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CN 11-1911/B

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    24 December 2016, Volume 48 Issue 12 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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    Observation drug using action elicited mirror neuron reactivity in the abstinent heroin users: An fMRI study
    SU Dequan, ZENG Hong, CHEN Qi, YE Haosheng
    2016, 48 (12):  1499-1506.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01499
    Abstract ( 1461 )   PDF (1076KB) ( 73 )  

    The cue-provoked craving is one of the main reasons for psychological dependence. The current study applied cue reactivity paradigm to find out the activation of whole brain in the drug dependent individual’s brain when they exposed in the related cues. 15 abstinent heroin dependent individuals (AHD) and 12 no-drug use health participants (NDP) involved in the experiment. We conducted 2 (groups: abstinent drug dependent group, no-drug use group) × 2 (related condition: related cue, unrelated cue) × 2 (cue types: static object, action) experiment design. They observed the cue-related stimuli and the counterpart cue stimuli while lying in a 3.0T Siemens MRI scanner. Images for heroin-related stimuli contained heroin injection, preparation, and paraphernalia. Neutral images (control) were composed of daily life objects and behavior. We explored and analysis the neuron activation of cue-induced reactivity between the two groups. Conjunction analysis of action related cue and unrelated cue, to explore the difference activity of mirror neuron system within the two conditions and between AHD and NDP. Multiple t-contrasts between related-cues and unrelated-cues were conducted to find out the cue neuronal reactivity which was accompanied with craving. The result showed that drug-related cues activated more brain regions than the corresponding cues which include the occipital-temporal cortex, superior parietal lobule and inferior parietal lobule, orbit-frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and posterior cingulate, hippocampus, thalamus and midbrain for the AHDs. The comparison between activated brain area under drug and “C-drug” cues showed more activation in right hippocampus, precuneus and the posterior cingulate activation for abstinent group. The hemodynamic response in temporal and parietal lobe correlated was consistent when we performed t-contrasts between “C-action” and “C-drug” condition for both of the two group subjects. Abstinent subjects evoked the bilateral middle temporal gyrus, bilateral inferior parietal lobule, the left superior parietal lobule and the right inferior frontal gyrus when they watched drug taking pictures and usual manual motion. The conjunction analysis showed that conjoined action versus drug and “C-action” versus “C-drug” contrast was executed; hippocampus and midbrain were detected for abstinent group. The health control group only evoked occipital-temporal cortex when compared between under “C-action” and “C-drug” cues. In particular, neither hippocampus nor midbrain had an evident response after the same analysis at the health counterpart group. The result of the study indicated that abstinent drug dependent individuals still have craving for the drugs after a period of abstinent symptoms disappearing. The craving would be induced by the related cues which accompany with the activation of medium temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and inferior frontal gyrus and so on, which belong to mirror neuron system. The area was susceptible to different drug related cues and they might involve in the mental simulation of drug use activation which participates in quick automation processing to drug related cues. Anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulated cortex, hypothalamus, hypothalamus, mesocerebrum along with the limbic system play the important role in the cue-induced craving.

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    The impact of state anxiety on fear generalization
    XU Liang, OU Songyi, ZHENG Xifu, CHEN Ting, FENG Biao, YAN Pei
    2016, 48 (12):  1507-1518.  doi: No.12, 1507-1518
    Abstract ( 1809 )   PDF (660KB) ( 103 )  

