The Stroop Color-Word Test: Genetic and environmental influences; Reading, mental ability, and personality correlates.

Using a relatively large adult sample (271 participants in the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, including 50 pairs of monozygotic and 37 pairs of dizygotic twins), the authors evaluated prior findings of reading, mental ability, and personality correlates of Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT; J. R. Stroop, 1935) scores. The twin sample allowed the authors to estimate genetic and environmental influences associated with the SCWT scores. No meaningful personality correlates were detected. Genetic influences ranged from 35% for the Interference effect to 53% for the Word score. In spite of significant correlations between the SCWT scores and selected measures of mental ability, genetic influence on SCWT scores was relatively unaffected when the influences of correlated ability measures were removed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The intelligence test performance of Maori children: A cross cultural study.

Maori children and New Zealand children were given the SRA form of Thurstone's Test of Primary Mental Abilities and a special nonverbal test battery. The Maori groups did worse than the control on the nonverbal test than on the PMA. This findings raises some doubt on the effectiveness of nonverbal tests for the evaluation of mental ability of culturally handicapped groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between personality structure, structure of word meaning, and cognitive ability: A study of cultural mechanisms of personality.

Native-born Estonian men (N=912), 17-68 years old, participated in a study on relationships between personality characteristics, dominant structure of word meaning ("everyday concepts" thinking or "scientific concepts" thinking), and level of cognitive ability. Individuals who primarily used everyday concepts thinking or who possessed relatively low levels of cognitive ability did not reveal a coherent Big Five personality structure, whereas individuals who primarily used scientific concepts thinking or possessed high levels of cognitive ability did. Thus, personality may be shaped by a cultural factor--word meaning structure. Earlier studies, which seem to support the idea that Big Five personality structure is a biologically determined human universal, suffer from serious sampling problems and insufficient data analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the adequacy of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT): A reply to Snart, Dennis, and Brailsford.

Replies to comments by Snart, Dennis, and Brailsford (see record 1984-02928-001) voicing concerns about the validity of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). They have concluded that the WRAT overestimates the performance of Canadian children. They have also noted that the WRAT measures only word recognition and that word recognition is overemphasized as a measure of "reading." The present author addresses what are seen to be "fundamental" problems with their arguments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliable component analysis of the Stanford–Binet: Fourth edition for 2- to 6-year-olds.

Reliable component analysis (RCA) was conducted on the Stanford-Binet: Fourth Edition subtests for 2 to 6-year-olds using the standardization sample. Scores were derived through RCA to assess the Verbal Comprehension and Non-Verbal Reasoning factors suggested for children in this age range. The scores derived through RCA had greater discriminant validity than did equally weighted scores, whose high intercorrelations preclude effective discrimination or incremental validity. The difference scores derived through RCA were compared with equally weighted difference scores in terms of reliability and three types of standard error. Differences between RCA scores were more reliable than were equally weighted differences. The more reliable differences resulted in more precise confidence intervals and more powerful significance tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Smell Identification Test as a Measure of Olfactory Identification Ability in Schizophrenia and Healthy Populations: A Rasch Psychometric Study.

This study examines University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT; R. L. Doty, 1995) performance in 133 controls and 54 chronic, medicated outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ) using item-response theory modeling. Results show that UPSIT items contribute to 1 factor, cover a range of 8 standard errors of measurement, and articulate 3 ability levels. Although it is not difficult enough to discriminate among persons of above-average ability, the test has diagnostic utility in detecting moderate impairment. Independent of item difficulty, 13 items differentiate patients from controls. When 45 patients and 45 controls were matched on gender and age, patient accuracy remained significantly reduced. The findings support the test's utility and demonstrate how traditional data analysis is insensitive to complexities in test performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Masking misfit in confirmatory factor analysis by increasing unique variances: A cautionary note on the usefulness of cutoff values of fit indices.

Fit indices are widely used in order to test the model fit for structural equation models. In a highly influential study, Hu and Bentler (1999) showed that certain cutoff values for these indices could be derived, which, over time, has led to the reification of these suggested thresholds as “golden rules” for establishing the fit or other aspects of structural equation models. The current study shows how differences in unique variances influence the value of the global chi-square model test and the most commonly used fit indices: Root-mean-square error of approximation, standardized root-mean-square residual, and the comparative fit index. Using data simulation, the authors illustrate how the value of the chi-square test, the root-mean-square error of approximation, and the standardized root-mean-square residual are decreased when unique variances are increased although model misspecification is present. For a broader understanding of the phenomenon, the authors used different sample sizes, number of observed variables per factor, and types of misspecification. A theoretical explanation is provided, and implications for the application of structural equation modeling are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The factorial structure of the Dutch translation of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems: A test of the long and short versions.

In this article, the authors study the factorial structure of 2 versions (64 items and 32 items) of the Dutch translation of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP; L. M. Horowitz, L. E. Alden, J. S. Wiggins, & A. L. Pincus, 2000) in both a clinical sample (n = 382) and a student sample (n = 287). First, the authors test whether both inventories are constituted by correlated uni-dimensional subscales, and they conclude that this is true only for the short version. Second, the authors study whether the correlations between the subscales follow a circumplex pattern. This proves to be true for both versions. Coefficients alpha and correlations between the IIP-64 and IIP-32 subscales are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the latent structure of the MMPI-2 F(p) scale in a forensic sample: A taxometric analysis.

P. A. Arbisi and Y. S. Ben-Porath (1995) originally proposed that the Infrequency Psychopathology scale, F(p), be used as the final step in an algorithm to determine the validity of a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) protocol. The current study used taxometric procedures to determine the latent structure of F(p) among examinees with profiles that would necessitate the interpretation of F(p) when using Arbisi and Ben-Porath's proposed algorithm. Participants included a subsample of 289 consecutively referred pretrial forensic examinees adjudicated incompetent to stand trial with high Infrequency (F) scale scores, thereby providing a sample that would be expected to have a high base rate of persons with bona fide psychopathology and persons with incentive to overreport psychopathology. Using MAMBAC and MAXEIG, F(p) produced a taxonic latent structure within the subgroup of examinees who obtained raw scores on F of greater than 17. These results support Arbisi and Ben-Porath's original proposal to use F(p) to identify a distinct subgroup of overreported MMPI-2 protocols within forensic psychiatric examinees with high elevations on F. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)