Statistical Significance Levels of Nonparametric Tests Biased by Heterogeneous Variances of Treatment Groups

The statistical significance levels of the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and the Kruskal-Wallis test are substantially biased by heterogeneous variances of treatment groups—even when sample sizes are equal. Under these conditions, the Type I error probabilities of the nonparametric tests, performed at the .01, .05, and .10 significance levels, increase by as much as 40%-50% in many cases and sometimes as much as 300%. The bias increases systematically as the ratio of standard deviations of treatment groups increases and remains fairly constant for various sample sizes. There is no indication that Type I error probabilities approach the significance level asymptotically as sample size increases.     

The effect of repetitive saccade execution on the attention network test: Enhancing executive function with a flick of the eyes

The simple act of repeatedly looking left and right can enhance subsequent cognition, including divergent thinking, detection of matching letters from visual arrays, and memory retrieval. One hypothesis is that saccade execution enhances subsequent cognition by altering attentional control. To test this hypothesis, we compared performance following repetitive bilateral saccades or central fixation on the revised attention network test, which measures the operation of three distinct attentional networks: alerting, orienting, and executive function. The primary finding was that saccade execution increased the subsequent operation of the executive function network, which encompasses attentional control. Specifically, saccade execution decreased response time to target stimuli in the presence of response-incongruent flankers. A secondary finding was that saccade execution decreased response time to targets when an invalid location was cued prior to target onset. These findings suggest that saccades are an effective means of improving attentional control. Of greater theoretical importance, the study establishes attentional enhancement as a potential mechanism by which saccades enhance other aspects of cognition. Although some saccade execution effects have been found to depend on consistency of handedness (i.e., the consistency with which an individual uses one hand over the other), saccade-induced enhancement of attentional control occurred independently of handedness consistency.     

Social desirability in personality inventories: Symptoms,diagnosis and prescribed cure

An analysis of social desirability in personality assessment is presented. Starting with the symptoms, Study 1 showed that mean ratings of graded personality items are moderately to strongly linearly related to social desirability (Self Deception, Impression formation, and the first Principal Component), suggesting that item popularity may be a useful heuristic tool for identifying items which elicit socially desirable responding. We diagnose the cause of socially desirable responding as an interaction between the evaluative content of the item and enhancement motivation in the rater. Study 2 introduced a possible cure; evaluative neutralization of items. To test the feasibility of the method lay psychometricians (undergraduates) reformulated existing personality test items according to written instructions. The new items were indeed lower in social desirability while essentially retaining the five factor structure and reliability of the inventory. We conclude that although neutralization is no miracle cure, it is simple and has beneficial effects.     

Sufficient statistics and latent trait models

For questionnaires with two answer categories, it has been proven in complete generality that if a minimal sufficient statistic exists for the individual parameter and if it is the same statistic for all values of the item parameters, then the raw score (or the number of correct answers) is the minimal sufficient statistic. It follows that the model must by of the Rasch type with logistic item characteristic curves and equal item-discriminating powers.This paper extends these results to multiple choice questionnaires. It is shown that the minimal sufficient statistic for the individual parameter is a function of the so-called score vector. It is also shown that the so-called equidistant scoring is the only scoring of a questionnaire that allows for a real valued sufficient statistic that is independent of the item parameters, if a certain ordering property for the sufficient statistic holds.     

Individual distributions under ordinal measurement

For ordinal measurement the concept of an individual propensity distribution is developed. For any given individual the mean of this distribution is his true score, for which estimation procedures are discussed. Two measures of individual dispersion are considered and their distributions derived in the null case. These measures are shown to be counterparts at the individual level of Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho. Estimation of the two dispersion measures from sample data is investigated, and the relation of these estimates to the variance of the individual propensity distribution is derived.     

中国古代心理测验及其特色与价值

文章对中国古代心理测验历史进行反思,认为中国古代心理测验是以知人观为其理论依据,渊远流长,内容丰富,既有类似于现代西方的小时空心理测验,也有西方至今尚未充分关注的大时空心理测验。文章还阐释了中国古代心理测验的几个具体特色;置测验于生活实际中;文化与超文化测验井存;测验与选拨、训练、教学、娱乐相结合;精于定性,疏于定量。     

登楼试验在低肺功能食管癌患者术前心肺功能评估中的作用研究

对需行食管癌手术的418例患者行术前静态肺功能检查后,按第一秒用力呼气量占预计值百分比（FEV1％）分为两组：肺功能正常组（NPF）和低肺功能组（LPF）。NPF组直接手术治疗,LPF组补充登楼试验,选择部分患者经术前功能锻炼后手术治疗,观察两组的临床情况。静态肺功能测定结果较差而进行登楼试验筛选后的部分患者可以通过功能锻炼提高心肺功能储备,从而能够接受手术治疗。     

生态化微表情识别测验EMERT的建立——对JACBART微表情识别测验的改进与发展

经典JACBART微表情识别测验只考察平静表情背景下微表情识别,生态效度不高。本研究创建生态化微表情识别测验,考察所有7种基本表情背景下的6种微表情识别特征。结果发现:(1)该测验具有良好的重测信度、校标效度和生态效度,能够稳定有效地测量生态化微表情识别。(2)信效度检验揭示了生态化微表情识别特征。某些生态化微表情识别存在训练效应。生态化微表情与经典微表情或普通表情普遍相关。恐惧、悲伤、厌恶、愤怒微表情背景主效应显著;惊讶和愉快微表情背景主效应不显著,成对比较发现各背景下惊讶/愉快微表情差异不显著,但是与普通表情有广泛的显著差异。用不同背景下微表情识别正确率的标准差定义生态化微表情识别波动,发现生态化微表情识别具有稳定的波动性。     

观点采择对内隐刻板印象的影响研究

该研究对大学生在观点采择和控制两种条件下,性别-职业刻板印象的内隐联想测验结果的对比进行实验。研究表明：观点采择策略的干预效果明显,刻板印象的内隐效应在明显地减弱;在性别-职业刻板印象上存在内隐效应,而且没有性别差异,无论在正常情况下还是受到观点采择策略的干预,男女被试均表现出同等的情形,说明内隐刻板印象具有一定的适应性,在内隐的和无意识的水平上观点采择无法完全消除刻板印象;实验证明研究设计的性别-职业刻板印象的IAT纸笔测验版本是可行的。