心理长度对二年级儿童数字线估计表征的影响

从心理长度的角度探讨二年级儿童在0~100和0~1000数字范围存在不同表征方式的原因。实验一要求二年级儿童完成长度均为10cm,范围分别为0~100和0~1000的数字线估计任务。实验二要求儿童对长度分别为10cm和18cm,范围均为0~1000的数字线进行估计。结果发现在两个实验中二年级儿童的估计均存在心理长度,但与以往研究的一年级儿童相比,心理长度的范围有所缩小。随着数字范围的增大或长度的减小,儿童的表征方式出现了从线性表征向对数表征的转变趋势。这些结果表明不精确的表征方式可能与心理长度策略的使用有关,心理长度在一定程度上影响了二年级儿童的估计表征方式。     

Attentional orienting and executive control are affected by different types of meditation practice

Several studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of meditation on attention. The present study investigated the relationship between focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM) meditation skills and the various functions of attention. In Experiment 1, we executed the attention network test and compared the performance of experts on dandao meditation with that of ordinary people on this test. The results indicated that the experts specializing in OM meditation demonstrated greater attentional orienting ability compared with those specializing in FA meditation and the control group. In addition, both expert groups registered improvements in their executive control abilities compared with the control group. In Experiment 2, we trained beginners in FA meditation for 3 months. The results showed that the experimental group exhibited significantly enhanced executive control ability. We infer that FA meditation skills promote executive control function and OM meditation skills promote both executive control and attentional orienting functions.     

Religiousness,religious coping methods,and cognitive test anxiety among African-American college students

This study explored the roles of religiousness and religious coping methods in predicting cognitive test anxiety. A convenience sample of 121 African-American students (97 females and 24 males) ranging in age from 18 to 39 (M_age?=?20.16), attending a historically Black university completed an online questionnaire assessing demographic information, religiousness, religious coping methods, and cognitive test anxiety. Results showed that negative religious coping methods were significant factors in predicting cognitive test anxiety. These relationships may be pertinent for understanding salient factors that influence cognitive test anxiety in African-American college students.     

First Among Equals: Hybridization of Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment and Evidence-Centered Game Design

The objective of the present article is to explore differences and similarities between cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) and evidence-centered game design (ECgD) in the service of intentional hybridization. Although some testing specialists might argue that both are essentially the same given their origins in principled assessment design and equivalency of measurement models, this view misses differences in their focus and operationalization. Given the strengths of both CDA and ECgD, there is motivation to consider ways in which each can deliberately inform the other. The intentional hybridization of CDA and ECgD has, at least in principle, significant advantages to produce a stronger offspring than either parent alone. The article includes four sections: (1) conceptual differences between CDA and ECgD, (2) conceptual similarities between CDA and ECgD, (3) challenges with CDA and ECgD, including narrowness of cognitive models, fidelity with learning, ocean of data, sensitivity to diverse learners, reliance on multidimensional psychometric models, and how hybridization may help, and (4) implications for educational assessment in the twenty-first century around the globe.     

Investigating Test-Taking Behaviors Using Timing and Process Data

The use of computer-based assessments makes the collection of detailed data that capture examinees’ progress in the tests and time spent on individual actions possible. This article presents a study using process and timing data to aid understanding of an international language assessment and the examinees. Issues regarding test-taking strategies, test speededness, test design, and their relationship to examinees’ demographic backgrounds and performance are also discussed.     

人格特质对考试焦虑的影响:多重中介效应分析

目的:探讨自尊、惧怕负面评价及无法忍受不确定性在人格特质和考试焦虑间的中介作用。方法:采用人格问卷简式量表EPQ-RSC、Rosenberg自尊问卷、惧怕负面评价量表简表、无法忍受不确定性量表和考试焦虑量表测量410名在校高中生和大学生。结果:(1)相关分析表明,神经质、惧怕负面评价、无法忍受不确定性及考试焦虑之间彼此正相关显著;外向性与自尊正相关显著,与惧怕负面评价、无法忍受不确定性及考试焦虑等负相关显著;精神质与自尊、惧怕负面评价及考试焦虑等负相关显著;自尊与神经质、惧怕负面评价、无法忍受不确定性及考试焦虑负相关显著。(2)回归分析表明,人格特质中的神经质和精神质能显著预测考试焦虑,无法忍受不确定性在人格特质和考试焦虑之间起部分中介作用;结构方程模型分析结果显示,人格特质中神经质和精神质对考试焦虑的直接效应显著,经由自尊、惧怕负面评价和无法忍受不确定性对考试焦虑的间接效应也极为显著。结论:自尊、惧怕负面评价和无法忍受不确定性在人格特质与考试焦虑间起着中介作用。     