    Fear over-generalization has been put forward as a potential etiological factor of anxiety disorders. Previous studies have examined the phenomenon of fear generalization among individuals with anxiety disorders and high trait anxiety. However, state anxiety is more common in populations and its impact on fear generalization has not been paid attention to. Thus, in this study, we induced state anxiety in healthy individuals and tested the impact of state anxiety on fear generalization. Thirty-eight healthy participants participated in the experiment and were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The whole experiment consisted of four phases: habituation, acquisition, fear inducement, and generalization. In this experiment, 10 rings of gradually increasing size that were presented on a computer screen served as conditioned stimuli (CS) and generalization stimuli (GS). The rings in the two extreme sizes served as the conditioned danger cue (CS+) and conditioned safety cue (CS−), respectively. The eight intermediately sized rings served as four classes of generalization stimuli (i.e., GS1, GS2, GS3, and GS4), with GS4 being the most similar one to CS+ in size. CS+ was probably paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US), while CS− and GS were unpaired with US. Six fear pictures from the international affective picture system (IAPS) were taken as US. During the experiment, subject online expectancy ratings and skin conductance responses (SCR) were recorded. During the habituation phase, the CS+ and CS− were each presented three times, each without any pictures following the CS+. During the acquisition phase, the CS+ and the CS− were presented six times each, and the pictures were presented 5s before each CS+ offset. During the fear inducement phase, the experimental group passively viewed a 5-min fear video and the control group passively viewed a 5-min video clip of a train traveling. The subsequent generalization phase consisted of six blocks. In each block, eight GSs were presented once without a picture; CS+ and CS− were presented twice each. One CS+ was followed by a picture to avoid the participants forgetting. The results showed that exposure to the fear video significantly increased participants’ state anxiety. The experimental group displayed stronger generalization than control group. Conditioned fear in the experimental group was generalized to rings with up to GS4, GS3, and GS2 in both SCR and online expectancy ratings, whereas generalization in control group was restricted to rings with only GS4 in SCR or GS4 and GS3 in online expectancy ratings. The duration of generalization for the experimental group was longer than the control group in both SCR and online expectancy ratings, indicating that state anxiety slowed generalization extinction. Additionally, state anxiety enhanced the identification of conditioned stimuli in SCR. The results of this study supported both the behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation theories. Regarding online expectancy ratings, the experimental group displayed stronger generalization than the control group, indicating the participants with state anxiety fail to inhibit fear responses in the presence of safety signals (i.e. GS). Regarding SCR, participants with state anxiety showed both the stronger behavioral inhibition to safety signals (i.e. GS) and behavioral activation to danger cues (CS+). Hence, the results indicated that the theories of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation might occur in the different learning phases: the former one might occur in both explicit and implicit learning and the latter one might occur only in the implicit learning of fear. This study also has clinical implications. For individuals suffering from negative events, to decrease the state anxiety may be an effective method for reducing the fear over-generalization and improving the efficacy of exposure therapy.

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    Cumulative ecological risk and adolescent internet addiction: The mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction and positive outcome expectancy
    LI Dongping, ZHOU Yueyue, ZHAO Liyan, WANG Yanhui, SUN Wenqiang
    2016, 48 (12):  1519-1537.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01519
    Abstract ( 3279 )   PDF (1071KB) ( 654 )  

    Adolescent Internet addiction has emerged as a significant social issue with the growing popularity of the Internet. Previous research has shown that ecological risk factors including family, school, and peer risk factors play important roles in adolescent Internet addiction. However, few studies have explored the accumulative impact of such risk factors on adolescent Internet addiction. In addition, little is known about the mediation mechanisms underlying the relationship between cumulative ecological risk factors and adolescent Internet addiction. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory and the cumulative risk (CR) model, the present study examined the extent to which CR is associated with adolescent Internet addiction. Specifically, we examined whether the effect of CR on Internet addiction is greater than that of individual risk factors, and whether the relation between CR and Internet addiction is linear or curvilinear. In addition, based on self-determination theory and cognitive-behavioral model, we examined whether basic psychological need satisfaction and positive outcome expectancy mediated the relationship between CR and adolescent Internet addition. Nine hundred and ninety-eight middle school students (mean age = 15.15 years, SD = 1.57) from Wuhan and Shanghai participated in this study. They filled out a series of questionnaires assessing demographic variables, ecological risk factors (including parental warmth, parental monitoring, parent-adolescent relationship, interparental conflict, school connectedness, teacher-student relationship, student-student relationship, deviant peer affiliation, and peer victimization), basic psychological need satisfaction, positive outcome expectancy, and Internet addiction. Structural equation modeling revealed that (a) CR predicted adolescent Internet addiction in a curvilinear manner whereby the most dramatic increase in Internet addiction was between zero and four risk factors, with a slight leveling off at greater levels of risk exposure; (b) CR was negatively and linearly associated with basic psychological need satisfaction, which in turn increased adolescent Internet addiction; (c) CR predicted positive outcome expectancy in a curvilinear manner (the most dramatic increase in positive outcome expectancy was between zero and three risk factors, with a slight leveling off at greater levels of risk exposure), which in turn increased adolescent Internet addiction; and (d) basic psychological need satisfaction and positive outcome expectancy were two parallel mediation paths linking CR and adolescent Internet addiction. Taken together, the present study is the first to demonstrate the detrimental impact of CR on adolescent Internet addiction, as well as the mediating roles of two motivational factors (basic psychological need satisfaction and positive outcome expectancy) underlying this relation. We tentatively propose a dual-process motivational model to explain how CR is related to adolescent Internet addiction. We also discuss the implications of our findings for the prevention and intervention of adolescent Internet addition.

