Validity Evidence for the Different Item Styles of Overt Honesty Measures

Overt honesty measures have been shown to be multidimensional. The multidimensionality of those tests rests, in part, on the different kinds of item styles that make up the measures such as items referring to admissions of dishonesty, temptations to be dishonest, and rationalizations about dishonest behavior. The purpose of the study presented here was to determine the extent to which these item styles measure the same underlying construct by examining their intercorrelations and their differential ability to predict actual dishonest behaviors. The results suggest that the different item styles found in overt honesty measures may not be measuring the same construct.     

When the method makes a difference: Antagonistic effects on “automatic evaluations” as a function of task characteristics of the measure

Researchers often employ implicit measures as dependent variables to investigate processes of attitude formation and change. In such studies, experimentally induced differences are typically interpreted as reflecting change in automatic evaluations. We argue that experimentally induced effects on implicit measures may not always reflect genuine changes in evaluative responses, but can be driven by the mechanisms underlying the measurement procedure. In line with this assumption, the present research shows that these mechanisms can produce opposite effects of the same experimental manipulation for otherwise equivalent implicit measures. These results indicate that merely observing experimental effects on implicit measures does not allow direct inferences regarding changes in automatic evaluations. Instead, psychological interpretations of such effects hinge upon the mechanics of how a given measurement procedure responds to variations in the context. Implications for research using implicit measures are discussed.     

New multinomial models for the Chechile-Meyer task

This paper provides a critique of the Chechile and Meyer (J. Math. Psychol. 13 (1976) 269) multinomial processing tree (MPT) models that were generated for the measurement of storage and retrieval components of the correct recall rate. These models were developed for a specific test procedure that involved the random mixing of recall and recognition trials. A key problem with the Chechile and Meyer (J. Math. Psychol. 13 (1976) 269) models is the validity of an assumption made for foil recognition test trials. Three new MPT models for obtaining separate storage and retrieval measures are provided. These new models circumvent the difficulties of the Chechile and Meyer (J. Math. Psychol. 13 (1976) 269) models. Both maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) and population-parameter mapping (PPM) estimates (discussed in Chechile (J. Math. Psychol. 42 (1998) 432)) are provided for the model parameters. Monte Carlo studies were conducted to compare the relative accuracy of the MLE and PPM storage estimates. Both methods have the same average error rate for samples that are very large in size; however, for all the more practical sample sizes, the PPM estimates were more accurate. Statistical methods for model selection were also developed and tested. Finally, the new models were used to reanalyze some existing data. The new analyses provide strong validation evidence for the new models.     

Effects of low survivability cues and participant sex on physiological and behavioral responses to sexual stimuli

According to life history theory, environmental cues indicating that one's future survivability is low increase reproductive effort. This suggests that exposure to low survivability cues will increase people's preparedness to engage in sex. However, according to sexual selection theory and parental investment theory, evolutionary pressures favored a more conservative sexual strategy among women compared to men. We therefore hypothesized that men, but not women, would respond to low survivability cues with increased sexual preparedness. Accordingly, both subliminal and supraliminal death primes (as compared with control primes) led men, but not women, to exhibit increased physiological arousal in response to sexual images (Study 1), and stronger approach-oriented behavioral responses to sexual images (Study 2). Theoretical implications for life history theory are discussed.     

居民门诊费用现状及控制策略研究

近年来,各级政府和卫生部门均在采取措施控制医疗费用的不合理增长,但我国的医疗费用仍然呈上升趋势。门诊费用是医疗费用的重要组成部分,其上升幅度虽然有所下降,但仍高于城乡居民人均收入的增长幅度和同期的物价上涨幅度,对门诊费用的现状及控制策略进行研究,将有助于更有效地解决贫困人群看病难、看病贵问题。     

On the alleged impossibility of Bayesian Coherentism

The success of Bovens and Hartmann’s recent “impossibility result” against Bayesian Coherentism relies upon the adoption of a specific set of ceteris paribus conditions. In this paper, I argue that these conditions are not clearly appropriate; certain proposed coherence measures motivate different such conditions and also call for the rejection of at least one of Bovens and Hartmann’s conditions. I show that there exist sets of intuitively plausible ceteris paribus conditions that allow one to sidestep the impossibility result. This shifts the debate from the merits of the impossibility result itself to the underlying choice of ceteris paribus conditions.