CAREGIVER SENSITIVITY AND CONSISTENCY AND CHILDREN'S PRIOR FAMILY EXPERIENCE AS CONTEXTS FOR EARLY DEVELOPMENT WITHIN INSTITUTIONS

The current study addressed whether two institution‐wide interventions in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, that increased caregiver sensitivity (Training Only: TO) or both caregiver sensitivity and consistency (Training plus Structural Changes: T+SC) promoted better socioemotional and cognitive development than did a No Intervention (NoI) institution during the first year of life for children who were placed soon after birth. It also assessed whether having spent less than 9 versus 9 to 36 months with a family prior to institutionalization was related to children's subsequent socioemotional and cognitive development within these three institutions. The Battelle Developmental Inventory (J. Newborg, J.R. Stock, L. Wnek, J. Guidubaldi, & J. Svinicki, 1988) was used to assess the socioemotional and cognitive functioning of children in NoI (n = 95), TO (n = 104), and T+SC (n = 86) at two to three time points during their first 6 to 12 months of residency. Results suggest that improving caregiver sensitivity can improve the cognitive development of infants in the first year of institutionalization whereas improving caregiver consistency in addition to sensitivity is more beneficial for socioemotional development than is sensitivity alone. Similarly, for children in T+SC, longer time with a family prior to institutionalization (consistent caregiver, unknown sensitivity) was associated with better socioemotional, but not cognitive, baseline scores and more rapid cognitive than socioemotional development during institutionalization. These results suggest caregiver sensitivity is more highly related to cognitive development whereas caregiver consistency is more related to socioemotional development in the first years of life.     

Aggressive content and related defenses in Rorschach responses of children ages 6–14

The aim of this study was to test the psychoanalytic notion that there is a gradual progression with age from primary to secondary process thinking. Three cohorts of children, age 6, 9, and 12, were administered the Rorschach procedure at yearly intervals—twice for the oldest cohort and three times for the two younger ones. No support was found for the developmental hypothesis in terms of aggressive content of the responses and the related defenses. The expectation of more aggressive content at earlier ages, as a reflection of more primitive aggressive drives, was not confirmed.     

The influence of standard-opponent tests on blood androgen and corticoid levels of high- and low-ranking swordtail males (Xiphophorus helleri) before and after social isolation

The blood androgen levels of both high- and low-ranking swordtail males show a reduction to one third of initial levels after social isolation but are returned to normal following a 20-minute exposure to a small male of the same species behind a transparent partition (standard-opponent test). Experiments to determine the cause of this effect revealed that the social contact involved in the test was not responsible, but that rather the presence of the fish in a new environment (the test-aquarium) for 20 hours itself sufficed to restore the normal androgen concentrations. The blood corticoid levels of both high- and low-ranking males are also reduced to one third of initial levels by social isolation. The normal level of this hormone was, however, restored following a standard-opponent test only in the case of the high-ranking males; the corticoid levels of the low-ranking males remaining depressed. Transfer to a new environment in itself did not account for the effect on the high-ranking males. This result suggests that the pituitary-adrenal systems of high- and low-ranking males are differentially responsive to the social situation represented by the standard-opponent test.     

Illustration of Multilevel Explanatory IRT Model DIF Testing with the Creative Thinking Scale

Creativity has been well studied in the past several decades, and numerous measures have been developed to assess creativity. However, validity evidence associated with each measure is often mixed. In particular, the social consequence aspect of validity has received little attention. This is partly due to the difficulty of testing for differential item functioning (DIF) within the traditional classical test theory framework, which still remains the most popular approach to assessing creativity. Hence, this study provides an example of examining differential item functioning using multilevel explanatory item response theory models. The Creative Thinking Scale was tested for DIF in a sample of 1043 10th–12th graders. Results revealed significant uniform and non-uniform DIF for some items. Differentially functioning items are able to produce measurement bias and should be either deleted or modeled. The detailed implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.