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    The influence of implicit theories of personality on processing strategy of person impressions
    CUI Yichen, WANG Pei, TAN Chenhao
    2016, 48 (12):  1538-1550.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01538
    Abstract ( 2588 )   PDF (754KB) ( 159 )  

    The individuals can be divided into two categories in accordance with implicit theories of personality: the entity theorists, who believe that the personality and character are inherent, and the incremental theorists, who believe that the personality and character change gradually. As a significant individual difference, ITPs affects the mechanism of cognitive processing of social perception and impression formation of others. Although some researches on the individual difference about impression formation infer the existence of ITPs by the difference of behavioral outcome, there is no research to investigate the influence of impression formation to others by ITPs and it’s unclear whether exists the effect of impulsive-reflective system or not. In light of this, the aim of the research is to test whether different presentation forms can cause different processing strategies of impression formation to others and elucidate how ITPs affect the impression formation to others by observing entity theorists and incremental theorists. Three assumptions can be given in this research: (1) The ITPs of individuals can affect “top-down” and “down-top” on linkage effect as a kind of mental representation. So we can study the information judgment of person impression is instant or memory-based. (2) Entity theorists and incremental theorists perceive others in different way that Entity theorists adopt heuristic processing while incremental theorists analytic processing. (3) Through heuristic processing, entity theorists form impressions by real-time judgments while incremental theorists by memory-based judgments form through analytic processing. The experiment includes two stages. (1) Preliminary stage: 120 subjects are selected as participants to be experimented with the adapted fairytale. As a result, 42 entity theory participants and 48 incremental theory participants are distinguished. (2) Experiment stage: 90 college students selected in the preliminary stage as participants who have different ITPs and directional situations to judge the information of behavior are designated to record the discrepant dates of free recall and frequency estimation through illusory correlation effect which includes mere exposure effect and co-occurrence memory judgment effect. The results of experiment led to two conclusions. (1) Fairytale Test is capable to distinguish effectively the implicit theories of personality of participants which means the entity theory is opposite to incremental theory, and they are two extremes. Moreover, different personalities have the same implicit theory. (2) The ITPs can affect “top-down” and “down-top” on linkage effect as a kind of mental representation and then guide the social perception of people. Impression formation adopts real-time judgment under the influence of entity directional situations while memory-based judgments are adopted to form impressions through incremental directional situations. Comparing with entity theorists, the participants of incremental theorists use less initial information to built expression and there exist deviations of impression and consciousness when they are memorizing and judging. As a result, incremental theorists need more effort to form individual evaluative impression. In short, the individuals who have different implicit theories of personality adopt different information processing ways to perceive others. Entity theorists take heuristic processing and incremental theorists use analytic processing. When taking heuristic processing, entity theorists form impressions through real-time judgments while incremental theorists take memory-based judgments to form impressions through analytic processing, and finally person impression is formed by means of situational information. According to the research, the situational factors have effect in the intensity of the ITPs of individuals but don’t change inherent ITPs from research. And the information processing ways and ITPs have obvious interaction under the influence of different directional situations. So, the separation effect which is caused by processing methods of social cognition on the representation of ITPs, as a kind of important individual variables, has effect in individual emotion, attitude and behavior. As a result, combining the situations of real life, it has theoretical and applied value for us to discuss the basic issue that how the ITPs affect the processing strategy of impression formation. The ensuing research will enlarge the age range of samples and trace the physically and mentally changes of different types of object so that we can find the separation effect caused by processing methods of social cognition which includes automatic processing and controlling processing on the representation and brain mechanism of ITPs. Furthermore, whether Fairytale Test can test effectively the generality and difference of ITPs needs to be traced down by recording the real performance of subjects in order to increase the repeatable verification and extrapolation efficacy.

