Olga Kunina-Habenicht

Sex differences in face cognition

Although there is abundant evidence for female superiority in Face Cognition (FC), a number of questions regarding sex differences remain to be addressed. Here we report a reanalysis of data on the level of latent factors, modeled on the basis of an extensive test battery applied to three samples of over 800 adults in all. In independent samples the measurement structure of FC was invariant for both sexes, indicating that the measurement of the construct does not depend on the context variable sex, and investigating mean performance differences will not be biased by measurement issues - a neglected aspect in previous studies. We confirmed female superiority for face perception (FP) and face memory (FM). For the first time we could show that these sex differences prevailed after accounting for sex differences in broadly measured general cognitive functioning and in object perception. Across adult age, sex differences in FM increased due to the rapid decline of this ability in men, whereas performance in women remained stable across adult age. Self-reported social involvement and things-oriented activities moderated sex-differences in FM. Results show that sex differences are salient at the level of specific FC constructs and that they can be partially explained by social involvement.

Pädagogisch-psychologische Diagnostik

In diesem Kapitel werden grundlegende methodische und inhaltliche Aspekte der padagogischpsychologischen Diagnostik vorgestellt. In Bezug auf diagnostische Fragestellungen werden drei Dimensionen erlautert: Status- vs. Prozessdiagnostik, Selektions- vs. Modifikationsdiagnostik sowie kriteriumsorientierte vs. normorientierte Diagnostik. Anschliesend werden Inhalte und Herausforderungen mehrerer Anwendungsfelder der padagogisch-psychologischen Diagnostik erortert. Darauf aufbauend werden die Charakteristiken der zur Beantwortung diagnostischer Probleme verwendbaren Arten von Daten, insbesondere demografischen Angaben Testergebnisse und Selbstberichtsinformationen, diskutiert. Hierzu werden verschiedene Verfahrensgruppen auch am Beispiel vorgestellt und psychometrische Gutekriterien, die bei der Beurteilung von Messinstrumenten berucksichtigt werden sollten, werden besprochen. Schlieslich werden klassifikatorische Aspekte der Diagnostik auf methodischer Ebene thematisiert.

Estimating within-group agreement in small groups: A proposed adjustment for the average deviation index

In many research contexts where a multilevel data structure is present, researchers have to aggregate individual responses to the group level (e.g., team climate) to test specific hypotheses. An established way of justifying this aggregation is to show sufficient within-group agreement. An increasingly common measure of within-group agreement is the Average Deviation Index (ADM). The study elaborates on the properties of the ADM within small groups. This is a crucial topic, as many multilevel studies incorporate teams of fewer than ten members. Comparing practical and critical values for interpreting ADM magnitudes shows that in small groups the ADM is more likely to overestimate the agreement by receiving a smaller ADM value by chance. We assume the calculation procedure of the ADM to be one reason for the overestimation and therefore propose an adjusted calculation. After exploring the properties of the adjustment with simulated data, the original and adjusted calculations are applied to an empirical example with multiple ratings from 48 experts. Compared to the original ADM, using the adjusted ADM leads to a less biased agreement estimate within smaller groups. However, researchers are encouraged to use practical as well as critical values to interpret the level of agreement when using the ADM.

The Potential of Collective Intelligence in Emergency Medicine: Pooling Medical Students’ Independent Decisions Improves Diagnostic Performance

Background. Evidence suggests that pooling multiple independent diagnoses can improve diagnostic accuracy in well-defined tasks. We investigated whether this is also the case for diagnostics in emergency medicine, an ill-defined task environment where diagnostic errors are rife. Methods. A computer simulation study was conducted based on empirical data from 2 published experimental studies. In the computer experiments, 285 medical students independently diagnosed 6 simulated patients arriving at the emergency room with dyspnea. Participants’ diagnoses (n = 1,710), confidence ratings, and expertise levels were entered into a computer simulation. Virtual groups of different sizes were randomly created, and 3 collective intelligence rules (follow-the-plurality rule, follow-the-most-confident rule, and follow-the-most-senior rule) were applied to combine the independent decisions into a final diagnosis. For different group sizes, the performance levels (i.e., percentage of correct diagnoses) of the 3 collective intelligence rules were compared with each other and against the average individual accuracy. Results. For all collective intelligence rules, combining independent decisions substantially increased performance relative to average individual performance. For groups of 4 or fewer, the follow-the-most-confident rule outperformed the other rules; for larger groups, the follow-the-plurality rule performed best. For example, combining 5 independent decisions using the follow-the-plurality rule increased diagnostic accuracy by 22 percentage points. These results were robust across case difficulty and expertise level. Limitations of the study include the use of simulated patients diagnosed by medical students. Whether results generalize to clinical practice is currently unknown. Conclusion. Combining independent decisions may substantially improve the quality of diagnoses in emergency medicine and may thus enhance patient safety.

