新手考官的工作记忆和人格对其评分有效性的影响——以无领导小组讨论为例

相对于其它评价中心技术而言,在无领导小组讨论中考官因素对评分结果的影响尤为重要.本研究主要探讨无领导小组讨论中新手考官的工作记忆与人格对其评分有效性的影响.结果发现,首先,新手考官的评分者一致性较低,评分准确度较差.其次,工作记忆和人格的部分因素分别从不同方面影响新手考官的评分有效性,具体表现在：（1）利他性越强,新手考官评分总均值的准确性越高,且评分结果越宽松;（2）新手考官的决断性越强,对所有应聘者做出有效区分的准确性越高;（3）新手考官的沉稳性越高,对各维度的区分越有效;（4）注意转换和抑制能力对新手考官的晕轮效应及其在各个维度上进行区分的准确度有抑制作用.     

Heuristic cognitive diagnosis when the Q‐matrix is unknown

Cognitive diagnosis models of educational test performance rely on a binary Q‐matrix that specifies the associations between individual test items and the cognitive attributes (skills) required to answer those items correctly. Current methods for fitting cognitive diagnosis models to educational test data and assigning examinees to proficiency classes are based on parametric estimation methods such as expectation maximization (EM) and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) that frequently encounter difficulties in practical applications. In response to these difficulties, non‐parametric classification techniques (cluster analysis) have been proposed as heuristic alternatives to parametric procedures. These non‐parametric classification techniques first aggregate each examinee's test item scores into a profile of attribute sum scores, which then serve as the basis for clustering examinees into proficiency classes. Like the parametric procedures, the non‐parametric classification techniques require that the Q‐matrix underlying a given test be known. Unfortunately, in practice, the Q‐matrix for most tests is not known and must be estimated to specify the associations between items and attributes, risking a misspecified Q‐matrix that may then result in the incorrect classification of examinees. This paper demonstrates that clustering examinees into proficiency classes based on their item scores rather than on their attribute sum‐score profiles does not require knowledge of the Q‐matrix, and results in a more accurate classification of examinees.     

Procedural learning: A developmental study of motor sequence learning and probabilistic classification learning in school-aged children

In this study, we investigated motor and cognitive procedural learning in typically developing children aged 8–12 years with a serial reaction time (SRT) task and a probabilistic classification learning (PCL) task. The aims were to replicate and extend the results of previous SRT studies, to investigate PCL in school-aged children, to explore the contribution of declarative knowledge to SRT and PCL performance, to explore the strategies used by children in the PCL task via a mathematical model, and to see whether performances obtained in motor and cognitive tasks correlated. The results showed similar learning effects in the three age groups in the SRT and in the first half of the PCL tasks. Participants did not develop explicit knowledge in the SRT task whereas declarative knowledge of the cue–outcome associations correlated with the performances in the second half of the PCL task, suggesting a participation of explicit knowledge after some time of exposure in PCL. An increasing proportion of the optimal strategy use with increasing age was observed in the PCL task. Finally, no correlation appeared between cognitive and motor performance. In conclusion, we extended the hypothesis of age invariance from motor to cognitive procedural learning, which had not been done previously. The ability to adopt more efficient learning strategies with age may rely on the maturation of the fronto-striatal loops. The lack of correlation between performance in the SRT task and the first part of the PCL task suggests dissociable developmental trajectories within the procedural memory system.     

Memory load as a cognitive antidote to performance decrements in data entry

In two experiments, subjects trained in data entry, typing one 4-digit number at a time. At training, subjects either typed the numbers immediately after they appeared (immediate) or typed the previous number from memory while viewing the next number (delayed). In Experiment 2 stimulus presentation time was limited and either nothing or a space (gap) was inserted between the second and third digits. In both experiments after training, all subjects completed a test with no gap and typed numbers immediately. Training with a memory load improved speed across training blocks (Experiment 1) and eliminated the decline in accuracy across training blocks (Experiment 2), thus serving as a cognitive antidote to performance decrements. An analysis of each keystroke revealed different underlying processes and strategies for the two training conditions, including when encoding took place. Chunking (in which the first and last two digits are treated separately) was more evident in the immediate than in the delayed condition and was exaggerated with a gap, even at test when there was no gap. These results suggest that such two-digit chunking is due to stimulus encoding and motor planning processes as well as memory, and those processes transferred from training to testing.     

非参数认知诊断方法下诊断结果的概率化表征

非参数认知诊断分类方法非常适合课堂评估,其诊断结果采用0-1形式而缺乏概率化表征,不能精细地区分被试属性掌握程度的差异或变化,还缺乏可用于评价真实测验分类结果的信度和效度指标。要刻画被试属性掌握程度的差异,首要的问题是要为非参数认知诊断方法提供一种可以量化属性掌握概率的方法。针对此问题,基于二项分布和玻尔兹曼分布提出非参数认知诊断方法下诊断结果的概率化表征方法,并用于构建分类准确性和分类一致性指标。模拟研究与实测数据分析结果显示：概率化表征方法与非参数认知诊断方法的分类结果高度一致;概率化表征方法与认知诊断模型所得的属性掌握概率十分接近;概率化表征方法所得的属性（模式）掌握概率可用于计算属性（模式）分类准确性和分类一致性指标,在实际测验情景下可作为信度和效度指标,评价诊断结果的重测一致率和判准率。     

Body weight, not facial width-to-height ratio, predicts aggression in pro hockey players

Studies indicate that facial characteristics may predict behavior, but it is unclear if this will hold within highly selective populations. One relevant characteristic is the face’s width-to-height ratio (FWHR), a sexually dimorphic trait that has been shown to predict aggression. That FWHR may predict aggression within highly selective populations was suggested by Carré and McCormick’s (2008) finding that professional hockey players with greater FWHRs accrued more penalties. We attempted to replicate this result using all NHL players. We also explored fighting penalties as another aggression measure and height and weight as additional aggression predictors. We found that body weight predicted substantial variance in aggression but FWHR did not. Thus, in highly selective populations, inferences based on faces may be inaccurate.     

Empathic accuracy: age differences from adolescence into middle adulthood

ABSTRACT

This study investigated age differences in empathic accuracy, the ability to correctly perceive others’ emotions, in a sample of 151 boys and men from three age groups: adolescents (M_age?=?16 years, SD?=?1.04), young adults (M_age?=?29 years, SD?=?2.78), and middle-aged adults (M_age?=?50 years, SD?=?3.07). All participants viewed nine newly developed film clips, each depicting a boy or a man reliving one of three emotions (anger, sadness, or happiness), while talking about an autobiographical memory. Adolescents and middle-aged men were less accurate than young men, and these age differences were associated with parallel age differences in fluid-mechanical abilities. In addition, age differences in vocabulary, one indicator of crystallized-pragmatic intelligence, were associated with age differences in empathic accuracy in adolescent and young, but not middle-aged, men. Within the limitations of cross-sectional data, this study provides evidence for the idea that empathic accuracy is an effortful task that requires cognitive resources and, thus, may show a normative increase until young adulthood followed by periods of stability and decline in subsequent decades.