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    The effects of group diversity and organizational support on group creativity
    ZHANG Jinghuan; LIU Xin; REN Feifei; SUN Xiangwei; YU Qi
    2016, 48 (12):  1551-1560.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01551
    Abstract ( 1540 )  

    The research on group creativity has recently surged for its importance in the development of business and society. Group creativity is recognized widely as the ability to produce original and adaptive products, and several influential factors have been examined in the previous research. Among these influential factors, diversity is a powerful predictor. Information and Decision–making Theories suggest that diversity leads to improved cognitive processing and better use of information; while Social-Categorization Theory indicates that diversity is likely to negatively affect team processes and group creativity. Postulations proposed by each theory have their own supporting experimental evidence. Recently, researchers come to realize that whether the diversity promotes the group creativity depends on the organization context, especially the organizational support, which is always regarded as a positive factor for group creativity. Therefore, the present study was designed to test the interactive effect of diversity and organizational support on group creativity. To our best knowledge, there has been no study focused on this problem. Two experiments were carried out to investigate the interactive effects. Experiment 1 was a mixed design with the organizational support (instrumental/emotional/ material support) as a within-subject factor, and specialty diversity (specialty heterogeneous/homogeneous team) as the between-subject factor. Two hundred and sixteen undergraduate students forming fifty-four groups participated in the experiment. Experiment 2 was a between-subject design, and diversity was focused on further diverse groups—team with strong or weak faultline. Three hundred and twelve undergraduate students (four students formed one group) participated in experiment 2. The same experimental procedure was applied in the two experiments using product design task, and CAT technique was used to appraise the group creativity. Results showed that: (1) the interaction between diversity and organizational support was significant for originality of group creativity. Specifically, the originality in specialty heterogeneous teams was higher than that in specialty homogeneous teams under the condition of instrumental support, and the originality in the teams with strong faultlines was higher than that in the teams with weak faultlines under the condition of emotional support and instrumental support. (2) the appropriateness of group creativity in specialty heterogeneous teams was higher than that in homogeneous teams. The score of appropriateness was significantly higher in the teams under the condition of the material support than that of emotional support and instrumental support. The latter existed in both experiments. These results suggested that diverse teams had the potential to promote group creativity, but the effect was moderated by organizational support and varied on different aspects of group creativity. Specifically, instrumental support mainly promoted the originality of group creativity in the teams with specialty heterogeneity and strong faultlines, while emotional support was conducive to originality in teams with strong faultlines. Moreover, among the three types of organizational support, material support was the best predictor of the appropriateness. These results shed lights on the understanding of the two theories we mentioned in the beginning, and provided practical implications for organizations to promote group creativity.

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    A meta-analysis of the relationship between organizational identification and turnover intention
    ZHANG Shuhua; LIU Zhaoyan
    2016, 48 (12):  1561-1573.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01561
    Abstract ( 1933 )  

