Using Automated Essay Scores as an Anchor When Equating Constructed Response Writing Tests

Assessments consisting of only a few extended constructed response items (essays) are not typically equated using anchor test designs as there are typically too few essay prompts in each form to allow for meaningful equating. This article explores the idea that output from an automated scoring program designed to measure writing fluency (a common objective of many writing prompts) can be used in place of a more traditional anchor. The linear-logistic equating method used in this article is a variant of the Tucker linear equating method appropriate for the limited score range typical of essays. The procedure is applied to historical data. Although the procedure only results in small improvements over identity equating (not equating prompts), it does produce a viable alternative, and a mechanism for checking that the identity equating is appropriate. This may be particularly useful for measuring rater drift or equating mixed format tests.     

Bartlett revisited: Direct comparison of repeated reproduction and serial reproduction techniques

Bartlett developed the procedures of repeated reproduction (the same person repeatedly recalling information) and serial reproduction (people transmitting information from one person to another). Our experiment directly compared recall accuracy across these two techniques, which has not previously been reported, using DRM word lists. Recall of the initial study list words remained constant across repeated reproductions but declined markedly across serial reproductions. In contrast, recall of associated words that were not originally studied (i.e. critical words) was steady across both conditions. Because more of the original list words were forgotten across each link of the serial reproduction chain, the proportion of critical items recalled (relative to list words) increased significantly as the list passed between people. Using output bound scoring, serial reproduction resulted in lower accuracy than repeated reproduction by the final recall trial. Our results are broadly consistent with Bartlett's (1932) informal observations: Serial reproduction produces greater forgetting of the original material than does repeated reproduction and also leads to greater distortion relative to the proportion of correct material recalled.     

Subjective Cues to Deception/Honesty in a High Stakes Situation: An Exploratory Approach

ABSTRACT. The low ecological validity of much of the research on deception detection is a limitation recognized by researchers in the field. Consequently, the present studies investigated subjective cues to deception using the real life, high stakes situation of people making public appeals for help with missing or murdered relatives. It was expected that cues related to affect would be particularly salient in this context. Study 1 was a qualitative investigation identifying cues to deception reportedly used by people accurate at detecting deception. Studies 2 and 3 were then empirical investigations that mainly employed the cues reported in Study 1. A number of subjective cues were found to discriminate between honest and deceptive appeals, including some previously unidentified cues, and cues likely to be context-specific. Most could be categorized under the themes of authenticity of emotion, and negative and positive affective reactions to the appealer. It is concluded that some cues to deception may emerge only in real life, high stakes situations; however, it is argued that some of these may be influenced by observers’ perceptions of the characteristics of offenders, rather than acts of deception per se.     

The Laboratory Course in Psychology: I. Methods Employed for Ranking Stimuli

Dietary requirements of Southern Plains wood rats ih'cotoma micropus nticropus, Baird) were studied by Richter's self-selection of diet method. Nine of 16 adult wood rats fed an array of four purified or semipurified foodstuffs plus water slowly adjusted to the dietary arrangement and thrived thereafter. The other wood rats exhibited nonspecific rejection for all items until death. Subsequently, foodstuffs from the array were mixed in quantities proportional to the mean daily intake of each by the successful selectors during the final portion of the self-selection period. Successful selectors and an equal number of experimentally naive wood rats were fed the mash for nine weeks. Neither group differed significantly in weight at the end of the period from a control group fed a commercial chow     

Faking on a situational judgment test in a medical school selection setting: Effect of different scoring methods?

We examined the occurrence of faking on a rating situational judgment test (SJT) by comparing SJT scores and response styles of the same individuals across two naturally occurring situations. An SJT for medical school selection was administered twice to the same group of applicants (N = 317) under low‐stakes (T1) and high‐stakes (T2) circumstances. The SJT was scored using three different methods that were differentially affected by response tendencies. Applicants used significantly more extreme responding on T2 than T1. Faking (higher SJT score on T2) was only observed for scoring methods that controlled for response tendencies. Scoring methods that do not control for response tendencies introduce systematic error into the SJT score, which may lead to inaccurate conclusions about the existence of faking.     

