Modeling Family Dynamics in Children with Fragile X Syndrome

Few studies have examined the impact of children with genetic disorders and their unaffected siblings on family functioning. In this study, the reciprocal causal links between problem behaviors and maternal distress were investigated in 150 families containing a child with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and an unaffected sibling. Both children's behavior problems appeared to have strong, direct effects on maternal distress, but maternal distress did not appear to have any reciprocal causal effects on either child's behavior problems. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences in the effects of the two children's behavior problems on maternal distress. These data suggest that the problem behaviors of children with FXS, as well as their unaffected siblings, can have a substantial and additive impact on maternal depression and anxiety. Future research efforts should employ longitudinal research designs to confirm these findings.     

Linkages Between Children's Social and Academic Competence: A Longitudinal Analysis

The relation between social and academic competence was examined in a group of school-age children (N = 163) using structural equation modeling to determine the direction of influence between these two domains across time. A model posing that a reciprocal relation exists between the two domains was tested. The two nested models within the reciprocal model were also tested. To test these models, social acceptance as well as prosocial and aggressive behaviors were assessed by teachers and peers, and children's academic achievement was measured by language and math report-card grades and work skills. Results supported the reciprocal model, indicating that academic achievement directly influenced social competence from both first to second and second to third grade, and social competence was reciprocally related to academic achievement from second to third grade. Implications of these findings for the education process are discussed.     

Use of current explanations in multicausal abductive reasoning

In multicausal abductive tasks a person must explain some findings by assembling a composite hypothesis that consists of one or more elementary hypotheses. If there are n elementary hypotheses, there can be up to 2ⁿ composite hypotheses. To constrain the search for hypotheses to explain a new observation, people sometimes use their current explanation—the previous evidence and their present composite hypothesis of that evidence; however, it is unclear when and how the current explanation is used. In addition, although a person's current explanation can narrow the search for a hypothesis, it can also blind the problem solver to alternative, possibly better, explanations. This paper describes a model of multicausal abductive reasoning that makes two predictions regarding the use of the current explanation. The first prediction is that the current explanation is not used to explain new evidence if there is a simple (i.e., nondisjunctive, concrete) hypothesis to account for that evidence. The second prediction is that the current explanation is used when attempting to discriminate among several alternative hypotheses for new evidence. These hypotheses were tested in three experiments. The results are consistent with the second prediction: the current explanation is used when discriminating among alternative hypotheses. However, the first prediction—that the current explanation is not used when a simple hypothesis can account for new data—received only limited support. Participants used the current explanation to constrain their interpretation of new data in 46.5% of all trials. This suggests that context-independent strategies compete with context-dependent ones—an interpretation that is consistent with recent work on strategy selection during problem solving.     

Work Stress and Marriage: A Theoretical Model Examining the Relationship Between Workaholism and Marital Cohesion

Using structural equation modeling the relationship of work stress and marital cohesion was empirically investigated. It was hypothesized that work stress would have an inverse relationship with marital cohesion. Participants were a random sample of 326 adult females who were members of the American Counseling Association. The results of the data-model fit analyses support the hypothesized relationship. The coefficient of determination for the structural equation was 0.60 indicating a substantial degree of explanation for the relationship tested. Implications of these findings for future research are presented.     

The competition-among-relations-in-nominals theory of conceptual combination: implications for stimulus class formation and class expansion

One way in which new concepts are added to the conceptual system is through conceptual combination. The competition-among-relations-in-nominals (CARIN) theory (Gagné & Shoben, 1997) proposes that conceptual combination involves specifying a thematic relation (e.g., noun MADE OF modifier) to link the constituent concepts (e.g., chocolate and bee). This theory claims that relations have different strengths for various concepts that correspond to how often a modifier and relation have been paired in previous encounters with combined concepts and that this relational knowledge strongly affects the ease with which combined concepts can be formed. A mathematical model that incorporates key claims of the theory is presented, and empirical findings that are relevant to evaluating the CARIN theory are reviewed. The parallels between the CARIN theory and approaches to stimulus class formation are also discussed.     