    Employee’ turnover behavior has been an important issue in management circles because it will inevitably bring certain loss for the enterprise. Turnover intention, as the precursor of employee’ turnover behavior, can effectively predict individual behavior of changing job. Importantly, organizational identification, as a core organization construct, can has a significant impact on the turnover intention. Since Riketta’s (2005) meta-analysis on the relationship between organizational identification and antecedents/outcomes of organizational identification, increasing numbers of empirical studies have been published in the field of organizational behavior. The present research to examine in-depth research on the relationship between organizational identification and turnover intention seems timely. Meta-analysis was used in this study to aggregate results from studies examining the relationship between organizational identification and turnover intention. We included studies in both English and Chinese which were conducted between 1985 to 2015. Fifty-nine studies, which included a total of 71 independent samples and 23180 participants, met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. This overall sample was also divided into subgroups for moderator analysis. Data was analyzed utilizing the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) Version 3 program. There are four major analyses in this research, including heterogeneity test, publication bias test, main effect analysis and moderation effect analysis. The test for heterogeneity showed that there was significant heterogeneity in the 71 independent effect sizes, so a random effects model was used as the meta-analysis model. The publication bias test indicated that the impact of publication bias was not statistically significant. Results showed a strong positive correlation (r = −0.453) between organizational identification and turnover intention. Additionally, results indicated that different dimensions in the organizational identification scales and the participants’ industry would moderate the relationship between organizational identification and turnover intention, but the moderation effects through turnover intention scale of different cognitive structure and culture background were not statistically significant. Specifically, in the moderator of organizational identification scales, there was a strong link between organizational identification and turnover intention with the using of organizational identification scales that is composed of the cognitive, affective and evaluative dimensions. In contrast, the link through organizational identification scales with the cognitive dimension was weak. Secondly, for participants in the leasing and business services industry, the correlation between organizational identification and turnover intention was stronger than those in other industries. Results suggest that organizational identification can effectively predict turnover intention. Researchers are expected to emphasize the importance of measuring tools and the particularity of some industries in their further research of organizational identification. Overall, the findings provided empirical evidences on the importance of organizational identification in determining turnover intention, which helps to guide future research.

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    Green or hedonic? The impact of proenvironmental action on consumption preference
    WU Bo; LI Dongjin; WANG Caiyu
    2016, 48 (12):  1574-1588.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01574
    Abstract ( 2290 )  

    In our daily life, people have many chances to engage in environmental actions (e.g., bringing one’s own shopping bags, using products that can be recycled, buying energy efficient household appliances). Prior literature mainly focuses on how to encourage environmentally responsible behaviors. Only a few studies examine the influence of environmental actions on subsequent behaviors. However, the results of these studies are not consistent. For example, some studies find that reminding people they commonly perform environmental behaviors promotes them do more environmental conscious behaviors. On the contrary, other studies indicate that people are less altruistic after buying green products than after buying conventional products. Focusing on consumption behaviors, this study proposed that when green consumption and hedonic consumption were competing with each other, environmental value moderated the impact of environmental action on subsequent consumption preference. Moreover, this study also argued that the effect of environmental action on subsequent consumption preference depended on environmental action motivation. Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. To test the moderating effect of environmental value, Study 1used a 2 (environmental action: yes vs. no) × 2 (environmental value: weak vs. strong) between-subjects design. Environmental values were measured using the Schwartz Value Survey. Environmental action was manipulated by asking participants to read a scenario in which they either had performed an environmental action or not. To test the effect of environmental action motivation, Study 2 used a 3 (environmental action: intrinsically motivated vs. extrinsically motivated vs. no) × 2 (environmental value: weak vs. strong) between-subjects design. Environmental action motivation was manipulated by asking participants to engage in an environmental survey either to benefit the environment or to benefit themselves. Participants in the control group answered some questions irrelevant to the environmental protection. Based on the result of study 2, study 3 further tested the effect of environmental action motivation on the relationship between environmental action and subsequent consumption preference, using another way to measure environmental value. We asked participants to rank the priority of 11 values on a list. The rank of environmental value reflected the importance of environmental value to participants. The results revealed that when green consumption conflicted with hedonic consumption, environmental value moderated the effect of environmental action on subsequent consumption behaviors. Specifically, environmental action increased green consumption (vs. hedonic consumption) for consumers with strong environmental value, but decreased green consumption (vs. hedonic consumption) for consumers with weak environmental value. Furthermore, environmental action motivation also influenced the effect of environmental action on subsequent consumption behaviors. Specifically, both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated environmental actions increased green consumption (vs. hedonic consumption) for consumers with strong environmental value through enhanced environmental self-accountability, but only intrinsically motivated environmental action decreased green consumption (vs. hedonic consumption) for consumers with weak environmental value through increased perception of environmental goal progress. In conclusion, the present research demonstrated that both environmental value and environmental action motivation influenced how environmental action affected subsequent green consumption versus hedonic consumption. Theoretically, our research provides insights into the impact of environmental action on subsequent consumption. Practically, our research suggests that marketers should provide environmental cues to motivate consumers with strong environmental value to choose green products, and combine hedonic consumption with environmental actions to motivate consumers with weak environmental value to engage in environmental actions.

