Search

Childhood adversity can lead to cognitive deficits or enhancements, depending on many factors. Though progress has been made, two challenges prevent us from integrating and better understanding these patterns. First, studies commonly use and interpret raw performance differences, such as response times, which conflate different stages of cognitive processing. Second, most studies either isolate or aggregate abilities, obscuring the degree to which individual differences reflect task-general (shared) or task-specific (unique) processes. We addressed these challenges using Drift Diffusion Modeling (DDM) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Leveraging a large, representative sample of 9--10 year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, we examined how two forms of adversity--material deprivation and household threat--were associated with performance on tasks measuring processing speed, inhibition, attention shifting, and mental rotation. Using DDM, we decomposed performance on each task into three distinct stages of processing: speed of information uptake, response caution, and stimulus encoding/response execution. Using SEM, we isolated task-general and task-specific variances in each processing stage and estimated their associations with the two forms of adversity. Youth with more exposure to household threat (but not material deprivation) showed slower task-general processing speed, but showed intact task-specific abilities. In addition, youth with more exposure to household threat tended to respond more cautiously in general. These findings suggest that traditional assessments might overestimate the extent to which childhood adversity reduces specific abilities. By combining DDM and SEM approaches, we can develop a more nuanced understanding of how adversity affects different aspects of youth's cognitive performance.

When forensic interviewers reject children's "Don't know" responses, either by repeating questions or pressuring the children to provide different responses, children may change their subsequent responses. The primary objective of the current study was to examine interviewer reactions following preschool-aged alleged abuse victims' "Don't know" responses in 114 forensic interviews and the children's responses to these rejections. Interviewer reactions were dichotomously coded as either interviewer acceptance (i.e., transitioning to the next logical question or formulating questions focusing on previously mentioned details) or interviewer rejection (i.e., repeating questions or making negative remarks about recall ability). The results showed that the interviewers accepted the children's "Don't know" responses 75.3% of the time and rejected them 24.7% of the time. When interviewers rejected the children's "Don't know" responses, 75.9% of the subsequent responses contradicted the children's initial responses. These results suggest that interviewer rejections following preschool-aged children's "Don't know" responses may be suggestive.

This study utilised the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 561 adoptive children; 57.2% male, 55.3% White), a study of children adopted at birth, to examine heritable (birth parent psychopathology) and prenatal risk (prenatal maternal distress and smoking during pregnancy), infant negative affectivity, adoptive parent over-reactivity and warmth as independent predictors of childhood externalising symptoms. The current study evaluated if: (1) infant negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting are candidate mediators for the effects of heritable and prenatal risk on externalising symptoms and (2) parental warmth weakens the influence of heritable risk, prenatal risk, negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting on externalising symptoms. There were main effects of heritable risk, infant negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting on child externalising symptoms. The study found no support for the hypothesised mediation and moderation effects, suggesting that targeting parental over-reactivity rather than warmth would be more effective in reducing the risk for childhood externalising symptoms.

According to faking models, personality variables and faking are related. Most prominently, people's tendency to try to make an appropriate impression (impression management; IM) and their tendency to adjust the impression they make (self-monitoring; SM) have been suggested to be associated with faking. Nevertheless, empirical findings connecting these personality variables to faking have been contradictory, partly because different studies have given individuals different tests to fake and different faking directions (to fake low vs. high scores). Importantly, whereas past research has focused on faking by examining test scores, recent advances have suggested that the faking process could be better understood by analyzing individuals' responses at the item level (response pattern). Using machine learning (elastic net and random forest regression), we reanalyzed a data set (N = 260) to investigate whether individuals' faked response patterns on extraversion (features; i.e., input variables) could reveal their IM and SM scores. We found that individuals had similar response patterns when they faked, irrespective of their IM scores (excluding the faking of high scores when random forest regression was used). Elastic net and random forest regression converged in revealing that individuals higher on SM differed from individuals lower on SM in how they faked. Thus, response patterns were able to reveal individuals' SM, but not IM. Feature importance analyses showed that whereas some items were faked differently by individuals with higher versus lower SM scores, others were faked similarly. Our results imply that analyses of response patterns offer valuable new insights into the faking process.