Childhood Peer Relationship Problems and Young People's Involvement with Deviant Peers in Adolescence

Using prospective longitudinal data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, this article examined the relationship between children's peer relationship problems in middle childhood and their subsequent risk of forming deviant peer affiliations in adolescence. The analysis proceeded in three steps. First, a structural equation model demonstrated a moderate association between early peer relationship problems and later deviant peer affiliations (r = .27). Second, the model was extended to include a latent variable measure of early conduct problems. This analysis revealed that when the confounding effects of concurrently measured conduct problems were taken into account, peer relationship problems in middle childhood were no longer significantly related to young people's choice of deviant peers in adolescence. Third, the model was further extended to include lagged variables, permitting an examination of possible reciprocal relationships between early conduct problems and peer relationship problems. Results suggested that both early peer relationship problems and adolescent deviant peer involvement are symptomatic of early child behavioral adjustment. The implications of these findings for explanations of deviant peer selection are discussed.     

项目反应理论新进展：基于3PLM和GRM的混合模型

IRT中的计量模型较多,不同计量模型适合不同特点的数据资料,实际工作者应根据实际情况选择适当的IRT模型来分析数据。我国是个考试、测评大国,测评的题型丰富多样,在实际应用IRT时,一个模型往往很难反应所有数据资料本身的特点,这时可考虑应用多个IRT模型（即“混合模型”）来分析,以达到对数据的最佳拟合。本文对混合模型的思想方法及原理、参数估计的实现、以及模型性能进行了研究,发现：（1）本文自主开发的混合模型参数估计程序Mix_Tu具有较高的返真性,且与国际知名测量软件Parscale相当。（2）在“项目异常”情况下,Mix_Tu程序对参数b和c的估计受数据异常程度的影响要大于Parscale程序,而对参数a的估计受数据异常程度的影响要小于Parscale程序,而在参数theta上两个程序相当。（3）在“被试异常”情况下,Mix_Tu程序对所有参数的估计受数据异常程度的影响均要小于Parscale程序,Mix_Tu程序表现的更为稳健。     

儿童攻击和自我感知的关系

使用基于多水平分析技术的元分析方法对有关儿童攻击和自我感知相关的研究结果进行分析,并对计算结果用模拟方法进行模拟。结果显示现有研究中攻击和自感认知能力之间的相关为-0．01,攻击和自我总体感知间地相关为-0．08,相关结果为低度负相关但达到显性水平,攻击和自感社交能力之间的相关关系不显,模拟结果与此类似。现有关于儿童攻击和自我感知关系的研究数量还偏少。     

管理胜任力特征分析:结构方程模型检验

管理胜任力特征分析是人事选拔与评价的重要内容之一。本研究在运用基于胜任力的职位分析并总结国内外有关文献的基础上,编制了管理综合素质评价量表,并运用此量表调查了220名中高层管理者,采用因素分析和结构方程模型检验企业高级管理者胜任力特征的结构。结果表明,管理胜任力特征结构由管理素质和管理技能等两个维度构成,但在维度要素及其关键度上,职位层次间存在显著差异。本研究为管理职位的测评选拔提供了新的理论依据。     

Intra‐sentential context effects on the interpretation of logical metonymy⋆

Verbs such as enjoy in the student enjoyed the book exhibit logical metonymy: enjoy is interpreted as enjoy reading. Theoreticalwork [Computational Linguistics 17 (4) (1991) 409; The Generative Lexicon, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995] predicts that this interpretation can be influenced by intra‐sentential context, e.g., by the subject of enjoy. In this article, we test this prediction using a completion experiment and find that the interpretation of a metonymic verb is influenced by the semantic role of its subject. We present a Bayesian model that accounts for the interpretation of logical metonymy and achieves a good fit on our experimental data. We show that the parameters of the model can be estimated from completion data or from corpus data.