Applying Evidence-Centered Design for the Development of Game-Based Assessments in Physics Playground

Game-based assessment (GBA) is a specific use of educational games that employs game activities to elicit evidence for educationally valuable skills and knowledge. While this approach can provide individualized and diagnostic information about students, the design and development of assessment mechanics for a GBA is a nontrivial task. In this article, we describe the 10-step procedure that the design team of Physics Playground (formerly known as Newton's Playground) has established by adapting evidence-centered design to address unique challenges of GBA. The scaling method used for Physics Playground was Bayesian networks; thus this article describes specific actions taken for the iterative process of constructing and revising Bayesian networks in the context of the game Physics Playground.     

面孔对领导者有多重要?——领导者的面孔特征研究述评

近年来,面孔研究已渗透进领导力研究领域,并掀起了一股领导者面孔特征的研究热潮。目前,可操作化的领导者面孔特征主要包括:面孔年龄、面孔宽高比和面孔特质,这些面孔特征不仅会影响下属的态度和行为,还能提供客观的组织绩效信息。认知心理学的内隐领导理论、原型匹配理论和进化心理学的优良基因理论、本能释放理论是上述机制的重要依据。未来研究可探讨华人领导者的娃娃脸效应及权变因素。     

Relations among Social Anxiety,Eye Contact Avoidance,State Anxiety,and Perception of Interaction Performance during a Live Conversation

There is building evidence that highly socially anxious (HSA) individuals frequently avoid making eye contact, which may contribute to less meaningful social interactions and maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. However, research to date is lacking in ecological validity due to the usage of either static or pre-recorded facial stimuli or subjective coding of eye contact. The current study examined the relationships among trait social anxiety, eye contact avoidance, state anxiety, and participants’ self-perceptions of interaction performance during a live, four-minute conversation with a confederate via webcam, and while being covertly eye-tracked. Participants included undergraduate women who conversed with same-sex confederates. Results indicated that trait social anxiety was inversely related to eye contact duration and frequency averaged across the four minutes, and positively related to state social anxiety and negative self-ratings. In addition, greater anticipatory state anxiety was associated with reduced eye contact throughout the first minute of the conversation. Eye contact was not related to post-task state anxiety or self-perception of poor performance; although, trends emerged in which these relations may be positive for HSA individuals. The current findings provide enhanced support for the notion that eye contact avoidance is an important feature of social anxiety.     

父母卷入在家庭社会经济地位与学业成就间的中介作用:元分析结构方程模型

以22项实证研究(25个独立样本,79665个被试)为对象,综合使用元分析和结构方程模型,以家庭投资模型和家庭压力模型为理论基础,探讨了家庭社会经济地位对学业成就的影响及内在机制。结果发现:(1)家庭社会经济地位能显著地正向预测学业成就(r=0.32);(2)家庭社会经济地位测量方式的调节效应显著;(3)父母卷入在家庭社会经济地位与学业成就间起着部分中介作用;(4)父母卷入的中介效应只存在于小学及以下群体,在中学群体中介效应不显著。结论,家庭社会经济地位与学业成就之间存在显著正相关,在小学和幼儿园阶段时父母卷入在家庭社会经济地位和学业成就间起着部分中介作用。     

高校教师职业心理资本与工作绩效:社会支持的中介效应

用"高校教师职业心理资本量表"、"工作绩效量表"及"社会支持问卷"对来自全国8所高校的718名高校教师进行问卷调查。通过描述性分析、回归及结构方程模型等实证统计方法,深入分析了社会支持、职业心理资本与工作绩效关系模型的理论架构,探究了社会支持在职业心理资本对工作绩效影响的中介模型效应的内在作用机制。研究发现,社会支持、职业心理资本、工作绩效及其各维度之间均存在显著的相关;职业心理资本及其各维度对工作绩效的主效应非常显著;社会支持在职业心理资本及其各维度与工作绩效间的中介效应也均显著。这表明高校教师职业心理资本及各维度对工作绩效不但起着直接的影响作用,而且通过社会支持工作绩效产生了间接的影响。因此,提升高校教师的职业心理资本,建立良好的内、外社会支持系统对提升工作绩效都会形成良好的激励效果,从而实现教师和高校的共同发展。     

Developing a treatment for hand‐clapping maintained by automatic reinforcement using sensory analysis,noncontingent reinforcement,and thinning

Two subjects diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and related disabilities who engaged in hand‐clapping maintained by automatic reinforcement participated in this study. We conducted a sensory analysis to evaluate matched stimuli that functioned as an abolishing operation or extinction for different sources of sensory reinforcement. Finally, we implemented noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) using the stimuli found to compete in the assessment to reduce the target behavior, and we thinned item availability. Results showed a decrease in hand‐clapping, and hand‐clapping remained low when we thinned the schedule of reinforcement. This research further elucidates how NCR can treat problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.     

Clinical functioning and cutoff of eccentricity dimension with psychiatric patients and non-patients

ObjectivesThis study investigated the Eccentricity scale's clinical functioning from the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2 (IDCP-2). Additionally, we sought to establish a cutoff for a screening scenario to be taken as the first indicator of Eccentricity characteristics’ possible clinically relevant functioning.MethodIn total, 2167 adults, aged from 18 to 90 years (M = 28.98, SD = 11.12), being 1244 women (63%), and the majority of undergraduate students (67.9%). Total sample was comprised into five groups, namely, outpatients diagnosed with both schizotypal and schizoid PDs (n = 3), outpatients diagnosed with schizotypal PD (n = 5), outpatients diagnosed with schizoid PD (n = 2), outpatients diagnosed with other PDs and clinical disorders (n = 172), and a general population-based sample (n = 1985). Not all participants answered all the items from IDCP-2; therefore, we used the equating procedure.ResultsThe groups were statistically different in ANOVA. For the −0.40 cutoff in the theta metric scale, equivalent to a total score of 38, the area under the curve was equal to 0.85, reaching 90% of sensitivity and 87.4% of specificity.ConclusionsFindings provide clinical data on the Eccentricity scale, supporting its professional use in a clinical setting; specifically, we suggested a clinical cutoff to the scale, helping the professional address typical characteristics from schizoid schizotypal functioning.     

Driving examiners’ views on data-driven assessment of test candidates: An interview study

Vehicles are increasingly equipped with sensors that capture the state of the driver, the vehicle, and the environment. These developments are relevant to formal driver testing, but little is known about the extent to which driving examiners would support the use of sensor data in their job. This semi-structured interview study examined the opinions of 37 driving examiners about data-driven assessment of test candidates. The results showed that the examiners were supportive of using data to explain their pass/fail verdict to the candidate. According to the examiners, data in an easily accessible form such as graphs of eye movements, headway, speed, or braking behavior, and color-coded scores, supplemented with camera images, would allow them to eliminate doubt or help them convince disagreeing test-takers. The examiners were skeptical about higher levels of decision support, noting that forming an overall picture of the candidate’s abilities requires integrating multiple context-dependent sources of information. The interviews yielded other possible applications of data collection and sharing, such as selecting optimal routes, improving standardization, and training and pre-selecting candidates before they are allowed to take the driving test. Finally, the interviews focused on an increasingly viable form of data collection: simulator-based driver testing. This yielded a divided picture, with about half of the examiners being positive and half negative about using simulators in driver testing. In conclusion, this study has provided important insights regarding the use of data as an explanation aid for examiners. Future research should consider the views of test candidates and experimentally evaluate different forms of data-driven support in the driving test.