强迫症的元认知研究:进展与趋势

该文分析了强迫症患者在现实监控、知道感、元认知信念和责任控制等方面的研究,发现缺乏对不同类型强迫症元认知差异的研究、被试选取的典型性和代表型有待提高,现实监控障碍的身心原因尚不明确、责任-控制障碍形成的机制研究不足.指出元认知干预的强迫症治疗范式、强迫症与其他精神症元认知障碍的比较、强迫症元认知的认知神经科学探索和强迫性网络使用的元认知机制等是未来研究的趋势.     

与年龄相关的认知速度减慢及学习改善过程

该工作应用人机对话方式完成心算、符号数字、数字鉴别和计数四项作业认知速度年老减慢及学习改善过程的研究,被试３５０人,４６—７５岁。研究结果表明：四项认知作业速度随年老进行性减慢;然而,老年人经学习训练认知作业速度可明显改善。上述变化程度与作业所需时间有密切关系,提示年老过程中枢信息加工过程速度的减慢快于外周感觉─运动过程速度的减慢,学习改善作用也可能主要是中枢过程速度的提高。     

Syntactic context effects on word recognition: A developmental study

In the present study, grammatical context effects on word recognition were examined among skilled and less skilled second and sixth grade readers. Of particular interest was how the word decoding ability may correlate with the grammatical context effect. For this purpose the rich case-marking system of the Finnish language was exploited. Recognition latencies for sentence-final nouns were measured as a function of their syntactic agreement with the preceding adjective. The naming and lexical decision tasks were used as critical measures.
The study showed a clear syntactic context effect for each of the four experimental groups. The magnitude of the observed syntactic effect was substantially larger compared to earlier results. Furthermore, the effect emerged both in naming and lexical decision. In naming, less skilled 2nd grade decoders were more affected by grammatical incongruency than their more competent peers, whereas in lexical decision the skilled 6th graders differed from other groups by showing a smaller syntactic effect. The results are discussed in the light of Stanovich's interactive-compensatory model of word recognition.     

Verbal and visual instruction with mental retardation: The role of subject characteristics and task factors

Past research and theory presents an inconsistent picture concerning the relative value of verbal versus visual instructional programs for individuals with mental retardation. From an empirical perspective, there is evidence that this inconsistency may be due to the differences in the type of tasks and the specific abilities of the subjects employed across studies. In this research, the effects of three instructional procedures (verbal, visual, and verbal plus visual) were evaluated with mentally retarded persons who varied in verbal and visual ability. Performance was examined on a visual task which incorporated stimuli of varying degrees of familiarity to the subjects. The results indicated that the use of the combined verbal-visual instruction procedure was more effective than the other two training programs when task stimuli were familiar to the subjects. When task stimuli were unfamiliar, instructional procedures which had a visual component were found to be superior to a procedure which employed only the use of verbal component. The subjects' visual ability was most strongly associated with performance outcome when visual instruction was employed and unfamiliar task stimuli were sorted. In contrast, subjects' verbal ability appeared to be equally important across instructional and task conditions. The implications of the results for the design of instructional programs and for future research are discussed.     

Generating items during testing: Psychometric issues and models

On-line item generation is becoming increasingly feasible for many cognitive tests. Item generation seemingly conflicts with the well established principle of measuring persons from items with known psychometric properties. This paper examines psychometric principles and models required for measurement from on-line item generation. Three psychometric issues are elaborated for item generation. First, design principles to generate items are considered. A cognitive design system approach is elaborated and then illustrated with an application to a test of abstract reasoning. Second, psychometric models for calibrating generating principles, rather than specific items, are required. Existing item response theory (IRT) models are reviewed and a new IRT model that includes the impact on item discrimination, as well as difficulty, is developed. Third, the impact of item parameter uncertainty on person estimates is considered. Results from both fixed content and adaptive testing are presented.This article is based on the Presidential Address Susan E. Embretson gave on June 26, 1999 at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. —Editor     

Exact and best confidence intervals for the ability parameter of the Rasch model

A commonly used method to evaluate the accuracy of a measurement is to provide a confidence interval that contains the parameter of interest with a given high probability. Smallest exact confidence intervals for the ability parameter of the Rasch model are derived and compared to the traditional, asymptotically valid intervals based on the Fisher information. Tables of the exact confidence intervals, termed Clopper-Pearson intervals, can be routinely drawn up by applying a computer program designed by and obtainable from the author. These tables are particularly useful for tests of only moderate lengths where the asymptotic method does not provide valid confidence intervals.     

A note on keats' generalization of the rasch model

An alternative derivation is given for a simple test model which incorporates anability parameter for the subject anddifficulty level andguessing parameters for the problem. The probability of a correct response to the problem is a projective transformation of the problem difficulty. The ability and difficulty parameters separate into additive components.     

Multicomponent latent trait models for ability tests

A major research direction for ability measurement has been to identify the information-processes that are involved in solving test items through mathematical modeling of item difficulty. However, this research has had limited impact on ability measurement, since person parameters are not included in the process models. The current paper presents some multicomponent latent trait models for reproducing test performance from both item and person parameters on processing components. Components are identified from item subtasks, in which performance is a logistic function (i.e., Rasch model) of person and item parameters, and then are combined according to a mathematical model of processing on the composite item.The author would like to thank David Thissen for his invaluable insights concerning this model and an anonymous reviewer for his suggestion about the sample space for the model.This research was partially supported by National Institute of Education grant number NIE-6-7-0156 to Susan E. Whitely, principal investigator. However the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institute of Education, and no official endorsement by the National Institute of Education should be referred. Part of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of thePsychometric Society, Monterey, California: June, 1979.     

Variations in working memory capacity predict individual differences in general learning abilities among genetically diverse mice

Up to 50% of an individuals' performance across a wide variety of distinct cognitive tests can be accounted for by a single factor (i.e., "general intelligence"). Despite its ubiquity, the processes or mechanisms regulating this factor are a matter of considerable debate. Although it has been hypothesized that working memory may impact cognitive performance across various domains, tests have been inconclusive due to the difficulty in isolating working memory from its overlapping operations, such as verbal ability. We address this problem using genetically diverse mice, which exhibit a trait analogous to general intelligence. The general cognitive abilities of CD-1 mice were found to covary with individuals' working memory capacity, but not with variations in long-term retention. These results provide evidence that independent of verbal abilities, variations in working memory are associated with general cognitive abilities, and further, suggest a conservation across species of mechanisms and/or processes that regulate cognitive abilities.     

Construct validity of a personality assessment game in a simulated selection situation and the moderating roles of the ability to identify criteria and dispositional insight

There is scant research on the validity of personality assessment games in selection situations. Therefore, in two experimental simulated selection studies, the construct validity of an assessment game developed to assess honesty-humility was tested. Both studies found no differences between a control condition and a simulated selection condition on honesty-humility game scores. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity with self-reported personality were not affected by the manipulation. We obtained mixed evidence that individual differences in dispositional insight and the ability to identify criteria influenced the validity of the game. As the validity of the personality assessment game was not significantly affected in the simulated selection context, our findings may imply that well-designed personality assessment games can be used for high-stakes selection assessments.