The Effect of Propensity Scores on DIF Analysis: Inference on the Potential Cause of DIF

Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis is important in terms of test fairness. While DIF analyses have mainly been conducted with manifest grouping variables, such as gender or race/ethnicity, it has been recently claimed that not only the grouping variables but also contextual variables pertaining to examinees should be considered in DIF analyses. This study adopted propensity scores to incorporate the contextual variables into the gender DIF analysis. In this study, propensity scores were used to control for the contextual variables that potentially affect the gender DIF. Subsequent DIF analyses with the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure and the Logistic Regression (LR) model were run with the propensity score applied reference (males) and focal groups (females) through propensity score matching. The propensity score embedded MH model and LR model detected fewer number of gender DIF than the conventional MH and LR models. The propensity score embedded models, as a confirmatory approach in DIF analysis, could contribute to hypothesizing an inference on the potential cause of DIF. Also, salient advantages of propensity score embedded DIF analysis models are discussed.     

The Sporting Body: Body Image and Eating Disorder Symptomatology Among Female Athletes from Leanness Focused and Nonleanness Focused Sports

Female athletes experience pressure to conform to social and sporting norms concerning body weight. This study compared general and sporting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating symptomatology among 320 elite, recreational, and noncompetitive female athletes aged 17 to 30 years competing in leanness focused sports and nonleanness focused sports. Participants completed an online questionnaire including demographic questions, the Eating Attitudes Test, and the Figure Rating Scale. Athletes from leanness focused sports reported higher levels of body dissatisfaction and greater disordered eating symptomatology regardless of participation level. Elite athletes reported higher levels of body dissatisfaction and greater disordered eating symptomatology regardless of sport type, and differences between recreational and noncompetitive athletes were not found. More than 60% of elite athletes from leanness focused and nonleanness focused sports reported pressure from coaches concerning body shape. The findings have important implications for identifying risk factors for eating disorders among female athletes, where athletes who compete at elite level and those who compete in leanness focused sports at any level may be at higher risk for developing eating disorders.     

Anxiety as a Barrier to Information Processing in the Event of a Cyberattack

As postindustrial societies become more dependent on technology, they also become encumbered by greater risk. With the mounting news reports of cyberattacks, a common reaction to these technology‐based hazards is anxiety. Whether anxiety enhances or erodes information processing is a topic of debate in previous literature, and equally uncertain is whether mass anxiety facilitates or hobbles the public's ability to contemplate current events. In light of three theoretical models in the basic research of anxiety, we hypothesized that (1) anxious participants are less able to recall the information in a news report of cyberattack than their nonanxious counterparts, (2) they become increasingly inept at recalling the details as the storyline unfolds, and (3) this impairment is unique to anxiety. Participants in Study 1 (130 college students) and Study 2 (392 American adults) viewed a news story of a cyberattack and then reported their emotional states and their levels of understanding of the various parts of the report—except that the anxiety in Study 1 was naturalistic, and in Study 2, experimentally manipulated. Results from both studies showed that anxiety undermined recall performance. In addition, Study 1 found that the recall was worse towards the middle and the end of the news story and that other emotions were not significantly associated with memory deficit. Anxiety is discussed as a barrier for the public to stay informed about cyberattacks.     

与上司“心有灵犀”会让你的工作更出色吗?——追随原型一致性、工作投入与工作绩效

内隐追随作为一种关于追随角色的认知结构,包括追随原型和反原型两种。其中,追随原型表征了个体对追随角色的积极预期。本研究基于角色理论,考察了领导者-追随者的追随原型一致性对工作绩效的影响及工作投入的中介作用。采用跨层次多项式回归和响应面分析技术,对64个工作团队的数据进行分析,发现追随原型能否提升工作绩效主要取决于领导-追随双方的匹配情况。具体而言,(1)领导-追随双方的追随原型越一致,关系绩效越高。但上述结论并不适用于任务绩效。(2)在一致情况下,与"低-低"一致相比,任务绩效和关系绩效在双方追随原型的"高-高"一致时更高。(3)在不一致情况下,与"领导者的追随原型高-追随者的追随原型低"相比,任务绩效和关系绩效在"领导者的追随原型低-追随者的追随原型高"时相对更高。(4)追随原型一致性通过工作投入影响任务绩效和关系绩效。     

The role of semantically related distractors during encoding and retrieval of words in long-term memory

We examined the influence of divided attention (DA) on recognition of words when the concurrent task was semantically related or unrelated to the to-be-recognised target words. Participants were asked to either study or retrieve a target list of semantically related words while simultaneously making semantic decisions (i.e., size judgements) to another set of related or unrelated words heard concurrently. We manipulated semantic relatedness of distractor to target words, and whether DA occurred during the encoding or retrieval phase of memory. Recognition accuracy was significantly diminished relative to full attention, following DA conditions at encoding, regardless of relatedness of distractors to study words. However, response times (RTs) were slower with related compared to unrelated distractors. Similarly, under DA at retrieval, recognition RTs were slower when distractors were semantically related than unrelated to target words. Unlike the effect from DA at encoding, recognition accuracy was worse under DA at retrieval when the distractors were related compared to unrelated to the target words. Results suggest that availability of general attentional resources is critical for successful encoding, whereas successful retrieval is particularly reliant on access to a semantic code, making it sensitive to related distractors under DA conditions.     

