Specifying the role of the left prefrontal cortex in word selection.

PubMed

Riès, S K; Karzmark, C R; Navarrete, E; Knight, R T; Dronkers, N F

2015-10-01

Word selection allows us to choose words during language production. This is often viewed as a competitive process wherein a lexical representation is retrieved among semantically-related alternatives. The left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is thought to help overcome competition for word selection through top-down control. However, whether the LPFC is always necessary for word selection remains unclear. We tested 6 LPFC-injured patients and controls in two picture naming paradigms varying in terms of item repetition. Both paradigms elicited the expected semantic interference effects (SIE), reflecting interference caused by semantically-related representations in word selection. However, LPFC patients as a group showed a larger SIE than controls only in the paradigm involving item repetition. We argue that item repetition increases interference caused by semantically-related alternatives, resulting in increased LPFC-dependent cognitive control demands. The remaining network of brain regions associated with word selection appears to be sufficient when items are not repeated. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of a Multidimensional Functional Health Scale for Older Adults in China.

PubMed

Mao, Fanzhen; Han, Yaofeng; Chen, Junze; Chen, Wei; Yuan, Manqiong; Alicia Hong, Y; Fang, Ya

2016-05-01

A first step to achieve successful aging is assessing functional wellbeing of older adults. This study reports the development of a culturally appropriate brief scale (the Multidimensional Functional Health Scale for Chinese Elderly, MFHSCE) to assess the functional health of Chinese elderly. Through systematic literature review, Delphi method, cultural adaptation, synthetic statistical item selection, Cronbach's alpha and confirmatory factor analysis, we conducted development of item pool, two rounds of item selection, and psychometric evaluation. Synthetic statistical item selection and psychometric evaluation was processed among 539 and 2032 older adults, separately. The MFHSCE consists of 30 items, covering activities of daily living, social relationships, physical health, mental health, cognitive function, and economic resources. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.92, and the comparative fit index was 0.917. The MFHSCE has good internal consistency and construct validity; it is also concise and easy to use in general practice, especially in communities in China.

Value-based modulation of memory encoding involves strategic engagement of fronto-temporal semantic processing regions

PubMed Central

Cohen, Michael S.; Rissman, Jesse; Suthana, Nanthia A.; Castel, Alan D.; Knowlton, Barbara J.

2014-01-01

A number of prior fMRI studies have focused on the ways in which the midbrain dopaminergic reward system co-activates with hippocampus to potentiate memory for valuable items. However, another means by which people could selectively remember more valuable to-be-remembered items is to be selective in their use of effective but effortful encoding strategies. To broadly examine the neural mechanisms of value on subsequent memory, we used fMRI to examine how differences in brain activity at encoding as a function of value relate to subsequent free recall for words. Each word was preceded by an arbitrarily assigned point value, and participants went through multiple study-test cycles with feedback on their point total at the end of each list, allowing for sculpting of cognitive strategies. We examined the correlation between value-related modulation of brain activity and participants’ selectivity index, a measure of how close participants were to their optimal point total given the number of items recalled. Greater selectivity scores were associated with greater differences in activation of semantic processing regions, including left inferior frontal gyrus and left posterior lateral temporal cortex, during encoding of high-value words relative to low-value words. Although we also observed value-related modulation within midbrain and ventral striatal reward regions, our fronto-temporal findings suggest that strategic engagement of deep semantic processing may be an important mechanism for selectively encoding valuable items. PMID:24683066

Value-based modulation of memory encoding involves strategic engagement of fronto-temporal semantic processing regions.

PubMed

Cohen, Michael S; Rissman, Jesse; Suthana, Nanthia A; Castel, Alan D; Knowlton, Barbara J

2014-06-01

A number of prior fMRI studies have focused on the ways in which the midbrain dopaminergic reward system coactivates with hippocampus to potentiate memory for valuable items. However, another means by which people could selectively remember more valuable to-be-remembered items is to be selective in their use of effective but effortful encoding strategies. To broadly examine the neural mechanisms of value on subsequent memory, we used fMRI to assess how differences in brain activity at encoding as a function of value relate to subsequent free recall for words. Each word was preceded by an arbitrarily assigned point value, and participants went through multiple study-test cycles with feedback on their point total at the end of each list, allowing for sculpting of cognitive strategies. We examined the correlation between value-related modulation of brain activity and participants' selectivity index, which measures how close participants were to their optimal point total, given the number of items recalled. Greater selectivity scores were associated with greater differences in the activation of semantic processing regions, including left inferior frontal gyrus and left posterior lateral temporal cortex, during the encoding of high-value words relative to low-value words. Although we also observed value-related modulation within midbrain and ventral striatal reward regions, our fronto-temporal findings suggest that strategic engagement of deep semantic processing may be an important mechanism for selectively encoding valuable items.

Evaluation of Item Candidates: The PROMIS Qualitative Item Review

PubMed Central

DeWalt, Darren A.; Rothrock, Nan; Yount, Susan; Stone, Arthur A.

2009-01-01

One of the PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System) network's primary goals is the development of a comprehensive item bank for patient-reported outcomes of chronic diseases. For its first set of item banks, PROMIS chose to focus on pain, fatigue, emotional distress, physical function, and social function. An essential step for the development of an item pool is the identification, evaluation, and revision of extant questionnaire items for the core item pool. In this work, we also describe the systematic process wherein items are classified for subsequent statistical processing by the PROMIS investigators. Six phases of item development are documented: identification of extant items, item classification and selection, item review and revision, focus group input on domain coverage, cognitive interviews with individual items, and final revision before field testing. Identification of items refers to the systematic search for existing items in currently available scales. Expert item review and revision was conducted by trained professionals who reviewed the wording of each item and revised as appropriate for conventions adopted by the PROMIS network. Focus groups were used to confirm domain definitions and to identify new areas of item development for future PROMIS item banks. Cognitive interviews were used to examine individual items. Items successfully screened through this process were sent to field testing and will be subjected to innovative scale construction procedures. PMID:17443114

[Development of a cell phone addiction scale for korean adolescents].

PubMed

Koo, Hyun Young

2009-12-01

This study was done to develop a cell phone addiction scale for Korean adolescents. The process included construction of a conceptual framework, generation of initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, preliminary study, and extraction of final items. The participants were 577 adolescents in two middle schools and three high schools. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion related validity, and internal consistency were used to analyze the data. Twenty items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 3 factors explaining 55.45% of total variance. The factors were labeled as withdrawal/tolerance (7 items), life dysfunction (6 items), and compulsion/persistence (7 items). The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with self-control, impulsiveness, and cell phone use. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 20 items was .92. Scale scores identified students as cell phone addicted, heavy users, or average users. The above findings indicate that the cell phone addiction scale has good validity and reliability when used with Korean adolescents.

The effects of relative food item size on optimal tooth cusp sharpness during brittle food item processing

PubMed Central

Berthaume, Michael A.; Dumont, Elizabeth R.; Godfrey, Laurie R.; Grosse, Ian R.

2014-01-01

Teeth are often assumed to be optimal for their function, which allows researchers to derive dietary signatures from tooth shape. Most tooth shape analyses normalize for tooth size, potentially masking the relationship between relative food item size and tooth shape. Here, we model how relative food item size may affect optimal tooth cusp radius of curvature (RoC) during the fracture of brittle food items using a parametric finite-element (FE) model of a four-cusped molar. Morphospaces were created for four different food item sizes by altering cusp RoCs to determine whether optimal tooth shape changed as food item size changed. The morphospaces were also used to investigate whether variation in efficiency metrics (i.e. stresses, energy and optimality) changed as food item size changed. We found that optimal tooth shape changed as food item size changed, but that all optimal morphologies were similar, with one dull cusp that promoted high stresses in the food item and three cusps that acted to stabilize the food item. There were also positive relationships between food item size and the coefficients of variation for stresses in food item and optimality, and negative relationships between food item size and the coefficients of variation for stresses in the enamel and strain energy absorbed by the food item. These results suggest that relative food item size may play a role in selecting for optimal tooth shape, and the magnitude of these selective forces may change depending on food item size and which efficiency metric is being selected. PMID:25320068

Combining computer adaptive testing technology with cognitively diagnostic assessment.

PubMed

McGlohen, Meghan; Chang, Hua-Hua

2008-08-01

A major advantage of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is that it allows the test to home in on an examinee's ability level in an interactive manner. The aim of the new area of cognitive diagnosis is to provide information about specific content areas in which an examinee needs help. The goal of this study was to combine the benefit of specific feedback from cognitively diagnostic assessment with the advantages of CAT. In this study, three approaches to combining these were investigated: (1) item selection based on the traditional ability level estimate (theta), (2) item selection based on the attribute mastery feedback provided by cognitively diagnostic assessment (alpha), and (3) item selection based on both the traditional ability level estimate (theta) and the attribute mastery feedback provided by cognitively diagnostic assessment (alpha). The results from these three approaches were compared for theta estimation accuracy, attribute mastery estimation accuracy, and item exposure control. The theta- and alpha-based condition outperformed the alpha-based condition regarding theta estimation, attribute mastery pattern estimation, and item exposure control. Both the theta-based condition and the theta- and alpha-based condition performed similarly with regard to theta estimation, attribute mastery estimation, and item exposure control, but the theta- and alpha-based condition has an additional advantage in that it uses the shadow test method, which allows the administrator to incorporate additional constraints in the item selection process, such as content balancing, item type constraints, and so forth, and also to select items on the basis of both the current theta and alpha estimates, which can be built on top of existing 3PL testing programs.

Construction and Analysis of Educational Tests Using Abductive Machine Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Alfy, El-Sayed M.; Abdel-Aal, Radwan E.

2008-01-01

Recent advances in educational technologies and the wide-spread use of computers in schools have fueled innovations in test construction and analysis. As the measurement accuracy of a test depends on the quality of the items it includes, item selection procedures play a central role in this process. Mathematical programming and the item response…

Accessing Information in Working Memory: Can the Focus of Attention Grasp Two Elements at the Same Time?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberauer, Klaus; Bialkova, Svetlana

2009-01-01

Processing information in working memory requires selective access to a subset of working-memory contents by a focus of attention. Complex cognition often requires joint access to 2 items in working memory. How does the focus select 2 items? Two experiments with an arithmetic task and 1 with a spatial task investigate time demands for successive…

Comparison of Alternate and Original Items on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

PubMed

Lebedeva, Elena; Huang, Mei; Koski, Lisa

2016-03-01

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in elderly individuals. We hypothesized that measurement error when using the new alternate MoCA versions to monitor change over time could be related to the use of items that are not of comparable difficulty to their corresponding originals of similar content. The objective of this study was to compare the difficulty of the alternate MoCA items to the original ones. Five selected items from alternate versions of the MoCA were included with items from the original MoCA administered adaptively to geriatric outpatients (N = 78). Rasch analysis was used to estimate the difficulty level of the items. None of the five items from the alternate versions matched the difficulty level of their corresponding original items. This study demonstrates the potential benefits of a Rasch analysis-based approach for selecting items during the process of development of parallel forms. The results suggest that better match of the items from different MoCA forms by their difficulty would result in higher sensitivity to changes in cognitive function over time.

Evaluating Statistical Targets for Assembling Parallel Mixed-Format Test Forms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Debeer, Dries; Ali, Usama S.; van Rijn, Peter W.

2017-01-01

Test assembly is the process of selecting items from an item pool to form one or more new test forms. Often new test forms are constructed to be parallel with an existing (or an ideal) test. Within the context of item response theory, the test information function (TIF) or the test characteristic curve (TCC) are commonly used as statistical…

A computational model of visual marking using an inter-connected network of spiking neurons: the spiking search over time & space model (sSoTS).

PubMed

Mavritsaki, Eirini; Heinke, Dietmar; Humphreys, Glyn W; Deco, Gustavo

2006-01-01

In the real world, visual information is selected over time as well as space, when we prioritise new stimuli for attention. Watson and Humphreys [Watson, D., Humphreys, G.W., 1997. Visual marking: prioritizing selection for new objects by top-down attentional inhibition of old objects. Psychological Review 104, 90-122] presented evidence that new information in search tasks is prioritised by (amongst other processes) active ignoring of old items - a process they termed visual marking. In this paper we present, for the first time, an explicit computational model of visual marking using biologically plausible activation functions. The "spiking search over time and space" model (sSoTS) incorporates different synaptic components (NMDA, AMPA, GABA) and a frequency adaptation mechanism based on [Ca(2+)] sensitive K(+) current. This frequency adaptation current can act as a mechanism that suppresses the previously attended items. We show that, when coupled with a process of active inhibition applied to old items, frequency adaptation leads to old items being de-prioritised (and new items prioritised) across time in search. Furthermore, the time course of these processes mimics the time course of the preview effect in human search. The results indicate that the sSoTS model can provide a biologically plausible account of human search over time as well as space.

Experimental Evaluation of Concepts for Miqsture; An Online Interactive Language for Tactical Intelligence Processing

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-10

Review Collection Plan File. L... _.. Table 20 (Item 18) Items 76 17, and’ 78 compared three different METHODS for recording the outcomes of a task...3-1 3.2 Background ........ n. .... .............. ...... 3-1 3.3 Method Summary...aspects of descriptions of selected tasks from Army tactical Intelli- gence processing. The results provided indications of what query methods have

Some Memories are Odder than Others: Judgments of Episodic Oddity Violate Known Decision Rules

PubMed Central

O’Connor, Akira R.; Guhl, Emily N.; Cox, Justin C.; Dobbins, Ian G.

2011-01-01

Current decision models of recognition memory are based almost entirely on one paradigm, single item old/new judgments accompanied by confidence ratings. This task results in receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) that are well fit by both signal-detection and dual-process models. Here we examine an entirely new recognition task, the judgment of episodic oddity, whereby participants select the mnemonically odd members of triplets (e.g., a new item hidden among two studied items). Using the only two known signal-detection rules of oddity judgment derived from the sensory perception literature, the unequal variance signal-detection model predicted that an old item among two new items would be easier to discover than a new item among two old items. In contrast, four separate empirical studies demonstrated the reverse pattern: triplets with two old items were the easiest to resolve. This finding was anticipated by the dual-process approach as the presence of two old items affords the greatest opportunity for recollection. Furthermore, a bootstrap-fed Monte Carlo procedure using two independent datasets demonstrated that the dual-process parameters typically observed during single item recognition correctly predict the current oddity findings, whereas unequal variance signal-detection parameters do not. Episodic oddity judgments represent a case where dual- and single-process predictions qualitatively diverge and the findings demonstrate that novelty is “odder” than familiarity. PMID:22833695

Comparison of Alternate and Original Items on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment

PubMed Central

Lebedeva, Elena; Huang, Mei; Koski, Lisa

2016-01-01

Background The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in elderly individuals. We hypothesized that measurement error when using the new alternate MoCA versions to monitor change over time could be related to the use of items that are not of comparable difficulty to their corresponding originals of similar content. The objective of this study was to compare the difficulty of the alternate MoCA items to the original ones. Methods Five selected items from alternate versions of the MoCA were included with items from the original MoCA administered adaptively to geriatric outpatients (N = 78). Rasch analysis was used to estimate the difficulty level of the items. Results None of the five items from the alternate versions matched the difficulty level of their corresponding original items. Conclusions This study demonstrates the potential benefits of a Rasch analysis-based approach for selecting items during the process of development of parallel forms. The results suggest that better match of the items from different MoCA forms by their difficulty would result in higher sensitivity to changes in cognitive function over time. PMID:27076861

Cortical Mechanisms of Prioritizing Selection for Rejection in Visual Search.

PubMed

Donohue, Sarah E; Bartsch, Mandy V; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Schoenfeld, Mircea A; Hopf, Jens-Max

2018-05-16

In visual search, the more one knows about a target, the faster one can find it. Surprisingly, target identification is also faster with knowledge about distractor-features. The latter is paradoxical, as it implies that to avoid the selection of an item, the item must somehow be selected to some degree. This conundrum has been termed the "ignoring paradox", and, to date, little is known about how the brain resolves it. Here, in data from four experiments using neuromagnetic brain recordings in male and female humans, we provide evidence that this paradox is resolved by giving distracting information priority in cortical processing. This attentional priority to distractors manifests as an enhanced early neuromagnetic index, which occurs before target-related processing, and regardless of distractor predictability. It is most pronounced on trials for which a response rapidly occurred, and is followed by a suppression of the distracting information. These observations together suggest that in visual search items cannot be ignored without first being selected. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How can we ignore distracting stimuli in our environment? To do this successfully, a logical hypothesis is that as few neural resources as possible should be devoted to distractor processing. Yet, to avoid devoting resources to a distractor, the brain must somehow mark what to avoid; this is a philosophical problem, which has been termed the "ignoring paradox" or "white bear phenomenon". Here, we use MEG recordings to determine how the human brain resolves this paradox. Our data show that distractors are not only processed, they are given temporal priority, with the brain building a robust representation of the to-be-ignored items. Thus, successful suppression of distractors can only be achieved if distractors are first strongly neurally represented. Copyright © 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/384738-11$15.00/0.

Early and late selection processes have separable influences on the neural substrates of attention.

PubMed

Drisdelle, Brandi Lee; Jolicoeur, Pierre

2018-05-01

To improve our understanding of the mechanisms of target selection, we examined how the spatial separation of salient items and their similarity to a pre-defined target interact using lateralised electrophysiological correlates of visual spatial attention (N2pc component) and visual short-term memory (VSTM; SPCN component). Using these features of target selection, we sought to expand on previous work proposing a model of early and late selection, where the N2pc is suggested to reflect the selection probability of visual stimuli (Aubin and Jolicoeur, 2016). The authors suggested that early-selection processes could be enhanced when items are adjacent. In the present work, the stimuli were short oriented lines, all of which were grey except for two that were blue and hence salient. A decrease in N2pc amplitude with decreasing spatial separation between salient items was observed. The N2pc increased in amplitude with increasing similarity of salient distractors to the target template, but only in target-absent trials. There was no interaction between these two factors, suggesting that separable attentional mechanisms influenced the N2pc. The findings suggest that selection is initially based on easily-distinguished attributes (i.e., both blue items) followed by a later identification-based process (if necessary), which depends on feature similarity to a target template. For the SPCN component, the results were in line with previous work: for target-present trials, an increase in similarity of salient distractors was associated with an increase in SPCN amplitude, suggesting more information was maintained in VSTM. In sum, results suggest there is a need for further inspection of salient distractors when they are similar to the target, increasing the need for focal attention, demonstrated by an increase in N2pc amplitude, followed by a higher probability of transfer to VSTM, demonstrated by an increase in SPCN amplitude. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Collaborative Filtering Based on Sequential Extraction of User-Item Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Honda, Katsuhiro; Notsu, Akira; Ichihashi, Hidetomo

Collaborative filtering is a computational realization of “word-of-mouth” in network community, in which the items prefered by “neighbors” are recommended. This paper proposes a new item-selection model for extracting user-item clusters from rectangular relation matrices, in which mutual relations between users and items are denoted in an alternative process of “liking or not”. A technique for sequential co-cluster extraction from rectangular relational data is given by combining the structural balancing-based user-item clustering method with sequential fuzzy cluster extraction appraoch. Then, the tecunique is applied to the collaborative filtering problem, in which some items may be shared by several user clusters.

Short-term memory for order but not for item information is impaired in developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Hachmann, Wibke M; Bogaerts, Louisa; Szmalec, Arnaud; Woumans, Evy; Duyck, Wouter; Job, Remo

2014-07-01

Recent findings suggest that people with dyslexia experience difficulties with the learning of serial order information during the transition from short- to long-term memory (Szmalec et al. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition 37(5): 1270-1279, 2011). At the same time, models of short-term memory increasingly incorporate a distinction of order and item processing (Majerus et al. Cognition 107: 395-419, 2008). The current study is aimed to investigate whether serial order processing deficiencies in dyslexia can be traced back to a selective impairment of short-term memory for serial order and whether this impairment also affects processing beyond the verbal domain. A sample of 26 adults with dyslexia and a group of age and IQ-matched controls participated in a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment in which we assessed short-term recognition performance for order and item information, using both verbal and nonverbal material. Our findings indicate that, irrespective of the type of material, participants with dyslexia recalled the individual items with the same accuracy as the matched control group, whereas the ability to recognize the serial order in which those items were presented appeared to be affected in the dyslexia group. We conclude that dyslexia is characterized by a selective impairment of short-term memory for serial order, but not for item information, and discuss the integration of these findings into current theoretical views on dyslexia and its associated dysfunctions.

The Subset Sum game.

PubMed

Darmann, Andreas; Nicosia, Gaia; Pferschy, Ulrich; Schauer, Joachim

2014-03-16

In this work we address a game theoretic variant of the Subset Sum problem, in which two decision makers (agents/players) compete for the usage of a common resource represented by a knapsack capacity. Each agent owns a set of integer weighted items and wants to maximize the total weight of its own items included in the knapsack. The solution is built as follows: Each agent, in turn, selects one of its items (not previously selected) and includes it in the knapsack if there is enough capacity. The process ends when the remaining capacity is too small for including any item left. We look at the problem from a single agent point of view and show that finding an optimal sequence of items to select is an [Formula: see text]-hard problem. Therefore we propose two natural heuristic strategies and analyze their worst-case performance when (1) the opponent is able to play optimally and (2) the opponent adopts a greedy strategy. From a centralized perspective we observe that some known results on the approximation of the classical Subset Sum can be effectively adapted to the multi-agent version of the problem.

The Subset Sum game☆

PubMed Central

Darmann, Andreas; Nicosia, Gaia; Pferschy, Ulrich; Schauer, Joachim

2014-01-01

In this work we address a game theoretic variant of the Subset Sum problem, in which two decision makers (agents/players) compete for the usage of a common resource represented by a knapsack capacity. Each agent owns a set of integer weighted items and wants to maximize the total weight of its own items included in the knapsack. The solution is built as follows: Each agent, in turn, selects one of its items (not previously selected) and includes it in the knapsack if there is enough capacity. The process ends when the remaining capacity is too small for including any item left. We look at the problem from a single agent point of view and show that finding an optimal sequence of items to select is an NP-hard problem. Therefore we propose two natural heuristic strategies and analyze their worst-case performance when (1) the opponent is able to play optimally and (2) the opponent adopts a greedy strategy. From a centralized perspective we observe that some known results on the approximation of the classical Subset Sum can be effectively adapted to the multi-agent version of the problem. PMID:25844012

The development of a science process assessment for fourth-grade students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, Kathleen A.; Welliver, Paul W.

In this study, a multiple-choice test entitled the Science Process Assessment was developed to measure the science process skills of students in grade four. Based on the Recommended Science Competency Continuum for Grades K to 6 for Pennsylvania Schools, this instrument measured the skills of (1) observing, (2) classifying, (3) inferring, (4) predicting, (5) measuring, (6) communicating, (7) using space/time relations, (8) defining operationally, (9) formulating hypotheses, (10) experimenting, (11) recognizing variables, (12) interpreting data, and (13) formulating models. To prepare the instrument, classroom teachers and science educators were invited to participate in two science education workshops designed to develop an item bank of test questions applicable to measuring process skill learning. Participants formed writing teams and generated 65 test items representing the 13 process skills. After a comprehensive group critique of each item, 61 items were identified for inclusion into the Science Process Assessment item bank. To establish content validity, the item bank was submitted to a select panel of science educators for the purpose of judging item acceptability. This analysis yielded 55 acceptable test items and produced the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 1. Pilot 1 was administered to 184 fourth-grade students. Students were given a copy of the test booklet; teachers read each test aloud to the students. Upon completion of this first administration, data from the item analysis yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.73. Subsequently, 40 test items were identified for the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 2. Using the test-retest method, the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 2 (Test 1 and Test 2) was administered to 113 fourth-grade students. Reliability coefficients of 0.80 and 0.82, respectively, were ascertained. The correlation between Test 1 and Test 2 was 0.77. The results of this study indicate that (1) the Science Process Assessment, Pilot 2, is a valid and reliable instrument applicable to measuring the science process skills of students in grade four, (2) using educational workshops as a means of developing item banks of test questions is viable and productive in the test development process, and (3) involving classroom teachers and science educators in the test development process is educationally efficient and effective.

Impact of auditory selective attention on verbal short-term memory and vocabulary development.

PubMed

Majerus, Steve; Heiligenstein, Lucie; Gautherot, Nathalie; Poncelet, Martine; Van der Linden, Martial

2009-05-01

This study investigated the role of auditory selective attention capacities as a possible mediator of the well-established association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development. A total of 47 6- and 7-year-olds were administered verbal immediate serial recall and auditory attention tasks. Both task types probed processing of item and serial order information because recent studies have shown this distinction to be critical when exploring relations between STM and lexical development. Multiple regression and variance partitioning analyses highlighted two variables as determinants of vocabulary development: (a) a serial order processing variable shared by STM order recall and a selective attention task for sequence information and (b) an attentional variable shared by selective attention measures targeting item or sequence information. The current study highlights the need for integrative STM models, accounting for conjoined influences of attentional capacities and serial order processing capacities on STM performance and the establishment of the lexical language network.

Concurrent deployment of visual attention and response selection bottleneck in a dual-task: Electrophysiological and behavioural evidence.

PubMed

Reimer, Christina B; Strobach, Tilo; Schubert, Torsten

2017-12-01

Visual attention and response selection are limited in capacity. Here, we investigated whether visual attention requires the same bottleneck mechanism as response selection in a dual-task of the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm. The dual-task consisted of an auditory two-choice discrimination Task 1 and a conjunction search Task 2, which were presented at variable temporal intervals (stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA). In conjunction search, visual attention is required to select items and to bind their features resulting in a serial search process around the items in the search display (i.e., set size). We measured the reaction time of the visual search task (RT2) and the N2pc, an event-related potential (ERP), which reflects lateralized visual attention processes. If the response selection processes in Task 1 influence the visual attention processes in Task 2, N2pc latency and amplitude would be delayed and attenuated at short SOA compared to long SOA. The results, however, showed that latency and amplitude were independent of SOA, indicating that visual attention was concurrently deployed to response selection. Moreover, the RT2 analysis revealed an underadditive interaction of SOA and set size. We concluded that visual attention does not require the same bottleneck mechanism as response selection in dual-tasks.

Development process of an assessment tool for disruptive behavior problems in cross-cultural settings: the Disruptive Behavior International Scale – Nepal version (DBIS-N)

PubMed Central

Burkey, Matthew D.; Ghimire, Lajina; Adhikari, Ramesh P.; Kohrt, Brandon A.; Jordans, Mark J. D.; Haroz, Emily; Wissow, Lawrence

2017-01-01

Systematic processes are needed to develop valid measurement instruments for disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) in cross-cultural settings. We employed a four-step process in Nepal to identify and select items for a culturally valid assessment instrument: 1) We extracted items from validated scales and local free-list interviews. 2) Parents, teachers, and peers (n=30) rated the perceived relevance and importance of behavior problems. 3) Highly rated items were piloted with children (n=60) in Nepal. 4) We evaluated internal consistency of the final scale. We identified 49 symptoms from 11 scales, and 39 behavior problems from free-list interviews (n=72). After dropping items for low ratings of relevance and severity and for poor item-test correlation, low frequency, and/or poor acceptability in pilot testing, 16 items remained for the Disruptive Behavior International Scale—Nepali version (DBIS-N). The final scale had good internal consistency (α=0.86). A 4-step systematic approach to scale development including local participation yielded an internally consistent scale that included culturally relevant behavior problems. PMID:28093575

Statistical Learning Induces Discrete Shifts in the Allocation of Working Memory Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Umemoto, Akina; Scolari, Miranda; Vogel, Edward K.; Awh, Edward

2010-01-01

Observers can voluntarily select which items are encoded into working memory, and the efficiency of this process strongly predicts memory capacity. Nevertheless, the present work suggests that voluntary intentions do not exclusively determine what is encoded into this online workspace. Observers indicated whether any items from a briefly stored…

Examining Student Heuristic Usage in a Hydrogen Bonding Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Kathryn; Kim, Thomas

2017-01-01

This study investigates the role of representational competence in student responses to an assessment of hydrogen bonding. The assessment couples the use of a multiple-select item ("Choose all that apply") with an open-ended item to allow for an examination of students' cognitive processes as they relate to the assignment of hydrogen…

Pesticide applicators questionnaire content validation: A fuzzy delphi method.

PubMed

Manakandan, S K; Rosnah, I; Mohd Ridhuan, J; Priya, R

2017-08-01

The most crucial step in forming a set of survey questionnaire is deciding the appropriate items in a construct. Retaining irrelevant items and removing important items will certainly mislead the direction of a particular study. This article demonstrates Fuzzy Delphi method as one of the scientific analysis technique to consolidate consensus agreement within a panel of experts pertaining to each item's appropriateness. This method reduces the ambiguity, diversity, and discrepancy of the opinions among the experts hence enhances the quality of the selected items. The main purpose of this study was to obtain experts' consensus on the suitability of the preselected items on the questionnaire. The panel consists of sixteen experts from the Occupational and Environmental Health Unit of Ministry of Health, Vector-borne Disease Control Unit of Ministry of Health and Occupational and Safety Health Unit of both public and private universities. A set of questionnaires related to noise and chemical exposure were compiled based on the literature search. There was a total of six constructs with 60 items in which three constructs for knowledge, attitude, and practice of noise exposure and three constructs for knowledge, attitude, and practice of chemical exposure. The validation process replicated recent Fuzzy Delphi method that using a concept of Triangular Fuzzy Numbers and Defuzzification process. A 100% response rate was obtained from all the sixteen experts with an average Likert scoring of four to five. Post FDM analysis, the first prerequisite was fulfilled with a threshold value (d) ≤ 0.2, hence all the six constructs were accepted. For the second prerequisite, three items (21%) from noise-attitude construct and four items (40%) from chemical-practice construct had expert consensus lesser than 75%, which giving rise to about 12% from the total items in the questionnaire. The third prerequisite was used to rank the items within the constructs by calculating the average fuzzy numbers. The seven items which did not fulfill the second prerequisite similarly had lower ranks during the analysis, therefore those items were discarded from the final draft. Post FDM analysis, the experts' consensus on the suitability of the pre-selected items on the questionnaire set were obtained, hence it is now ready for further construct validation process.

Selecting Items for Criterion-Referenced Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mellenbergh, Gideon J.; van der Linden, Wim J.

1982-01-01

Three item selection methods for criterion-referenced tests are examined: the classical theory of item difficulty and item-test correlation; the latent trait theory of item characteristic curves; and a decision-theoretic approach for optimal item selection. Item contribution to the standardized expected utility of mastery testing is discussed. (CM)

Criteria Considered in Selecting Feed Items for Americium-241 Oxide Production Operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schulte, Louis D.

The analysis in this document serves the purpose of defining a number of attributes in selection of feed items to be utilized in recovery/recycle of Pu and also production operations of 241AmO 2 material intended to meet specification requirements. This document was written in response to a specific request on the part of the 2014 annual program review which took place over the dates of October 28-29, 2014. A number of feed attributes are noted including: (1) Non-interference with existing Pu recovery operations; (2) Content of sufficient 241Am to allow process efficiency in recovery operations; (3) Absence of indications thatmore » 243Am might be mixed in with the Pu/ 241Am material; (4) Absence of indications that Cm might be mixed in with the Pu/ 241Am material; (5) Absence of indications of other chemical elements that would present difficulty in chemical separation from 241Am; (6) Feed material not expected to present difficulty in dissolution; (7) Dose issues; (8) Process efficiency; (9) Size; (10) Hazard associated with items and package configuration in the vault; (11) Within existing NEPA documentation. The analysis in this document provides a baseline of attributes considered for feed materials, but does not presume to replace the need for technical expertise and judgment on the part of individuals responsible for selecting the material feed to be processed. This document is not comprehensive as regards all attributes that could prove to be important. The value of placing a formal QA hold point on accepting feed items versus more informal management of feed items is discussed in the summation of this analysis. The existing planned QA hold points on 241AmO 2 products produced and packaged may be adequate as the entire project is based on QA of the product rather than QA of the process. The probability of introduction of items that would inherently cause the 241AmO 2 products produced to be outside of specification requirements appears to be rather small.« less

The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA)

PubMed Central

Mehling, Wolf E.; Price, Cynthia; Daubenmier, Jennifer J.; Acree, Mike; Bartmess, Elizabeth; Stewart, Anita

2012-01-01

This paper describes the development of a multidimensional self-report measure of interoceptive body awareness. The systematic mixed-methods process involved reviewing the current literature, specifying a multidimensional conceptual framework, evaluating prior instruments, developing items, and analyzing focus group responses to scale items by instructors and patients of body awareness-enhancing therapies. Following refinement by cognitive testing, items were field-tested in students and instructors of mind-body approaches. Final item selection was achieved by submitting the field test data to an iterative process using multiple validation methods, including exploratory cluster and confirmatory factor analyses, comparison between known groups, and correlations with established measures of related constructs. The resulting 32-item multidimensional instrument assesses eight concepts. The psychometric properties of these final scales suggest that the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) may serve as a starting point for research and further collaborative refinement. PMID:23133619

The Selection of Test Items for Decision Making with a Computer Adaptive Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spray, Judith A.; Reckase, Mark D.

The issue of test-item selection in support of decision making in adaptive testing is considered. The number of items needed to make a decision is compared for two approaches: selecting items from an item pool that are most informative at the decision point or selecting items that are most informative at the examinee's ability level. The first…

Distinct Effects of Lexical and Semantic Competition during Picture Naming in Younger Adults, Older Adults, and People with Aphasia

PubMed Central

Britt, Allison E.; Ferrara, Casey; Mirman, Daniel

2016-01-01

Producing a word requires selecting among a set of similar alternatives. When many semantically related items become activated, the difficulty of the selection process is increased. Experiment 1 tested naming of items with either multiple synonymous labels (“Alternate Names,” e.g., gift/present) or closely semantically related but non-equivalent responses (“Near Semantic Neighbors,” e.g., jam/jelly). Picture naming was fastest and most accurate for pictures with only one label (“High Name Agreement”), slower and less accurate in the Alternate Names condition, and slowest and least accurate in the Near Semantic Neighbors condition. These results suggest that selection mechanisms in picture naming operate at two distinct levels of processing: selecting between similar but non-equivalent names requires two selection processes (semantic and lexical), whereas selecting among equivalent names only requires one selection at the lexical level. Experiment 2 examined how these selection mechanisms are affected by normal aging and found that older adults had significantly more difficulty in the Near Semantic Neighbors condition, but not in the Alternate Names condition. This suggests that aging affects semantic processing and selection more strongly than it affects lexical selection. Experiment 3 examined the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) in these selection processes by testing individuals with aphasia secondary to stroke lesions that either affected the LIFG or spared it. Surprisingly, there was no interaction between condition and lesion group: the presence of LIFG damage was not associated with substantively worse naming performance for pictures with multiple acceptable labels. These results are not consistent with a simple view of LIFG as the locus of lexical selection and suggest a more nuanced view of the neural basis of lexical and semantic selection. PMID:27458393

Development of a gambling addictive behavior scale for adolescents in Korea.

PubMed

Park, Hyun Sook; Jung, Sun Young

2012-12-01

This study was conducted to develop a gambling addictive behavior scale for adolescents. The process involved construction of a conceptual framework, initial item search, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, and extraction of final items. The participants were 299 adolescents from two middle schools and four high schools. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion validity, internal consistency, and ROC curve were used to analyze the data. For the final scale, 25 items were selected, and categorized into 4 factors which accounted for 54.9% of the total variance. The factors were labeled as loss of control, life dysfunction from gambling addiction, gambling experience, and social dysfunction from problem gambling. The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with addictive personality, irrational gambling belief, and adolescent's gambling addictive behavior. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 25 items was .94. Scale scores identified adolescents as being in a problem gambling group, a non-problem gambling group, and a non-gambling group by the ROC curve. The above findings indicate that the gambling addictive behavior scale has good validity and reliability and can be used with adolescents in Korea.

A New Item Selection Procedure for Mixed Item Type in Computerized Classification Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, C. Allen; Wang, Tianyou

This paper proposes a new Information-Time index as the basis for item selection in computerized classification testing (CCT) and investigates how this new item selection algorithm can help improve test efficiency for item pools with mixed item types. It also investigates how practical constraints such as item exposure rate control, test…

Active Learning with Irrelevant Examples

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mazzoni, Dominic; Wagstaff, Kiri L.; Burl, Michael

2006-01-01

Active learning algorithms attempt to accelerate the learning process by requesting labels for the most informative items first. In real-world problems, however, there may exist unlabeled items that are irrelevant to the user's classification goals. Queries about these points slow down learning because they provide no information about the problem of interest. We have observed that when irrelevant items are present, active learning can perform worse than random selection, requiring more time (queries) to achieve the same level of accuracy. Therefore, we propose a novel approach, Relevance Bias, in which the active learner combines its default selection heuristic with the output of a simultaneously trained relevance classifier to favor items that are likely to be both informative and relevant. In our experiments on a real-world problem and two benchmark datasets, the Relevance Bias approach significantly improved the learning rate of three different active learning approaches.

Examining student heuristic usage in a hydrogen bonding assessment.

PubMed

Miller, Kathryn; Kim, Thomas

2017-09-01

This study investigates the role of representational competence in student responses to an assessment of hydrogen bonding. The assessment couples the use of a multiple-select item ("Choose all that apply") with an open-ended item to allow for an examination of students' cognitive processes as they relate to the assignment of hydrogen bonding within a structural representation. Response patterns from the multiple-select item implicate heuristic usage as a contributing factor to students' incorrect responses. The use of heuristics is further supported by the students' corresponding responses to the open-ended assessment item. Taken together, these data suggest that poor representational competence may contribute to students' previously observed inability to correctly navigate the concept of hydrogen bonding. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(5):411-416, 2017. © 2017 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Is embellishing UCAS personal statements accepted practice in applications to medicine and dentistry?

PubMed

Kumwenda, Ben; Dowell, Jon; Husbands, Adrian

2013-07-01

The assessment of non-academic achievements through the personal statement remains part of the selection process at most UK medical and dental schools. Such statement offers applicants an opportunity to highlight their non-academic achievements, but the highly competitive nature of the process may tempt them to exaggerate their accomplishments. The challenge is that selectors cannot discern applicants' exaggerated claims from genuine accounts and the system risks preferentially selecting dishonest applicants. To explore the level and perception of deception on UCAS personal statements among applicants to medical and dental schools. To investigate the association between attitudes towards deception and various other demographic variables and cognitive ability via the UKCAT. An online survey was completed with first year students from six UK medical schools and one dental school. Questionnaire items were classified into three categories involving individual acts, how they suspect their peers behave, and overall perceptions of personal statements to influence the selection process. Descriptive statistics were used to investigate responses to questionnaire items. t-Tests were used to investigate the relationship between items, demographic variables and cognitive ability. Candidates recognized that putting fraudulent information or exaggerating one's experience on UCAS personal statement was dishonest; however there is a widespread belief that their peers do it. Female respondents and those with a higher UKCAT score were more likely to condemn deceptive practices. The existing selection process is open to abuse and may benefit dishonest applicants. Admission systems should consider investing in systems that can pursue traceable information that applicants provide, and nullify the application should it contain fraudulent information.

A Comparison of Three Types of Test Development Procedures Using Classical and Latent Trait Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Jeri; Wilson, Michael

Three methods of item selection were used to select sets of 38 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test and the resulting item sets were compared for internal consistency, standard errors of measurement, item difficulty, biserial item-test correlations, and relative efficiency. Three groups of 1,500 cases each were used for item selection. First…

Parameter Estimation in Rasch Models for Examinee-Selected Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chen-Wei; Wang, Wen-Chung

2017-01-01

The examinee-selected-item (ESI) design, in which examinees are required to respond to a fixed number of items in a given set of items (e.g., choose one item to respond from a pair of items), always yields incomplete data (i.e., only the selected items are answered and the others have missing data) that are likely nonignorable. Therefore, using…

Neurophysiological correlates of emotional directed-forgetting in persons with Schizophrenia: An event-related brain potential study.

PubMed

Patrick, Regan E; Kiang, Michael; Christensen, Bruce K

2015-12-01

Recent research has shown that patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit reduced directed forgetting (DF) for negative words, suggesting impaired ability to instantiate goal-directed inhibition in order to suppress a competing, emotion-driven responses (i.e., emotional memory enhancement). However, disrupted inhibition is not the only possible mechanism by which patients could manifest reduced emotional DF. Therefore, the primary objective of the current study was to use event-related brain potential (ERP) recordings to investigate alternative hypotheses. ERPs were recorded while patients and controls completed an item-method DF paradigm using negative and neutral words. The N2 indexed goal-directed inhibition of to-be-forgotten items. The late positive potential (LPP) indexed emotional memory enhancement for negative study items. The P300 indexed selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. The SCZ group exhibited a reduced DF effect overall, but this was not modulated by emotion. N2 amplitude at anterior sites was larger for forget versus remember cues in the control group only, but this effect was not modulated by emotion. LPP amplitude was greater for negative versus neutral words in both groups, independent of region. P300 amplitude at posterior sites was greater for remember versus forget cues in the control group only. These data suggest that reduced DF in SCZ may be due, in part, to both diminished goal-directed inhibition of to-be-forgotten items and reduced selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. However, these data do not support the hypothesis that goal-directed, inhibitory processes are disrupted by competing, emotion-driven processes in SCZ. Patients' ERP data also suggested that they did not exhibit disproportionately heightened encoding of emotional stimuli, nor did they have deficient selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered emotional items. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimal Item Selection with Credentialing Examinations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hambleton, Ronald K.; And Others

The study compared two promising item response theory (IRT) item-selection methods, optimal and content-optimal, with two non-IRT item selection methods, random and classical, for use in fixed-length certification exams. The four methods were used to construct 20-item exams from a pool of approximately 250 items taken from a 1985 certification…

Achieving consensus on minimum data items (including core outcome domains) for a longitudinal observational cohort study in rheumatoid arthritis.

PubMed

Nikiphorou, Elena; Mackie, Sarah L; Kirwan, John; Boers, Martin; Isaacs, John; Morgan, Ann W; Young, Adam

2017-04-01

To obtain consensus on the minimum data items for an observational cohort study in RA in the UK and to make available the process for similar studies and other rheumatic conditions. Individuals with a diverse range of expertise and backgrounds were invited to participate in a process of proposing a minimum core dataset (MCD) for research studies, commissioned by Arthritis Research UK as part of the larger INBANK project. The group included patients and representatives from clinical and academic rheumatology, outcomes science, stratified medicine, health economics, and national professional and academic bodies/committees. A process was devised based on OMERACT principles for reviewing aims/objectives, defining the scope, identifying the important research questions and selecting key domains. Following the initial multistakeholder meeting, subsequent teleconferences and email communications: consensus was obtained on the most important and relevant research questions; agreement on how the OMERACT Core Areas (life impact, pathophysiological manifestations, resource use and death) could form the basis of a MCD; and consensus on 22 items for inclusion into a MCD. Workshops were undertaken for two essential items that required further exploration: work/social participation and co-morbidity. Reaching a consensus for the proposed minimal data items for long-term observational cohort studies of RA in the UK posed novel challenges and opportunities, and was largely successful. Further work is needed for selecting instruments for two important items and for achieving compatibility with other UK national initiatives, and more widely across Europe. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Concept development of X-ray mass thickness detection for irradiated items upon electron beam irradiation processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Huaili; Yang, Guang; Kuang, Shan; Wang, Qiang; Liu, Jingjing; Zhang, Xiaomin; Li, Cancan; Han, Zhiwei; Li, Yuanjing

2018-02-01

The present project will adopt the principle and technology of X-ray imaging to quickly measure the mass thickness (wherein the mass thickness of the item =density of the item × thickness of the item) of the irradiated items and thus to determine whether the packaging size and inside location of the item will meet the requirements for treating thickness upon electron beam irradiation processing. The development of algorithm of X-ray mass thickness detector as well as the prediction of dose distribution have been completed. The development of the algorithm was based on the X-ray attenuation. 4 standard modules, Al sheet, Al ladders, PMMA sheet and PMMA ladders, were selected for the algorithm development. The algorithm was optimized until the error between tested mass thickness and standard mass thickness was less than 5%. Dose distribution of all energy (1-10 MeV) for each mass thickness was obtained using Monte-carlo method and used for the analysis of dose distribution, which provides the information of whether the item will be penetrated or not, as well as the Max. dose, Min. dose and DUR of the whole item.

Rapid Forgetting Results From Competition Over Time Between Items in Visual Working Memory

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Working memory is now established as a fundamental cognitive process across a range of species. Loss of information held in working memory has the potential to disrupt many aspects of cognitive function. However, despite its significance, the mechanisms underlying rapid forgetting remain unclear, with intense recent debate as to whether it is interference between stored items that leads to loss of information or simply temporal decay. Here we show that both factors are essential and interact in a highly specific manner. Although a single item can be maintained in memory with high fidelity, multiple items compete in working memory, progressively degrading each other’s representations as time passes. Specifically, interaction between items is associated with both worsening precision and increased reporting errors of object features over time. Importantly, during the period of maintenance, although items are no longer visible, maintenance resources can be selectively redeployed to protect the probability to recall the correct feature and the precision with which cued items can be recalled, as if it was the only item in memory. These findings reveal that the biased competition concept could be applied not only to perceptual processes but also to active maintenance of working memory representations over time. PMID:27668485

The ELPAT living organ donor Psychosocial Assessment Tool (EPAT): from 'what' to 'how' of psychosocial screening - a pilot study.

PubMed

Massey, Emma K; Timmerman, Lotte; Ismail, Sohal Y; Duerinckx, Nathalie; Lopes, Alice; Maple, Hannah; Mega, Inês; Papachristou, Christina; Dobbels, Fabienne

2018-01-01

Thorough psychosocial screening of donor candidates is required in order to minimize potential negative consequences and to strive for optimal safety within living donation programmes. We aimed to develop an evidence-based tool to standardize the psychosocial screening process. Key concepts of psychosocial screening were used to structure our tool: motivation and decision-making, personal resources, psychopathology, social resources, ethical and legal factors and information and risk processing. We (i) discussed how each item per concept could be measured, (ii) reviewed and rated available validated tools, (iii) where necessary developed new items, (iv) assessed content validity and (v) pilot-tested the new items. The resulting ELPAT living organ donor Psychosocial Assessment Tool (EPAT) consists of a selection of validated questionnaires (28 items in total), a semi-structured interview (43 questions) and a Red Flag Checklist. We outline optimal procedures and conditions for implementing this tool. The EPAT and user manual are available from the authors. Use of this tool will standardize the psychosocial screening procedure ensuring that no psychosocial issues are overlooked and ensure that comparable selection criteria are used and facilitate generation of comparable psychosocial data on living donor candidates. © 2017 Steunstichting ESOT.

Automatic rapid attachable warhead section

DOEpatents

Trennel, A.J.

1994-05-10

Disclosed are a method and apparatus for automatically selecting warheads or reentry vehicles from a storage area containing a plurality of types of warheads or reentry vehicles, automatically selecting weapon carriers from a storage area containing at least one type of weapon carrier, manipulating and aligning the selected warheads or reentry vehicles and weapon carriers, and automatically coupling the warheads or reentry vehicles with the weapon carriers such that coupling of improperly selected warheads or reentry vehicles with weapon carriers is inhibited. Such inhibition enhances safety of operations and is achieved by a number of means including computer control of the process of selection and coupling and use of connectorless interfaces capable of assuring that improperly selected items will be rejected or rendered inoperable prior to coupling. Also disclosed are a method and apparatus wherein the stated principles pertaining to selection, coupling and inhibition are extended to apply to any item-to-be-carried and any carrying assembly. 10 figures.

Automatic rapid attachable warhead section

DOEpatents

Trennel, Anthony J.

1994-05-10

Disclosed are a method and apparatus for (1) automatically selecting warheads or reentry vehicles from a storage area containing a plurality of types of warheads or reentry vehicles, (2) automatically selecting weapon carriers from a storage area containing at least one type of weapon carrier, (3) manipulating and aligning the selected warheads or reentry vehicles and weapon carriers, and (4) automatically coupling the warheads or reentry vehicles with the weapon carriers such that coupling of improperly selected warheads or reentry vehicles with weapon carriers is inhibited. Such inhibition enhances safety of operations and is achieved by a number of means including computer control of the process of selection and coupling and use of connectorless interfaces capable of assuring that improperly selected items will be rejected or rendered inoperable prior to coupling. Also disclosed are a method and apparatus wherein the stated principles pertaining to selection, coupling and inhibition are extended to apply to any item-to-be-carried and any carrying assembly.

The heterogeneity of verbal short-term memory impairment in aphasia.

PubMed

Majerus, Steve; Attout, Lucie; Artielle, Marie-Amélie; Van der Kaa, Marie-Anne

2015-10-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) impairment represents a frequent and long-lasting deficit in aphasia, and it will prevent patients from recovering fully functional language abilities. The aim of this study was to obtain a more precise understanding of the nature of verbal STM impairment in aphasia, by determining whether verbal STM impairment is merely a consequence of underlying language impairment, as suggested by linguistic accounts of verbal STM, or whether verbal STM impairment reflects an additional, specific deficit. We investigated this question by contrasting item-based STM measures, supposed to depend strongly upon language activation, and order-based STM measures, supposed to reflect the operation of specific, serial order maintenance mechanisms, in a sample of patients with single-word processing deficits at the phonological and/or lexical level. A group-level analysis showed robust impairment for both item and serial order STM aspects in the aphasic group relative to an age-matched control group. An analysis of individual profiles revealed an important heterogeneity of verbal STM profiles, with patients presenting either selective item STM deficits, selective order STM deficits, generalized item and serial order STM deficits or no significant STM impairment. Item but not serial order STM impairment correlated with the severity of phonological impairment. These results disconfirm a strong version of the linguistic account of verbal STM impairment in aphasia, by showing variable impairment to both item and serial order processing aspects of verbal STM. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Asymmetric effects of emotion on mnemonic interference

PubMed Central

Leal, Stephanie L.; Tighe, Sarah K.; Yassa, Michael A.

2014-01-01

Emotional experiences can strengthen memories so that they can be used to guide future behavior. Emotional arousal, mediated by the amygdala, is thought to modulate storage by the hippocampus, which may encode unique episodic memories via pattern separation – the process by which similar memories are stored using non-overlapping representations. While prior work has examined mnemonic interference due to similarity and emotional modulation of memory independently, examining the mechanisms by which emotion influences mnemonic interference has not been previously accomplished in humans. To this end, we developed an emotional memory task where emotional content and stimulus similarity were varied to examine the effect of emotion on fine mnemonic discrimination (a putative behavioral correlate of hippocampal pattern separation). When tested immediately after encoding, discrimination was reduced for similar emotional items compared to similar neutral items, consistent with a reduced bias towards pattern separation. After 24 h, recognition of emotional target items was preserved compared to neutral items, whereas similar emotional item discrimination was further diminished. This suggests a potential mechanism for the emotional modulation of memory with a selective remembering of gist, as well as a selective forgetting of detail, indicating an emotion-induced reduction in pattern separation. This can potentially increase the effective signal-to-noise ratio in any given situation to promote survival. Furthermore, we found that individuals with depressive symptoms hyper-discriminate negative items, which correlated with their symptom severity. This suggests that utilizing mnemonic discrimination paradigms allows us to tease apart the nuances of disorders with aberrant emotional mnemonic processing. PMID:24607286

‘Forget me (not)?’ – Remembering Forget-Items Versus Un-Cued Items in Directed Forgetting

PubMed Central

Zwissler, Bastian; Schindler, Sebastian; Fischer, Helena; Plewnia, Christian; Kissler, Johanna M.

2015-01-01

Humans need to be able to selectively control their memories. This capability is often investigated in directed forgetting (DF) paradigms. In item-method DF, individual items are presented and each is followed by either a forget- or remember-instruction. On a surprise test of all items, memory is then worse for to-be-forgotten items (TBF) compared to to-be-remembered items (TBR). This is thought to result mainly from selective rehearsal of TBR, although inhibitory mechanisms also appear to be recruited by this paradigm. Here, we investigate whether the mnemonic consequences of a forget instruction differ from the ones of incidental encoding, where items are presented without a specific memory instruction. Four experiments were conducted where un-cued items (UI) were interspersed and recognition performance was compared between TBR, TBF, and UI stimuli. Accuracy was encouraged via a performance-dependent monetary bonus. Experiments varied the number of items and their presentation speed and used either letter-cues or symbolic cues. Across all experiments, including perceptually fully counterbalanced variants, memory accuracy for TBF was reduced compared to TBR, but better than for UI. Moreover, participants made consistently fewer false alarms and used a very conservative response criterion when responding to TBF stimuli. Thus, the F-cue results in active processing and reduces false alarm rate, but this does not impair recognition memory beyond an un-cued baseline condition, where only incidental encoding occurs. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:26635657

Working memory capacity predicts the beneficial effect of selective memory retrieval.

PubMed

Schlichting, Andreas; Aslan, Alp; Holterman, Christoph; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

2015-01-01

Selective retrieval of some studied items can both impair and improve recall of the other items. This study examined the role of working memory capacity (WMC) for the two effects of memory retrieval. Participants studied an item list consisting of predefined target and nontarget items. After study of the list, half of the participants performed an imagination task supposed to induce a change in mental context, whereas the other half performed a counting task which does not induce such context change. Following presentation of a second list, memory for the original list's target items was tested, either with or without preceding retrieval of the list's nontarget items. Consistent with previous work, preceding nontarget retrieval impaired target recall in the absence of the context change, but improved target recall in its presence. In particular, there was a positive relationship between WMC and the beneficial, but not the detrimental effect of memory retrieval. On the basis of the view that the beneficial effect of memory retrieval reflects context-reactivation processes, the results indicate that individuals with higher WMC are better able to capitalise on retrieval-induced context reactivation than individuals with lower WMC.

A Comparison of the One-and Three-Parameter Logistic Models on Measures of Test Efficiency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Jeri

Two methods of item selection were used to select sets of 40 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test, and the resulting item sets were compared for relative efficiency. The BICAL program was used to select the 40 items having the best mean square fit to the one parameter logistic (Rasch) model. The LOGIST program was used to select the 40 items…

Where the item still rules supreme: Time-based selection, enumeration, pre-attentive processing and the target template?

PubMed

Watson, Derrick G

2017-01-01

I propose that there remains a central role for the item (or its equivalent) in a wider range of search and search-related tasks/functions than might be conveyed by the article. I consider the functional relationship between the framework and some aspects of previous theories, and suggest some challenges that the new framework might encounter.

User Impact on Selection, Digitization, and the Development of Digital Special Collections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mills, Alexandra

2015-01-01

Libraries and archives digitize their special collections in an effort to increase access to rare and unique items. To ensure that resulting digital collections meet user needs, institutions have made assessment, consultation, and user participation integral to digitization initiatives and the selection process. Institutions must also build…

Hospitals' strategies for orchestrating selection of physician preference items.

