An application of a biased version of the Bradley-Terry-Luce model to professional basketball results

Some extensions of the Bradley-Terry-Luce model for paired comparisons are presented and used to assess the existence of a home court advantage for professional basketball teams. It is shown how maximum likelihood estimates for these models can be obtained from a simple iterative scaling algorithm. Won-loss records for the regular season are used to make predictions for playoff series. The models are extended to include possible differences among divisions. These models can be applied in many other situations to incorporate group effects and order effects into analysis of paired comparisons.     

Temporal stability and predictive validity of self-assessed hand preference with first and second graders

The test-retest reliability and predictive validity of a five-item hand preference questionnaire (writing, drawing, throwing a baseball, brushing teeth, and cutting with scissors) were investigated in a sample of 80 children attending first and second grade. After 1 month, 81% of the second choices were the same as the first choices. There were interitem differences in the reliabilities of the five items. Writing and drawing hand exhibited the greatest degree of temporal stability. Writing hand was the one task which was significantly related to visual field bias as indexed by a face perception task.     

Developmental patterns in the encoding and combination of logical connectives

A total of 224 subjects in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, high school, and college solved problems requiring comprehension of the logical connectives and, or, if-then, only if, and if and only if, as well as the terms is and is not. Half the subjects were required merely to encode the connectives; the other half were required to combine as well as encode them. Problems were presented in two replications (over two sessions) via two different content vehicles. Quantitative analyses revealed significant effects of task, age, session, and connective, with comprehension of different connectives developing at different rates. In general, comprehension of the conjunctive connective was easiest; comprehension of the conditional and biconditional connectives was most difficult. Qualitative analyses indicated just how the logical connectives were interpreted at each grade level, and also investigated individual differences within each grade level.     

Affective and cognitive mediators of reactions to spatial invasions

At a crosswalk on a busy street, a confederate, sketching a drawing or not, stood close or far from a pedestrian for 10 sec before the street light indicated “Walk.” In the first study, pedestrians were given the opportunity to subsequently help this confederate or another accomplice by calling attention to a dropped pen. In the second study, crossing speeds were timed and pedestrians were asked to record their mood and reactions to “another pedestrian,” who happened to be the confederate. These studies tested and found evidence for both cognitive and arousal explanations of reactions to spatial invasions. Cognitive and attributional theories imply that characteristics of the invader are important mediators of reactions to the invasion. The close nonartist was judged to be more inappropriate, produced faster escape speeds, and was helped less than the close artist or the far confederates. Arousal explanations imply that any invasion produces a generalized reaction which would be unrelated to characteristics of the invader. The other accomplice was helped less when the subject had been invaded and this reduction in helping was unaffected by the artist manipulation. These findings suggest a general arousal response to any invasion with a subsequent reliance on cognitive interpretations.     

Effects of household sex composition on the salience of one's gender in the spontaneous self-concept

It was hypothesized that being a boy or a girl becomes more salient in a child's self-concept to the extent the other sex numerically predominates in the child's household. This prediction was based upon an information-processing, distinctiveness postulate that a person contemplating a complex stimulus (such as the self) selectively notices and encodes its more distinctive, information-rich aspects. The spontaneous self-concept elicited by nondirective “Tell us about yourself” interviews of 560 school children were scored for spontaneous mention of one's gender. As predicted, boys spontaneously mentioned their maleness more often when they came from households where females were in the majority; girls mentioned their femaleness more often when from households with male majorities; boys mentioned their maleness more often when from father-absent than from father-present homes. Incidental findings are that gender is more salient in the negation self-concept (“Tell us what you are not”) than in the affirmation self-concept (“Tell us about yourself”) especially for girls and that gender becomes increasingly salient as the child grows older.     

Student counseling groups in senior high school settings: An evaluation of outcome

This paper reviewed the studies which evaluated counseling groups in senior high school settings. A methodological evaluation was conducted within four areas: subjects, counselors, treatment, and outcome criteria. The studies were reviewed according to the type of outcome measure: achievement, attitude and personality, behavioral, and vocational. Three levels of voluntariness (voluntary, semivoluntary, and nonvoluntary) were examined in relation to outcome. Subjects who were free to volunteer for the group experience achieved greater gains than subjects who were coerced into participation. Overall, behavioral and directive groups achieved greater success than nondirective or client-centered groups. The time spent on topics relating to treatment goals appeared to be an important factor for success. Future researchers should assess the effects of treatment on each participant instead of relying upon group mean changes.     

I. Validity of WISC-R factor scores in predicting achievement and attention for four sociocultural groups

The predictive validity of WISC-R factor scores was examined with samples from the four sociocultural groups of Anglo, Black, Chicano, and native American Papago. The Full Scale IQ and Verbal Comprehension (VC) factor scores were significantly better predictors of achievement as measured by teacher ratings and the Metropolitan Achievement Test. The Perceptual Organization and Freedom from Distractibility (FD) factor scores were also significantly related to achievement, but at a lower level than Full Scale and VC. The correlations of the WISC-R and achievement measures were nearly the same for three of the four groups (exception was native American Papago). The relationship of the FD factor score to ratings of attention was statistically significant, but relatively low. Cautions in interpreting FD as a measure of attention were recommended due to overlap of distributions and low proportion of variance in attention accounted for by FD.     

A cusp catastrophe: Hysteresis, bimodality, and inaccessibility in rabbit eyelid conditioning

Three properties of the cusp catastrophe: bimodality, inaccessibility, and hysteresis were evaluated in rabbit eyelid conditioning. Bimodality was evidenced by the fact that responding tended to occur at either very low or very high levels, and inaccessibility by the fact that intermediate levels of responding were rarely encountered. Hysteresis was demonstrated when: (a) levels of responding attained under a continuous schedule of reinforcement were largely maintained by a schedule which was too lean to promote conditioning by itself; and (b) levels of responding attained with a high intensity unconditional stimulus were largely maintained by a lower intensity unconditional stimulus which was too weak to promote conditioning in its own right. These results are consistent with the model of conditioning suggested by P. W. Frey and R. J. Sears (Psychological Review, 1978, 85, 321–340) which postulates response-mapping rules based on the cusp catastrophe.