In recent years, some models for binary and graded format responses have been proposed to assess unipolar variables or "quasi-traits." These studies have mainly focused on clinical variables that have traditionally been treated as bipolar traits. In the present study, we have made a proposal for unipolar traits measured with continuous response items. The proposed log-logistic continuous unipolar model (LL-C) is remarkably simple and is more similar to the original binary formulation than the graded extensions, which is an advantage. Furthermore, considering that irrational, extreme, or polarizing beliefs could be another domain of unipolar variables, we have applied this proposal to an empirical example of superstitious beliefs. The results suggest that, in certain cases, the standard linear model can be a good approximation to the LL-C model in terms of parameter estimation and goodness of fit, but not trait estimates and their accuracy. The results also show the importance of considering the unipolar nature of this kind of trait when predicting criterion variables, since the validity results were clearly different.

The forced-choice response format is often considered superior to the standard Likert-type format for controlling social desirability in personality inventories. We performed simulations and found that the trait information based on the two formats converges when the number of items is high and forced-choice items are mixed with regard to positively and negatively keyed items. Given that forced-choice items extract the same personality information as Likert-type items do, including socially desirable responding, other means are needed to counteract social desirability. We propose using evaluatively neutralized items in personality measurement, as they can counteract social desirability regardless of response format.

After George Floyd was murdered by police, teachers, alongside the leaders of their unions and professional associations, confronted urgent calls to address racism in their communities, schools, and classrooms, just as they were concluding an academic year rendered chaotic by COVID-19. This article leverages four waves of semistructured interviews with teachers' union and association leaders embedded in 14 states and 45 school districts to investigate how and why teachers' unions responded to those calls during 2020 and 2021. Local leaders were more likely to have taken concrete steps if they were serving urban or suburban and predominantly Democratic communities. Most commonly, unions offered symbolic gestures of support or sought to develop their capacity to recognize and understand bias.

Imitation and emulation are both important response modalities when learning new tasks. The current study tested the effects of establishing generalized imitation (GI) across missing topographies (gross motor, fine motor, multiple-step motor) on number of sessions-to-criterion for four preschoolers with developmental delays who were learning novel dressing skills. We also recorded participants' response modalities (imitative or emulative) during instruction. We used a pre- and postintervention design with a nested multiple probe design across participants. Intervention involved establishing the missing topographies using a mirror while modeling. Postintervention probes involving learning a new dressing skill from demonstration showed that the establishment of GI across multiple topographies resulted in a decrease in the number of sessions-to-criterion as well as a shift in responding during instruction from emulation to imitation for all four participants. Findings suggest that the establishment of GI across multiple topographies resulted in a new and more efficient way of learning multiple-step chained responses by observing a model in a mirror. Our results provide empirical evidence that GI meets the definition of a behavioral developmental cusp.

This study tested for the emergence of listener discriminations and intraverbal vocal responses following tact training with four autistic children. All participants were trained to tact the name and the favorite food of two contrived cartoon monsters in the presence of a picture of the monster (e.g., "What is the name of this monster?" -- "Max" and "What food does the monster eat?" -- "Sweets") to evaluate the effects of emergent listener discriminations and emergent intraverbal vocal responses. Once criterion was met on the tact training, participants were tested for emergent listener discriminations (e.g., "Who eats sweets?" And "Who is Max?") and emergent intraverbal vocal responses (e.g., "What food does Max eat?" -- "Sweets" and "Who eats sweets?" -- "Max" in the absence of the picture). After training, all four participants engaged in emergent listener responding but only one participant engaged in emergent intraverbal responding. Multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) was used to teach those who could not engage in emergent intraverbal responding, and it was demonstrated to be effective. These findings are educationally significant because efficiency of instruction is important to maximize instructional impact, and to reduce the time and resource-intensive nature of behavior-analytic programming.

In the current study, eight college students were exposed to a successive matching-to-sample (S-MTS) procedure utilizing non-verbal auditory stimuli consisting of common sounds. During emergent relations tests, participants were asked to talk aloud, and their vocal-verbal statements were transcribed and categorized as class-consistent, class-inconsistent, or irrelevant. All participants met emergence criterion for symmetry and four did so for transitivity/equivalence. Analysis of vocal-verbal statements showed a positive correlation between class-consistent statements emitted by participants and correct selection responses during S-MTS tasks. Such results suggest possible verbal mediation during emergent relations tests.

