Metacognition during unfamiliar face matching

Kruger and Dunning (1999) described a metacognitive bias in which insight into performance is linked to competence: poorer performers are less aware of their mistakes than better performers. Competence-based insight has been argued to apply generally across task domains, including a recent report investigating social cognition using a variety of face-matching tasks. Problematically, serious statistical and methodological criticisms have been directed against the traditional method of analysis used by researchers in this field. Here, we further illustrate these issues and investigate new sources of insight within unfamiliar face matching. Over two experiments (total N = 1077), where Experiment 2 was a preregistered replication of the key findings from Experiment 1, we found that insight into performance was multi-faceted. Participants demonstrated insight which was not based on competence, in the form of accurate updating of estimated performance. We also found evidence of insight which was based on competence: the difference in confidence on correct versus incorrect trials increased with competence. By providing ways that we can move beyond problematic, traditional approaches, we have begun to reveal a more realistic story regarding the nature of insight into face perception.     

Continuity in adolescent career preparation and its effects on adjustment

Career preparation represents a major developmental task of adolescence, which has not received sufficient attention in empirical research on career development. Thus, this study was designed to examine the structure, continuity, and change in adolescent career preparation and its relationships with adjustment. The data were collected from a diverse sample of 389 adolescents on four occasions beginning in Grade 11 in high school and ending 6 months after high school graduation. Using Structural Equations modeling, a four-wave, developmental model of adolescent career preparation indicated by career decidedness, planning, and confidence was shown to fit the empirical data very well. Career preparation was characterized by continuity and a consistent pattern of positive concurrent and prospective associations with various indicators of adjustment. The results of the study provide empirical support for the theoretical propositions about the adaptive role of adolescent career preparation, particularly in terms of its contribution to psychological well-being and social integration.     

An analogue study of the effects of Psychological Debriefing on eyewitness memory

Sixty-one participants from the community participated in a randomised controlled trial of group debriefing to assess the effect of this intervention upon memory for a stressful event. Participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups: debriefing; debriefing with an experimenter confederate present (who supplied three pieces of misinformation to the group regarding the stressful event); and a no-treatment control. All groups were shown a very stressful video and were again reviewed after 1 month. Members of the debriefing group where a confederate provided misinformation were more likely to recall this misinformation as fact than members of the other two groups. The debriefing group was also more accurate in their recall of peripheral content than the confederate group. Across all groups, participants were found to be more accurate at central rather than peripheral recall yet more confident for incorrect memories of the video than correct memories.     

The effects of reinforcer magnitude on timing in rats

The relation between reinforcer magnitude and timing behavior was studied using a peak procedure. Four rats received multiple consecutive sessions with both low and high levels of brain stimulation reward (BSR). Rats paused longer and had later start times during sessions when their responses were reinforced with low-magnitude BSR. When estimated by a symmetric Gaussian function, peak times also were earlier; when estimated by a better-fitting asymmetric Gaussian function or by analyzing individual trials, however, these peak-time changes were determined to reflect a mixture of large effects of BSR on start times and no effect on stop times. These results pose a significant dilemma for three major theories of timing (SET, MTS, and BeT), which all predict no effects for chronic manipulations of reinforcer magnitude. We conclude that increased reinforcer magnitude influences timing in two ways: through larger immediate after-effects that delay responding and through anticipatory effects that elicit earlier responding.     

INTERTRIAL INTERVAL DURATION AND LEARNING IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

This study investigated the influence of intertrial interval duration on the performance of autistic children during teaching situations. The children were taught under the same conditions existing in their regular programs, except that the length of time between trials was systematically manipulated. With both multiple baseline and repeated reversal designs, two lengths of intertrial interval were employed: short intervals with the S^D for any given trial presented approximately one second following the reinforcer for the previous trial versus long intervals with the S^D presented four or more seconds following the reinforcer for the previous trial. The results showed that: (1) the short intertrial intervals always produced higher levels of correct responding than the long intervals; and (2) there were improving trends in performance and rapid acquisition with the short intertrial intervals, in contrast to minimal or no change with the long intervals. The results are discussed in terms of utilizing information about child and task characteristics in terms of selecting optimal intervals. The data suggest that manipulations made between trials have a large influence on autistic children's learning.     

Witness confidence and accuracy: is a positive relationship maintained for recall under interview conditions?

