WITHIN‐SUBJECT REVERSIBILITY OF DISCRIMINATIVE FUNCTION IN THE COMPOSITE‐STIMULUS CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR

According to the composite-stimulus control model (Weiss, 1969, 1972b), an individual discriminative stimulus (S^D) is composed of that S^D''s on-state plus the off-states of all other relevant S^Ds. The present experiment investigated the reversibility of composite-stimulus control. Separate groups of rats were trained to lever-press for food whenever a tone or a light S^D was present. For one group, the nonreinforced S^Δ condition was tone-and-light absence ($\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$). Tone-plus-light (T+L) was S^Δ in the other group. On a “stimulus compounding” test that recombined composite elements, maximum responding occurred to that composite consisting only of elements occasioning response increase. That was T+L for the group trained with $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$ as S^Δ and $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$ for the group trained with T+L as S^Δ. The S^Δ composite was next reversed over groups in Phase 2. In Phase 2 tests, maximum responding that was comparable in magnitude to that of Phase 1 was again controlled by the composite consisting only of elements most recently occasioning response increase—whether T+L or $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$. The inhibitory conditioning history of both composite-elements currently occasioning responding did not weaken the summative effect. These results confirm and extend Weiss''s composite-stimulus control model, and demonstrate that such control is fully reversible. We discuss how translating conditions of the stimulus-compounding paradigm to a composite continuum creates a functional and logical connection to intradimensional control measured through stimulus generalization, reducing the number of different behavioral phenomena requiring unique explanations.     

中学生心理求助意愿问卷的编制

目的:编制中学生心理求助意愿问卷。方法:经过初测后再选取260名中学生测试该问卷,并进行信度和效度的检验。结果:全量表的克隆巴赫a一致性系数为0.873(n=235,p<0.01);因素分析结果显示为经过初测后确定的四个因子的总方差贡献率为53.644%,四个因子分别为意愿倾向、评价、效果预期、心理卫生知识。结论:中学生心理求助意愿问卷具有较好的信效度,可以作为测查中学生心理求助态度和意愿的工具使用。     

Extreme damping in compliant composites with a negative-stiffness phase

Compliant composite unit cells were made with negative stiffness constituents. Flexible silicone rubber tubes were incorporated in a post-buckled condition to achieve negative stiffness. Large peaks in the mechanical damping tan delta were observed in these systems. Maximum damping was orders of magnitude in excess of the material damping of the silicone rubber.     

无望抑郁认知易感操作化方法及其研究述评

合成分数、基于最弱联结假设提出的最大值以及基于解释方式差异性提出的个体内标准差是目前无望抑郁研究中应用较广的认知易感操作化方法.回顾无望抑郁研究所使用的认知易感操作化方法,梳理这些操作化方法对理解无望抑郁症状发展及其治疗的意义,可发现合成分数与最大值反映了无望抑郁认知易感因子之间关系的不同侧面,后续研究可继续对这两种操作化方法进行比较,以个体内标准差计算出的解释弹性可能是无望抑郁理论之外新的易感因素,可为治疗抑郁提供新的视角.     

通过Mplus计算几种常用的测验信度

Cronbach＇s alpha系数作为信度估计指标存在诸多弊端.为了克服其不足,研究者提出了多种信度估计,而流行的统计软件尚未直接提供这些参数,以致在实践中并未被广泛采用.为了缩小理论和实践的差距,文章通过具体实例给出几种常用的信度估计（合成信度,单个指标信度和ωh）的Mplus程序.     

