Absolute Error Revisited

When target accuracy is defined as the probability that an individual will respond to an accuracy task within a fixed distance around the target, then the composite error measures, E and AE, are shown to be fairly strong indicators of target accuracy in a relative sense. When AE and E are compared, AE is shown to be an even stronger accuracy indicator than E for most reasonable accuracy requirements. This, plus the fact that AE has certain desirable properties in ANOVA procedures, suggests that AE is a good, composite measure of target accuracy and should be analyzed first to determine if target accuracy differences exist. Subsequent analyses of bias and/or variability are then recommended.     

Validation of a TAI Short Form with an Adolescent Sample

Subjects who pretested high or low in hypnotic suggestibility took a creativity test either under hypnosis or in a waking state. All subjects made a global estimate of their general degree of creativity. Greater figural-spatial creativity was exhibited in the hypnosis condition than in the waking condition by both high and low suggestibles. Creativity self-reports were not corroborated by actual creative performance.     

The Effect of a Final Exam on Long-Term Retention

Testing on a final exam in a college course improved long-term retention over material that had not been tested on the final. Students from an upper level psychology course took a long-term retention test, four to five months after the end of the course. For half of the items, a related question had been on the final. For the remaining half, a related question had appeared on an earlier exam, but not the final. On the long-term retention test, percent correct was 79% when a related question had appeared on the final and 67% when a related question had not appeared on the final. These results have both theoretical and practical implications.     

Predictors of Irrational Thinking in Regular Slot Machine Gamblers

Previous research has suggested that irrational thinking may play a central role in the maintenance of behavior in slot machine gambling (M. B. Walker, 1992b). The present study is an evaluation of the validity and predictors of irrational thinking in a sample of regular gamblers (N = 20) drawn from the general community. The results were generally consistent with earlier findings; 75% of gambling-related cognitions were found to be irrational. Irrationality was unrelated to the amount of money lost or won during sessions but was positively related to risk taking. The most common irrational cognitions included false beliefs concerning the extent to which outcomes could be controlled or predicted and the attribution of human qualities (personification) to gambling devices. Gender comparisons showed that women were more likely than men to personify the machines. The validity of the speaking-aloud approach and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

In search of the “Rescue Personality”. A questionnaire study with emergency medical services personnel

The construct of the “Rescue Personality” as claimed by Mitchell (1983) in the course of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing was investigated in a sample of 173 Emergency Medical Services (EMSs) personnel. As hypothesized EMS personnel scored lower on neuroticism and openness but higher on conscientiousness and risk and competition seeking compared with a norm sample. By contrast, EMS personnel showed lower scores for agreeableness and no differences for extraversion. Duration of EMS service was not associated with personality except for extraversion preliminarily supporting a predisposition model. Furthermore, EMS volunteers did not differ from EMS professionals regarding personality, again except for extraversion. These results provide first evidence for most of Mitchell’s assumptions concerning the “Rescue Personality”. Implications for vocational choice, prevention and crisis intervention are discussed.     

Transnationalism and Its Personal and Social Consequences for Chinese Transmigrants

In this essay, I investigate the origins of Chinese migrant transnationalism and its personal and social consequences. I propose a theoretical perspective that turns on a synthesis that I shall call “cultural functionalism,” a synthesis that attempts to reconcile functionalism and postmodernism. My argument is that Chinese transmigrants overcome (post)modern alienation through a two-way approach: first, a strong participation in and full commitment to community development and connectivity within the Chinese diaspora; and, second, a religio-cultural renaissance—both being conceived of as constituting a putative “cultural contract” and “social capital” nexus.     

Psychological Contracts and Their Implications for Job Outcomes: A Social Exchange View

This article explores the relationship between on the 1 hand psychological contract fulfilment and affective commitment and on the other hand, normative commitment and job satisfaction. We hypothesized that the perceived supervisor support (PSS) and the perceived organizational support (POS) mediate the relationship between the fulfilment of the psychological contract, commitment and job satisfaction. The sample consists in 337 soldiers in training. In order to test our model, we used 3 measures of psychological contract fulfilment (economic, socioemotional and developmental), PSS and POS measures as well as attitudes. Results show that the developmental psychological contract is related to affective and normative organizational commitment and job satisfaction whereas socioemotional fulfilment is unrelated to affective commitment. Psychological contract fulfilment has a greater impact on normative commitment than affective commitment. Results show also that only PSS plays a mediating role in psychological contract processes. Several implications emerge from this study. First, in a military context, it is important to strengthen the developmental psychological contract. Second, it is essential for organizations to place greater emphasis on encouraging supervisors to establish healthy working relationships with newcomers.     

Detecting performance invalidity in children: Not quite as easy as A,B, C, 1, 2, 3 but automatized sequences appears promising

In adult populations, embedded performance validity indicators are well established, as they are time efficient, resistant to coaching, and allow for more continuous monitoring of effort than standalone measures. Although several recent studies have demonstrated the appropriateness of using standalone validity tests with school-age children, a paucity of pediatric work has examined embedded indicators. The present study investigated the value of a simple automatized sequences task to detect performance invalidity in 439 clinically referred patients with mild head injury aged 8 through 17 years. Sixteen percent of the participants failed the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT). Thirteen percent failed the MSVT and also performed below established cutoffs on either the Test of Memory Malingering or Wechsler Digit Span subtest. The group classified as providing invalid data performed significantly worse than the group passing the MSVT across all sequencing conditions. Sensitivity and specificity for the total time on the sequencing task compared favorably to data produced for many respected adult-based embedded indicators (i.e., sensitivity around 50% when specificity ≥ 90%). Classification statistics for any embedded performance validity test can be expected to be worse in more severely affected populations; however, the current sequencing task appears to have value in detecting invalid performance in relatively high-functioning older children and adolescents. The fact that the task takes less than a couple of minutes to administer makes it especially appealing.     

Noncredible Effort during Pediatric Neuropsychological Exam: A Case Series and Literature Review

Neuropsychological test interpretation rests upon the assumption that the examinee has exerted full effort. If an individual provides inadequate effort during exam, the resulting data will be invalid and represent an underestimate of the person's true abilities. Although youth have been assumed historically to be less capable of deception than adults, acts of deception in childhood are not uncommon, even in normative populations. Yet, very few cases of children who have provided suboptimal effort during neuropsychological exam have appeared in the scientific literature. We present six clinical cases illustrating that children down to at least age 8 years can present with noncredible performance. The cases include those in which clear external incentives could be identified to those in which intrinsic or psychological factors were presumed to predominate. The fairly diverse nature of the presented cases, along with other recent work, suggests that suboptimal effort in children is apt to occur more frequently than previously recognized, even if it might occur less often than in comparable adult samples. In most of the presented cases, noncredible performance would not have been detected definitively by clinical judgment alone, reinforcing the value of routinely incorporating symptom validity tests into the neuropsychological assessment of school-aged children. The number of effort tests that have demonstrated utility in children pales in comparison to those available to the adult practitioner, although recent research now supports the use of several standalone measures with pediatric patients.