PubMed

Montgomery, Kathleen; Schneller, Eugene S

2007-06-01

This article analyzes hospitals' strategies to shape physicians' behavior and counter suppliers' power in purchasing physician preference items. Two models of standardization are limitations on the range of manufacturers or products (the "formulary" model) and price ceilings for particular item categories (the "payment-cap" model), both requiring processes to define product equivalencies often with inadequate product comparison data. The formulary model is more difficult to implement because of physicians' resistance to top-down dictates. The payment-cap model is more feasible because it preserves physicians' choice while also restraining manufacturers' power. Hospitals may influence physicians' involvement through a process of orchestration that includes committing to improve clinical facilities, scheduling, and training and fostering a culture of mutual trust and respect.

Hospitals' Strategies for Orchestrating Selection of Physician Preference Items

PubMed Central

Montgomery, Kathleen; Schneller, Eugene S

2007-01-01

This article analyzes hospitals' strategies to shape physicians' behavior and counter suppliers' power in purchasing physician preference items. Two models of standardization are limitations on the range of manufacturers or products (the “formulary” model) and price ceilings for particular item categories (the “payment-cap” model), both requiring processes to define product equivalencies often with inadequate product comparison data. The formulary model is more difficult to implement because of physicians' resistance to top-down dictates. The payment-cap model is more feasible because it preserves physicians' choice while also restraining manufacturers' power. Hospitals may influence physicians' involvement through a process of orchestration that includes committing to improve clinical facilities, scheduling, and training and fostering a culture of mutual trust and respect. PMID:17517118

Attention Effects During Visual Short-Term Memory Maintenance: Protection or Prioritization?

PubMed Central

Matsukura, Michi; Luck, Steven J.; Vecera, Shaun P.

2007-01-01

Interactions between visual attention and visual short-term memory (VSTM) play a central role in cognitive processing. For example, attention can assist in selectively encoding items into visual memory. Attention appears to be able to influence items already stored in visual memory as well; cues that appear long after the presentation of an array of objects can affect memory for those objects (Griffin & Nobre, 2003). In five experiments, we distinguished two possible mechanisms for the effects of cues on items currently stored in VSTM. A protection account proposes that attention protects the cued item from becoming degraded during the retention interval. By contrast, a prioritization account suggests that attention increases a cued item’s priority during the comparison process that occurs when memory is tested. The results of the experiments were consistent with the first of these possibilities, suggesting that attention can serve to protect VSTM representations while they are being maintained. PMID:18078232

Object selection costs in visual working memory: A diffusion model analysis of the focus of attention.

PubMed

Sewell, David K; Lilburn, Simon D; Smith, Philip L

2016-11-01

A central question in working memory research concerns the degree to which information in working memory is accessible to other cognitive processes (e.g., decision-making). Theories assuming that the focus of attention can only store a single object at a time require the focus to orient to a target representation before further processing can occur. The need to orient the focus of attention implies that single-object accounts typically predict response time costs associated with object selection even when working memory is not full (i.e., memory load is less than 4 items). For other theories that assume storage of multiple items in the focus of attention, predictions depend on specific assumptions about the way resources are allocated among items held in the focus, and how this affects the time course of retrieval of items from the focus. These broad theoretical accounts have been difficult to distinguish because conventional analyses fail to separate components of empirical response times related to decision-making from components related to selection and retrieval processes associated with accessing information in working memory. To better distinguish these response time components from one another, we analyze data from a probed visual working memory task using extensions of the diffusion decision model. Analysis of model parameters revealed that increases in memory load resulted in (a) reductions in the quality of the underlying stimulus representations in a manner consistent with a sample size model of visual working memory capacity and (b) systematic increases in the time needed to selectively access a probed representation in memory. The results are consistent with single-object theories of the focus of attention. The results are also consistent with a subset of theories that assume a multiobject focus of attention in which resource allocation diminishes both the quality and accessibility of the underlying representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Selective processing of multiple features in the human brain: effects of feature type and salience.

PubMed

McGinnis, E Menton; Keil, Andreas

2011-02-09

Identifying targets in a stream of items at a given constant spatial location relies on selection of aspects such as color, shape, or texture. Such attended (target) features of a stimulus elicit a negative-going event-related brain potential (ERP), termed Selection Negativity (SN), which has been used as an index of selective feature processing. In two experiments, participants viewed a series of Gabor patches in which targets were defined as a specific combination of color, orientation, and shape. Distracters were composed of different combinations of color, orientation, and shape of the target stimulus. This design allows comparisons of items with and without specific target features. Consistent with previous ERP research, SN deflections extended between 160-300 ms. Data from the subsequent P3 component (300-450 ms post-stimulus) were also examined, and were regarded as an index of target processing. In Experiment A, predominant effects of target color on SN and P3 amplitudes were found, along with smaller ERP differences in response to variations of orientation and shape. Manipulating color to be less salient while enhancing the saliency of the orientation of the Gabor patch (Experiment B) led to delayed color selection and enhanced orientation selection. Topographical analyses suggested that the location of SN on the scalp reliably varies with the nature of the to-be-attended feature. No interference of non-target features on the SN was observed. These results suggest that target feature selection operates by means of electrocortical facilitation of feature-specific sensory processes, and that selective electrocortical facilitation is more effective when stimulus saliency is heightened.

Rapid forgetting results from competition over time between items in visual working memory.

PubMed

Pertzov, Yoni; Manohar, Sanjay; Husain, Masud

2017-04-01

Working memory is now established as a fundamental cognitive process across a range of species. Loss of information held in working memory has the potential to disrupt many aspects of cognitive function. However, despite its significance, the mechanisms underlying rapid forgetting remain unclear, with intense recent debate as to whether it is interference between stored items that leads to loss of information or simply temporal decay. Here we show that both factors are essential and interact in a highly specific manner. Although a single item can be maintained in memory with high fidelity, multiple items compete in working memory, progressively degrading each other's representations as time passes. Specifically, interaction between items is associated with both worsening precision and increased reporting errors of object features over time. Importantly, during the period of maintenance, although items are no longer visible, maintenance resources can be selectively redeployed to protect the probability to recall the correct feature and the precision with which cued items can be recalled, as if it was the only item in memory. These findings reveal that the biased competition concept could be applied not only to perceptual processes but also to active maintenance of working memory representations over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Selected and Annotated Bibliography on the Processes of Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurland, Norman D., Comp.; Miller, Richard I., Comp.

Over 170 books, booklets, articles, bibliographies, periodicals, and unpublished items on anthropology, sociology, education, industry, and technology, medicine, political science, and psychology are listed in this annotated bibliography on the processes of change. These documents, which treat such subjects as educational change, social and…

Neural Correlates of Encoding Within- and Across-Domain Inter-Item Associations

PubMed Central

Park, Heekyeong; Rugg, Michael D.

2012-01-01

The neural correlates of the encoding of associations between pairs of words, pairs of pictures, and word-picture pairs were compared. The aims were to determine first, whether the neural correlates of associative encoding vary according to study material and second, whether encoding of across- versus within-material item pairs is associated with dissociable patterns of hippocampal and perirhinal activity, as predicted by the ‘domain dichotomy’ hypothesis of medial temporal lobe (MTL) function. While undergoing fMRI scanning, subjects (n = 24) were presented with the three classes of study pairs, judging which of the denoted objects fit into the other. Outside of the scanner, subjects then undertook an associative recognition task, discriminating between intact study pairs, rearranged pairs comprising items that had been presented on different study trials, and unstudied item pairs. The neural correlates of successful associative encoding – subsequent associative memory effects – were operationalized as the difference in activity between study pairs correctly judged intact versus pairs incorrectly judged rearranged on the subsequent memory test. Pair type-independent subsequent memory effects were evident in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the hippocampus. Picture-picture pairs elicited material-selective effects in regions of fusiform cortex that were also activated to a greater extent on picture trials than word trials, while word-word pairs elicited material-selective subsequent memory effects in left lateral temporal cortex. Contrary to the domain-dichotomy hypothesis, neither hippocampal nor perirhinal subsequent memory effects differed depending on whether they were elicited by within- versus across-material study pairs. It is proposed that the left IFG plays a domain-general role in associative encoding, that associative encoding can also be facilitated by enhanced processing in material-selective cortical regions, and that the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex contribute equally to the formation of inter-item associations regardless of whether the items belong to the same or to different processing domains. PMID:21254802

The Focus of Attention in Visual Working Memory: Protection of Focused Representations and Its Individual Variation.

PubMed

Heuer, Anna; Schubö, Anna

2016-01-01

Visual working memory can be modulated according to changes in the cued task relevance of maintained items. Here, we investigated the mechanisms underlying this modulation. In particular, we studied the consequences of attentional selection for selected and unselected items, and the role of individual differences in the efficiency with which attention is deployed. To this end, performance in a visual working memory task as well as the CDA/SPCN and the N2pc, ERP components associated with visual working memory and attentional processes, were analysed. Selection during the maintenance stage was manipulated by means of two successively presented retrocues providing spatial information as to which items were most likely to be tested. Results show that attentional selection serves to robustly protect relevant representations in the focus of attention while unselected representations which may become relevant again still remain available. Individuals with larger retrocueing benefits showed higher efficiency of attentional selection, as indicated by the N2pc, and showed stronger maintenance-associated activity (CDA/SPCN). The findings add to converging evidence that focused representations are protected, and highlight the flexibility of visual working memory, in which information can be weighted according its relevance.

Richer concepts are better remembered: number of features effects in free recall

PubMed Central

Hargreaves, Ian S.; Pexman, Penny M.; Johnson, Jeremy C.; Zdrazilova, Lenka

2012-01-01

Many models of memory build in a term for encoding variability, the observation that there can be variability in the richness or extensiveness of processing at encoding, and that this variability has consequences for retrieval. In four experiments, we tested the expectation that encoding variability could be driven by the properties of the to-be-remembered item. Specifically, that concepts associated with more semantic features would be better remembered than concepts associated with fewer semantic features. Using feature listing norms we selected sets of items for which people tend to list higher numbers of features (high NoF) and items for which people tend to list lower numbers of features (low NoF). Results showed more accurate free recall for high NoF concepts than for low NoF concepts in expected memory tasks (Experiments 1–3) and also in an unexpected memory task (Experiment 4). This effect was not the result of associative chaining between study items (Experiment 3), and can be attributed to the amount of item-specific processing that occurs at study (Experiment 4). These results provide evidence that stimulus-specific differences in processing at encoding have consequences for explicit memory retrieval. PMID:22514526

Multidimensional CAT Item Selection Methods for Domain Scores and Composite Scores with Item Exposure Control and Content Constraints

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yao, Lihua

2014-01-01

The intent of this research was to find an item selection procedure in the multidimensional computer adaptive testing (CAT) framework that yielded higher precision for both the domain and composite abilities, had a higher usage of the item pool, and controlled the exposure rate. Five multidimensional CAT item selection procedures (minimum angle;…

Comparing Methods for Item Analysis: The Impact of Different Item-Selection Statistics on Test Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Andrew T.

2011-01-01

Practitioners often depend on item analysis to select items for exam forms and have a variety of options available to them. These include the point-biserial correlation, the agreement statistic, the B index, and the phi coefficient. Although research has demonstrated that these statistics can be useful for item selection, no research as of yet has…

Developing an Experiential Definition of Recovery: Participatory Research with Recovering Substance Abusers from Multiple Pathways

PubMed Central

Borkman, Thomasina J.; Stunz, Aina; Kaskutas, Lee Ann

2016-01-01

Background The What is Recovery? (WIR) study identified specific elements of a recovery definition that people in substance abuse recovery from multiple pathways would endorse. Objectives To explain how participatory research contributed to the development of a comprehensive pool of items defining recovery; and to identify the commonality between the specific items endorsed by participants as defining recovery and the abstract components of recovery found in four important broad recovery definitions Methods A four-step, mixed-methods, iterative process was used to develop and pretest items (August 2010 to February 2012). Online survey recruitment (n=238) was done via email lists of individuals in recovery and electronic advertisements; 54 were selected for in-depth telephone interviews. Analyses using experientially-based and survey research criteria resulted in a revised item pool of 47 refined and specific items. The WIR items were matched with the components of four important definitions. Results Recovering participants (1) proposed and validated new items; (2) developed an alternative response category to the Likert; (3) suggested criteria for eliminating items irrelevant to recovery. The matching of WIR items with the components of important abstract definitions revealed extensive commonality. Conclusions, importance The WIR items define recovery as ways of being, as a growth and learning process involving internal values and self-awareness with moral dimensions. This is the first wide-scale research identifying specific items defining recovery, which can be used to guide service provision in Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care. PMID:27159851

Developing an Experiential Definition of Recovery: Participatory Research With Recovering Substance Abusers From Multiple Pathways.

PubMed

Borkman, Thomasina Jo; Stunz, Aina; Kaskutas, Lee Ann

2016-07-28

The What is Recovery? (WIR) study identified specific elements of a recovery definition that people in substance abuse recovery from multiple pathways would endorse. To explain how participatory research contributed to the development of a comprehensive pool of items defining recovery; and to identify the commonality between the specific items endorsed by participants as defining recovery and the abstract components of recovery found in four important broad recovery definitions. A four-step, mixed-methods, iterative process was used to develop and pretest items (August 2010 to February 2012). Online survey recruitment (n = 238) was done via email lists of individuals in recovery and electronic advertisements; 54 were selected for in-depth telephone interviews. Analyses using experientially-based and survey research criteria resulted in a revised item pool of 47 refined and specific items. The WIR items were matched with the components of four important definitions. Recovering participants (1) proposed and validated new items; (2) developed an alternative response category to the Likert; (3) suggested criteria for eliminating items irrelevant to recovery. The matching of WIR items with the components of important abstract definitions revealed extensive commonality. The WIR items define recovery as ways of being, as a growth and learning process involving internal values and self-awareness with moral dimensions. This is the first wide-scale research identifying specific items defining recovery, which can be used to guide service provision in Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.

Qualitative modeling of the decision-making process using electrooculography.

PubMed

Zargari Marandi, Ramtin; Sabzpoushan, S H

2015-12-01

A novel method based on electrooculography (EOG) has been introduced in this work to study the decision-making process. An experiment was designed and implemented wherein subjects were asked to choose between two items from the same category that were presented within a limited time. The EOG and voice signals of the subjects were recorded during the experiment. A calibration task was performed to map the EOG signals to their corresponding gaze positions on the screen by using an artificial neural network. To analyze the data, 16 parameters were extracted from the response time and EOG signals of the subjects. Evaluation and comparison of the parameters, together with subjects' choices, revealed functional information. On the basis of this information, subjects switched their eye gazes between items about three times on average. We also found, according to statistical hypothesis testing-that is, a t test, t(10) = 71.62, SE = 1.25, p < .0001-that the correspondence rate of a subjects' gaze at the moment of selection with the selected item was significant. Ultimately, on the basis of these results, we propose a qualitative choice model for the decision-making task.

Assessment of mastication in healthy children and children with cerebral palsy: a validity and consistency study.

PubMed

Remijn, L; Speyer, R; Groen, B E; Holtus, P C M; van Limbeek, J; Nijhuis-van der Sanden, M W G

2013-05-01

The aim of this study was to develop the Mastication Observation and Evaluation instrument for observing and assessing the chewing ability of children eating solid and lumpy foods. This study describes the process of item definition and item selection and reports the content validity, reproducibility and consistency of the instrument. In the developmental phase, 15 experienced speech therapists assessed item relevance and descriptions over three Delphi rounds. Potential items were selected based on the results from a literature review. At the initial Delphi round, 17 potential items were included. After three Delphi rounds, 14 items that regarded as providing distinctive value in assessment of mastication (consensus >75%) were included in the Mastication Observation and Evaluation instrument. To test item reproducibility and consistency, two experts and five students evaluated video recordings of 20 children (10 children with cerebral palsy aged 29-65 months and 10 healthy children aged 11-42 months) eating bread and a biscuit. Reproducibility was estimated by means of the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). With the exception of one item concerning chewing duration, all items showed good to excellent intra-observer agreement (ICC students: 0.73-1.0). With the exception of chewing duration and number of swallows, inter-observer agreement was fair to excellent for all items (ICC experts: 0.68-1.0 and ICC students: 0.42-1.0). Results indicate that this tool is a feasible instrument and could be used in clinical practice after further research is completed on the reliability of the tool. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Development of and Field-Test Results for the CAHPS PCMH Survey

PubMed Central

Scholle, Sarah Hudson; Vuong, Oanh; Ding, Lin; Fry, Stephanie; Gallagher, Patricia; Brown, Julie A.; Hays, Ron D.; Cleary, Paul D.

2017-01-01

Objective To develop and evaluate survey questions that assess processes of care relevant to Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs). Research Design We convened expert panels, reviewed evidence on effective care practices and existing surveys, elicited broad public input, and conducted cognitive interviews and a field test to develop items relevant to PCMHs that could be added to the CAHPS® Clinician & Group (CG-CAHPS) 1.0 Survey. Surveys were tested using a two-contact mail protocol in 10 adult and 33 pediatric practices (both private and community health centers) in Massachusetts. A total of 4,875 completed surveys were received (overall response rate of 25%). Analyses We calculated the rate of valid responses for each item. We conducted exploratory factor analyses and estimated item-to-total correlations, individual and site level reliability, and correlations among proposed multi-item composites. Results Ten items in four new domains (Comprehensiveness, Information, Self-Management Support, and Shared Decision-Making) and four items in two existing domains (Access and Coordination of Care) were selected to be supplemental items to be used in conjunction with the adult CG-CAHPS 1.0 survey. For the child version, four items in each of two new domains (Information and Self-Management Support) and five items in existing domains (Access, Comprehensiveness-Prevention, Coordination of Care) were selected. Conclusions This study provides support for the reliability and validity of new items to supplement the CG-CAHPS 1.0 survey to assess aspects of primary care that are important attributes of Patient-Centered Medical Homes. PMID:23064272

14 CFR Appendix B to Part 147 - General Curriculum Subjects

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... subject heading indicates the level of proficiency at which that item must be taught. Teaching level a... fittings. e. materials and processes (1) 14. Identify and select appropriate nondestructive testing methods...

14 CFR Appendix B to Part 147 - General Curriculum Subjects

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... subject heading indicates the level of proficiency at which that item must be taught. Teaching level a... fittings. e. materials and processes (1) 14. Identify and select appropriate nondestructive testing methods...

14 CFR Appendix B to Part 147 - General Curriculum Subjects

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... subject heading indicates the level of proficiency at which that item must be taught. Teaching level a... fittings. e. materials and processes (1) 14. Identify and select appropriate nondestructive testing methods...

14 CFR Appendix B to Part 147 - General Curriculum Subjects

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... subject heading indicates the level of proficiency at which that item must be taught. Teaching level a... fittings. e. materials and processes (1) 14. Identify and select appropriate nondestructive testing methods...

14 CFR Appendix B to Part 147 - General Curriculum Subjects

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... subject heading indicates the level of proficiency at which that item must be taught. Teaching level a... fittings. e. materials and processes (1) 14. Identify and select appropriate nondestructive testing methods...

Construction and Validation of a Women's Autonomy Measurement Scale with Reference to Utilization of Maternal Health Care Services in Nepal.

PubMed

Bhandari, T R; Dangal, G; Sarma, P S; Kutty, V R

2014-01-01

Women's autonomy is one of the predictors of maternal health care service utilization. This study aimed to construct and validate a scale for measuring women's autonomy with relevance to developing countries. We conducted a study for construction and validation of a scale in Rupandehi and further validated in Kapilvastu districts of Nepal. Initially, we administered a 24-item preliminary scale and finalized a 23-item scale using psychometric tests. After defining the construct of women's autonomy, we pooled 194 items and selected 24 items to develop a preliminary scale. The scale development process followed different steps i.e. definition of construct, generation of items pool, pretesting, analysis of psychometric test and further validation. The new scale was strongly supported by Cronbach's Alpha value (0.84), test-retest Pearson correlation (0.87), average content validity ratio (0.8) and overall agreement- Kappa value of the items (0.83) whereas all values were found satisfactory. From factor analysis, we selected 23 items for the final scale which show good convergent and discriminant validity. From preliminary draft, we removed one item; the remaining 23 items were loaded in five factors. All five factors had single loading items by suppressing absolute coefficient value less than 0.45 and average coefficient was more than 0.60 of each factor. Similarly, the factors and loaded items had good convergent and discriminant validity which further showed strong measurement capacity of the scale. The new scale is a reliable tool for assessing women's autonomy in developing countries. We recommend for further use and validation of the scale for ensuring the measurement capacity.

Bimodal Bilinguals Co-activate Both Languages during Spoken Comprehension

PubMed Central

Shook, Anthony; Marian, Viorica

2012-01-01

Bilinguals have been shown to activate their two languages in parallel, and this process can often be attributed to overlap in input between the two languages. The present study examines whether two languages that do not overlap in input structure, and that have distinct phonological systems, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and English, are also activated in parallel. Hearing ASL-English bimodal bilinguals’ and English monolinguals’ eye-movements were recorded during a visual world paradigm, in which participants were instructed, in English, to select objects from a display. In critical trials, the target item appeared with a competing item that overlapped with the target in ASL phonology. Bimodal bilinguals looked more at competing items than at phonologically unrelated items, and looked more at competing items relative to monolinguals, indicating activation of the sign-language during spoken English comprehension. The findings suggest that language co-activation is not modality specific, and provide insight into the mechanisms that may underlie cross-modal language co-activation in bimodal bilinguals, including the role that top-down and lateral connections between levels of processing may play in language comprehension. PMID:22770677

ACC Neuro-over-Connectivity Is Associated with Mathematically Modeled Additional Encoding Operations of Schizophrenia Stroop-Task Performance

PubMed Central

Taylor, Reggie; Théberge, Jean; Williamson, Peter C.; Densmore, Maria; Neufeld, Richard W. J.

2016-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging at 7.0 Tesla was undertaken among Schizophrenia participants (Sz), and clinical (major mood disorder; MDD) and healthy controls (HC), during performance of the Stoop task. Stroop conditions included congruent and incongruent word color items, color-only items, and word-only items. Previous modeling results extended to this most widely used selective-attention task. All groups executed item-encoding operations (subprocesses of the item encoding process) at the same rate (performance accuracy being similarly high throughout), thus displaying like processing capacity; Sz participants, however, employed more subprocesses for item completions than did the MDD participants, who in turn used more subprocesses than the HC group. The reduced efficiency in deploying cognitive-workload capacity among the Sz participants was paralleled by more diffuse neuroconnectivity (Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent co-activation) with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Broadman Area 32), spreading away from this encoding-intensive region; and by less evidence of network dissociation across Stroop conditions. Estimates of cognitive work done to accomplish item completion were greater for the Sz participants, as were estimates of entropy in both the modeled trial-latency distribution, and its associated neuro-circuitry. Findings are held to be symptom and assessment significant, and to have potential implications for clinical intervention. PMID:27695425

Analysis of advanced glycation endproducts in selected food items by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry: Presentation of a dietary AGE database.

PubMed

Scheijen, Jean L J M; Clevers, Egbert; Engelen, Lian; Dagnelie, Pieter C; Brouns, Fred; Stehouwer, Coen D A; Schalkwijk, Casper G

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to validate an ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for the determination of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) in food items and to analyze AGEs in a selection of food items commonly consumed in a Western diet. N(ε)-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), N(ε)-(1-carboxyethyl)lysine (CEL) and N(δ)-(5-hydro-5-methyl-4-imidazolon-2-yl)-ornithine (MG-H1) were quantified in the protein fractions of 190 food items using UPLC-MS/MS. Intra- and inter-day accuracy and precision were 2-29%. The calibration curves showed perfect linearity in water and food matrices. We found the highest AGE levels in high-heat processed nut or grain products, and canned meats. Fruits, vegetables, butter and coffee had the lowest AGE content. The described method proved to be suitable for the quantification of three major AGEs in food items. The presented dietary AGE database opens the possibility to further quantify actual dietary exposure to AGEs and to explore its physiological impact on human health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using Mutual Information for Adaptive Item Comparison and Student Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chao-Lin

2005-01-01

The author analyzes properties of mutual information between dichotomous concepts and test items. The properties generalize some common intuitions about item comparison, and provide principled foundations for designing item-selection heuristics for student assessment in computer-assisted educational systems. The proposed item-selection strategies…

Stratified and Maximum Information Item Selection Procedures in Computer Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deng, Hui; Ansley, Timothy; Chang, Hua-Hua

2010-01-01

In this study we evaluated and compared three item selection procedures: the maximum Fisher information procedure (F), the a-stratified multistage computer adaptive testing (CAT) (STR), and a refined stratification procedure that allows more items to be selected from the high a strata and fewer items from the low a strata (USTR), along with…

Item-cued directed forgetting of related words and pictures in children and adults: selective rehearsal versus cognitive inhibition.

PubMed

Lehman, E B; McKinley-Pace, M; Leonard, A M; Thompson, D; Johns, K

2001-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to compare the relative importance of selective rehearsal and cognitive inhibition in accounting for developmental changes in the directed-forgetting paradigm developed by R. A. Bjork (1972). In two experiments, children in Grades 2 and 5 and college students were asked to remember some words or pictures and to forget others when items were categorically related. Their memory for both items and the associated remember or forget cues was then tested with recall and recognition. Fifth graders recognized more of the forget-cued words than college students did. The pattern of results suggested that age differences in rehearsal and source monitoring (i.e., remembering whether a word had been cued remember or forget) were better explanatory mechanisms for children's forgetting inefficiencies than retrieval inhibition was. The results are discussed in terms of a multiple process view of inhibition.

Rasch Measurement of Collaborative Problem Solving in an Online Environment.

PubMed

Harding, Susan-Marie E; Griffin, Patrick E

2016-01-01

This paper describes an approach to the assessment of human to human collaborative problem solving using a set of online interactive tasks completed by student dyads. Within the dyad, roles were nominated as either A or B and students selected their own roles. The question as to whether role selection affected individual student performance measures is addressed. Process stream data was captured from 3402 students in six countries who explored the problem space by clicking, dragging the mouse, moving the cursor and collaborating with their partner through a chat box window. Process stream data were explored to identify behavioural indicators that represented elements of a conceptual framework. These indicative behaviours were coded into a series of dichotomous items. These items represented actions and chats performed by students. The frequency of occurrence was used as a proxy measure of item difficulty. Then given a measure of item difficulty, student ability could be estimated using the difficulty estimates of the range of items demonstrated by the student. The Rasch simple logistic model was used to review the indicators to identify those that were consistent with the assumptions of the model and were invariant across national samples, language, curriculum and age of the student. The data were analysed using a one and two dimension, one parameter model. Rasch separation reliability, fit to the model, distribution of students and items on the underpinning construct, estimates for each country and the effect of role differences are reported. This study provides evidence that collaborative problem solving can be assessed in an online environment involving human to human interaction using behavioural indicators shown to have a consistent relationship between the estimate of student ability, and the probability of demonstrating the behaviour.

Consolidation of Episodic Memories During Sleep

PubMed Central

Racsmány, Mihály; Conway, Martin A.; Demeter, Gyula

2009-01-01

Two experiments investigated the long-term effects of retrieval practice. In the retrieval-practice procedure, selected items from a previously studied list are repeatedly recalled. The typical retrieval-practice effects are considerably enhanced memory for practiced items accompanied by low levels of recall, relative to baseline, for previously studied items that are associated with the practiced items but were not themselves practiced. The two experiments demonstrated that the former effect persisted over 12 hr; the latter effect also persisted over 12 hr, but only if a period of nocturnal sleep occurred during the retention interval. We propose that consolidation processes occurring during sleep, and possibly featuring some form of off-line rehearsal, mediate these long-term effects of retrieval practice. PMID:20424027

Consolidation of episodic memories during sleep: long-term effects of retrieval practice.

PubMed

Racsmány, Mihály; Conway, Martin A; Demeter, Gyula

2010-01-01

Two experiments investigated the long-term effects of retrieval practice. In the retrieval-practice procedure, selected items from a previously studied list are repeatedly recalled. The typical retrieval-practice effects are considerably enhanced memory for practiced items accompanied by low levels of recall, relative to baseline, for previously studied items that are associated with the practiced items but were not themselves practiced. The two experiments demonstrated that the former effect persisted over 12 hr; the latter effect also persisted over 12 hr, but only if a period of nocturnal sleep occurred during the retention interval. We propose that consolidation processes occurring during sleep, and possibly featuring some form of off-line rehearsal, mediate these long-term effects of retrieval practice.

Trace DNA Sampling Success from Evidence Items Commonly Encountered in Forensic Casework.

PubMed

Dziak, Renata; Peneder, Amy; Buetter, Alicia; Hageman, Cecilia

2018-05-01

Trace DNA analysis is a significant part of a forensic laboratory's workload. Knowing optimal sampling strategies and item success rates for particular item types can assist in evidence selection and examination processes and shorten turnaround times. In this study, forensic short tandem repeat (STR) casework results were reviewed to determine how often STR profiles suitable for comparison were obtained from "handler" and "wearer" areas of 764 items commonly submitted for examination. One hundred and fifty-five (155) items obtained from volunteers were also sampled. Items were analyzed for best sampling location and strategy. For casework items, headwear and gloves provided the highest success rates. Experimentally, eyeglasses and earphones, T-shirts, fabric gloves and watches provided the highest success rates. Eyeglasses and latex gloves provided optimal results if the entire surfaces were swabbed. In general, at least 10%, and up to 88% of all trace DNA analyses resulted in suitable STR profiles for comparison. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

What Every Public School Physical Educator Should Know about the Hiring Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stier, William F., Jr.; Schneider, Robert C.

2007-01-01

A national survey of high school principals was conducted to determine whether they agreed or disagreed with selected practices and procedures used to hire high school physical education teachers. A survey instrument, developed with the help of experts in the field and consisting of 29 items, was sent to 400 randomly selected principals. Useable…

Effects of aging on value-directed modulation of semantic network activity during verbal learning

PubMed Central

Cohen, Michael S.; Rissman, Jesse; Suthana, Nanthia A.; Castel, Alan D.; Knowlton, Barbara J.

2015-01-01

While impairments in memory recall are apparent in aging, older adults show a remarkably preserved ability to selectively remember information deemed valuable. Here, we use fMRI to compare brain activation in healthy older and younger adults during encoding of high and low value words to determine whether there are differences in how older adults achieve value-directed memory selectivity. We find that memory selectivity in older adults is associated with value-related changes in activation during word presentation in left hemisphere regions that are involved in semantic processing, similar to young adults. However, highly selective young adults show a relatively greater increase in semantic network activity during encoding of high-value items, whereas highly selective older adults show relatively diminished activity during encoding of low-value items. Additionally, only younger adults showed value-related increases in activity in semantic and reward processing regions during presentation of the value cue preceding each to-be-remembered word. Young adults therefore respond to cue value more proactively than do older adults, yet the magnitude of value-related differences in cue period brain activity did not predict individual differences in memory selectivity. Thus, our data also show that age-related reductions in prestimulus activity do not always lead to inefficient performance. PMID:26244278

Optimising the selection of food items for FFQs using Mixed Integer Linear Programming.

PubMed

Gerdessen, Johanna C; Souverein, Olga W; van 't Veer, Pieter; de Vries, Jeanne Hm

2015-01-01

To support the selection of food items for FFQs in such a way that the amount of information on all relevant nutrients is maximised while the food list is as short as possible. Selection of the most informative food items to be included in FFQs was modelled as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model. The methodology was demonstrated for an FFQ with interest in energy, total protein, total fat, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, total carbohydrates, mono- and disaccharides, dietary fibre and potassium. The food lists generated by the MILP model have good performance in terms of length, coverage and R 2 (explained variance) of all nutrients. MILP-generated food lists were 32-40 % shorter than a benchmark food list, whereas their quality in terms of R 2 was similar to that of the benchmark. The results suggest that the MILP model makes the selection process faster, more standardised and transparent, and is especially helpful in coping with multiple nutrients. The complexity of the method does not increase with increasing number of nutrients. The generated food lists appear either shorter or provide more information than a food list generated without the MILP model.

Expertise sensitive item selection.

PubMed

Chow, P; Russell, H; Traub, R E

2000-12-01

In this paper we describe and illustrate a procedure for selecting items from a large pool for a certification test. The proposed procedure, which is intended to improve the alignment of the certification test with on-the-job performance, is based on an expertise sensitive index. This index for an item is the difference between the item's p values for experts and novices. An example is provided of the application of the index for selecting items to be used in certifying bakers.

Sleep deprivation accelerates delay-related loss of visual short-term memories without affecting precision.

PubMed

Wee, Natalie; Asplund, Christopher L; Chee, Michael W L

2013-06-01

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) is an important measure of information processing capacity and supports many higher-order cognitive processes. We examined how sleep deprivation (SD) and maintenance duration interact to influence the number and precision of items in VSTM using an experimental design that limits the contribution of lapses at encoding. For each trial, participants attempted to maintain the location and color of three stimuli over a delay. After a retention interval of either 1 or 10 seconds, participants reported the color of the item at the cued location by selecting it on a color wheel. The probability of reporting the probed item, the precision of report, and the probability of reporting a nonprobed item were determined using a mixture-modeling analysis. Participants were studied twice in counterbalanced order, once after a night of normal sleep and once following a night of sleep deprivation. Sleep laboratory. Nineteen healthy college age volunteers (seven females) with regular sleep patterns. Approximately 24 hours of total SD. SD selectively reduced the number of integrated representations that can be retrieved after a delay, while leaving the precision of object information in the stored representations intact. Delay interacted with SD to lower the rate of successful recall. Visual short-term memory is compromised during sleep deprivation, an effect compounded by delay. However, when memories are retrieved, they tend to be intact.

Influence of Fallible Item Parameters on Test Information During Adaptive Testing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wetzel, C. Douglas; McBride, James R.

Computer simulation was used to assess the effects of item parameter estimation errors on different item selection strategies used in adaptive and conventional testing. To determine whether these effects reduced the advantages of certain optimal item selection strategies, simulations were repeated in the presence and absence of item parameter…

Decision Processes Among the Elderly: Do They Differ?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodchilds, Jacqueline D.; Bikson, Tora K.

Decision making processes among older adults were investigated within the context of grocery selection, using a stimulus array involving two product classes (bread and cheese) with 10 items per class. The sample (N=580) was stratified by sex, household status (living alone or with spouse), and age, employing three age groupings: 25-34 (young),…

Utilizing Response Time Distributions for Item Selection in CAT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fan, Zhewen; Wang, Chun; Chang, Hua-Hua; Douglas, Jeffrey

2012-01-01

Traditional methods for item selection in computerized adaptive testing only focus on item information without taking into consideration the time required to answer an item. As a result, some examinees may receive a set of items that take a very long time to finish, and information is not accrued as efficiently as possible. The authors propose two…

Procedures for Selecting Items for Computerized Adaptive Tests.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kingsbury, G. Gage; Zara, Anthony R.

1989-01-01

Several classical approaches and alternative approaches to item selection for computerized adaptive testing (CAT) are reviewed and compared. The study also describes procedures for constrained CAT that may be added to classical item selection approaches to allow them to be used for applied testing. (TJH)

Applying Item Response Theory methods to design a learning progression-based science assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Jing

Learning progressions are used to describe how students' understanding of a topic progresses over time and to classify the progress of students into steps or levels. This study applies Item Response Theory (IRT) based methods to investigate how to design learning progression-based science assessments. The research questions of this study are: (1) how to use items in different formats to classify students into levels on the learning progression, (2) how to design a test to give good information about students' progress through the learning progression of a particular construct and (3) what characteristics of test items support their use for assessing students' levels. Data used for this study were collected from 1500 elementary and secondary school students during 2009--2010. The written assessment was developed in several formats such as the Constructed Response (CR) items, Ordered Multiple Choice (OMC) and Multiple True or False (MTF) items. The followings are the main findings from this study. The OMC, MTF and CR items might measure different components of the construct. A single construct explained most of the variance in students' performances. However, additional dimensions in terms of item format can explain certain amount of the variance in student performance. So additional dimensions need to be considered when we want to capture the differences in students' performances on different types of items targeting the understanding of the same underlying progression. Items in each item format need to be improved in certain ways to classify students more accurately into the learning progression levels. This study establishes some general steps that can be followed to design other learning progression-based tests as well. For example, first, the boundaries between levels on the IRT scale can be defined by using the means of the item thresholds across a set of good items. Second, items in multiple formats can be selected to achieve the information criterion at all the defined boundaries. This ensures the accuracy of the classification. Third, when item threshold parameters vary a bit, the scoring rubrics and the items need to be reviewed to make the threshold parameters similar across items. This is because one important design criterion of the learning progression-based items is that ideally, a student should be at the same level across items, which means that the item threshold parameters (d1, d 2 and d3) should be similar across items. To design a learning progression-based science assessment, we need to understand whether the assessment measures a single construct or several constructs and how items are associated with the constructs being measured. Results from dimension analyses indicate that items of different carbon transforming processes measure different aspects of the carbon cycle construct. However, items of different practices assess the same construct. In general, there are high correlations among different processes or practices. It is not clear whether the strong correlations are due to the inherent links among these process/practice dimensions or due to the fact that the student sample does not show much variation in these process/practice dimensions. Future data are needed to examine the dimensionalities in terms of process/practice in detail. Finally, based on item characteristics analysis, recommendations are made to write more discriminative CR items and better OMC, MTF options. Item writers can follow these recommendations to write better learning progression-based items.

Development of the International Spinal Cord Injury Activities and Participation Basic Data Set.

PubMed

Post, M W; Charlifue, S; Biering-Sørensen, F; Catz, A; Dijkers, M P; Horsewell, J; Noonan, V K; Noreau, L; Tate, D G; Sinnott, K A

2016-07-01

Consensus decision-making process. The objective of this study was to develop an International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Activities and Participation (A&P) Basic Data Set. International working group. A committee of experts was established to select and define A&P data elements to be included in this data set. A draft data set was developed and posted on the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) and American Spinal Injury Association websites and was also disseminated among appropriate organizations for review. Suggested revisions were considered, and a final version of the A&P Data Set was completed. Consensus was reached to define A&P and to incorporate both performance and satisfaction ratings. Items that were considered core to each A&P domain were selected from two existing questionnaires. Four items measuring activities were selected from the Spinal Cord Independence Measure III to provide basic data on task execution in activities of daily living. Eight items were selected from the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique to provide basic data on the frequency of participation. An additional rating of satisfaction on a three-point scale for each item completes the total of 24 A&P variables. Collection of the International SCI A&P Basic Data Set variables in all future research on SCI outcomes is advised to facilitate comparison of results across published studies from around the world. Additional standardised instruments to assess activities of daily living or participation can be administered, depending on the purpose of a particular study.

Evidence for top-down control of eye movements during visual decision making.

PubMed

Glaholt, Mackenzie G; Wu, Mei-Chun; Reingold, Eyal M

2010-05-01

Participants' eye movements were monitored while they viewed displays containing 6 exemplars from one of several categories of everyday items (belts, sunglasses, shirts, shoes), with a column of 3 items presented on the left and another column of 3 items presented on the right side of the display. Participants were either required to choose which of the two sets of 3 items was the most expensive (2-AFC) or which of the 6 items was the most expensive (6-AFC). Importantly, the stimulus display, and the relevant stimulus dimension, were held constant across conditions. Consistent with the hypothesis of top-down control of eye movements during visual decision making, we documented greater selectivity in the processing of stimulus information in the 6-AFC than the 2-AFC decision. In addition, strong spatial biases in looking behavior were demonstrated, but these biases were largely insensitive to the instructional manipulation, and did not substantially influence participants' choices.

Linguistic validation of the Alberta Context Tool and two measures of research use, for German residential long term care.

PubMed

Hoben, Matthias; Bär, Marion; Mahler, Cornelia; Berger, Sarah; Squires, Janet E; Estabrooks, Carole A; Kruse, Andreas; Behrens, Johann

2014-01-31

To study the association between organizational context and research utilization in German residential long term care (LTC), we translated three Canadian assessment instruments: the Alberta Context Tool (ACT), Estabrooks' Kinds of Research Utilization (RU) items and the Conceptual Research Utilization Scale. Target groups for the tools were health care aides (HCAs), registered nurses (RNs), allied health professionals (AHPs), clinical specialists and care managers. Through a cognitive debriefing process, we assessed response processes validity-an initial stage of validity, necessary before more advanced validity assessment. We included 39 participants (16 HCAs, 5 RNs, 7 AHPs, 5 specialists and 6 managers) from five residential LTC facilities. We created lists of questionnaire items containing problematic items plus items randomly selected from the pool of remaining items. After participants completed the questionnaires, we conducted individual semi-structured cognitive interviews using verbal probing. We asked participants to reflect on their answers for list items in detail. Participants' answers were compared to concept maps defining the instrument concepts in detail. If at least two participants gave answers not matching concept map definitions, items were revised and re-tested with new target group participants. Cognitive debriefings started with HCAs. Based on the first round, we modified 4 of 58 ACT items, 1 ACT item stem and all 8 items of the RU tools. All items were understood by participants after another two rounds. We included revised HCA ACT items in the questionnaires for the other provider groups. In the RU tools for the other provider groups, we used different wording than the HCA version, as was done in the original English instruments. Only one cognitive debriefing round was needed with each of the other provider groups. Cognitive debriefing is essential to detect and respond to problematic instrument items, particularly when translating instruments for heterogeneous, less well educated provider groups such as HCAs. Cognitive debriefing is an important step in research tool development and a vital component of establishing response process validity evidence. Publishing cognitive debriefing results helps researchers to determine potentially critical elements of the translated tools and assists with interpreting scores.

Linguistic validation of the Alberta Context Tool and two measures of research use, for German residential long term care

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background To study the association between organizational context and research utilization in German residential long term care (LTC), we translated three Canadian assessment instruments: the Alberta Context Tool (ACT), Estabrooks’ Kinds of Research Utilization (RU) items and the Conceptual Research Utilization Scale. Target groups for the tools were health care aides (HCAs), registered nurses (RNs), allied health professionals (AHPs), clinical specialists and care managers. Through a cognitive debriefing process, we assessed response processes validity–an initial stage of validity, necessary before more advanced validity assessment. Methods We included 39 participants (16 HCAs, 5 RNs, 7 AHPs, 5 specialists and 6 managers) from five residential LTC facilities. We created lists of questionnaire items containing problematic items plus items randomly selected from the pool of remaining items. After participants completed the questionnaires, we conducted individual semi-structured cognitive interviews using verbal probing. We asked participants to reflect on their answers for list items in detail. Participants’ answers were compared to concept maps defining the instrument concepts in detail. If at least two participants gave answers not matching concept map definitions, items were revised and re-tested with new target group participants. Results Cognitive debriefings started with HCAs. Based on the first round, we modified 4 of 58 ACT items, 1 ACT item stem and all 8 items of the RU tools. All items were understood by participants after another two rounds. We included revised HCA ACT items in the questionnaires for the other provider groups. In the RU tools for the other provider groups, we used different wording than the HCA version, as was done in the original English instruments. Only one cognitive debriefing round was needed with each of the other provider groups. Conclusion Cognitive debriefing is essential to detect and respond to problematic instrument items, particularly when translating instruments for heterogeneous, less well educated provider groups such as HCAs. Cognitive debriefing is an important step in research tool development and a vital component of establishing response process validity evidence. Publishing cognitive debriefing results helps researchers to determine potentially critical elements of the translated tools and assists with interpreting scores. PMID:24479645

[Egypt: Selected Readings, Egyptian Mummies, and the Egyptian Pyramid.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.

This resource packet presents information and resources on ancient Egypt. The bibliography includes readings divided into five sections: (1) "General Information" (46 items); (2) "Religion" (8 items); (3) "Art" (8 items); (4) "Hieroglyphics" (6 items); and (5) selections "For Young Readers" (11…

Energy Statistics : A Supplement to the Summary of National Transportation Statistics

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1973-09-01

This annual report is a compendium of selected time-series data describing the transportation, production, processing, and consumption of energy. The report is divided into three main sections. The first, entitled Energy Transport, contains such item...

Energy Statistics : A Supplement to the Summary of Transportation Statistics

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1974-08-01

This annual report is a compendium of selected time-series data describing the transportation, production, processing, and consumption of energy. The report is divided into three main sections. The first, entitled Energy Transport, contains such item...

Development of the Brief Bipolar Disorder Symptom Scale for patients with bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Dennehy, Ellen B; Suppes, Trisha; Crismon, M Lynn; Toprac, Marcia; Carmody, Thomas J; Rush, A John

2004-06-30

The Brief Bipolar Disorder Symptom Scale (BDSS) is a 10-item measure of symptom severity that was derived from the 24-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS24). It was developed for clinical use in settings where systematic evaluation is desired within the constraints of a brief visit. The psychometric properties of the BDSS were evaluated in 409 adult outpatients recruited from 19 clinics within the public mental health system of Texas, as part of the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP). The selection process for individual items is discussed in detail, and was based on multiple analyses, including principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Selection of the final items considered the statistical strength and factor loading of items within each of those factors as well as the need for comprehensive coverage of critical symptoms of bipolar disorder. The BDSS demonstrated good psychometric properties in this preliminary investigation. It demonstrated a strong association with the BPRS24 and performed similarly to the BPRS24 in its relationship to other symptom measures. The BDSS demonstrated superior sensitivity to symptom change, and an excellent level of agreement for classification of patients as either responders or non-responders with the BPRS24. Copyright 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Theta-Gamma Coding Meets Communication-through-Coherence: Neuronal Oscillatory Multiplexing Theories Reconciled.

PubMed

McLelland, Douglas; VanRullen, Rufin

2016-10-01

Several theories have been advanced to explain how cross-frequency coupling, the interaction of neuronal oscillations at different frequencies, could enable item multiplexing in neural systems. The communication-through-coherence theory proposes that phase-matching of gamma oscillations between areas enables selective processing of a single item at a time, and a later refinement of the theory includes a theta-frequency oscillation that provides a periodic reset of the system. Alternatively, the theta-gamma neural code theory proposes that a sequence of items is processed, one per gamma cycle, and that this sequence is repeated or updated across theta cycles. In short, both theories serve to segregate representations via the temporal domain, but differ on the number of objects concurrently represented. In this study, we set out to test whether each of these theories is actually physiologically plausible, by implementing them within a single model inspired by physiological data. Using a spiking network model of visual processing, we show that each of these theories is physiologically plausible and computationally useful. Both theories were implemented within a single network architecture, with two areas connected in a feedforward manner, and gamma oscillations generated by feedback inhibition within areas. Simply increasing the amplitude of global inhibition in the lower area, equivalent to an increase in the spatial scope of the gamma oscillation, yielded a switch from one mode to the other. Thus, these different processing modes may co-exist in the brain, enabling dynamic switching between exploratory and selective modes of attention.

Processes in the Resolution of Ambiguous Words: Towards a Model of Selective Inhibition. Cognitive Science Program, Technical Report No. 86-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yee, Penny L.

This study investigates the role of specific inhibitory processes in lexical ambiguity resolution. An attentional view of inhibition and a view based on specific automatic inhibition between nodes predict different results when a neutral item is processed between an ambiguous word and a related target. Subjects were 32 English speakers with normal…

Use of Jackknifing to Evaluate Effects of Anchor Item Selection on Equating with the Nonequivalent Groups with Anchor Test (NEAT) Design. Research Report. ETS RR-15-10

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Ru; Haberman, Shelby; Guo, Hongwen; Liu, Jinghua

2015-01-01

In this study, we apply jackknifing to anchor items to evaluate the impact of anchor selection on equating stability. In an ideal world, the choice of anchor items should have little impact on equating results. When this ideal does not correspond to reality, selection of anchor items can strongly influence equating results. This influence does not…

Myths, Misconceptions, and Realities about Public Procurement Automation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonner, Larry

1989-01-01

Meaningful public procurement and inventory management automation encompasses all purchasing and materials management processes, including bidder selection; bidder responsiveness tracking; preparation of bid solicitations; bid tabulation; the tracking of requisitions, bid solicitations, and deliveries; and item purchasing history reports. (MLH)

7 CFR 1942.17 - Community facilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... economic purposes a single community having a contiguous boundary. (2) Project selection process. The... efficient management and economical service; and/or enlarge, extend, or otherwise modify existing facilities... account for items such as geographic distribution of funds and emergency conditions caused by economic...

7 CFR 1942.17 - Community facilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... economic purposes a single community having a contiguous boundary. (2) Project selection process. The... efficient management and economical service; and/or enlarge, extend, or otherwise modify existing facilities... account for items such as geographic distribution of funds and emergency conditions caused by economic...

7 CFR 1942.17 - Community facilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... economic purposes a single community having a contiguous boundary. (2) Project selection process. The... efficient management and economical service; and/or enlarge, extend, or otherwise modify existing facilities... account for items such as geographic distribution of funds and emergency conditions caused by economic...

7 CFR 1942.17 - Community facilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... economic purposes a single community having a contiguous boundary. (2) Project selection process. The... efficient management and economical service; and/or enlarge, extend, or otherwise modify existing facilities... account for items such as geographic distribution of funds and emergency conditions caused by economic...

41 CFR 101-29.202 - Standard.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... FEDERAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS SUPPLY AND PROCUREMENT 29-FEDERAL PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS 29.2... requirements for items, processes, procedures, practices, and methods that have been adopted as customary. Standards may also establish requirements for selection, application, and design criteria so as to achieve...

Object integration requires attention: Visual search for Kanizsa figures in parietal extinction.

PubMed

Gögler, Nadine; Finke, Kathrin; Keller, Ingo; Müller, Hermann J; Conci, Markus

2016-11-01

The contribution of selective attention to object integration is a topic of debate: integration of parts into coherent wholes, such as in Kanizsa figures, is thought to arise either from pre-attentive, automatic coding processes or from higher-order processes involving selective attention. Previous studies have attempted to examine the role of selective attention in object integration either by employing visual search paradigms or by studying patients with unilateral deficits in selective attention. Here, we combined these two approaches to investigate object integration in visual search in a group of five patients with left-sided parietal extinction. Our search paradigm was designed to assess the effect of left- and right-grouped nontargets on detecting a Kanizsa target square. The results revealed comparable reaction time (RT) performance in patients and controls when they were presented with displays consisting of a single to-be-grouped item that had to be classified as target vs. nontarget. However, when display size increased to two items, patients showed an extinction-specific pattern of enhanced RT costs for nontargets that induced a partial shape grouping on the right, i.e., in the attended hemifield (relative to the ungrouped baseline). Together, these findings demonstrate a competitive advantage for right-grouped objects, which in turn indicates that in parietal extinction, attentional competition between objects particularly limits integration processes in the contralesional, i.e., left hemifield. These findings imply a crucial contribution of selective attentional resources to visual object integration. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attention to Color Sharpens Neural Population Tuning via Feedback Processing in the Human Visual Cortex Hierarchy.

PubMed

Bartsch, Mandy V; Loewe, Kristian; Merkel, Christian; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Schoenfeld, Mircea A; Tsotsos, John K; Hopf, Jens-Max

2017-10-25

Attention can facilitate the selection of elementary object features such as color, orientation, or motion. This is referred to as feature-based attention and it is commonly attributed to a modulation of the gain and tuning of feature-selective units in visual cortex. Although gain mechanisms are well characterized, little is known about the cortical processes underlying the sharpening of feature selectivity. Here, we show with high-resolution magnetoencephalography in human observers (men and women) that sharpened selectivity for a particular color arises from feedback processing in the human visual cortex hierarchy. To assess color selectivity, we analyze the response to a color probe that varies in color distance from an attended color target. We find that attention causes an initial gain enhancement in anterior ventral extrastriate cortex that is coarsely selective for the target color and transitions within ∼100 ms into a sharper tuned profile in more posterior ventral occipital cortex. We conclude that attention sharpens selectivity over time by attenuating the response at lower levels of the cortical hierarchy to color values neighboring the target in color space. These observations support computational models proposing that attention tunes feature selectivity in visual cortex through backward-propagating attenuation of units less tuned to the target. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Whether searching for your car, a particular item of clothing, or just obeying traffic lights, in everyday life, we must select items based on color. But how does attention allow us to select a specific color? Here, we use high spatiotemporal resolution neuromagnetic recordings to examine how color selectivity emerges in the human brain. We find that color selectivity evolves as a coarse to fine process from higher to lower levels within the visual cortex hierarchy. Our observations support computational models proposing that feature selectivity increases over time by attenuating the responses of less-selective cells in lower-level brain areas. These data emphasize that color perception involves multiple areas across a hierarchy of regions, interacting with each other in a complex, recursive manner. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3710346-12$15.00/0.

Item Selection and Ability Estimation Procedures for a Mixed-Format Adaptive Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Tsung-Han; Dodd, Barbara G.

2012-01-01

In this study we compared five item selection procedures using three ability estimation methods in the context of a mixed-format adaptive test based on the generalized partial credit model. The item selection procedures used were maximum posterior weighted information, maximum expected information, maximum posterior weighted Kullback-Leibler…

Bayesian Item Selection in Constrained Adaptive Testing Using Shadow Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veldkamp, Bernard P.

2010-01-01

Application of Bayesian item selection criteria in computerized adaptive testing might result in improvement of bias and MSE of the ability estimates. The question remains how to apply Bayesian item selection criteria in the context of constrained adaptive testing, where large numbers of specifications have to be taken into account in the item…

Minimum Sample Size Requirements for Mokken Scale Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Straat, J. Hendrik; van der Ark, L. Andries; Sijtsma, Klaas

2014-01-01

An automated item selection procedure in Mokken scale analysis partitions a set of items into one or more Mokken scales, if the data allow. Two algorithms are available that pursue the same goal of selecting Mokken scales of maximum length: Mokken's original automated item selection procedure (AISP) and a genetic algorithm (GA). Minimum…

A Feedback Control Strategy for Enhancing Item Selection Efficiency in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weissman, Alexander

2006-01-01

A computerized adaptive test (CAT) may be modeled as a closed-loop system, where item selection is influenced by trait level ([theta]) estimation and vice versa. When discrepancies exist between an examinee's estimated and true [theta] levels, nonoptimal item selection is a likely result. Nevertheless, examinee response behavior consistent with…

SERENITY in e-Business and Smart Item Scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Benameur, Azzedine; Khoury, Paul El; Seguran, Magali; Sinha, Smriti Kumar

SERENITY Artefacts, like Class, Patterns, Implementations and Executable Components for Security & Dependability (S&D) in addition to Serenity Runtime Framework (SRF) are discussed in previous chapters. How to integrate these artefacts with applications in Serenity approach is discussed here with two scenarios. The e-Business scenario is a standard loan origination process in a bank. The Smart Item scenario is an Ambient intelligence case study where we take advantage of Smart Items to provide an electronic healthcare infrastructure for remote healthcare assistance. In both cases, we detail how the prototype implementations of the scenarios select proper executable components through Serenity Runtime Framework and then demonstrate how these executable components of the S&D Patterns are deployed.

