A factor analysis of experimental social desirability and response set scales.

Intercorrelations between 19 response set scales, based upon the scores of 110 students, were factor analyzed and the factors rotated orthogonally. Edwards' SD scale and 6 experimental social desirability scales had their highest loadings on the 1st factor. 3 scales containing neutral items in which the probability of a True response to the items varied between scales were found to have their highest loadings on 3 different factors. Scales designed to measure the tendency to give deviant True responses to items with socially undesirable scale values, to items with socially desirable scale values, and to items with neural scale values were found to have their highest loadings on 3 different factors. The tendency to give deviant True responses to items with socially undesirable scale values was found to be related to the tendency to give deviant False responses to items with socially desirable scale values. The tendency to mark items as doubtful and the tendency to answer items marked doubtful as True were identified as 2 factors unrelated to social desirability tendencies. (31 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explicit and implicit learning of event sequences: Evidence from event-related brain potentials.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a serial reaction time (RT) task, where single deviant items seldom (Experiment 1) or frequently (Experiment 2) replaced 1 item of a repeatedly presented 10-item standard sequence. Acquisition of sequence knowledge was reflected in faster RTs for standard as compared with deviant items and in an enhanced negativity (N2 component) of the ERP for deviant items. Effects were larger for participants showing explicit knowledge in their verbal reports and in a recognition test. The lateralized readiness potential indicated that correct responses were activated with shorter latencies after training. For deviant items, participants with explicit knowledge showed an initial activation of the incorrect but expected response. These findings suggest that the acquisition of explicit and implicit knowledge is reflected in different electrophysiological correlates and that sequence learning may involve the anticipatory preparation of responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detecting variety: What's so special about uniformity?

People and pigeons were taught to make 1 of 2 responses to 16-icon arrays that differed in their visual variability. In 2 experiments, participants had to (1) discriminate a collection of identical items from a collection in which 2 or more items were different or (2) discriminate a collection of different items from a collection in which 2 or more items were identical. In Experiment 1, humans found it much easier to discriminate uniformity from all levels of diversity. In Experiment 2, pigeons also found it easier to discriminate uniformity from all levels of diversity, but the size of this effect was smaller than that observed in people. These and other results suggest that both species are predisposed to notice differences rather than similarities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychometric properties of reverse-scored items on the CES-D in a sample of ethnically diverse older adults.

Reverse-scored items on assessment scales increase cognitive processing demands and may therefore lead to measurement problems for older adult respondents. In this study, the objective was to examine possible psychometric inadequacies of reverse-scored items on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) when used to assess ethnically diverse older adults. Using baseline data from a gerontologic clinical trial (n = 460), we tested the hypotheses that the reversed items on the CES-D (a) are less reliable than nonreversed items, (b) disproportionately lead to intraindividually atypical responses that are psychometrically problematic, and (c) evidence improved measurement properties when an imputation procedure based on the scale mean is used to replace atypical responses. In general, the results supported the hypotheses. Relative to nonreversed CES-D items, the 4 reversed items were less internally consistent, were associated with lower item-scale correlations, and were more often answered atypically at an intraindividual level. Further, the atypical responses were negatively correlated with responses to psychometrically sound nonreversed items that had similar content. The use of imputation to replace atypical responses enhanced the predictive validity of the set of reverse-scored items. Among older adult respondents, reverse-scored items are associated with measurement difficulties. It is recommended that appropriate correction procedures such as item readministration or statistical imputation be applied to reduce the difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applicability paradigm: Students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness in different countries.

The author (1981) reviews 4 studies concerning his paradigm for studying the applicability of 2 North American instruments designed to measure students' evaluations of university-teaching effectiveness in different countries. Across the 4 studies (1) all items were judged to be appropriate by a large majority of the students; (2) all items were selected by some students as being most important; (3) there was a surprising consistency in the items judged to be less appropriate and most important; (4) all but the Workload/Difficulty items clearly differentiated between good and poor instructors; (5) factor analyses generally replicated the factors that each instrument was designed to measure; and (6) multitrait–multimethod analyses demonstrated strong support for both the convergent and divergent validity of responses to the 2 instruments. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Item stability as related to implicit set and subject-item distance.

