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Psychometrika Mar 2022This commentary reflects on the articles included in the Psychometrika Special Issue on Network Psychometrics in Action. The contributions to the special issue are...
This commentary reflects on the articles included in the Psychometrika Special Issue on Network Psychometrics in Action. The contributions to the special issue are related to several possible future paths for research in this area. These include the development of models to analyze and represent interventions, improvement in exploratory and inferential techniques in network psychometrics, the articulation of psychometric theories in addition to psychometric models, and extensions of network modeling to novel data sources. Finally, network psychometrics is part of a larger movement in psychology that revolves around the analysis of human beings as complex systems, and it is timely that psychometricians start extending their rich modeling tradition to improve and extend the analysis of systems in psychology.
Topics: Humans; Psychometrics
PubMed: 35334037
DOI: 10.1007/s11336-022-09851-z -
Journal of Vestibular Research :... 2024Inertial self-motion perception is thought to depend primarily on otolith cues. Recent evidence demonstrated that vestibular perceptual thresholds (including inertial...
BACKGROUND
Inertial self-motion perception is thought to depend primarily on otolith cues. Recent evidence demonstrated that vestibular perceptual thresholds (including inertial heading) are adaptable, suggesting novel clinical approaches for treating perceptual impairments resulting from vestibular disease.
OBJECTIVE
Little is known about the psychometric properties of perceptual estimates of inertial heading like test-retest reliability. Here we investigate the psychometric properties of a passive inertial heading perceptual test.
METHODS
Forty-seven healthy subjects participated across two visits, performing in an inertial heading discrimination task. The point of subjective equality (PSE) and thresholds for heading discrimination were identified for the same day and across day tests. Paired t-tests determined if the PSE or thresholds significantly changed and a mixed interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) model examined test-retest reliability. Minimum detectable change (MDC) was calculated for PSE and threshold for heading discrimination.
RESULTS
Within a testing session, the heading discrimination PSE score test-retest reliability was good (ICC = 0. 80) and did not change (t(1,36) = -1.23, p = 0.23). Heading discrimination thresholds were moderately reliable (ICC = 0.67) and also stable (t(1,36) = 0.10, p = 0.92). Across testing sessions, heading direction PSE scores were moderately correlated (ICC = 0.59) and stable (t(1,46) = -0.44, p = 0.66). Heading direction thresholds had poor reliability (ICC = 0.03) and were significantly smaller at the second visit (t(1,46) = 2.8, p = 0.008). MDC for heading direction PSE ranged from 6-9 degrees across tests.
CONCLUSION
The current results indicate moderate reliability for heading perception PSE and provide clinical context for interpreting change in inertial vestibular self-motion perception over time or after an intervention.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Adult; Psychometrics; Motion Perception; Reproducibility of Results; Young Adult; Middle Aged; Head Movements; Vestibule, Labyrinth
PubMed: 38640182
DOI: 10.3233/VES-230077 -
Advances in Health Sciences Education :... Aug 2018Practitioners in health sciences education and assessment regularly use a range of psychometric techniques to analyse data, evaluate models, and make crucial progression...
Practitioners in health sciences education and assessment regularly use a range of psychometric techniques to analyse data, evaluate models, and make crucial progression decisions regarding student learning. However, a recent editorial entitled "Is Psychometrics Science?" highlighted some core epistemological and practical problems in psychometrics, and brought its legitimacy into question. This paper attempts to address these issues by applying some key ideas from history and philosophy of science (HPS) discourse. I present some of the conceptual developments in HPS that have bearing on the psychometrics debate. Next, by shifting the focus onto what constitutes the practice of science, I discuss psychometrics in action. Some incorrectly conceptualize science as an assemblage of truths, rather than an assemblage of tools and goals. Psychometrics, however, seems to be an assemblage of methods and techniques. Psychometrics in action represents a range of practices using specific tools in specific contexts. This does not render the practice of psychometrics meaningless or futile. Engaging in debates about whether or not we should regard psychometrics as 'scientific' is, however, a fruitless enterprise. The key question and focus should be whether, on what grounds, and in what contexts, the existing methods and techniques used by psychometricians can be justified or criticized.
Topics: Humans; Philosophy; Psychometrics; Science
PubMed: 28752439
DOI: 10.1007/s10459-017-9789-7 -
Advances in Health Sciences Education :... Aug 2016Psychometrics has recently undergone extensive criticism within the medical education literature. The use of quantitative measurement using psychometric instruments such...