BCQ+: a body constitution questionnaire to assess Yang-Xu. Part I: establishment of a first final version through a Delphi process.

PubMed

Su, Yi-Chang; Chen, Li-Li; Lin, Jun-Dai; Lin, Jui-Shan; Huang, Yi-Chia; Lai, Jim-Shoung

2008-12-01

Assessing an individual's level of Yang deficiency (Yang-Xu) by its manifestations is a frequent issue in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical trials. To this end, an objective, reliable and rigorous diagnostic tool is required. This study aimed to develop a first final version of the Yang-Xu Constitution Questionnaire. We conducted 3 steps to develop such an objective measurement tool: 1) the research team was formed and a panel of 26 experts was selected for the Delphi process; 2) items for the questionnaire were generated by literature review and a Delphi process; items were reworded into colloquial questions; face and content validity of the items were evaluated through a Delphi process again; 3) the difficulty of the questionnaire was evaluated in a pilot study with 81 subjects aged 20-60 years. The literature review retrieved 35 relevant items which matched the definition of 'constitution' and 'Yang-Xu'. After a first Delphi process, 22 items were retained and translated into colloquial questions. According to the second part of the Delphi process, the content validity index of each of the 22 questions ranged between 0.85-1. These 22 questions were evaluated by 81 subjects, 2 questions that were hard to tell the difference were combined; 3 questions were modified after the research team had discussed the participants' feedback. Finally, the questionnaire was established with 21 questions. This first final version of a questionnaire to assess Yang-Xu constitution with considerable face and content validity may serve as a basis to develop an advanced Yang-Xu questionnaire. 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

An Efficiency Balanced Information Criterion for Item Selection in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Kyung T.

2012-01-01

Successful administration of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) programs in educational settings requires that test security and item exposure control issues be taken seriously. Developing an item selection algorithm that strikes the right balance between test precision and level of item pool utilization is the key to successful implementation…

Applying Bayesian Item Selection Approaches to Adaptive Tests Using Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penfield, Randall D.

2006-01-01

This study applied the maximum expected information (MEI) and the maximum posterior-weighted information (MPI) approaches of computer adaptive testing item selection to the case of a test using polytomous items following the partial credit model. The MEI and MPI approaches are described. A simulation study compared the efficiency of ability…

Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), Spring 2000: Elementary Health/Physical Education, Released Items, Grade 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Missouri State Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jefferson City.

This document presents 10 released items from the Health/Physical Education Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test given in the spring of 2000 to fifth graders. Items from the test sessions include: selected-response (multiple choice), constructed-response, and a performance event. The selected-response items consist of individual questions…

Inductive Selectivity in Children’s Cross-classified Concepts

PubMed Central

Nguyen, Simone P.

2012-01-01

Cross-classified items pose an interesting challenge to children’s induction since these items belong to many different categories, each of which may serve as a basis for a different type of inference. Inductive selectivity is the ability to appropriately make different types of inferences about a single cross-classifiable item based on its different category memberships. This research includes five experiments that examine the development of inductive selectivity in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds (N = 272). Overall, the results show that by age 4 years, children have inductive selectivity with taxonomic and script categories. That is, children use taxonomic categories to make biochemical inferences about an item whereas children use script categories to make situational inferences about an item. PMID:22803510

Early metacognitive abilities: the interplay of monitoring and control processes in 5- to 7-year-old children.

PubMed

Destan, Nesrin; Hembacher, Emily; Ghetti, Simona; Roebers, Claudia M

2014-10-01

The goal of the current investigation was to compare two monitoring processes (judgments of learning [JOLs] and confidence judgments [CJs]) and their corresponding control processes (allocation of study time and selection of answers to maximize accuracy, respectively) in 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old children (N=101). Children learned the meanings of Japanese characters and provided JOLs after a study phase and CJs after a memory test. They were given the opportunity to control their learning in self-paced study phases and to control their accuracy by placing correct answers in a treasure chest and placing incorrect answers in a trash can. All three age groups gave significantly higher CJs for correct answers compared with incorrect answers, with no age-related differences in the magnitude of this difference, suggesting robust metacognitive monitoring skills in children as young as 5 years. Furthermore, a link between JOLs and study time was found in 6- and 7-year-olds, such that children spent more time studying items with low JOLs compared with items with high JOLs. In addition, 6- and 7-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, spent more time studying difficult items compared with easier items. Moreover, age-related improvements were found in children's use of CJs to guide their selection of answers; although children as young as 5 years placed their most confident answers in the treasure chest and placed their least confident answers in the trash can, this pattern was more robust in older children. Overall, results support the view that some metacognitive judgments may be acted on with greater ease than others among young children. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A sharp image or a sharp knife: norms for the modality-exclusivity of 774 concept-property items.

PubMed

van Dantzig, Saskia; Cowell, Rosemary A; Zeelenberg, René; Pecher, Diane

2011-03-01

According to recent embodied cognition theories, mental concepts are represented by modality-specific sensory-motor systems. Much of the evidence for modality-specificity in conceptual processing comes from the property-verification task. When applying this and other tasks, it is important to select items based on their modality-exclusivity. We collected modality ratings for a set of 387 properties, each of which was paired with two different concepts, yielding a total of 774 concept-property items. For each item, participants rated the degree to which the property could be experienced through five perceptual modalities (vision, audition, touch, smell, and taste). Based on these ratings, we computed a measure of modality exclusivity, the degree to which a property is perceived exclusively through one sensory modality. In this paper, we briefly sketch the theoretical background of conceptual knowledge, discuss the use of the property-verification task in cognitive research, provide our norms and statistics, and validate the norms in a memory experiment. We conclude that our norms are important for researchers studying modality-specific effects in conceptual processing.

Competitive control of cognition in rhesus monkeys.

PubMed

Kowaguchi, Mayuka; Patel, Nirali P; Bunnell, Megan E; Kralik, Jerald D

2016-12-01

The brain has evolved different approaches to solve problems, but the mechanisms that determine which approach to take remain unclear. One possibility is that control progresses from simpler processes, such as associative learning, to more complex ones, such as relational reasoning, when the simpler ones prove inadequate. Alternatively, control could be based on competition between the processes. To test between these possibilities, we posed the support problem to rhesus monkeys using a tool-use paradigm, in which subjects could pull an object (the tool) toward themselves to obtain an otherwise out-of-reach goal item. We initially provided one problem exemplar as a choice: for the correct option, a food item placed on the support tool; for the incorrect option, the food item placed off the tool. Perceptual cues were also correlated with outcome: e.g., red, triangular tool correct, blue, rectangular tool incorrect. Although the monkeys simply needed to touch the tool to register a response, they immediately pulled it, reflecting a relational reasoning process between themselves and another object (R self-other ), rather than an associative one between the arbitrary touch response and reward (A resp-reward ). Probe testing then showed that all four monkeys used a conjunction of perceptual features to select the correct option, reflecting an associative process between stimuli and reward (A stim-reward ). We then added a second problem exemplar and subsequent testing revealed that the monkeys switched to using the on/off relationship, reflecting a relational reasoning process between two objects (R other-other ). Because behavior appeared to reflect R self-other rather than A resp-reward , and A stim-reward prior to R other-other , our results suggest that cognitive processes are selected via competitive control dynamics. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Energy Statistics : A Supplement to the Summary of National Transportation Statistics

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1976-08-01

This report is a compendium of selected time-series data describing the transportation, production, processing, and consumption of energy. It contains such items as the revenues and expenses of oil pipeline companies, number and capacities of U.S. ta...

Energy Statistics : A Supplement to the Summary of National Transportation Statistics

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1975-08-01

This report is a compendium of selected time-series data describing the transportation, production, processing, and consumption of energy. It discusses such items as the revenues and expenses of oil pipeline companies, number and capacities of U.S. t...

Identifying content for the glaucoma-specific item bank to measure quality-of-life parameters.

PubMed

Khadka, Jyoti; McAlinden, Colm; Craig, Jamie E; Fenwick, Eva K; Lamoureux, Ecosse L; Pesudovs, Konrad

2015-01-01

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have become essential clinical trial end points. However, a comprehensive, multidimensional, patient-relevant, and precise glaucoma-specific PRO instrument is not available. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify content for a new, glaucoma-specific, quality-of-life (QOL) item bank. Content identification was undertaken in 5 phases: (1) identification of extant items in glaucoma-specific instruments and the qualitative literature; (2) focus groups and interviews with glaucoma patients; (3) item classification and selection; (4) expert review and revision of items; and (5) cognitive interviews with patients. A total of 737 unique items (extant items from PRO instruments, 247; qualitative articles, 14 items; focus groups and semistructured interviews, 476 items) were identified. These items were classified into 10 QOL domains. Four criteria (item redundancy, item inconsistent with domain definition, item content too narrow to have wider applicability, and item clarity) were used to remove and refine the items. After the cognitive interviews, the final minimally representative item set had a total of 342 unique items belonging to 10 domains: activity limitation (88), mobility (20), visual symptoms (19), ocular surface symptoms (22), general symptoms (15), convenience (39), health concerns (45), emotional well-being (49), social issues (23), and economic issues (22). The systematic content identification process identified 10 QOL domains, which were important to patients with glaucoma. The majority of the items were identified from the patient-specific focus groups and semistructured interviews suggesting that the existing PRO instruments do not adequately address QOL issues relevant to individuals with glaucoma.

Human attention filters for single colors.

PubMed

Sun, Peng; Chubb, Charles; Wright, Charles E; Sperling, George

2016-10-25

The visual images in the eyes contain much more information than the brain can process. An important selection mechanism is feature-based attention (FBA). FBA is best described by attention filters that specify precisely the extent to which items containing attended features are selectively processed and the extent to which items that do not contain the attended features are attenuated. The centroid-judgment paradigm enables quick, precise measurements of such human perceptual attention filters, analogous to transmission measurements of photographic color filters. Subjects use a mouse to locate the centroid-the center of gravity-of a briefly displayed cloud of dots and receive precise feedback. A subset of dots is distinguished by some characteristic, such as a different color, and subjects judge the centroid of only the distinguished subset (e.g., dots of a particular color). The analysis efficiently determines the precise weight in the judged centroid of dots of every color in the display (i.e., the attention filter for the particular attended color in that context). We report 32 attention filters for single colors. Attention filters that discriminate one saturated hue from among seven other equiluminant distractor hues are extraordinarily selective, achieving attended/unattended weight ratios >20:1. Attention filters for selecting a color that differs in saturation or lightness from distractors are much less selective than attention filters for hue (given equal discriminability of the colors), and their filter selectivities are proportional to the discriminability distance of neighboring colors, whereas in the same range hue attention-filter selectivity is virtually independent of discriminabilty.

Better assessment of physical function: item improvement is neglected but essential

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Introduction Physical function is a key component of patient-reported outcome (PRO) assessment in rheumatology. Modern psychometric methods, such as Item Response Theory (IRT) and Computerized Adaptive Testing, can materially improve measurement precision at the item level. We present the qualitative and quantitative item-evaluation process for developing the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function item bank. Methods The process was stepwise: we searched extensively to identify extant Physical Function items and then classified and selectively reduced the item pool. We evaluated retained items for content, clarity, relevance and comprehension, reading level, and translation ease by experts and patient surveys, focus groups, and cognitive interviews. We then assessed items by using classic test theory and IRT, used confirmatory factor analyses to estimate item parameters, and graded response modeling for parameter estimation. We retained the 20 Legacy (original) Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) and the 10 SF-36's PF-10 items for comparison. Subjects were from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and healthy aging cohorts (n = 1,100) and a national Internet sample of 21,133 subjects. Results We identified 1,860 items. After qualitative and quantitative evaluation, 124 newly developed PROMIS items composed the PROMIS item bank, which included revised Legacy items with good fit that met IRT model assumptions. Results showed that the clearest and best-understood items were simple, in the present tense, and straightforward. Basic tasks (like dressing) were more relevant and important versus complex ones (like dancing). Revised HAQ-DI and PF-10 items with five response options had higher item-information content than did comparable original Legacy items with fewer response options. IRT analyses showed that the Physical Function domain satisfied general criteria for unidimensionality with one-, two-, three-, and four-factor models having comparable model fits. Correlations between factors in the test data sets were > 0.90. Conclusions Item improvement must underlie attempts to improve outcome assessment. The clear, personally important and relevant, ability-framed items in the PROMIS Physical Function item bank perform well in PRO assessment. They will benefit from further study and application in a wider variety of rheumatic diseases in diverse clinical groups, including those at the extremes of physical functioning, and in different administration modes. PMID:20015354

Better assessment of physical function: item improvement is neglected but essential.

PubMed

Bruce, Bonnie; Fries, James F; Ambrosini, Debbie; Lingala, Bharathi; Gandek, Barbara; Rose, Matthias; Ware, John E

2009-01-01

Physical function is a key component of patient-reported outcome (PRO) assessment in rheumatology. Modern psychometric methods, such as Item Response Theory (IRT) and Computerized Adaptive Testing, can materially improve measurement precision at the item level. We present the qualitative and quantitative item-evaluation process for developing the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function item bank. The process was stepwise: we searched extensively to identify extant Physical Function items and then classified and selectively reduced the item pool. We evaluated retained items for content, clarity, relevance and comprehension, reading level, and translation ease by experts and patient surveys, focus groups, and cognitive interviews. We then assessed items by using classic test theory and IRT, used confirmatory factor analyses to estimate item parameters, and graded response modeling for parameter estimation. We retained the 20 Legacy (original) Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) and the 10 SF-36's PF-10 items for comparison. Subjects were from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and healthy aging cohorts (n = 1,100) and a national Internet sample of 21,133 subjects. We identified 1,860 items. After qualitative and quantitative evaluation, 124 newly developed PROMIS items composed the PROMIS item bank, which included revised Legacy items with good fit that met IRT model assumptions. Results showed that the clearest and best-understood items were simple, in the present tense, and straightforward. Basic tasks (like dressing) were more relevant and important versus complex ones (like dancing). Revised HAQ-DI and PF-10 items with five response options had higher item-information content than did comparable original Legacy items with fewer response options. IRT analyses showed that the Physical Function domain satisfied general criteria for unidimensionality with one-, two-, three-, and four-factor models having comparable model fits. Correlations between factors in the test data sets were > 0.90. Item improvement must underlie attempts to improve outcome assessment. The clear, personally important and relevant, ability-framed items in the PROMIS Physical Function item bank perform well in PRO assessment. They will benefit from further study and application in a wider variety of rheumatic diseases in diverse clinical groups, including those at the extremes of physical functioning, and in different administration modes.

Restricted interests and teacher presentation of items.

PubMed

Stocco, Corey S; Thompson, Rachel H; Rodriguez, Nicole M

2011-01-01

Restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) is more pervasive, prevalent, frequent, and severe in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) than in their typical peers. One subtype of RRB is restricted interests in items or activities, which is evident in the manner in which individuals engage with items (e.g., repetitious wheel spinning), the types of items or activities they select (e.g., preoccupation with a phone book), or the range of items or activities they select (i.e., narrow range of items). We sought to describe the relation between restricted interests and teacher presentation of items. Overall, we observed 5 teachers interacting with 2 pairs of students diagnosed with an ASD. Each pair included 1 student with restricted interests. During these observations, teachers were free to present any items from an array of 4 stimuli selected by experimenters. We recorded student responses to teacher presentation of items and analyzed the data to determine the relation between teacher presentation of items and the consequences for presentation provided by the students. Teacher presentation of items corresponded with differential responses provided by students with ASD, and those with restricted preferences experienced a narrower array of items.

The Impact of Receiving the Same Items on Consecutive Computer Adaptive Test Administrations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Neill, Thomas; Lunz, Mary E.; Thiede, Keith

2000-01-01

Studied item exposure in a computerized adaptive test when the item selection algorithm presents examinees with questions they were asked in a previous test administration. Results with 178 repeat examinees on a medical technologists' test indicate that the combined use of an adaptive algorithm to select items and latent trait theory to estimate…

Missouri Assessment Program (MAP), Spring 2000: High School Health/Physical Education, Released Items, Grade 9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Missouri State Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jefferson City.

This document presents 10 released items from the Health/Physical Education Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test given in the spring of 2000 to ninth graders. Items from the test sessions include: selected-response (multiple choice), constructed-response, and a performance event. The selected-response items consist of individual questions…

Language Non-Selective Activation of Orthography during Spoken Word Processing in Hindi-English Sequential Bilinguals: An Eye Tracking Visual World Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mishra, Ramesh Kumar; Singh, Niharika

2014-01-01

Previous psycholinguistic studies have shown that bilinguals activate lexical items of both the languages during auditory and visual word processing. In this study we examined if Hindi-English bilinguals activate the orthographic forms of phonological neighbors of translation equivalents of the non target language while listening to words either…

High-Dimensional Brain: A Tool for Encoding and Rapid Learning of Memories by Single Neurons.

PubMed

Tyukin, Ivan; Gorban, Alexander N; Calvo, Carlos; Makarova, Julia; Makarov, Valeri A

2018-03-19

Codifying memories is one of the fundamental problems of modern Neuroscience. The functional mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain largely unknown. Experimental evidence suggests that some of the memory functions are performed by stratified brain structures such as the hippocampus. In this particular case, single neurons in the CA1 region receive a highly multidimensional input from the CA3 area, which is a hub for information processing. We thus assess the implication of the abundance of neuronal signalling routes converging onto single cells on the information processing. We show that single neurons can selectively detect and learn arbitrary information items, given that they operate in high dimensions. The argument is based on stochastic separation theorems and the concentration of measure phenomena. We demonstrate that a simple enough functional neuronal model is capable of explaining: (i) the extreme selectivity of single neurons to the information content, (ii) simultaneous separation of several uncorrelated stimuli or informational items from a large set, and (iii) dynamic learning of new items by associating them with already "known" ones. These results constitute a basis for organization of complex memories in ensembles of single neurons. Moreover, they show that no a priori assumptions on the structural organization of neuronal ensembles are necessary for explaining basic concepts of static and dynamic memories.

Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity Predict Retrieval-Induced Forgetting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aslan, Alp; Bauml, Karl-Heinz T.

2011-01-01

Selectively retrieving a subset of previously studied information enhances memory for the retrieved information but causes forgetting of related, nonretrieved information. Such retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) has often been attributed to inhibitory executive-control processes that supposedly suppress the nonretrieved items' memory…

Amnesia, rehearsal, and temporal distinctiveness models of recall.

PubMed

Brown, Gordon D A; Della Sala, Sergio; Foster, Jonathan K; Vousden, Janet I

2007-04-01

Classical amnesia involves selective memory impairment for temporally distant items in free recall (impaired primacy) together with relative preservation of memory for recency items. This abnormal serial position curve is traditionally taken as evidence for a distinction between different memory processes, with amnesia being associated with selectively impaired long-term memory. However recent accounts of normal serial position curves have emphasized the importance of rehearsal processes in giving rise to primacy effects and have suggested that a single temporal distinctiveness mechanism can account for both primacy and recency effects when rehearsal is considered. Here we explore the pattern of strategic rehearsal in a patient with very severe amnesia. When the patient's rehearsal pattern is taken into account, a temporal distinctiveness model can account for the serial position curve in both amnesic and control free recall. The results are taken as consistent with temporal distinctiveness models of free recall, and they motivate an emphasis on rehearsal patterns in understanding amnesic deficits in free recall.

Item-level and subscale-level factoring of Biggs' Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ) in a mainland Chinese sample.

PubMed

Sachs, J; Gao, L

2000-09-01

The learning process questionnaire (LPQ) has been the source of intensive cross-cultural study. However, an item-level factor analysis of all the LPQ items simultaneously has never been reported. Rather, items within each subscale have been factor analysed to establish subscale unidimensionality and justify the use of composite subscale scores. It was of major interest to see if the six logically constructed items groups of the LPQ would be supported by empirical evidence. Additionally, it was of interest to compare the consistency of the reliability and correlational structure of the LPQ subscales in our study with those of previous cross-cultural studies. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to fit the six-factor item level model and to fit five representative subscale level factor models. A total of 1070 students between the ages of 15 to 18 years was drawn from a representative selection of 29 classes from within 15 secondary schools in Guangzhou, China. Males and females were almost equally represented. The six-factor item level model of the LPQ seemed to fit reasonably well, thus supporting the six dimensional structure of the LPQ and justifying the use of composite subscale scores for each LPQ dimension. However, the reliability of many of these subscales was low. Furthermore, only two subscale-level factor models showed marginally acceptable fit. Substantive considerations supported an oblique three-factor model. Because the LPQ subscales often show low internal consistency reliability, experimental and correlational studies that have used these subscales as dependent measures have been disappointing. It is suggested that some LPQ items should be revised and other items added to improve the inventory's overall psychometric properties.

Instrument validation process: a case study using the Paediatric Pain Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire.

PubMed

Peirce, Deborah; Brown, Janie; Corkish, Victoria; Lane, Marguerite; Wilson, Sally

2016-06-01

To compare two methods of calculating interrater agreement while determining content validity of the Paediatric Pain Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire for use with Australian nurses. Paediatric pain assessment and management documentation was found to be suboptimal revealing a need to assess paediatric nurses' knowledge and attitude to pain. The Paediatric Pain Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire was selected as it had been reported as valid and reliable in the United Kingdom with student nurses. The questionnaire required content validity determination prior to use in the Australian context. A two phase process of expert review. Ten paediatric nurses completed a relevancy rating of all 68 questionnaire items. In phase two, five pain experts reviewed the items of the questionnaire that scored an unacceptable item level content validity. Item and scale level content validity indices and intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated. In phase one, 31 items received an item level content validity index <0·78 and the scale level content validity index average was 0·80 which were below levels required for acceptable validity. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0·47. In phase two, 10 items were amended and four items deleted. The revised questionnaire provided a scale level content validity index average >0·90 and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0·94 demonstrating excellent agreement between raters therefore acceptable content validity. Equivalent outcomes were achieved using the content validity index and the intraclass correlation coefficient. To assess content validity the content validity index has the advantage of providing an item level score and is a simple calculation. The intraclass correlation coefficient requires statistical knowledge, or support, and has the advantage of accounting for the possibility of chance agreement. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Toward a More Systematic Assessment of Smoking: Development of a Smoking Module for PROMIS®

PubMed Central

Tucker, Joan S.; Shadel, William G.; Stucky, Brian D.; Cai, Li

2012-01-01

Introduction The aim of the PROMIS® Smoking Initiative is to develop, evaluate, and standardize item banks to assess cigarette smoking behavior and biopsychosocial constructs associated with smoking for both daily and non-daily smokers. Methods We used qualitative methods to develop the item pool (following the PROMIS® approach: e.g., literature search, “binning and winnowing” of items, and focus groups and cognitive interviews to finalize wording and format), and quantitative methods (e.g., factor analysis) to develop the item banks. Results We considered a total of 1622 extant items, and 44 new items for inclusion in the smoking item banks. A final set of 277 items representing 11 conceptual domains was selected for field testing in a national sample of smokers. Using data from 3021 daily smokers in the field test, an iterative series of exploratory factor analyses and project team discussions resulted in six item banks: Positive Consequences of Smoking (40 items), Smoking Dependence/Craving (55 items), Health Consequences of Smoking (26 items), Psychosocial Consequences of Smoking (37 items), Coping Aspects of Smoking (30 items), and Social Factors of Smoking (23 items). Conclusions Inclusion of a smoking domain in the PROMIS® framework will standardize measurement of key smoking constructs using state-of-the-art psychometric methods, and make them widely accessible to health care providers, smoking researchers and the large community of researchers using PROMIS® who might not otherwise include an assessment of smoking in their design. Next steps include reducing the number of items in each domain, conducting confirmatory analyses, and duplicating the process for non-daily smokers. PMID:22770824

Toward a more systematic assessment of smoking: development of a smoking module for PROMIS®.

PubMed

Edelen, Maria O; Tucker, Joan S; Shadel, William G; Stucky, Brian D; Cai, Li

2012-11-01

The aim of the PROMIS® Smoking Initiative is to develop, evaluate, and standardize item banks to assess cigarette smoking behavior and biopsychosocial constructs associated with smoking for both daily and non-daily smokers. We used qualitative methods to develop the item pool (following the PROMIS® approach: e.g., literature search, "binning and winnowing" of items, and focus groups and cognitive interviews to finalize wording and format), and quantitative methods (e.g., factor analysis) to develop the item banks. We considered a total of 1622 extant items, and 44 new items for inclusion in the smoking item banks. A final set of 277 items representing 11 conceptual domains was selected for field testing in a national sample of smokers. Using data from 3021 daily smokers in the field test, an iterative series of exploratory factor analyses and project team discussions resulted in six item banks: Positive Consequences of Smoking (40 items), Smoking Dependence/Craving (55 items), Health Consequences of Smoking (26 items), Psychosocial Consequences of Smoking (37 items), Coping Aspects of Smoking (30 items), and Social Factors of Smoking (23 items). Inclusion of a smoking domain in the PROMIS® framework will standardize measurement of key smoking constructs using state-of-the-art psychometric methods, and make them widely accessible to health care providers, smoking researchers and the large community of researchers using PROMIS® who might not otherwise include an assessment of smoking in their design. Next steps include reducing the number of items in each domain, conducting confirmatory analyses, and duplicating the process for non-daily smokers. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the switching of the focus of attention within working memory: A combined event-related potential and behavioral study.

PubMed

Frenken, Marius; Berti, Stefan

2018-04-01

Working memory enables humans to maintain selected information for cognitive processes and ensures instant access to the memorized contents. Theories suggest that switching the focus of attention between items within working memory realizes the access. This is reflected in object-switching costs in response times when the item for the task processing is to be changed. Another correlate of attentional allocation in working memory is the P3a-component of the human event-related potential. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that switching of attention within working memory is a separable processing step. Participants completed a cued memory-updating task in which they were instructed to update one memory item at a time out of a memory list of four digits by applying a mathematical operation indicated by a target sign. The hypotheses predicted (1) prolonged updating times in switch (different item compared to previous trial) versus repetition trials (same item), (2) an influence of cues (valid/neutral) presented before the mathematical target on switching costs, and (3) that the P3a-component is more pronounced in the cue-target interval in the valid cue condition and more pronounced in the post-target interval in the neutral cue condition. A student's t-test verified the first hypothesis, repeated-measurement analyses of variance demonstrated that hypotheses 2 and 3 should be rejected. Results suggest that switching of attention within working memory could not be separated from further processing steps and retro-cue benefits are not due to a head start of retrieval as well as that switch costs represent internal processes. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The development of control processes supporting source memory discrimination as revealed by event-related potentials.

PubMed

de Chastelaine, Marianne; Friedman, David; Cycowicz, Yael M

2007-08-01

Improvement in source memory performance throughout childhood is thought to be mediated by the development of executive control. As postretrieval control processes may be better time-locked to the recognition response rather than the retrieval cue, the development of processes underlying source memory was investigated with both stimulus- and response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs). These were recorded in children, adolescents, and adults during a recognition memory exclusion task. Green- and red-outlined pictures were studied, but were tested in black outline. The test requirement was to endorse old items shown in one study color ("targets") and to reject new items along with old items shown in the alternative study color ("nontargets"). Source memory improved with age. All age groups retrieved target and nontarget memories as reflected by reliable parietal episodic memory (EM) effects, a stimulus-locked ERP correlate of recollection. Response-locked ERPs to targets and nontargets diverged in all groups prior to the response, although this occurred at an increasingly earlier time point with age. We suggest these findings reflect the implementation of attentional control mechanisms to enhance target memories and facilitate response selection with the greatest and least success, respectively, in adults and children. In adults only, response-locked ERPs revealed an early-onsetting parietal negativity for nontargets, but not for targets. This was suggested to reflect adults' ability to consistently inhibit prepotent target responses for nontargets. The findings support the notion that the development of source memory relies on the maturation of control processes that serve to enhance accurate selection of task-relevant memories.

Item Selection and Pre-equating with Empirical Item Characteristic Curves.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Livingston, Samuel A.

An empirical item characteristic curve shows the probability of a correct response as a function of the student's total test score. These curves can be estimated from large-scale pretest data. They enable test developers to select items that discriminate well in the score region where decisions are made. A similar set of curves can be used to…

One portion size of foods frequently consumed by Korean adults

PubMed Central

Choi, Mi-Kyeong; Hyun, Wha-Jin; Lee, Sim-Yeol; Park, Hong-Ju; Kim, Se-Na

2010-01-01

This study aimed to define a one portion size of food items frequently consumed for convenient use by Koreans in food selection, diet planning, and nutritional evaluation. We analyzed using the original data on 5,436 persons (60.87%) aged 20 ~ 64 years among 8,930 persons to whom NHANES 2005 and selected food items consumed by the intake frequency of 30 or higher among the 500 most frequently consumed food items. A total of 374 varieties of food items of regular use were selected. And the portion size of food items was set on the basis of the median (50th percentile) of the portion size for a single intake by a single person was analyzed. In cereals, the portion size of well polished rice was 80 g. In meats, the portion size of Korean beef cattle was 25 g. Among vegetable items, the portion size of Baechukimchi was 40 g. The portion size of the food items of regular use set in this study will be conveniently and effectively used by general consumers in selecting food items for a nutritionally balanced diet. In addition, these will be used as the basic data in setting the serving size in meal planning. PMID:20198213

[Mokken scaling of the Cognitive Screening Test].

PubMed

Diesfeldt, H F A

2009-10-01

The Cognitive Screening Test (CST) is a twenty-item orientation questionnaire in Dutch, that is commonly used to evaluate cognitive impairment. This study applied Mokken Scale Analysis, a non-parametric set of techniques derived from item response theory (IRT), to CST-data of 466 consecutive participants in psychogeriatric day care. The full item set and the standard short version of fourteen items both met the assumptions of the monotone homogeneity model, with scalability coefficient H = 0.39, which is considered weak. In order to select items that would fulfil the assumption of invariant item ordering or the double monotonicity model, the subjects were randomly partitioned into a training set (50% of the sample) and a test set (the remaining half). By means of an automated item selection eleven items were found to measure one latent trait, with H = 0.67 and item H coefficients larger than 0.51. Cross-validation of the item analysis in the remaining half of the subjects gave comparable values (H = 0.66; item H coefficients larger than 0.56). The selected items involve year, place of residence, birth date, the monarch's and prime minister's names, and their predecessors. Applying optimal discriminant analysis (ODA) it was found that the full set of twenty CST items performed best in distinguishing two predefined groups of patients of lower or higher cognitive ability, as established by an independent criterion derived from the Amsterdam Dementia Screening Test. The chance corrected predictive value or prognostic utility was 47.5% for the full item set, 45.2% for the fourteen items of the standard short version of the CST, and 46.1% for the homogeneous, unidimensional set of selected eleven items. The results of the item analysis support the application of the CST in cognitive assessment, and revealed a more reliable 'short' version of the CST than the standard short version (CST14).

Development of an item bank for computerized adaptive test (CAT) measurement of pain.

PubMed

Petersen, Morten Aa; Aaronson, Neil K; Chie, Wei-Chu; Conroy, Thierry; Costantini, Anna; Hammerlid, Eva; Hjermstad, Marianne J; Kaasa, Stein; Loge, Jon H; Velikova, Galina; Young, Teresa; Groenvold, Mogens

2016-01-01

Patient-reported outcomes should ideally be adapted to the individual patient while maintaining comparability of scores across patients. This is achievable using computerized adaptive testing (CAT). The aim here was to develop an item bank for CAT measurement of the pain domain as measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. The development process consisted of four steps: (1) literature search, (2) formulation of new items and expert evaluations, (3) pretesting and (4) field-testing and psychometric analyses for the final selection of items. In step 1, we identified 337 pain items from the literature. Twenty-nine new items fitting the QLQ-C30 item style were formulated in step 2 that were reduced to 26 items by expert evaluations. Based on interviews with 31 patients from Denmark, France and the UK, the list was further reduced to 21 items in step 3. In phase 4, responses were obtained from 1103 cancer patients from five countries. Psychometric evaluations showed that 16 items could be retained in a unidimensional item bank. Evaluations indicated that use of the CAT measure may reduce sample size requirements with 15-25% compared to using the QLQ-C30 pain scale. We have established an item bank of 16 items suitable for CAT measurement of pain. While being backward compatible with the QLQ-C30, the new item bank will significantly improve measurement precision of pain. We recommend initiating CAT measurement by screening for pain using the two original QLQ-C30 pain items. The EORTC pain CAT is currently available for "experimental" purposes.

The development of cognitive flexibility beyond the preschool period: an investigation using a modified Flexible Item Selection Task.

PubMed

Dick, Anthony Steven

2014-09-01

We explored the development of cognitive flexibility in typically developing 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds and adults by modifying a common cognitive flexibility task, the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST). Although performance on the standard FIST reached ceiling by 8 years, FIST performance on other variations continued to improve until 10 years of age. Within a detailed task analysis, we also explored working memory storage and processing components of executive function and how these contribute to the development of cognitive flexibility. The findings reinforce the notion that cognitive flexibility is a multifaceted construct but that the development of working memory contributes in part to age-related change in this ability. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Variation in passing standards for graduation-level knowledge items at UK medical schools.

PubMed

Taylor, Celia A; Gurnell, Mark; Melville, Colin R; Kluth, David C; Johnson, Neil; Wass, Val

2017-06-01

Given the absence of a common passing standard for students at UK medical schools, this paper compares independently set standards for common 'one from five' single-best-answer (multiple-choice) items used in graduation-level applied knowledge examinations and explores potential reasons for any differences. A repeated cross-sectional study was conducted. Participating schools were sent a common set of graduation-level items (55 in 2013-2014; 60 in 2014-2015). Items were selected against a blueprint and subjected to a quality review process. Each school employed its own standard-setting process for the common items. The primary outcome was the passing standard for the common items by each medical school set using the Angoff or Ebel methods. Of 31 invited medical schools, 22 participated in 2013-2014 (71%) and 30 (97%) in 2014-2015. Schools used a mean of 49 and 53 common items in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, respectively, representing around one-third of the items in the examinations in which they were embedded. Data from 19 (61%) and 26 (84%) schools, respectively, met the inclusion criteria for comparison of standards. There were statistically significant differences in the passing standards set by schools in both years (effect sizes (f 2 ): 0.041 in 2013-2014 and 0.218 in 2014-2015; both p < 0.001). The interquartile range of standards was 5.7 percentage points in 2013-2014 and 6.5 percentage points in 2014-2015. There was a positive correlation between the relative standards set by schools in the 2 years (Pearson's r = 0.57, n = 18, p = 0.014). Time allowed per item, method of standard setting and timing of examination in the curriculum did not have a statistically significant impact on standards. Independently set standards for common single-best-answer items used in graduation-level examinations vary across UK medical schools. Further work to examine standard-setting processes in more detail is needed to help explain this variability and develop methods to reduce it. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Memory capacity, selective control, and value-directed remembering in children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

PubMed

Castel, Alan D; Lee, Steve S; Humphreys, Kathryn L; Moore, Amy N

2011-01-01

The ability to select what is important to remember, to attend to this information, and to recall high-value items leads to the efficient use of memory. The present study examined how children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) performed on an incentive-based selectivity task in which to-be-remembered items were worth different point values. Participants were 6-9 year old children with ADHD (n = 57) and without ADHD (n = 59). Using a selectivity task, participants studied words paired with point values and were asked to maximize their score, which was the overall value of the items they recalled. This task allows for measures of memory capacity and the ability to selectively remember high-value items. Although there were no significant between-groups differences in the number of words recalled (memory capacity), children with ADHD were less selective than children in the control group in terms of the value of the items they recalled (control of memory). All children recalled more high-value items than low-value items and showed some learning with task experience, but children with ADHD Combined type did not efficiently maximize memory performance (as measured by a selectivity index) relative to children with ADHD Inattentive type and healthy controls, who did not differ significantly from one another. Children with ADHD Combined type exhibit impairments in the strategic and efficient encoding and recall of high-value items. The findings have implications for theories of memory dysfunction in childhood ADHD and the key role of metacognition, cognitive control, and value-directed remembering when considering the strategic use of memory. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Costs and benefits in item-method directed forgetting: differential effects of encoding and retrieval.

PubMed

Lee, Yuh-Shiow

2013-01-01

This study examined how encoding and retrieval factors affected directed forgetting costs and benefits in an item-method procedure. Experiment 1 used a typical item-method procedure and revealed a levels-of-processing effect in overall recall. However, the deep encoding condition showed a smaller directed forgetting effect than the shallow encoding conditions. More importantly, "remember" (R) words were selectively rehearsed as indicated by greater recall from the primacy portion of the list and more apt to be recalled before "forget" (F) words. Experiment 2 showed that a deep encoding operation reduced directed forgetting costs and that directed forgetting benefits occurred only when R words were recalled before F words. These findings supported the hypotheses that encoding manipulation affected directed forgetting costs and that directed forgetting benefits were associated with output order bias. Results were discussed in terms of mechanisms that produce item-method directed forgetting.

The restless engram: consolidations never end.

PubMed

Dudai, Yadin

2012-01-01

Memory consolidation is the hypothetical process in which an item in memory is transformed into a long-term form. It is commonly addressed at two complementary levels of description and analysis: the cellular/synaptic level (synaptic consolidation) and the brain systems level (systems consolidation). This article focuses on selected recent advances in consolidation research, including the reconsolidation of long-term memory items, the brain mechanisms of transformation of the content and of cue-dependency of memory items over time, as well as the role of rest and sleep in consolidating and shaping memories. Taken together, the picture that emerges is of dynamic engrams that are formed, modified, and remodified over time at the systems level by using synaptic consolidation mechanisms as subroutines. This implies that, contrary to interpretations that have dominated neuroscience for a while, but similar to long-standing cognitive concepts, consolidation of at least some items in long-term memory may never really come to an end.

Decision-Guided Recommenders with Composite Alternatives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alodhaibi, Khalid

2011-01-01

Recommender systems aim to support users in their decision-making process while interacting with large information spaces and recommend items of interest to users based on preferences they have expressed, either explicitly or implicitly. Recommender systems are increasingly used with product and service selection over the Internet. Although…

Implementing AORN recommended practices for selection and use of packaging systems for sterilization.

PubMed

Morton, Paula J; Conner, Ramona

2014-04-01

The delivery of sterile products to the sterile field is essential to perioperative practice. The use of protective packaging for sterilized items is crucial to helping ensure that patients receive sterile items for surgical procedures. AORN's "Recommended practices for selection and use of packaging systems for sterilization" offers guidance to perioperative team members in evaluating, selecting, and using packaging systems that permit sterilization of the contents, prevent contamination of sterilized items until the package is opened for use, protect the items from damage during transport and storage, and permit aseptic delivery of the items to the sterile field. Copyright © 2014 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Event-related potential (ERP) measures reveal the timing of memory selection processes and proactive interference resolution in working memory.

PubMed

Yi, Yuji; Friedman, David

2011-09-09

Behavioral studies show that no-longer-relevant information, although presumably removed from working memory (WM), still engenders proactive interference (PI). However, the timing of selecting items within WM and resolving PI is relatively unknown. To assess this, we recorded ERPs during WM from 20 young adults. In all conditions, a 4-digit display was followed by a cue indicating which digits to remember. In the selection condition, 2 digits were cued. The reaction time difference between the intrusion probe, a match of a to-be-rejected digit, and the non-intrusion probe, which did not match any of the 4 digits, was reliable, indicating a robust effect of PI. In the neutral-2 (remember 2 digits) and -4 (remember all 4) conditions, participants maintained the digits following the cue. Relative to neutral-4, selection elicited larger positivity at parietal sites (approximately 260ms) and negativity at frontal sites (approximately 420ms). Relative to the non-intrusion probe ERP, that to the intrusion probe was more negative over frontal scalp (approximately 500ms). We conclude that initial selection occurs over parietal cortex and reflects top-down attention to task relevant items, whereas the subsequent negativity may reflect inhibition of no-longer-relevant items over frontal cortex. The probe-locked ERPs suggest that the frontal negativity (approximately 500ms) reflects the final resolution of PI. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Source recognition by stimulus content in the MTL.

PubMed

Park, Heekyeong; Abellanoza, Cheryl; Schaeffer, James; Gandy, Kellen

2014-03-17

Source memory is considered to be the cornerstone of episodic memory that enables us to discriminate similar but different events. In the present fMRI study, we investigated whether neural correlates of source retrieval differed by stimulus content in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) when the item and context had been integrated as a perceptually unitized entity. Participants were presented with a list of items either in verbal or pictorial form overlaid on a colored square and instructed to integrate both the item and context into a single image. At test, participants judged the study status of test items and the color in which studied items were presented. Source recognition invariant of stimulus content elicited retrieval activity in both the left anterior hippocampus extending to the perirhinal cortex and the right posterior hippocampus. Word-selective source recognition was related to activity in the left perirhinal cortex, whereas picture-selective source recognition was identified in the left posterior hippocampus. Neural activity sensitive to novelty detection common to both words and pictures was found in the left anterior and right posterior hippocampus. Novelty detection selective to words was associated with the left perirhinal cortex, while activity sensitive to new pictures was identified in the bilateral hippocampus and adjacent MTL cortices, including the parahippocampal, entorhinal, and perirhinal cortices. These findings provide further support for the integral role of the hippocampus both in source recognition and in detection of new stimuli across stimulus content. Additionally, novelty effects in the MTL reveal the integral role of the MTL cortex as the interface for processing new information. Collectively, the present findings demonstrate the importance of the MTL for both previously experienced and novel events. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Manual and computer-aided materials selection for industrial production: An exercise in decision making

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bates, Seth P.

1990-01-01

Students are introduced to methods and concepts for systematic selection and evaluation of materials which are to be used to manufacture specific products in industry. For this laboratory exercise, students are asked to work in groups to identify and describe a product, then to proceed through the process to select a list of three candidates to make the item from. The exercise draws on knowledge of mechanical, physical, and chemical properties, common materials test techniques, and resource management skills in finding and assessing property data. A very important part of the exercise is the students' introduction to decision making algorithms, and learning how to apply them to a complex decision making process.

Anatomical constraints on attention: Hemifield independence is a signature of multifocal spatial selection

PubMed Central

Alvarez, George A; Gill, Jonathan; Cavanagh, Patrick

2012-01-01

Previous studies have shown independent attentional selection of targets in the left and right visual hemifields during attentional tracking (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2005) but not during a visual search (Luck, Hillyard, Mangun, & Gazzaniga, 1989). Here we tested whether multifocal spatial attention is the critical process that operates independently in the two hemifields. It is explicitly required in tracking (attend to a subset of object locations, suppress the others) but not in the standard visual search task (where all items are potential targets). We used a modified visual search task in which observers searched for a target within a subset of display items, where the subset was selected based on location (Experiments 1 and 3A) or based on a salient feature difference (Experiments 2 and 3B). The results show hemifield independence in this subset visual search task with location-based selection but not with feature-based selection; this effect cannot be explained by general difficulty (Experiment 4). Combined, these findings suggest that hemifield independence is a signature of multifocal spatial attention and highlight the need for cognitive and neural theories of attention to account for anatomical constraints on selection mechanisms. PMID:22637710

Random one-of-N selector

DOEpatents

Kronberg, J.W.

1993-04-20

An apparatus for selecting at random one item of N items on the average comprising counter and reset elements for counting repeatedly between zero and N, a number selected by the user, a circuit for activating and deactivating the counter, a comparator to determine if the counter stopped at a count of zero, an output to indicate an item has been selected when the count is zero or not selected if the count is not zero. Randomness is provided by having the counter cycle very often while varying the relatively longer duration between activation and deactivation of the count. The passive circuit components of the activating/deactivating circuit and those of the counter are selected for the sensitivity of their response to variations in temperature and other physical characteristics of the environment so that the response time of the circuitry varies. Additionally, the items themselves, which may be people, may vary in shape or the time they press a pushbutton, so that, for example, an ultrasonic beam broken by the item or person passing through it will add to the duration of the count and thus to the randomness of the selection.

Random one-of-N selector

DOEpatents

Kronberg, James W.

1993-01-01

An apparatus for selecting at random one item of N items on the average comprising counter and reset elements for counting repeatedly between zero and N, a number selected by the user, a circuit for activating and deactivating the counter, a comparator to determine if the counter stopped at a count of zero, an output to indicate an item has been selected when the count is zero or not selected if the count is not zero. Randomness is provided by having the counter cycle very often while varying the relatively longer duration between activation and deactivation of the count. The passive circuit components of the activating/deactivating circuit and those of the counter are selected for the sensitivity of their response to variations in temperature and other physical characteristics of the environment so that the response time of the circuitry varies. Additionally, the items themselves, which may be people, may vary in shape or the time they press a pushbutton, so that, for example, an ultrasonic beam broken by the item or person passing through it will add to the duration of the count and thus to the randomness of the selection.

Item-method directed forgetting: Effects at retrieval?

PubMed

Taylor, Tracy L; Cutmore, Laura; Pries, Lotta

2018-02-01

In an item-method directed forgetting paradigm, words are presented one at a time, each followed by an instruction to Remember or Forget; a directed forgetting effect is measured as better subsequent memory for Remember words than Forget words. The dominant view is that the directed forgetting effect arises during encoding due to selective rehearsal of Remember over Forget items. In three experiments we attempted to falsify a strong view that directed forgetting effects in recognition are due only to encoding mechanisms when an item method is used. Across 3 experiments we tested for retrieval-based processes by colour-coding the recognition test items. Black colour provided no information; green colour cued a potential Remember item; and, red colour cued a potential Forget item. Recognition cues were mixed within-blocks in Experiment 1 and between-blocks in Experiments 2 and 3; Experiment 3 added explicit feedback on the accuracy of the recognition decision. Although overall recognition improved with cuing when explicit test performance feedback was added in Experiment 3, in no case was the magnitude of the directed forgetting effect influenced by recognition cueing. Our results argue against a role for retrieval-based strategies that limit recognition of Forget items at test and posit a role for encoding intentions only. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of adding an Italian theme to a restaurant on the perceived ethnicity, acceptability, and selection of foods.

PubMed

Bell, R; Meiselman, H L; Pierson, B J; Reeve, W G

1994-02-01

We investigated whether a change in the perceived ethnicity of a food can be produced without manipulating the food item itself, and if that change in ethnic perception is accompanied by a change in acceptability and food selection behavior. Italian and British foods were offered in a British restaurant for four days. Foods were offered for 2 days under control conditions, when the restaurant was decorated as usual. The identical foods then were offered in the restaurant for 2 more days under experimental conditions, when ethnic names were used on the menu to describe foods, and the restaurant was decorated with an Italian theme. Perceived ethnicity and acceptability of items were rated by customers each day, and item selection was tracked. The Italian theme increased selection of pasta and dessert items, and decreased the selection of fish. The Italian theme also increased the perceived Italian ethnicity of British pasta items, fish and veal, and increased the perceived Italian ethnicity of the meal overall. These findings show that changes in perceived ethnicity and food selection can be accomplished without altering food items, but merely by manipulating the environment, and may imply a unique strategy for increasing perceived menu variety.

Development and validation of an educational booklet for healthy eating during pregnancy1

PubMed Central

de Oliveira, Sheyla Costa; Lopes, Marcos Venícios de Oliveira; Fernandes, Ana Fátima Carvalho

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: to describe the validation process of an educational booklet for healthy eating in pregnancy using local and regional food. METHODS: methodological study, developed in three steps: construction of the educational booklet, validation of the educational material by judges, and by pregnant women. The validation process was conducted by 22 judges and 20 pregnant women, by convenience selection. We considered a p-value<0.85 to validate the booklet compliance and relevance, according to the six items of the instrument. As for content validation, the item-level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) was considered when a minimum score of at least 0.80 was obtained. RESULTS: five items were considered relevant by the judges. The mean I-CVI was 0.91. The pregnant women evaluated positively the booklet. The suggestions were accepted and included in the final version of the material. CONCLUSION: the booklet was validated in terms of content and relevance, and should be used by nurses for advice on healthy eating during pregnancy. PMID:25296145

[Assessment of the validity and reliability of the processes of change scale based on the transtheoretical model of vegetable consumption behavior in Japanese male workers].

PubMed

Kushida, Osamu; Murayama, Nobuko

2012-12-01

A core construct of the Transtheoretical model is that the processes and stages of change are strongly related to observable behavioral changes. We created the Processes of Change Scale of vegetable consumption behavior and examined the validity and reliability of this scale. In September 2009, a self-administered questionnaire was administered to male Japanese employees, aged 20-59 years, working at 20 worksites in Niigata City in Japan. The stages of change (precontempration, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance stage) were measured using 2 items that assessed participants' current implementation of the target behavior (eating 5 or more servings of vegetables per day) and their readiness to change their habits. The Processes of Change Scale of vegetable consumption behavior comprised 10 items assessing 5 cognitive processes (consciousness raising, emotional arousal, environmental reevaluation, self-reevaluation, and social liberation) and 5 behavioral processes (commitment, rewards, helping relationships, countering, and environment control). Each item was selected from an existing scale. Decisional balance (pros [2 items] and cons [2 items]), and self-efficacy (3 items) were also assessed, because these constructs were considered to be relevant to the processes of change. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was examined using Cronbach's alpha. Its construct validity was examined using a factor analysis of the processes of change, decisional balance, and self-efficacy variables, while its criterion-related validity was determined by assessing the association between the scale scores and the stages of change. The data of 527 (out of 600) participants (mean age, 41.1 years) were analyzed. Results indicated that the Processes of Change Scale had sufficient internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha: cognitive processes=0.722, behavioral processes=0.803). The processes of change were divided into 2 factors: "consciousness raising, emotional arousal, environmental reevaluation, self-reevaluation, commitment, rewards, helping relationships, and social liberation" and "countering and environment control" in the factor analysis. Moreover, each construct--the processes of change, decisional balance, and self-efficacy--could be classified into different factors. The scores for cognitive processes were higher in the contemplation and preparation stages than in the precontemplation stage (P<0.05). Scores for behavioral processes increased from the precontemplation stage to the preparation stages (P<0.05), and were higher in the action + maintenance stage than in the precontemplation stage (P< 0.05). For male workers, the Processes of Change Scale has sufficient validity and reliability, as demonstrated by the internal fitness and the construct and criterion-related validity of the scale found in this study.

Free recall test experience potentiates strategy-driven effects of value on memory.

PubMed

Cohen, Michael S; Rissman, Jesse; Hovhannisyan, Mariam; Castel, Alan D; Knowlton, Barbara J

2017-10-01

People tend to show better memory for information that is deemed valuable or important. By one mechanism, individuals selectively engage deeper, semantic encoding strategies for high value items (Cohen, Rissman, Suthana, Castel, & Knowlton, 2014). By another mechanism, information paired with value or reward is automatically strengthened in memory via dopaminergic projections from midbrain to hippocampus (Shohamy & Adcock, 2010). We hypothesized that the latter mechanism would primarily enhance recollection-based memory, while the former mechanism would strengthen both recollection and familiarity. We also hypothesized that providing interspersed tests during study is a key to encouraging selective engagement of strategies. To test these hypotheses, we presented participants with sets of words, and each word was associated with a high or low point value. In some experiments, free recall tests were given after each list. In all experiments, a recognition test was administered 5 minutes after the final word list. Process dissociation was accomplished via remember/know judgments at recognition, a recall test probing both item memory and memory for a contextual detail (word plurality), and a task dissociation combining a recognition test for plurality (intended to probe recollection) with a speeded item recognition test (to probe familiarity). When recall tests were administered after study lists, high value strengthened both recollection and familiarity. When memory was not tested after each study list, but rather only at the end, value increased recollection but not familiarity. These dual process dissociations suggest that interspersed recall tests guide learners' use of metacognitive control to selectively apply effective encoding strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Encoding Processes and Sex-Role Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kail, Robert V., Jr.; Levine, Laura E.

1976-01-01

Seven and 10-year-olds were tested on memory and sex-role preference tasks. The memory task was the Wickens release from proactive inhibition paradigm in which short-term recall of words is tested on successive trials. Children selected favorite pictures from an array including masculine and feminine items. (JH)

Common Ground: A Way of Life, Not a Checkoff Item.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ledell, Marjorie A.

1996-01-01

The common ground process is an ongoing effort for inviting, scrutinizing, debating, and selecting ideas or making decisions about improving schools. Superintendents should assign a full-time communications person to executive staff, create a communications team, conduct a full-scale communications audit, listen better, urge the silent majority to…

Race and Sex Identification in Preschool Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raymer, Elizabeth

Identification is a learning process important to the development of self-concept and to the role behavior of an individual. This study investigated the degree of race and sex identification and preference in both black and white disadvantaged preschool children. The measurement instrument developed was a 96-item paired picture selection task…

The relative price of healthy and less healthy foods available in Australian school canteens.

PubMed

Billich, Natassja; Adderley, Marijke; Ford, Laura; Keeton, Isabel; Palermo, Claire; Peeters, Anna; Woods, Julie; Backholer, Kathryn

2018-04-12

School canteens have an important role in modelling a healthy food environment. Price is a strong predictor of food and beverage choice. This study compared the relative price of healthy and less healthy lunch and snack items sold within Australian school canteens. A convenience sample of online canteen menus from five Australian states were selected (100 primary and 100 secondary schools). State-specific canteen guidelines were used to classify menu items into 'green' (eat most), 'amber' (select carefully) and 'red' (not recommended in schools). The price of the cheapest 'healthy' lunch (vegetable-based 'green') and snack ('green' fruit) item was compared to the cheapest 'less healthy' ('amber/red') lunch and snack item, respectively, using an un-paired t-test. The relative price of the 'healthy' items and the 'less healthy' items was calculated to determine the proportion of schools that sold the 'less healthy' item cheaper. The mean cost of the 'healthy' lunch items was greater than the 'less healthy' lunch items for both primary (AUD $0.70 greater) and secondary schools ($0.50 greater; p < 0.01). For 75% of primary and 57% of secondary schools, the selected 'less healthy' lunch item was cheaper than the 'healthy' lunch item. For 41% of primary and 48% of secondary schools, the selected 'less healthy' snack was cheaper than the 'healthy' snack. These proportions were greatest for primary schools located in more, compared to less, disadvantaged areas. The relative price of foods sold within Australian school canteens appears to favour less healthy foods. School canteen healthy food policies should consider the price of foods sold.

Development and psychometric evaluation of a cardiovascular risk and disease management knowledge assessment tool.