Prediction and classification in nonlinear data analysis: Something old,something new,something borrowed,something blue

Prediction and classification are two very active areas in modern data analysis. In this paper, prediction with nonlinear optimal scaling transformations of the variables is reviewed, and extended to the use of multiple additive components, much in the spirit of statistical learning techniques that are currently popular, among other areas, in data mining. Also, a classification/clustering method is described that is particularly suitable for analyzing attribute-value data from systems biology (genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics), and which is able to detect groups of objects that have similar values on small subsets of the attributes.This article is based on the Presidential Address Jacqueline Meulman gave on July 9, 2003 at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society held near Cagliari, Italy on the island of Sardinia.—Editor     

儿童说谎行为的类型与研究范式

说谎行为是儿童社会化过程中的重要表现,儿童说谎行为的发展有利于其认知发展,促进其对社会道德规范的了解和学习,帮助其更好地适应社会的发展。回顾现有的儿童说谎的类型,包括反社会谎言和亲社会谎言,介绍儿童说谎的研究范式以更全面地了解儿童说谎的种类,包括被动说谎范式和主动说谎范式,并在以往研究基础上指出未来可研究方向,如修改范式、增加对亲社会谎言的研究和对特殊儿童的谎言研究等,可以更好地理解儿童说谎的发展过程及实践意义。     

Promoting Honesty: The Influence of Stories on Children's Lie‐Telling Behaviours and Moral Understanding

Moral stories are a means of communicating the consequences of our actions and emphasizing virtuous behaviour, such as honesty. However, the effect of these stories on children's lie‐telling has yet to be thoroughly explored. The current study investigated the influence of moral stories on children's willingness to lie for another individual. Children were read one of three stories prior to being questioned about an accidental wrongdoing: (1) a positive story, which emphasized the benefits of being honest; (2) a negative story, which outlined the potential costs of lying; and (3) a neutral story, which was unrelated to truth‐telling or lie‐telling. Initially, most children withheld information about the event. Older children were better able to maintain their lies throughout the interview. However, when asked direct questions, children in the positive story condition were more likely to tell the truth than those in the negative and neutral conditions. No significant differences were found between the negative and neutral story conditions. The present study also investigated the relationship between children's conceptual understanding and behaviour. The findings revealed that children's knowledge of truths and lies increased with age. Children who lied had significantly higher conceptual scores than those who did not lie. Furthermore, the type of story children were read had a significant impact on their evaluations of true and false statements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Train the Trainers: A First Step towards a Science‐Based Cognitive Lie Detection Training Workshop Delivered by a Practitioner

A training workshop utilising recent research in cognitive lie detection was designed and evaluated. A unique future of the training was that a practitioner (retired police detective) instead of scientists (e.g. the training developers) introduced the techniques. To evaluate the training, 27 experienced police detectives each interviewed one mock suspect (a truth teller or liar) before training, and another group of 23 experienced police detectives interviewed one mock suspect (a truth teller or liar) after training. The police detectives were free to interview the mock suspect in any way they felt appropriate, but those who had received training were asked to try to incorporate (some of) the taught techniques in their interviews. The detectives made veracity judgements, and the interviews were transcribed and coded for the amount of detail elicited and the questions asked. Training had a modest effect on the ability to distinguish between truths and lies but resulted in a higher percentage of appropriate questions asked. Trainees did not implement the taught techniques to an equal extent, but when they did, the techniques enhanced the elicitation of information. The training study also revealed challenges, particularly difficulty in implementing the taught techniques into practice and asking the right questions to elicit differences in detail between truth tellers and liars. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

外语焦虑、紧张情绪与认知负荷对外语说谎的影响：来自中-英双语者的证据

采用错误陈述范式探究中-英双语者用母语和外语说真话和说谎时的认知神经差异, 涉及外语焦虑、认知负荷和说谎诱发的紧张情绪。对P200和CNV观察发现：(1)中-英双语者用英语说真话的P200波幅比用母语大, 说明被试用英语说话时受外语焦虑情绪影响; (2)中-英双语者用英语说谎与说真话的P200波幅无显著差异, 但用母语说谎和讲真话的P200波幅差异显著, 说明被试用外语说谎没有用母语说谎诱发的紧张情绪大; (3)中-英双语者说谎时的CNV波幅比说真话时大, 说明被试说谎比说真话的认知负荷更大; (4)中-英双语者用英语说谎时的CNV波幅比用汉语说谎时大, 说明被试用外语说谎比用母语说谎产生了更大的认知负荷。相关分析表明, 英语熟练程度是影响中-英双语者用母语和外语说谎时的认知神经差异的重要变量。