Adjusting for information inflation due to local dependency in moderately large item clusters

When multiple items are clustered around a reading passage, the local independence assumption in item response theory is often violated. The amount of information contained in an item cluster is usually overestimated if violation of local independence is ignored and items are treated as locally independent when in fact they are not. In this article we provide a general method that adjusts for the inflation of information associated with a test containing item clusters. A computational scheme was presented for the evaluation of the factor of adjustment for clusters in the restrictive case of two items per cluster, and the general case of more than two items per cluster. The methodology was motivated by a study of the NAEP Reading Assessment. We present a simulated study along with an analysis of a NAEP data set.The research was supported under the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Grant No. R999G30002) as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. This work was started when the author was at the Division of Statistics and Psychometrics at the Educational Testing Service. The author thanks Juliet Shaffer, Bob Mislevy, Eric Bradlow, three reviewers and an associate editor for their helpful comments on the paper.     

Outranking Relations: Do They Have Special Properties?

Outranking relations are most often built using a concordance–discordance principle. Such relations are in general neither transitive nor complete. This is not to say that the concordance–discordance principle does not impose some ‘structural’ restrictions on these relations. We show why this question may be of some importance for analysing the various techniques designed to build a recommendation on the basis of such relations. These restrictions are studied for the ELECTRE and PROMETHEE methods.     

Meter isn't everything: The case of a timeline-oriented Cuban polyrhythm

Meter serves as a robust temporal referent for the creation and perception of musical rhythm. In music from Africa and the diaspora, a parallel referent is often present in the form of repetitive rhythmic patterns known as timelines. This paper examines how a well-known timeline (the standard pattern) serves as a grounding framework for quinto (lead conga drum) rhythms heard in different drumming performances of Afro-Cuban rumba columbia. Focusing on the layout of alignment points between the constituent elements of the various temporal layers—rhythm, timeline, and possible meters—indicates that the quinto players may be orienting their playing according to the timeline's onsets.     

老年人整体运动敏感性降低的脑灰质体积变化基础

本研究使用多体素模式分析方法和随机点阵范式,首次探索了老年人整体运动敏感性（GMS）下降和其脑灰质体积下降间的关系。结果发现,老年人GMS显著低于年轻人,老年人V5/MT、V3和额顶等脑区灰质体积显著小于年轻人;V5/MT和V3区的灰质体积信号可以有效预测个体的GMS。结果提示,V5/MT区和V3区,特别是V3区的灰质体积下降可能是老年人GMS下降的主要原因;而基于“去分化假设”,全脑范围内其余脑区的灰质体积下降可能也在一定程度上与老年人GMS下降有关。     

Timing of Early Maternal Mental Health and Child Cortisol Regulation

Maternal mental health problems can negatively impact children's physiological stress regulation. Yet, little is known of their long‐term effects, especially related to the timing of maternal symptoms. We examined how maternal mental health problems during pregnancy versus in the early postpartum period predict children's cortisol levels and diurnal patterns at 10–12 years. Participants were a selection (N = 102) of an original sample of 805 Finnish families, who were followed from the second trimester of pregnancy (T1) to child's age of 2 months (T2) and 12 months (T3), and again at child's age of 10–12 years (T4). Based on the timing of psychological distress and depressive symptoms (T1–T3), the mothers could be assigned to three distinct mental health trajectory groups: mothers with prenatal mental health problems (n = 15), mothers with early postpartum mental health problems (n = 15) and mothers without mental health problems (n = 72). Children's cortisol (T4) was measured by saliva samples through five within‐1‐day assessments. The results show that maternal prenatal mental health problems predicted a relatively steep increase of child cortisol from awakening to 1 h later, indicating an intensified cortisol awakening response (CAR). Mothers' early postpartum mental health problems instead predicted a reduced CAR. Both maternal prenatal and postnatal mental health problems thus predicted children's later stress regulation, but in unique ways. We discuss the specific roles of direct biochemical effects during pregnancy and postpartum mother–infant interaction quality as modifiers of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal system. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Supine defense in the intraspecific fighting of male house mice mus domesticus

House mice have been reported rarely to perform the supine behavior pattern as a defensive tactic during intraspecific fighting. However, in this study of intraspecific fighting by male mice, it is shown that mice do indeed rotate to supine. This maneuver is used to evade or extricate themselves from bites to the lower dorsum by the attacking opponent. Once free from the bite the defender does not remain supine, but will immediately turn to prone and flee. Remaining motionless in the supine position may serve a submissive function in other species, but this does not seem to be the case for mice. The present findings illustrate that the supine tactic is a dynamic maneuver for defense of body areas targeted by the opponent. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Local processing enhancements associated with superior observational drawing are due to enhanced perceptual functioning,not weak central coherence

Individuals with drawing talent have previously been shown to exhibit enhanced local visual processing ability. The aim of the current study was to assess whether local processing biases associated with drawing ability result from a reduced ability to cohere local stimuli into global forms, or an increased ability to disregard global aspects of an image. Local and global visual processing ability was assessed in art students and controls using the Group Embedded Figures Task, Navon shape stimuli, the Block Design Task and the Autism Spectrum Quotient, whilst controlling for nonverbal IQ and artistic ability. Local processing biases associated with drawing appear to arise from an enhancement of local processing alongside successful filtering of global information, rather than a reduction in global processing. The relationship between local processing and drawing ability is independent of individual differences in nonverbal IQ and artistic ability. These findings have implications for bottom-up and attentional theories of observational drawing, as well as explanations of special skills in autism.     

A Data Analysis Method for Using Longitudinal Binary Outcome Data from a SMART to Compare Adaptive Interventions

Sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMARTs) are a useful and increasingly popular approach for gathering information to inform the construction of adaptive interventions to treat psychological and behavioral health conditions. Until recently, analysis methods for data from SMART designs considered only a single measurement of the outcome of interest when comparing the efficacy of adaptive interventions. Lu et al. proposed a method for considering repeated outcome measurements to incorporate information about the longitudinal trajectory of change. While their proposed method can be applied to many kinds of outcome variables, they focused mainly on linear models for normally distributed outcomes. Practical guidelines and extensions are required to implement this methodology with other types of repeated outcome measures common in behavioral research. In this article, we discuss implementation of this method with repeated binary outcomes. We explain how to compare adaptive interventions in terms of various summaries of repeated binary outcome measures, including average outcome (area under the curve) and delayed effects. The method is illustrated using an empirical example from a SMART study to develop an adaptive intervention for engaging alcohol- and cocaine-dependent patients in treatment. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to demonstrate the good performance of the proposed technique.