Intelligence as the efficiency of cue-driven retrieval from secondary memory

Complex-span (working-memory-capacity) tasks are among the most successful predictors of intelligence. One important contributor to this relationship is the ability to efficiently employ cues for the retrieval from secondary memory. Presumably, intelligent individuals can considerably restrict their memory search sets by using such cues and can thereby improve recall performance. We here test this assumption by experimentally manipulating the validity of retrieval cues. When memoranda are drawn from the same semantic category on two successive trials of a verbal complex-span task, the category is a very strong retrieval cue on its first occurrence (strong-cue trial) but loses some of its validity on its second occurrence (weak-cue trial). If intelligent individuals make better use of semantic categories as retrieval cues, their recall accuracy suffers more from this loss of cue validity. Accordingly, our results show that less variance in intelligence is explained by recall accuracy on weak-cue compared with strong-cue trials.     

Time and interference: Effects on working memory

This study tested predictions from the time‐based resource‐sharing (TBRS) model with a classical verbal working memory (WM) task, where target and non‐target information interfere strongly with each other. Different predictions can be formulated according to the dominant perspectives (TBRS and interference hypothesis) on the role of inhibitory control in WM task performance. Here, we aimed to trace the activation of irrelevant information, examining priming effects in a lexical decision task immediately following WM recall. Results indicate the roles of both time and interference constraints in determining task performance. In particular, the role of time available seemed crucial at the highest WM loads (i.e., 3 and 4 memoranda). These were also associated with a higher activation of no‐longer‐relevant information but, in this case, independently from time available for processing.     

When and how did you go wrong? Characterizing mild functional difficulties in older adults during an everyday task

ABSTRACT

Mild functional difficulties associated with cognitive aging may be reliably measured by coding “micro-errors” during everyday tasks, like meal preparation. Micro-errors made by 25 older adult and 48 younger adults were coded on four dimensions to evaluate the influence of: 1) poor error monitoring; 2) goal decay; 3) competition for response selection when switching to a new subtask; and 4) interference from distractor objects. Micro-errors made by young adults under a dual task load also were analyzed to determine the influence of overall performance level. Older adults’ micro-errors were observed when switching to a new subtask and to unrelated distractors. Slowed error monitoring and goal decay also influenced micro-errors in older adults, but not significantly more so than younger adults under the dual task. Interventions to reduce interference from distractors and to increase attention at critical choice points during tasks may optimize everyday functioning and preclude decline in older adults.     

领导授权行为的形成机制

领导授权行为通常被视为一种积极的领导行为类型。组织中管理者在授权实施过程中扮演着重要角色, 然而管理者出于维护威权等目的, 不想赋予员工自主权或相应资源的现象大量存在。鉴于此, 越来越多的学者开始探索领导授权行为的影响因素, 但目前研究较为零散, 亟待整合。研究发现：(1)更多的学者强调领导授权行为并非一种稳定的领导风格, 而是领导对不同下属所采取的差异化授权行为; (2)领导授权行为的影响因素可以分为环境因素、领导者因素以及员工因素; (3)领导成员交换理论、信任理论、社会认知理论与授权风险视角是解释领导授权行为形成的重要理论/视角。此外, 基于情境领导理论、CIP领导模型(魅力型-意识形态型-务实型)以及追随理论, 提出了领导授权行为影响因素的未来研究方向。     

基于双眼视差探讨深度知觉信息对背景线索效应的影响

背景线索效应是由重复场景导致搜索效率提高的现象。以往研究发现三维场景下能获得背景线索效应,但对三维场景下深度知觉线索信息如何影响空间场景提供有效线索引导注意仍缺乏实证研究。本研究以矩阵刺激为材料,通过设置不同的刺激项目水平数探讨深度知觉线索对背景线索效应的影响模式。结果发现:(1)在场景布局由较少项目构成时,深度知觉线索提供目标与刺激项目的有效联结,获得背景线索效应;(2)当刺激项目水平达到一定程度时,深度知觉线索增加了背景线索任务的搜索难度,干扰了重复场景中的背景信息对注意的指导性加工,背景线索效应消失。研究结果为三维场景下深度信息对空间场景中注意引导加工的影响提供了证据。