消费行为研究中的联合分析法

联合分析(Conjoint Analysis)是一种定量的研究消费者选择偏好的方法。虽然从它诞生到现在只有40年的历史,但它对消费者行为学的影响很大,它的发展更是日新月异。文章首先介绍了联合分析的基本概念,然后重点阐述了联合分析的原理、步骤和发展历程,最后对联合分析的发展方向作了一个简要概括。     

父母教养态度与儿童在2-4岁期间的问题行

考察父母的教养态度和儿童在2—4岁间的问题行为的发展变化。采用交叉时序滞后设计,对172名儿童从2岁起进行2年追踪,在被试2岁和4岁时,分别对他们的父母进行间卷调查。结果发现：儿童外显问题行为与父母教养态度的相互作用较强,儿童在2岁时的外显问题行为可以预测4岁时母亲的惩罚性,内隐问题行为与父母教养态度的相互作用较弱;从2岁到4岁之间,儿童外显问题行为具有较高的稳定性,内隐问题行为的稳定性相对略低,父母教养态度也都具有一定的稳定性。     

Inferring task performance and confidence from displays of eye movements

Eye movements reveal what is at the center of people's attention, which is assumed to coincide with what they are thinking about. Eye-movement displays (visualizations of a person's fixations superimposed onto the stimulus, for example, as dots or circles) might provide useful information for diagnosing that person's performance. However, making inferences about a person's task performance based on eye-movement displays requires substantial interpretation. Using graph-comprehension tasks, we investigated to what extent observers (N = 46) could make accurate inferences about a performer's multiple-choice task performance (i.e., chosen answer), confidence, and competence from displays of that person's eye movements. Observers' accuracy when judging which answer the performer chose was above chance level and was higher for displays reflecting confident performance. Observers were also able to infer performers' confidence from the eye-movement displays; moreover, their own task performance and perceived similarity with the performer affected their judgments of the other's competence.     

EFFECTS OF A VARIABLE-RATIO REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE WITH CHANGING CRITERIA ON EXERCISE IN OBESE AND NONOBESE BOYS

The effects of a variable-ratio schedule of reinforcement on pedaling a stationary exercise bicycle were examined. Three obese and three nonobese 11-year-old boys were individually tested five times weekly for approximately 12 weeks. A changing-criterion design was used in which each successive criterion was increased over mean performance rate in the previous phase by approximately 15%. The contingencies of the successive criteria resulted in systematic increases in rate of exercise for all children. Final variable-ratio rates were higher than those under fixed ratios found in previous research, with rates for 2 of the 3 obese boys approximating those of the nonobese.     

Sequential sampling designs for the two-parameter item response theory model

In optimal design research, designs are optimized with respect to some statistical criterion under a certain model for the data. The ideas from optimal design research have spread into various fields of research, and recently have been adopted in test theory and applied to item response theory (IRT) models. In this paper a generalized variance criterion is used for sequential sampling in the two-parameter IRT model. Some general principles are offered to enable a researcher to select the best sampling design for the efficient estimation of item parameters.     

广告设计的思维过程及其影响因素

让１０个具有不同知识背景和工作经验的被试独立完成一个假设的广告设计任务,要求在设计过程中大声报告他们所想到的内容。根据被试的口语报告,分析广告设计思维的基本过程,并探讨设计者的工作经验和知识背景对设计思维过程的影响。实验结果表明：（１）广告设计活动可以看成是一种问题解决行为,设计要求规定了问题的初始状态和目标状态,设计就是经过一系列认知操作产生出符合设计要求的设计结果;（２）实际工作中的广告设计过程包括问题理解、整体策划以及方案构思等阶段,这种阶段性同样存在于个体的设计思维过程中;（３）由于工作经验和知识背景不同,不同被试的广告设计思维过程具有明显的差异,这些差异体现在使用规则、理解问题以及整体策划等方面。     

Probabilistic multidimensional scaling: Complete and incomplete data

Simple procedures are described for obtaining maximum likelihood estimates of the location and uncertainty parameters of the Hefner model. This model is a probabilistic, multidimensional scaling model, which assigns a multivariate normal distribution to each stimulus point. It is shown that for such a model, standard nonmetric and metric algorithms are not appropriate. A procedure is also described for constructing incomplete data sets, by taking into consideration the degree of familiarity the subject has for each stimulus. Maximum likelihood estimates are developed both for complete and incomplete data sets. This research was supported by National Science Grant No. SOC76-20517. The first author would especially like to express his gratitude to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for its very substantial help with this research.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF A CONTINGENCY MANAGED COURSE WITH LARGE LECTURE METHOD1