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    The effect of power on consumers’ nostalgia preferences
    CHEN Huan; BI Sheng; PANG Jun
    2016, 48 (12):  1589-1599.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01589
    Abstract ( 2325 )  

    Power is defined as a capacity to influence others or as immunity to the influence of others. The experience of low power is an aversive state of being, motivating consumers to regain perceived power by purchasing status-related products. Nostalgic consumption refers to consumers’ preferences for nostalgic products, brands, or advertisements. Prior research suggests that anxiety, insecurity, stress, and social exclusion would increase nostalgic consumption as nostalgia can bring out positive emotions and social belongingness. Yet, little has been done to examine the relationship between power and nostalgic consumption. In this study, we propose nostalgic consumption as a new strategy to cope with a low power state. Specifically, we argue that low power makes consumers feel that their lives are meaningless, which would activate a need to search for meaning. Nostalgic products can help consumers attain meaning in life by activating memories of personally significant events and boosting perceptions of social connectedness. Therefore, consumers in a state of low power are more likely to prefer nostalgic products than those in the state of high power and motivation to search for meaning in life mediates this effect. We conducted three studies to test these hypotheses. Study 1 explored the relationship between power and consumers’ nostalgia preferences. One hundred and five participants took part in the experiment and were randomly assigned to the nostalgic or non-nostalgic condition. They first completed a Life Style and Personality Survey, which measured their chronic sense of power. After that, they read a nostalgic or non-nostalgic ad and then reported their preferences for the brand in the ad. Study 2 examined the causal effect of power on consumers’ nostalgia preferences. One hundred and forty-six participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: high power, low power, and a control. The experiment consisted of a priming task used to manipulate power and a choice task asking participants to choose between a nostalgic-themed concert and a non-nostalgic-themed concert. Study 3 was intended to replicate the previous findings and test the mediating effect of the motivation to search for meaning. Forty-eight participants were randomly assigned to the high-power or low-power condition. We manipulated power using a recall task, followed by a measure asking participants to what extent they wanted to search for meaning in life. Following that, participants were asked to choose their favorite brand among four alternatives: two nostalgic brands and two non-nostalgic brands. The results of Study 1 showed that power was negatively associated with participants’ preferences for the nostalgic brand (b = –0.44, t(45) = –2.08, p = 0.044), and this relationship was not significant for the non-nostalgic brand. In Study 2, participants primed with low power were more likely to choose the nostalgic- themed concert (χ2(2) = 23.32, p < 0.001, φ = 0.40) and indicated more favorable attitudes toward it (F(2,143) = 23.84, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.25) than those primed with low power and those in the control condition. In Study 3, we replicated the effect of power on nostalgia preference (χ2(1) = 3.46, p = 0.06, φ = 0.27) and found evidence for a full mediating process of the motivation to search for meaning in life (95% CI = –3.29 ~ –0.10). Our research is the first to demonstrate the relationship between consumers' state of power and their preferences for nostalgic consumption. Furthermore, the results suggest that nostalgic consumption is a particular strategy for consumers to cope with the negative experience caused by low power. In addition, we identify the concept of motivation to search for meaning in life as the underlying mechanism, which is also novel to the literature. Beyond the theoretical contributions, our findings provide important implications for people on how to cope with the negative state of low power, as well as for firms on how to improve the effectiveness of nostalgia marketing.

