRs for highly arousing negative pictures and self‐reported ictal autonomic arousal, in DS ‘autonomic responders’. In the DS subgroup of autonomic ‘non‐responders’, differences in subjective responses were observed for some conditions, compared to control ‘non‐responders’. The findings indicate unaffected subjective responses to emotional images in people with DS overall. However, within the group of people with DS, there may be subgroups characterized by differences in emotional responding. One subgroup (i.e., ‘autonomic responders’) exhibit heightened autonomic responses but intact subjective emotional experience, whilst another subgroup (i.e., ‘autonomic non‐responders’) seem to experience greater subjective negativity and arousal for some emotional stimuli, despite less frequent autonomic reactions. The current results suggest that therapeutic interventions targeting awareness and regulation of physiological arousal and subjective emotional experience could be of value in some people with this disorder.     

New Directions in the Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of OCD: Theory,Research, and Practice

The beneficial effects of cognitive-behavioral interventions (particularly exposure and response prevention) for OCD are among the most consistent research findings in the mental health literature. Nevertheless, even after an adequate trial, many individuals experience residual symptoms, and others never receive adequate treatment due to limited access. These and other issues have prompted clinicians and researchers to search for ways to improve the conceptual and practical aspects of existing treatment approaches, as well as look for augmentation strategies. In the present article, we review a number of recent developments and new directions in the psychological treatment of OCD, including (a) the application of inhibitory learning approaches to exposure therapy, (b) the development of acceptance-based approaches, (c) involvement of caregivers (partners and parents) in treatment, (d) pharmacological cognitive enhancement of exposure therapy, and (e) the use of technology to disseminate effective treatment. We focus on both the conceptual/scientific and practical aspects of these topics so that clinicians and researchers alike can assess their relative merits and disadvantages.     

Cognitive diagnosis modelling incorporating item response times

To provide more refined diagnostic feedback with collateral information in item response times (RTs), this study proposed joint modelling of attributes and response speed using item responses and RTs simultaneously for cognitive diagnosis. For illustration, an extended deterministic input, noisy ‘and’ gate (DINA) model was proposed for joint modelling of responses and RTs. Model parameter estimation was explored using the Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. The PISA 2012 computer-based mathematics data were analysed first. These real data estimates were treated as true values in a subsequent simulation study. A follow-up simulation study with ideal testing conditions was conducted as well to further evaluate model parameter recovery. The results indicated that model parameters could be well recovered using the MCMC approach. Further, incorporating RTs into the DINA model would improve attribute and profile correct classification rates and result in more accurate and precise estimation of the model parameters.     

The impact of face skin tone on perceived facial attractiveness: A study realized with an innovative methodology

This study aimed to assess the impact of target faces’ skin tone and perceivers’ skin tone on the participants’ attractiveness judgment regarding a symmetrical representative range of target faces as stimuli. Presented with a set of facial features, 240 Mozambican adults rated their attractiveness along a continuous scale. ANOVA and Chi-square were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the skin tone of the target faces had an impact on the participants’ attractiveness judgment. Overall, participants preferred light-skinned faces over dark-skinned ones. This finding is not only consistent with previous results on skin tone preferences, but it is even more powerful because it demonstrates that the light skin tone preference occurs regardless of the symmetry and baseline attractiveness of the stimuli.