An Evaluation of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptom Scale as a Measure of Treatment Response and Remission in Psychotherapy and Medication Trials

The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptom Scale (BDD-SS) is a self-report tool that captures an array of representative behavioral and cognitive symptoms commonly displayed by individuals with BDD. The BDD-SS is regularly used among experts in the field, though its utility as a measure of treatment response has not yet been formally evaluated. Results from two clinical trials of BDD treatment were pooled from an archived database to create a sample of 220 BDD participants who received either psychosocial or medication-based interventions for BDD. We used baseline BDD-SS scores to describe psychometric properties, baseline correlations with other scales to examine the content validity of the BDD-SS, and longitudinal symptom data to evaluate capacity to detect clinically relevant change. Results indicated that the BDD-SS has good psychometric properties and is able to detect symptom change over time, although it showed lower rates of reliable change with treatment relative to the gold standard rater-administered Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale Modified for BDD (BDD-YBOCS). The BDD-SS offers meaningful information about treatment response in a self-report format and may be particularly useful to employ in clinical practice settings as a means of gathering symptom and treatment response data via self-report when rater-administered interviews are not feasible, although it may underestimate the extent of improvement with treatment.     

新世纪20年国内测验信度研究

随着验证性因子分析模型的应用, 信度研究进入了崭新的发展阶段。新世纪前20年国内有关测验信度的研究有三条发展主线。一是基于验证性因子模型的信度发展, 包括同质性系数、合成信度、最大信度等; 二是数据类型的拓展, 包括两水平和追踪数据的信度; 三是信度用途的拓展, 如评分者信度、编码者信度等。对于通常的测验(题目之间的测量误差不相关), 如果α系数够高, 信度就够高; 否则使用合成信度。如果一个统计模型中所有变量的合成信度都很高(超过0.95), 使用显变量建模与使用潜变量建模的结果差别不大; 否则, 使用潜变量建模较好。     

Replies to comments on "Which method delivers greater signal-to-noise ratio: Structural equation modelling or regression analysis with weighted composites?" by Yuan and Fang (2023)

Observational data typically contain measurement errors. Covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) is capable of modelling measurement errors and yields consistent parameter estimates. In contrast, methods of regression analysis using weighted composites as well as a partial least squares approach to SEM facilitate the prediction and diagnosis of individuals/participants. But regression analysis with weighted composites has been known to yield attenuated regression coefficients when predictors contain errors. Contrary to the common belief that CB-SEM is the preferred method for the analysis of observational data, this article shows that regression analysis via weighted composites yields parameter estimates with much smaller standard errors, and thus corresponds to greater values of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In particular, the SNR for the regression coefficient via the least squares (LS) method with equally weighted composites is mathematically greater than that by CB-SEM if the items for each factor are parallel, even when the SEM model is correctly specified and estimated by an efficient method. Analytical, numerical and empirical results also show that LS regression using weighted composites performs as well as or better than the normal maximum likelihood method for CB-SEM under many conditions even when the population distribution is multivariate normal. Results also show that the LS regression coefficients become more efficient when considering the sampling errors in the weights of composites than those that are conditional on weights.     

Reliable change in neuropsychological test scores is associated with brain atrophy in older adults

The reliable change index (RCI) is a commonly used method for interpreting change in neuropsychological test scores over time. However, the RCI is a psychometric method that, to date, has not been validated against neuroanatomical changes. Longitudinal neuroimaging and neuropsychological data from baseline and one-year follow-up visits were retrieved from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. The RCI was used to identify participants showing reliable decline on memory (ADNI-Mem; N = 450) and executive functioning (ADNI-EF; N = 456) factor scores. For each factor score, two groups (reliable change vs. no reliable change) were matched on potential baseline confounding variables. Longitudinal neuroanatomical data were analysed using tensor-based morphometry. Analysis revealed that reliable change on ADNI-Mem was associated with atrophy in the medial temporal cortex, limbic cortex, temporal lobe and some regions of the parietal lobe. Similar atrophy patterns were found for reliable change on ADNI-EF, except that atrophy extended to the frontal lobe and the atrophy was more extensive and of higher magnitude. The current study not only validates clinical usage of the RCI with neuroanatomical evidence of associated underlying brain change but also suggests patterns of likely brain atrophy when reliable cognitive decline is detected.