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    The optimization of test design in Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment
    PENG Yafeng; LUO Zhaosheng; YU Xiaofeng; GAO Chunlei; LI Yujun
    2016, 48 (12):  1600-1611.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01600
    Abstract ( 577 )  

    Cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) is designed to measure specific knowledge structures and processing skills of students so as to provide information about their cognitive strengths and weaknesses. The Q matrix is the base component and core element in CDA that characterizes the design of test construct and continent, and has a direct impact on the classification efficiency of CDA. In this article, we examined how the characteristics of Q matrix design would affect the performance of CDA. In the Monte Carlo simulation study, the mean value and standard deviation of pattern match ratio are used to evaluate the classification accuracy and stability of CDA correspondingly. In the study, six attribute hierarchical structures (Linear, Convergent, Divergent, Unstructured, Independent and Mixture) are simulated. The results show that: (1) the classification accuracy becomes higher when the test is longer; however, a "ceiling effect" of classification accuracy emerges when the test length reaches a certain value; (2) the number of R* (the matrix that has same elements as the Reachable matrix) in the Q matrix affects the test’s classification accuracy and stability. The Q matrix design leads to higher stability with more R* included, and the Q matrix with a maximum odd number of R* has the highest classification accuracy; (3) the average number of attributes measured within each item has an effect on the classification accuracy and stability, and it varies across different attribute hierarchy structures. From the results, we have some recommendations on test design under different attribute hierarchy structures in CDA, summarized as follow: (1) the optimal test length and NR* is four times the number of attribute and one R* for Linear and Convergent, five times and one R* for Divergent, six times and three R* for Unstructured, six times and five R* for Independent, and six times and two R* for Mixture respectively; (2) the design of attributes measured in items excluding R* varies across different attribute hierarchy structures. (a) For Linear, every pattern in the set of potential item should be measured equally (the set of potential items is considered as a pool of items that probes all combinations of attributes under the corresponding attribute hierarchy structure); (b) for Convergent, the attributes measured in the items should be mainly on each path of the convergent branch, with their prerequisite attributes, and for the whole hierarchy structure in that sequence; (c) for the Divergent structure, the attributes measured in the items besides R* should be mainly the combinations of the attributes on each path of the divergent branch; (d) the combinations of the attribute and its prerequisite attribute are preferred under Unstructured; (e) for Independent, the combinations of any two attributes is recommended; (f) for Mixture, the suggestions discussed above under each hierarchy structure can be used as the reference in building the specific hierarchy structure parts among attributes.

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    Classification accuracy and consistency indices for complex decision rules in multidimensional item response theory
    WANG Wenyi;SONG Lihong;DING Shuliang
    2016, 48 (12):  1612-1624.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01612
    Abstract ( 772 )  

    For a criterion-referenced test, classification consistency and accuracy indices are important indicators to evaluate the reliability and validity of classification results. Some procedures have been proposed to estimate these indices in the framework of unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) based on either the total sum scores or the latent trait estimates. Although multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) has enjoyed tremendous popularity, most research is based on the total sum scores only, and Yao (2016) is a case in point. The present authors believe that under MIRT, the decision rules on the two indices should consider the both depending on the different situations. The two reasons are (1) Classifications from the latent trait estimates are equally or more accurate than from the total sum scores, at least for the logistic model of one-parameter, two-parameters, and the graded response model in UIRT; (2) It may be difficult to estimate the two indices from the total sum scores in some content areas when some items may measure more than two domains (complex structure). In this study, the Guo-based consistency and accuracy indices have been extended to MIRT for complex decision rules. Monte Carlo method was employed to estimate Lee-and Guo-based indices for tackling intractable summations or high-dimensional integrals. A simulation study was conducted under a multidimensional graded response model (MGRM). In the simulation study, one, two and four factors were manipulated. Three levels of correlation (ρ=0.0, ρ=0.50, and ρ=0.8) between pairs of dimensions were considered. The examinee sample size was 1,000 and 3,000 respectively. The ability vectors were generated from the multivariate normal distributions with an appropriately sized mean vector of 0 and covariance matrix Σ, where the diagonal elements of Σ were all 1 and the off-diagonal elements were given by the corresponding correlations. The test length for the one factor model was 10 and 20, for the two factor model was 15 and 30, and for the four factor model was 30 and 60. In order to balance information of each domain or dimension, content balancing techniques were adopted to ensure that the tests fulfill the content or domain requirements. The fully crossed design yielded a total of 28 conditions, where each was replicated 10 times. Simulation results suggested that the Guo-based indices worked well and flexibly because their values matched closely with the simulated consistency and accuracy rates for three decision rules, and the difference between the Lee- and Guo-based accuracy indices was much smaller for decision rule based on total score, which conformed to the theoretical results. The two practical implications of this research are identified. First, the indices can be used in score interpretations and test construction. Since it is convenient to estimate consistency and accuracy indices for domain scores and composite scores when the true cut scores are set on the θ scale, items that measure specific dimension with low indices can be created. Second, they might be useful in developing item selection algorithm in computerized classification testing for making multidimensional classification decisions.