PubMed

Rosneck, James S; Hughes, Joel; Gunstad, John; Josephson, Richard; Noe, Donald A; Waechter, Donna

2014-01-01

This article describes the systematic construction and psychometric analysis of a knowledge assessment instrument for phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients measuring risk modification disease management knowledge and behavioral outcomes derived from national standards relevant to secondary prevention and management of cardiovascular disease. First, using adult curriculum based on disease-specific learning outcomes and competencies, a systematic test item development process was completed by clinical staff. Second, a panel of educational and clinical experts used an iterative process to identify test content domain and arrive at consensus in selecting items meeting criteria. Third, the resulting 31-question instrument, the Cardiac Knowledge Assessment Tool (CKAT), was piloted in CR patients to ensure use of application. Validity and reliability analyses were performed on 3638 adults before test administrations with additional focused analyses on 1999 individuals completing both pretreatment and posttreatment administrations within 6 months. Evidence of CKAT content validity was substantiated, with 85% agreement among content experts. Evidence of construct validity was demonstrated via factor analysis identifying key underlying factors. Estimates of internal consistency, for example, Cronbach's α = .852 and Spearman-Brown split-half reliability = 0.817 on pretesting, support test reliability. Item analysis, using point biserial correlation, measured relationships between performance on single items and total score (P < .01). Analyses using item difficulty and item discrimination indices further verified item stability and validity of the CKAT. A knowledge instrument specifically designed for an adult CR population was systematically developed and tested in a large representative patient population, satisfying psychometric parameters, including validity and reliability.

Item Selection in Multidimensional Computerized Adaptive Testing--Gaining Information from Different Angles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Chun; Chang, Hua-Hua

2011-01-01

Over the past thirty years, obtaining diagnostic information from examinees' item responses has become an increasingly important feature of educational and psychological testing. The objective can be achieved by sequentially selecting multidimensional items to fit the class of latent traits being assessed, and therefore Multidimensional…

Direction of Wording Effects in Balanced Scales.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Timothy R.; Cleary, T. Anne

1993-01-01

The degree to which statistical item selection reduces direction-of-wording effects in balanced affective measures developed from relatively small item pools was investigated with 171 male and 228 female undergraduate and graduate students at 2 U.S. universities. Clearest direction-of-wording effects result from selection of items with high…

A Comparison Study of Item Exposure Control Strategies in MCAT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mao, Xiuzhen; Ozdemir, Burhanettin; Wang, Yating; Xiu, Tao

2016-01-01

Four item selection indexes with and without exposure control are evaluated and compared in multidimensional computerized adaptive testing (CAT). The four item selection indices are D-optimality, Posterior expectation Kullback-Leibler information (KLP), the minimized error variance of the linear combination score with equal weight (V1), and the…

Assessing Correspondence Following Acquisition of an Exchange-Based Communication System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sigafoos, Jeff; Ganz, Jennifer B.; O'Reilly, Mark; Lancioni, Giulio E.; Schlosser, Ralf W.

2007-01-01

Two students with developmental disabilities were taught to request six snack items. Requesting involved giving a graphic symbol to the trainer in exchange for the matching snack item. Following acquisition, we assessed the correspondence between requests and subsequent item selections by requiring the student to select the previously requested…

A Comparison of Item Selection Techniques for Testlets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Daniel L.; Dodd, Barbara G.; Vaughn, Brandon K.

2010-01-01

This study examined the performance of the maximum Fisher's information, the maximum posterior weighted information, and the minimum expected posterior variance methods for selecting items in a computerized adaptive testing system when the items were grouped in testlets. A simulation study compared the efficiency of ability estimation among the…

Human attention filters for single colors

PubMed Central

Sun, Peng; Chubb, Charles; Wright, Charles E.; Sperling, George

2016-01-01

The visual images in the eyes contain much more information than the brain can process. An important selection mechanism is feature-based attention (FBA). FBA is best described by attention filters that specify precisely the extent to which items containing attended features are selectively processed and the extent to which items that do not contain the attended features are attenuated. The centroid-judgment paradigm enables quick, precise measurements of such human perceptual attention filters, analogous to transmission measurements of photographic color filters. Subjects use a mouse to locate the centroid—the center of gravity—of a briefly displayed cloud of dots and receive precise feedback. A subset of dots is distinguished by some characteristic, such as a different color, and subjects judge the centroid of only the distinguished subset (e.g., dots of a particular color). The analysis efficiently determines the precise weight in the judged centroid of dots of every color in the display (i.e., the attention filter for the particular attended color in that context). We report 32 attention filters for single colors. Attention filters that discriminate one saturated hue from among seven other equiluminant distractor hues are extraordinarily selective, achieving attended/unattended weight ratios >20:1. Attention filters for selecting a color that differs in saturation or lightness from distractors are much less selective than attention filters for hue (given equal discriminability of the colors), and their filter selectivities are proportional to the discriminability distance of neighboring colors, whereas in the same range hue attention-filter selectivity is virtually independent of discriminabilty. PMID:27791040

Decision making: rational or hedonic?

PubMed Central

Cabanac, Michel; Bonniot-Cabanac, Marie-Claude

2007-01-01

Three experiments studied the hedonicity of decision making. Participants rated their pleasure/displeasure while reading item-sentences describing political and social problems followed by different decisions (Questionnaire 1). Questionnaire 2 was multiple-choice, grouping the items from Questionnaire 1. In Experiment 1, participants answered Questionnaire 2 rapidly or slowly. Both groups selected what they had rated as pleasant, but the 'leisurely' group maximized pleasure less. In Experiment 2, participants selected the most rational responses. The selected behaviors were pleasant but less than spontaneous behaviors. In Experiment 3, Questionnaire 2 was presented once with items grouped by theme, and once with items shuffled. Participants maximized the pleasure of their decisions, but the items selected on Questionnaires 2 were different when presented in different order. All groups maximized pleasure equally in their decisions. These results support that decisions are made predominantly in the hedonic dimension of consciousness. PMID:17848195

An Item Gains and Losses Analysis of False Memories Suggests Critical Items Receive More Item-Specific Processing than List Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Daniel J.; Martens, Nicholas J.; Bertoni, Alicia A.; Sweeney, Emily J.; Lividini, Michelle D.

2006-01-01

In a repeated testing paradigm, list items receiving item-specific processing are more likely to be recovered across successive tests (item gains), whereas items receiving relational processing are likely to be forgotten progressively less on successive tests. Moreover, analysis of cumulative-recall curves has shown that item-specific processing…

Best Design for Multidimensional Computerized Adaptive Testing With the Bifactor Model

PubMed Central

Seo, Dong Gi; Weiss, David J.

2015-01-01

Most computerized adaptive tests (CATs) have been studied using the framework of unidimensional item response theory. However, many psychological variables are multidimensional and might benefit from using a multidimensional approach to CATs. This study investigated the accuracy, fidelity, and efficiency of a fully multidimensional CAT algorithm (MCAT) with a bifactor model using simulated data. Four item selection methods in MCAT were examined for three bifactor pattern designs using two multidimensional item response theory models. To compare MCAT item selection and estimation methods, a fixed test length was used. The Ds-optimality item selection improved θ estimates with respect to a general factor, and either D- or A-optimality improved estimates of the group factors in three bifactor pattern designs under two multidimensional item response theory models. The MCAT model without a guessing parameter functioned better than the MCAT model with a guessing parameter. The MAP (maximum a posteriori) estimation method provided more accurate θ estimates than the EAP (expected a posteriori) method under most conditions, and MAP showed lower observed standard errors than EAP under most conditions, except for a general factor condition using Ds-optimality item selection. PMID:29795848

Construction and validation of a measure of integrative well-being in seven languages: the Pemberton Happiness Index.

PubMed

Hervás, Gonzalo; Vázquez, Carmelo

2013-04-22

We introduce the Pemberton Happiness Index (PHI), a new integrative measure of well-being in seven languages, detailing the validation process and presenting psychometric data. The scale includes eleven items related to different domains of remembered well-being (general, hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well-being) and ten items related to experienced well-being (i.e., positive and negative emotional events that possibly happened the day before); the sum of these items produces a combined well-being index. A distinctive characteristic of this study is that to construct the scale, an initial pool of items, covering the remembered and experienced well-being domains, were subjected to a complete selection and validation process. These items were based on widely used scales (e.g., PANAS, Satisfaction With Life Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale, and Psychological Well-Being Scales). Both the initial items and reference scales were translated into seven languages and completed via Internet by participants (N = 4,052) aged 16 to 60 years from nine countries (Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and USA). Results from this initial validation study provided very good support for the psychometric properties of the PHI (i.e., internal consistency, a single-factor structure, and convergent and incremental validity). Given the PHI's good psychometric properties, this simple and integrative index could be used as an instrument to monitor changes in well-being. We discuss the utility of this integrative index to explore well-being in individuals and communities.

Pharmacy patronage: identifying key factors in the decision making process using the determinant attribute approach.

PubMed

Franic, Duska M; Haddock, Sarah M; Tucker, Leslie Tootle; Wooten, Nathan

2008-01-01

To use the determinant attribute approach, a research method commonly used in marketing to identify the wants of various consumer groups, to evaluate consumer pharmacy choice when having a prescription order filled in different pharmacy settings. Cross sectional. Community independent, grocery store, community chain, and discount store pharmacies in Georgia between April 2005 and April 2006. Convenience sample of adult pharmacy consumers (n = 175). Survey measuring consumer preferences on 26 attributes encompassing general pharmacy site features (16 items), pharmacist characteristics (5 items), and pharmacy staff characteristics (5 items). 26 potential determinant attributes for pharmacy selection. 175 consumers were surveyed at community independent (n = 81), grocery store (n = 44), community chain (n = 27), or discount store (n = 23) pharmacy settings. The attributes of pharmacists and staff at all four pharmacy settings were shown to affect pharmacy patronage motives, although consumers frequenting non-community independent pharmacies were also motivated by secondary convenience factors, e.g., hours of operation, and prescription coverage. Most consumers do not perceive pharmacies as merely prescription-distribution centers that vary only by convenience. Prescriptions are not just another economic good. Pharmacy personnel influence pharmacy selection; therefore, optimal staff selection and training is likely the greatest asset and most important investment for ensuring pharmacy success.

Selecting Soldiers and Civilians into the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School : Developing Empirical Selection Composites

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-07-01

a biographical instrument measuring personality ; (b) a Work Values instrument representing work preferences investigated in prior officer and...items used in SelectOCS Phase 2 (see Table 2.5). TAPAS uses multidimensional pairwise preference (MDPP) personality items scored using item response...presented respondents with a list of 30 traits and 30 skills (derived from leadership and personality literature) and instructed them to rate the

Directed forgetting of visual symbols: evidence for nonverbal selective rehearsal.

PubMed

Hourihan, Kathleen L; Ozubko, Jason D; MacLeod, Colin M

2009-12-01

Is selective rehearsal possible for nonverbal information? Two experiments addressed this question using the item method directed forgetting paradigm, where the advantage of remember items over forget items is ascribed to selective rehearsal favoring the remember items. In both experiments, difficult-to-name abstract symbols were presented for study, followed by a recognition test. Directed forgetting effects were evident for these symbols, regardless of whether they were or were not spontaneously named. Critically, a directed forgetting effect was observed for unnamed symbols even when the symbols were studied under verbal suppression to prevent verbal rehearsal. This pattern indicates that a form of nonverbal rehearsal can be used strategically (i.e., selectively) to enhance memory, even when verbal rehearsal is not possible.

Development of a short version of the new brief job stress questionnaire.

PubMed

Inoue, Akiomi; Kawakami, Norito; Shimomitsu, Teruichi; Tsutsumi, Akizumi; Haratani, Takashi; Yoshikawa, Toru; Shimazu, Akihito; Odagiri, Yuko

2014-01-01

This study was aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability and validity of a short version of the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (New BJSQ) whose scales have one item selected from a standard version. Based on the results from an anonymous web-based questionnaire of occupational health staffs and personnel/labor staffs, we selected higher-priority scales from the standard version. After selecting one item with highest item-total correlation coefficient from each scale, a 23-item questionnaire was developed. A nationally representative survey was administered to Japanese employees (n=1,633) to examine test-retest reliability and validity. Most scales (or items) showed modest but adequate levels of test-retest reliability (r>0.50). Furthermore, job demands and job resources scales (or items) were associated with mental and physical stress reactions while job resources scales (or items) were also associated with positive outcomes. These findings provided a piece of evidence that the short version of the New BJSQ is reliable and valid.

Development of a Short Version of the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire

PubMed Central

INOUE, Akiomi; KAWAKAMI, Norito; SHIMOMITSU, Teruichi; TSUTSUMI, Akizumi; HARATANI, Takashi; YOSHIKAWA, Toru; SHIMAZU, Akihito; ODAGIRI, Yuko

2014-01-01

This study was aimed to investigate the test-retest reliability and validity of a short version of the New Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (New BJSQ) whose scales have one item selected from a standard version. Based on the results from an anonymous web-based questionnaire of occupational health staffs and personnel/labor staffs, we selected higher-priority scales from the standard version. After selecting one item with highest item-total correlation coefficient from each scale, a 23-item questionnaire was developed. A nationally representative survey was administered to Japanese employees (n=1,633) to examine test-retest reliability and validity. Most scales (or items) showed modest but adequate levels of test-retest reliability (r>0.50). Furthermore, job demands and job resources scales (or items) were associated with mental and physical stress reactions while job resources scales (or items) were also associated with positive outcomes. These findings provided a piece of evidence that the short version of the New BJSQ is reliable and valid. PMID:24975108

Systemic factors of errors in the case identification process of the national routine health information system: A case study of Modified Field Health Services Information System in the Philippines

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background The quality of data in national health information systems has been questionable in most developing countries. However, the mechanisms of errors in the case identification process are not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms of errors in the case identification process in the existing routine health information system (RHIS) in the Philippines by measuring the risk of committing errors for health program indicators used in the Field Health Services Information System (FHSIS 1996), and characterizing those indicators accordingly. Methods A structured questionnaire on the definitions of 12 selected indicators in the FHSIS was administered to 132 health workers in 14 selected municipalities in the province of Palawan. A proportion of correct answers (difficulty index) and a disparity of two proportions of correct answers between higher and lower scored groups (discrimination index) were calculated, and the patterns of wrong answers for each of the 12 items were abstracted from 113 valid responses. Results None of 12 items reached a difficulty index of 1.00. The average difficulty index of 12 items was 0.266 and the discrimination index that showed a significant difference was 0.216 and above. Compared with these two cut-offs, six items showed non-discrimination against lower difficulty indices of 0.035 (4/113) to 0.195 (22/113), two items showed a positive discrimination against lower difficulty indices of 0.142 (16/113) and 0.248 (28/113), and four items showed a positive discrimination against higher difficulty indices of 0.469 (53/113) to 0.673 (76/113). Conclusions The results suggest three characteristics of definitions of indicators such as those that are (1) unsupported by the current conditions in the health system, i.e., (a) data are required from a facility that cannot directly generate the data and, (b) definitions of indicators are not consistent with its corresponding program; (2) incomplete or ambiguous, which allow several interpretations; and (3) complete yet easily misunderstood by health workers. Taking systemic factors into account, the case identification step needs to be reviewed and designed to generate intended data in health information systems. PMID:21995369

Selecting for memory? The influence of selective attention on the mnemonic binding of contextual information

PubMed Central

Uncapher, Melina R.; Rugg, Michael D.

2009-01-01

Not all of what is experienced is remembered later. Behavioral evidence suggests that the manner in which an event is processed influences which aspects of the event will later be remembered. The present experiment investigated the neural correlates of ‘selective encoding’, or the mechanisms that support the encoding of some elements of an event in preference to others. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were acquired while volunteers selectively attended to one of two different contextual features of study items (color or location). A surprise memory test for the items and both contextual features was subsequently administered to determine the influence of selective attention on the neural correlates of contextual encoding. Activity in several cortical regions indexed later memory success selectively for color or location information, and this encoding-related activity was enhanced by selective attention to the relevant feature. Critically, a region in the hippocampus responded selectively to attended source information (whether color or location), demonstrating encoding-related activity for attended but not for nonattended source features. Together, the findings suggest that selective attention modulates the magnitude of activity in cortical regions engaged by different aspects of an event, and hippocampal encoding mechanisms seem to be sensitive to this modulation. Thus, the information that is encoded into a memory representation is biased by selective attention, and this bias is mediated by cortico-hippocampal interactions. PMID:19553466

Selecting for memory? The influence of selective attention on the mnemonic binding of contextual information.

PubMed

Uncapher, Melina R; Rugg, Michael D

2009-06-24

Not all of what is experienced is remembered later. Behavioral evidence suggests that the manner in which an event is processed influences which aspects of the event will later be remembered. The present experiment investigated the neural correlates of "selective encoding," or the mechanisms that support the encoding of some elements of an event in preference to others. Event-related MRI data were acquired while volunteers selectively attended to one of two different contextual features of study items (color or location). A surprise memory test for the items and both contextual features was subsequently administered to determine the influence of selective attention on the neural correlates of contextual encoding. Activity in several cortical regions indexed later memory success selectively for color or location information, and this encoding-related activity was enhanced by selective attention to the relevant feature. Critically, a region in the hippocampus responded selectively to attended source information (whether color or location), demonstrating encoding-related activity for attended but not for nonattended source features. Together, the findings suggest that selective attention modulates the magnitude of activity in cortical regions engaged by different aspects of an event, and hippocampal encoding mechanisms seem to be sensitive to this modulation. Thus, the information that is encoded into a memory representation is biased by selective attention, and this bias is mediated by cortical-hippocampal interactions.

Using Response-Time Constraints in Item Selection To Control for Differential Speededness in Computerized Adaptive Testing. LSAC Research Report Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Scrams, David J.; Schnipke, Deborah L.

This paper proposes an item selection algorithm that can be used to neutralize the effect of time limits in computer adaptive testing. The method is based on a statistical model for the response-time distributions of the test takers on the items in the pool that is updated each time a new item has been administered. Predictions from the model are…

TEDS-M 2008 User Guide for the International Database. Supplement 4: TEDS-M Released Mathematics and Mathematics Pedagogy Knowledge Assessment Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brese, Falk, Ed.

2012-01-01

The goal for selecting the released set of test items was to have approximately 25% of each of the full item sets for mathematics content knowledge (MCK) and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) that would represent the full range of difficulty, content, and item format used in the TEDS-M study. The initial step in the selection was to…

Methodology for Developing and Evaluating the PROMIS® Smoking Item Banks

PubMed Central

Cai, Li; Stucky, Brian D.; Tucker, Joan S.; Shadel, William G.; Edelen, Maria Orlando

2014-01-01

Introduction: This article describes the procedures used in the PROMIS® Smoking Initiative for the development and evaluation of item banks, short forms (SFs), and computerized adaptive tests (CATs) for the assessment of 6 constructs related to cigarette smoking: nicotine dependence, coping expectancies, emotional and sensory expectancies, health expectancies, psychosocial expectancies, and social motivations for smoking. Methods: Analyses were conducted using response data from a large national sample of smokers. Items related to each construct were subjected to extensive item factor analyses and evaluation of differential item functioning (DIF). Final item banks were calibrated, and SF assessments were developed for each construct. The performance of the SFs and the potential use of the item banks for CAT administration were examined through simulation study. Results: Item selection based on dimensionality assessment and DIF analyses produced item banks that were essentially unidimensional in structure and free of bias. Simulation studies demonstrated that the constructs could be accurately measured with a relatively small number of carefully selected items, either through fixed SFs or CAT-based assessment. Illustrative results are presented, and subsequent articles provide detailed discussion of each item bank in turn. Conclusions: The development of the PROMIS smoking item banks provides researchers with new tools for measuring smoking-related constructs. The use of the calibrated item banks and suggested SF assessments will enhance the quality of score estimates, thus advancing smoking research. Moreover, the methods used in the current study, including innovative approaches to item selection and SF construction, may have general relevance to item bank development and evaluation. PMID:23943843

Selective attention and control of action: comparative psychology of an artificial, evolved agent and people.

PubMed

Ward, Robert; Ward, Ronnie

2008-10-01

This study examined the selective attention abilities of a simple, artificial, evolved agent and considered implications of the agent's performance for theories of selective attention and action. The agent processed two targets in continuous time, catching one and then the other. This task required many cognitive operations, including prioritizing the first target (T1) over the second (T2); selectively focusing responses on T1, while preventing T2 from interfering with responses; creating a memory for the unselected T2 item, so that it could be efficiently processed later; and reallocating processing towards T2 after catching T1. The evolved agent demonstrated all these abilities. Analysis shows that the agent used reactive inhibition to selectively focus behavior. That is, the more salient T2, the more strongly responses towards T2 were inhibited and the slower the agent was to subsequently reallocate processing towards T2. Reactive inhibition was also suggested in two experiments with people, performing a virtually identical catch task. The presence of reactive inhibition in the simple agent and in people suggests that it is an important mechanism for selective processing.

Inductive Selectivity in Children's Cross-Classified Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Simone P.

2012-01-01

Cross-classified items pose an interesting challenge to children's induction as these items belong to many different categories, each of which may serve as a basis for a different type of inference. Inductive selectivity is the ability to appropriately make different types of inferences about a single cross-classifiable item based on its different…

Automated Test-Form Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Diao, Qi

2011-01-01

In automated test assembly (ATA), the methodology of mixed-integer programming is used to select test items from an item bank to meet the specifications for a desired test form and optimize its measurement accuracy. The same methodology can be used to automate the formatting of the set of selected items into the actual test form. Three different…

What makes deeply encoded items memorable? Insights into the levels of processing framework from neuroimaging and neuromodulation.

PubMed

Galli, Giulia

2014-01-01

When we form new memories, their mnestic fate largely depends upon the cognitive operations set in train during encoding. A typical observation in experimental as well as everyday life settings is that if we learn an item using semantic or "deep" operations, such as attending to its meaning, memory will be better than if we learn the same item using more "shallow" operations, such as attending to its structural features. In the psychological literature, this phenomenon has been conceptualized within the "levels of processing" framework and has been consistently replicated since its original proposal by Craik and Lockhart in 1972. However, the exact mechanisms underlying the memory advantage for deeply encoded items are not yet entirely understood. A cognitive neuroscience perspective can add to this field by clarifying the nature of the processes involved in effective deep and shallow encoding and how they are instantiated in the brain, but so far there has been little work to systematically integrate findings from the literature. This work aims to fill this gap by reviewing, first, some of the key neuroimaging findings on the neural correlates of deep and shallow episodic encoding and second, emerging evidence from studies using neuromodulatory approaches such as psychopharmacology and non-invasive brain stimulation. Taken together, these studies help further our understanding of levels of processing. In addition, by showing that deep encoding can be modulated by acting upon specific brain regions or systems, the reviewed studies pave the way for selective enhancements of episodic encoding processes.

Selective attention modulates neural substrates of repetition priming and "implicit" visual memory: suppressions and enhancements revealed by FMRI.

PubMed

Vuilleumier, Patrik; Schwartz, Sophie; Duhoux, Stéphanie; Dolan, Raymond J; Driver, Jon

2005-08-01

Attention can enhance processing for relevant information and suppress this for ignored stimuli. However, some residual processing may still arise without attention. Here we presented overlapping outline objects at study, with subjects attending to those in one color but not the other. Attended objects were subsequently recognized on a surprise memory test, whereas there was complete amnesia for ignored items on such direct explicit testing; yet reliable behavioral priming effects were found on indirect testing. Event-related fMRI examined neural responses to previously attended or ignored objects, now shown alone in the same or mirror-reversed orientation as before, intermixed with new items. Repetition-related decreases in fMRI responses for objects previously attended and repeated in the same orientation were found in the right posterior fusiform, lateral occipital, and left inferior frontal cortex. More anterior fusiform regions also showed some repetition decreases for ignored objects, irrespective of orientation. View-specific repetition decreases were found in the striate cortex, particularly for previously attended items. In addition, previously ignored objects produced some fMRI response increases in the bilateral lingual gyri, relative to new objects. Selective attention at exposure can thus produce several distinct long-term effects on processing of stimuli repeated later, with neural response suppression stronger for previously attended objects, and some response enhancement for previously ignored objects, with these effects arising in different brain areas. Although repetition decreases may relate to positive priming phenomena, the repetition increases for ignored objects shown here for the first time might relate to processes that can produce "negative priming" in some behavioral studies. These results reveal quantitative and qualitative differences between neural substrates of long-term repetition effects for attended versus unattended objects.

Age-related differences in agenda-driven monitoring of format and task information

PubMed Central

Mitchell, Karen J.; Ankudowich, Elizabeth; Durbin, Kelly A.; Greene, Erich J.; Johnson, Marcia K.

2013-01-01

Age-related source memory deficits may arise, in part, from changes in the agenda-driven processes that control what features of events are relevant during remembering. Using fMRI, we compared young and older adults on tests assessing source memory for format (picture, word) or encoding task (self-, other-referential), as well as on old-new recognition. Behaviorally, relative to old-new recognition, older adults showed disproportionate and equivalent deficits on both source tests compared to young adults. At encoding, both age groups showed expected activation associated with format in posterior visual processing areas, and with task in medial prefrontal cortex. At test, the groups showed similar selective, agenda-related activity in these representational areas. There were, however, marked age differences in the activity of control regions in lateral and medial prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex. Results of correlation analyses were consistent with the idea that young adults had greater trial-by-trial agenda-driven modulation of activity (i.e., greater selectivity) than did older adults in representational regions. Thus, under selective remembering conditions where older adults showed clear differential regional activity in representational areas depending on type of test, they also showed evidence of disrupted frontal and parietal function and reduced item-by-item modulation of test-appropriate features. This pattern of results is consistent with an age-related deficit in the engagement of selective reflective attention. PMID:23357375

Development of Self-Report Measures of Social Attitudes that Act as Environmental Barriers and Facilitators for People with Disabilities

PubMed Central

Garcia, Sofia F.; Hahn, Elizabeth A.; Magasi, Susan; Lai, Jin-Shei; Semik, Patrick; Hammel, Joy; Heinemann, Allen W.

2014-01-01

Objective To describe the development of new self-report measures of social attitudes that act as environmental facilitators or barriers to the participation of people with disabilities in society. Design A mixed methods approach included a literature review; item classification, selection and writing; cognitive interviews and field testing with participants with spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI) or stroke; and rating scale analysis to evaluate initial psychometric properties. Setting General community. Participants Nine individuals with SCI, TBI or stroke participated in cognitive interviews; 305 community residents with those same conditions participated in field testing. Interventions None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Self-report item pool of social attitudes that act as facilitators or barriers to people with disabilities participating in society. Results An interdisciplinary team of experts classified 710 existing social environment items into content areas and wrote 32 new items. Additional qualitative item review included item refinement and winnowing of the pool prior to cognitive interviews and field testing 82 items. Field test data indicated that the pool satisfies a one-parameter item response theory measurement model and would be appropriate for development into a calibrated item bank. Conclusions Our qualitative item review process supported a social environment conceptual framework that includes both social support and social attitudes. We developed a new social attitudes self-report item pool. Calibration testing of that pool is underway with a larger sample in order to develop a social attitudes item bank for persons with disabilities. PMID:25045803

Development of self-report measures of social attitudes that act as environmental barriers and facilitators for people with disabilities.

PubMed

Garcia, Sofia F; Hahn, Elizabeth A; Magasi, Susan; Lai, Jin-Shei; Semik, Patrick; Hammel, Joy; Heinemann, Allen W

2015-04-01

To describe the development of new self-report measures of social attitudes that act as environmental facilitators or barriers to the participation of people with disabilities in society. A mixed-methods approach included a literature review; item classification, selection, and writing; cognitive interviews and field testing of participants with spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or stroke; and rating scale analysis to evaluate initial psychometric properties. General community. Individuals with SCI, TBI, or stroke participated in cognitive interviews (n=9); community residents with those same conditions participated in field testing (n=305). None. Self-report item pool of social attitudes that act as facilitators or barriers to people with disabilities participating in society. An interdisciplinary team of experts classified 710 existing social environment items into content areas and wrote 32 new items. Additional qualitative item review included item refinement and winnowing of the pool prior to cognitive interviews and field testing of 82 items. Field test data indicated that the pool satisfies a 1-parameter item response theory measurement model and would be appropriate for development into a calibrated item bank. Our qualitative item review process supported a social environment conceptual framework that includes both social support and social attitudes. We developed a new social attitudes self-report item pool. Calibration testing of that pool is underway with a larger sample to develop a social attitudes item bank for persons with disabilities. Copyright © 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

More insight into the interplay of response selection and visual attention in dual-tasks: masked visual search and response selection are performed in parallel.

PubMed

Reimer, Christina B; Schubert, Torsten

2017-09-15

Both response selection and visual attention are limited in capacity. According to the central bottleneck model, the response selection processes of two tasks in a dual-task situation are performed sequentially. In conjunction search, visual attention is required to select the items and to bind their features (e.g., color and form), which results in a serial search process. Search time increases as items are added to the search display (i.e., set size effect). When the search display is masked, visual attention deployment is restricted to a brief period of time and target detection decreases as a function of set size. Here, we investigated whether response selection and visual attention (i.e., feature binding) rely on a common or on distinct capacity limitations. In four dual-task experiments, participants completed an auditory Task 1 and a conjunction search Task 2 that were presented with an experimentally modulated temporal interval between them (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony, SOA). In Experiment 1, Task 1 was a two-choice discrimination task and the conjunction search display was not masked. In Experiment 2, the response selection difficulty in Task 1 was increased to a four-choice discrimination and the search task was the same as in Experiment 1. We applied the locus-of-slack method in both experiments to analyze conjunction search time, that is, we compared the set size effects across SOAs. Similar set size effects across SOAs (i.e., additive effects of SOA and set size) would indicate sequential processing of response selection and visual attention. However, a significantly smaller set size effect at short SOA compared to long SOA (i.e., underadditive interaction of SOA and set size) would indicate parallel processing of response selection and visual attention. In both experiments, we found underadditive interactions of SOA and set size. In Experiments 3 and 4, the conjunction search display in Task 2 was masked. Task 1 was the same as in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. In both experiments, the d' analysis revealed that response selection did not affect target detection. Overall, Experiments 1-4 indicated that neither the response selection difficulty in the auditory Task 1 (i.e., two-choice vs. four-choice) nor the type of presentation of the search display in Task 2 (i.e., not masked vs. masked) impaired parallel processing of response selection and conjunction search. We concluded that in general, response selection and visual attention (i.e., feature binding) rely on distinct capacity limitations.

Research in VLSI Systems. Heuristic Programming Project and VLSI Theory Project. A Fast Turn Around Facility for Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-11-01

to occur). When a rectangle is inserted, all currently selected items are de -selected, and the newly inserted rectangle is selected. This makes it...Items are de - * selected before the selection takes place. A selected symbol instance is displayed with a bold outline, and a selected rectangle edge...symbol instance or set of rectangle edges, everything previously selected is first de -selected. If the selected object is a reference point the old

The impact of experimental measurement errors on long-term viscoelastic predictions. [of structural materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tuttle, M. E.; Brinson, H. F.

1986-01-01

The impact of flight error in measured viscoelastic parameters on subsequent long-term viscoelastic predictions is numerically evaluated using the Schapery nonlinear viscoelastic model. Of the seven Schapery parameters, the results indicated that long-term predictions were most sensitive to errors in the power law parameter n. Although errors in the other parameters were significant as well, errors in n dominated all other factors at long times. The process of selecting an appropriate short-term test cycle so as to insure an accurate long-term prediction was considered, and a short-term test cycle was selected using material properties typical for T300/5208 graphite-epoxy at 149 C. The process of selection is described, and its individual steps are itemized.

The impact of affect on willingness-to-pay and desired-set-size.

PubMed

Hafenbrädl, Sebastian; Hoffrage, Ulrich; White, Chris M

2013-01-01

What role does affect play in economic decision making? Previous research showed that the number of items had a linear effect on the willingness-to-pay for those items when participants were computationally primed, whereas participants' willingness-to-pay was insensitive to the amount when they were affectively primed. We extend this research by also studying the impact of affect on nonmonetary costs of waiting for items to be displayed and of screening them in a computer task. We assessed these costs by asking participants how many items they desired to see before making their selection. In our experiment, the effect of priming on desired-set-size was even larger than on willingness-to-pay, which can be explained by the fact that the nonmonetary costs, waiting time, were real, whereas willingness-to-pay was hypothetical. Participants also reported their satisfaction with the choosing process and the chosen items; no linear or nonlinear relationship was found between the self-determined desired-set-size and satisfaction. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measurement versus prediction in the construction of patient-reported outcome questionnaires: can we have our cake and eat it?

PubMed

Smits, Niels; van der Ark, L Andries; Conijn, Judith M

2017-11-02

Two important goals when using questionnaires are (a) measurement: the questionnaire is constructed to assign numerical values that accurately represent the test taker's attribute, and (b) prediction: the questionnaire is constructed to give an accurate forecast of an external criterion. Construction methods aimed at measurement prescribe that items should be reliable. In practice, this leads to questionnaires with high inter-item correlations. By contrast, construction methods aimed at prediction typically prescribe that items have a high correlation with the criterion and low inter-item correlations. The latter approach has often been said to produce a paradox concerning the relation between reliability and validity [1-3], because it is often assumed that good measurement is a prerequisite of good prediction. To answer four questions: (1) Why are measurement-based methods suboptimal for questionnaires that are used for prediction? (2) How should one construct a questionnaire that is used for prediction? (3) Do questionnaire-construction methods that optimize measurement and prediction lead to the selection of different items in the questionnaire? (4) Is it possible to construct a questionnaire that can be used for both measurement and prediction? An empirical data set consisting of scores of 242 respondents on questionnaire items measuring mental health is used to select items by means of two methods: a method that optimizes the predictive value of the scale (i.e., forecast a clinical diagnosis), and a method that optimizes the reliability of the scale. We show that for the two scales different sets of items are selected and that a scale constructed to meet the one goal does not show optimal performance with reference to the other goal. The answers are as follows: (1) Because measurement-based methods tend to maximize inter-item correlations by which predictive validity reduces. (2) Through selecting items that correlate highly with the criterion and lowly with the remaining items. (3) Yes, these methods may lead to different item selections. (4) For a single questionnaire: Yes, but it is problematic because reliability cannot be estimated accurately. For a test battery: Yes, but it is very costly. Implications for the construction of patient-reported outcome questionnaires are discussed.

Procedures for Managing Innovations. Analysis of Literature and Selected Bibliography. Analysis and Bibliography Series, No. 7.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, Eugene, OR.

This rview focuses on the innovation process in local schools. Emphasis is placed on (1) how local schools implement innovations, (2) facilitators and inhibitors of innovation, and (3) unmet needs in assisting schools to adopt innovations. A 78-item bibliography of rlated literature is included. (RA)

Sources of Cognitive Inflexibility in Set-Shifting Tasks: Insights into Developmental Theories from Adult Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dick, Anthony Steven

2012-01-01

Two experiments examined processes underlying cognitive inflexibility in set-shifting tasks typically used to assess the development of executive function in children. Adult participants performed a Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) that requires shifting from categorizing by one dimension (e.g., color) to categorizing by a second orthogonal…

Planning for a Change; A Resource Catalogue. A Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for New Schools, Inc., Chicago, IL.

This 293-item catalog lists selected entries that should be useful to planning groups and others interested in establishing new school programs. It is concerned with what is considered a crucial step in the planning process--searching for alternatives. Past experience with school-community planning efforts has shown that, in the search for…

Preschoolers’ Novel Noun Extensions: Shape in Spite of Knowing Better

PubMed Central

Saalbach, Henrik; Schalk, Lennart

2011-01-01

We examined the puzzling research findings that when extending novel nouns, preschoolers rely on shape similarity (rather than categorical relations) while in other task contexts (e.g., property induction) they rely on categorical relations. Taking into account research on children’s word learning, categorization, and inductive inference we assume that preschoolers have both a shape-based and a category-based word extension strategy available and can switch between these two depending on which information is easily available. To this end, we tested preschoolers on two versions of a novel-noun label extension task. First, we paralleled the standard extension task commonly used by previous research. In this case, as expected, preschoolers predominantly selected same-shape items. Second, we supported preschoolers’ retrieval of item-related information from memory by asking them simple questions about each item prior to the label extension task. Here, they switched to a category-based strategy, thus, predominantly selecting same-category items. Finally, we revealed that this shape-to-category shift is specific to the word learning context as we did not find it in a non-lexical classification task. These findings support our assumption that preschoolers’ decision about word extension change in accordance with the availability of information (from task context or by memory retrieval). We conclude by suggesting that preschoolers’ noun extensions can be conceptualized within the framework of heuristic decision-making. This provides an ecologically plausible processing account with respect to which information is selected and how this information is integrated to act as a guideline for decision-making when novel words have to be generalized. PMID:22073036

Age-related deficits in selective attention during encoding increase demands on episodic reconstruction during context retrieval: An ERP study.

PubMed

James, Taylor; Strunk, Jonathan; Arndt, Jason; Duarte, Audrey

2016-06-01

Previous event-related potential (ERP) and neuroimaging evidence suggests that directing attention toward single item-context associations compared to intra-item features at encoding improves context memory performance and reduces demands on strategic retrieval operations in young and older adults. In everyday situations, however, there are multiple event features competing for our attention. It is not currently known how selectively attending to one contextual feature while attempting to ignore another influences context memory performance and the processes that support successful retrieval in the young and old. We investigated this issue in the current ERP study. Young and older participants studied pictures of objects in the presence of two contextual features: a color and a scene, and their attention was directed to the object's relationship with one of those contexts. Participants made context memory decisions for both attended and unattended contexts and rated their confidence in those decisions. Behavioral results showed that while both groups were generally successful in applying selective attention during context encoding, older adults were less confident in their context memory decisions for attended features and showed greater dependence in context memory accuracy for attended and unattended contextual features (i.e., hyper-binding). ERP results were largely consistent between age groups but older adults showed a more pronounced late posterior negativity (LPN) implicated in episodic reconstruction processes. We conclude that age-related suppression deficits during encoding result in reduced selectivity in context memory, thereby increasing subsequent demands on episodic reconstruction processes when sought after details are not readily retrieved. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of Content Balancing and Item Selection Method on Ability Estimation in Computerized Adaptive Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Alper; Ozbasi, Durmus

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to reveal effects of content balancing and item selection method on ability estimation in computerized adaptive tests by comparing Fisher's maximum information (FMI) and likelihood weighted information (LWI) methods. Research Methods: Four groups of examinees (250, 500, 750, 1000) and a bank of 500 items with 10 different…

Using Response Times for Item Selection in Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.

2008-01-01

Response times on items can be used to improve item selection in adaptive testing provided that a probabilistic model for their distribution is available. In this research, the author used a hierarchical modeling framework with separate first-level models for the responses and response times and a second-level model for the distribution of the…

Optimizing the Use of Response Times for Item Selection in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choe, Edison M.; Kern, Justin L.; Chang, Hua-Hua

2018-01-01

Despite common operationalization, measurement efficiency of computerized adaptive testing should not only be assessed in terms of the number of items administered but also the time it takes to complete the test. To this end, a recent study introduced a novel item selection criterion that maximizes Fisher information per unit of expected response…

A Comparison of Four Item-Selection Methods for Severely Constrained CATs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Wei; Diao, Qi; Hauser, Carl

2014-01-01

This study compared four item-selection procedures developed for use with severely constrained computerized adaptive tests (CATs). Severely constrained CATs refer to those adaptive tests that seek to meet a complex set of constraints that are often not conclusive to each other (i.e., an item may contribute to the satisfaction of several…

Methodology for developing and evaluating the PROMIS smoking item banks.

PubMed

Hansen, Mark; Cai, Li; Stucky, Brian D; Tucker, Joan S; Shadel, William G; Edelen, Maria Orlando

2014-09-01

This article describes the procedures used in the PROMIS Smoking Initiative for the development and evaluation of item banks, short forms (SFs), and computerized adaptive tests (CATs) for the assessment of 6 constructs related to cigarette smoking: nicotine dependence, coping expectancies, emotional and sensory expectancies, health expectancies, psychosocial expectancies, and social motivations for smoking. Analyses were conducted using response data from a large national sample of smokers. Items related to each construct were subjected to extensive item factor analyses and evaluation of differential item functioning (DIF). Final item banks were calibrated, and SF assessments were developed for each construct. The performance of the SFs and the potential use of the item banks for CAT administration were examined through simulation study. Item selection based on dimensionality assessment and DIF analyses produced item banks that were essentially unidimensional in structure and free of bias. Simulation studies demonstrated that the constructs could be accurately measured with a relatively small number of carefully selected items, either through fixed SFs or CAT-based assessment. Illustrative results are presented, and subsequent articles provide detailed discussion of each item bank in turn. The development of the PROMIS smoking item banks provides researchers with new tools for measuring smoking-related constructs. The use of the calibrated item banks and suggested SF assessments will enhance the quality of score estimates, thus advancing smoking research. Moreover, the methods used in the current study, including innovative approaches to item selection and SF construction, may have general relevance to item bank development and evaluation. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

How equity is addressed in clinical practice guidelines: a content analysis

PubMed Central

Shi, Chunhu; Tian, Jinhui; Wang, Quan; Petkovic, Jennifer; Ren, Dan; Yang, Kehu; Yang, Yang

2014-01-01

Objectives Considering equity into guidelines presents methodological challenges. This study aims to qualitatively synthesise the methods for incorporating equity in clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Setting Content analysis of methodological publications. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies Methodological publications were included if they provided checklists/frameworks on when, how and to what extent equity should be incorporated in CPGs. Data sources We electronically searched MEDLINE, retrieved references, and browsed guideline development organisation websites from inception to January 2013. After study selection by two authors, general characteristics and checklists items/framework components from included studies were extracted. Based on the questions or items from checklists/frameworks (unit of analysis), content analysis was conducted to identify themes and questions/items were grouped into these themes. Primary outcomes The primary outcomes were methodological themes and processes on how to address equity issues in guideline development. Results 8 studies with 10 publications were included from 3405 citations. In total, a list of 87 questions/items was generated from 17 checklists/frameworks. After content analysis, questions were grouped into eight themes (‘scoping questions’, ‘searching relevant evidence’, ‘appraising evidence and recommendations’, ‘formulating recommendations’, ‘monitoring implementation’, ‘providing a flow chart to include equity in CPGs’, and ‘others: reporting of guidelines and comments from stakeholders’ for CPG developers and ‘assessing the quality of CPGs’ for CPG users). Four included studies covered more than five of these themes. We also summarised the process of guideline development based on the themes mentioned above. Conclusions For disadvantaged population-specific CPGs, eight important methodological issues identified in this review should be considered when including equity in CPGs under the guidance of a scientific guideline development manual. PMID:25479795

Measurement equivalence of seven selected items of posttraumatic growth between black and white adult survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

PubMed

Rhodes, Alison M; Tran, Thanh V

2013-02-01

This study examined the equivalence or comparability of the measurement properties of seven selected items measuring posttraumatic growth among self-identified Black (n = 270) and White (n = 707) adult survivors of Hurricane Katrina, using data from the Baseline Survey of the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group Study. Internal consistency reliability was equally good for both groups (Cronbach's alphas = .79), as were correlations between individual scale items and their respective overall scale. Confirmatory factor analysis of a congeneric measurement model of seven selected items of posttraumatic growth showed adequate measures of fit for both groups. The results showed only small variation in magnitude of factor loadings and measurement errors between the two samples. Tests of measurement invariance showed mixed results, but overall indicated that factor loading, error variance, and factor variance were similar between the two samples. These seven selected items can be useful for future large-scale surveys of posttraumatic growth.

Development of the Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory

PubMed Central

Schrager, Sheree M.; Goldbach, Jeremy T.; Mamey, Mary Rose

2018-01-01

Although construct measurement is critical to explanatory research and intervention efforts, rigorous measure development remains a notable challenge. For example, though the primary theoretical model for understanding health disparities among sexual minority (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual) adolescents is minority stress theory, nearly all published studies of this population rely on minority stress measures with poor psychometric properties and development procedures. In response, we developed the Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory (SMASI) with N = 346 diverse adolescents ages 14–17, using a comprehensive approach to de novo measure development designed to produce a measure with desirable psychometric properties. After exploratory factor analysis on 102 candidate items informed by a modified Delphi process, we applied item response theory techniques to the remaining 72 items. Discrimination and difficulty parameters and item characteristic curves were estimated overall, within each of 12 initially derived factors, and across demographic subgroups. Two items were removed for excessive discrimination and three were removed following reliability analysis. The measure demonstrated configural and scalar invariance for gender and age; a three-item factor was excluded for demonstrating substantial differences by sexual identity and race/ethnicity. The final 64-item measure comprised 11 subscales and demonstrated excellent overall (α = 0.98), subscale (α range 0.75–0.96), and test–retest (scale r > 0.99; subscale r range 0.89–0.99) reliabilities. Subscales represented a mix of proximal and distal stressors, including domains of internalized homonegativity, identity management, intersectionality, and negative expectancies (proximal) and social marginalization, family rejection, homonegative climate, homonegative communication, negative disclosure experiences, religion, and work domains (distal). Thus, the SMASI development process illustrates a method to incorporate information from multiple sources, including item response theory models, to guide item selection in building a psychometrically sound measure. We posit that similar methods can be used to improve construct measurement across all areas of psychological research, particularly in areas where a strong theoretical framework exists but existing measures are limited. PMID:29599737

ESPACOMP Medication Adherence Reporting Guidelines (EMERGE): a reactive-Delphi study protocol

PubMed Central

Helmy, R; Zullig, L L; Dunbar-Jacob, J; Hughes, D A; Vrijens, B; Wilson, I B; De Geest, S

2017-01-01

Introduction Medication adherence is fundamental to achieving optimal patient outcomes. Reporting research on medication adherence suffers from some issues—including conceptualisation, measurement and data analysis—that thwart its advancement. Using the ABC taxonomy for medication adherence as the conceptual basis, a steering committee of members of the European Society for Patient Adherence, COMpliance, and Persistence (ESPACOMP) launched an initiative to develop ESPACOMP Medication Adherence Reporting Guidelines (EMERGE). This paper is a protocol for a Delphi study that aims to build consensus among a group of topic experts regarding an item list that will support developing EMERGE. Methods and analysis This study uses a reactive-Delphi design where a group of topic experts will be asked to rate the relevance and clarity of an initial list of items, in addition to suggesting further items and/or modifications of the initial items. The initial item list, generated by the EMERGE steering committee through a structured process, consists of 26 items distributed in 2 sections: 4 items representing the taxonomy-based minimum reporting criteria, and 22 items organised according to the common reporting sections. A purposive sample of experts will be selected from relevant disciplines and diverse geographical locations. Consensus will be achieved through predefined decision rules to keep, delete or modify the items. An iterative process of online survey rounds will be carried out until consensus is reached. Ethics and dissemination An ethics approval was not required for the study according to the Swiss federal act on research involving human beings. The participating experts will be asked to give an informed consent. The results of this Delphi study will feed into EMERGE, which will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. Additionally, the steering committee will encourage their endorsement by registering the guidelines at the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network and other relevant organisations. PMID:28188154

Decision analysis for a data collection system of patient-controlled analgesia with a multi-attribute utility model.

PubMed

Lee, I-Jung; Huang, Shih-Yu; Tsou, Mei-Yung; Chan, Kwok-Hon; Chang, Kuang-Yi

2010-10-01

Data collection systems are very important for the practice of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). This study aimed to evaluate 3 PCA data collection systems and selected the most favorable system with the aid of multiattribute utility (MAU) theory. We developed a questionnaire with 10 items to evaluate the PCA data collection system and 1 item for overall satisfaction based on MAU theory. Three systems were compared in the questionnaire, including a paper record, optic card reader and personal digital assistant (PDA). A pilot study demonstrated a good internal and test-retest reliability of the questionnaire. A weighted utility score combining the relative importance of individual items assigned by each participant and their responses to each question was calculated for each system. Sensitivity analyses with distinct weighting protocols were conducted to evaluate the stability of the final results. Thirty potential users of a PCA data collection system were recruited in the study. The item "easy to use" had the highest median rank and received the heaviest mean weight among all items. MAU analysis showed that the PDA system had a higher utility score than that in the other 2 systems. Sensitivity analyses revealed that both inverse and reciprocal weighting processes favored the PDA system. High correlations between overall satisfaction and MAU scores from miscellaneous weighting protocols suggested a good predictive validity of our MAU-based questionnaire. The PDA system was selected as the most favorable PCA data collection system by the MAU analysis. The item "easy to use" was the most important attribute of the PCA data collection system. MAU theory can evaluate alternatives by taking into account individual preferences of stakeholders and aid in better decision-making. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A new Integrated Negative Symptom structure of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in schizophrenia using item response analysis.

PubMed

Khan, Anzalee; Lindenmayer, Jean-Pierre; Opler, Mark; Yavorsky, Christian; Rothman, Brian; Lucic, Luka

2013-10-01

Debate persists with regard to how best to categorize the syndromal dimension of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. The aim was to first review published Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the PANSS, and extract items most frequently included in the negative domain, and secondly, to examine the quality of items using Item Response Theory (IRT) to select items that best represent a measurable dimension (or dimensions) of negative symptoms. First, 22 factor analyses and PCA met were included. Second, using a large dataset (n=7187) of participants in clinical trials with chronic schizophrenia, we extracted items loading on one or more PCA. Third, items not loading with a value of ≥ 0.5, or loading on more than one component with values of ≥ 0.5 were discarded. Fourth, resulting items were included in a non-parametric IRT and retained based on Option Characteristic Curves (OCCs) and Item Characteristic Curves (ICCs). 15 items loaded on a negative domain in at least one study, with Emotional Withdrawal loading on all studies. Non-parametric IRT retained nine items as an Integrated Negative Factor: Emotional Withdrawal, Blunted Affect, Passive/Apathetic Social Withdrawal, Poor Rapport, Lack of Spontaneity/Conversation Flow, Active Social Avoidance, Disturbance of Volition, Stereotyped Thinking and Difficulty in Abstract Thinking. This is the first study to use a psychometric IRT process to arrive at a set of negative symptom items. Future steps will include further examination of these nine items in terms of their stability, sensitivity to change, and correlations with functional and cognitive outcomes. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolution of a Test Item

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spaan, Mary

2007-01-01

This article follows the development of test items (see "Language Assessment Quarterly", Volume 3 Issue 1, pp. 71-79 for the article "Test and Item Specifications Development"), beginning with a review of test and item specifications, then proceeding to writing and editing of items, pretesting and analysis, and finally selection of an item for a…

A Model-Based Analysis of Semi-Automated Data Discovery and Entry Using Automated Content Extraction

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-01

Accomplish Goal) to (a) visually search the contents of a file folder until the icon corresponding to the desired file is located (Choose...Item_from_set), and (b) move the mouse to that icon and double click to open it (Double_select Object). Note that Choose Item_from_set and Double_select...argument, which Open File fills with <found_item>, a working memory pointer to the file icon that Choose_item_from Set finds. Look_at, Point_to

Selective attention and recognition: effects of congruency on episodic learning.

PubMed

Rosner, Tamara M; D'Angelo, Maria C; MacLellan, Ellen; Milliken, Bruce

2015-05-01

Recent research on cognitive control has focused on the learning consequences of high selective attention demands in selective attention tasks (e.g., Botvinick, Cognit Affect Behav Neurosci 7(4):356-366, 2007; Verguts and Notebaert, Psychol Rev 115(2):518-525, 2008). The current study extends these ideas by examining the influence of selective attention demands on remembering. In Experiment 1, participants read aloud the red word in a pair of red and green spatially interleaved words. Half of the items were congruent (the interleaved words had the same identity), and the other half were incongruent (the interleaved words had different identities). Following the naming phase, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test. In this test phase, recognition memory was better for incongruent than for congruent items. In Experiment 2, context was only partially reinstated at test, and again recognition memory was better for incongruent than for congruent items. In Experiment 3, all of the items contained two different words, but in one condition the words were presented close together and interleaved, while in the other condition the two words were spatially separated. Recognition memory was better for the interleaved than for the separated items. This result rules out an interpretation of the congruency effects on recognition in Experiments 1 and 2 that hinges on stronger relational encoding for items that have two different words. Together, the results support the view that selective attention demands for incongruent items lead to encoding that improves recognition.

The emotion-induced memory trade-off: more than an effect of overt attention?

PubMed

Steinmetz, Katherine R Mickley; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2013-01-01

Although it has been suggested that many effects of emotion on memory are attributable to attention, in the present study we addressed the hypothesis that such effects may relate to a number of different factors during encoding or postencoding. One way to look at the effects of emotion on memory is by examining the emotion-induced memory trade-off, whereby enhanced memory for emotional items often comes at the cost of memory for surrounding background information. We present evidence that this trade-off cannot be explained solely by overt attention (measured via eyetracking) directed to the emotional items during encoding. Participants did not devote more overt attention to emotional than to neutral items when those items were selectively remembered (at the expense of their backgrounds). Only when participants were asked to answer true/false questions about the items and the backgrounds--a manipulation designed to affect both overt attention and poststimulus elaboration--was there a reduction in selective emotional item memory due to an increase in background memory. These results indicate that the allocation of overt visual attention during encoding is not sufficient to predict the occurrence of selective item memory for emotional items.

The Impact of Presentation Format on Younger and Older Adults' Self-Regulated Learning.

PubMed

Price, Jodi

2017-01-01

Background/Study Context: Self-regulated learning involves deciding what to study and for how long. Debate surrounds whether individuals' selections are influenced more by item complexity, point values, or if instead people select in a left-to-right reading order, ignoring item complexity and value. The present study manipulated whether point values and presentation format favored selection of simple or complex Chinese-English pairs to assess the impact on younger and older adults' selection behaviors. One hundred and five younger (M age  = 20.26, SD = 2.38) and 102 older adults (M age  = 70.28, SD = 6.37) participated in the experiment. Participants studied four different 3 × 3 grids (two per trial), each containing three simple, three medium, and three complex Chinese-English vocabulary pairs presented in either a simple-first or complex-first order, depending on condition. Point values were assigned in either a 2-4-8 or 8-4-2 order so that either simple or complex items were favored. Points did not influence the order in which either age group selected items, whereas presentation format did. Younger and older adults selected more simple or complex items when they appeared in the first column. However, older adults selected and allocated more time to simpler items but recalled less overall than did younger adults. Memory beliefs and working memory capacity predicted study time allocation, but not item selection, behaviors. Presentation format must be considered when evaluating which theory of self-regulated learning best accounts for younger and older adults' study behaviors and whether there are age-related differences in self-regulated learning. The results of the present study combine with others to support the importance of also considering the role of external factors (e.g., working memory capacity and memory beliefs) in each age group's self-regulated learning decisions.

Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination.

