Serious delinquent behavior,sensation seeking,and electrodermal arousal

Low tonic skin conductance level (SCL) has been related, inconsistently, to both delinquency and sensation-seeking. This study tests the hypothesis that there is an interaction such that high sensation seeking delinquents, in particular, have low SCLs. Participants consisted of 335 boys from the Pittsburgh Youth Study classified as serious delinquents or controls based upon 10 years of prospectively collected self-report delinquency data. Participants' skin conductance was evaluated at age 16 along with several personality and neuropsychological measures. Both delinquency and sensation seeking were characterized by low SCL. However, there was no evidence to suggest that the presence of both of these factors together lead to especially low skin conductance levels. This finding is not explained by differences between the groups on measures of negative emotionality, IQ, socioeconomic status, or impulsivity.     

Mind-over-body beliefs in sport and exercise: A driving force for training volume and performance,but with risks for exercise addiction

We assume that athletic success is associated with certain beliefs that on the one hand promote performance-enhancing behavior (training volume), but on the other hand can also be detrimental to health (sports addiction). These beliefs are succinctly characterized by the title of the 9-item “Mind-over-Body” scale presented here. They are the three beliefs that 1) athletic performance requires a high level of effort, 2) that willpower plays an important role in athletic success, and 3) that athletic success requires pain tolerance. A total of six web-survey-based studies with a total of 1121 participants (approximately gender parity), including individuals with different levels of athletic performance (no competition; amateur sport; regional, national, or international competition), examined the psychometric network and construct and criterion validity of the MoB scale. Exploratory graph analyses, which included the studies with the largest sample sizes, showed that the three belief components (effort, willpower, pain) form separable communities within the MoB network and that the MoB items form communities distinct from self-control and self-efficacy. Meta-analyzed correlations across all six studies showed low positive correlations with self-control and self-efficacy. In terms of criterion validity, MoB beliefs were positively correlated with training volume and exercise addiction. We discuss MoBs as “on the edge of unhealthy” and place MOBs within a framework of related but distinct concepts.     

The biasing effects of selection and attrition on estimating the mean

Organizational and validation researchers often work with data that has been subjected to selection on the predictor and attrition on the criterion. These researchers often use the data observed under these conditions to estimate either the predictor or criterion's restricted population means. We show that the restricted means due to direct or indirect selection are a function of the population means plus the selection ratios. Thus, any difference between selected mean groups reflects the population difference plus the selection ratio difference. When there is also attrition on the criterion, the estimation of group differences becomes even more complicated. The effect of selection and attrition induces measurement bias when estimating the restricted population mean of either the predictor or criterion. A sample mean observed under selection and attrition does not estimate either the population mean or the restricted population mean. We propose several procedures under normality that yield unbiased estimates of the mean. The procedures focus on correcting the effects of selection and attrition. Each procedure was evaluated with a Monte Carlo simulation to ascertain its strengths and weaknesses. Given appropriate sample size and conditions, we show that these procedures yield unbiased estimators of the restricted and unrestricted population means for both predictor and criterion. We also show how our findings have implications for replicating selected group differences.     

Temporal distance and veracity effects on the level of detail in statements about intentions

Construal level theory states that future events that are nearer in the future and events that are more likely to happen have lower construal levels, and therefore have less detail, than events that are further away and/or less likely to happen. Consistent with this theory, the number of details in a statement can be a moderately good cue to deception. If veracity and temporal distance both affect detail, detail may only be a good cue to deception about events that occur at certain temporal distances. This paper describes a study on whether temporal distance and veracity affect detail levels in statements about intentions. The results suggest that temporal distance and veracity do not affect detail levels in this dataset. Intentions that were completed also did not differ from uncompleted intentions. Overall, the study found no support for the hypothesised effects of temporal distance and veracity on level of detail.     

The factors of female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses in Taiwan

Females choosing taxi driving as a career is rare, therefore, investigating such samples is often difficult. Speeding is one of the most common driving violations, however, there has been no research looking into female taxi drivers’ speeding issue. This study explores the factors of female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses in Taiwan. Data is based on a national survey and includes 235 professional female taxi drivers. The results indicate that female taxi drivers work approximately 27.37 days per month, at a mean of 9.76 h per day. Of the female taxi drivers represented in this study, 22.8% reported at least one speeding offense over a one-year period. The results of a logistic regression model reveal that the determinant factors associated with female taxi drivers’ speeding offenses are significantly related to age, educational level and mileage driven. However, job experience, business operating style, and vehicle engine size are not associated with committing speeding offenses. Practical implications for traffic safety of female taxi drivers are also discussed.     