Post-secondary data literacy education is critical to students' academic and career success. However, the literature has not adequately addressed the conceptualization and assessment of data literacy for post-secondary students. In this study, we introduced a novel digital performance-based assessment for teaching and evaluating post-secondary students' data literacy skills. The purpose of this study is to validate the assessment and identify problematic items for later modifications using the argument-based approach to validation. We analyzed students' item responses and eye movements using psychometric and eye-tracking analyses to collect two types of validity evidence: internal structure and response processes. Descriptive and psychometric results showed that the nine example items measuring basic data analysis were of acceptable psychometric quality. The eye-tracking analysis of two representative items indicated that most students first attended to and processed expected item areas when the items were available. In addition, the critical item regions for task success were associated with students' highest cognitive effort. These results rejected our alternative score interpretation that the developed assessment questions evaluate students' abilities that are weakly connected to the skill of basic data analysis. Possible explanations of the findings and theoretical and pedagogical implications of our study were discussed.

Statistical process control (SPC) charts have been widely used in the field of educational measurement. The cumulative sum (CUSUM) is an established SPC method to detect aberrant responses for educational assessments. There are many studies that investigated the performance of CUSUM in different test settings. This paper describes the CUSUM procedure and shows how it can be used to monitor the testtaking process and detect aberrant responses. It aims to provide an accessible guide for the CUSUM control chart.

In the United States, higher education institutions must be authorized as postsecondary education providers -- through a process known as state authorization -- to be eligible to receive federal student financial aid funds. Through state authorization policies, state governments play a key role in maintaining accountability for higher education. Since 2010, the federal government has issued a series of significant reforms on postsecondary state authorization; yet little is known about how state-level officials implement these policies. The purpose of this multi-case study was to analyze the experiences of five states (California, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania) responding to federal policy on postsecondary state authorization. Through semi-structured interviews with 25 officials across the five states and analysis of policy-relevant documents, this study found much consistency in the ways policy actors responded to federal state authorization policies. This study also found that states' implementation of these policies was challenged by insufficient staff capacity, limited communications with the federal department of education, complexity of federal policies, and high compliance costs. Intermediary organizations and policy actors' networks played important roles in many aspects of states' responses to the policies.

The present research emphasizes the role of learning in response changes to infection threats and suggests a new instrument. This preliminary study aims to develop a brief tool (SITS: Sensitivity to Infection Threats Scale) that measures individuals' health sensitivity to infection threats. The present research utilized the Brief Symptom Inventory-phobic anxiety and hostility subscales and the newly developed SITS. The reliability and validity of SITS were examined through construct, divergent, and convergent validity as well as internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The underlying dimensions were explored through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA N = 142; Mage = 20.29, SDage = 2.34), and the EFA dimensions were confirmed through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA N = 236; Mage = 20.36, SDage = 2.24). The EFA and CFA results supported a correlated four-factor model and the 20-item structure of the SITS. These four factors included Preoccupied, Avoidant, Physiological, and Cautionary Sensitivities. The overall scale and subscales had good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and divergent validity. The SITS is a reliable scale and has the potential to deepen our understanding of human behaviour in responding to infection threats.

A main goal of academic courses is to help students acquire knowledge and skills that they can transfer to multiple contexts. In this article, we (i) examine students' responses to test question templates (TQTs), a framework intended to facilitate transfer, and (ii) determine whether similar transfer-promoting strategies are commonly embedded in published biology lessons. In study 1, in surveys administered over several academic quarters, students consistently reported that TQTs helped them transfer course content to exams and the real world; that multiple (two to five) examples were generally needed to understand a given TQT, leading >40% students to create their own additional examples; and that TQTs would be helpful in other science courses. In study 2, among 100 peer-reviewed lessons published by CourseSource or the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (NCCSTS), less than 5% of lessons gave students advice about exams or helped students create additional practice problems. The latter finding is not meant as criticism of these excellent lessons, which are a boon to the biology education community. However, with TQT-like prescriptions generally absent from peer-reviewed lessons, biology instructors may wish to supplement the lessons with TQT-like strategies to explicitly connect the material to subsequent exams.