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    The weighted-score logistic model and Monte Carlo simulation study
    JIAN Xiaozhu; DAI Buyun; DAI Haiqi
    2016, 48 (12):  1625-1630.  doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2016.01625
    Abstract ( 952 )  

    Item difficulty and item emphases are the two fundamental properties for the polytomously scored item. Thus, it is necessary to use a special parameter, the weighted-score parameter or the item full mark, to express the emphases of the polytomously scored item. In the previous studies, the researchers had proposed eight polytomous models, e.g., Graded-Response Model, Partial Credit Model, etc. In all the polytomous models, several item difficult parameters are used to represent the item difficulty based on the dichotomous Logistic model. Thus, the polytomous models may not effectively give expression to the item emphases of the polytomous item. A new polytomous model, the weighted-score logistic model (WSLM), is proposed in this study. On the basis of the item emphases of the polytomously scored item, the WSLM model adds the weighted-score parameters into the dichotomous logistic model. The WSLM includes only one difficulty parameter (i.e., the average difficulty parameter) to represent the overall item difficulty, which obviously differs from the other polytomous models. Moreover, in the WSLM, the probability of an examinee responding in category , is of certain functional relation with the average difficulty parameter, discrimination parameter, and the score that the examinee have obtained on this item. Thus, the probability of responding in category under the WSLM can be expressed as . According, the probabilities that an individual will receive the category scores of 0, 1, 2, …, under the WSLM are expressed by: respectively. And all the above probabilities add up to 1. Then, the probability that an examinee will receive a category score of or higher on a polytomously scored item is . It should be noted that, the WSLM reduces to the dichotomous logistic model if . Similarly, the probabilities of the WSLM can also be graphically represented via the category response curves and operating characteristic curves. What’s more, the shapes of the category response curves and operating characteristic curves of the WSLM are very similar to those of GRM. The item full mark is determined when designing the test, which can be considered as the indirect reflection of the common understanding of the weight of the item score. Thus, the item full mark of the polytomously scored item can be treated as the item weighted-score parameter, which does not need to be estimated. Just like the dichotomous logistic model, the discrimination parameter and average difficulty parameter of the WSLM can be estimated by using the classical MMLE/EM algorithm. For a mixed test containing both the dichotomously scored and polytomously scored items, the MMLE/EM algorithm can also be used to estimate all the item parameters. Following the basic procedure of MMLE/EM algorithm, we have written the item parameter estimation programs using the Visual Basic Program, and have successfully estimated the discrimination parameters and the average difficulty parameters of both the dichotomous and polytomous items under the WSLM. A Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to investigate the performance of WSLM. The results of the simulation tests demonstrated that the ABS and RMSE of item parameters were relatively small. The numerical values of the item full marks can’t almost affect the ABS and RMSE of item parameters. When the scores on the items were not consecutive, the ABS and RMSE of item parameters were relatively small. Moreover, the ABS and RMSE of item parameters under the WSLM was as small as those under the dichotomous Logistic model. In summary, the item-parameter recovery in the simulation tests under the WSLM was effective and acceptable.

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    Total Contents of Acta Psychologica Sinica, Vol. 48, 2016
    Editor
    2016, 48 (12):  1631-1640. 
    Abstract ( 1184 )  
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