PubMed

Koh, Bongyeun; Hong, Sunggi; Kim, Soon-Sim; Hyun, Jin-Sook; Baek, Milye; Moon, Jundong; Kwon, Hayran; Kim, Gyoungyong; Min, Seonggi; Kang, Gu-Hyun

2016-01-01

The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE), which requires examinees to select items randomly. The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05). In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01). In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination.

Selection of a Non-ODC Solvent for Rubber Processing Equipment Cleaning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, R. E.; Thornton, T. N.; Semmel, L.; Selvidge, S. A.; Cash, Steve (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

NASA/MSFC has recently acquired new equipment for the manufacture and processing of rubber and rubber containing items that are used in the RSRM (Reusable Solid Rocket Motor) system. Work with a previous generation of rubber equipment at MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) in the 1970's had involved the use of ODC's such as 1,1,1-Trichloroethane or VOC's such as Toluene as the solvents of choice in cleaning the equipment. Neither of these options is practical today. This paper addresses the selection and screening of candidate cleaning solvents that are not only effective, but also meet the new environmental standards.

Selection of a Non-ODC Solvent for Rubber Processing Equipment Cleaning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Morgan, R. E.; Thornton, T. N.; Semmel, L.; Selvidge, S. A.

2003-01-01

NASA/MSFC has recently acquired new equipment for the manufacture and processing of rubber and rubber containing items that are used in the Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor (RSRM) system. Work with a previous generation of rubber equipment at MSFC in the 1970's had involved the use of Oxygen Deficient Center (ODC's) such as 1,1,1-Trichloroethane or VOC's such as Toluene as the solvents of choice in cleaning the equipment. Neither of these options is practical today. This paper addresses the selection and screening of candidate cleaning solvents that are not only effective, but also meet the new environmental standards.

Categorization and identification of simultaneous targets.

PubMed

Theeuwes, J

1991-02-01

Early and late selection theories of visual attention disagree about whether identification occurs before or after selection. Studies showing the category effect, i.e., the time to detect a letter is hardly affected by the number of digits present in the display, are taken as evidence for late selection theories since these studies suggest parallel identification of all items in the display. As an extension of previous studies, in the present study two categorically different targets were presented simultaneously among a variable number of nontargets. Subjects were shown brief displays of two target letters among either 2, 4 or 6 nontarget digits. Subjects responded 'same' when the two letters were identical and 'different' otherwise. Since the 'same-different' response reflects the combined outcome of the simultaneous targets, late-selection theory predicts that the time to match the target letters is independent of the number of nontarget digits. Alternatively, early-selection theory predicts a linear increase of reaction time with display size since the presence of more than one target disrupts parallel preattentive processing, leading to a serial search through all items in the display. The results provide evidence for the early-selection view since reaction time increased linearly with the number of categorically different nontargets. A control experiment revealed that none of the alternative explanations could account for the display size effect.

The nature of short-term consolidation in visual working memory.

PubMed

Ricker, Timothy J; Hardman, Kyle O

2017-11-01

Short-term consolidation is the process by which stable working memory representations are created. This process is fundamental to cognition yet poorly understood. The present work examines short-term consolidation using a Bayesian hierarchical model of visual working memory recall to determine the underlying processes at work. Our results show that consolidation functions largely through changing the proportion of memory items successfully maintained until test. Although there was some evidence that consolidation affects representational precision, this change was modest and could not account for the bulk of the consolidation effect on memory performance. The time course of the consolidation function and selective influence of consolidation on specific serial positions strongly indicates that short-term consolidation induces an attentional blink. The blink leads to deficits in memory for the immediately following item when time pressure is introduced. Temporal distinctiveness accounts of the consolidation process are tested and ruled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Using the Self-Directed Search in Research: Selecting a Representative Pool of Items to Measure Vocational Interests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poitras, Sarah-Caroline; Guay, Frederic; Ratelle, Catherine F.

2012-01-01

Using Item Response Theory (IRT) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), the goal of this study was to select a reduced pool of items from the French Canadian version of the Self-Directed Search--Activities Section (Holland, Fritzsche, & Powell, 1994). Two studies were conducted. Results of Study 1, involving 727 French Canadian students,…

The timing of associative memory formation: frontal lobe and anterior medial temporal lobe activity at associative binding predicts memory

PubMed Central

Hales, J. B.

2011-01-01

The process of associating items encountered over time and across variable time delays is fundamental for creating memories in daily life, such as for stories and episodes. Forming associative memory for temporally discontiguous items involves medial temporal lobe structures and additional neocortical processing regions, including prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, and lateral occipital regions. However, most prior memory studies, using concurrently presented stimuli, have failed to examine the temporal aspect of successful associative memory formation to identify when activity in these brain regions is predictive of associative memory formation. In the current study, functional MRI data were acquired while subjects were shown pairs of sequentially presented visual images with a fixed interitem delay within pairs. This design allowed the entire time course of the trial to be analyzed, starting from onset of the first item, across the 5.5-s delay period, and through offset of the second item. Subjects then completed a postscan recognition test for the items and associations they encoded during the scan and their confidence for each. After controlling for item-memory strength, we isolated brain regions selectively involved in associative encoding. Consistent with prior findings, increased regional activity predicting subsequent associative memory success was found in anterior medial temporal lobe regions of left perirhinal and entorhinal cortices and in left prefrontal cortex and lateral occipital regions. The temporal separation within each pair, however, allowed extension of these findings by isolating the timing of regional involvement, showing that increased response in these regions occurs during binding but not during maintenance. PMID:21248058

Building a taxonomy of integrated palliative care initiatives: results from a focus group

PubMed Central

Ewert, Benjamin; Hodiamont, Farina; van Wijngaarden, Jeroen; Payne, Sheila; Groot, Marieke; Hasselaar, Jeroen; Menten, Johann; Radbruch, Lukas

2016-01-01

Background Empirical evidence suggests that integrated palliative care (IPC) increases the quality of care for palliative patients and supports professional caregivers. Existing IPC initiatives in Europe vary in their design and are hardly comparable. InSuP-C, a European Union research project, aimed to build a taxonomy of IPC initiatives applicable across diseases, healthcare sectors and systems. Methods The taxonomy of IPC initiatives was developed in cooperation with an international and multidisciplinary focus group of 18 experts. Subsequently, a consensus meeting of 10 experts revised a preliminary taxonomy and adopted the final classification system. Results Consisting of eight categories, with two to four items each, the taxonomy covers the process and structure of IPC initiatives. If two items in at least one category apply to an initiative, a minimum level of integration is assumed to have been reached. Categories range from the type of initiative (items: pathway, model or guideline) to patients’ key contact (items: non-pc specialist, pc specialist, general practitioner). Experts recommended the inclusion of two new categories: level of care (items: primary, secondary or tertiary) indicating at which stage palliative care is integrated and primary focus of intervention describing IPC givers’ different roles (items: treating function, advising/consulting or training) in the care process. Conclusions Empirical studies are required to investigate how the taxonomy is used in practice and whether it covers the reality of patients in need of palliative care. The InSuP-C project will test this taxonomy empirically in selected initiatives using IPC. PMID:26647043

Construction and validation of a measure of integrative well-being in seven languages: The Pemberton Happiness Index

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Purpose We introduce the Pemberton Happiness Index (PHI), a new integrative measure of well-being in seven languages, detailing the validation process and presenting psychometric data. The scale includes eleven items related to different domains of remembered well-being (general, hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well-being) and ten items related to experienced well-being (i.e., positive and negative emotional events that possibly happened the day before); the sum of these items produces a combined well-being index. Methods A distinctive characteristic of this study is that to construct the scale, an initial pool of items, covering the remembered and experienced well-being domains, were subjected to a complete selection and validation process. These items were based on widely used scales (e.g., PANAS, Satisfaction With Life Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale, and Psychological Well-Being Scales). Both the initial items and reference scales were translated into seven languages and completed via Internet by participants (N = 4,052) aged 16 to 60 years from nine countries (Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and USA). Results Results from this initial validation study provided very good support for the psychometric properties of the PHI (i.e., internal consistency, a single-factor structure, and convergent and incremental validity). Conclusions Given the PHI’s good psychometric properties, this simple and integrative index could be used as an instrument to monitor changes in well-being. We discuss the utility of this integrative index to explore well-being in individuals and communities. PMID:23607679

Evidence against global attention filters selective for absolute bar-orientation in human vision.

PubMed

Inverso, Matthew; Sun, Peng; Chubb, Charles; Wright, Charles E; Sperling, George

2016-01-01

The finding that an item of type A pops out from an array of distractors of type B typically is taken to support the inference that human vision contains a neural mechanism that is activated by items of type A but not by items of type B. Such a mechanism might be expected to yield a neural image in which items of type A produce high activation and items of type B low (or zero) activation. Access to such a neural image might further be expected to enable accurate estimation of the centroid of an ensemble of items of type A intermixed with to-be-ignored items of type B. Here, it is shown that as the number of items in stimulus displays is increased, performance in estimating the centroids of horizontal (vertical) items amid vertical (horizontal) distractors degrades much more quickly and dramatically than does performance in estimating the centroids of white (black) items among black (white) distractors. Together with previous findings, these results suggest that, although human vision does possess bottom-up neural mechanisms sensitive to abrupt local changes in bar-orientation, and although human vision does possess and utilize top-down global attention filters capable of selecting multiple items of one brightness or of one color from among others, it cannot use a top-down global attention filter capable of selecting multiple bars of a given absolute orientation and filtering bars of the opposite orientation in a centroid task.

Visual and spatial working memory are not that dissociated after all: a time-based resource-sharing account.

PubMed

Vergauwe, Evie; Barrouillet, Pierre; Camos, Valérie

2009-07-01

Examinations of interference between visual and spatial materials in working memory have suggested domain- and process-based fractionations of visuo-spatial working memory. The present study examined the role of central time-based resource sharing in visuo-spatial working memory and assessed its role in obtained interference patterns. Visual and spatial storage were combined with both visual and spatial on-line processing components in computer-paced working memory span tasks (Experiment 1) and in a selective interference paradigm (Experiment 2). The cognitive load of the processing components was manipulated to investigate its impact on concurrent maintenance for both within-domain and between-domain combinations of processing and storage components. In contrast to both domain- and process-based fractionations of visuo-spatial working memory, the results revealed that recall performance was determined by the cognitive load induced by the processing of items, rather than by the domain to which those items pertained. These findings are interpreted as evidence for a time-based resource-sharing mechanism in visuo-spatial working memory.

Science Teachers' Thinking About the Nature of Science: A New Methodological Approach to Its Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vázquez-Alonso, Ángel; García-Carmona, Antonio; Manassero-Mas, María Antonia; Bennàssar-Roig, Antoni

2013-04-01

This paper describes Spanish science teachers' thinking about issues concerning the nature of science (NOS) and the relationships connecting science, technology, and society (STS). The sample consisted of 774 in-service and pre-service teachers. The participants responded to a selection of items from the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology & Society in a multiple response model. These data were processed to generate the invariant indices that are used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. The overall results reflect moderately informed conceptions, and a detailed analysis by items, categories, and positions reveals a range of positive and negative conceptions about the topics of NOS dealt with in the questionnaire items. The implications of the findings for teaching and teacher training on the themes of NOS are discussed.

Neurons selective to the number of visual items in the corvid songbird endbrain

PubMed Central

Ditz, Helen M.; Nieder, Andreas

2015-01-01

It is unknown whether anatomical specializations in the endbrains of different vertebrates determine the neuronal code to represent numerical quantity. Therefore, we recorded single-neuron activity from the endbrain of crows trained to judge the number of items in displays. Many neurons were tuned for numerosities irrespective of the physical appearance of the items, and their activity correlated with performance outcome. Comparison of both behavioral and neuronal representations of numerosity revealed that the data are best described by a logarithmically compressed scaling of numerical information, as postulated by the Weber–Fechner law. The behavioral and neuronal numerosity representations in the crow reflect surprisingly well those found in the primate association cortex. This finding suggests that distantly related vertebrates with independently developed endbrains adopted similar neuronal solutions to process quantity. PMID:26056278

Development and Reliability Evaluation of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Video Game Play.

PubMed

Levac, Danielle; Nawrotek, Joanna; Deschenes, Emilie; Giguere, Tia; Serafin, Julie; Bilodeau, Martin; Sveistrup, Heidi

2016-06-01

Virtual reality active video games are increasingly popular physical therapy interventions for children with cerebral palsy. However, physical therapists require educational resources to support decision making about game selection to match individual patient goals. Quantifying the movements elicited during virtual reality active video game play can inform individualized game selection in pediatric rehabilitation. The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the feasibility and reliability of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Game Play (MRI-VRGP). Item generation occurred through an iterative process of literature review and sample videotape viewing. The MRI-VRGP includes 25 items quantifying upper extremity, lower extremity, and total body movements. A total of 176 videotaped 90-second game play sessions involving 7 typically developing children and 4 children with cerebral palsy were rated by 3 raters trained in MRI-VRGP use. Children played 8 games on 2 virtual reality and active video game systems. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) determined intra-rater and interrater reliability. Excellent intrarater reliability was evidenced by ICCs of >0.75 for 17 of the 25 items across the 3 raters. Interrater reliability estimates were less precise. Excellent interrater reliability was achieved for far reach upper extremity movements (ICC=0.92 [for right and ICC=0.90 for left) and for squat (ICC=0.80) and jump items (ICC=0.99), with 9 items achieving ICCs of >0.70, 12 items achieving ICCs of between 0.40 and 0.70, and 4 items achieving poor reliability (close-reach upper extremity-ICC=0.14 for right and ICC=0.07 for left) and single-leg stance (ICC=0.55 for right and ICC=0.27 for left). Poor video quality, differing item interpretations between raters, and difficulty quantifying the high-speed movements involved in game play affected reliability. With item definition clarification and further psychometric property evaluation, the MRI-VRGP could inform the content of educational resources for therapists by ranking games according to frequency and type of elicited body movements.

Development and Reliability Evaluation of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Video Game Play

PubMed Central

Nawrotek, Joanna; Deschenes, Emilie; Giguere, Tia; Serafin, Julie; Bilodeau, Martin; Sveistrup, Heidi

2016-01-01

Background Virtual reality active video games are increasingly popular physical therapy interventions for children with cerebral palsy. However, physical therapists require educational resources to support decision making about game selection to match individual patient goals. Quantifying the movements elicited during virtual reality active video game play can inform individualized game selection in pediatric rehabilitation. Objective The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate the feasibility and reliability of the Movement Rating Instrument for Virtual Reality Game Play (MRI-VRGP). Methods Item generation occurred through an iterative process of literature review and sample videotape viewing. The MRI-VRGP includes 25 items quantifying upper extremity, lower extremity, and total body movements. A total of 176 videotaped 90-second game play sessions involving 7 typically developing children and 4 children with cerebral palsy were rated by 3 raters trained in MRI-VRGP use. Children played 8 games on 2 virtual reality and active video game systems. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) determined intra-rater and interrater reliability. Results Excellent intrarater reliability was evidenced by ICCs of >0.75 for 17 of the 25 items across the 3 raters. Interrater reliability estimates were less precise. Excellent interrater reliability was achieved for far reach upper extremity movements (ICC=0.92 [for right and ICC=0.90 for left) and for squat (ICC=0.80) and jump items (ICC=0.99), with 9 items achieving ICCs of >0.70, 12 items achieving ICCs of between 0.40 and 0.70, and 4 items achieving poor reliability (close-reach upper extremity-ICC=0.14 for right and ICC=0.07 for left) and single-leg stance (ICC=0.55 for right and ICC=0.27 for left). Conclusions Poor video quality, differing item interpretations between raters, and difficulty quantifying the high-speed movements involved in game play affected reliability. With item definition clarification and further psychometric property evaluation, the MRI-VRGP could inform the content of educational resources for therapists by ranking games according to frequency and type of elicited body movements. PMID:27251029

Item Response Models for Examinee-Selected Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Wen-Chung; Jin, Kuan-Yu; Qiu, Xue-Lan; Wang, Lei

2012-01-01

In some tests, examinees are required to choose a fixed number of items from a set of given items to answer. This practice creates a challenge to standard item response models, because more capable examinees may have an advantage by making wiser choices. In this study, we developed a new class of item response models to account for the choice…

Investigating Item Exposure Control Methods in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Nagihan Boztunc; Dogan, Nuri

2015-01-01

This study aims to investigate the effects of item exposure control methods on measurement precision and on test security under various item selection methods and item pool characteristics. In this study, the Randomesque (with item group sizes of 5 and 10), Sympson-Hetter, and Fade-Away methods were used as item exposure control methods. Moreover,…

Do different salience cues compete for dominance in memory over a daytime nap?

PubMed

Alger, Sara E; Chen, Shirley; Payne, Jessica D

2018-06-12

Information that is the most salient and important for future use is preferentially preserved through active processing during sleep. Emotional salience is a biologically adaptive cue that influences episodic memory processing through interactions between amygdalar and hippocampal activity. However, other cues that influence the importance of information, such as the explicit direction to remember or forget, interact with the inherent salience of information to determine its fate in memory. It is unknown how sleep-based processes selectively consolidate this complex information. The current study examined the development of memory for emotional and neutral information that was either cued to-be-remembered (TBR) or to-be-forgotten (TBF) across a daytime period including either napping or wakefulness. Baseline memory revealed dominance of the TBR cue, regardless of emotional salience. As anticipated, napping was found to preserve memory overall significantly better than remaining awake. Furthermore, we observed a trending interaction indicating that napping specifically enhanced the discrimination between the most salient information (negative TBR items) over other information. We found that memory for negative items was positively associated with the percentage of SWS obtained during a nap. Furthermore, the magnitude of the difference in memory between negative TBR items and negative TBF items increased with greater sleep spindle activity. Taken together, our results suggest that although the cue to actively remember or intentionally forget initially wins out, active processes during sleep facilitate the competition between salience cues to promote the most salient information in memory. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What Makes Deeply Encoded Items Memorable? Insights into the Levels of Processing Framework from Neuroimaging and Neuromodulation

PubMed Central

Galli, Giulia

2014-01-01

When we form new memories, their mnestic fate largely depends upon the cognitive operations set in train during encoding. A typical observation in experimental as well as everyday life settings is that if we learn an item using semantic or “deep” operations, such as attending to its meaning, memory will be better than if we learn the same item using more “shallow” operations, such as attending to its structural features. In the psychological literature, this phenomenon has been conceptualized within the “levels of processing” framework and has been consistently replicated since its original proposal by Craik and Lockhart in 1972. However, the exact mechanisms underlying the memory advantage for deeply encoded items are not yet entirely understood. A cognitive neuroscience perspective can add to this field by clarifying the nature of the processes involved in effective deep and shallow encoding and how they are instantiated in the brain, but so far there has been little work to systematically integrate findings from the literature. This work aims to fill this gap by reviewing, first, some of the key neuroimaging findings on the neural correlates of deep and shallow episodic encoding and second, emerging evidence from studies using neuromodulatory approaches such as psychopharmacology and non-invasive brain stimulation. Taken together, these studies help further our understanding of levels of processing. In addition, by showing that deep encoding can be modulated by acting upon specific brain regions or systems, the reviewed studies pave the way for selective enhancements of episodic encoding processes. PMID:24904444

Categorization is modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation over left prefrontal cortex.

PubMed

Lupyan, Gary; Mirman, Daniel; Hamilton, Roy; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2012-07-01

Humans have an unparalleled ability to represent objects as members of multiple categories. A given object, such as a pillow may be-depending on current task demands-represented as an instance of something that is soft, as something that contains feathers, as something that is found in bedrooms, or something that is larger than a toaster. This type of processing requires the individual to dynamically highlight task-relevant properties and abstract over or suppress object properties that, although salient, are not relevant to the task at hand. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence suggests that this ability may depend on cognitive control processes associated with the left inferior prefrontal gyrus. Here, we show that stimulating the left inferior frontal cortex using transcranial direct current stimulation alters performance of healthy subjects on a simple categorization task. Our task required subjects to select pictures matching a description, e.g., "click on all the round things." Cathodal stimulation led to poorer performance on classification trials requiring attention to specific dimensions such as color or shape as opposed to trials that required selecting items belonging to a more thematic category such as objects that hold water. A polarity reversal (anodal stimulation) lowered the threshold for selecting items that were more weakly associated with the target category. These results illustrate the role of frontally-mediated control processes in categorization and suggest potential interactions between categorization, cognitive control, and language. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Categorization is modulated by transcranical direct current stimulation over left prefrontal cortex

PubMed Central

Lupyan, Gary; Mirman, Daniel; Hamilton, Roy; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2013-01-01

Humans have an unparalleled ability to represent objects as members of multiple categories. A given object, such as a pillow may be—depending on current task demands—represented as an instance of something that is soft, as something that contains feathers, as something that is found in bedrooms, or something that is larger than a toaster. This type of processing requires the individual to dynamically highlight task-relevant properties and abstract over or suppress object properties that, although salient, are not relevant to the task at hand. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological evidence suggests that this ability may depend on cognitive control processes associated with the left inferior prefrontal gyrus. Here, we show that stimulating the left inferior frontal cortex using transcranial direct current stimulation alters performance of healthy subjects on a simple categorization task. Our task required subjects to select pictures matching a description, e.g., “click on all the round things.“ Cathodal stimulation led to poorer performance on classification trials requiring attention to specific dimensions such as color or shape as opposed to trials that required selecting items belonging to a more thematic category such as objects that hold water. A polarity reversal (anodal stimulation) lowered the threshold for selecting items that were more weakly associated with the target category. These results illustrate the role of frontally-mediated control processes in categorization and suggest potential interactions between categorization, cognitive control, and language. PMID:22578885

Action and Valence Modulate Choice and Choice-Induced Preference Change

PubMed Central

Koster, Raphael; Duzel, Emrah; Dolan, Raymond J.

2015-01-01

Choices are not only communicated via explicit actions but also passively through inaction. In this study we investigated how active or passive choice impacts upon the choice process itself as well as a preference change induced by choice. Subjects were tasked to select a preference for unfamiliar photographs by action or inaction, before and after they gave valuation ratings for all photographs. We replicate a finding that valuation increases for chosen items and decreases for unchosen items compared to a control condition in which the choice was made post re-evaluation. Whether choice was expressed actively or passively affected the dynamics of revaluation differently for positive and negatively valenced items. Additionally, the choice itself was biased towards action such that subjects tended to choose a photograph obtained by action more often than a photographed obtained through inaction. These results highlight intrinsic biases consistent with a tight coupling of action and reward and add to an emerging understanding of how the mode of action itself, and not just an associated outcome, modulates the decision making process. PMID:25747703

On the asymptotic standard error of a class of robust estimators of ability in dichotomous item response models.

PubMed

Magis, David

2014-11-01

In item response theory, the classical estimators of ability are highly sensitive to response disturbances and can return strongly biased estimates of the true underlying ability level. Robust methods were introduced to lessen the impact of such aberrant responses on the estimation process. The computation of asymptotic (i.e., large-sample) standard errors (ASE) for these robust estimators, however, has not yet been fully considered. This paper focuses on a broad class of robust ability estimators, defined by an appropriate selection of the weight function and the residual measure, for which the ASE is derived from the theory of estimating equations. The maximum likelihood (ML) and the robust estimators, together with their estimated ASEs, are then compared in a simulation study by generating random guessing disturbances. It is concluded that both the estimators and their ASE perform similarly in the absence of random guessing, while the robust estimator and its estimated ASE are less biased and outperform their ML counterparts in the presence of random guessing with large impact on the item response process. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Effects of promotional materials on vending sales of low-fat items in teachers' lounges.

PubMed

Fiske, Amy; Cullen, Karen Weber

2004-01-01

This study examined the impact of an environmental intervention in the form of promotional materials and increased availability of low-fat items on vending machine sales. Ten vending machines were selected and randomly assigned to one of three conditions: control, or one of two experimental conditions. Vending machines in the two intervention conditions received three additional low-fat selections. Low-fat items were promoted at two levels: labels (intervention I), and labels plus signs (intervention II). The number of individual items sold and the total revenue generated was recorded weekly for each machine for 4 weeks. Use of promotional materials resulted in a small, but not significant, increase in the number of low-fat items sold, although machine sales were not significantly impacted by the change in product selection. Results of this study, although not statistically significant, suggest that environmental change may be a realistic means of positively influencing consumer behavior.

Assessment of the Item Selection and Weighting in the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score for Wegener's Granulomatosis

PubMed Central

MAHR, ALFRED D.; NEOGI, TUHINA; LAVALLEY, MICHAEL P.; DAVIS, JOHN C.; HOFFMAN, GARY S.; MCCUNE, W. JOSEPH; SPECKS, ULRICH; SPIERA, ROBERT F.; ST.CLAIR, E. WILLIAM; STONE, JOHN H.; MERKEL, PETER A.

2013-01-01

Objective To assess the Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score for Wegener's Granulomatosis (BVAS/WG) with respect to its selection and weighting of items. Methods This study used the BVAS/WG data from the Wegener's Granulomatosis Etanercept Trial. The scoring frequencies of the 34 predefined items and any “other” items added by clinicians were calculated. Using linear regression with generalized estimating equations in which the physician global assessment (PGA) of disease activity was the dependent variable, we computed weights for all predefined items. We also created variables for clinical manifestations frequently added as other items, and computed weights for these as well. We searched for the model that included the items and their generated weights yielding an activity score with the highest R2 to predict the PGA. Results We analyzed 2,044 BVAS/WG assessments from 180 patients; 734 assessments were scored during active disease. The highest R2 with the PGA was obtained by scoring WG activity based on the following items: the 25 predefined items rated on ≥5 visits, the 2 newly created fatigue and weight loss variables, the remaining minor other and major other items, and a variable that signified whether new or worse items were present at a specific visit. The weights assigned to the items ranged from 1 to 21. Compared with the original BVAS/WG, this modified score correlated significantly more strongly with the PGA. Conclusion This study suggests possibilities to enhance the item selection and weighting of the BVAS/WG. These changes may increase this instrument's ability to capture the continuum of disease activity in WG. PMID:18512722

Focused, Unfocused, and Defocused Information in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rerko, Laura; Oberauer, Klaus

2013-01-01

The study investigated the effect of selection cues in working memory (WM) on the fate of not-selected contents of WM. Experiments 1A and 1B showed that focusing on 1 cued item in WM does not impair memory for the remaining items. The nonfocused items are maintained in WM even when this is not required by the task. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that…

American College Student Values: Their Relationship to Selected Personal and Academic Variables.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritter, Carolyn E.

A 20-item chi-square test of independence was administered to a selected sample of college students that was stratified 50% male and 50% female. Male and female responses showed a significant difference on 18 of the 20 items. The 2 items on which attitudes of both sexes were the same were the role of government in business and a solution to the…

Do the Contents of Visual Working Memory Automatically Influence Attentional Selection During Visual Search?

PubMed Central

Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Luck, Steven J.

2007-01-01

In many theories of cognition, researchers propose that working memory and perception operate interactively. For example, in previous studies researchers have suggested that sensory inputs matching the contents of working memory will have an automatic advantage in the competition for processing resources. The authors tested this hypothesis by requiring observers to perform a visual search task while concurrently maintaining object representations in visual working memory. The hypothesis that working memory activation produces a simple but uncontrollable bias signal leads to the prediction that items matching the contents of working memory will automatically capture attention. However, no evidence for automatic attentional capture was obtained; instead, the participants avoided attending to these items. Thus, the contents of working memory can be used in a flexible manner for facilitation or inhibition of processing. PMID:17469973

Do the contents of visual working memory automatically influence attentional selection during visual search?

PubMed

Woodman, Geoffrey F; Luck, Steven J

2007-04-01

In many theories of cognition, researchers propose that working memory and perception operate interactively. For example, in previous studies researchers have suggested that sensory inputs matching the contents of working memory will have an automatic advantage in the competition for processing resources. The authors tested this hypothesis by requiring observers to perform a visual search task while concurrently maintaining object representations in visual working memory. The hypothesis that working memory activation produces a simple but uncontrollable bias signal leads to the prediction that items matching the contents of working memory will automatically capture attention. However, no evidence for automatic attentional capture was obtained; instead, the participants avoided attending to these items. Thus, the contents of working memory can be used in a flexible manner for facilitation or inhibition of processing.

Determining the Capacity of Time-Based Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Derrick G.; Kunar, Melina A.

2012-01-01

In visual search, a set of distractor items can be suppressed from future selection if they are presented (previewed) before a second set of search items arrive. This "visual marking" mechanism provides a top-down way of prioritizing the selection of new stimuli, at the expense of old stimuli already in the field (Watson & Humphreys,…

IRT Model Selection Methods for Dichotomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Taehoon; Cohen, Allan S.

2007-01-01

Fit of the model to the data is important if the benefits of item response theory (IRT) are to be obtained. In this study, the authors compared model selection results using the likelihood ratio test, two information-based criteria, and two Bayesian methods. An example illustrated the potential for inconsistency in model selection depending on…

Relevance of Item Analysis in Standardizing an Achievement Test in Teaching of Physical Science in B.Ed Syllabus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marie, S. Maria Josephine Arokia; Edannur, Sreekala

2015-01-01

This paper focused on the analysis of test items constructed in the paper of teaching Physical Science for B.Ed. class. It involved the analysis of difficulty level and discrimination power of each test item. Item analysis allows selecting or omitting items from the test, but more importantly item analysis is a tool to help the item writer improve…

Arctic Small Rodents Have Diverse Diets and Flexible Food Selection

PubMed Central

Soininen, Eeva M.; Ravolainen, Virve T.; Bråthen, Kari Anne; Yoccoz, Nigel G.; Gielly, Ludovic; Ims, Rolf A.

2013-01-01

The ecology of small rodent food selection is poorly understood, as mammalian herbivore food selection theory has mainly been developed by studying ungulates. Especially, the effect of food availability on food selection in natural habitats where a range of food items are available is unknown. We studied diets and selectivity of grey-sided voles (Myodes rufocanus) and tundra voles (Microtus oeconomus), key herbivores in European tundra ecosystems, using DNA metabarcoding, a novel method enabling taxonomically detailed diet studies. In order to cover the range of food availabilities present in the wild, we employed a large-scale study design for sampling data on food availability and vole diets. Both vole species had ingested a range of plant species and selected particularly forbs and grasses. Grey-sided voles also selected ericoid shrubs and tundra voles willows. Availability of a food item rarely affected its utilization directly, although seasonal changes of diets and selection suggest that these are positively correlated with availability. Moreover, diets and selectivity were affected by availability of alternative food items. These results show that the focal sub-arctic voles have diverse diets and flexible food preferences and rarely compensate low availability of a food item with increased searching effort. Diet diversity itself is likely to be an important trait and has previously been underrated owing to methodological constraints. We suggest that the roles of alternative food item availability and search time limitations for small rodent feeding ecology should be investigated. Nomenclature Annotated Checklist of the Panarctic Flora (PAF), Vascular plants. Available at: http://nhm2.uio.no/paf/, accessed 15.6.2012. PMID:23826371

Varying levels of difficulty index of skills-test items randomly selected by examinees on the Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to characterize the difficulty index of the items in the skills test components of the class I and II Korean emergency medical technician licensing examination (KEMTLE), which requires examinees to select items randomly. Methods: The results of 1,309 class I KEMTLE examinations and 1,801 class II KEMTLE examinations in 2013 were subjected to analysis. Items from the basic and advanced skills test sections of the KEMTLE were compared to determine whether some were significantly more difficult than others. Results: In the class I KEMTLE, all 4 of the items on the basic skills test showed significant variation in difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as 4 of the 5 items on the advanced skills test (P<0.05). In the class II KEMTLE, 4 of the 5 items on the basic skills test showed significantly different difficulty index (P<0.01), as well as all 3 of the advanced skills test items (P<0.01). Conclusion: In the skills test components of the class I and II KEMTLE, the procedure in which examinees randomly select questions should be revised to require examinees to respond to a set of fixed items in order to improve the reliability of the national licensing examination. PMID:26883810

Better the devil you know? Nonconscious processing of identity and affect of famous faces.

PubMed

Stone, Anna; Valentine, Tim

2004-06-01

The nonconscious recognition of facial identity was investigated in two experiments featuring brief (17-msec) masked stimulus presentation to prevent conscious recognition. Faces were presented in simultaneous pairs of one famous face and one unfamiliar face, and participants attempted to select the famous face. Subsequently, participants rated the famous persons as "good" or "evil" (Experiment 1) or liked or disliked (Experiment 2). In Experiments 1 and 2, responses were less accurate to faces of persons rated evil/disliked than to faces of persons rated good/liked, and faces of persons rated evil/disliked were selected significantly below chance. Experiment 2 showed the effect in a within-items analysis: A famous face was selected less often by participants who disliked the person than by participants who liked the person, and the former were selected below chance accuracy. The within-items analysis rules out possible confounding factors based on variations in physical characteristics of the stimulus faces and confirms that the effects are due to participants' attitudes toward the famous persons. The results suggest that facial identity is recognized preconsciously, and that responses may be based on affect rather than familiarity.

Designing P-Optimal Item Pools in Computerized Adaptive Tests with Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Xuechun

2012-01-01

Current CAT applications consist of predominantly dichotomous items, and CATs with polytomously scored items are limited. To ascertain the best approach to polytomous CAT, a significant amount of research has been conducted on item selection, ability estimation, and impact of termination rules based on polytomous IRT models. Few studies…

Automatic processing influences free recall: converging evidence from the process dissociation procedure and remember-know judgments.

PubMed

McCabe, David P; Roediger, Henry L; Karpicke, Jeffrey D

2011-04-01

Dual-process theories of retrieval suggest that controlled and automatic processing contribute to memory performance. Free recall tests are often considered pure measures of recollection, assessing only the controlled process. We report two experiments demonstrating that automatic processes also influence free recall. Experiment 1 used inclusion and exclusion tasks to estimate recollection and automaticity in free recall, adopting a new variant of the process dissociation procedure. Dividing attention during study selectively reduced the recollection estimate but did not affect the automatic component. In Experiment 2, we replicated the results of Experiment 1, and subjects additionally reported remember-know-guess judgments during recall in the inclusion condition. In the latter task, dividing attention during study reduced remember judgments for studied items, but know responses were unaffected. Results from both methods indicated that free recall is partly driven by automatic processes. Thus, we conclude that retrieval in free recall tests is not driven solely by conscious recollection (or remembering) but also by automatic influences of the same sort believed to drive priming on implicit memory tests. Sometimes items come to mind without volition in free recall.

Aging, Memory Efficiency and the Strategic Control of Attention at Encoding: Impairments of Value-Directed Remembering in Alzheimer's Disease

PubMed Central

Castel, Alan D.; Balota, David A.; McCabe, David P.

2009-01-01

Selecting what is important to remember, attending to this information, and then later recalling it can be thought of in terms of the strategic control of attention and the efficient use of memory. In order to examine whether aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) influenced this ability, the present study used a selectivity task, where studied items were worth various point values and participants were asked to maximize the value of the items they recalled. Relative to younger adults (N=35) and healthy older adults (N=109), individuals with very mild AD (N=41) and mild AD (N=13) showed impairments in the strategic and efficient encoding and recall of high value items. Although individuals with AD recalled more high value items than low value items, they did not efficiently maximize memory performance (as measured by a selectivity index) relative to healthy older adults. Performance on complex working memory span tasks was related to the recall of the high value items but not low value items. This pattern suggests that relative to healthy aging, AD leads to impairments in strategic control at encoding and value-directed remembering. PMID:19413444

7 CFR 65.220 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Processed food item. 65.220 Section 65.220 Agriculture..., PEANUTS, AND GINSENG General Provisions Definitions § 65.220 Processed food item. Processed food item... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., chocolate, breading, tomato sauce...

7 CFR 65.220 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Processed food item. 65.220 Section 65.220 Agriculture..., PEANUTS, AND GINSENG General Provisions Definitions § 65.220 Processed food item. Processed food item... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., chocolate, breading, tomato sauce...

7 CFR 65.220 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Processed food item. 65.220 Section 65.220 Agriculture..., PEANUTS, AND GINSENG General Provisions Definitions § 65.220 Processed food item. Processed food item... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., chocolate, breading, tomato sauce...

7 CFR 65.220 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Processed food item. 65.220 Section 65.220 Agriculture..., PEANUTS, AND GINSENG General Provisions Definitions § 65.220 Processed food item. Processed food item... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., chocolate, breading, tomato sauce...

7 CFR 65.220 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Processed food item. 65.220 Section 65.220 Agriculture..., PEANUTS, AND GINSENG General Provisions Definitions § 65.220 Processed food item. Processed food item... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., chocolate, breading, tomato sauce...

In Support of a Distinction between Voluntary and Stimulus-Driven Control: A Review of the Literature on Proportion Congruent Effects.

PubMed

Bugg, Julie M; Crump, Matthew J C

2012-01-01

Cognitive control is by now a large umbrella term referring collectively to multiple processes that plan and coordinate actions to meet task goals. A common feature of paradigms that engage cognitive control is the task requirement to select relevant information despite a habitual tendency (or bias) to select goal-irrelevant information. At least since the 1970s, researchers have employed proportion congruent (PC) manipulations to experimentally establish selection biases and evaluate the mechanisms used to control attention. PC manipulations vary the frequency with which irrelevant information conflicts (i.e., is incongruent) with relevant information. The purpose of this review is to summarize the growing body of literature on PC effects across selective attention paradigms, beginning first with Stroop, and then describing parallel effects in flanker and task-switching paradigms. The review chronologically tracks the expansion of the PC manipulation from its initial implementation at the list-wide level, to more recent implementations at the item-specific and context-specific levels. An important theoretical aim is demonstrating that PC effects at different levels (e.g., list-wide vs. item or context-specific) support a distinction between voluntary forms of cognitive control, which operate based on anticipatory information, and relatively automatic or reflexive forms of cognitive control, which are rapidly triggered by the processing of particular stimuli or stimulus features. A further aim is to highlight those PC manipulations that allow researchers to dissociate stimulus-driven control from other stimulus-driven processes (e.g., S-R responding; episodic retrieval). We conclude by discussing the utility of PC manipulations for exploring the distinction between voluntary control and stimulus-driven control in other relevant paradigms.

In Support of a Distinction between Voluntary and Stimulus-Driven Control: A Review of the Literature on Proportion Congruent Effects

PubMed Central

Bugg, Julie M.; Crump, Matthew J. C.

2012-01-01

Cognitive control is by now a large umbrella term referring collectively to multiple processes that plan and coordinate actions to meet task goals. A common feature of paradigms that engage cognitive control is the task requirement to select relevant information despite a habitual tendency (or bias) to select goal-irrelevant information. At least since the 1970s, researchers have employed proportion congruent (PC) manipulations to experimentally establish selection biases and evaluate the mechanisms used to control attention. PC manipulations vary the frequency with which irrelevant information conflicts (i.e., is incongruent) with relevant information. The purpose of this review is to summarize the growing body of literature on PC effects across selective attention paradigms, beginning first with Stroop, and then describing parallel effects in flanker and task-switching paradigms. The review chronologically tracks the expansion of the PC manipulation from its initial implementation at the list-wide level, to more recent implementations at the item-specific and context-specific levels. An important theoretical aim is demonstrating that PC effects at different levels (e.g., list-wide vs. item or context-specific) support a distinction between voluntary forms of cognitive control, which operate based on anticipatory information, and relatively automatic or reflexive forms of cognitive control, which are rapidly triggered by the processing of particular stimuli or stimulus features. A further aim is to highlight those PC manipulations that allow researchers to dissociate stimulus-driven control from other stimulus-driven processes (e.g., S-R responding; episodic retrieval). We conclude by discussing the utility of PC manipulations for exploring the distinction between voluntary control and stimulus-driven control in other relevant paradigms. PMID:23060836

Non-ignorable missingness item response theory models for choice effects in examinee-selected items.

PubMed

Liu, Chen-Wei; Wang, Wen-Chung

2017-11-01

Examinee-selected item (ESI) design, in which examinees are required to respond to a fixed number of items in a given set, always yields incomplete data (i.e., when only the selected items are answered, data are missing for the others) that are likely non-ignorable in likelihood inference. Standard item response theory (IRT) models become infeasible when ESI data are missing not at random (MNAR). To solve this problem, the authors propose a two-dimensional IRT model that posits one unidimensional IRT model for observed data and another for nominal selection patterns. The two latent variables are assumed to follow a bivariate normal distribution. In this study, the mirt freeware package was adopted to estimate parameters. The authors conduct an experiment to demonstrate that ESI data are often non-ignorable and to determine how to apply the new model to the data collected. Two follow-up simulation studies are conducted to assess the parameter recovery of the new model and the consequences for parameter estimation of ignoring MNAR data. The results of the two simulation studies indicate good parameter recovery of the new model and poor parameter recovery when non-ignorable missing data were mistakenly treated as ignorable. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

ADSORPTIVE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES: MEDIA SELECTION

EPA Science Inventory

The presentation provides information on six items to be considered when selecting an adsorptive media for removing arsenic from drinking water; performance, EBCT, pre-treatment, regeneration, residuals, and cost. Each item is discussed in general and data and photographs from th...

Out with the old? The role of selective attention in retaining targets in partial report.

PubMed

Lindsey, Dakota R B; Bundesen, Claus; Kyllingsbæk, Søren; Petersen, Anders; Logan, Gordon D

2017-01-01

In the partial-report task, subjects are asked to report only a portion of the items presented. Selective attention chooses which objects to represent in short-term memory (STM) on the basis of their relevance. Because STM is limited in capacity, one must sometimes choose which objects are removed from memory in light of new relevant information. We tested the hypothesis that the choices among newly presented information and old information in STM involve the same process-that both are acts of selective attention. We tested this hypothesis using a two-display partial-report procedure. In this procedure, subjects had to select and retain relevant letters (targets) from two sequentially presented displays. If selection in perception and retention in STM are the same process, then irrelevant letters (distractors) in the second display, which demanded attention because of their similarity to the targets, should have decreased target report from the first display. This effect was not obtained in any of four experiments. Thus, choosing objects to keep in STM is not the same process as choosing new objects to bring into STM.

A Case Study on an Item Writing Process: Use of Test Specifications, Nature of Group Dynamics, and Individual Item Writers' Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jiyoung; Chi, Youngshin; Huensch, Amanda; Jun, Heesung; Li, Hongli; Roullion, Vanessa

2010-01-01

This article discusses a case study on an item writing process that reflects on our practical experience in an item development project. The purpose of the article is to share our lessons from the experience aiming to demystify item writing process. The study investigated three issues that naturally emerged during the project: how item writers use…

Size-biased allocation of prey from male to offspring via female: family conflicts, prey selection, and evolution of sexual size dimorphism in raptors.

PubMed

Sonerud, Geir A; Steen, Ronny; Løw, Line M; Røed, Line T; Skar, Kristin; Selås, Vidar; Slagsvold, Tore

2013-05-01

In birds with bi-parental care, the provisioning link between prey capture and delivery to dependent offspring is regarded as often symmetric between the mates. However, in raptors, the larger female usually broods and feeds the nestlings, while the smaller male provides food for the family, assisted by the female in the latter part of the nestling period, if at all. Prey items are relatively large and often impossible for nestlings to handle without extended maternal assistance. We video-recorded prey delivery and handling in nests of a raptor with a wide diet, the Eurasian kestrel Falco tinnunculus, and simultaneously observed prey transfer from male to female outside the nest. The male selectively allocated larger items, in particular birds and larger mammals, to the female for further processing and feeding of nestlings, and smaller items, in particular lizards and smaller mammals, directly to the nestlings for unassisted feeding. Hence, from the video, the female appeared to have captured larger prey than the male, while in reality no difference existed. The female's size-biased interception of the male's prey provisioning line would maximize the male's foraging time, and maximize the female's control of the allocation of food between her own need and that of the offspring. The male would maximize his control of food allocation by capturing smaller prey. This conflict would select for larger dominant females and smaller energy-efficient males, and induce stronger selection the longer the female depends on the male for self-feeding, as a proportion of the offspring dependence period.

Training impulsive choices for healthy and sustainable food.

PubMed

Veling, Harm; Chen, Zhang; Tombrock, Merel C; Verpaalen, Iris A M; Schmitz, Laura I; Dijksterhuis, Ap; Holland, Rob W

2017-06-01

Many people find it hard to change their dietary choices. Food choice often occurs impulsively, without deliberation, and it has been unclear whether impulsive food choice can be experimentally created. Across 3 exploratory and 2 confirmatory preregistered experiments we examined whether impulsive food choice can be trained. Participants were cued to make motor responses upon the presentation of, among others, healthy and sustainable food items. They subsequently selected these food items more often for actual consumption when they needed to make their choices impulsively as a result of time pressure. This effect disappeared when participants were asked to think about their choices, merely received more time to make their choices, or when choosing required attention to alternatives. Participants preferred high to low valued food items under time pressure and without time pressure, suggesting that the impulsive choices reflect valid preferences. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to train impulsive choices for food items while leaving deliberative choices for these items unaffected, and connect research on attention training to dual-process theories of decision making. The present research suggests that attention training may lead to behavioral change only when people behave impulsively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Process Simulation of Gas Metal Arc Welding Software

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murray, Paul E.

2005-09-06

ARCWELDER is a Windows-based application that simulates gas metal arc welding (GMAW) of steel and aluminum. The software simulates the welding process in an accurate and efficient manner, provides menu items for process parameter selection, and includes a graphical user interface with the option to animate the process. The user enters the base and electrode material, open circuit voltage, wire diameter, wire feed speed, welding speed, and standoff distance. The program computes the size and shape of a square-groove or V-groove weld in the flat position. The program also computes the current, arc voltage, arc length, electrode extension, transfer ofmore » droplets, heat input, filler metal deposition, base metal dilution, and centerline cooling rate, in English or SI units. The simulation may be used to select welding parameters that lead to desired operation conditions.« less

Self-Regulated Learning in Younger and Older Adults: Does Aging Affect Metacognitive Control?

PubMed Central

Price, Jodi; Hertzog, Christopher; Dunlosky, John

2011-01-01

Two experiments examined whether younger and older adults’ self-regulated study (item selection and study time) conformed to the region of proximal learning (RPL) model when studying normatively easy, medium, and difficult vocabulary pairs. Experiment 2 manipulated the value of recalling different pairs and provided learning goals for words recalled and points earned. Younger and older adults in both experiments selected items for study in an easy-to-difficult order, indicating the RPL model applies to older adults’ self-regulated study. Individuals allocated more time to difficult items, but prioritized easier items when given less time or point values favoring difficult items. Older adults studied more items for longer but realized lower recall than did younger adults. Older adults’ lower memory self-efficacy and perceived control correlated with their greater item restudy and avoidance of difficult items with high point values. Results are discussed in terms of RPL and agenda-based regulation models. PMID:19866382

Digital Library Selection: Maximum Access, Not Buying the Best Titles: Libraries Should Become Full-Text Amazon.coms's.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferguson, Anthony W.

2000-01-01

Discusses new ways of selecting information for digital libraries. Topics include increasing the quantity of information acquired versus item by item selection that is more costly than the value it adds; library-publisher relationships; netLibrary; electronic journals; and the SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)…

The Empirical Selection of Anchor Items Using a Multistage Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craig, Brandon

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if using a multistage approach for the empirical selection of anchor items would lead to more accurate DIF detection rates than the anchor selection methods proposed by Kopf, Zeileis, & Strobl (2015b). A simulation study was conducted in which the sample size, percentage of DIF, and balance of DIF…

The Caregiver Vigilance Scale: application and validation in the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) project.

PubMed

Mahoney, Diane Feeney; Jones, Richard N; Coon, David W; Mendelsohn, Aaron B; Gitlin, Laura N; Ory, Marcia

2003-01-01

This article reports on the measurement properties of Caregiver Vigilance, a four-item caregiver self-report of perceived oversight demand for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders family caregiving. The self-report uses data from the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH) project, a multisite National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored study of over 1,200 family caregivers. Results indicate that the items were clearly understood by the racially/ethnically diverse respondents; and, when responses were transformed into a summary scale and analyzed, unidimensionality was evident and internal consistency reliability favorably demonstrated. We suggest using the Caregiver Vigilance Scale in conjunction with traditional burden measures to systematically include the caregiving time associated with protectively watching over care recipients and the daily duration of this responsibility. We also highlight the practical utility of selected items for potential use in the caregiver assessment process.

Assembling a Computerized Adaptive Testing Item Pool as a Set of Linear Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Linden, Wim J.; Ariel, Adelaide; Veldkamp, Bernard P.

2006-01-01

Test-item writing efforts typically results in item pools with an undesirable correlational structure between the content attributes of the items and their statistical information. If such pools are used in computerized adaptive testing (CAT), the algorithm may be forced to select items with less than optimal information, that violate the content…

Use of Matrix Sampling Procedures to Assess Achievement in Solving Open Addition and Subtraction Sentences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montague, Margariete A.

This study investigated the feasibility of concurrently and randomly sampling examinees and items in order to estimate group achievement. Seven 32-item tests reflecting a 640-item universe of simple open sentences were used such that item selection (random, systematic) and assignment (random, systematic) of items (four, eight, sixteen) to forms…

ConTour: Data-Driven Exploration of Multi-Relational Datasets for Drug Discovery.

PubMed

Partl, Christian; Lex, Alexander; Streit, Marc; Strobelt, Hendrik; Wassermann, Anne-Mai; Pfister, Hanspeter; Schmalstieg, Dieter

2014-12-01

Large scale data analysis is nowadays a crucial part of drug discovery. Biologists and chemists need to quickly explore and evaluate potentially effective yet safe compounds based on many datasets that are in relationship with each other. However, there is a lack of tools that support them in these processes. To remedy this, we developed ConTour, an interactive visual analytics technique that enables the exploration of these complex, multi-relational datasets. At its core ConTour lists all items of each dataset in a column. Relationships between the columns are revealed through interaction: selecting one or multiple items in one column highlights and re-sorts the items in other columns. Filters based on relationships enable drilling down into the large data space. To identify interesting items in the first place, ConTour employs advanced sorting strategies, including strategies based on connectivity strength and uniqueness, as well as sorting based on item attributes. ConTour also introduces interactive nesting of columns, a powerful method to show the related items of a child column for each item in the parent column. Within the columns, ConTour shows rich attribute data about the items as well as information about the connection strengths to other datasets. Finally, ConTour provides a number of detail views, which can show items from multiple datasets and their associated data at the same time. We demonstrate the utility of our system in case studies conducted with a team of chemical biologists, who investigate the effects of chemical compounds on cells and need to understand the underlying mechanisms.

Building a taxonomy of integrated palliative care initiatives: results from a focus group.

PubMed

Ewert, Benjamin; Hodiamont, Farina; van Wijngaarden, Jeroen; Payne, Sheila; Groot, Marieke; Hasselaar, Jeroen; Menten, Johann; Radbruch, Lukas

2016-03-01

Empirical evidence suggests that integrated palliative care (IPC) increases the quality of care for palliative patients and supports professional caregivers. Existing IPC initiatives in Europe vary in their design and are hardly comparable. InSuP-C, a European Union research project, aimed to build a taxonomy of IPC initiatives applicable across diseases, healthcare sectors and systems. The taxonomy of IPC initiatives was developed in cooperation with an international and multidisciplinary focus group of 18 experts. Subsequently, a consensus meeting of 10 experts revised a preliminary taxonomy and adopted the final classification system. Consisting of eight categories, with two to four items each, the taxonomy covers the process and structure of IPC initiatives. If two items in at least one category apply to an initiative, a minimum level of integration is assumed to have been reached. Categories range from the type of initiative (items: pathway, model or guideline) to patients' key contact (items: non-pc specialist, pc specialist, general practitioner). Experts recommended the inclusion of two new categories: level of care (items: primary, secondary or tertiary) indicating at which stage palliative care is integrated and primary focus of intervention describing IPC givers' different roles (items: treating function, advising/consulting or training) in the care process. Empirical studies are required to investigate how the taxonomy is used in practice and whether it covers the reality of patients in need of palliative care. The InSuP-C project will test this taxonomy empirically in selected initiatives using IPC. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

The associative memory deficit in aging is related to reduced selectivity of brain activity during encoding

PubMed Central

Saverino, Cristina; Fatima, Zainab; Sarraf, Saman; Oder, Anita; Strother, Stephen C.; Grady, Cheryl L.

2016-01-01

Human aging is characterized by reductions in the ability to remember associations between items, despite intact memory for single items. Older adults also show less selectivity in task-related brain activity, such that patterns of activation become less distinct across multiple experimental tasks. This reduced selectivity, or dedifferentiation, has been found for episodic memory, which is often reduced in older adults, but not for semantic memory, which is maintained with age. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether there is a specific reduction in selectivity of brain activity during associative encoding in older adults, but not during item encoding, and whether this reduction predicts associative memory performance. Healthy young and older adults were scanned while performing an incidental-encoding task for pictures of objects and houses under item or associative instructions. An old/new recognition test was administered outside the scanner. We used agnostic canonical variates analysis and split-half resampling to detect whole brain patterns of activation that predicted item vs. associative encoding for stimuli that were later correctly recognized. Older adults had poorer memory for associations than did younger adults, whereas item memory was comparable across groups. Associative encoding trials, but not item encoding trials, were predicted less successfully in older compared to young adults, indicating less distinct patterns of associative-related activity in the older group. Importantly, higher probability of predicting associative encoding trials was related to better associative memory after accounting for age and performance on a battery of neuropsychological tests. These results provide evidence that neural distinctiveness at encoding supports associative memory and that a specific reduction of selectivity in neural recruitment underlies age differences in associative memory. PMID:27082043

Selection of human consumables for future space missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bourland, C. T.; Smith, M. C.

1991-01-01

Consumables for human spaceflight include oxygen, water, food and food packaging, personal hygiene items, and clothing. This paper deals with the requirements for food and water, and their impact on waste product generation. Just as urbanization of society has been made possible by improved food processing and packaging, manned spaceflight has benefitted from this technology. The downside of this technology is increased food package waste product. Since consumables make up a major portion of the vehicle onboard stowage and generate most of the waste products, selection of consumables is a very critical process. Food and package waste comprise the majority of the trash generated on the current shuttle orbiter missions. Plans for future missions must include accurate assessment of the waste products to be generated, and the methods for processing and disposing of these wastes.

Flexible Feature-Based Inhibition in Visual Search Mediates Magnified Impairments of Selection: Evidence from Carry-Over Effects under Dynamic Preview-Search Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrews, Lucy S.; Watson, Derrick G.; Humphreys, Glyn W.; Braithwaite, Jason J.