Despite their growing presence, student members of school boards remain relatively neglected in extant research. Drawing on notions of situational and institutional power, this study examines how seven U.S. student members of the board enacted their roles during the challenging 2020-21 school year and how adults responded. Findings highlight not only the seriousness of purpose with which students worked to elevate concerns and act in the best interest of their peers, but also the various suppression tactics adults used to undermine or silence their voices. We identify five commonly experienced suppression tactics, each of which reflects the pervasiveness of adultism.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest crises occurred in the field of education. The number of students whose educational activities were interrupted because of the pandemic is an indicator of the effects of the pandemic on education. However, when the studies in the literature are examined, they mostly focus on the field of health. Studies in the field of education are relatively limited and the studies or data are unstructured. As a matter of fact, it is important to structure the data in the world created by data; to understand how the process works, to discover opportunities and the patterns that make up the world, to predict what will happen in new situations. In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine which issues are examined in the field of education in Turkey and around the world in the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with this purpose, analyzes were made using text mining techniques on text-based data. As a result of the research, in the international literature, more in-depth and theoretical research is included in the context of education, while in the national literature, situation determination and superficial distance education studies have been carried out.

Digital disruption is not a new phenomenon in education; however, it has become more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic due to school closures and the related emergency remote teaching (ERT) period. Our study aims to explore the different pedagogical strategies that primary school teachers adopted during this period and determine how successful these strategies were in involving and engaging students. Altogether, 4028 teachers from 343 primary schools answered our online survey from all the regions of Hungary. The sample adequately represents the Hungarian primary school teacher population in terms of gender and age. We used cluster analysis and identified four clusters of pedagogical strategies; then, we used analysis of variance to explore how teachers' digital competence and their ability to involve students in online learning varied across different clusters. Our analysis grasps the complexity of the issue, as it shows that two rather distinct strategies were both successful in involving students, and thus, there is no single solution best suited to digital learning. Overall, digitally competent teachers loosened the originally strict structure of education and provided more feedback, which proved to be an important element in successfully involving students in digital learning during ERT. The framework validated in our research can be used by policymakers and school administrators in different national and educational contexts, enabling them to understand the complexity of online teaching and learning. Furthermore, our results can offer some practical pointers for school teachers on how to combine different pedagogical strategies.

This article responds to the rise of the micro-credential movement. It evidences the heightened attention politicians, policy-makers and educational leaders are giving to micro-credentials by framing the discussion in several recent high-level policy developments, an exponential growth in the number of academic publications and the increasing level of interest shown by popular media. It follows that micro-credentials appear to be high on the change agenda for many higher education institutions (HEIs), especially in the post-COVID-19 environment. However, the emergence of the micro-credential raises several crucial questions for educational leaders, set against fear of missing out. Importantly, the paper identifies a significant gap in the literature regarding leadership and strategic institutional responses to micro-credentials. Indeed, there is a dearth of literature. Leadership is crucial to the success of any educational change or innovation, so five key questions are presented for institutional leaders. They challenge institutions to make strategic decisions around how they engage with and position micro-credentials. If micro-credentials are part of an HEI's change agenda, then serious consideration needs to be given to the type of leadership and internal structures required to develop and execute a successful micro-credential strategy. Consideration must also be given to fit-for-purpose business models and how to mitigate potential risks. We hope to bring these strategic questions to the table as institutions plan, envision and develop their micro-credential strategies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak many countries around the world were forced to turn to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and upscale the use of digital technologies for learning, teaching and assessment. The current study analysed field reports from 89 elementary and secondary Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking information and communication technology schools in Israel, representing the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity of the education system. The qualitative analysis of the collected data was based on three well established contemporary models of technology integration and Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu): the International Society for Technology in Education, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and DigCompEdu. The analysis (n = 872 statements) yielded aspects in the teachers' reports that correspond with the theoretical models, alongside aspects that extend these models to ERT and aspects that were missing from the reports. Finally, based on our findings and previous work we suggested a comprehensive framework for ERT that can be used to design teachers' professional development necessary for effective remote teaching in both emergency and routine times.