Assessing clinical reasoning (ASCLIRE): Instrument development and validation

Clinical reasoning is an essential competency in medical education. This study aimed at developing and validating a test to assess diagnostic accuracy, collected information, and diagnostic decision time in clinical reasoning. A norm-referenced computer-based test for the assessment of clinical reasoning (ASCLIRE) was developed, integrating the entire clinical decision process. In a cross-sectional study participants were asked to choose as many diagnostic measures as they deemed necessary to diagnose the underlying disease of six different cases with acute or sub-acute dyspnea and provide a diagnosis. 283 students and 20 content experts participated. In addition to diagnostic accuracy, respective decision time and number of used relevant diagnostic measures were documented as distinct performance indicators. The empirical structure of the test was investigated using a structural equation modeling approach. Experts showed higher accuracy rates and lower decision times than students. In a cross-sectional comparison, the diagnostic accuracy of students improved with the year of study. Wrong diagnoses provided by our sample were comparable to wrong diagnoses in practice. We found an excellent fit for a model with three latent factors—diagnostic accuracy, decision time, and choice of relevant diagnostic information—with diagnostic accuracy showing no significant correlation with decision time. ASCLIRE considers decision time as an important performance indicator beneath diagnostic accuracy and provides evidence that clinical reasoning is a complex ability comprising diagnostic accuracy, decision time, and choice of relevant diagnostic information as three partly correlated but still distinct aspects.

Incremental Validity of Multidimensional Proficiency Scores from Diagnostic Classification Models: An Illustration for Elementary School Mathematics.

Diagnostic classification models (DCMs) hold great potential for applications in summative and formative assessment by providing discrete multivariate proficiency scores that yield statistically driven classifications of students. Using data from a newly developed diagnostic arithmetic assessment that was administered to 2032 fourth-grade students in Germany, we evaluated whether the multidimensional proficiency scores from the best-fitting DCM have an added value, over and above the unidimensional proficiency score from a simpler unidimensional item response theory model, in explaining variance in external (a) school grades in mathematics and (b) unidimensional proficiency scores from a standards-based large-scale assessment of mathematics. Results revealed high classification reliabilities as well as interpretable parameter estimates for items and students for the best-fitting DCM. However, while DCM scores were moderately correlated with both external criteria, only a negligible incremental validity of the multivariate attribute scores was found.

Psychometrics of the Iowa and Berlin Gambling Tasks: Unresolved Issues With Reliability and Validity for Risk Taking

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is one of the most prominent paradigms employed for the assessment of risk taking in the laboratory, and it was shown to distinguish between various patient groups and controls. The present study was conducted to test the psychometric characteristics of the original IGT and of a new gambling task variant for assessing individual differences. Two studies were conducted with adults of the general population (n = 220) and with adolescents (n = 389). Participants were also tested on multiple measures of working memory capacity, fluid intelligence, personality traits associated with risk-taking behavior, and self-reported risk taking in various domains. Both gambling tasks had only moderate retest reliability within the same session. Moderate relations were obtained with cognitive ability. However, card selections in the gambling tasks were not correlated with personality or risk taking. These findings point to limitations of IGT type gambling tasks for the assessment of individual differences in risky decision making.

Bildungswissenschaftliches Wissen und professionelle Kompetenz in der Lehramtsausbildung

Ein empirisch bisher noch wenig erschlossener Bereich der universitaren Lehrerbildung ist der bildungswissenschaftliche Studienteil, in dem Lehren und Lernen, Bildung und Erziehung fachunabhangig behandelt werden. Das Projekt Bildungswissenschaftliches Wissen und der Erwerb professioneller Kompetenz in der Lehramtsausbildung (BilWiss) hat zum Ziel, den Ertrag dieses Studienteils, namlich das bildungswissenschaftliche Wissen von angehenden Lehrkraften nach dem Studium, empirisch zu erfassen und seine Bedeutung fur den Einstieg in die Berufspraxis zu ermitteln. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt die theoretische Ausgangslage, Fragestellungen und Studienanlage von BilWiss sowie die wichtigsten derzeit vorliegenden Ergebnisse dar. Unser Forschungsprogramm umfasste Curriculumanalysen, eine Delphi-Studie, Pilotstudien zur Konstruktion eines umfangreichen Wissenstests zur Erfassung des bildungswissenschaftlichen Wissens, die Hauptstudie mit 3.118 Lehramtsabsolventinnen und Lehramtsabsolventen und einer angliederten Langsschnitt-Erhebung sowie flankierende Validierungsstudien. Unsere Studienergebnisse zeigen, dass zwar theoretisch ein Konsens uber die im bildungswissenschaftlichen Studienteil zu behandelnden Inhalte besteht, jedoch das universitare Studienangebot sowie die individuelle Nutzung seitens der Lehramtsstudierenden sehr stark variiert. Entsprechend zeigen sich kleine bis mittelgrose Effekte des Lehramtsstudiums auf das per Test gemessene bildungswissenschaftliche Wissen und keinerlei Standortprofile. Erste Befunde weisen allerdings darauf hin, dass hoch ausgepragtes bildungswissenschaftliches Wissen den Einstieg in die Berufspraxis erleichtert und das berufliche Handeln positiv beeinflussen kann.