The Role of Individual Differences in the Accuracy of Confidence Judgments

Generally, self-assessment of accuracy in the cognitive domain produces overconfidence, whereas self-assessment of visual perceptual judgments results in under-confidence. Despite contrary empirical evidence, in models attempting to explain those phenomena, individual differences have often been disregarded. The authors report on 2 studies in which that shortcoming was addressed. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 520) completed a large number of cognitive-ability tests. Results indicated that individual differences provide a meaningful source of overconfidence and that a metacognitive trait might mediate that effect. In further analysis, there was only a relatively small correlation between test accuracy and confidence bias. In Experiment 2 (N = 107 participants), both perceptual and cognitive ability tests were included, along with measures of personality. Results again indicated the presence of a confidence factor that transcended the nature of the testing vehicle. Furthermore, a small relationship was found between that factor and some self-reported personality measures. Thus, personality traits and cognitive ability appeared to play only a small role in determining the accuracy of self-assessment. Collectively, the present results suggest that there are multiple causes of miscalibration, which current models of over- and underconfidence fail to encompass.     

被试作答的偶然性对IRT能力估计的影响研究

被试能力参数估计是项目反应理论应用研究最重要的技术之一。本文在理想的测验情境下,研究被试作答的偶然性对被试能力值估计的影响。研究设计了被试作答的两种偶然性情况：一是偶然做对了一道项目难度高于其能力值的试题,二是偶然做错了一道或几道项目难度低于其能力值的试题．然后分别探讨了这两种情况下对被试的能力估计所带来的影响,并且就如何消除这些偶然性所带来的影响提出了相应的方法。     

Computerized Testing in the United States Air Force

Computerized testing in the United States Air Force finds its historical beginnings in apparatus tests developed during World War II. The advent of fast, small, and inexpensive computers led to the establishment of a research program to use computers in pilot selection. Later, computerized tests were demonstrated for more familiar aptitude measures such as verbal and quantitative ability. Several large-scale efforts to implement computerized testing have proved informative. Many Air Force tests are routinely administered by computer. Continued advances in computer technology promise to make computerized testing more common and more commonplace. Computer use in measuring physiological correlates of human ability is discussed.     

Ability estimation for conventional tests

Five different ability estimators—maximum likelihood [MLE ()], weighted likelihood [WLE ()], Bayesian modal [BME ()], expected a posteriori [EAP ()] and the standardized number-right score [Z ()]—were used as scores for conventional, multiple-choice tests. The bias, standard error and reliability of the five ability estimators were evaluated using Monte Carlo estimates of the unknown conditional means and variances of the estimators. The results indicated that ability estimates based on BME (), EAP () or WLE () were reasonably unbiased for the range of abilities corresponding to the difficulty of a test, and that their standard errors were relatively small. Also, they were as reliable as the old standby—the number-right score.     

Health and adaptedness

The purpose of this paper is to give an explication of the concept of health which does not rely on the concept of disease. The explication is informed by a view of the human individual as an acting subject and it therefore places the abilities of agents in the centre. Abilities may be qualified in different ways. The qualification essential for understanding the dimension of health and illness relates abilities to environmental circumstances and high-ranking projects in the life plan. For this purpose generalized adaptedness is introduced as the overarching construction. The dimension of health and illness is characterized in terms of the adequacy of the repertoire for generalized adaptedness. Some immediate consequences concerning the notion of care are noted.     

小学生创造性数学问题提出能力的发展研究

运用实验的方法,对371名小学生创造性数学问题提出能力的发展进行了研究。结果表明:1)小学生创造性数学问题提出能力整体呈现波浪式上升的趋势;2)男女生在创造性数学问题提出能力上不存在显著差异;3)城乡小学生创造性数学问题提出能力的发展差异显著,城市小学学生发展比乡村小学学生发展早一年。     

不同运动经历人群的内隐序列学习能力

考察不同运动经历人群的内隐序列学习能力。被试为上海体育学院小球运动员和非运动员;实验结合PDP,采用序列学习任务,并测试操作智商与记忆广度。结果发现,运动员在15个组段上的平均反应时、内隐学习量、自动提取贡献率上显著大于非运动员;不同水平运动员在内隐学习量上差异显著。研究结论:运动员的内隐序列学习能力显著好于非运动员,与运动水平有关,与智商无显著相关;这种内隐序列学习能力可能是某种运动能力的表现形式。     

Personality predicts prospective memory task performance: an adult lifespan study

Do interindividual differences in prospective memory task performance reflect individual differences in personality and lifestyle? Do the cognitive abilities known to change with age retain their power to predict episodic prospective memory task performance after controlling for personality and lifestyle variables, and do personality and lifestyle variables offer predictive power apart from that provided by cognitive ability measures? To answer these questions, we conducted a study with community‐living healthy individuals (n= 141) between 18 and 81 years of age. They completed three different episodic prospective memory tasks – two laboratory tasks and one field task – as well as various measures of personality, lifestyle, and cognitive ability. The results indicated that personality and lifestyle reliably predicted who will succeed and who will fail on all three episodic prospective memory tasks. Conscientiousness predicted performance on two of the prospective memory tasks; socially prescribed perfectionism and neuroticism each predicted performance on one of the prospective memory tasks. Cognitive ability predicted performance on one of the laboratory prospective memory tasks but not on the other two prospective memory tasks. After we controlled for individual differences in personality and lifestyle variables, cognitive ability was no longer able to predict performance on the laboratory prospective memory task. By contrast, controlling for cognitive ability had no influence on the predictive power of the personality and lifestyle variables.     

Does personality vary across ability levels? A study using self and other ratings

To test the hypothesis that personality structure differs across levels of cognitive ability, personality traits of 154 participants of various ages and educational backgrounds were rated by themselves and two well-informed judges using the Estonian Personality Item Pool NEO (EPIP-NEO; Mõttus, Pullmann, & Allik, 2006). When participants were divided into two groups on the basis of their ability test scores, a relatively high cross-observer agreement was observed in the both ability groups. Although in the high-ability group personality traits were slightly less correlated and factor structures were somewhat more similar to the normative American self-report structure of the NEO-PI-R, there was no evidence that personality structure differs substantially across ability groups.     

The Coincidence of Depression and High Ability in Delinquent Youth

We describe the incidence and coincidence of depression and high ability in a sample of Virginia's incarcerated delinquent youth population. Specifically, 207 incarcerated juveniles were assessed with the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). The data indicated there were as many high ability juveniles in detention settings as would be expected in a regular population. Results from the CDI identified 37% as at risk for clinical depression. Cross-tabulation of the data indicated a significant relationship between high ability and depression in the delinquent population. In addition, the findings indicated that the presence of depression is related to the ability level of the juvenile. That high ability delinquents may be more vulnerable to depression argues that the coincidence of these conditions requires consideration. Based upon these findings, and given the high correlation suicide has with depression, we suggest that screening for depression should be mandatory for incarcerated delinquents.