Pragmatic competence entails awareness-raising of impoliteness. This paper delves into the pragmatics of impoliteness in online communication, focusing on X (Twitter) interactions, with a particular emphasis on 126 replies to Elon Musk's controversial tweet. Utilizing Culpeper's (2011) model of impoliteness formulae and implicational impoliteness, the study analyzes responses to this tweet, exploring the multifaceted dimensions of impoliteness. The research also investigates the moral order expectations expressed by the repliers, shedding light on the factors influencing their reactions and responses. By employing qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis, the study reveals the nuanced forms of impoliteness and the underlying moral order themes inherent in these online exchanges. "Responsible wealth behavior," "appropriate and non-offensive language," "respect and decency," "refraining from political narratives," "engaging in social responsibility," and "showing transparency, accountability, and ethics" were the identified moral order expectations. The findings underscore the relevance of examining impoliteness in the digital age, where public figures' tweets can have far-reaching consequences and provoke diverse reactions from the online community. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of impoliteness in online discourse and its implications for social media interactions by language learners, which are currently lacking in language classrooms.

Tutors in higher education are receiving and responding to student disclosures that include racism, anxiety, loneliness, legal disputes, family upheavals, physical, emotional, and mental health, bereavement, legal battles, and harassment. In many cases, this caring aspect of the tutor role is not acknowledged, allocated time in job descriptions, or accurately remunerated. This qualitative study explored how tutors experienced and managed student disclosures, the personal and professional impact of responding to disclosures, and how tutors believed they could be better supported. Data was collected from two cohorts of participants tutoring at a University in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using interviews and questionnaires and analysed by reflexive thematic analysis. Our findings showed that our participants believed they were positioned vulnerably between a rock and a hard place. At the rock, tutors were told to follow university guidelines and refer distressed students to over-loaded course coordinators or over-subscribed support services. At the hard place, tutors were often the first to be disclosed to, because of their front-facing positioning at the university and once they had heard the disclosure felt it was unethical not to try and help. Tutors believed they could assist students with personal challenges if their precarious positioning within the university was protected and strengthened and if appropriate support was provided by their university through training, time, and remuneration. Findings have implications for higher education providers to reconsider how tutors are supported to support students.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify commonalities and differences between content components in stuttering treatment programs for preschool-age children. Method: In this document analysis, a thematic analysis of the content was conducted of handbooks and manuals describing Early Childhood Stuttering Therapy, the Lidcombe Program, Mini-KIDS, Palin Parent--Child Interaction Therapy, RESTART Demands and Capacities Model Method, and the Westmead Program. First, a theoretical framework defining a content component in treatment was developed. Second, we coded and categorized the data following the procedure of reflexive thematic analysis. In addition, the first authors of the treatment documents have reviewed the findings in this study, and their feedback has been analyzed and taken into consideration. Results: Sixty-one content components within the seven themes--"interaction, coping, reactions, everyday life, information, language, and speech"--were identified across the treatment programs. The content component "SLP providing information about the child's stuttering" was identified across all treatment programs. All programs are multithematic, and no treatment program has a single focus on speech, language, or parent-child interaction. A comparison of the programs with equal treatment goals highlighted more commonalities in content components across the programs. The differences between the treatment programs were evident in both the number of content components that varied from seven to 39 and the content included in each treatment program. Conclusions: Only one common content component was identified across programs, and the number and types of components vary widely. The role that the common content component plays in treatment effects is discussed, alongside implications for research and clinical practice.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between narcissism and team cohesion of transformational leadership and individual sports athletes interactions. In particular, individual sports can present a model to verify the level of perception of team cohesion according to the type of record sports and martial arts sports. Transformational leadership, narcissism, and team cohesion were measured among 225 college athletes. SPSS 24.0, Amos 24.0, PROCESS Macro programs (Model No. 5) were used for data analysis. The analysis includes frequency analysis, Cronbach's alpha values, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Pearson's correlation, and moderating effect. Transformational leadership significantly positively affected team cohesion and narcissism. Non-narcissism also significantly positively affected team cohesion. The interaction between transformational leadership and individual athletes was significantly higher for martial arts sports. Team cohesion was also important for athletes in individual sports, thus expanding the boundaries of transformational leadership theory. To cultivate a sports team (organization), strategic sports management will be necessary to enhance team cohesion.