Studied the responses of 156 high school students to a list of interest items, 1st under standard conditions and then after a 3-wk period, under an implicit set designed to influence responses in a specific direction. 4 instruments were employed: the interest scale (using selected items from the strong vocational interest blank, kuder preference record, and french's interest index), the post-experimental inquiry, the scientific knowledge survey, and the artistic knowledge survey, and the artistic knowledge survey. An attempt was made to determine whether responses to items affected by an implicit set could not only be identified by their relevant content but also be shown to lie close to ss' scale points. Some positive results were obtained. Ss tended to change more responses to items that were (a) relevant in content, (b) close to their scale point, and (c) answered in the unkeyed direction on the 1st trial. Differential effects are noted and analyzed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of open-end data as an aid in writing multiple-choice distracters: An evaluation with arithmetic reasoning and computation items.

Data gathered during the development of the Navy Arithmetic Test were analyzed to evaluate the utility of using distracters derived by administering the items in open-ended (OE) form. For both Computation items and Reasoning items moderately high correlations (about .50-.60) were found between frequency with which responses were written in by Ss in OE format and frequency with which the same responses were chosen in multiple-choice format. That OE-derived responses tend to retain their relative popularity in multiple-choice format appears to provide some support for the use of the relatively expensive OE technique in arithmetic test construction. Caution is urged in applying these findings to other test types. From Psyc Abstracts 36:05:5KJ31R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal-discrimination learning following a free-recall familiarization training procedure.

Investigated the effects of transfer from a modified free-recall task to verbal-discrimination (VD) learning. The free-recall procedure was designed to impact increments in experimental frequency to specific words that appeared in VD. 4 experimental groups, with 30 undergraduates in each, were given prior free-recall exposure to either all right VD items (A-R), all wrong (A-W), both the right and wrong items from same VD pairs (B-S), or both the right and wrong items from different VD pairs (B-D). A 5th group of 30 Ss served as a control and learned a free-recall list which did not contain any VD items (C). In terms of number of correct responses during VD learning, the groups were ordered as follows: A-R, C, A-W, B-S, and B-D. Results are interpreted as being consistent with derivations from the frequency theory of VD learning. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role expectation and role performance in distressed and normal couples.

To determine the relative importance of role expectations vs role performances in differentiating distressed from nondistressed couples, the Kelly-Tharp Marital Role Questionnaire was administered to 26 couples seeking psychiatric services and to 26 matched control couples. Distressed and nondistressed Ss were found to reflect very similar responses on expectation items and highly dissimilar responses on corresponding enactment items—findings that were particularly striking for items within the Sexuality and Solidarity scales. Methodological and theoretical considerations relevant to these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social desirability, item-response time, and item significance.

Pathological personality item responses have been shown to relate to the social desirability scale values of test items. It was hypothesized that both social desirability and pathological item-response frequency might vary as a function of the time permitted to answer test items. Two groups of Ss were administered the items of the Maslow, Birch, Honigman, McGrath, Plason, and Stein Security-Insecurity Inventory. Social desirability scale values for the items were established. Maximal reading time required for each item was also determined, and both groups were permitted to view each item for the same established length of time. 1 group was allowed 2 sec., the other group 10 sec. for each response. It was observed that time pressure reduced the number of pathological item responses, and that items scaled either high or low in social desirability tended to be answered in the socially desirable direction under time pressure. Females generally provided more critical or pathological item responses than did males. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomic responses during a replicable interrogation.

Calculated heart-rate and pulse-volume responses to visual and auditory stimuli associated with a replicable interrogation as stimulus-triggered across-S averages for 2 experimental groups totaling 75 18-25 yr. olds. Certain stressful points within the interrogator's question syntax could be determined from these average evoked responses, and the magnitude of group reactions to specific question-answer items could be scaled. Differential responses to audiotaped and videotaped stimuli were observed, the audio-only format inducing greater and more varied autonomic changes. The actual stress-value of specific question items and the shape of each average response were contingent on the sequence in which the items were presented. Selected subgroups of deceptive and embarrassing answers were isolated and separately evaluated. Implications of these observations for the analysis of individual responses to specific questions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-trend-related differences in tasks involving conjunctive probabilistic reasoning.

