Comparison of a stimulus equivalence protocol and traditional lecture for teaching single-subject designs

This study compared the effects of a computer-based stimulus equivalence protocol to a traditional lecture format in teaching single-subject experimental design concepts to undergraduate students. Participants were assigned to either an equivalence or a lecture group, and performance on a paper-and-pencil test that targeted relations among the names of experimental designs, design definitions, design graphs, and clinical vignettes was compared. Generalization of responding to novel graphs and novel clinical vignettes, as well as the emergence of a topography-based tact response after selection-based training, were evaluated for the equivalence group. Performance on the paper-and-pencil test following teaching was comparable for participants in the equivalence and lecture groups. All participants in the equivalence group showed generalization to novel graphs, and 6 participants showed generalization to novel clinical vignettes. Three of the 4 participants demonstrated the emergence of a topography-based tact response following training on the stimulus equivalence protocol.     

Transportability of equivalence-based programmed instruction: efficacy and efficiency in a college classroom

College students in a psychology research-methods course learned concepts related to inferential statistics and hypothesis decision making. One group received equivalence-based instruction on conditional discriminations that were expected to promote the emergence of many untaught, academically useful abilities (i.e., stimulus equivalence group). A negative control group received no instruction, and a positive (complete instruction) control group received instruction on all possible relations (those taught to, and emerging untaught in, the stimulus equivalence group). On posttests, the stimulus equivalence group performed as well as the positive control group (and both outperformed the negative control group), but those in the equivalence-based instruction condition achieved this outcome with significantly less training, thereby demonstrating the efficiency of equivalence-based instruction. Social validity measures indicated that participants found the instruction to be beneficial and as enjoyable as traditional teaching methods.     

双因子模型：多维构念测量的新视角

双因子模型是一种既有全局因子又有局部因子的模型,近年来有了许多应用。本文讨论了双因子模型和高阶因子模型在数学模型、参数之间的关系,概念上和应用上的差异;概述了双因子模型在信度研究、平衡量表、探索性因子分析和项目反应理论中的应用。作为例子,在Rosenberg自尊量表结构的研究中,通过双因子模型分析了自尊特质效应与项目表述方法效应。     

Comparative Evaluations

My response to Engelmann (2008) will be based on several questions that will allow both its author and the general reader to determine whether the assumptions I make as an interpreter of this complex paper are congruent or incongruent with their own interpretations of the text. The interpretations by the writer, by any commentator, and the diverse interpretations of a general audience together with my own interpretations will, I hope, facilitate some fruitful ‘comparative evaluations.’ I articulate my inferences of the most dense part of the paper, namely the ‘concrete immediate Consciousness and the developing absent outside.’ My hope is to address Engelmann’s question: “Am I in a better disposition to judge modern theories of consciousness?” The last section of my response spells out more personal comments to my all too brief and single encounter with Arno Engelmann. It is there that Arno Engelmann’s fascinating statement “I am a citizen of the world” is addressed through its counterparts in my life.     

教师创造性教学行为评价量表的结构

用Cropley编制的"创造性教学行为自评量表"(CFT指标)对321名小学教师进行初测,选取难度在0.20~0.80之间、区分度在0.40以上的28个题项组成"教师创造性教学行为评价量表"。经探索性因素分析,发现该量表由学习方式指导、动机激发、观点评价和鼓励变通4个维度构成。对592份"教师创造性教学行为评价量表"有效数据的验证性因素分析结果表明,该量表有较好的信度和效度,可以用来评价教师的创造性教学行为。     

The Basic Constructive Logic for a Weak Sense of Consistency defined with a Propositional Falsity Constant

The logic B_Kc1 is the basic constructive logic in the ternaryrelational semantics (without a set of designated points) adequateto consistency understood as the absence of the negation ofany theorem. Negation is introduced in B_Kc1 with a negationconnective. The aim of this paper is to define the logic B_Kc1F.In this logic negation is introduced via a propositional falsityconstant. We prove that B_Kc1 and B_Kc1F are definitionally equivalent.     

Nodal structure and the partitioning of equivalence classes

By definition, all of the stimuli in an equivalence class have to be functionally interchangeable with each other. The present experiment, however, demonstrated that this was not the case when using post-class-formation dual-option response transfer tests. With college students, two 4-node 6-member equivalence classes with nodal structures of A-->B-->C-->D-->E-->F were produced by training AB, BC, CD, DE, and EF. Then, unique responses were trained to the C and D stimuli in each class. The responses trained to C generalized to B and A, while the responses trained to D generalized to E and F. Thus, each 4-node 6-member equivalence class was bifurcated into two 3-member functional classes: A-->B-->C and D-->E-->F, with class membership precisely predicted by nodal structure. A final emergent relations test documented the intactness of the underlying 4-node 6-member equivalence classes. The coexistence of the interchangeability of stimuli in an equivalence class and the bifurcation of such a class in terms of nodal structure was explained in the following manner. The conditional discriminations that are used to establish a class also imposes a nodal structure on the stimuli in the class. Thus, the stimuli in the class acquire two sets of relational properties. If the format of a test trial allows only one response option per class, responding on those trials will be in accordance with class membership and will not express the effects of nodal distance. If the format of a test trial allows more than one response option per class, responding on those trials will be determined by the nodal structure of the class. Thus, the relational properties expressed by the stimuli in an equivalence class are determined by the discriminative function served by the format of a test trial.     

On the origins of emergent differential sample behavior

Two experiments evaluated the source(s) of emergent differential sample behavior in pigeons. Initially, pigeons learned two-sample, two-alternative symbolic matching in which different patterns of sample responding were required to produce the comparisons. Afterwards, two other samples nominally identical to the comparisons were added to the matching task. On new-sample trials, completion of either sample-response requirement produced comparison alternatives which were either the same as or different from the alternatives on the familiar-sample trials. Differential responding to the new samples developed only when the comparisons were the same as the familiar samples. The results are consistent with acquired sample equivalence and adventitious reinforcement accounts of emergent sample behavior and are inconsistent with bidirectional transfer (symmetry) between the response patterns explicitly required to the originally trained (familiar) samples and the subsequently reinforced comparisons.     

论构建和谐医患关系的社会责任

围绕近年来备受社会关注的医患关系,对当前医患关系不和谐的社会失责进行了分析,认为造成这种失责原因是医疗体制不合理、社会卫生保障制度不完善、医疗卫生改革滞后、医药市场存在严重弊端、医学人文教育不尽人意等。在此基础上,明确提出构建和谐医患关系的社会责任是要建立平等互惠的医患关系、完善和谐医患关系的制度建设、建立有效的社会监督体系、健全社会医疗保障体系、深化医疗卫生体制改革、加强对医患冲突的社会管理等。     

When a Psychometric Advance Falls in the Forest

Borsboom (2006) attacks psychologists for failing to incorporate psychometric advances in their work, discusses factors that contribute to this regrettable situation, and offers suggestions for ameliorating it. This commentary applauds Borsboom for calling the field to task on this issue and notes additional problems in the field regarding measurement that he could add to his critique. It also chastises Borsboom for occasionally being unnecessarily perjorative in his critique, noting that negative rhetoric is unlikely to make converts of offenders. Finally, it exhorts psychometricians to make their work more accessible and points to Borsboom, Mellenbergh, and Van Heerden (2003) as an excellent example of how this can be done. I wish to thank Frank Schmidt for his help in preparing this paper. Requests for reprints should be sent to la-clark@uiowa.edu.