Surveys are typical for student evaluation of teaching (SET). Survey research consistently confirms the negative impacts of careless responses on research validity, including low data quality and invalid research inferences. SET literature seldom addresses if careless responses are present and how to improve. To improve evaluation practices and validity, the current study proposed a three-step procedure to screen SET data for quantifying careless responses, delete and justify the removal of careless responses, and assess if removing careless responses improved the internal structure of the SET data. For these purposes, a convenience sample was taken from a Chinese university. A web-based survey was administered using a revised version of the Students' Evaluation of Education Quality. One hundred ninety-nine students evaluated 11 courses with 295 responses. Longstring and Rasch outlier analyses identified 49% of nonrandom and random careless responses. The careless responses impacted evaluation results substantively and were deleted. The subsequent study demonstrated that removal improved data validity, using reliability, separation, and inter-rater agreement from the multi-facet Rasch model and G- and D-coefficients, signal-noise ratios, and error variance from generalizability theory. Removing careless responses improved the data validity in terms of true score variance and discrimination power of the data. Data screening should be a prerequisite to validating SET data based on the research results. Data removal is necessary to improve the research validity only if there is a noticeable change in the estimated teaching abilities. Suggestions and implications were discussed, including developing sound evaluation practices and formative use of SET.

Objective: To compare neurofunctional responses in emotional and attentional networks of psychostimulant-free ADHD youth with and without familial risk for bipolar I disorder (BD). Methods: ADHD youth with (high-risk, HR, n = 48) and without (low-risk, LR, n = 50) a first-degree relative with BD and healthy controls (n = 46) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a continuous performance task with emotional distracters. Region-of-interest analyses were performed for bilateral amygdala (AMY), ventrolateral (VLPFC) and dorsolateral (DLPFC) prefrontal cortex, and anterior (ACC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Results: Compared with HC, HR, but not LR, exhibited predominantly left-lateralized AMY, VLPFC, DLPFC, PCC, and rostral ACC hyperactivation to emotional distractors, whereas LR exhibited right VLPFC and bilateral dorsal ACC hypoactivation to attentional targets. Regional responses correlated with emotional and attention symptoms. Conclusion: Aberrant neurofunctional responses during emotional and attentional processing differentiate ADHD youth with and without a family history of BD and correlate with relevant symptoms ratings.

This study uses an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach to examine principals'responses to their schools' disproportionate discipline data in five schools located in the ruralsoutheastern United States. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed for principals' insight intotheir school discipline data. Results indicated that Black students were being disciplined at higherrates than white students in all five schools with principals sharing varied responses in discussingperceptions of causality. Principals attributed disproportionate discipline to a cultural mismatchbetween teachers and students, followed by student trauma and mental health issues.Recommendations are made for principal action and preparation.

In today's digital age, tests are increasingly being delivered on computers. Many of these computer-based tests (CBTs) have been adapted from paper-based tests (PBTs). However, this change in mode of test administration has the potential to introduce construct-irrelevant variance, affecting the validity of score interpretations. Because of this, when scores from a CBT are to be interpreted in the same way as a PBT, evidence is needed to support the reliability and validity these scores (AERA et al. 2014). Numerous studies have investigated the impact of changing the mode of test delivery from paper to computer, not only in terms of their psychometric properties, but also with regard to possible sources of construct-irrelevant variance. This article summarizes the main lessons learned from mode effects studies in education over the past 30 years and discusses some of the questions remaining.

The current study adds to a growing body of behavioral research aimed at learning about changes in behavior over time. In this proof-of-concept study, functional analyses were conducted every 6-8 weeks with eight children diagnosed with ASD receiving early intervention services at a community-based clinic. The goal of this study was to develop a method for assessing participants' general sensitivity to common reinforcement contingencies and relative response allocation to problem and appropriate behavior across time. To accomplish this, we reinforced the first instance of either problem behavior or appropriate behavior during functional analyses. Reinforcing appropriate behavior allowed us to fulfill the goals of this study while avoiding deleterious effects on ongoing clinical treatment and ethical concerns about repeatedly exposing participants to assessment contexts that favor problem behavior. The clinical utility of the described approach and avenues for future research are discussed.

As interest in derived relational responding has increased, so have the number of investigations evaluating interventions to promote the emergence of derived responding for individuals with autism, as well as other intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, much of the literature has focused on the relation of sameness, and less is known about interventions to facilitate derived responding in other relations. Systematic searches identified 38 studies contained in 30 articles that met inclusion criteria. These studies were analyzed according to their participants, assessment methods, experimental design, content taught, setting, teaching procedures, derived responses, outcomes, and reliability measures. The quality of the studies was measured using the Single Case Analysis and Research Framework (SCARF). The results of the current review indicate that many learners with autism spectrum disorder and other intellectual and developmental disabilities demonstrate derived relational responding beyond the relation of coordination across varied instructional content and teaching methodologies, but the quality and rigor of the published literature requires the results be interpreted with caution, leading to recommendations for future research.