A large positive correlation between eyewitness recall confidence and accuracy (C-A) is found in research when item difficulty is varied to include easy questions. However, these results are based on questionnaire responses. In real interviews, the social nature of the interview may influence C-A relationships, and it is the interviewer's perception of the accuracy of a witness that counts. This study was conducted to investigate the influence of these factors for recall of a video. Three conditions were used; the same questions were used in each. Participants in condition 1 (self-rate questionnaire condition, n = 20) were given a questionnaire that required them to answer questions and rate confidence on a scale. Pairs of participants in condition 2 (self-rate interview condition, n = 40) were given the role of eyewitness or interviewer. Eyewitnesses were asked questions by an interviewer and responded orally with answers and confidence judgements on a Likert scale. Participants in condition three (interviewer-rate interview condition, n = 40) were tested in the same way as condition two but provided confidence judgements in their own words. Interviewers independently rated each confidence judgement on the Likert scale. The experiment showed high C-A relationships, particularly for ‘absolutely sure’ responses. The main effect of the social interview condition was to increase confidence in correct answers but not in incorrect answers. However, the advantage of this effect was tempered by the fact that, although observers can differentiate between confident and less confident answers, less extreme confidence judgements were ascribed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dilemmas that undermine supervisor confidence

Background

Conventional wisdom links supervisor self‐confidence with experience in supervisory practice.

Aims

This study explored the nature of confidence from an emic perspective.

Method

Twelve experienced Canadian supervisors were interviewed, and data was analysed using Structured Thematic Analysis.

Results

Aspects of the role and process produce tensions that create ambiguity that may diminish self‐confidence. Five main themes were distilled: (a) building supervisee confidence when experiencing self‐doubt as supervisor or clinician;(b) parallel process‐what disturbs therapy disturbs supervision; (c) expert vs. co‐explorer; (d) engaging in supervision while maintaining boundaries; and (e) catch 22 – inviting disclosures of difficulties and evaluation.

Conclusion

The study adds nuance to the scholarly work that informs supervisor self‐confidence.     

大学生经济信心和心理健康的关系:生涯自我效能感的中介作用

采用经济信心问卷、生涯自我效能感量表、总体主观幸福感量表、贝克焦虑和抑郁量表,对237名大学生进行调查,考察大学生经济信心对其心理健康的影响,以及生涯自我效能感在两者之间可能的中介作用。结果表明,经济信心与生涯自我效能感和主观幸福感呈显著的正相关,与抑郁显著负相关,生涯自我效能感与主观幸福感显著正相关,与焦虑、抑郁显著负相关。大学生经济信心对其主观幸福感和抑郁具有显著的预测作用。大学生生涯自我效能感在经济信心与主观幸福感之间起到部分中介作用,其在经济信心和抑郁之间起到完全中介作用。此外,大学生生涯自我效能感传递了经济信心对焦虑的间接影响。     

Implicit self-esteem is associated with higher levels of trait gratitude in women but not men

ABSTRACT

Higher levels of trait gratitude have been associated with measures of greater self-reported self-esteem. However, such self-report measures may be influenced by self-report biases. In this study we investigated for the first time whether implicit measures of self-esteem would be associated with greater trait gratitude in a sample of 88 undergraduate students (41 female). We observed that, in women (but not men), higher levels of trait gratitude were associated with higher implicit self-esteem (r = .26, p = .05), even when accounting for depressive symptoms. This finding may be of particular importance, as implicit measures of self-esteem have been more strongly associated with psychological health than explicit measures. Future research should further investigate whether the experience of gratitude affects self-esteem differently in men and women, as this knowledge may be important in informing the design of future gratitude interventions aimed at improving psychological health in men and women.     

Application of Sequential Interval Estimation to Adaptive Mastery Testing

In this paper, we apply sequential one-sided confidence interval estimation procedures with β-protection to adaptive mastery testing. The procedures of fixed-width and fixed proportional accuracy confidence interval estimation can be viewed as extensions of one-sided confidence interval procedures. It can be shown that the adaptive mastery testing procedure based on a one-sided confidence interval with β-protection is more efficient in terms of test length than a testing procedure based on a two-sided/fixed-width confidence interval. Some simulation studies applying the one-sided confidence interval procedure and its extensions mentioned above to adaptive mastery testing are conducted. For the purpose of comparison, we also have a numerical study of adaptive mastery testing based on Wald's sequential probability ratio test. The comparison of their performances is based on the correct classification probability, averages of test length, as well as the width of the “indifference regions.” From these empirical results, we found that applying the one-sided confidence interval procedure to adaptive mastery testing is very promising.