Psychometrics has recently undergone extensive criticism within the medical education literature. The use of quantitative measurement using psychometric instruments such as response scales is thought to emphasize a narrow range of relevant learner skills and competencies. Recent reviews and commentaries suggest that a paradigm shift might be presently underway. We argue for caution, in that the psychometrics approach and the quantitative account of competencies that it reflects is based on a rich discussion regarding measurement and scaling that led to the establishment of this paradigm. Rather than reflecting a homogeneous discipline focused on core competencies devoid of consideration of context, the psychometric community has a history of discourse and debate within the field, with an acknowledgement that the techniques and instruments developed within psychometrics are heuristics that must be used pragmatically.
Topics: Education, Medical; Educational Measurement; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Psychometrics
PubMed: 26303112
DOI: 10.1007/s10459-015-9623-z -
Memory & Cognition Apr 2020The measurement of psychological properties often relies on discrete measures, for example, answers in questionnaires or responses in tasks. This focus on discrete...
The measurement of psychological properties often relies on discrete measures, for example, answers in questionnaires or responses in tasks. This focus on discrete measures neglects information that is present in the process leading to an answer or a response. A method to trace such processes is mouse tracking. Mouse tracking promises to open a continuous window onto the processes leading from a stimulus to a response. However, most mouse-tracking studies fall short of the promise to extract dynamic psychometrically valid markers for the different sub-processes, which are intertwined on the way to the final response. Here we used time-continuous multiple regression (TCMR) to extract dynamic markers for the different sub-processes leading to a response. From these markers, we extracted information about the timing, the duration, and the strength of the influence of the different sub-processes. We evaluated these dynamic measures of sub-processes for their psychometric properties, i.e. reliability, which is a basis for their use in the study of individual differences. Furthermore, we applied these dynamic measures in a group-level study to identify differences in the sub-processes of resolving response conflict between groups performing either a Simon or a flanker task. We found specific temporal patterns that match predictions from a conceptual model of these tasks. We concluded that the extracted information from mouse movements could be used as psychometrically valid dynamic measures of psychological properties and their differences across individuals and situations.A software toolbox to perform the described analyses in Matlab is provided (osf.io/5e3vn).
Topics: Adult; Attention; Conflict, Psychological; Female; Humans; Male; Psychometrics; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Young Adult
PubMed: 31721062
DOI: 10.3758/s13421-019-00981-x -
Animal Cognition Nov 2017For the past two decades, behavioural ecologists have documented consistent individual differences in behavioural traits within species and found evidence for animal... (Review)
Review
For the past two decades, behavioural ecologists have documented consistent individual differences in behavioural traits within species and found evidence for animal "personality". It is only relatively recently, however, that increasing numbers of researchers have begun to investigate individual differences in cognitive ability within species. It has been suggested that cognitive test batteries may provide an ideal tool for this growing research endeavour. In fact, cognitive test batteries have now been used to examine the causes, consequences and underlying structure of cognitive performance within and between many species. In this review, we document the existing attempts to develop cognitive test batteries for non-human animals and review the claims that these studies have made in terms of the structure and evolution of cognition. We argue that our current test battery methods could be improved on multiple fronts, from the design of tasks, to the domains targeted and the species tested. Refining and optimising test battery design will provide many benefits. In future, we envisage that well-designed cognitive test batteries may provide answers to a range of exciting questions, including giving us greater insight into the evolution and structure of cognition.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Cognition; Individuality; Psychometrics
PubMed: 28993917
DOI: 10.1007/s10071-017-1135-1 -
BMC Palliative Care Jun 2023In order to improve the provision of palliative care by nurses, it is necessary to have a tool that measures different dimensions of palliative care and the knowledge...
BACKGROUND
In order to improve the provision of palliative care by nurses, it is necessary to have a tool that measures different dimensions of palliative care and the knowledge and performance of nurses in this field. The Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice Questionnaire (German Revised) is psychometrically evaluated for the first time in Iran.
METHODS
To measure the psychometric properties, 360 nursing students (BSc, MSc, PhD) and clinical nurses completed the questionnaire. Face and content (CVR and CVI) validity were checked by quantitative and qualitative approach. Construct validity was performed with exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The total variance explained was equal to 43%; the internal consistency reported a Cronbach's alpha of more than 0.7; and the composite reliability was greater than 0.7.
RESULTS
After conducting construct validity and factor analysis, four factors (Knowledge and skill of managing patients' pain and symptoms, management of ethical and psychological issues in patients, communicating with patients and their families & management of patients' exposure to grief and attitudes towards death) were extracted. The total variance was equal to (%43) and coefficients of internal consistency were estimated more than 0.7. Also composite reliability was evaluated greater than 0.7.
CONCLUSION
Persian version of the Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice Questionnaire (German Revised Version; PPCEP-GR) is a valid and reliable questionnaire that can be used to measure the knowledge and performance of nurses and nursing graduates in the field of palliative care.