Social scientists have long agreed that satisficing behavior increases error and reduces the validity of survey data. There have been numerous reviews on detecting satisficing behavior, but preventing this behavior has received less attention. The current narrative review provides empirically supported guidance on preventing satisficing by combining insight from related research streams (e.g. careless responding, random responding, insufficient effort responding, inattentive responding, straightlining, speeding). By uniting what is known about this broad range of problematic responding, a suite of preventive techniques can be highlighted, thus maximizing the utility of these literatures for researchers and practitioners. To optimize the contributions of this review, we complement the benefits of suggested preventive approaches with the potential drawbacks of taking the proposed steps.

Multiple-choice items are universally used in formal education. Since they should assess learning, not test-wiseness or guesswork, they must be constructed following the highest possible standards. Hundreds of item-writing guides have provided guidelines to help test developers adopt appropriate strategies to define the distribution and sequence of correct answers across tests and, thus, not inadvertently provide clues to correct responses. In this study, these option placement guidelines were systematically reviewed. Consensual recommendations and recommendations from the most theoretically sound guides were identified. Additionally, results from empirical studies evaluating the effect of option position on examinees' responses and research reports on where test developers place correct answers in tests were considered to better examine these recommendations' relevance and suitability. Consistent and easy-to-follow recommendations about where and how to place options in items and tests are finally provided so that developers can gauge the adequacy of their option placement strategies.

The current study expands on previous research on gender differences and similarities in science test scores. Using three different approaches -- differential item functioning, differential distractor functioning, and decision tree analysis -- we examine a high school science assessment administered to 3,849 10th-12th graders, of whom 2,021 are girls. Our findings confirm no significant gender differences in overall science performance. However, we identify differences in the incorrect distractor responses between females and males, especially on items that require spatial thinking. This suggests that while males and females perform similarly on this science assessment, they may approach certain types of questions in different ways. Our study provides a nuanced investigation of gender differences and similarities in science performance. It highlights the importance of considering specific aspects of science assessments, such as spatial thinking, when examining performance patterns between males and females.

Careless responding is a pervasive concern in research using affective surveys. Although researchers have considered various methods for identifying careless responses, studies are limited that consider the utility of these methods in the context of computer adaptive testing (CAT) for affective scales. Using a simulation study informed by recent research, we explored the impact of careless response patterns on three types of response quality indicators: model-based person fit statistics, CAT-specific statistical process control indicators, and standalone indices of carelessness. We focused on over-consistency and random responding as forms of carelessness. All three types of indicators were sensitive to carelessness, with some differences related to CAT termination rules and item bank size. Our findings suggest that person fit analysis techniques may also be useful in affective CAT contexts to evaluating response quality from a measurement model perspective, including identifying carelessness. We discuss the implications of our work for research and practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an unexpected transformation in teaching and learning across health professions education, necessitating an unprecedented operational shift. When exploring the factors at play in this shift, it is useful to analyse the pandemic response in terms of the field of disaster scholarship. This paper employs a qualitative case study methodology to review the application of a disaster framework to one health sciences university's response to the pandemic. It aims to identify the factors that facilitated the university's dramatic operational shift, with a particular focus on leadership and culture. The research questions were: (1) How does the application of a disaster framework enhance our understanding of a health sciences university's response to the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What implications does a disaster preparedness focus have for leaders within health professions education? The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 4 of the university's senior leaders and focus groups with 53 staff and 48 students across campuses in Ireland and Bahrain. Ciottone's disaster cycle provided the conceptual lens, and framework analysis was used to guide the data interpretation process. The analysis found that IT infrastructure and digital education, an empowering and supportive organisational culture, and a facilitatory leadership style facilitated the disaster response. The disaster scenario created a window of opportunity for innovation, collaboration, and problem-solving, but posed challenges for maintaining the momentum of change and ensuring student wellbeing. In preparing for future disruptions, consideration should be given to fostering a sense of purpose for students to enhance wellbeing.