Conjunctive probabilistic reasoning has been studied at different ages to ascertain whether the conjunction fallacy is due to a task demand misinterpretation. Such a misinterpretation might occur because a task that requires a comparison between a superordinate class A and a subordinate class A&B is mistakenly interpreted as requiring a comparison between the two complementary subordinate classes of A (i.e., A&B and A¬B). Children (7- and 10-year-olds) and adults were required to make conjunctive probability judgments about problems for which explicit objective probabilities were provided. The total number of A items was kept constant and the frequencies of the A&B and of the A¬B items varied across problems. When the number of A&B items was smaller than the number of A¬B items, the frequency of congruent responses increased with age. When the number of A&B items was greater or equal to that of the A¬B items, the frequency of correct answers decreased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of favorable self-presentation.

Conducted 2 studies to examine the importance of the tactic used in presenting a favorable self-image (denying negative characteristics vs attributing positive characteristics) and to examine the perceived audience of the self-presentation (internal vs external) on responses to self-report personality items. In Study 1, 60 items were administered under low or high conditions of identifiability to 244 undergraduates. None of the items were found to be sensitive to the identifiability manipulation, which suggested that none of these items could be identified as being particularly sensitive to external audience concerns. In Study 2 with 156 undergraduates, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the process of attributing positive characteristics to the self is somewhat independent from the process of denying negative characteristics. Self-esteem was positively correlated with the tendency to unrealistically attribute positive traits to the self, and self-conscious persons were less likely to unrealistically deny negative characteristics. Findings suggest that the process of attributing positive characteristics to the self is different from the process of denying negative traits. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Canadian content and the WISC-R information subtest.

In 2 studies, 7 WISC-R Information subtest items were altered as recommended by P. E. Vernon (1977) to make them more appropriate for Canadian children. For 210 normal 4th–10th graders and 52 students (mean age 12 yrs 5 mo) referred for assessment, responses to the modified items were compared to responses to the original manual items. Data were also compared to data from the American standardization group (D. Wechsler, 1974). On the basis of these comparisons, it is suggested that Vernon's changes be adopted. (French abstract) (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leakage of relevant information to innocent examinees in the GKT: An attempt to reduce false-positive outcomes by introducing target stimuli.

This study focused on the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT)—a psychophysiological detection method based on a series of multiple-choice questions, each having one relevant and several neutral (control) alternatives. The study examined a new method designed to reduce false-positive outcomes due to leakage of relevant items to innocent suspects by introducing target items (i.e., items known to all examinees but unrelated to the crime) to which participants have to respond (e.g., by pressing a key) while answering the GKT questions. Informed innocent participants showed relatively larger electrodermal responses to the critical items than uninformed participants, but not as large as the responses made by guilty participants. No differences between informed and uninformed innocent participants were obtained with a respiration measure. The use of the target items tended to reduce the differences between informed and uninformed innocent participants. The results further demonstrated that electrodermal responding to the relevant items was correlated with memory of these items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of teacher judgments of student responses to standardized test items.

Six students were randomly selected from each of 4 3rd-grade and 4 5th-grade classes. For each of their 6 students, teachers were asked to predict whether the student had responded correctly or incorrectly to selected items on the SRA (Science Research Associates) Achievement Series. Aggregate measures of teachers' judgments of their students' responses correlated positively and substantially with aggregate measures of students' actual responses. Teachers accurately judged their students' responses to individual items for approximately three-quarters of the total number of test items. However, the accuracy of teachers' judgments varied significantly with subtest, and there were significant individual differences among teachers in the accuracy of their judgments. Teachers were least accurate in judging low-performing students and most accurate in judging high-performing students. These results are consistent with previous research and are discussed within the context of interactive decision making of teachers. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)