Topics: Humans; Psychometrics; Palliative Care; Reproducibility of Results; Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 37353756
DOI: 10.1186/s12904-023-01196-3 -
Medical Hypotheses Sep 2009I myself am a prime example of the way in which ignorance of IQ leads to a distorted understanding of education (and many other matters). I have been writing on the...
I myself am a prime example of the way in which ignorance of IQ leads to a distorted understanding of education (and many other matters). I have been writing on the subject of education--especially higher education, science and medical education--for about 20 years, but now believe that many of my earlier ideas were wrong for the simple reason that I did not know about IQ. Since discovering the basic facts about IQ, several of my convictions have undergone a U-turn. Just how radically my ideas were changed has been brought home by two recent books: Real Education by Charles Murray and Spent by Geoffrey Miller. Since IQ and personality are substantially hereditary and rankings (although not absolute levels) are highly stable throughout a persons adult life, this implies that differential educational attainment within a society is mostly determined by heredity and therefore not by differences in educational experience. This implies that education is about selection more than enhancement, and educational qualifications mainly serve to 'signal' or quantify a person's hereditary attributes. So education mostly functions as an extremely slow, inefficient and imprecise form of psychometric testing. It would therefore be easy to construct a modern educational system that was both more efficient and more effective than the current one. I now advocate a substantial reduction in the average amount of formal education and the proportion of the population attending higher education institutions. At the age of about sixteen each person could leave school with a set of knowledge-based examination results demonstrating their level of competence in a core knowledge curriculum; and with usefully precise and valid psychometric measurements of their general intelligence and personality (especially their age ranked degree of Conscientiousness). However, such change would result in a massive down-sizing of the educational system and this is a key underlying reason why IQ has become a taboo subject. Miller suggests that academics at the most expensive, elite, intelligence-screening universities tend to be sceptical of psychometric testing; precisely because they do not want to be undercut by cheaper, faster, more-reliable IQ and personality evaluations.
Topics: Education; Intelligence; Intelligence Tests; Psychometrics; United Kingdom
PubMed: 19428191
DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.04.011 -
Heart & Lung : the Journal of Critical... 2016The purpose of this review is to provide a guide for researchers and clinicians in selecting an instrument to measure four commonly occurring symptoms (dyspnea, chest... (Review)
Review
The purpose of this review is to provide a guide for researchers and clinicians in selecting an instrument to measure four commonly occurring symptoms (dyspnea, chest pain, palpitations, and fatigue) in cardiac populations (acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, arrhythmia/atrial fibrillation, and angina, or patients undergoing cardiac interventions). An integrative review of the literature was conducted. A total of 102 studies summarizing information on 36 different instruments are reported in this integrative review. The majority of the instruments measured multiple symptoms and were used for one population. A majority of the symptom measures were disease-specific and were multi-dimensional. This review summarizes the psychometrics and defining characteristics of instruments to measure the four commonly occurring symptoms in cardiac populations. Simple, psychometrically strong instruments do exist and should be considered for use; however, there is less evidence of responsiveness to change over time for the majority of instruments.
Topics: Cardiovascular Diseases; Humans; Patient Outcome Assessment; Psychometrics; Severity of Illness Index; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 27686695
DOI: 10.1016/j.hrtlng.2016.08.012 -
Nutrients Apr 2022Addictive-like eating is prevalent, but a clear conceptualization and operationalization outside of an addiction framework is lacking. By adopting a biopsychological...
Addictive-like eating is prevalent, but a clear conceptualization and operationalization outside of an addiction framework is lacking. By adopting a biopsychological framework of food reward, this study sought to develop and evaluate a brief self-report questionnaire for the trait assessment of hedonic overeating and dyscontrol. Items in the Hedonic Overeating-Questionnaire (HEDO-Q) were constructed following a rational approach and psychometrically evaluated in a large random sample from the German population ( = 2531). A confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensional nature of the six-item HEDO-Q with the three postulated components of wanting, liking, and dyscontrol. Psychometric properties were favorable with good corrected item-total correlations, acceptable item difficulty and homogeneity, and high internal consistency. Population norms were provided. The HEDO-Q revealed strict measurement invariance for sex and partial invariance for age and weight status. Discriminant validity was demonstrated in distinguishing participants with versus without eating disturbances or obesity. Associations with the established measures of eating disorder and general psychopathology supported the convergent and divergent validity of the HEDO-Q. This first evaluation indicates good psychometric properties of the HEDO-Q in the general population. Future validation work is warranted on the HEDO-Q's stability, sensitivity to change, and predictive and construct validity.
Topics: Factor Analysis, Statistical; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Humans; Hyperphagia; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 35565829
DOI: 10.3390/nu14091865