This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ-NL), a self-report questionnaire that distinguishes altruistic, reactive, and proactive prosocial behaviours. Participants were 381 Dutch adolescents and young adults aged 13-30 (M[subscript age] = 18.62, SD = 2.59, 65.1% female). Test-retest reliability data were available for 199 participants. A Confirmatory Factor Analyses supported the three-factor structure of the questionnaire, with adequate six-month test-retest reliability. Altruistic and reactive prosocial behaviours correlated significantly and positively with prosocial behaviours directed at family/peers and the larger society, but not with depression or aggression. Conversely, proactively motivated prosocial behaviour correlated significantly and negatively with prosocial behaviour directed at family and positively with experienced opportunities for contribution to the larger society, aggression, and depression. These findings show that the PBQ-NL is a reliable measure to disentangle self- and other-serving motivations that underly prosociality during adolescence and young adulthood.

Despite considerable research into educating health professionals, debate continues about what is to be learned in becoming professionals. Some studies highlight what individuals are to acquire in preparation for health professional practice. Others attend to relations among people in healthcare and/or their social, material situations, including forming professional or interprofessional identity. Although these various studies have progressed the debate, they have not yet provided an integrated conceptual framework on preparing health professionals for the challenges of practice. Toward promoting such a framework, this article introduces a notion of responsive attunement for educating health professionals. A key concern in responsive attunement is developing an enhanced capacity to tune in to situations encountered, in order to respond on the basis of this attunement. This notion has three integrative features: (1) it has relevance for practice within and across health professions; (2) it couples what students know and can do (an epistemological dimension) with how they are learning to be (an ontological dimension); and (3) it is applicable at individual and collective levels. Promoting an enhanced capacity to respond with attunement -- both individually and collectively -- can contribute to preparing health professionals for the challenges of practice in our dynamic, complex world.

Caregivers play an important role in the development of talent in high-potential children, however, limited research exists on their observations and perceptions of their child's development. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine caregivers' perceptions of the social and emotional characteristics of gifted children in grades K-3. Semistructured interviews were held with a purposive sample of 11 caregivers of intellectually gifted children between the ages of 5 and 9. A thematic analysis revealed two overarching themes: (a) sensitivities and intensities, and (b) behaviors associated with challenges at home and school. Participants also completed questionnaires on personality factors and overexcitabilities. A hierarchical cluster analysis and k-means cluster analysis indicated that highly and profoundly gifted students scored higher in the five Dabrowskian overexcitabilities as well as openness to experience. Implications are discussed for research and practice.

Three-year-olds often respond to lies as if they were true or with no clear rationale. Individual differences influence children's processing of misinformation. Here, we explore how two contextual cues (children's conflicting first-hand knowledge and different information sources) affect their ability to correctly interpret and respond to misinformation. 133 three-year-olds from the northeastern United States searched for a hidden object after it had traveled down one of two criss-crossing tubes. Children played this game by themselves (baseline), with a deceptive human (intentionally incorrect about the location of the object), a broken human (unintentionally incorrect), or a broken machine (incapable of intentions and incorrect). Half of the children could see the object as it traveled down the tubes (knowledgeable group), and the other half could not (no-knowledge group). With this first-hand knowledge, children were more likely to search correctly when playing by themselves. Information source further impacted children's responses. Responding to a deceptive human was the most challenging: knowledgeable children searched randomly; unknowledgeable children inappropriately deferred to the deceptive experimenter. But when knowledgeable children played with either the broken human or the broken machine, they had as many correct searches as when they played alone. Context may have its limits when it comes to influencing children's responses to misinformation. Specifically, although first-hand knowledge appears to help 3-year-olds correctly respond to some forms of incorrect information, it may not be enough to help them overcome misinformation from explicitly deceptive sources.

The present study aimed to examine the effect of activity engagement, age, language proficiency, and time elapse on children's response accuracy to adult's questions. A total of 70, 3- to 6-year-old children participated in the study, engaging in a story-telling activity, a proficiency test, and two interviews. Additionally, 57 of these children participated in a delayed interview about the same event one week later. The findings indicated that children's language proficiency has a significant impact on the accuracy of their answers. Moreover, age appeared to contribute to children's response accuracy. However, children's activity engagement and the one-week time elapse did not significantly influence the accuracy of their recall. Results suggest that interviewers should consider children's age and linguistic proficiency levels while conducting interviews. This research contributes to the existing literature on factors affecting children's response accuracy.