员工的核心自我评价与多维生活满意度的关系：感知社会支持的中介作用

本研究以245名企业员工为被试,从感知到的不同来源社会支持的角度探索了核心自我评价对员工生活满意度不同领域的作用机制。结果表明：（1）核心自我评价对家庭、朋友、工作和自我满意度均有显著的正向预测作用。（2）家庭支持在核心自我评价与家庭满意度之间起完全中介作用,在核心自我评价与自我满意度之间起部分中介作用;朋友支持在核心自我评价与朋友满意度之间起完全中介作用。研究表明,核心自我评价能直接预测生活满意度中的非关系型领域,能通过各类社会支持分别间接预测生活满意度中的各类关系型满意度。     

在亚健康状态研究中运用结构方程模型的合理性

亚健康状态是处于健康与疾病之间的一种“非病但非健康”的中间状态,主要表现为躯体、心理和社会适应等方面的不适,目前尚没有公认的概念和测量诊断工具。由于亚健康状态研究数据中含有潜变量、测量误差以及变量间关系需要确定等因素,不能使用传统的统计学方法进行处理。结构方程模型能够同时处理观测变量、潜变量、测量误差及变量间的关系,应用结构方程模型验证亚健康状况测量量表的结构效度和亚健康状态理论模型是非常合理的。     

Generating variable and random schedules of reinforcement using Microsoft Excel macros

Variable reinforcement schedules are used to arrange the availability of reinforcement following varying response ratios or intervals of time. Random reinforcement schedules are subtypes of variable reinforcement schedules that can be used to arrange the availability of reinforcement at a constant probability across number of responses or time. Generating schedule values for variable and random reinforcement schedules can be difficult. The present article describes the steps necessary to write macros in Microsoft Excel that will generate variable-ratio, variable-interval, variable-time, random-ratio, random-interval, and random-time reinforcement schedule values.     

Using personality and cognitive ability to predict academic achievement in a young adult sample

This study examined the relationship between cognitive ability, personality, and academic achievement in post-secondary students, using latent variable models. Testing both simple and complex relationships, we found that cognitive ability and personality predicted reading achievement independently, but that they interact when predicting math achievement - at least in the Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience domains.     

开放教育学生金钱态度与主观幸福感的关系:社会支持的中介作用

开放教育是高等教育的重要组成部分,加强开放教育学生学习的同时,提升其幸福指数,注重心理健康发展是开放教育的重要内容。文章采用《金钱态度量表》、《主观幸福感量表》、《社会支持量表》对开放大学系统 345名在校生进了调查并采用中介效应分析。结果表明,(1)社会支持、金钱态度和主观幸福感相关显著;(2)金钱态度因子金钱行为倾向对社会支持、总体幸福感及其因子回归效应显著; 社会支持在金钱行为倾向的基础上,对主观幸福感及其因子精力、对生活的满足和兴趣、对情感和行为的控制回归明显,同时在两者之间起了中介作用。说明金钱态度因子金钱行为倾向直接影响开放教育学生主观幸福感,另一方面通过社会支持影响开放远程教育学生主观幸福感。因此,建议开放教育从建立社会支持系统、师资队伍建设、心理健康教育、金钱观培养四方面着手,提升开放教育学生的幸福指数,促进其全面发展。     

Interpolation and Definability in Guarded Fragments

The guarded fragment (GF) was introduced by Andréka, van Benthem and Németi as a fragment of first order logic which combines a great expressive power with nice, modal behavior. It consists of relational first order formulas whose quantifiers are relativized by atoms in a certain way. Slightly generalizing the admissible relativizations yields the packed fragment (PF). In this paper we investigate interpolation and definability in these fragments. We first show that the interpolation property of first order logic fails in restriction to GF and PF. However, each of these fragments turns out to have an alternative interpolation property that closely resembles the interpolation property usually studied in modal logic. These results are strong enough to entail the Beth definability property for GF and PF. Even better, every guarded or packed finite variable fragment has the Beth property. For interpolation, we characterize exactly which finite variable fragments of GF and PF enjoy this property.     

Studies of wheel-running reinforcement: parameters of Herrnstein's (1970) response-strength equation vary with schedule order

Six male Wistar rats were exposed to different orders of reinforcement schedules to investigate if estimates from Herrnstein's (1970) single-operant matching law equation would vary systematically with schedule order. Reinforcement schedules were arranged in orders of increasing and decreasing reinforcement rate. Subsequently, all rats were exposed to a single reinforcement schedule within a session to determine within-session changes in responding. For each condition, the operant was lever pressing and the reinforcing consequence was the opportunity to run for 15 s. Estimates of k and R(O) were higher when reinforcement schedules were arranged in order of increasing reinforcement rate. Within a session on a single reinforcement schedule, response rates increased between the beginning and the end of a session. A positive correlation between the difference in parameters between schedule orders and the difference in response rates within a session suggests that the within-session change in response rates may be related to the difference in the asymptotes. These results call into question the validity of parameter estimates from Herrnstein's (1970) equation when reinforcer efficacy changes within a session.     

Prediction and classification in nonlinear data analysis: Something old,something new,something borrowed,something blue

Prediction and classification are two very active areas in modern data analysis. In this paper, prediction with nonlinear optimal scaling transformations of the variables is reviewed, and extended to the use of multiple additive components, much in the spirit of statistical learning techniques that are currently popular, among other areas, in data mining. Also, a classification/clustering method is described that is particularly suitable for analyzing attribute-value data from systems biology (genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), and which is able to detect groups of objects that have similar values on small subsets of the attributes.This article is based on the Presidential Address Jacqueline Meulman gave on July 9, 2003 at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society held near Cagliari, Italy on the island of Sardinia.—Editor     

Colour-cueing in visual search

Several studies have shown that people can selectively attend to stimulus colour, e.g., in visual search, and that preknowledge of a target colour can improve response speed/accuracy. The purpose was to use a form-identification task to determine whether valid colour precues can produce benefits and invalid cues costs. The subject had to identify the orientation of a "T"-shaped element in a ring of randomly-oriented "L"s when either two or four of the elements were differently coloured. Contrary to Moore and Egeth's (1998) recent findings, colour-based attention did affect performance under data-limited conditions: Colour cues produced benefits when processing load was high; when the load was reduced, they incurred only costs. Surprisingly, a valid colour cue succeeded in improving performance in the high-load condition even when its validity was reduced to the chance level. Overall, the results suggest that knowledge of a target colour does not facilitate the processing of the target, but makes it possible to prioritize it.     

Factor copula models for mixed data

We develop factor copula models to analyse the dependence among mixed continuous and discrete responses. Factor copula models are canonical vine copulas that involve both observed and latent variables, hence they allow tail, asymmetric and nonlinear dependence. They can be explained as conditional independence models with latent variables that do not necessarily have an additive latent structure. We focus on important issues of interest to the social data analyst, such as model selection and goodness of fit. Our general methodology is demonstrated with an extensive simulation study and illustrated by reanalysing three mixed response data sets. Our studies suggest that there can be a substantial improvement over the standard factor model for mixed data and make the argument for moving to factor copula models.