Use of absolute and comparative performance feedback in absolute and comparative judgments and decisions

Which matters more—beliefs about absolute ability or ability relative to others? This study set out to compare the effects of such beliefs on satisfaction with performance, self-evaluations, and bets on future performance. In Experiment 1, undergraduate participants were told they had answered 20% correct, 80% correct, or were not given their scores on a practice test. Orthogonal to this manipulation, participants learned that their performance placed them in the 23rd percentile or 77th percentile, or they did not receive comparative feedback. Participants were then given a chance to place bets on two games—one in which they needed to get more than 50% right to double their money (absolute bet), and one in which they needed to beat more than 50% of other test-takers (comparative bet). Absolute feedback influenced comparative betting, particularly when no comparative feedback was available. Comparative feedback exerted weaker and inconsistent effects on absolute bets. Absolute feedback also had stronger (and more consistent) effects on satisfaction with performance and state self-esteem. Experiment 2 replicated these effects in a different university sample, and demonstrated that the effects emerge even when bets are placed after participants rate their satisfaction with their performance (although these ratings do not mediate the effect of feedback on bets). These findings suggest that information about one’s absolute standing on a dimension may be more influential than information about comparative standing, partially supporting a key tenet of Festinger’s [Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.] theory of social comparison.     

Demand Characteristics and Self-Report Measures of Imaginary Audience Sensitivity: Implications for Interpreting Age Differences in Adolescent Egocentrism

Self-consciousness during early adolescence has been explained as an outcome of adolescent egocentrism, in which adolescents create an imaginary audience (IA) of attentive, critical peers. The possibility that such self-consciousness might result from contact with peers who are more attentive and critical than those encountered during childhood or adulthood has not been considered. Study I tested whether young adults, who are not theoretically susceptible to IA, could be made to receive high scores on IA and self-consciousness measures by having them complete a procedure in 1 of 3 laboratory conditions—a critical audience, a noncritical audience, or no audience. However, participants in the critical-audience condition received significantly lower IA and self-consciousness scores than participants in the no-audience condition did. Study 2 tested whether the directions given to Study I participants might have been responsible for the unexpected findings. Results indicated that participants instructed to give mature-sounding responses received lower IA/self-consciousness scores than did those asked to report their honest opinions. Together, the results of Studies 1 and 2 indicated that survey measures of IA are subject to demand characteristics and highlighted the need to interpret with caution age differences in IA as traditionally assessed.     

2023版伦理审查办法的基本要求及审查要点评析

以科技创新与高质量发展要求为背景来解读2023年颁布的《涉及人的生命科学和医学研究伦理审查办法》（以下简称《办法》）,解析了该《办法》的总体框架与监管范围、伦理原则与审查要求、风险控制与知情同意,以及公平分配负担与受益。结合干细胞临床研究项目和健康医疗大数据研究,考察了其伦理审查要点。最后,作者提出《办法》不足之处,一是未明确研究者提交给伦理审查委员会材料清单的若干细节内容;二是的对伦理审查委员会的职责的若干规定有商榷之处。

     

Designer testing: using subjects'' personal vocabulary to produce individualised tests

The principle of designer tests is that of using a subject's own semantics rather than lists of words that may or may not be relevant or even understandable for the subject. The Personalised Emotional Index (PEI) is a prototype designer test, in this case a mood test, that uses words that the subject chooses from a list of suggestions within mood categories. Each person's test is custom made from familiar and understandable words from his/her own vocabulary. Such a test has much face validity, can be succinct and has comprehensibility for the subject. The results obtained when using this test at the same time as the Profile of Mood States Bipolar Version (POMS-BI) were very similar (e.g. in a regression analysis, the ‘elated-depressed' variable predicted present overall mood on both tests (POMS: t=5.25, p<0.000, PEI: t=5.84, p<0.000) with a high correlation for total scores (r=0.82, p<0.000). The PEI results were correlated within the two week interval (r's about −0.74; p<0.000) and reasonably but not highly correlated on retesting some months after the first testing (r's about −0.25; p<0.000). It was successfully used to differentiate mood variables from a group consisting of caregivers of people with schizophrenia (n=30, producing 399 days of data) and a group of unselected controls (n=62, producing 1080 days of data). The test appears to have validity, reliability, comparability, and utility.