2011-01-01

Evidence for inhibitory processes in visual search comes from studies using preview conditions, where responses to new targets are delayed if they carry a featural attribute belonging to the old distractor items that are currently being ignored--the negative carry-over effect (Braithwaite, Humphreys, & Hodsoll, 2003). We examined whether…

Isolation and Distinctiveness in the Design of E-Learning Systems Influence User Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Samarraie, Hosam; Selim, Hassan; Teo, Timothy; Zaqout, Fahed

2017-01-01

When faced with excessive detail in an online environment, typical users have difficulty processing all the elements of representation. This in turn creates cognitive overload, which narrows the user's focus to a few select items. In the context of e-learning, we translated this aspect as the learner's demand for a system that facilitates the…

Evaluation of English Achievement Test: A Comparison between High and Low Achievers amongst Selected Elementary School Students of Pakistan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haider, Zubair; Latif, Farah; Akhtar, Samina; Mushtaq, Maria

2012-01-01

Validity, reliability and item analysis are critical to the process of evaluating the quality of an educational measurement. The present study evaluates the quality of an assessment constructed to measure elementary school student's achievement in English. In this study, the survey model of descriptive research was used as a research method.…

The two faces of selective memory retrieval: recall specificity of the detrimental but not the beneficial effect.

PubMed

Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T; Dobler, Ina M

2015-01-01

Depending on the degree to which the original study context is accessible, selective memory retrieval can be detrimental or beneficial for the recall of other memories (Bäuml & Samenieh, 2012). Prior work has shown that the detrimental effect of memory retrieval is typically recall specific and does not arise after restudy trials, whereas recall specificity of the beneficial effect has not been examined to date. Addressing the issue, we compared in 2 experiments the effects of retrieval and restudy on recall of other items, when access to the study context was (largely) maintained and when access to the study context was impaired (in Experiment 1 by using the listwise directed-forgetting task, in Experiment 2 by using a prolonged retention interval). In both experiments, selective retrieval but not restudy induced forgetting of other items when context access was maintained, which replicates prior work. In contrast, when context access was impaired, both selective retrieval and restudy induced beneficial effects on other memories. These findings suggest that the detrimental but not the beneficial effect of selective memory retrieval is recall specific. The results are consistent with a recent 2-factor account of selective memory retrieval that attributes the detrimental effect to inhibition or blocking but the beneficial effect to context reactivation processes. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

BODY SENSING SYSTEM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mah, Robert W. (Inventor)

2005-01-01

System and method for performing one or more relevant measurements at a target site in an animal body, using a probe. One or more of a group of selected internal measurements is performed at the target site, is optionally combined with one or more selected external measurements, and is optionally combined with one or more selected heuristic information items, in order to reduce to a relatively small number the probable medical conditions associated with the target site. One or more of the internal measurements is optionally used to navigate the probe to the target site. Neural net information processing is performed to provide a reduced set of probable medical conditions associated with the target site.

Web Cast on Arsenic Demonstration Program: Lessons Learned

EPA Science Inventory

Web cast presentation covered 10 Lessons Learned items selected from the Arsenic Demonstration Program with supporting information. The major items discussed include system design and performance items and the cost of the technologies.

Computerized Adaptive Testing: Overview and Introduction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meijer, Rob R.; Nering, Michael L.

1999-01-01

Provides an overview of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and introduces contributions to this special issue. CAT elements discussed include item selection, estimation of the latent trait, item exposure, measurement precision, and item-bank development. (SLD)

The validation of the Supervision of Thesis Questionnaire (STQ).

PubMed

Henricson, Maria; Fridlund, Bengt; Mårtensson, Jan; Hedberg, Berith

2018-06-01

The supervision process is characterized by differences between the supervisors' and the students' expectations before the start of writing a bachelor thesis as well as after its completion. A review of the literature did not reveal any scientifically tested questionnaire for evaluating nursing students' expectations of the supervision process when writing a bachelor thesis. The aim of the study was to determine the construct validity and internal consistency reliability of a questionnaire for measuring nursing students' expectations of the bachelor thesis supervision process. The study had a developmental and methodological design carried out in four steps including construct validity and internal consistency reliability statistical procedures: construction of the items, assessment of face validity, data collection and data analysis. This study was conducted at a university in southern Sweden, where students on the "Nursing student thesis, 15 ECTS" course were consecutively selected for participation. Of the 512 questionnaires distributed, 327 were returned, a response rate of 64%. Five factors with a total variance of 74% and good communalities, ≥0.64, were extracted from the 10-item STQ. The internal consistency of the 10 items was 0.68. The five factors were labelled: The nature of the supervision process, The supervisor's role as a coach, The students' progression to self-support, The interaction between students and supervisor and supervisor competence. A didactic, useful and secure questionnaire measuring nursing students' expectations of the bachelor thesis supervision process based on three main forms of supervision was created. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reliability of a store observation tool in measuring availability of alcohol and selected foods.

PubMed

Cohen, Deborah A; Schoeff, Diane; Farley, Thomas A; Bluthenthal, Ricky; Scribner, Richard; Overton, Adrian

2007-11-01

Alcohol and food items can compromise or contribute to health, depending on the quantity and frequency with which they are consumed. How much people consume may be influenced by product availability and promotion in local retail stores. We developed and tested an observational tool to objectively measure in-store availability and promotion of alcoholic beverages and selected food items that have an impact on health. Trained observers visited 51 alcohol outlets in Los Angeles and southeastern Louisiana. Using a standardized instrument, two independent observations were conducted documenting the type of outlet, the availability and shelf space for alcoholic beverages and selected food items, the purchase price of standard brands, the placement of beer and malt liquor, and the amount of in-store alcohol advertising. Reliability of the instrument was excellent for measures of item availability, shelf space, and placement of malt liquor. Reliability was lower for alcohol advertising, beer placement, and items that measured the "least price" of apples and oranges. The average kappa was 0.87 for categorical items and the average intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.83 for continuous items. Overall, systematic observation of the availability and promotion of alcoholic beverages and food items was feasible, acceptable, and reliable. Measurement tools such as the one we evaluated should be useful in studies of the impact of availability of food and beverages on consumption and on health outcomes.

A bilateral advantage in controlling access to visual short-term memory.

PubMed

Holt, Jessica L; Delvenne, Jean-François

2014-01-01

Recent research on visual short-term memory (VSTM) has revealed the existence of a bilateral field advantage (BFA--i.e., better memory when the items are distributed in the two visual fields than if they are presented in the same hemifield) for spatial location and bar orientation, but not for color (Delvenne, 2005; Umemoto, Drew, Ester, & Awh, 2010). Here, we investigated whether a BFA in VSTM is constrained by attentional selective processes. It has indeed been previously suggested that the BFA may be a general feature of selective attention (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2005; Delvenne, 2005). Therefore, the present study examined whether VSTM for color benefits from bilateral presentation if attentional selective processes are particularly engaged. Participants completed a color change detection task whereby target stimuli were presented either across both hemifields or within one single hemifield. In order to engage attentional selective processes, some trials contained irrelevant stimuli that needed to be ignored. Targets were selected based on spatial locations (Experiment 1) or on a salient feature (Experiment 2). In both cases, the results revealed a BFA only when irrelevant stimuli were presented among the targets. Overall, the findings strongly suggest that attentional selective processes at encoding can constrain whether a BFA is observed in VSTM.

The search and selection for primary studies in systematic reviews published in dental journals indexed in MEDLINE was not fully reproducible.

PubMed

Faggion, Clovis Mariano; Huivin, Raquel; Aranda, Luisiana; Pandis, Nikolaos; Alarcon, Marco

2018-06-01

To evaluate whether the reporting of search strategies and the primary study selection process in dental systematic reviews is reproducible. A survey of systematic reviews published in MEDLINE-indexed dental journals from June 2015 to June 2016 was conducted. Study selection was performed independently by two authors, and the reproducibility of the selection process was assessed using a tool consisting of 12 criteria. Regression analyses were implemented to evaluate any associations between degrees of reporting (measured by the number of items positively answered) and journal impact factor (IF), presence of meta-analysis, and number of citations of the systematic review in Google Scholar. Five hundred and thirty systematic reviews were identified. Following our 12 criteria, none of the systematic reviews had complete reporting of the search strategies and selection process. Eight (1.5%) systematic reviews reported the list of excluded articles (with reasons for exclusion) after title and abstract assessment. Systematic reviews with more positive answers to the criteria were significantly associated with higher journal IF, number of citations, and inclusion of meta-analysis. Search strategies and primary study selection process in systematic reviews published in MEDLINE-indexed dental journals may not be fully reproducible. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of a promotional campaign on heart-healthy menu choices in community restaurants.

PubMed

Fitzgerald, Catherine M; Kannan, Srimathi; Sheldon, Sharon; Eagle, Kim Allen

2004-03-01

The research question examined in this study was: Does a promotional campaign impact the sales of heart-healthy menu items at community restaurants? The 8-week promotional campaign used professionally developed advertisements in daily and monthly print publications and posters and table tents in local restaurants. Nine restaurants tracked the sales of selected heart-healthy menu items and comparable menu items sold before and after a promotional campaign. The percentage of heart-healthy items sold after the campaign showed a trend toward a slight increase in heart-healthy menu item selections, although it was not statistically significant. This study and others indicate that dietetics professionals must continue to develop strategies to promote heart-healthy food choices in community restaurants.

Efforts Toward the Development of Unbiased Selection and Assessment Instruments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudner, Lawrence M.

Investigations into item bias provide an empirical basis for the identification and elimination of test items which appear to measure different traits across populations or cultural groups. The Psychometric rationales for six approaches to the identification of biased test items are reviewed: (1) Transformed item difficulties: within-group…

Developing and investigating the use of single-item measures in organizational research.

PubMed

Fisher, Gwenith G; Matthews, Russell A; Gibbons, Alyssa Mitchell

2016-01-01

The validity of organizational research relies on strong research methods, which include effective measurement of psychological constructs. The general consensus is that multiple item measures have better psychometric properties than single-item measures. However, due to practical constraints (e.g., survey length, respondent burden) there are situations in which certain single items may be useful for capturing information about constructs that might otherwise go unmeasured. We evaluated 37 items, including 18 newly developed items as well as 19 single items selected from existing multiple-item scales based on psychometric characteristics, to assess 18 constructs frequently measured in organizational and occupational health psychology research. We examined evidence of reliability; convergent, discriminant, and content validity assessments; and test-retest reliabilities at 1- and 3-month time lags for single-item measures using a multistage and multisource validation strategy across 3 studies, including data from N = 17 occupational health subject matter experts and N = 1,634 survey respondents across 2 samples. Items selected from existing scales generally demonstrated better internal consistency reliability and convergent validity, whereas these particular new items generally had higher levels of content validity. We offer recommendations regarding when use of single items may be more or less appropriate, as well as 11 items that seem acceptable, 14 items with mixed results that might be used with caution due to mixed results, and 12 items we do not recommend using as single-item measures. Although multiple-item measures are preferable from a psychometric standpoint, in some circumstances single-item measures can provide useful information. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Location Indices for Ordinal Polytomous Items Based on Item Response Theory. Research Report. ETS RR-15-20

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Usama S.; Chang, Hua-Hua; Anderson, Carolyn J.

2015-01-01

Polytomous items are typically described by multiple category-related parameters; situations, however, arise in which a single index is needed to describe an item's location along a latent trait continuum. Situations in which a single index would be needed include item selection in computerized adaptive testing or test assembly. Therefore single…

Investigating a memory-based account of negative priming: support for selection-feature mismatch.

PubMed

MacDonald, P A; Joordens, S

2000-08-01

Using typical and modified negative priming tasks, the selection-feature mismatch account of negative priming was tested. In the modified task, participants performed selections on the basis of a semantic feature (e.g., referent size). This procedure has been shown to enhance negative priming (P. A. MacDonald, S. Joordens, & K. N. Seergobin, 1999). Across 3 experiments, negative priming occurred only when the repeated item mismatched in terms of the feature used as the basis for selections. When the repeated item was congruent on the selection feature across the prime and probe displays, positive priming arose. This pattern of results appeared in both the ignored- and the attended-repetition conditions. Negative priming does not result from previously ignoring an item. These findings strongly support the selection-feature mismatch account of negative priming and refute both the distractor inhibition and the episodic-retrieval explanations.

ESPACOMP Medication Adherence Reporting Guidelines (EMERGE): a reactive-Delphi study protocol.

PubMed

Helmy, R; Zullig, L L; Dunbar-Jacob, J; Hughes, D A; Vrijens, B; Wilson, I B; De Geest, S

2017-02-10

Medication adherence is fundamental to achieving optimal patient outcomes. Reporting research on medication adherence suffers from some issues-including conceptualisation, measurement and data analysis-that thwart its advancement. Using the ABC taxonomy for medication adherence as the conceptual basis, a steering committee of members of the European Society for Patient Adherence, COMpliance, and Persistence (ESPACOMP) launched an initiative to develop ESPACOMP Medication Adherence Reporting Guidelines (EMERGE). This paper is a protocol for a Delphi study that aims to build consensus among a group of topic experts regarding an item list that will support developing EMERGE. This study uses a reactive-Delphi design where a group of topic experts will be asked to rate the relevance and clarity of an initial list of items, in addition to suggesting further items and/or modifications of the initial items. The initial item list, generated by the EMERGE steering committee through a structured process, consists of 26 items distributed in 2 sections: 4 items representing the taxonomy-based minimum reporting criteria, and 22 items organised according to the common reporting sections. A purposive sample of experts will be selected from relevant disciplines and diverse geographical locations. Consensus will be achieved through predefined decision rules to keep, delete or modify the items. An iterative process of online survey rounds will be carried out until consensus is reached. An ethics approval was not required for the study according to the Swiss federal act on research involving human beings. The participating experts will be asked to give an informed consent. The results of this Delphi study will feed into EMERGE, which will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at conferences. Additionally, the steering committee will encourage their endorsement by registering the guidelines at the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) network and other relevant organisations. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

How well do TTM measures work among a sample of individuals with unhealthy alcohol use that is characterized by low readiness to change?

PubMed

Baumann, Sophie; Gaertner, Beate; Schnuerer, Inga; Bischof, Gallus; John, Ulrich; Freyer-Adam, Jennis

2013-09-01

Little is known about the applicability of the transtheoretical model of intentional behavior change (TTM) to individuals with unhealthy alcohol use that is primarily characterized by low readiness to change. This study examined the psychometric properties of short measures by assessing three core constructs of the TTM: the 20-item Processes of Change (POC-20) scale, and short versions of the Alcohol Decisional Balance Scale (ADBS) and the Alcohol Abstinence Self-Efficacy (AASE) scale. A sample of 427 individuals with unhealthy alcohol use (Mage = 30 years, 65% men), identified at job agencies in northeastern Germany, completed all three scales. Item difficulty (d), selectivity (rit), and Cronbach's alpha were calculated. Confirmatory factory analyses were used to test for construct validity and latent mean differences across the stages. The psychometric properties of the 8-item AASE were adequate (d range: 0.59-0.78; rit range: 0.59-0.68; α range: 0.74-0.81), except for one subscale. Most items of the POC-20 and the 10-item ADBS were difficult (dPOC range: 0.08-0.40; dADBS range: 0.21-0.58); selectivity (ritPOC range: 0.26-0.62; ritADBS range: 0.34-0.68) and internal consistency (αPOC range: 0.41-0.76; αADBS range: 0.64-0.78) were low to moderate. Construct validity was acceptable (Comparative Fit Index range: 0.95-0.99). The association between stages and TTM constructs partially followed expected patterns. Suggestions for modifications of TTM measures are discussed for better applicability among proactively recruited samples of individuals with unhealthy alcohol use and with primarily low readiness to change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

[Report quality evaluation of systematic review or Meta-analysis published in China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica].

PubMed

Zhang, Yan; Yu, Dan-Dan; Cui, De-Hua; Liao, Xing; Guo, Hua

2018-03-01

To evaluate the report quality of intervention-related systematic reviews or Meta-analysis published in China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica, we searched CNKI and China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica webpages to collect intervention-related systematic reviews or Meta-analysis since the first issue of the magazine. A total of 40 systematic reviews or Meta-analysis reports were included, including one network Meta-analysis. According to the PRISMA statement published in 2009, the report quality of the systematic reviews or Meta-analysis was evaluated. According to the results, 3 had the low quality, 30 had the medium quality, and 7 had the high quality. The average score for all of items was 30 points (21-30.5 points for the medium quality). The 17 high-quality (31-40 points) report items were title, rationale, objectives, information sources, study selection, data collection process, data items, risk of bias in individual studies, summary measures, risk of bias across studies, study selection, study characteristics, risk of bias within studies, results of individual studies, synthesis of results, risk of bias across studies and funding; the 4 medium-quality (21-30.5 points) reporting items were eligibility criteria, search, limitations and conclusions; and the 6 low-quality (<=20.5 points) reporting items were structured summary, protocol and registration, synthesis of results, additional analysis (No.16), additional analysis (No.23) and summary of evidence. Through the analysis, it is found that the report quality of intervention-related systematic reviews or Meta-analysis published in China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica is medium, and it is necessary to improve the quality standard of the report. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Distinctiveness revisited: unpredictable temporal isolation does not benefit short-term serial recall of heard or seen events.

PubMed

Nimmo, Lisa M; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2006-09-01

The notion of a link between time and memory is intuitively appealing and forms the core assumption of temporal distinctiveness models. Distinctiveness models predict that items that are temporally isolated from their neighbors at presentation should be recalled better than items that are temporally crowded. By contrast, event-based theories consider time to be incidental to the processes that govern memory, and such theories would not imply a temporal isolation advantage unless participants engaged in a consolidation process (e.g., rehearsal or selective encoding) that exploited the temporal structure of the list. In this report, we examine two studies that assessed the effect of temporal distinctiveness on memory, using auditory (Experiment 1) and auditory and visual (Experiment 2) presentation with unpredictably varying interitem intervals. The results show that with unpredictable intervals temporal isolation does not benefit memory, regardless of presentation modality.

Color-selective attention need not be mediated by spatial attention.

PubMed

Andersen, Søren K; Müller, Matthias M; Hillyard, Steven A

2009-06-08

It is well-established that attention can select stimuli for preferential processing on the basis of non-spatial features such as color, orientation, or direction of motion. Evidence is mixed, however, as to whether feature-selective attention acts by increasing the signal strength of to-be-attended features irrespective of their spatial locations or whether it acts by guiding the spotlight of spatial attention to locations containing the relevant feature. To address this question, we designed a task in which feature-selective attention could not be mediated by spatial selection. Participants observed a display of intermingled dots of two colors, which rapidly and unpredictably changed positions, with the task of detecting brief intervals of reduced luminance of 20% of the dots of one or the other color. Both behavioral indices and electrophysiological measures of steady-state visual evoked potentials showed selectively enhanced processing of the attended-color items. The results demonstrate that feature-selective attention produces a sensory gain enhancement at early levels of the visual cortex that occurs without mediation by spatial attention.

A competitive interaction theory of attentional selection and decision making in brief, multielement displays.

PubMed

Smith, Philip L; Sewell, David K

2013-07-01

We generalize the integrated system model of Smith and Ratcliff (2009) to obtain a new theory of attentional selection in brief, multielement visual displays. The theory proposes that attentional selection occurs via competitive interactions among detectors that signal the presence of task-relevant features at particular display locations. The outcome of the competition, together with attention, determines which stimuli are selected into visual short-term memory (VSTM). Decisions about the contents of VSTM are made by a diffusion-process decision stage. The selection process is modeled by coupled systems of shunting equations, which perform gated where-on-what pathway VSTM selection. The theory provides a computational account of key findings from attention tasks with near-threshold stimuli. These are (a) the success of the MAX model of visual search and spatial cuing, (b) the distractor homogeneity effect, (c) the double-target detection deficit, (d) redundancy costs in the post-stimulus probe task, (e) the joint item and information capacity limits of VSTM, and (f) the object-based nature of attentional selection. We argue that these phenomena are all manifestations of an underlying competitive VSTM selection process, which arise as a natural consequence of our theory. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

An experimental investigation of the role of iconic gestures in lexical access using the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

PubMed

Beattie, G; Coughlan, J

1999-02-01

The tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state was induced in participants to test Butterworth & Hadar's (1989) theory that iconic gestures have a functional role in lexical access. Participants were given rare word definitions from which they had to retrieve the appropriate lexical item, all of which had been rated high in imageability. Half were free to gesture and the other half were instructed to fold their arms. Butterworth & Hadar's theory (1989) would predict, first, that the TOT state should be associated with iconic gesture and, second, that such gestures should assist in this lexical retrieval function. In other words, those who were free to gesture should have less trouble in accessing the appropriate lexical items. The study found that gestures were associated with lexical search. Furthermore, these gestures were sometimes iconic and sufficiently complex and elaborate that naive judges could discriminate the lexical item the speaker was searching for from a set of five alternatives, at a level far above chance. But often the gestures associated with lexical search were not iconic in nature, and furthermore there was no evidence that the presence of the iconic gesture itself actually helped the speaker find the lexical item they were searching for. This experimental result has important implications for models of linguistic production, which posit an important processing role for iconic gestures in the processes of lexical selection.

Computational Process Modeling for Additive Manufacturing (OSU)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bagg, Stacey; Zhang, Wei

2015-01-01

Powder-Bed Additive Manufacturing (AM) through Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) or Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is being used by NASA and the Aerospace industry to "print" parts that traditionally are very complex, high cost, or long schedule lead items. The process spreads a thin layer of metal powder over a build platform, then melts the powder in a series of welds in a desired shape. The next layer of powder is applied, and the process is repeated until layer-by-layer, a very complex part can be built. This reduces cost and schedule by eliminating very complex tooling and processes traditionally used in aerospace component manufacturing. To use the process to print end-use items, NASA seeks to understand SLM material well enough to develop a method of qualifying parts for space flight operation. Traditionally, a new material process takes many years and high investment to generate statistical databases and experiential knowledge, but computational modeling can truncate the schedule and cost -many experiments can be run quickly in a model, which would take years and a high material cost to run empirically. This project seeks to optimize material build parameters with reduced time and cost through modeling.

5 CFR 591.215 - Where does OPM collect prices in the COLA and DC areas?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

...-housing data throughout the survey area, and for selected items such as golf, snow skiing, and air travel..., City of Manassas, and City of Manassas Park. 1 1 For selected items, such as golf, snow skiing, and air...

Using a concept map as a tool for strategic planning: The Healthy Brain Initiative.

PubMed

Anderson, Lynda A; Day, Kristine L; Vandenberg, Anna E

2011-09-01

Concept mapping is a tool to assist in strategic planning that allows planners to work through a sequence of phases to produce a conceptual framework. Although several studies describe how concept mapping is applied to various public health problems, the flexibility of the methods used in each phase of the process is often overlooked. If practitioners were more aware of the flexibility, more public health endeavors could benefit from using concept mapping as a tool for strategic planning. The objective of this article is to describe how the 6 concept-mapping phases originally outlined by William Trochim guided our strategic planning process and how we adjusted the specific methods in the first 2 phases to meet the specialized needs and requirements to create The Healthy Brain Initiative: A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health. In the first stage (phases 1 and 2 of concept mapping), we formed a steering committee, convened 4 work groups over a period of 3 months, and generated an initial set of 42 action items grounded in science. In the second stage (phases 3 and 4), we engaged stakeholders in sorting and rating the action items and constructed a series of concept maps. In the third and final stage (phases 5 and 6), we examined and refined the action items and generated a final concept map consisting of 44 action items. We then selected the top 10 action items, and in 2007, we published The Healthy Brain Initiative: A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health, which represents the strategic plan for The Healthy Brain Initiative.

Aerobic fitness and executive control of relational memory in preadolescent children.

PubMed

Chaddock, Laura; Hillman, Charles H; Buck, Sarah M; Cohen, Neal J

2011-02-01

the neurocognitive benefits of an active lifestyle in childhood have public health and educational implications, especially as children in today's technological society are becoming increasingly overweight, unhealthy, and unfit. Human and animal studies show that aerobic exercise affects both prefrontal executive control and hippocampal function. This investigation attempts to bridge these research threads by using a cognitive task to examine the relationship between aerobic fitness and executive control of relational memory in preadolescent 9- and 10-yr-old children. higher-fit and lower-fit children studied faces and houses under individual item (i.e., nonrelational) and relational encoding conditions, and the children were subsequently tested with recognition memory trials consisting of previously studied pairs and pairs of completely new items. With each subject participating in both item and relational encoding conditions, and with recognition test trials amenable to the use of both item and relational memory cues, this task afforded a challenge to the flexible use of memory, specifically in the use of appropriate encoding and retrieval strategies. Hence, the task provided a test of both executive control and memory processes. lower-fit children showed poorer recognition memory performance than higher-fit children, selectively in the relational encoding condition. No association between aerobic fitness and recognition performance was found for faces and houses studied as individual items (i.e., nonrelationally). the findings implicate childhood aerobic fitness as a factor in the ability to use effective encoding and retrieval executive control processes for relational memory material and, possibly, in the strategic engagement of prefrontal- and hippocampal-dependent systems.

Development of the IBD Disk: A Visual Self-administered Tool for Assessing Disability in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

PubMed

Ghosh, Subrata; Louis, Edouard; Beaugerie, Laurent; Bossuyt, Peter; Bouguen, Guillaume; Bourreille, Arnaud; Ferrante, Marc; Franchimont, Denis; Frost, Karen; Hebuterne, Xavier; Marshall, John K; OʼShea, Ciara; Rosenfeld, Greg; Williams, Chadwick; Peyrin-Biroulet, Laurent

2017-03-01

The Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) Disability Index is a validated tool that evaluates functional status; however, it is used mainly in the clinical trial setting. We describe the use of an iterative Delphi consensus process to develop the IBD Disk-a shortened, self-administered adaption of the validated IBD Disability Index-to give immediate visual representation of patient-reported IBD-related disability. In the preparatory phase, the IBD CONNECT group (30 health care professionals) ranked IBD Disability Index items in the perceived order of importance. The Steering Committee then selected 10 items from the IBD Disability Index to take forward for inclusion in the IBD Disk. In the consensus phase, the items were refined and agreed by the IBD Disk Working Group (14 gastroenterologists) using an online iterative Delphi consensus process. Members could also suggest new element(s) or recommend changes to included elements. The final items for the IBD Disk were agreed in February 2016. After 4 rounds of voting, the following 10 items were agreed for inclusion in the IBD Disk: abdominal pain, body image, education and work, emotions, energy, interpersonal interactions, joint pain, regulating defecation, sexual functions, and sleep. All elements, except sexual functions, were included in the validated IBD Disability Index. The IBD Disk has the potential to be a valuable tool for use at a clinical visit. It can facilitate assessment of inflammatory bowel disease-related disability relevant to both patients and physicians, discussion on specific disability-related issues, and tracking changes in disease burden over time.

Feature-based and spatial attentional selection in visual working memory.

PubMed

Heuer, Anna; Schubö, Anna

2016-05-01

The contents of visual working memory (VWM) can be modulated by spatial cues presented during the maintenance interval ("retrocues"). Here, we examined whether attentional selection of representations in VWM can also be based on features. In addition, we investigated whether the mechanisms of feature-based and spatial attention in VWM differ with respect to parallel access to noncontiguous locations. In two experiments, we tested the efficacy of valid retrocues relying on different kinds of information. Specifically, participants were presented with a typical spatial retrocue pointing to two locations, a symbolic spatial retrocue (numbers mapping onto two locations), and two feature-based retrocues: a color retrocue (a blob of the same color as two of the items) and a shape retrocue (an outline of the shape of two of the items). The two cued items were presented at either contiguous or noncontiguous locations. Overall retrocueing benefits, as compared to a neutral condition, were observed for all retrocue types. Whereas feature-based retrocues yielded benefits for cued items presented at both contiguous and noncontiguous locations, spatial retrocues were only effective when the cued items had been presented at contiguous locations. These findings demonstrate that attentional selection and updating in VWM can operate on different kinds of information, allowing for a flexible and efficient use of this limited system. The observation that the representations of items presented at noncontiguous locations could only be reliably selected with feature-based retrocues suggests that feature-based and spatial attentional selection in VWM rely on different mechanisms, as has been shown for attentional orienting in the external world.

Hippocampal-targeted Theta-burst Stimulation Enhances Associative Memory Formation.

PubMed

Tambini, Arielle; Nee, Derek Evan; D'Esposito, Mark

2018-06-19

The hippocampus plays a critical role in episodic memory, among other cognitive functions. However, few tools exist to causally manipulate hippocampal function in healthy human participants. Recent work has targeted hippocampal-cortical networks by performing TMS to a region interconnected with the hippocampus, posterior inferior parietal cortex (pIPC). Such hippocampal-targeted TMS enhances associative memory and influences hippocampal functional connectivity. However, it is currently unknown which stages of mnemonic processing (encoding or retrieval) are affected by hippocampal-targeted TMS. Here, we examined whether hippocampal-targeted TMS influences the initial encoding of associations (vs. items) into memory. To selectively influence encoding and not retrieval, we performed continuous theta-burst TMS before participants encoded object-location associations and assessed memory after the direct effect of stimulation dissipated. Relative to control TMS and baseline memory, pIPC TMS enhanced associative memory success and confidence. Item memory was unaffected, demonstrating a selective influence on associative versus item memory. The strength of hippocampal-pIPC functional connectivity predicted TMS-related memory benefits, which was mediated by parahippocampal and retrosplenial cortices. Our findings indicate that hippocampal-targeted TMS can specifically modulate the encoding of new associations into memory without directly influencing retrieval processes and suggest that the ability to influence associative memory may be related to the fidelity of hippocampal TMS targeting. Our results support the notion that pIPC TMS may serve as a potential tool for manipulating hippocampal function in healthy participants. Nonetheless, future work combining hippocampal-targeted continuous theta-burst TMS with neuroimaging is needed to better understand the neural basis of TMS-induced memory changes.

[Knowledge and attitudes of health professionals to the living will declaration process].

PubMed

Contreras-Fernández, Eugenio; Rivas-Ruiz, Francisco; Castilla-Soto, Jose; Méndez-Martínez, Camila

2015-10-01

To identify the underlying interests of the Living Will Declaration (LWD) process and to determine the consensus, using a questionnaire, of the knowledge and attitudes of health professionals. A study was performed in two phases using a Delphi technique with a Rand method. 1. Dimensions proposed: generation of ideas and their subsequent prioritizing; 2. Proposal and prioritizing of items grouped into blocks of Knowledge and Attitudes, developed between August 2012 and January 2013. The work was carried out by initial telephone contact with panellists, and then later by the panellists belonged to the Andalusia Public Health System. The criteria for selecting the eight components of the panel were knowledge and experience in the field of the freedom of the patient in Andalusia. The Knowledge identified included: 1 A) Legal and general aspects; 2 A) A conceptual definition; 3 A) Standardised LWD documents: 4 A) Practical experience; 5 A) Procedure and registering of the LWDs. The second block included Attitudes: 1 B) Attitudes of the professional in the application of LWDs in clinical practice, and 2 B) Attitudes of the professional in «complex» ethical scenarios The 7 panellists who finally took part proposed 165 items. After applying the prioritizing criteria, scores, and scenario selection, 58 (35.2%) items were identified as suitable scenarios. The proposed questionnaire included wide parcels of concepts and contents that, once validated, will help to measure the training interventions carried out on health professionals in order to improve knowledge and attitudes on the subject of LWDs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Source memory that encoding was self-referential: the influence of stimulus characteristics.

PubMed

Durbin, Kelly A; Mitchell, Karen J; Johnson, Marcia K

2017-10-01

Decades of research suggest that encoding information with respect to the self improves memory (self-reference effect, SRE) for items (item SRE). The current study focused on how processing information in reference to the self affects source memory for whether an item was self-referentially processed (a source SRE). Participants self-referentially or non-self-referentially encoded words (Experiment 1) or pictures (Experiment 2) that varied in valence (positive, negative, neutral). Relative to non-self-referential processing, self-referential processing enhanced item recognition for all stimulus types (an item SRE), but it only enhanced source memory for positive words (a source SRE). In fact, source memory for negative and neutral pictures was worse for items processed self-referentially than non-self-referentially. Together, the results suggest that item SRE and source SRE (e.g., remembering an item was encoded self-referentially) are not necessarily the same across stimulus types (e.g., words, pictures; positive, negative). While an item SRE may depend on the overall likelihood the item generates any association, the enhancing effects of self-referential processing on source memory for self-referential encoding may depend on how embedded a stimulus becomes in one's self-schema, and that depends, in part, on the stimulus' valence and format. Self-relevance ratings during encoding provide converging evidence for this interpretation.

Investigating Measurement Invariance in Computer-Based Personality Testing: The Impact of Using Anchor Items on Effect Size Indices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egberink, Iris J. L.; Meijer, Rob R.; Tendeiro, Jorge N.

2015-01-01

A popular method to assess measurement invariance of a particular item is based on likelihood ratio tests with all other items as anchor items. The results of this method are often only reported in terms of statistical significance, and researchers proposed different methods to empirically select anchor items. It is unclear, however, how many…

Altered brain response for semantic knowledge in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Wierenga, Christina E; Stricker, Nikki H; McCauley, Ashley; Simmons, Alan; Jak, Amy J; Chang, Yu-Ling; Nation, Daniel A; Bangen, Katherine J; Salmon, David P; Bondi, Mark W

2011-02-01

Word retrieval deficits are common in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are thought to reflect a degradation of semantic memory. Yet, the nature of semantic deterioration in AD and the underlying neural correlates of these semantic memory changes remain largely unknown. We examined the semantic memory impairment in AD by investigating the neural correlates of category knowledge (e.g., living vs. nonliving) and featural processing (global vs. local visual information). During event-related fMRI, 10 adults diagnosed with mild AD and 22 cognitively normal (CN) older adults named aloud items from three categories for which processing of specific visual features has previously been dissociated from categorical features. Results showed widespread group differences in the categorical representation of semantic knowledge in several language-related brain areas. For example, the right inferior frontal gyrus showed selective brain response for nonliving items in the CN group but living items in the AD group. Additionally, the AD group showed increased brain response for word retrieval irrespective of category in Broca's homologue in the right hemisphere and rostral cingulate cortex bilaterally, which suggests greater recruitment of frontally mediated neural compensatory mechanisms in the face of semantic alteration. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing the mechanism of response in the retrosplenial cortex of good and poor navigators☆

PubMed Central

Auger, Stephen D.; Maguire, Eleanor A.

2013-01-01

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is consistently engaged by a range of tasks that examine episodic memory, imagining the future, spatial navigation, and scene processing. Despite this, an account of its exact contribution to these cognitive functions remains elusive. Here, using functional MRI (fMRI) and multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) we found that the RSC coded for the specific number of permanent outdoor items that were in view, that is, items which are fixed and never change their location. Moreover, this effect was selective, and was not apparent for other item features such as size and visual salience. This detailed detection of the number of permanent items in view was echoed in the parahippocampal cortex (PHC), although the two brain structures diverged when participants were divided into good and poor navigators. There was no difference in the responsivity of the PHC between the two groups, while significantly better decoding of the number of permanent items in view was possible from patterns of activity in the RSC of good compared to poor navigators. Within good navigators, the RSC also facilitated significantly better prediction of item permanence than the PHC. Overall, these findings suggest that the RSC in particular is concerned with coding the presence of every permanent item that is in view. This mechanism may represent a key building block for spatial and scene representations that are central to episodic memories and imagining the future, and could also be a prerequisite for successful navigation. PMID:24012136

Subjective health literacy: Development of a brief instrument for school-aged children.

PubMed

Paakkari, Olli; Torppa, Minna; Kannas, Lasse; Paakkari, Leena

2016-12-01

The present paper focuses on the measurement of health literacy (HL), which is an important determinant of health and health behaviours. HL starts to develop in childhood and adolescence; hence, there is a need for instruments to monitor HL among younger age groups. These instruments are still rare. The aim of the project reported here was, therefore, to develop a brief, multidimensional, theory-based instrument to measure subjective HL among school-aged children. The development of the instrument covered four phases: item generation based on a conceptual framework; a pilot study ( n = 405); test-retest ( n = 117); and construction of the instrument ( n = 3853). All the samples were taken from Finnish 7th and 9th graders. Initially, 65 items were generated, of which 32 items were selected for the pilot study. After item reduction, the instrument contained 16 items. The test-retest phase produced estimates of stability. In the final phase a 10-item instrument was constructed, referred to as Health Literacy for School-Aged Children (HLSAC). The instrument exhibited a high Cronbach alpha (0.93), and included two items from each of the five predetermined theoretical components (theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge, critical thinking, self-awareness, citizenship). The iterative and validity-driven development process made it possible to construct a brief multidimensional HLSAC instrument. Such instruments are suitable for large-scale studies, and for use with children and adolescents. Validation will require further testing for use in other countries.

40 CFR 721.63 - Protection in the workplace.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... wear, personal protective equipment that provides a barrier to prevent dermal exposure to the substance in the specific work area where it is selected for use. Each such item of personal protective... other personal protective equipment selected in paragraph (a)(1) of this section, the following items...

Developing a Strategy for Using Technology-Enhanced Items in Large-Scale Standardized Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryant, William

2017-01-01

As large-scale standardized tests move from paper-based to computer-based delivery, opportunities arise for test developers to make use of items beyond traditional selected and constructed response types. Technology-enhanced items (TEIs) have the potential to provide advantages over conventional items, including broadening construct measurement,…

The Application of Strength of Association Statistics to the Item Analysis of an In-Training Examination in Diagnostic Radiology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, James J.; McCormick, Janet

1986-01-01

Using item responses from an in-training examination in diagnostic radiology, the application of a strength of association statistic to the general problem of item analysis is illustrated. Criteria for item selection, general issues of reliability, and error of measurement are discussed. (Author/LMO)

Assessing Patients’ Experiences with Communication Across the Cancer Care Continuum

PubMed Central

Mazor, Kathleen M.; Street, Richard L.; Sue, Valerie M.; Williams, Andrew E.; Rabin, Borsika A.; Arora, Neeraj K.

2016-01-01

Objective To evaluate the relevance, performance and potential usefulness of the Patient Assessment of cancer Communication Experiences (PACE) items. Methods Items focusing on specific communication goals related to exchanging information, fostering healing relationships, responding to emotions, making decisions, enabling self-management, and managing uncertainty were tested via a retrospective, cross-sectional survey of adults who had been diagnosed with cancer. Analyses examined response frequencies, inter-item correlations, and coefficient alpha. Results A total of 366 adults were included in the analyses. Relatively few selected “Does Not Apply”, suggesting that items tap relevant communication experiences. Ratings of whether specific communication goals were achieved were strongly correlated with overall ratings of communication, suggesting item content reflects important aspects of communication. Coefficient alpha was ≥.90 for each item set, indicating excellent reliability. Variations in the percentage of respondents selecting the most positive response across items suggest results can identify strengths and weaknesses. Conclusion The PACE items tap relevant, important aspects of communication during cancer care, and may be useful to cancer care teams desiring detailed feedback. PMID:26979476

Effects of aging on neural connectivity underlying selective memory for emotional scenes

PubMed Central

Waring, Jill D.; Addis, Donna Rose; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2012-01-01

Older adults show age-related reductions in memory for neutral items within complex visual scenes, but just like young adults, older adults exhibit a memory advantage for emotional items within scenes compared with the background scene information. The present study examined young and older adults’ encoding-stage effective connectivity for selective memory of emotional items versus memory for both the emotional item and its background. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, participants viewed scenes containing either positive or negative items within neutral backgrounds. Outside the scanner, participants completed a memory test for items and backgrounds. Irrespective of scene content being emotionally positive or negative, older adults had stronger positive connections among frontal regions and from frontal regions to medial temporal lobe structures than did young adults, especially when items and backgrounds were subsequently remembered. These results suggest there are differences between young and older adults’ connectivity accompanying the encoding of emotional scenes. Older adults may require more frontal connectivity to encode all elements of a scene rather than just encoding the emotional item. PMID:22542836

Effects of aging on neural connectivity underlying selective memory for emotional scenes.

PubMed

Waring, Jill D; Addis, Donna Rose; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2013-02-01

Older adults show age-related reductions in memory for neutral items within complex visual scenes, but just like young adults, older adults exhibit a memory advantage for emotional items within scenes compared with the background scene information. The present study examined young and older adults' encoding-stage effective connectivity for selective memory of emotional items versus memory for both the emotional item and its background. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, participants viewed scenes containing either positive or negative items within neutral backgrounds. Outside the scanner, participants completed a memory test for items and backgrounds. Irrespective of scene content being emotionally positive or negative, older adults had stronger positive connections among frontal regions and from frontal regions to medial temporal lobe structures than did young adults, especially when items and backgrounds were subsequently remembered. These results suggest there are differences between young and older adults' connectivity accompanying the encoding of emotional scenes. Older adults may require more frontal connectivity to encode all elements of a scene rather than just encoding the emotional item. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Sex, age, and sex hormones affect recall of words in a directed forgetting paradigm.

PubMed

Kerschbaum, Hubert H; Hofbauer, Ildiko; Gföllner, Anna; Ebner, Birgit; Bresgen, Nikolaus; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T

2017-01-02

During the course of serious discussion, an unexpected interruption may induce forgetting of the original topic of a conversation. Sex, age, and sex hormone levels may affect frequency and extension of forgetting. In a list-method directed forgetting paradigm, subjects have to learn two word lists. After learning list 1, subjects receive either a forget or a remember list 1 cue. When the participants had learned list 2 and completed a distraction task, they were asked to write down as many recalled items as possible, starting either with list 1 or list 2 items. In the present study, 96 naturally cycling women, 60 oral contraceptive users, 56 postmenopausal women, and 41 young men were assigned to one of these different experimental conditions. Forget-cued young subjects recall fewer list 1 items (list 1 forgetting) but more list 2 items (list 2 enhancement) compared with remember-cued subjects. However, forget-cued postmenopausal women showed reduced list 1 forgetting but enhanced list 2 retention. Remember-cued naturally cycling women recalled more list 1 items than oral contraceptive users, young men, and postmenopausal women. In forget-cued follicular women, salivary progesterone correlated positively with recalled list 2 items. Salivary 17β-estradiol did not correlate with recalled list 1 or list 2 items in either remember- or forget-cued young women. However, salivary 17β-estradiol correlated with item recall in remember-cued postmenopausal women. Our findings suggest that sex hormones do not globally modulate verbal memory or forgetting, but selectively affect cue-specific processing. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Defining a Research Agenda for Patient-Reported Outcomes in Surgery: A Delphi Survey of Stakeholders

PubMed Central

Pezold, Michael L.; Pusic, Andrea L.; Cohen, Wess A.; Hollenberg, James P.; Butt, Zeeshan; Flum, David R.; Temple, Larissa K.

2016-01-01

Background Identifying timely and important research questions using relevant patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in surgery remains paramount in the current medical climate. The inaugural Patient-Reported Outcomes in Surgery Conference brought together stakeholders in PROs research in surgery, with the aim of creating a research agenda to help determine future directions and advance cross-disciplinary collaboration. Study Design An iterative Web-based interface was used to create a modified Delphi survey. Participation was limited to conference registrants, which included surgeons, PROs researchers, payers, and other stakeholders. In the first round, research items were generated from qualitative review of responses to open-ended prompts. In the second round, items were ranked using a 5-point Likert scale; attendees were also asked to submit any new items. In the final round, the top 30 items and newly submitted items were redistributed for final ranking using a 3-point Likert scale. The top 20 items by mean rating were selected for the research agenda. Results In round one, participants submitted 459 items, which were reduced to 53 distinct items within seven themes of PROs research. A research agenda was formulated after two successive rounds of ranking. The research agenda identified three themes important for future PROs research in surgery: (1) PROs in the decision-making process, (2) integrating PROs into the EHR and, (3) measuring quality in surgery with PROs. Conclusions The PROS Conference research agenda was created using a modified Delphi survey of stakeholders that will help researchers, surgeons, and funders identify crucial areas of future PROs research in surgery. PMID:27437666

Development of a simple 12-item theory-based instrument to assess the impact of continuing professional development on clinical behavioral intentions.

PubMed

Légaré, France; Borduas, Francine; Freitas, Adriana; Jacques, André; Godin, Gaston; Luconi, Francesca; Grimshaw, Jeremy

2014-01-01

Decision-makers in organizations providing continuing professional development (CPD) have identified the need for routine assessment of its impact on practice. We sought to develop a theory-based instrument for evaluating the impact of CPD activities on health professionals' clinical behavioral intentions. Our multipronged study had four phases. 1) We systematically reviewed the literature for instruments that used socio-cognitive theories to assess healthcare professionals' clinically-oriented behavioral intentions and/or behaviors; we extracted items relating to the theoretical constructs of an integrated model of healthcare professionals' behaviors and removed duplicates. 2) A committee of researchers and CPD decision-makers selected a pool of items relevant to CPD. 3) An international group of experts (n = 70) reached consensus on the most relevant items using electronic Delphi surveys. 4) We created a preliminary instrument with the items found most relevant and assessed its factorial validity, internal consistency and reliability (weighted kappa) over a two-week period among 138 physicians attending a CPD activity. Out of 72 potentially relevant instruments, 47 were analyzed. Of the 1218 items extracted from these, 16% were discarded as improperly phrased and 70% discarded as duplicates. Mapping the remaining items onto the constructs of the integrated model of healthcare professionals' behaviors yielded a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 275 items per construct. The partnership committee retained 61 items covering all seven constructs. Two iterations of the Delphi process produced consensus on a provisional 40-item questionnaire. Exploratory factorial analysis following test-retest resulted in a 12-item questionnaire. Cronbach's coefficients for the constructs varied from 0.77 to 0.85. A 12-item theory-based instrument for assessing the impact of CPD activities on health professionals' clinical behavioral intentions showed adequate validity and reliability. Further studies could assess its responsiveness to behavior change following CPD activities and its capacity to predict health professionals' clinical performance.

Development of a Simple 12-Item Theory-Based Instrument to Assess the Impact of Continuing Professional Development on Clinical Behavioral Intentions

PubMed Central

Légaré, France; Borduas, Francine; Freitas, Adriana; Jacques, André; Godin, Gaston; Luconi, Francesca; Grimshaw, Jeremy

2014-01-01

Background Decision-makers in organizations providing continuing professional development (CPD) have identified the need for routine assessment of its impact on practice. We sought to develop a theory-based instrument for evaluating the impact of CPD activities on health professionals' clinical behavioral intentions. Methods and Findings Our multipronged study had four phases. 1) We systematically reviewed the literature for instruments that used socio-cognitive theories to assess healthcare professionals' clinically-oriented behavioral intentions and/or behaviors; we extracted items relating to the theoretical constructs of an integrated model of healthcare professionals' behaviors and removed duplicates. 2) A committee of researchers and CPD decision-makers selected a pool of items relevant to CPD. 3) An international group of experts (n = 70) reached consensus on the most relevant items using electronic Delphi surveys. 4) We created a preliminary instrument with the items found most relevant and assessed its factorial validity, internal consistency and reliability (weighted kappa) over a two-week period among 138 physicians attending a CPD activity. Out of 72 potentially relevant instruments, 47 were analyzed. Of the 1218 items extracted from these, 16% were discarded as improperly phrased and 70% discarded as duplicates. Mapping the remaining items onto the constructs of the integrated model of healthcare professionals' behaviors yielded a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 275 items per construct. The partnership committee retained 61 items covering all seven constructs. Two iterations of the Delphi process produced consensus on a provisional 40-item questionnaire. Exploratory factorial analysis following test-retest resulted in a 12-item questionnaire. Cronbach's coefficients for the constructs varied from 0.77 to 0.85. Conclusion A 12-item theory-based instrument for assessing the impact of CPD activities on health professionals' clinical behavioral intentions showed adequate validity and reliability. Further studies could assess its responsiveness to behavior change following CPD activities and its capacity to predict health professionals' clinical performance. PMID:24643173

Development of the Facial Skin Care Index: A Health-Related Outcomes Index for Skin Cancer Patients

PubMed Central

Matthews, B. Alex; Rhee, John S.; Neuburg, Marcy; Burzynski, Mary L.; Nattinger, Ann B.

2006-01-01

BACKGROUND Existing health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) tools do not appear to capture patients' specific skin cancer concerns. OBJECTIVE To describe the conceptual foundation, item generation, reduction process, and reliability testing for the Facial Skin Cancer Index (FSCI), a HRQOL outcomes tool for skin cancer researchers and clinicians. METHODS Participants in Phases I to III consisted of adult patients (N = 134) diagnosed with biopsy-proven nonmelanoma cervicofacial skin cancer. Data were collected via self-report surveys and clinical records. RESULTS Seventy-one distinct items were generated in Phase I and rated for their importance by an independent sample during Phase II; 36 items representing six theoretical HRQOL domains were retained. Test–retest I results indicated that four subscales showed adequate reliability coefficients (α = 0.60 to 0.91). Twenty-six items remained for test–retest II. Results indicated excellent internal consistency for emotional, social, appearance, and modified financial/work subscales (range 0.79 to 0.95); test–retest correlation coefficients were consistent across time (range 0.81 to 0.97; lifestyle omitted). CONCLUSION Pretesting afforded the opportunity to select items that optimally met our a priori conceptual and psychometric criteria for high data quality. Phase IV testing (validity and sensitivity before surgery and 4 months after Mohs micrographic surgery) for the 20-item FSCI is under way. PMID:16875475

Selection for inpatient rehabilitation after severe stroke: what factors influence rehabilitation assessor decision-making?

PubMed

Hakkennes, Sharon; Hill, Keith D; Brock, Kim; Bernhardt, Julie; Churilov, Leonid

2013-01-01

This study aimed to identify factors that assessors considered important in decision-making regarding suitability for inpatient rehabilitation after acute severe stroke. Multi-site prospective observational cohort study. Consecutive acute, severe stroke patients and their assessors for inpatient rehabilitation. Rehabilitation assessors completed a questionnaire, rating the importance (10 point visual analogue scale) and direction (positive, negative or neutral) of 15 patient related and 2 organisational items potentially affecting their decision regarding patients' acceptance to rehabilitation. Of the 75 patients referred to rehabilitation and included in this study 61 (81.3%) were accepted for inpatient rehabilitation. The items considered to be most important in the decision to accept the patient for rehabilitation were pre-morbid cognition, pre-morbid mobility and pre-morbid communication. For those not accepted the most important items were current mobility, social support and current cognition. Factor analysis revealed 3 underlying factors, interpreted as post-stroke status, pre-morbid status, and social attributes, accounting for 61.8% of the total variance. All were independently associated with acceptance for rehabilitation (p < 0.05). This study highlights the importance of pre-morbid function and social factors in addition to post-stroke function in the decision making process for acceptance to rehabilitation following severe stroke. Future models for selection for rehabilitation should consider inclusion of these factors.

Procurement specifications report. IMBLS phase B-4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1970-01-01

Procurement specifications to provide vendors of space systems with supporting information to accurately price the selected major buy items are illustrated. In performing this task, rigid constraints on specifications and drawing details are avoided beyond those necessary to define basic requirements. Described are digital processing equipment, mass spectrometer, body mass measuring device, sensors, bio-belt power source, vision tester and instrumentation for a biochemical station.

Instructional Topics in Educational Measurement (ITEMS) Module: Using Automated Processes to Generate Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis

2013-01-01

Changes to the design and development of our educational assessments are resulting in the unprecedented demand for a large and continuous supply of content-specific test items. One way to address this growing demand is with automatic item generation (AIG). AIG is the process of using item models to generate test items with the aid of computer…

Automatic Item Generation: A More Efficient Process for Developing Mathematics Achievement Items?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Embretson, Susan E.; Kingston, Neal M.

2018-01-01

The continual supply of new items is crucial to maintaining quality for many tests. Automatic item generation (AIG) has the potential to rapidly increase the number of items that are available. However, the efficiency of AIG will be mitigated if the generated items must be submitted to traditional, time-consuming review processes. In two studies,…

Understanding current steam sterilization recommendations and guidelines.

PubMed

Spry, Cynthia

2008-10-01

Processing surgical instruments in preparation for surgery is a complex multistep practice. It is impractical to culture each and every item to determine sterility; therefore, the best assurance of a sterile product is careful execution of every step in the process coupled with an ongoing quality control program. Perioperative staff nurses and managers responsible for instrument processing, whether for a single instrument or multiple sets, must be knowledgeable with regard to cleaning; packaging; cycle selection; and the use of physical, chemical, and biological monitors. Nurses also should be able to resolve issues related to loaner sets, flash sterilization, and extended cycles.

A dissociation between selective attention and conscious awareness in the representation of temporal order information.

PubMed

Eimer, Martin; Grubert, Anna

2015-09-01

Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that attentional selection processes are highly sensitive to the temporal order of task-relevant visual events. When two successively presented colour-defined target stimuli are separated by a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of only 10 ms, the onset latencies of N2pc components to these stimuli (which reflect their attentional selection) precisely match their objective temporal separation. We tested whether such small onset differences are accessible to conscious awareness by instructing participants to report the category (letter or digit) of the first of two target-colour items that were separated by an SOA of 10, 20, or 30 ms. Performance was at chance level for the 10 ms SOA, demonstrating that temporal order information which is available to attentional control processes cannot be utilized for conscious temporal order judgments. These results provide new evidence that selective attention and conscious awareness are functionally separable, and support the hypothesis that attention and awareness operate at different stages of cognitive processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An item-response theory approach to safety climate measurement: The Liberty Mutual Safety Climate Short Scales.

PubMed

Huang, Yueng-Hsiang; Lee, Jin; Chen, Zhuo; Perry, MacKenna; Cheung, Janelle H; Wang, Mo

2017-06-01

Zohar and Luria's (2005) safety climate (SC) scale, measuring organization- and group- level SC each with 16 items, is widely used in research and practice. To improve the utility of the SC scale, we shortened the original full-length SC scales. Item response theory (IRT) analysis was conducted using a sample of 29,179 frontline workers from various industries. Based on graded response models, we shortened the original scales in two ways: (1) selecting items with above-average discriminating ability (i.e. offering more than 6.25% of the original total scale information), resulting in 8-item organization-level and 11-item group-level SC scales; and (2) selecting the most informative items that together retain at least 30% of original scale information, resulting in 4-item organization-level and 4-item group-level SC scales. All four shortened scales had acceptable reliability (≥0.89) and high correlations (≥0.95) with the original scale scores. The shortened scales will be valuable for academic research and practical survey implementation in improving occupational safety. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Advanced Platform Systems Technology study. Volume 3: Supporting data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

The overall study effort proceeded from the identification of 106 technology topics to the selection of 5 for detail trade studies. The technical issues and options were evaluated through the trade process. Finally, individual consideration was given to costs and benefits for the technologies identified for advancement. Eight priority technology items were identified for advancement. Supporting data generated during the trade selection and trade study process were presented. Space platform requirements, trade study and cost benefits analysis, and technology advancement planning are advanced. The structured approach used took advantage of a number of forms developed to ensure that a consistent approach was employed by each of the diverse specialists that participated. These forms were an intrinsic part of the study protocol.