Contingency management procedures resembling the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) were compared with a conventional lecture method in teaching an introductory psychology course. The use of a within-subjects design in which half of the students experienced both teaching conditions made it possible to examine the reliability of test-score differences over time when subjects were balanced over conditions. In the contingency management course, material was broken down into 14 small units, each unit covering about 30 pages of text. Students were assigned to an undergraduate teaching assistant who was encouraged to develop a close working relationship with each of his/her 13 assigned students. Specifically, this meant that the assistant was to call each student by his/her first name, show an interest in the student's quiz performance, help the student understand difficult concepts, and discuss various topics of interest to the student. Each week, the teaching assistant administered up to four different 10-item multiple-choice quizzes over the week's chapter. A modified “Doomsday Contingency” required each student either to achieve a score of 80% on one of the four quizzes or drop the course. Most students passed the quiz during the first session of the week; those not passing were tutored on special areas of weakness. No student was actually forced to leave the course under the Doomsday Contingency. Although quizzes were administered on a group basis, they were scored individually while the student stood near by. In addition to the weekly quiz assignment, students under the contingency management procedures were asked to attend one lecture per week. The contingency management method departed from traditional PSI in that (1) self pacing was minimal, such that students were required to master one unit per week or drop the course, (2) teaching assistants met with students in small groups, and usually gave individual tutoring only to those students who did not pass the quiz on the first attempt, and (3) students were asked to attend one lecture per week. However, it was similar to PSI in that small units of subject matter were assigned and unit mastery was assessed through use of undergraduate assistants who delivered immediate feedback. Students in the conventional lecture group attended three 50-min lectures each week; two of these lectures followed textbook material closely, while the third, which was attended by all students, concerned material only indirectly related to the text. As a result, students in both conditions were exposed to essentially identical material. Students in the lecture condition could also obtain copies of the unit quizzes, although few did so. Course grades were determined by scores on two 45-item multiple-choice hourly exams, each covering half of the semester material (each worth 25%), and by a 90-item final exam over the entire course (worth 50%). These measures also served as the dependent variables. The experimental design employed a crossover technique in which one fourth of the students began with the contingency management method and then switched to lecture method at midsemester, while another fourth began with the lecture method and switched to contingency management. The other students stayed in the same condition throughout the semester, half under contingency management and half under the lecture method. On the last day of class, all students filled out an extensive questionnaire that assessed their opinions and attitudes about the teaching techniques. In addition to allowing for assessment of any progressive effects that the contingency management procedures might have had over time, the crossover design also permitted students to make meaningful comparisons of the two teaching methods, since half of the students experienced both methods in the same course. Although average test performance was only slightly higher under the contingency management condition, this difference occurred on each exam and was statistically reliable in each case. Further, the method did not interact with time, as it produced about a three-item advantage per half semester. On each of the three exams, teaching method accounted for between 5 and 8% of the total variance in test scores. Finally, attitude measures indicated that students experiencing half a semester of the contingency management procedures preferred them to the lecture technique, but that only those students with a full semester of contingency management rated the course significantly better than students in the full semester lecture course.     

AN EVALUATION OF GENTLE TEACHING AND VISUAL SCREENING IN THE REDUCTION OF STEREOTYPY

Gentle teaching and visual screening techniques have been used to control severe behavior problems in persons with mental retardation. An alternating treatments design was used to compare gentle teaching, visual screening, and a task-training condition in the reduction of the high-level stereotypy of 3 persons with mental retardation. Following a baseline phase, a task-training condition using standard behavioral techniques was implemented to establish the effects of training the subjects on the tasks. Results showed a modest decrease in stereotypy. This phase was followed by an alternating treatments phase in which visual screening, gentle teaching, and baseline conditions were compared. Both procedures were superior to the control condition in reducing stereotypic behavior, with visual screening being more effective than gentle teaching. When compared with data from the prior phase, gentle teaching was found to be more effective than task training for 2 subjects but less effective for the 3rd, whose stereotypy increased during gentle teaching. Two succeeding phases in which visual screening was implemented across two and then all three daily conditions reduced stereotypy further to near-zero levels. An additional phase with 1 subject demonstrated that the treatment effects of visual screening were easily replicated across therapists. Mixed and idiosyncratic changes in collateral behaviors occurred. For example, “bonding,” the goal of gentle teaching, occurred at the same low levels under both treatments, contrary to the predictions of gentle teaching's proponents. The results indicate that gentle teaching may not be the universal treatment of choice for stereotypy its proponents suggest, and that it requires further empirical evaluation.     

MULTIPLE TREATMENT INTERFERENCE IN THE ALTERNATING TREATMENTS DESIGN AS A FUNCTION OF THE INTERCOMPONENT INTERVAL LENGTH

In experimental designs requiring the administration of more than one treatment to the same subject(s), the effect of one treatment may be influenced by the effect of another treatment (Campbell & Stanley, 1963), a phenomenon known as multiple treatment interference. We conducted two studies in which multiple treatment interference in an alternating treatments design was shown to be a function of the length of the intercomponent interval (ICI) separating treatment conditions. In the first study, we evaluated the effects of four different treatments on the mouthing of a severely retarded boy. Under a 1-min ICI no consistent differential responding to treatment was obtained. Differential responding emerged when the ICI was increased from 1 min to 120 min, thus suggesting multiple treatment interference in the lack of differential responding under a 1-min changeover interval. Functional control of the nondifferential and differential responding as a function of the ICI length was replicated in a reversal phase. In the second study, we compared two treatment procedures for the disruptive noncompliant behavior of a moderately retarded boy. Multiple treatment interference (i.e., the lack of differential responding) occurred with the 1-min intercomponent interval. An increase to a 120-min ICI again resulted in differential responding. A replication of multiple treatment interference by a reversal to a short interval phase was not achieved in the second subject. Results of this study support much of the basic literature on discrimination and multiple treatment interference. Major findings of this study are twofold: Multiple treatment interference can depend on the length of the changeover interval between treatments and multiple treatment interference can take the form of a lack of differential responding to various treatments. Implications for future research are discussed.