中学生物理学科问题分类表征层次的研究

以三套分别含有按照解题方法可以分为二类、三类、四类的物理学科问题分类实验材料,对济南市6所中学3个年级766名中学生进行研究,结果表明:不同年级、不同学业水平学生分类表征层次的差异显著,呈现随年级升高而升高的趋势,学优生的水平明显高于学困生,学优生更多地倾向内在分类表征;随着分类任务的类别数量增多,更多学生倾向外在分类表征;不同性别学生的分类表征层次没有显著差异;不同物理学科问题分类表征层次学生的物理成绩之间存在显著差异。     

A minimal limit-cycle model to profile movement patterns of individuals during agility drill performance: Effects of skill level

Identification of control strategies during agility performance is significant in understanding movement behavior. This study aimed at providing a fundamental mathematical model for describing the motion of participants during an agility drill and to determine whether skill level constrained model components. Motion patterns of two groups of skilled and unskilled participants (n = 8 in each) during performance of a forward/backward agility drill modeled as limit-cycles. Participant movements were recorded by motion capture of a reflective marker attached to the sacrum of each individual. Graphical and regression analyses of movement kinematics in Hooke’s plane, phase plane and velocity profile were performed to determine components of the models. Results showed that the models of both skilled and unskilled groups had terms from Duffing stiffness as well as Van der Pol damping oscillators. Data also indicated that the proposed models captured on average 97% of the variance for both skilled and unskilled groups. Findings from this study revealed the movement patterning associated with skilled and unskilled performance in a typical forward/backward agility drill which might be helpful for trainers and physiotherapists in enhancing agility.     

谁该成为体验型产品网络评论的主角,图片还是文字?

图片、文字是体验型产品网络评论的两种主要形式,但关于两者对消费者影响的研究结论尚存在分歧。本研究基于解释水平理论,通过系列实验揭示了图片、文字评论在不同购买可行性情境下对消费者产品评价的影响,及产品类型(怀旧/非怀旧)的调节作用。结果表明:(1)购买可行性低情境下的消费者受文字评论的影响更大,而购买可行性高情境下的消费者受图片评论的影响更大(实验1a、实验1b和实验2);(2)购买怀旧产品时,购买可行性低情境下的消费者仍受文字评论的影响更大,而购买可行性高情境下的消费者受两类评论的影响无差异;购买非怀旧产品时,购买可行性高情境下的消费者仍受图片评论的影响更大,而购买可行性低情境下的消费者受两类评论的影响无差异(实验3)。本研究表明,当图片、文字评论与购买可行性在解释水平上一致时,影响力最大,且怀旧/非怀旧产品类型会调节这种效应。本研究还讨论了如何在实际中运用此结论。     

Eye Movements in Strategic Choice

In risky and other multiattribute choices, the process of choosing is well described by random walk or drift diffusion models in which evidence is accumulated over time to threshold. In strategic choices, level‐k and cognitive hierarchy models have been offered as accounts of the choice process, in which people simulate the choice processes of their opponents or partners. We recorded the eye movements in 2 × 2 symmetric games including dominance‐solvable games like prisoner's dilemma and asymmetric coordination games like stag hunt and hawk–dove. The evidence was most consistent with the accumulation of payoff differences over time: we found longer duration choices with more fixations when payoffs differences were more finely balanced, an emerging bias to gaze more at the payoffs for the action ultimately chosen, and that a simple count of transitions between payoffs—whether or not the comparison is strategically informative—was strongly associated with the final choice. The accumulator models do account for these strategic choice process measures, but the level‐k and cognitive hierarchy models do not. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Reading and related skills in Grades 6, 7, 8 and 9: French normative data from EVALEC

IntroductionTo appropriately assess reading difficulties, tests designed according to an appropriate theoretical framework and based on normative data are required.ObjectiveWe used EVALEC (Sprenger-Charolles, Colé, Béchennec, & Kipffer-Piquard, 2005) to collect data on the word-level reading skills and reading-related skills (phonemic awareness, phonological short-term memory, and rapid naming) of middle school children (Grades 6 to 9, about 80 in each grade).MethodIn the tests focused on word-level reading skills, the effects of regularity (regular vs. irregular words), lexicality, and length (short vs. long irregular words and pseudowords) were examined. Accuracy and processing times were recorded for all tests.ResultsThe effects of both regularity and lexicality were significant, whatever the measure and independently of grade. Both accuracy and speed were lower for longer pseudowords, whereas length did not have a significant effect on irregular word latencies and, surprisingly, long irregular words were read more accurately than short ones. Reading level as assessed by a standardized test (Lefavrais, 2005) was not predicted by phonological short-term memory; rapid naming (color names) and phonemic awareness were both predictors but, in both cases, only response times predicted reading level.ConclusionThese results, and particularly those from the reading tasks, are discussed in relation to models of written-word recognition developed to account for the reading of multisyllabic items (Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2010) in orthographies shallower than English (Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2014).