ERP markers of target selection discriminate children with high vs. low working memory capacity.

PubMed

Shimi, Andria; Nobre, Anna Christina; Scerif, Gaia

2015-01-01

Selective attention enables enhancing a subset out of multiple competing items to maximize the capacity of our limited visual working memory (VWM) system. Multiple behavioral and electrophysiological studies have revealed the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting adults' selective attention of visual percepts for encoding in VWM. However, research on children is more limited. What are the neural mechanisms involved in children's selection of incoming percepts in service of VWM? Do these differ from the ones subserving adults' selection? Ten-year-olds and adults used a spatial arrow cue to select a colored item for later recognition from an array of four colored items. The temporal dynamics of selection were investigated through EEG signals locked to the onset of the memory array. Both children and adults elicited significantly more negative activity over posterior scalp locations contralateral to the item to-be-selected for encoding (N2pc). However, this activity was elicited later and for longer in children compared to adults. Furthermore, although children as a group did not elicit a significant N2pc during the time-window in which N2pc was elicited in adults, the magnitude of N2pc during the "adult time-window" related to their behavioral performance during the later recognition phase of the task. This in turn highlights how children's neural activity subserving attention during encoding relates to better subsequent VWM performance. Significant differences were observed when children were divided into groups of high vs. low VWM capacity as a function of cueing benefit. Children with large cue benefits in VWM capacity elicited an adult-like contralateral negativity following attentional selection of the to-be-encoded item, whereas children with low VWM capacity did not. These results corroborate the close coupling between selective attention and VWM from childhood and elucidate further the attentional mechanisms constraining VWM performance in children.

Location-specific effects of attention during visual short-term memory maintenance.

PubMed

Matsukura, Michi; Cosman, Joshua D; Roper, Zachary J J; Vatterott, Daniel B; Vecera, Shaun P

2014-06-01

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that early sensory areas such as area V1 are recruited to actively maintain a selected feature of the item held in visual short-term memory (VSTM). These findings raise the possibility that visual attention operates in similar manners across perceptual and memory representations to a certain extent, despite memory-level and perception-level selections are functionally dissociable. If VSTM operates by retaining "reasonable copies" of scenes constructed during sensory processing (Serences et al., 2009, p. 207, the sensory recruitment hypothesis), then it is possible that selective attention can be guided by both exogenous (peripheral) and endogenous (central) cues during VSTM maintenance. Yet, the results from the previous studies that examined this issue are inconsistent. In the present study, we investigated whether attention can be directed to a specific item's location represented in VSTM with the exogenous cue in a well-controlled setting. The results from the four experiments suggest that, as observed with the endogenous cue, the exogenous cue can efficiently guide selective attention during VSTM maintenance. The finding is not only consistent with the sensory recruitment hypothesis but also validates the legitimacy of the exogenous cue use in past and future studies. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Item generation and design testing of a questionnaire to assess degenerative joint disease-associated pain in cats.

PubMed

Zamprogno, Helia; Hansen, Bernie D; Bondell, Howard D; Sumrell, Andrea Thomson; Simpson, Wendy; Robertson, Ian D; Brown, James; Pease, Anthony P; Roe, Simon C; Hardie, Elizabeth M; Wheeler, Simon J; Lascelles, B Duncan X

2010-12-01

To determine the items (question topics) for a subjective instrument to assess degenerative joint disease (DJD)-associated chronic pain in cats and determine the instrument design most appropriate for use by cat owners. 100 randomly selected client-owned cats from 6 months to 20 years old. Cats were evaluated to determine degree of radiographic DJD and signs of pain throughout the skeletal system. Two groups were identified: high DJD pain and low DJD pain. Owner-answered questions about activity and signs of pain were compared between the 2 groups to define items relating to chronic DJD pain. Interviews with 45 cat owners were performed to generate items. Fifty-three cat owners who had not been involved in any other part of the study, 19 veterinarians, and 2 statisticians assessed 6 preliminary instrument designs. 22 cats were selected for each group; 19 important items were identified, resulting in 12 potential items for the instrument; and 3 additional items were identified from owner interviews. Owners and veterinarians selected a 5-point descriptive instrument design over 11-point or visual analogue scale formats. Behaviors relating to activity were substantially different between healthy cats and cats with signs of DJD-associated pain. Fifteen items were identified as being potentially useful, and the preferred instrument design was identified. This information could be used to construct an owner-based questionnaire to assess feline DJD-associated pain. Once validated, such a questionnaire would assist in evaluating potential analgesic treatments for these patients.

Item Selection Criteria with Practical Constraints for Computerized Classification Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Chuan-Ju

2011-01-01

This study compares four item selection criteria for a two-category computerized classification testing: (1) Fisher information (FI), (2) Kullback-Leibler information (KLI), (3) weighted log-odds ratio (WLOR), and (4) mutual information (MI), with respect to the efficiency and accuracy of classification decision using the sequential probability…

ITEM SELECTION TECHNIQUES AND EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

COX, RICHARD C.

THE VALIDITY OF AN EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST DEPENDS UPON THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SPECIFIED EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THESE OBJECTIVES ARE MEASURED BY THE EVALUATION INSTRUMENT. THIS STUDY IS DESIGNED TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF STATISTICAL ITEM SELECTION ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE FINAL EVALUATION INSTRUMENT AS COMPARED WITH…

Mutual Information Item Selection in Adaptive Classification Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weissman, Alexander

2007-01-01

A general approach for item selection in adaptive multiple-category classification tests is provided. The approach uses mutual information (MI), a special case of the Kullback-Leibler distance, or relative entropy. MI works efficiently with the sequential probability ratio test and alleviates the difficulties encountered with using other local-…

Model Selection Indices for Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Taehoon; Cohen, Allan S.; Sung, Hyun-Jung

2009-01-01

This study examines the utility of four indices for use in model selection with nested and nonnested polytomous item response theory (IRT) models: a cross-validation index and three information-based indices. Four commonly used polytomous IRT models are considered: the graded response model, the generalized partial credit model, the partial credit…

Taking Turns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hopkins, Brian

2010-01-01

Two people take turns selecting from an even number of items. Their relative preferences over the items can be described as a permutation, then tools from algebraic combinatorics can be used to answer various questions. We describe each person's optimal selection strategies including how each could make use of knowing the other's preferences. We…

The Performance of IRT Model Selection Methods with Mixed-Format Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whittaker, Tiffany A.; Chang, Wanchen; Dodd, Barbara G.

2012-01-01

When tests consist of multiple-choice and constructed-response items, researchers are confronted with the question of which item response theory (IRT) model combination will appropriately represent the data collected from these mixed-format tests. This simulation study examined the performance of six model selection criteria, including the…

An Evaluation of "Intentional" Weighting of Extended-Response or Constructed-Response Items in Tests with Mixed Item Types.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ito, Kyoko; Sykes, Robert C.

This study investigated the practice of weighting a type of test item, such as constructed response, more than other types of items, such as selected response, to compute student scores for a mixed-item type of test. The study used data from statewide writing field tests in grades 3, 5, and 8 and considered two contexts, that in which a single…

Science Library of Test Items. Volume Two.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New South Wales Dept. of Education, Sydney (Australia).

The second volume of test items in the Science Library of Test Items is intended as a resource to assist teachers in implementing and evaluating science courses in the first 4 years of Australian secondary school. The items were selected from questions submitted to the School Certificate Development Unit by teachers in New South Wales. Only the…

Integrating Test-Form Formatting into Automated Test Assembly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diao, Qi; van der Linden, Wim J.

2013-01-01

Automated test assembly uses the methodology of mixed integer programming to select an optimal set of items from an item bank. Automated test-form generation uses the same methodology to optimally order the items and format the test form. From an optimization point of view, production of fully formatted test forms directly from the item pool using…

Source memory that encoding was self-referential: the influence of stimulus characteristics

PubMed Central

Durbin, Kelly A.; Mitchell, Karen J.; Johnson, Marcia K.

2017-01-01

Decades of research suggest that encoding information with respect to the self improves memory (self-reference effect, SRE) for items (item SRE). The current study focused on how processing information in reference to the self affects source memory for whether an item was self-referentially processed (a source SRE). Participants self-referentially or non-self-referentially encoded words (Experiment 1) or pictures (Experiment 2) that varied in valence (positive, negative, neutral). Relative to non-self-referential processing, self-referential processing enhanced item recognition for all stimulus types (an item SRE), but it only enhanced source memory for positive words (a source SRE). In fact, source memory for negative and neutral pictures was worse for items processed self-referentially than non-self-referentially. Together, the results suggest that item SRE and source SRE (e.g., remembering an item was encoded self-referentially) are not necessarily the same across stimulus types (e.g., words, pictures; positive, negative). While an item SRE may depend on the overall likelihood the item generates any association, the enhancing effects of self-referential processing on source memory for self-referential encoding may depend on how embedded a stimulus becomes in one’s self-schema, and that depends, in part, on the stimulus’ valence and format. Self-relevance ratings during encoding provide converging evidence for this interpretation. PMID:28276984

One library's experience with review and selection of chat software for reference.

PubMed

Behm, Leslie M

2003-01-01

When Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries decided to make the foray into virtual reference, the first thing that needed to be done was to decide on the software to use. This article discusses the process used including the items considered essential (deal-breakers) for software to make the first cut, what other features needed to be included, and what features would be useful but were not critical. A literature review of some useful current articles on virtual reference is included. The vendor and software ultimately selected was not one of the original vendors; how MSU Libraries was able to evaluate and select Docutek is presented. A matrix for software comparison is included in the appendix.

DRD4 long allele carriers show heightened attention to high-priority items relative to low-priority items.

PubMed

Gorlick, Marissa A; Worthy, Darrell A; Knopik, Valerie S; McGeary, John E; Beevers, Christopher G; Maddox, W Todd

2015-03-01

Humans with seven or more repeats in exon III of the DRD4 gene (long DRD4 carriers) sometimes demonstrate impaired attention, as seen in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and at other times demonstrate heightened attention, as seen in addictive behavior. Although the clinical effects of DRD4 are the focus of much work, this gene may not necessarily serve as a "risk" gene for attentional deficits, but as a plasticity gene where attention is heightened for priority items in the environment and impaired for minor items. Here we examine the role of DRD4 in two tasks that benefit from selective attention to high-priority information. We examine a category learning task where performance is supported by focusing on features and updating verbal rules. Here, selective attention to the most salient features is associated with good performance. In addition, we examine the Operation Span (OSPAN) task, a working memory capacity task that relies on selective attention to update and maintain items in memory while also performing a secondary task. Long DRD4 carriers show superior performance relative to short DRD4 homozygotes (six or less tandem repeats) in both the category learning and OSPAN tasks. These results suggest that DRD4 may serve as a "plasticity" gene where individuals with the long allele show heightened selective attention to high-priority items in the environment, which can be beneficial in the appropriate context.

DRD4 Long Allele Carriers Show Heightened Attention to High-Priority Items Relative to Low-Priority Items

PubMed Central

Gorlick, Marissa A.; Worthy, Darrell A.; Knopik, Valerie S.; McGeary, John E.; Beevers, Christopher G.; Maddox, W. Todd

2014-01-01

Humans with 7 or more repeats in exon III of the DRD4 gene (long DRD4 carriers) sometimes demonstrate impaired attention, as seen in ADHD, and at other times demonstrate heightened attention, as seen in addictive behavior. Though the clinical effects of DRD4 are the focus of much work, this gene may not necessarily serve as a ‘risk’ gene for attentional deficits, but as a plasticity gene where attention is heightened for priority items in the environment and impaired for minor items. Here we examine the role of DRD4 in two tasks that benefit from selective attention to high-priority information. We examine a category learning task where performance is supported by focusing on features and updating verbal rules. Here selective attention to the most salient features is associated with good performance. In addition, we examine the Operation Span Task (OSPAN), a working memory capacity task that relies on selective attention to update and maintain items in memory while also performing a secondary task. Long DRD4 carriers show superior performance relative to short DRD4 homozygotes (six or less tandem repeats) in both the category learning and OSPAN tasks. These results suggest that DRD4 may serve as a ‘plasticity’ gene where individuals with the long allele show heightened selective attention to high-priority items in the environment, which can be beneficial in the appropriate context. PMID:25244120

A Neurobehavioral Model of Flexible Spatial Language Behaviors

PubMed Central

Lipinski, John; Schneegans, Sebastian; Sandamirskaya, Yulia; Spencer, John P.; Schöner, Gregor

2012-01-01

We propose a neural dynamic model that specifies how low-level visual processes can be integrated with higher level cognition to achieve flexible spatial language behaviors. This model uses real-word visual input that is linked to relational spatial descriptions through a neural mechanism for reference frame transformations. We demonstrate that the system can extract spatial relations from visual scenes, select items based on relational spatial descriptions, and perform reference object selection in a single unified architecture. We further show that the performance of the system is consistent with behavioral data in humans by simulating results from 2 independent empirical studies, 1 spatial term rating task and 1 study of reference object selection behavior. The architecture we present thereby achieves a high degree of task flexibility under realistic stimulus conditions. At the same time, it also provides a detailed neural grounding for complex behavioral and cognitive processes. PMID:21517224

Parietal structure and function explain human variation in working memory biases of visual attention.

PubMed

Soto, David; Rotshtein, Pia; Kanai, Ryota

2014-04-01

Recent research indicates that human attention appears inadvertently biased by items that match the contents of working memory (WM). WM-biases can lead to attentional costs when the memory content matches goal-irrelevant items and to attentional benefits when it matches the sought target. Here we used functional and structural MRI data to determine the neural basis of human variation in WM biases. We asked whether human variation in WM-benefits and WM-costs merely reflects the process of attentional capture by the contents of WM or whether variation in WM biases may be associated with distinct forms of cognitive control over internal WM signals based on selection goals. Human ability to use WM contents to facilitate selection was positively correlated with gray matter volume in the left superior posterior parietal cortex (PPC), while the ability to overcome interference by WM-matching distracters was associated with the left inferior PPC in the anterior IPS. Functional activity in the left PPC, measured by functional MRI, also predicted the magnitude of WM-costs on selection. Both structure and function of left PPC mediate the expression of WM biases in human visual attention. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural adaptation and translation of measures: an integrated method.

PubMed

Sidani, Souraya; Guruge, Sepali; Miranda, Joyal; Ford-Gilboe, Marilyn; Varcoe, Colleen

2010-04-01

Differences in the conceptualization and operationalization of health-related concepts may exist across cultures. Such differences underscore the importance of examining conceptual equivalence when adapting and translating instruments. In this article, we describe an integrated method for exploring conceptual equivalence within the process of adapting and translating measures. The integrated method involves five phases including selection of instruments for cultural adaptation and translation; assessment of conceptual equivalence, leading to the generation of a set of items deemed to be culturally and linguistically appropriate to assess the concept of interest in the target community; forward translation; back translation (optional); and pre-testing of the set of items. Strengths and limitations of the proposed integrated method are discussed. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

New decision criteria for selecting delta check methods based on the ratio of the delta difference to the width of the reference range can be generally applicable for each clinical chemistry test item.

PubMed

Park, Sang Hyuk; Kim, So-Young; Lee, Woochang; Chun, Sail; Min, Won-Ki

2012-09-01

Many laboratories use 4 delta check methods: delta difference, delta percent change, rate difference, and rate percent change. However, guidelines regarding decision criteria for selecting delta check methods have not yet been provided. We present new decision criteria for selecting delta check methods for each clinical chemistry test item. We collected 811,920 and 669,750 paired (present and previous) test results for 27 clinical chemistry test items from inpatients and outpatients, respectively. We devised new decision criteria for the selection of delta check methods based on the ratio of the delta difference to the width of the reference range (DD/RR). Delta check methods based on these criteria were compared with those based on the CV% of the absolute delta difference (ADD) as well as those reported in 2 previous studies. The delta check methods suggested by new decision criteria based on the DD/RR ratio corresponded well with those based on the CV% of the ADD except for only 2 items each in inpatients and outpatients. Delta check methods based on the DD/RR ratio also corresponded with those suggested in the 2 previous studies, except for 1 and 7 items in inpatients and outpatients, respectively. The DD/RR method appears to yield more feasible and intuitive selection criteria and can easily explain changes in the results by reflecting both the biological variation of the test item and the clinical characteristics of patients in each laboratory. We suggest this as a measure to determine delta check methods.

Specific responses of human hippocampal neurons are associated with better memory.

PubMed

Suthana, Nanthia A; Parikshak, Neelroop N; Ekstrom, Arne D; Ison, Matias J; Knowlton, Barbara J; Bookheimer, Susan Y; Fried, Itzhak

2015-08-18

A population of human hippocampal neurons has shown responses to individual concepts (e.g., Jennifer Aniston) that generalize to different instances of the concept. However, recordings from the rodent hippocampus suggest an important function of these neurons is their ability to discriminate overlapping representations, or pattern separate, a process that may facilitate discrimination of similar events for successful memory. In the current study, we explored whether human hippocampal neurons can also demonstrate the ability to discriminate between overlapping representations and whether this selectivity could be directly related to memory performance. We show that among medial temporal lobe (MTL) neurons, certain populations of neurons are selective for a previously studied (target) image in that they show a significant decrease in firing rate to very similar (lure) images. We found that a greater proportion of these neurons can be found in the hippocampus compared with other MTL regions, and that memory for individual items is correlated to the degree of selectivity of hippocampal neurons responsive to those items. Moreover, a greater proportion of hippocampal neurons showed selective firing for target images in good compared with poor performers, with overall memory performance correlated with hippocampal selectivity. In contrast, selectivity in other MTL regions was not associated with memory performance. These findings show that a substantial proportion of human hippocampal neurons encode specific memories that support the discrimination of overlapping representations. These results also provide previously unidentified evidence consistent with a unique role of the human hippocampus in orthogonalization of representations in declarative memory.

Digital circuits for computer applications: A compilation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

The innovations in this updated series of compilations dealing with electronic technology represent a carefully selected collection of digital circuits which have direct application in computer oriented systems. In general, the circuits have been selected as representative items of each section and have been included on their merits of having universal applications in digital computers and digital data processing systems. As such, they should have wide appeal to the professional engineer and scientist who encounter the fundamentals of digital techniques in their daily activities. The circuits are grouped as digital logic circuits, analog to digital converters, and counters and shift registers.

Response Mixture Modeling: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Item Characteristics across Response Times.

PubMed

Molenaar, Dylan; de Boeck, Paul

2018-06-01

In item response theory modeling of responses and response times, it is commonly assumed that the item responses have the same characteristics across the response times. However, heterogeneity might arise in the data if subjects resort to different response processes when solving the test items. These differences may be within-subject effects, that is, a subject might use a certain process on some of the items and a different process with different item characteristics on the other items. If the probability of using one process over the other process depends on the subject's response time, within-subject heterogeneity of the item characteristics across the response times arises. In this paper, the method of response mixture modeling is presented to account for such heterogeneity. Contrary to traditional mixture modeling where the full response vectors are classified, response mixture modeling involves classification of the individual elements in the response vector. In a simulation study, the response mixture model is shown to be viable in terms of parameter recovery. In addition, the response mixture model is applied to a real dataset to illustrate its use in investigating within-subject heterogeneity in the item characteristics across response times.

A Process for Reviewing and Evaluating Generated Test Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gierl, Mark J.; Lai, Hollis

2016-01-01

Testing organization needs large numbers of high-quality items due to the proliferation of alternative test administration methods and modern test designs. But the current demand for items far exceeds the supply. Test items, as they are currently written, evoke a process that is both time-consuming and expensive because each item is written,…

Using a Model of Analysts' Judgments to Augment an Item Calibration Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauser, Carl; Thum, Yeow Meng; He, Wei; Ma, Lingling

2015-01-01

When conducting item reviews, analysts evaluate an array of statistical and graphical information to assess the fit of a field test (FT) item to an item response theory model. The process can be tedious, particularly when the number of human reviews (HR) to be completed is large. Furthermore, such a process leads to decisions that are susceptible…

Selecting, Evaluating and Creating Policies for Computer-Based Resources in the Behavioral Sciences and Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richardson, Linda B., Comp.; And Others

This collection includes four handouts: (1) "Selection Critria Considerations for Computer-Based Resources" (Linda B. Richardson); (2) "Software Collection Policies in Academic Libraries" (a 24-item bibliography, Jane W. Johnson); (3) "Circulation and Security of Software" (a 19-item bibliography, Sara Elizabeth Williams); and (4) "Bibliography of…

Comparing the Performance of Five Multidimensional CAT Selection Procedures with Different Stopping Rules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yao, Lihua

2013-01-01

Through simulated data, five multidimensional computerized adaptive testing (MCAT) selection procedures with varying test lengths are examined and compared using different stopping rules. Fixed item exposure rates are used for all the items, and the Priority Index (PI) method is used for the content constraints. Two stopping rules, standard error…

Emotional Intelligence in Applicant Selection for Care-Related Academic Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zysberg, Leehu; Levy, Anat; Zisberg, Anna

2011-01-01

Two studies describe the development of the Audiovisual Test of Emotional Intelligence (AVEI), aimed at candidate selection in educational settings. Study I depicts the construction of the test and the preliminary examination of its psychometric properties in a sample of 92 college students. Item analysis allowed the modification of problem items,…

A Selected Bibliography on International Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foreign Policy Association, New York, NY.

This unannotated bibliography is divided into four major sections; 1) General Background Readings for Teachers; 2) Approaches and Methods; 3) Materials for the Classroom; and, 4) Sources of Information and Materials. It offers a highly selective list of items which provide wide coverage of the field. Included are items on foreign policy, war and…

2 CFR Appendix B to Part 230 - Selected Items of Cost

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... PRINCIPLES FOR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS (OMB CIRCULAR A-122) Pt. 230, App. B Appendix B to Part 230—Selected... use of patents and copyrights 45. Selling and marketing 46. Specialized service facilities 47. Taxes... of this appendix provide principles to be applied in establishing the allowability of certain items...

An Attempt to Influence Selected Portions of Student Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Edwin R.

In an attempt to selectively improve student performance, one-half of a set of difficult test items from a FORTRAN programming class had handouts explaining the concepts underlying the items distributed to the students. Each handout contained a written learning objective, a short prose passage explaining the objective, and one or more practice…

Informed and Uninformed Naïve Assessment Constructors' Strategies for Item Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fives, Helenrose; Barnes, Nicole

2017-01-01

We present a descriptive analysis of 53 naïve assessment constructors' explanations for selecting test items to include on a summative assessment. We randomly assigned participants to an informed and uninformed condition (i.e., informed participants read an article describing a Table of Specifications). Through recursive thematic analyses of…

Dual-Objective Item Selection Criteria in Cognitive Diagnostic Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Hyeon-Ah; Zhang, Susu; Chang, Hua-Hua

2017-01-01

The development of cognitive diagnostic-computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT) has provided a new perspective for gaining information about examinees' mastery on a set of cognitive attributes. This study proposes a new item selection method within the framework of dual-objective CD-CAT that simultaneously addresses examinees' attribute mastery…

Audiovisual Materials for Teaching Economics. Third Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harter, Charlotte T.; And Others

The third edition of this catalog, which expands and revises earlier editions, annotates audiovisual items for economic education in kindergarten through college. The purpose of the catalog is to help teachers select sound economic materials for classroom use. A selective listing, the catalog cites over 700 items out of more than 1200 items…

The Relationship between Attitudes toward Censorship and Selected Academic Variables.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dwyer, Edward J.; Summy, Mary K.

1989-01-01

To examine characteristics of subjects relative to their attitudes toward censorship, a study surveyed 98 college students selected from students in a public university in the southeastern United States. A 24-item Likert-style censorship scale was used to measure attitudes toward censorship. Strong agreement with affirmative items would suggest…

Tier One Performance Screen Initial Operational Test and Evaluation: 2012 Interim Report

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-01

are known to predict outcomes in work settings. Because the TAPAS uses item response theory (IRT) methods to construct and score items, it can be...Qualification Test (AFQT), to select new Soldiers. Although the AFQT is useful for selecting new Soldiers, other personal attributes are important to...to be and will continue to serve as a useful metric for selecting new Soldiers, other personal attributes, in particular non-cognitive attributes

7 CFR 60.119 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Processed food item. 60.119 Section 60.119 Agriculture... FOR FISH AND SHELLFISH General Provisions Definitions § 60.119 Processed food item. Processed food... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., breading, tomato sauce), except that...

7 CFR 60.119 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Processed food item. 60.119 Section 60.119 Agriculture... FOR FISH AND SHELLFISH General Provisions Definitions § 60.119 Processed food item. Processed food... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., breading, tomato sauce), except that...

7 CFR 60.119 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Processed food item. 60.119 Section 60.119 Agriculture... FOR FISH AND SHELLFISH General Provisions Definitions § 60.119 Processed food item. Processed food... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., breading, tomato sauce), except that...

7 CFR 60.119 - Processed food item.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Processed food item. 60.119 Section 60.119 Agriculture... FOR FISH AND SHELLFISH General Provisions Definitions § 60.119 Processed food item. Processed food... other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., breading, tomato sauce), except that...

Disruption of Relational Processing Underlies Poor Memory for Order

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jonker, Tanya R.; MacLeod, Colin M.

2015-01-01

McDaniel and Bugg (2008) proposed that relatively uncommon stimuli and encoding tasks encourage elaborative encoding of individual items (item-specific processing), whereas relatively typical or common encoding tasks encourage encoding of associations among list items (relational processing). It is this relational processing that is thought to…

Computerized adaptive testing: the capitalization on chance problem.

PubMed

Olea, Julio; Barrada, Juan Ramón; Abad, Francisco J; Ponsoda, Vicente; Cuevas, Lara

2012-03-01

This paper describes several simulation studies that examine the effects of capitalization on chance in the selection of items and the ability estimation in CAT, employing the 3-parameter logistic model. In order to generate different estimation errors for the item parameters, the calibration sample size was manipulated (N = 500, 1000 and 2000 subjects) as was the ratio of item bank size to test length (banks of 197 and 788 items, test lengths of 20 and 40 items), both in a CAT and in a random test. Results show that capitalization on chance is particularly serious in CAT, as revealed by the large positive bias found in the small sample calibration conditions. For broad ranges of theta, the overestimation of the precision (asymptotic Se) reaches levels of 40%, something that does not occur with the RMSE (theta). The problem is greater as the item bank size to test length ratio increases. Potential solutions were tested in a second study, where two exposure control methods were incorporated into the item selection algorithm. Some alternative solutions are discussed.

The Comparative Effectiveness of Different Item Analysis Techniques in Increasing Change Score Reliability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crocker, Linda M.; Mehrens, William A.

Four new methods of item analysis were used to select subsets of items which would yield measures of attitude change. The sample consisted of 263 students at Michigan State University who were tested on the Inventory of Beliefs as freshmen and retested on the same instrument as juniors. Item change scores and total change scores were computed for…

Anchor Selection Strategies for DIF Analysis: Review, Assessment, and New Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kopf, Julia; Zeileis, Achim; Strobl, Carolin

2015-01-01

Differential item functioning (DIF) indicates the violation of the invariance assumption, for instance, in models based on item response theory (IRT). For item-wise DIF analysis using IRT, a common metric for the item parameters of the groups that are to be compared (e.g., for the reference and the focal group) is necessary. In the Rasch model,…

Computerized Adaptive Testing for Polytomous Motivation Items: Administration Mode Effects and a Comparison with Short Forms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hol, A. Michiel; Vorst, Harrie C. M.; Mellenbergh, Gideon J.

2007-01-01

In a randomized experiment (n = 515), a computerized and a computerized adaptive test (CAT) are compared. The item pool consists of 24 polytomous motivation items. Although items are carefully selected, calibration data show that Samejima's graded response model did not fit the data optimally. A simulation study is done to assess possible…

Objective and Item Banking Computer Software and Its Use in Comprehensive Achievement Monitoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schriber, Peter E.; Gorth, William P.

The current emphasis on objectives and test item banks for constructing more effective tests is being augmented by increasingly sophisticated computer software. Items can be catalogued in numerous ways for retrieval. The items as well as instructional objectives can be stored and test forms can be selected and printed by the computer. It is also…

Wisconsin Title I Migrant Education. Section 143 Project: Development of an Item Bank. Summary Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Frank N.; And Others

The successful Wisconsin Title 1 project item bank offers a valid, flexible, and efficient means of providing migrant student tests in reading and mathematics tailored to instructor curricula. The item bank system consists of nine PASCAL computer programs which maintain, search, and select from approximately 1,000 test items stored on floppy disks…

Selection of an Alternative Production Part Approval Process to Improve Weapon Systems Production Readiness

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-09-01

production outcomes: 1) knowledge gaps in technology, 2) design instability and 3) manufacturing knowledge gaps. Only manufacturing knowledge gaps...ability to produce at a desired production rate. Each item produced under this manufacturing development is to meet that item’s design requirements. The...represented with respect to assessing manufacturing design and development with a verification and demonstration. DOD acquisition waits to assess production

Assessing patients' experiences with communication across the cancer care continuum.

PubMed

Mazor, Kathleen M; Street, Richard L; Sue, Valerie M; Williams, Andrew E; Rabin, Borsika A; Arora, Neeraj K

2016-08-01

To evaluate the relevance, performance and potential usefulness of the Patient Assessment of cancer Communication Experiences (PACE) items. Items focusing on specific communication goals related to exchanging information, fostering healing relationships, responding to emotions, making decisions, enabling self-management, and managing uncertainty were tested via a retrospective, cross-sectional survey of adults who had been diagnosed with cancer. Analyses examined response frequencies, inter-item correlations, and coefficient alpha. A total of 366 adults were included in the analyses. Relatively few selected Does Not Apply, suggesting that items tap relevant communication experiences. Ratings of whether specific communication goals were achieved were strongly correlated with overall ratings of communication, suggesting item content reflects important aspects of communication. Coefficient alpha was ≥.90 for each item set, indicating excellent reliability. Variations in the percentage of respondents selecting the most positive response across items suggest results can identify strengths and weaknesses. The PACE items tap relevant, important aspects of communication during cancer care, and may be useful to cancer care teams desiring detailed feedback. The PACE is a new tool for eliciting patients' perspectives on communication during cancer care. It is freely available online for practitioners, researchers and others. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human values in the team leader selection process.

PubMed

Rovira, Núria; Ozgen, Sibel; Medir, Magda; Tous, Jordi; Alabart, Joan Ramon

2012-03-01

The selection process of team leaders is fundamental if the effectiveness of teams is to be guaranteed. Human values have proven to be an important factor in the behaviour of individuals and leaders. The aim of this study is twofold. The first is to validate Schwartz's survey of human values. The second is to determine whether there are any relationships between the values held by individuals and their preferred roles in a team. Human values were measured by the items of the Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) and the preferred roles in a team were identified by the Belbin Self Perception Inventory (BSPI). The two questionnaires were answered by two samples of undergraduate students (183 and 177 students, respectively). As far as the first objective is concerned, Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) was performed at the outset to examine how well the two-dimensional circular structure, as postulated by Schwartz, was represented in the study population. Then, the results of this analysis were compared and contrasted with those of two other published studies; one by Schwartz (2006) and one by Ros and Grad (1991). As for the second objective, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to assess the associations between the ratings on the SVS survey items and the ratings on the eight team roles as measured by the BSPI.

Equipment concept design and development plans for microgravity science and applications research on space station: Combustion tunnel, laser diagnostic system, advanced modular furnace, integrated electronics laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Uhran, M. L.; Youngblood, W. W.; Georgekutty, T.; Fiske, M. R.; Wear, W. O.

1986-01-01

Taking advantage of the microgravity environment of space NASA has initiated the preliminary design of a permanently manned space station that will support technological advances in process science and stimulate the development of new and improved materials having applications across the commercial spectrum. Previous studies have been performed to define from the researcher's perspective, the requirements for laboratory equipment to accommodate microgravity experiments on the space station. Functional requirements for the identified experimental apparatus and support equipment were determined. From these hardware requirements, several items were selected for concept designs and subsequent formulation of development plans. This report documents the concept designs and development plans for two items of experiment apparatus - the Combustion Tunnel and the Advanced Modular Furnace, and two items of support equipment the Laser Diagnostic System and the Integrated Electronics Laboratory. For each concept design, key technology developments were identified that are required to enable or enhance the development of the respective hardware.

Development of the PROMIS health expectancies of smoking item banks.

PubMed

Edelen, Maria Orlando; Tucker, Joan S; Shadel, William G; Stucky, Brian D; Cerully, Jennifer; Li, Zhen; Hansen, Mark; Cai, Li

2014-09-01

Smokers' health-related outcome expectancies are associated with a number of important constructs in smoking research, yet there are no measures currently available that focus exclusively on this domain. This paper describes the development and evaluation of item banks for assessing the health expectancies of smoking. Using data from a sample of daily (N = 4,201) and nondaily (N = 1,183) smokers, we conducted a series of item factor analyses, item response theory analyses, and differential item functioning analyses (according to gender, age, and race/ethnicity) to arrive at a unidimensional set of health expectancies items for daily and nondaily smokers. We also evaluated the performance of short forms (SFs) and computer adaptive tests (CATs) to efficiently assess health expectancies. A total of 24 items were included in the Health Expectancies item banks; 13 items are common across daily and nondaily smokers, 6 are unique to daily, and 5 are unique to nondaily. For both daily and nondaily smokers, the Health Expectancies item banks are unidimensional, reliable (reliability = 0.95 and 0.96, respectively), and perform similarly across gender, age, and race/ethnicity groups. A SF common to daily and nondaily smokers consists of 6 items (reliability = 0.87). Results from simulated CATs showed that health expectancies can be assessed with good precision with an average of 5-6 items adaptively selected from the item banks. Health expectancies of smoking can be assessed on the basis of these item banks via SFs, CATs, or through a tailored set of items selected for a specific research purpose. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Development of the PROMIS nicotine dependence item banks.

PubMed

Shadel, William G; Edelen, Maria Orlando; Tucker, Joan S; Stucky, Brian D; Hansen, Mark; Cai, Li

2014-09-01

Nicotine dependence is a core construct important for understanding cigarette smoking and smoking cessation behavior. This article describes analyses conducted to develop and evaluate item banks for assessing nicotine dependence among daily and nondaily smokers. Using data from a sample of daily (N = 4,201) and nondaily (N =1,183) smokers, we conducted a series of item factor analyses, item response theory analyses, and differential item functioning analyses (according to gender, age, and race/ethnicity) to arrive at a unidimensional set of nicotine dependence items for daily and nondaily smokers. We also evaluated performance of short forms (SFs) and computer adaptive tests (CATs) to efficiently assess dependence. A total of 32 items were included in the Nicotine Dependence item banks; 22 items are common across daily and nondaily smokers, 5 are unique to daily smokers, and 5 are unique to nondaily smokers. For both daily and nondaily smokers, the Nicotine Dependence item banks are strongly unidimensional, highly reliable (reliability = 0.97 and 0.97, respectively), and perform similarly across gender, age, and race/ethnicity groups. SFs common to daily and nondaily smokers consist of 8 and 4 items (reliability = 0.91 and 0.81, respectively). Results from simulated CATs showed that dependence can be assessed with very good precision for most respondents using fewer than 6 items adaptively selected from the item banks. Nicotine dependence on cigarettes can be assessed on the basis of these item banks via one of the SFs, by using CATs, or through a tailored set of items selected for a specific research purpose. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Implicit and explicit forgetting: when is gist remembered?

PubMed

Dorfman, J; Mandler, G

1994-08-01

Recognition (YES/NO) and stem completion (cued: complete with a word from the list; and uncued: complete with the first word that comes to mind) were tested following either semantic or non-semantic processing of a categorized input list. Item/instance information was tested by contrasting target items from the input list with new items that were categorically related to them; gist/categorical information was tested by comparing target items semantically related to the input items with unrelated new items. For both recognition and stem completion, regardless of initial processing condition, item information decayed rapidly over a period of one week. Gist information was maintained over the same period when initial processing was semantic but only in the cued condition for completion. These results are discussed in terms of dual process theory, which postulates activation/integration of a representation as primarily relevant to implicit item information and elaboration of a representation as mainly relevant to semantic (i.e. categorical) information.

Engineering Review Information System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grems, III, Edward G. (Inventor); Henze, James E. (Inventor); Bixby, Jonathan A. (Inventor); Roberts, Mark (Inventor); Mann, Thomas (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A disciplinal engineering review computer information system and method by defining a database of disciplinal engineering review process entities for an enterprise engineering program, opening a computer supported engineering item based upon the defined disciplinal engineering review process entities, managing a review of the opened engineering item according to the defined disciplinal engineering review process entities, and closing the opened engineering item according to the opened engineering item review.

Federal Logistics Information System. FLIS Procedures Manual Publications. Volume 15.

DTIC Science & Technology

1995-01-01

which provides for the processing of adjustments/revisions to established item identifications and characteristics in the FLIS Data Base. Item Logistics...A function in FLIS which provides for the processing of adjustments/revisions to established item identifications and characteristics in the FLIS...the materiel management functions for assigned items. Mechanization of Warehousing and Shipment Processing (MOWASP). A uniform data 6 system designed

Designing a Virtual Item Bank Based on the Techniques of Image Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liao, Wen-Wei; Ho, Rong-Guey

2011-01-01

One of the major weaknesses of the item exposure rates of figural items in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests lies in its inaccuracies. In this study, a new approach is proposed and a useful test tool known as the Virtual Item Bank (VIB) is introduced. The VIB combine Automatic Item Generation theory and image processing theory with the concepts of…

Developing and evaluating innovative items for the NCLEX: Part 2, item characteristics and cognitive processing.

PubMed

Wendt, Anne; Harmes, J Christine

2009-01-01

This article is a continuation of the research on the development and evaluation of innovative item formats for the NCLEX examinations that was published in the March/April 2009 edition of Nurse Educator. The authors discuss the innovative item templates and evaluate the statistical characteristics and level of cognitive processing required to answer the examination items.

The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study-Neurocognitive Questionnaire (CCSS-NCQ) Revised: Item Response Analysis and Concurrent Validity

PubMed Central

Kenzik, Kelly M.; Huang, I-Chan; Brinkman, Tara M.; Baughman, Brandon; Ness, Kirsten K.; Shenkman, Elizabeth A.; Hudson, Melissa M.; Robison, Leslie L.; Krull, Kevin R.

2014-01-01

Objective Childhood cancer survivors are at risk for neurocognitive impairment related to cancer diagnosis or treatment. This study refined and further validated the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Neurocognitive Questionnaire (CCSS-NCQ), a scale developed to screen for impairment in long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Method Items related to task efficiency, memory, organization and emotional regulation domains were examined using item response theory (IRT). Data were collected from 833 adult survivors of childhood cancer in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study who completed self-report and direct neurocognitive testing. The revision process included: 1) content validity mapping of items to domains, 2) constructing a revised CCSS-NCQ, 3) selecting items within specific domains using IRT, and 4) evaluating concordance between the revised CCSS-NCQ and direct neurocognitive assessment. Results Using content and measurement properties, 32 items were retained (8 items in 4 domains). Items captured low to middle levels of neurocognitive concerns. The latent domain scores demonstrated poor convergent/divergent validity with the direct assessments. Adjusted effect sizes (Cohen's d) for agreement between self-reported memory and direct memory assessment were moderate for total recall (ES=0.66), long-term memory (ES=0.63), and short-term memory (ES=0.55). Effect sizes between self-rated task efficiency and direct assessment of attention were moderate for focused attention (ES=0.70) and attention span (ES=0.50), but small for sustained attention (ES=0.36). Cranial radiation therapy and female gender were associated with lower self-reported neurocognitive function. Conclusion The revised CCSS-NCQ demonstrates adequate measurement properties for assessing day-to-day neurocognitive concerns in childhood cancer survivors, and adds useful information to direct assessment. PMID:24933482

The International Confederation of Midwives: Global Standards for Midwifery Education (2010) with companion guidelines.

PubMed

Thompson, Joyce B; Fullerton, Judith T; Sawyer, Angela J

2011-08-01

a 2-year study was conducted to develop Global Standards for Midwifery Education in keeping with core documents of the International Confederation of Midwives. Elements of the standards were based on evidence available in the published and unpublished literature. Companion Guidelines to assist in implementing the standards were also developed. a modified Delphi survey process was conducted in two rounds following item validation by a panel of midwifery education experts. a global survey conducted in 88 countries. midwifery educators and clinicians associated with midwifery education located in any of the ICM member association countries. Additional participants included an Expert Midwifery Resource Group, other Key Stakeholders, midwifery regulators and policy makers. A total of 241 individuals from 46 ICM member association countries and ten non-member countries responded to one or both of the survey rounds. survey respondents expressed an opinion on whether to retain or to delete any of the proposed components of the standards. Version one had 109 proposed components and version two had 111 items for consideration. a majority consensus of .80 was required to accept an item without further deliberation. The Education Standards Task Force (expert panel) made final decisions in the four instances where this level of consensus was not reached, retaining all four items. The panel also amended the wording of selected items or added new items based on feedback received from survey respondents. The final document contains 10 Preface items, 35 glossary terms, and 37 discrete standards with 27 sub-sections. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing a Clinician Friendly Tool to Identify Useful Clinical Practice Guidelines: G-TRUST.

PubMed

Shaughnessy, Allen F; Vaswani, Akansha; Andrews, Bonnie K; Erlich, Deborah R; D'Amico, Frank; Lexchin, Joel; Cosgrove, Lisa

2017-09-01

Clinicians are faced with a plethora of guidelines. To rate guidelines, they can select from a number of evaluation tools, most of which are long and difficult to apply. The goal of this project was to develop a simple, easy-to-use checklist for clinicians to use to identify trustworthy, relevant, and useful practice guidelines, the Guideline Trustworthiness, Relevance, and Utility Scoring Tool (G-TRUST). A modified Delphi process was used to obtain consensus of experts and guideline developers regarding a checklist of items and their relative impact on guideline quality. We conducted 4 rounds of sampling to refine wording, add and subtract items, and develop a scoring system. Multiple attribute utility analysis was used to develop a weighted utility score for each item to determine scoring. Twenty-two experts in evidence-based medicine, 17 developers of high-quality guidelines, and 1 consumer representative participated. In rounds 1 and 2, items were rewritten or dropped, and 2 items were added. In round 3, weighted scores were calculated from rankings and relative weights assigned by the expert panel. In the last round, more than 75% of experts indicated 3 of the 8 checklist items to be major indicators of guideline usefulness and, using the AGREE tool as a reference standard, a scoring system was developed to identify guidelines as useful, may not be useful, and not useful. The 8-item G-TRUST is potentially helpful as a tool for clinicians to identify useful guidelines. Further research will focus on its reliability when used by clinicians. © 2017 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Selective reaching in macaques: evidence for action-centred attention.

PubMed

Bulgheroni, Maria; Camperio-Ciani, Andrea; Straulino, Elisa; Sartori, Luisa; D'Amico, Enrico; Castiello, Umberto

2017-03-01

When a monkey selects a piece of food lying on the ground from among other viable objects in the near vicinity, only the desired item governs the particular pattern and direction of the animal's reaching action. It would seem then that selection is an important component controlling the animal's action. But, we may ask, is the selection process in such cases impervious to the presence of other objects that could constitute potential obstacles to or constraints on movement execution? And if it is, in fact, pervious to other objects, do they have a direct influence on the organization of the response? The kinematics of macaques' reaching movements were examined by the current study that analysed some exemplars as they selectively reached to grasp a food item in the absence as well as in the presence of potential obstacles (i.e., stones) that could affect the arm trajectory. Changes in movement parameterization were noted in temporal measures, such as movement time, as well as in spatial ones, such as paths of trajectory. Generally speaking, the presence of stones in the vicinity of the acting hand stalled the reaching movement and affected the arm trajectory as the hand veered away from the stone even when it was not a physical obstacle. We concluded that nearby objects evoke a motor response in macaques, and the attentional mechanisms that allow for a successful action selection are revealed in the reaching path. The data outlined here concur with human studies indicating that potential obstacles are internally represented, a finding implying basic cognitive operations allowing for action selection in macaques.

Finding the Perfect Match: Factors That Influence Family Medicine Residency Selection.

PubMed

Wright, Katherine M; Ryan, Elizabeth R; Gatta, John L; Anderson, Lauren; Clements, Deborah S

2016-04-01

Residency program selection is a significant experience for emerging physicians, yet there is limited information about how applicants narrow their list of potential programs. This study examines factors that influence residency program selection among medical students interested in family medicine at the time of application. Medical students with an expressed interest in family medicine were invited to participate in a 37-item, online survey. Students were asked to rate factors that may impact residency selection on a 6-point Likert scale in addition to three open-ended qualitative questions. Mean values were calculated for each survey item and were used to determine a rank order for selection criteria. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors that predict a strong interest in urban, suburban, and rural residency programs. Logistic regression was also used to identify factors that predict a strong interest in academic health center-based residencies, community-based residencies, and community-based residencies with an academic affiliation. A total of 705 medical students from 32 states across the country completed the survey. Location, work/life balance, and program structure (curriculum, schedule) were rated the most important factors for residency selection. Logistic regression analysis was used to refine our understanding of how each factor relates to specific types of residencies. These findings have implications for how to best advise students in selecting a residency, as well as marketing residencies to the right candidates. Refining the recruitment process will ensure a better fit between applicants and potential programs. Limited recruitment resources may be better utilized by focusing on targeted dissemination strategies.

Real-time learning of predictive recognition categories that chunk sequences of items stored in working memory

PubMed Central

Kazerounian, Sohrob; Grossberg, Stephen

2014-01-01

How are sequences of events that are temporarily stored in a cognitive working memory unitized, or chunked, through learning? Such sequential learning is needed by the brain in order to enable language, spatial understanding, and motor skills to develop. In particular, how does the brain learn categories, or list chunks, that become selectively tuned to different temporal sequences of items in lists of variable length as they are stored in working memory, and how does this learning process occur in real time? The present article introduces a neural model that simulates learning of such list chunks. In this model, sequences of items are temporarily stored in an Item-and-Order, or competitive queuing, working memory before learning categorizes them using a categorization network, called a Masking Field, which is a self-similar, multiple-scale, recurrent on-center off-surround network that can weigh the evidence for variable-length sequences of items as they are stored in the working memory through time. A Masking Field hereby activates the learned list chunks that represent the most predictive item groupings at any time, while suppressing less predictive chunks. In a network with a given number of input items, all possible ordered sets of these item sequences, up to a fixed length, can be learned with unsupervised or supervised learning. The self-similar multiple-scale properties of Masking Fields interacting with an Item-and-Order working memory provide a natural explanation of George Miller's Magical Number Seven and Nelson Cowan's Magical Number Four. The article explains why linguistic, spatial, and action event sequences may all be stored by Item-and-Order working memories that obey similar design principles, and thus how the current results may apply across modalities. Item-and-Order properties may readily be extended to Item-Order-Rank working memories in which the same item can be stored in multiple list positions, or ranks, as in the list ABADBD. Comparisons with other models, including TRACE, MERGE, and TISK, are made. PMID:25339918

Weapon Performance Testing and Analysis: The MODI-PAC Round, the Number 4 Lead-Shot Round, and the Flying Baton

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-01-01

items. The items tested were the MODI-PAC, a proprietary item of Reming)on Arms Company, a standard 12 - gauge round of No. 4 lead shot, and an...to refrain from testing this item. Therefore, the final selection of items for testing were (1) the MODI-PAC, (2) a standard 12 - gauge shotgun round of...The first item evaluated was the MODI-PAC5. The MOQ1-PAC which standsfor “modified impact “ is a 12 - gauge shotgun shell loaded with approximately 320

Method of data mining including determining multidimensional coordinates of each item using a predetermined scalar similarity value for each item pair

DOEpatents

Meyers, Charles E.; Davidson, George S.; Johnson, David K.; Hendrickson, Bruce A.; Wylie, Brian N.

1999-01-01

A method of data mining represents related items in a multidimensional space. Distance between items in the multidimensional space corresponds to the extent of relationship between the items. The user can select portions of the space to perceive. The user also can interact with and control the communication of the space, focusing attention on aspects of the space of most interest. The multidimensional spatial representation allows more ready comprehension of the structure of the relationships among the items.

All varieties of encoding variability are not created equal: Separating variable processing from variable tasks

PubMed Central

Huff, Mark J.; Bodner, Glen E.

2014-01-01

Whether encoding variability facilitates memory is shown to depend on whether item-specific and relational processing are both performed across study blocks, and whether study items are weakly versus strongly related. Variable-processing groups studied a word list once using an item-specific task and once using a relational task. Variable-task groups’ two different study tasks recruited the same type of processing each block. Repeated-task groups performed the same study task each block. Recall and recognition were greatest in the variable-processing group, but only with weakly related lists. A variable-processing benefit was also found when task-based processing and list-type processing were complementary (e.g., item-specific processing of a related list) rather than redundant (e.g., relational processing of a related list). That performing both item-specific and relational processing across trials, or within a trial, yields encoding-variability benefits may help reconcile decades of contradictory findings in this area. PMID:25018583

The role of attention in item-item binding in visual working memory.

PubMed

Peterson, Dwight J; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2017-09-01

An important yet unresolved question regarding visual working memory (VWM) relates to whether or not binding processes within VWM require additional attentional resources compared with processing solely the individual components comprising these bindings. Previous findings indicate that binding of surface features (e.g., colored shapes) within VWM is not demanding of resources beyond what is required for single features. However, it is possible that other types of binding, such as the binding of complex, distinct items (e.g., faces and scenes), in VWM may require additional resources. In 3 experiments, we examined VWM item-item binding performance under no load, articulatory suppression, and backward counting using a modified change detection task. Binding performance declined to a greater extent than single-item performance under higher compared with lower levels of concurrent load. The findings from each of these experiments indicate that processing item-item bindings within VWM requires a greater amount of attentional resources compared with single items. These findings also highlight an important distinction between the role of attention in item-item binding within VWM and previous studies of long-term memory (LTM) where declines in single-item and binding test performance are similar under divided attention. The current findings provide novel evidence that the specific type of binding is an important determining factor regarding whether or not VWM binding processes require attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Concreteness effects in short-term memory: a test of the item-order hypothesis.

PubMed

Roche, Jaclynn; Tolan, G Anne; Tehan, Gerald

2011-12-01

The following experiments explore word length and concreteness effects in short-term memory within an item-order processing framework. This framework asserts order memory is better for those items that are relatively easy to process at the item level. However, words that are difficult to process benefit at the item level for increased attention/resources being applied. The prediction of the model is that differential item and order processing can be detected in episodic tasks that differ in the degree to which item or order memory are required by the task. The item-order account has been applied to the word length effect such that there is a short word advantage in serial recall but a long word advantage in item recognition. The current experiment considered the possibility that concreteness effects might be explained within the same framework. In two experiments, word length (Experiment 1) and concreteness (Experiment 2) are examined using forward serial recall, backward serial recall, and item recognition. These results for word length replicate previous studies showing the dissociation in item and order tasks. The same was not true for the concreteness effect. In all three tasks concrete words were better remembered than abstract words. The concreteness effect cannot be explained in terms of an item-order trade off. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Development, Validation, and Use of an Item Bank for Police Promotion Examinations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enger, John M.

In Arkansas, in reaction to complaints about traditional methods of selection for promotion, the civil service commission has chosen to base promotions in the police department solely on scores on locally-developed objective tests. Items developed and loaded into a computerized test bank were selected from six areas of responsibility: (1) criminal…

Multidimensional CAT Item Selection Methods for Domain Scores and Composite Scores: Theory and Applications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yao, Lihua

2012-01-01

Multidimensional computer adaptive testing (MCAT) can provide higher precision and reliability or reduce test length when compared with unidimensional CAT or with the paper-and-pencil test. This study compared five item selection procedures in the MCAT framework for both domain scores and overall scores through simulation by varying the structure…

Regressive research: The pitfalls of post hoc data selection in the study of unconscious mental processes.

PubMed

Shanks, David R

2017-06-01

Many studies of unconscious processing involve comparing a performance measure (e.g., some assessment of perception or memory) with an awareness measure (such as a verbal report or a forced-choice response) taken either concurrently or separately. Unconscious processing is inferred when above-chance performance is combined with null awareness. Often, however, aggregate awareness is better than chance, and data analysis therefore employs a form of extreme group analysis focusing post hoc on participants, trials, or items where awareness is absent or at chance. The pitfalls of this analytic approach are described with particular reference to recent research on implicit learning and subliminal perception. Because of regression to the mean, the approach can mislead researchers into erroneous conclusions concerning unconscious influences on behavior. Recommendations are made about future use of post hoc selection in research on unconscious cognition.

Trait anxiety and impaired control of reflective attention in working memory.

PubMed

Hoshino, Takatoshi; Tanno, Yoshihiko

2016-01-01

The present study investigated whether the control of reflective attention in working memory (WM) is impaired in high trait anxiety individuals. We focused on the consequences of refreshing-a simple reflective process of thinking briefly about a just-activated representation in mind-on the subsequent processing of verbal stimuli. Participants performed a selective refreshing task, in which they initially refreshed or read one word from a three-word set, and then refreshed a non-selected item from the initial phrase or read aloud a new word. High trait anxiety individuals exhibited greater latencies when refreshing a word after experiencing the refreshing of a word from the same list of semantic associates. The same pattern was observed for reading a new word after prior refreshing. These findings suggest that high trait anxiety individuals have difficulty resolving interference from active distractors when directing reflective attention towards contents in WM or processing a visually presented word.

Development and validation of competencies for return to work coordinators.

PubMed

Pransky, Glenn; Shaw, William S; Loisel, Patrick; Hong, Quan Nha; Désorcy, Bruno

2010-03-01

Return to work (RTW) coordinators are a key element in programs that facilitate RTW of injured or ill workers, yet little research documents the competencies required for success in this role. Competencies were defined as knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Eight focus groups were conducted with 75 experienced RTW coordinators to identify 904 individual competencies. These were subsequently reduced to 234 unique items through affinity mapping, and sorted into eight groups: administration, individual personal attributes, information gathering, communication, professional credibility, evaluation, problem-solving, and conflict management. A subset of 100 items, including 88 items most often cited, were incorporated in an Internet-based survey that sampled a broad range of RTW coordinators from three countries. Eighty-three of the questionnaire items were rated 4 or 5 (very important or essential) by over half of the 148 respondents. There were no differences in affinity group mean ratings by country, employer, profession, or type of clients. The highest-rated items reflect general personal characteristics, or specific skills related to coordinating among all involved with the RTW process. RTW coordinators with nursing backgrounds provided slightly higher ratings for items related to medical knowledge, but otherwise their ratings were similar to non-nurses. These findings indicate a consensus across a wide range of RTW coordinators, and results can be applied to improve coordinator selection, training, and development. Certain key competencies may be well-established individual attributes, and others may be best developed through mentorship. Most of these competencies are probably best evaluated by direct observation.

Variable stars around selected open clusters in the VVV area: Young Stellar Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medina, Nicolas; Borissova, Jura; Bayo, Amelia; Kurtev, Radostin; Lucas, Philip

2017-09-01

Time-varying phenomena are one of the most substantial sources of astrophysical information, and led to many fundamental discoveries in modern astronomy. We have developed an automated tool to search and analyze variable sources in the near infrared Ks band, using the data from the Vista Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) ESO Public Survey ([5, 8]). One of our main goals is to investigate the Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) in the Galactic star forming regions, looking for: •Variability. •New pre-main sequence star clusters. Here we present the newly discovered YSOs within some selected stellar clusters in our Galaxy.

Optimizing data collection for public health decisions: a data mining approach

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Collecting data can be cumbersome and expensive. Lack of relevant, accurate and timely data for research to inform policy may negatively impact public health. The aim of this study was to test if the careful removal of items from two community nutrition surveys guided by a data mining technique called feature selection, can (a) identify a reduced dataset, while (b) not damaging the signal inside that data. Methods The Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys for stores (NEMS-S) and restaurants (NEMS-R) were completed on 885 retail food outlets in two counties in West Virginia between May and November of 2011. A reduced dataset was identified for each outlet type using feature selection. Coefficients from linear regression modeling were used to weight items in the reduced datasets. Weighted item values were summed with the error term to compute reduced item survey scores. Scores produced by the full survey were compared to the reduced item scores using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results Feature selection identified 9 store and 16 restaurant survey items as significant predictors of the score produced from the full survey. The linear regression models built from the reduced feature sets had R2 values of 92% and 94% for restaurant and grocery store data, respectively. Conclusions While there are many potentially important variables in any domain, the most useful set may only be a small subset. The use of feature selection in the initial phase of data collection to identify the most influential variables may be a useful tool to greatly reduce the amount of data needed thereby reducing cost. PMID:24919484

Optimizing data collection for public health decisions: a data mining approach.

PubMed

Partington, Susan N; Papakroni, Vasil; Menzies, Tim

2014-06-12

Collecting data can be cumbersome and expensive. Lack of relevant, accurate and timely data for research to inform policy may negatively impact public health. The aim of this study was to test if the careful removal of items from two community nutrition surveys guided by a data mining technique called feature selection, can (a) identify a reduced dataset, while (b) not damaging the signal inside that data. The Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys for stores (NEMS-S) and restaurants (NEMS-R) were completed on 885 retail food outlets in two counties in West Virginia between May and November of 2011. A reduced dataset was identified for each outlet type using feature selection. Coefficients from linear regression modeling were used to weight items in the reduced datasets. Weighted item values were summed with the error term to compute reduced item survey scores. Scores produced by the full survey were compared to the reduced item scores using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Feature selection identified 9 store and 16 restaurant survey items as significant predictors of the score produced from the full survey. The linear regression models built from the reduced feature sets had R2 values of 92% and 94% for restaurant and grocery store data, respectively. While there are many potentially important variables in any domain, the most useful set may only be a small subset. The use of feature selection in the initial phase of data collection to identify the most influential variables may be a useful tool to greatly reduce the amount of data needed thereby reducing cost.

Selection of Common Items as an Unrecognized Source of Variability in Test Equating: A Bootstrap Approximation Assuming Random Sampling of Common Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michaelides, Michalis P.; Haertel, Edward H.

2014-01-01

The standard error of equating quantifies the variability in the estimation of an equating function. Because common items for deriving equated scores are treated as fixed, the only source of variability typically considered arises from the estimation of common-item parameters from responses of samples of examinees. Use of alternative, equally…

Development of a wheelchair mobility skills test for children and adolescents: combining evidence with clinical expertise.

PubMed

Sol, Marleen Elisabeth; Verschuren, Olaf; de Groot, Laura; de Groot, Janke Frederike

2017-02-13

Wheelchair mobility skills (WMS) training is regarded by children using a manual wheelchair and their parents as an important factor to improve participation and daily physical activity. Currently, there is no outcome measure available for the evaluation of WMS in children. Several wheelchair mobility outcome measures have been developed for adults, but none of these have been validated in children. Therefore the objective of this study is to develop a WMS outcome measure for children using the current knowledge from literature in combination with the clinical expertise of health care professionals, children and their parents. Mixed methods approach. Phase 1: Item identification of WMS items through a systematic review using the 'COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments' (COSMIN) recommendations. Phase 2: Item selection and validation of relevant WMS items for children, using a focus group and interviews with children using a manual wheelchair, their parents and health care professionals. Phase 3: Feasibility of the newly developed Utrecht Pediatric Wheelchair Mobility Skills Test (UP-WMST) through pilot testing. Phase 1: Data analysis and synthesis of nine WMS related outcome measures showed there is no widely used outcome measure with levels of evidence across all measurement properties. However, four outcome measures showed some levels of evidence on reliability and validity for adults. Twenty-two WMS items with the best clinimetric properties were selected for further analysis in phase 2. Phase 2: Fifteen items were deemed as relevant for children, one item needed adaptation and six items were considered not relevant for assessing WMS in children. Phase 3: Two health care professionals administered the UP-WMST in eight children. The instructions of the UP-WMST were clear, but the scoring method of the height difference items needed adaptation. The outdoor items for rolling over soft surface and the side slope item were excluded in the final version of the UP-WMST due to logistic reasons. The newly developed 15 item UP-WMST is a validated outcome measure which is easy to administer in children using a manual wheelchair. More research regarding reliability, construct validity and responsiveness is warranted before the UP-WMST can be used in practice.

Prey selection by the Lake Superior fish community

USGS Publications Warehouse

Isaac, Edmund J.; Hrabik, Thomas R.; Stockwell, Jason D.; Gamble, Allison E.

2012-01-01

Mysis diluviana is an important prey item to the Lake Superior fish community as found through a recent diet study. We further evaluated this by relating the quantity of prey found in fish diets to the quantity of prey available to fish, providing insight into feeding behavior and prey preferences. We describe the seasonal prey selection of major fish species collected across 18 stations in Lake Superior in spring, summer, and fall of 2005. Of the major nearshore fish species, bloater (Coregonus hoyi), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), and lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) consumed Mysis, and strongly selected Mysis over other prey items each season. However, lake whitefish also selected Bythotrephes in the fall when Bythotrephes were numerous. Cisco (Coregonus artedi), a major nearshore and offshore species, fed largely on calanoid copepods, and selected calanoid copepods (spring) and Bythotrephes (summer and fall). Cisco also targeted prey similarly across bathymetric depths. Other major offshore fish species such as kiyi (Coregonus kiyi) and deepwater sculpin (Myoxocephalus thompsoni) fed largely on Mysis, with kiyi targeting Mysis exclusively while deepwater sculpin did not prefer any single prey organism. The major offshore predator siscowet lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush siscowet) consumed deepwater sculpin and coregonines, but selected deepwater sculpin and Mysis each season, with juveniles having a higher selection for Mysis than adults. Our results suggest that Mysis is not only a commonly consumed prey item, but a highly preferred prey item for pelagic, benthic, and piscivorous fishes in nearshore and offshore waters of Lake Superior.

Development of Methodologic Tools for Planning and Managing Library Services: IV. Bibliography of Studies Selected for Methods and Data Useful to Biomedical Libraries *

PubMed Central

Orr, Richard H.

1970-01-01

This selective bibliography is intended to serve as a guide to empirical studies reporting data and methods that can be used by medical librarians to assess their own efforts objectively and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of services they offer. The decision rules that governed selection of items for the bibliography are specified in detail. A total of 178 items published between 1915 and mid-1968 met the selection criteria. The list of items is supplemented by a keyword index derived from titles. Half the items are journal articles; a third of these articles appeared in the Bulletin, and most of the remainder in thirteen other library and information science journals. Most of the non-journal items are technical reports issued by the organization that conducted or sponsored the work. The characteristics of this literature suggest that few medical libraries, unless they are part of a university system that includes the collection of a library or information science school, are likely to have quick access to the literature base needed to support a comprehensive program of self-evaluation studies and the continuing education of their own staff. Regional medical libraries might well undertake to ensure both ready access to, and awareness of, literature on the scientific aspects of librarianship. PMID:4912761

Guidelines for the selection of chemical-protective clothing. Volume 1. (3rd Edition). Report for January 1985-May 1987

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schwope, A.D.; Costas, P.P.; Jackson, J.O.

1987-02-01

A variety of protective-clothing items are commerically available for emergency response and other applications where chemical hazards may be encountered. Data and information for selecting chemical-protective clothing is either not available or is inconsistant from source to source. In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sponsored the development of chemical-protective clothing selection guidelines to assist their own Office of Health and Safety in providing guidance to personnel, primarily EPA employees and contractors, working on hazardous-waste sites. These guidelines allowed a user to select an appropriate protective material for a specific chemical, select a clothing item (glove, suit, etc.) and thenmore » determine which manufacturers offered the clothing item in the selected material. The U.S. Coast Guard Office of Research and Development and the EPA have supplemented these guidelines with additional data on material chemical resistance, material physical properties, clothing design features, and specific-vendor products. A chapter has been added for selecting chemical protective suits. These guidelines contain data for over 750 chemicals and 700 clothing products. Volume I provides the performance information and recommendations for selecting different types of protective clothing.« less

[The effects of cue upon selective memorization].

PubMed

Watanabe, I

1982-10-01

The subjects listened to a list of 21 words read aloud and memorized eight words among them indicated by the cue. In VC (voice-cue) condition, where the change of voice between male and female cued the difference between the to-be-memorized and not-to-be-memorized items, the percentage of correct recall was higher and the number of intrusion-errors was fewer than in NVC (non-voice-cue) condition, where the cue was the sound of chime given immediately before the to-be-memorized item. The results suggest that the physical characteristics of cue facilitate the selective memorization, but do not necessarily support the early-selection theory of attention. Next, in order to confirm Watanabe's (1976) assertion that the transformation of to-be-memorized items into long-term memory and the exclusion of not-to-be-memorized items take place in parallel, the subjects were required to rehearse aloud every word as it was presented. However, it was found that the method of voiced rehearsal was inadequate to test the assertion.

Severity of Organized Item Theft in Computerized Adaptive Testing: A Simulation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yi, Qing; Zhang, Jinming; Chang, Hua-Hua

2008-01-01

Criteria had been proposed for assessing the severity of possible test security violations for computerized tests with high-stakes outcomes. However, these criteria resulted from theoretical derivations that assumed uniformly randomized item selection. This study investigated potential damage caused by organized item theft in computerized adaptive…

Assessment of Preference for Edible and Leisure Items in Individuals with Dementia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortega, Javier Virues; Iwata, Brian A.; Nogales-Gonzalez, Celia; Frades, Belen

2012-01-01

We conducted 2 studies on reinforcer preference in patients with dementia. Results of preference assessments yielded differential selections by 14 participants. Unlike prior studies with individuals with intellectual disabilities, all participants showed a noticeable preference for leisure items over edible items. Results of a subsequent analysis…

Post-hoc simulation study to adopt a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) for a Korean Medical License Examination.

PubMed

Seo, Dong Gi; Choi, Jeongwook

2018-05-17

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) has been adopted in license examinations due to a test efficiency and accuracy. Many research about CAT have been published to prove the efficiency and accuracy of measurement. This simulation study investigated scoring method and item selection methods to implement CAT in Korean medical license examination (KMLE). This study used post-hoc (real data) simulation design. The item bank used in this study was designed with all items in a 2017 KMLE. All CAT algorithms for this study were implemented by a 'catR' package in R program. In terms of accuracy, Rasch and 2parametric logistic (PL) model performed better than 3PL model. Modal a Posteriori (MAP) or Expected a Posterior (EAP) provided more accurate estimates than MLE and WLE. Furthermore Maximum posterior weighted information (MPWI) or Minimum expected posterior variance (MEPV) performed better than other item selection methods. In terms of efficiency, Rasch model was recommended to reduce test length. Simulation study should be performed under varied test conditions before adopting a live CAT. Based on a simulation study, specific scoring and item selection methods should be predetermined before implementing a live CAT.

Adherence Rating Scale for Cognitive Processing Therapy - Cognitive Only: Analysis of Psychometric Properties.

PubMed

Dittmann, Clara; Müller-Engelmann, Meike; Resick, Patricia A; Gutermann, Jana; Stangier, Ulrich; Priebe, Kathlen; Fydrich, Thomas; Ludäscher, Petra; Herzog, Julia; Steil, Regina

2017-11-01

The assessment of therapeutic adherence is essential for accurately interpreting treatment outcomes in psychotherapy research. However, such assessments are often neglected. To fill this gap, we aimed to develop and test a scale that assessed therapeutic adherence to Cognitive Processing Therapy - Cognitive Only (CPT), which was adapted for a treatment study targeting patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and co-occurring borderline personality symptoms. Two independent, trained raters assessed 30 randomly selected treatment sessions involving seven therapists and eight patients who were treated in a multicentre randomized controlled trial. The inter-rater reliability for all items and the total score yielded good to excellent results (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.70 to 1.00). Cronbach's α was .56 for the adherence scale. Regarding content validity, three experts confirmed the relevance and appropriateness of each item. The adherence rating scale for the adapted version of CPT is a reliable instrument that can be helpful for interpreting treatment effects, analysing possible relationships between therapeutic adherence and treatment outcomes and teaching therapeutic skills.

The Route to an Integrative Associative Memory Is Influenced by Emotion

PubMed Central

Murray, Brendan D.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2014-01-01

Though the hippocampus typically has been implicated in processes related to associative binding, special types of associations – such as those created by integrative mental imagery – may be supported by processes implemented in other medial temporal-lobe or sensory processing regions. Here, we investigated what neural mechanisms underlie the formation and subsequent retrieval of integrated mental images, and whether those mechanisms differ based on the emotionality of the integration (i.e., whether it contains an emotional item or not). Participants viewed pairs of words while undergoing a functional MRI scan. They were instructed to imagine the two items separately from one another (“non-integrative” study) or as a single, integrated mental image (“integrative” study). They provided ratings of how successful they were at generating vivid images that fit the instructions. They were then given a surprise associative recognition test, also while undergoing an fMRI scan. The cuneus showed parametric correspondence to increasing imagery success selectively during encoding and retrieval of emotional integrations, while the parahippocampal gyri and prefrontal cortices showed parametric correspondence during the encoding and retrieval of non-emotional integrations. Connectivity analysis revealed that selectively during negative integration, left amygdala activity was negatively correlated with frontal and hippocampal activity. These data indicate that individuals utilize two different neural routes for forming and retrieving integrations depending on their emotional content, and they suggest a potentially disruptive role for the amygdala on frontal and medial-temporal regions during negative integration. PMID:24427267

Assessing food selection in a health promotion program: validation of a brief instrument for American Indian children in the southwest United States.

PubMed

Koehler, K M; Cunningham-Sabo, L; Lambert, L C; McCalman, R; Skipper, B J; Davis, S M

2000-02-01

Brief dietary assessment instruments are needed to evaluate behavior changes of participants in dietary intervention programs. The purpose of this project was to design and validate an instrument for children participating in Pathways to Health, a culturally appropriate, cancer prevention curriculum. Validation of a brief food selection instrument, Yesterday's Food Choices (YFC), which contained 33 questions about foods eaten the previous day with response choices of yes, no, or not sure. Reference data for validation were 24-hour dietary recalls administered individually to 120 students selected randomly. The YFC and 24-hour dietary recalls were administered to American Indian children in fifth- and seventh-grade classes in the Southwest United States. Dietary recalls were coded for food items in the YFC and results were compared for each item using percentage agreement and the kappa statistic. Percentage agreement for all items was greater than 60%; for most items it was greater than 70%, and for several items it was greater than 80%. The amount of agreement beyond that explained by chance (kappa statistic) was generally small. Three items showed substantial agreement beyond chance (kappa > or = 0.6); 2 items showed moderate agreement (kappa = 0.40 to 0.59) most items showed fair agreement (kappa = 0.20 to 0.39). The food items showing substantial agreement were hot or cold cereal, low-fat milk, and mutton or chile stew. Fried or scrambled eggs and deep-fried foods showed moderate agreement beyond chances. Previous development and validation of brief food selection instruments for children participating in health promotion programs has had limited success. In this study, instrument-related factors that apparently contributed to poor agreement between data from the YFC and 24-hour dietary recall were inclusion of categories of foods vs specific foods; food knowledge, preparation, and vocabulary, item length, and overreporting of attractive foods. Collecting and scoring the 24-hour recall data may also have contributed to poor agreement. Further development of brief instruments for evaluating changes in children's behavior in dietary programs is necessary. Factors related to the YFC that need further development may be issues that are also important in the development of effective, brief dietary assessments for children as individual clients or patients.

Development and Validation of a Short Version of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament Return to Sport After Injury (ACL-RSI) Scale

PubMed Central

Webster, Kate E.; Feller, Julian A.

2018-01-01

Background: The Anterior Cruciate Ligament Return to Sport After Injury (ACL-RSI) scale was developed to measure an athlete’s psychological readiness to return to sport after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and reconstruction surgery. The scale is being used with increasing frequency in both research and clinical settings. Purpose: To generate and validate a short version of the ACL-RSI scale. Study Design: Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2. Methods: The ACL-RSI scale was administered to 535 patients who had undergone ACL reconstruction surgery. Reliability (Cronbach alpha) was determined and factor analysis of the full scale was undertaken along with a process of item selection and elimination. A second group of 250 patients participated in a predictive validation analysis. This group completed the ACL-RSI scale at 6 months and reported return-to-sport outcomes 12 months following ACL reconstruction surgery. The predictive validity of both scales (full and short versions) was assessed by use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve statistics. Results: The scale was found to have high internal consistency (Cronbach alpha, 0.96), which suggested that item redundancy was present. After an item selection process, the scale was reduced to a 6-item format. Cronbach alpha for the short version was 0.92, and factor analysis confirmed the presence of 1 factor accounting for 71% of the total variance. Scores for the short version were significantly different between patients who had and those who had not returned to sport. Six-month ACL-RSI scores for both the full and short versions had fair to good predictive ability for 12-month return-to-sport outcomes (full version: area under ROC curve, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.7-0.8]; short version: area under ROC curve, 0.75 [95% CI, 0.7-0.8]). Conclusion: A 6-item short version of the ACL-RSI scale was developed from a large cohort of patients undergoing ACL reconstruction. The short version appears to be as robust as the full version for discriminating between and predicting return-to-sport outcomes. The short version of the ACL-RSI may be of use in busy clinical settings to help identify athletes who may find return to sport challenging. PMID:29662909

Leveling the playing field: attention mitigates the effects of intelligence on memory.

PubMed

Markant, Julie; Amso, Dima

2014-05-01

Effective attention and memory skills are fundamental to typical development and essential for achievement during the formal education years. It is critical to identify the specific mechanisms linking efficiency of attentional selection of an item and the quality of its memory retention. The present study capitalized on the spatial cueing paradigm to examine the role of selection via suppression in modulating children and adolescents' memory encoding. By varying a single parameter, the spatial cueing task can elicit either a simple orienting mechanism (i.e., facilitation) or one that involves both target selection and simultaneous suppression of competing information (i.e., IOR). We modified this paradigm to include images of common items in target locations. Participants were not instructed to learn the items and were not told they would be completing a memory test later. Following the cueing task, we imposed a 7-min delay and then asked participants to complete a recognition memory test. Results indicated that selection via suppression promoted recognition memory among 7-17year-olds. Moreover, individual differences in the extent of suppression during encoding predicted recognition memory accuracy. When basic cueing facilitated orienting to target items during encoding, IQ was the best predictor of recognition memory performance for the attended items. In contrast, engaging suppression (i.e., IOR) during encoding counteracted individual differences in intelligence, effectively improving recognition memory performance among children with lower IQs. This work demonstrates that engaging selection via suppression during learning and encoding improves memory retention and has broad implications for developing effective educational techniques. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Leveling the playing field: Attention mitigates the effects of intelligence on memory

PubMed Central

Markant, Julie; Amso, Dima

2014-01-01

Effective attention and memory skills are fundamental to typical development and essential for achievement during the formal education years. It is critical to identify the specific mechanisms linking efficiency of attentional selection of an item and the quality of its memory retention. The present study capitalized on the spatial cueing paradigm to examine the role of selection via suppression in modulating children and adolescents’ memory encoding. By varying a single parameter, the spatial cueing task can elicit either a simple orienting mechanism (i.e., facilitation) or one that involves both target selection and simultaneous suppression of competing information (i.e., IOR). We modified this paradigm to include images of common items in target locations. Participants were not instructed to learn the items and were not told they would be completing a memory test later. Following the cueing task, we imposed a seven-minute delay and then asked participants to complete a recognition memory test. Results indicated that selection via suppression promoted recognition memory among 7-17 year-olds. Moreover, individual differences in the extent of suppression during encoding predicted recognition memory accuracy. When basic cueing facilitated orienting to target items during encoding, IQ was the best predictor of recognition memory performance for the attended items. In contrast, engaging suppression (i.e, IOR) during encoding counteracted individual differences in intelligence, effectively improving recognition memory performance among children with lower IQs. This work demonstrates that engaging selection via suppression during learning and encoding improves memory retention and has broad implications for developing effective educational techniques. PMID:24549142

Executive Semantic Processing Is Underpinned by a Large-scale Neural Network: Revealing the Contribution of Left Prefrontal, Posterior Temporal, and Parietal Cortex to Controlled Retrieval and Selection Using TMS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitney, Carin; Kirk, Marie; O'Sullivan, Jamie; Ralph, Matthew A. Lambon; Jefferies, Elizabeth

2012-01-01

To understand the meanings of words and objects, we need to have knowledge about these items themselves plus executive mechanisms that compute and manipulate semantic information in a task-appropriate way. The neural basis for semantic control remains controversial. Neuroimaging studies have focused on the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus…

The Development of Memory Efficiency and Value-Directed Remembering Across the Lifespan: A Cross-Sectional Study of Memory and Selectivity

PubMed Central

Castel, Alan D.; Humphreys, Kathryn L.; Lee, Steve S.; Galván, Adriana; Balota, David A.; McCabe, David P.

2012-01-01

Although attentional control and memory change considerably across the lifespan, no research has examined how the ability to strategically remember important information (i.e., value-directed remembering) changes from childhood to old age. The present study examined this in different age groups across the lifespan (N=320, 5 to 96 years old). We employed a selectivity task where participants were asked to study and recall items worth different point values in order to maximize their point score. This procedure allowed for measures of memory quantity/capacity (number of words recalled) and memory efficiency/selectivity (the recall of high-value items relative to low-value items). Age-related differences were found for memory capacity, as young adults recalled more words than the other groups. However, in terms of selectivity, younger and older adults were more selective than adolescents and children. The dissociation between these measures across the lifespan illustrates important age-related differences in terms of memory capacity and the ability to selectively remember high-value information. PMID:21942664

The development of memory efficiency and value-directed remembering across the life span: a cross-sectional study of memory and selectivity.

PubMed

Castel, Alan D; Humphreys, Kathryn L; Lee, Steve S; Galván, Adriana; Balota, David A; McCabe, David P

2011-11-01

Although attentional control and memory change considerably across the life span, no research has examined how the ability to strategically remember important information (i.e., value-directed remembering) changes from childhood to old age. The present study examined this in different age groups across the life span (N = 320, 5-96 years old). A selectivity task was used in which participants were asked to study and recall items worth different point values in order to maximize their point score. This procedure allowed for measures of memory quantity/capacity (number of words recalled) and memory efficiency/selectivity (the recall of high-value items relative to low-value items). Age-related differences were found for memory capacity, as young adults recalled more words than the other groups. However, in terms of selectivity, younger and older adults were more selective than adolescents and children. The dissociation between these measures across the life span illustrates important age-related differences in terms of memory capacity and the ability to selectively remember high-value information.

Which kind of psychometrics is adequate for patient satisfaction questionnaires?

PubMed

Konerding, Uwe

2016-01-01

The construction and psychometric analysis of patient satisfaction questionnaires are discussed. The discussion is based upon the classification of multi-item questionnaires into scales or indices. Scales consist of items that describe the effects of the latent psychological variable to be measured, and indices consist of items that describe the causes of this variable. Whether patient satisfaction questionnaires should be constructed and analyzed as scales or as indices depends upon the purpose for which these questionnaires are required. If the final aim is improving care with regard to patients' preferences, then these questionnaires should be constructed and analyzed as indices. This implies two requirements: 1) items for patient satisfaction questionnaires should be selected in such a way that the universe of possible causes of patient satisfaction is covered optimally and 2) Cronbach's alpha, principal component analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and analyses with models from item response theory, such as the Rasch Model, should not be applied for psychometric analyses. Instead, multivariate regression analyses with a direct rating of patient satisfaction as the dependent variable and the individual questionnaire items as independent variables should be performed. The coefficients produced by such an analysis can be applied for selecting the best items and for weighting the selected items when a sum score is determined. The lower boundaries of the validity of the unweighted and the weighted sum scores can be estimated by their correlations with the direct satisfaction rating. While the first requirement is fulfilled in the majority of the previous patient satisfaction questionnaires, the second one deviates from previous practice. Hence, if patient satisfaction is actually measured with the final aim of improving care with regard to patients' preferences, then future practice should be changed so that the second requirement is also fulfilled.

The effects of prior knowledge on study-time allocation and free recall: investigating the discrepancy reduction model.

PubMed

Verkoeijen, Peter P J L; Rikers, Remy M J P; Schmidt, Henk G

2005-01-01

In this study, the authors examined the influence of prior knowledge activation on information processing by means of a prior knowledge activation procedure adopted from the read-generate paradigm. On the basis of cue-target pairs, participants in the experimental groups generated two different sets of items before studying a relevant list. Subsequently, participants were informed that they had to study the items in the list and that they should try to remember as many items as possible. The authors assessed the processing time allocated to the items in the list and free recall of those items. The results revealed that the experimental groups spent less time on items that had already been activated. In addition, the experimental groups outperformed the control group in overall free recall and in free recall of the activated items. Between-group comparisons did not demonstrate significant effects with respect to the processing time and free recall of nonactivated items. The authors interpreted these results in terms of the discrepancy reduction model of regulating the amount of processing time allocated to different parts of the list.

Escaping the recent past: Which stimulus dimensions influence proactive interference?

PubMed Central

Craig, Kimberly S.; Berman, Marc G.; Jonides, John; Lustig, Cindy

2013-01-01

Proactive interference occurs when information from the past disrupts current processing and is a major source of confusion and errors in short-term memory (Wickens, Born & Allen, 1963). The present investigation examines potential boundary conditions for interference, testing the hypothesis that potential competitors must be similar along task-relevant dimensions to influence proactive interference effects. We manipulated both the type of task being completed (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) and dimensions of similarity irrelevant to the current task (Experiments 4 and 5) to determine how the recent presentation of a probe item would affect the speed with which participants could reject that item. Experiments 1, 2 and 3 contrasted short-term memory judgments, which require temporal information, with semantic and perceptual judgments, for which temporal information is irrelevant. In Experiments 4 and 5, task-irrelevant information (perceptual similarity) was manipulated within the recent probes task. We found that interference from past items affected short-term memory (STM) task performance but did not affect performance in semantic or perceptual judgment tasks. Conversely, similarity along a nominally-irrelevant perceptual dimension did not affect the magnitude of interference in STM tasks. Results are consistent with the view that items in STM are represented by noisy codes consisting of multiple dimensions, and that interference occurs when items are similar to each other and thus compete along the dimensions relevant to target selection. PMID:23297049

Escaping the recent past: which stimulus dimensions influence proactive interference?

PubMed

Craig, Kimberly S; Berman, Marc G; Jonides, John; Lustig, Cindy

2013-07-01

Proactive interference occurs when information from the past disrupts current processing and is a major source of confusion and errors in short-term memory (STM; Wickens, Born, & Allen, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 2:440-445, 1963). The present investigation examines potential boundary conditions for interference, testing the hypothesis that potential competitors must be similar along task-relevant dimensions to influence proactive interference effects. We manipulated both the type of task being completed (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and dimensions of similarity irrelevant to the current task (Experiments 4 and 5) to determine how the recent presentation of a probe item would affect the speed with which participants could reject that item. Experiments 1, 2, and 3 contrasted STM judgments, which require temporal information, with semantic and perceptual judgments, for which temporal information is irrelevant. In Experiments 4 and 5, task-irrelevant information (perceptual similarity) was manipulated within the recent probes task. We found that interference from past items affected STM task performance but did not affect performance in semantic or perceptual judgment tasks. Conversely, similarity along a nominally irrelevant perceptual dimension did not affect the magnitude of interference in STM tasks. Results are consistent with the view that items in STM are represented by noisy codes consisting of multiple dimensions and that interference occurs when items are similar to each other and, thus, compete along the dimensions relevant to target selection.

Acute psycho-social stress does not disrupt item-method directed forgetting, emotional stimulus content does.

PubMed

Zwissler, Bastian; Koessler, Susanne; Engler, Harald; Schedlowski, Manfred; Kissler, Johanna

2011-03-01

It has been shown that stress affects episodic memory in general, but knowledge about stress effects on memory control processes such as directed forgetting is sparse. Whereas in previous studies item-method directed forgetting was found to be altered in post-traumatic stress disorder patients and abolished for highly arousing negative pictorial stimuli in students, no study so far has investigated the effects of experimentally induced psycho-social stress on this task or examined the role of positive picture stimuli. In the present study, 41 participants performed an item-method directed forgetting experiment while being exposed either to a psychosocial laboratory stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), or a cognitively challenging but non-stressful control condition. Neutral and positive pictures were presented as stimuli. As predicted, salivary cortisol level as a biological marker of the human stress response increased only in the TSST group. Still, both groups showed directed forgetting. However, emotional content of the employed stimuli affected memory control: Directed forgetting was intact for neutral pictures whereas it was attenuated for positive ones. This attenuation was primarily due to selective rehearsal improving discrimination accuracy for neutral, but not positive, to-be-remembered items. Results suggest that acute experimentally induced stress does not alter item-method directed forgetting while emotional stimulus content does. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Executive control of stimulus-driven and goal-directed attention in visual working memory.

PubMed

Hu, Yanmei; Allen, Richard J; Baddeley, Alan D; Hitch, Graham J

2016-10-01

We examined the role of executive control in stimulus-driven and goal-directed attention in visual working memory using probed recall of a series of objects, a task that allows study of the dynamics of storage through analysis of serial position data. Experiment 1 examined whether executive control underlies goal-directed prioritization of certain items within the sequence. Instructing participants to prioritize either the first or final item resulted in improved recall for these items, and an increase in concurrent task difficulty reduced or abolished these gains, consistent with their dependence on executive control. Experiment 2 examined whether executive control is also involved in the disruption caused by a post-series visual distractor (suffix). A demanding concurrent task disrupted memory for all items except the most recent, whereas a suffix disrupted only the most recent items. There was no interaction when concurrent load and suffix were combined, suggesting that deploying selective attention to ignore the distractor did not draw upon executive resources. A final experiment replicated the independent interfering effects of suffix and concurrent load while ruling out possible artifacts. We discuss the results in terms of a domain-general episodic buffer in which information is retained in a transient, limited capacity privileged state, influenced by both stimulus-driven and goal-directed processes. The privileged state contains the most recent environmental input together with goal-relevant representations being actively maintained using executive resources.

To call a cloud 'cirrus': sound symbolism in names for categories or items.

PubMed

Ković, Vanja; Sučević, Jelena; Styles, Suzy J

2017-01-01

The aim of the present paper is to experimentally test whether sound symbolism has selective effects on labels with different ranges-of-reference within a simple noun-hierarchy. In two experiments, adult participants learned the make up of two categories of unfamiliar objects ('alien life forms'), and were passively exposed to either category-labels or item-labels, in a learning-by-guessing categorization task. Following category training, participants were tested on their visual discrimination of object pairs. For different groups of participants, the labels were either congruent or incongruent with the objects. In Experiment 1, when trained on items with individual labels, participants were worse (made more errors) at detecting visual object mismatches when trained labels were incongruent. In Experiment 2, when participants were trained on items in labelled categories, participants were faster at detecting a match if the trained labels were congruent, and faster at detecting a mismatch if the trained labels were incongruent. This pattern of results suggests that sound symbolism in category labels facilitates later similarity judgments when congruent, and discrimination when incongruent, whereas for item labels incongruence generates error in judgements of visual object differences. These findings reveal that sound symbolic congruence has a different outcome at different levels of labelling within a noun hierarchy. These effects emerged in the absence of the label itself, indicating subtle but pervasive effects on visual object processing.

Measuring assessment standards in undergraduate medical programs: Development and validation of AIM tool.

PubMed

Sajjad, Madiha; Khan, Rehan Ahmed; Yasmeen, Rahila

2018-01-01

To develop a tool to evaluate faculty perceptions of assessment quality in an undergraduate medical program. The Assessment Implementation Measure (AIM) tool was developed by a mixed method approach. A preliminary questionnaire developed through literature review was submitted to a panel of 10 medical education experts for a three-round 'Modified Delphi technique'. Panel agreement of > 75% was considered the criterion for inclusion of items in the questionnaire. Cognitive pre-testing of five faculty members was conducted. Pilot study was done with 30 randomly selected faculty members. Content validity index (CVI) was calculated for individual items (I-CVI) and composite scale (S-CVI). Cronbach's alpha was calculated to determine the internal consistency reliability of the tool. The final AIM tool had 30 items after the Delphi process. S-CVI was 0.98 with the S-CVI/Avg method and 0.86 by S-CVI/UA method, suggesting good content validity. Cut-off value of < 0.9 I-CVI was taken as criterion for item deletion. Cognitive pre-testing revealed good item interpretation. Cronbach's alpha calculated for the AIM was 0.9, whereas Cronbach's alpha for the four domains ranged from 0.67 to 0.80. 'AIM' is a relevant and useful instrument with good content validity and reliability of results, and may be used to evaluate the teachers´ perceptions about assessment quality.

Therapist Competence in Global Mental Health: Development of the Enhancing Assessment of Common Therapeutic Factors (ENACT) Rating Scale

PubMed Central

Kohrt, Brandon A.; Jordans, Mark J.D.; Rai, Sauharda; Shrestha, Pragya; Luitel, Nagendra P.; Ramaiya, Megan; Singla, Daisy; Patel, Vikram

2015-01-01

Lack of reliable and valid measures of therapist competence is a barrier to dissemination and implementation of psychological treatments in global mental health. We developed the ENhancing Assessment of Common Therapeutic factors (ENACT) rating scale for training and supervision across settings varied by culture and access to mental health resources. We employed a four-step process in Nepal: (1) Item generation: We extracted 1,081 items (grouped into 104 domains) from 56 existing tools; role-plays with Nepali therapists generated 11 additional domains. (2) Item relevance: From the 115 domains, Nepali therapists selected 49 domains of therapeutic importance and high comprehensibility. (3) Item utility: We piloted the ENACT scale through rating role-play videotapes, patient session transcripts, and live observations of primary care workers in trainings for psychological treatments and the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). (4) Inter-rater reliability was acceptable for experts (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC(2,7)=0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81—0.93), N=7) and non-specialists (ICC(1,3)=0.67 (95% CI 0.60—0.73), N=34). In sum, the ENACT scale is an 18-item assessment for common factors in psychological treatments, including task-sharing initiatives with non-specialists across cultural settings. Further research is needed to evaluate applications for therapy quality and association with patient outcomes. PMID:25847276

Object perception is selectively slowed by a visually similar working memory load.

PubMed

Robinson, Alan; Manzi, Alberto; Triesch, Jochen

2008-12-22

The capacity of visual working memory has been extensively characterized, but little work has investigated how occupying visual memory influences other aspects of cognition and perception. Here we show a novel effect: maintaining an item in visual working memory slows processing of similar visual stimuli during the maintenance period. Subjects judged the gender of computer rendered faces or the naturalness of body postures while maintaining different visual memory loads. We found that when stimuli of the same class (faces or bodies) were maintained in memory, perceptual judgments were slowed. Interestingly, this is the opposite of what would be predicted from traditional priming. Our results suggest there is interference between visual working memory and perception, caused by visual similarity between new perceptual input and items already encoded in memory.

Bibliographie annotee 4-6--Francais langue seconde-immersion: Selection d'ouvrages de la litterature jeunesse. Supplement 2001 (Annotated Bibliography 4-6--French as a Second Language-Immersion: Selection of Works from Children's Literature. Supplement 2001).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alberta Learning, Edmonton. Direction de l'education francaise.

The document comprises 42 inserts to be included in the List of Books (4-6) for French as a Second Language (Immersion)--a selection of works of youth literature--published by Alberta Learning in 2000. Thirty-seven of the items appeal to the world of imagination and esthetics, and five items are of an informative nature. An appendix, entitled "How…

Attainment of Selected Earth Science Concepts by Texas High School Seniors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rollins, Mavis M.; And Others

The purpose of this study was to determine whether high school seniors (N=492) had attained each of five selected earth science concepts and if said attainment was influenced by the number of science courses completed. A 72-item, multiple-choice format test (12 items for each concept) was developed and piloted previous to this study to measure…

An Information Analysis of 2-, 3-, and 4-Word Verbal Discrimination Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arima, James K.; Gray, Francis D.

Information theory was used to qualify the difficulty of verbal discrimination (VD) learning tasks and to measure VD performance. Words for VD items were selected with high background frequency and equal a priori probabilities of being selected as a first response. Three VD lists containing only 2-, 3-, or 4-word items were created and equated for…

Bias in Testing: A Presentation of Selected Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merz, William R.; Rudner, Lawrence M.

A variety of terms related to test bias or test fairness have been used in a variety of ways, but in this document the "fair use of tests" is defined as equitable selection procedures by means of intact tests, and "test item bias" refers to the study of separate items with respect to the tests of which they are a part. Seven…

A Method for the Comparison of Item Selection Rules in Computerized Adaptive Testing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrada, Juan Ramon; Olea, Julio; Ponsoda, Vicente; Abad, Francisco Jose

2010-01-01

In a typical study comparing the relative efficiency of two item selection rules in computerized adaptive testing, the common result is that they simultaneously differ in accuracy and security, making it difficult to reach a conclusion on which is the more appropriate rule. This study proposes a strategy to conduct a global comparison of two or…

Brief Report: Impaired Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST) in School-Age Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yerys, Benjamin E.; Wolff, Brian C.; Moody, Eric; Pennington, Bruce F.; Hepburn, Susan L.

2012-01-01

Cognitive flexibility has been measured with inductive reasoning or explicit rule tasks in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The "Flexible Item Selection Task" (FIST) differs from previous cognitive flexibility tasks in ASD research by giving children an abstract, ambiguous rule to switch. The ASD group (N = 22; Mean age = 8.28…

Universal Design and Multimethod Approaches to Item Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnstone, Christopher J.; Thompson, Sandra J.; Bottsford-Miller, Nicole A.; Thurlow, Martha L.

2008-01-01

Test items undergo multiple iterations of review before states and vendors deem them acceptable to be placed in a live statewide assessment. This article reviews three approaches that can add validity evidence to states' item review processes. The first process is a structured sensitivity review process that focuses on universal design…

Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Climate DEOCS 4.1 Construct Validity Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-01

DEOCS, (7) examining variance and descriptive statistics (8) examining the relationship among items/areas to reduce multicollinearity, and (9...selecting items that demonstrate the strongest scale properties. Included is a review of the 4.0 description and items, followed by the proposed...Tables 1 – 7 for the description of each measure and corresponding items. Table 1. DEOCS 4.0 Perceptions of Safety Measure Description

Effect of Item Response Theory (IRT) Model Selection on Testlet-Based Test Equating. Research Report. ETS RR-14-19

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cao, Yi; Lu, Ru; Tao, Wei

2014-01-01

The local item independence assumption underlying traditional item response theory (IRT) models is often not met for tests composed of testlets. There are 3 major approaches to addressing this issue: (a) ignore the violation and use a dichotomous IRT model (e.g., the 2-parameter logistic [2PL] model), (b) combine the interdependent items to form a…

Development of Test Items Related to Selected Concepts Within the Scheme the Particle Nature of Matter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doran, Rodney L.; Pella, Milton O.

The purpose of this study was to develop tests items with a minimum reading demand for use with pupils at grade levels two through six. An item was judged to be acceptable if the item satisfied at least four of six criteria. Approximately 250 students in grades 2-6 participated in the study. Half of the students were given instruction to develop…

Structured reporting for fibrosing lung disease: a model shared by radiologist and pulmonologist.

PubMed

Sverzellati, Nicola; Odone, Anna; Silva, Mario; Polverosi, Roberta; Florio, Carlo; Cardinale, Luciano; Cortese, Giancarlo; Addonisio, Giancarlo; Zompatori, Maurizio; Dalpiaz, Giorgia; Piciucchi, Sara; Larici, Anna Rita

2018-04-01

To apply the Delphi exercise with iterative involvement of radiologists and pulmonologists with the aim of defining a structured reporting template for high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of patients with fibrosing lung disease (FLD). The writing committee selected the HRCT criteria-the Delphi items-for rating from both radiology panelists (RP) and pulmonology panelists (PP). The Delphi items were first rated by RPs as "essential", "optional", or "not relevant". The items rated "essential" by < 80% of the RP were selected for the PP rating. The format of reporting was rated by both RP and PP. A total of 42 RPs and 12 PPs participated to the survey. In both Delphi round 1 and 2, 10/27 (37.7%) items were rated "essential" by more than 80% of RP. The remaining 17/27 (63.3%) items were rated by the PP in round 3, with 2/17 items (11.7%) rated "essential" by the PP. PP proposed additional items for conclusion domain, which were rated by RPs in the fourth round. Poor consensus was observed for the format of reporting. This study provides a template for structured report of FLD that features essential items as agreed by expert thoracic radiologists and pulmonologists.

Item selection via Bayesian IRT models.

PubMed

Arima, Serena

2015-02-10

With reference to a questionnaire that aimed to assess the quality of life for dysarthric speakers, we investigate the usefulness of a model-based procedure for reducing the number of items. We propose a mixed cumulative logit model, which is known in the psychometrics literature as the graded response model: responses to different items are modelled as a function of individual latent traits and as a function of item characteristics, such as their difficulty and their discrimination power. We jointly model the discrimination and the difficulty parameters by using a k-component mixture of normal distributions. Mixture components correspond to disjoint groups of items. Items that belong to the same groups can be considered equivalent in terms of both difficulty and discrimination power. According to decision criteria, we select a subset of items such that the reduced questionnaire is able to provide the same information that the complete questionnaire provides. The model is estimated by using a Bayesian approach, and the choice of the number of mixture components is justified according to information criteria. We illustrate the proposed approach on the basis of data that are collected for 104 dysarthric patients by local health authorities in Lecce and in Milan. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Development and validation of a socioculturally competent trust in physician scale for a developing country setting.

PubMed

Gopichandran, Vijayaprasad; Wouters, Edwin; Chetlapalli, Satish Kumar

2015-05-03

Trust in physicians is the unwritten covenant between the patient and the physician that the physician will do what is in the best interest of the patient. This forms the undercurrent of all healthcare relationships. Several scales exist for assessment of trust in physicians in developed healthcare settings, but to our knowledge none of these have been developed in a developing country context. To develop and validate a new trust in physician scale for a developing country setting. Dimensions of trust in physicians, which were identified in a previous qualitative study in the same setting, were used to develop a scale. This scale was administered among 616 adults selected from urban and rural areas of Tamil Nadu, south India, using a multistage sampling cross sectional survey method. The individual items were analysed using a classical test approach as well as item response theory. Cronbach's α was calculated and the item to total correlation of each item was assessed. After testing for unidimensionality and absence of local dependence, a 2 parameter logistic Semajima's graded response model was fit and item characteristics assessed. Competence, assurance of treatment, respect for the physician and loyalty to the physician were important dimensions of trust. A total of 31 items were developed using these dimensions. Of these, 22 were selected for final analysis. The Cronbach's α was 0.928. The item to total correlations were acceptable for all the 22 items. The item response analysis revealed good item characteristic curves and item information for all the items. Based on the item parameters and item information, a final 12 item scale was developed. The scale performs optimally in the low to moderate trust range. The final 12 item trust in physician scale has a good construct validity and internal consistency. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Development and validation of a socioculturally competent trust in physician scale for a developing country setting

PubMed Central

Gopichandran, Vijayaprasad; Wouters, Edwin; Chetlapalli, Satish Kumar

2015-01-01

Trust in physicians is the unwritten covenant between the patient and the physician that the physician will do what is in the best interest of the patient. This forms the undercurrent of all healthcare relationships. Several scales exist for assessment of trust in physicians in developed healthcare settings, but to our knowledge none of these have been developed in a developing country context. Objectives To develop and validate a new trust in physician scale for a developing country setting. Methods Dimensions of trust in physicians, which were identified in a previous qualitative study in the same setting, were used to develop a scale. This scale was administered among 616 adults selected from urban and rural areas of Tamil Nadu, south India, using a multistage sampling cross sectional survey method. The individual items were analysed using a classical test approach as well as item response theory. Cronbach's α was calculated and the item to total correlation of each item was assessed. After testing for unidimensionality and absence of local dependence, a 2 parameter logistic Semajima's graded response model was fit and item characteristics assessed. Results Competence, assurance of treatment, respect for the physician and loyalty to the physician were important dimensions of trust. A total of 31 items were developed using these dimensions. Of these, 22 were selected for final analysis. The Cronbach's α was 0.928. The item to total correlations were acceptable for all the 22 items. The item response analysis revealed good item characteristic curves and item information for all the items. Based on the item parameters and item information, a final 12 item scale was developed. The scale performs optimally in the low to moderate trust range. Conclusions The final 12 item trust in physician scale has a good construct validity and internal consistency. PMID:25941182

Visual-auditory integration for visual search: a behavioral study in barn owls

PubMed Central

Hazan, Yael; Kra, Yonatan; Yarin, Inna; Wagner, Hermann; Gutfreund, Yoram

2015-01-01

Barn owls are nocturnal predators that rely on both vision and hearing for survival. The optic tectum of barn owls, a midbrain structure involved in selective attention, has been used as a model for studying visual-auditory integration at the neuronal level. However, behavioral data on visual-auditory integration in barn owls are lacking. The goal of this study was to examine if the integration of visual and auditory signals contributes to the process of guiding attention toward salient stimuli. We attached miniature wireless video cameras on barn owls’ heads (OwlCam) to track their target of gaze. We first provide evidence that the area centralis (a retinal area with a maximal density of photoreceptors) is used as a functional fovea in barn owls. Thus, by mapping the projection of the area centralis on the OwlCam’s video frame, it is possible to extract the target of gaze. For the experiment, owls were positioned on a high perch and four food items were scattered in a large arena on the floor. In addition, a hidden loudspeaker was positioned in the arena. The positions of the food items and speaker were changed every session. Video sequences from the OwlCam were saved for offline analysis while the owls spontaneously scanned the room and the food items with abrupt gaze shifts (head saccades). From time to time during the experiment, a brief sound was emitted from the speaker. The fixation points immediately following the sounds were extracted and the distances between the gaze position and the nearest items and loudspeaker were measured. The head saccades were rarely toward the location of the sound source but to salient visual features in the room, such as the door knob or the food items. However, among the food items, the one closest to the loudspeaker had the highest probability of attracting a gaze shift. This result supports the notion that auditory signals are integrated with visual information for the selection of the next visual search target. PMID:25762905

How emotion leads to selective memory: neuroimaging evidence.

PubMed

Waring, Jill D; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2011-06-01

Often memory for emotionally arousing items is enhanced relative to neutral items within complex visual scenes, but this enhancement can come at the expense of memory for peripheral background information. This 'trade-off' effect has been elicited by a range of stimulus valence and arousal levels, yet the magnitude of the effect has been shown to vary with these factors. Using fMRI, this study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying this selective memory for emotional scenes. Further, we examined how these processes are affected by stimulus dimensions of arousal and valence. The trade-off effect in memory occurred for low to high arousal positive and negative scenes. There was a core emotional memory network associated with the trade-off among all the emotional scene types, however, there were additional regions that were uniquely associated with the trade-off for each individual scene type. These results suggest that there is a common network of regions associated with the emotional memory trade-off effect, but that valence and arousal also independently affect the neural activity underlying the effect. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How emotion leads to selective memory: Neuroimaging evidence

PubMed Central

Waring, Jill D.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2011-01-01

Often memory for emotionally arousing items is enhanced relative to neutral items within complex visual scenes, but this enhancement can come at the expense of memory for peripheral background information. This ‘trade-off’ effect has been elicited by a range of stimulus valence and arousal levels, yet the magnitude of the effect has been shown to vary with these factors. Using fMRI, this study investigated the neural mechanisms underlying this selective memory for emotional scenes. Further, we examined how these processes are affected by stimulus dimensions of arousal and valence. The trade-off effect in memory occurred for low to high arousal positive and negative scenes. There was a core emotional memory network associated with the trade-off among all the emotional scene types, however there were additional regions that were uniquely associated with the trade-off for each individual scene type. These results suggest that there is a common network of regions associated with the emotional memory tradeoff effect, but that valence and arousal also independently affect the neural activity underlying the effect. PMID:21414333

A feature-weighting account of priming in conjunction search.

PubMed

Becker, Stefanie I; Horstmann, Gernot

2009-02-01

Previous research on the priming effect in conjunction search has shown that repeating the target and distractor features across displays speeds mean response times but does not improve search efficiency: Repetitions do not reduce the set size effect-that is, the effect of the number of distractor items-but only modulate the intercept of the search function. In the present study, we investigated whether priming modulates search efficiency when a conjunctively defined target randomly changes between red and green. The results from an eyetracking experiment show that repeating the target across trials reduced the set size effect and, thus, did enhance search efficiency. Moreover, the probability of selecting the target as the first item in the display was higher when the target-distractor displays were repeated across trials than when they changed. Finally, red distractors were selected more frequently than green distractors when the previous target had been red (and vice versa). Taken together, these results indicate that priming in conjunction search modulates processes concerned with guiding attention to the target, by assigning more attentional weight to features sharing the previous target's color.

TMS evidence for a selective role of the precuneus in source memory retrieval.

PubMed

Bonnì, Sonia; Veniero, Domenica; Mastropasqua, Chiara; Ponzo, Viviana; Caltagirone, Carlo; Bozzali, Marco; Koch, Giacomo

2015-04-01

The posteromedial cortex including the precuneus (PC) is thought to be involved in episodic memory retrieval. Here we used continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to disentangle the role of the precuneus in the recognition memory process in a sample of healthy subjects. During the encoding phase, subjects were presented with a series of colored pictures. Afterwards, during the retrieval phase, all previously presented items and a sample of new pictures were presented in black, and subjects were asked to indicate whether each item was new or old, and in the latter case to indicate the associated color. cTBS was delivered over PC, posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and vertex before the retrieval phase. The data were analyzed in terms of hits, false alarms, source errors and omissions. cTBS over the precuneus, but not over the PPC or the vertex, induced a selective decrease in source memory errors, indicating an improvement in context retrieval. All the other accuracy measurements were unchanged. These findings suggest a direct implication of the precuneus in successful context-dependent retrieval. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

What I Wish I Knew about Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guion, Robert M.

Reflecting on a career spent in assessment in personnel selection and managment, the author lists 12 things (items) that he wishes he knew about assessment. The first four items are underdeveloped ideas set aside because of the field's preoccupation with equal employment opportunity. A second set (items five through eight) comes from intellectual…

Decisions that Make a Difference in Detecting Differential Item Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sireci, Stephen G.; Rios, Joseph A.

2013-01-01

There are numerous statistical procedures for detecting items that function differently across subgroups of examinees that take a test or survey. However, in endeavouring to detect items that may function differentially, selection of the statistical method is only one of many important decisions. In this article, we discuss the important decisions…

A Multilevel Testlet Model for Dual Local Dependence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiao, Hong; Kamata, Akihito; Wang, Shudong; Jin, Ying

2012-01-01

The applications of item response theory (IRT) models assume local item independence and that examinees are independent of each other. When a representative sample for psychometric analysis is selected using a cluster sampling method in a testlet-based assessment, both local item dependence and local person dependence are likely to be induced.…

Communication Apprehension: A Preliminary Bibliography of Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daly, John A.

This 243-item bibliography represents a preliminary step in the collection and synthesis of research in communication apprehension. No qualitative criteria were used in the selection of items for this bibliography, except that the item had to deal with apprehension as a major part of the report. Basic texts that mention apprehension but that do…

Are Learning Disabled Students "Test-Wise?": An Inquiry into Reading Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scruggs, Thomas E.; Lifson, Steve

The ability to correctly answer reading comprehension test items, without having read the accompanying reading passage, was compared for third grade learning disabled students and their peers from a regular classroom. In the first experiment, fourteen multiple choice items were selected from the Stanford Achievement Test. No reading passages were…

Construction of In-house Databases in a Corporation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sano, Hikomaro

This report outlines “Repoir” (Report information retrieval) system of Toyota Central R & D Laboratories, Inc. as an example of in-house information retrieval system. The online system was designed to process in-house technical reports with the aid of a mainframe computer and has been in operation since 1979. Its features are multiple use of the information for technical and managerial purposes and simplicity in indexing and data input. The total number of descriptors, specially selected for the system, was minimized for ease of indexing. The report also describes the input items, processing flow and typical outputs in kanji letters.

Indicators of Family Care for Development for Use in Multicountry Surveys

PubMed Central

Kariger, Patricia; Engle, Patrice; Britto, Pia M. Rebello; Sywulka, Sara M.; Menon, Purnima

2012-01-01

Indicators of family care for development are essential for ascertaining whether families are providing their children with an environment that leads to positive developmental outcomes. This project aimed to develop indicators from a set of items, measuring family care practices and resources important for caregiving, for use in epidemiologic surveys in developing countries. A mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) design was used for item selection and evaluation. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to examine the validity of candidate items in several country samples. Qualitative methods included the use of global expert panels to identify and evaluate the performance of each candidate item as well as in-country focus groups to test the content validity of the items. The quantitative methods included analyses of item-response distributions, using bivariate techniques. The selected items measured two family care practices (support for learning/stimulating environment and limit-setting techniques) and caregiving resources (adequacy of the alternate caregiver when the mother worked). Six play-activity items, indicative of support for learning/stimulating environment, were included in the core module of UNICEF's Multiple Cluster Indictor Survey 3. The other items were included in optional modules. This project provided, for the first time, a globally-relevant set of items for assessing family care practices and resources in epidemiological surveys. These items have multiple uses, including national monitoring and cross-country comparisons of the status of family care for development used globally. The obtained information will reinforce attention to efforts to improve the support for development of children. PMID:23304914