Sabina Kleitman

The role of individual differences in the accuracy of confidence judgments.

Abstract Generally, self-assessment of accuracy in the cognitive domain produces overconfidence, whereas self-assessment of visual perceptual judgments results in under-confidence. Despite contrary empirical evidence, in models attempting to explain those phenomena, individual differences have often been disregarded. The authors report on 2 studies in which that shortcoming was addressed. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 520) completed a large number of cognitive-ability tests. Results indicated that individual differences provide a meaningful source of overconfidence and that a metacognitive trait might mediate that effect. In further analysis, there was only a relatively small correlation between test accuracy and confidence bias. In Experiment 2 (N = 107 participants), both perceptual and cognitive ability tests were included, along with measures of personality. Results again indicated the presence of a confidence factor that transcended the nature of the testing vehicle. Furthermore, a small relationship was found between that factor and some self-reported personality measures. Thus, personality traits and cognitive ability appeared to play only a small role in determining the accuracy of self-assessment. Collectively, the present results suggest that there are multiple causes of miscalibration, which current models of over- and underconfidence fail to encompass.

Consequences of Employment During High School: Character Building, Subversion of Academic Goals, or a Threshold?:

This study showed that working during high school had negative effects on 15 of 23 Grade 12 and postsecondary outcomes such as achievement, course-work selection, educational and occupational aspirations, and college attendance. These effects were found with control for background variables and parallel outcomes from Grades 8 and 10 based on the 8-year (four-wave), nationally representative National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. The only benefit of working was a reduction in postsecondary unemployment, but even this effect was nonlinear. In the case of most outcomes, the effects of hours worked were primarily linear and negative and were consistent across ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, initial ability levels, and different types of work. Among continuing students who worked during high school, however, working to save money for college had mostly favorable effects.

The Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter (PATCS) scale: an evaluation of validity, reliability and the negativity of attitudes

BACKGROUNDnPersistent calls for school-based education about stuttering necessitate a better understanding of peer attitudes toward children who stutter and a means to measure outcomes of such educational interventions. Langevin and Hagler in 2004 developed the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale (PATCS) to address these needs and gave preliminary evidence of reliability and construct validity.nnnAIMSnTo examine further the psychometric properties of PATCS and to examine the negativity of attitudes.nnnMETHODS & PROCEDURESnPATCS was administered to 760 Canadian children in grades 3-6. Measures included reliability, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), a known groups analysis, convergent validity with the Pro-Victim Scale of Rigby and Slee, and the negativity of attitudes.nnnOUTCOMES & RESULTSnPATCS appears to tap a second-order general attitude factor and three first-order factors representing the constructs of Positive Social Distance (PSD), Social Pressure (SP), and Verbal Interaction (VI). In the known groups analysis, participants who had contact with someone who stutters had higher scores (more positive attitudes) than those who had not, and girls had higher scores than boys. PATCS correlated moderately (0.43, p<0.01) with the Pro-Victim scale. Finally, one-fifth (21.7%) of participants had scores that were somewhat to very negative.nnnCONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONSnResults provide evidence of the validity and reliability of PATCS and confirm the need for school-based education about stuttering. The PSD and SP factors suggest that education include discussions about (1) similarities and differences among children who do and do not stutter in order to increase acceptance, and (2) making personal choices and handling peer pressure in thinking about children who stutter. The VI factor suggests that open discussion about stuttering may alleviate frustration experienced by listeners and provide the opportunity to give strategies for responding appropriately. Results also suggest that education involve contact with a person who stutters.

Self-Confidence and Academic Achievements in Primary-School Children: Their Relationships and Links to Parental Bonds, Intelligence, Age, and Gender

The construct of metacognition is well-established in psychology and education disciplines, yet much is still unknown. One method receiving well-deserved popularity is by using confidence ratings assigned immediately after a cognitive act to study regulative aspects of metacognition. Prior research has demonstrated evidence of the stable and reliable construct of self-confidence in adults. However, no studies examined the existence of self-confidence among primary school children and its predictive validity within a school environment. In this chapter we present the results of a study that examined the existence of self-confidence in children aged 9–12 years (N = 183). The students also completed a brief-current form of the Parental Bonding Instrument to gauge their perceptions of the level of parental care and overprotection, within the parent-child relationship. Standardised school grades and fluid intelligence scores were also collected. The results from this study demonstrated the existence of self-confidence in primary school children and determined its importance for school achievement, irrespective of a student’s cognitive ability, age and gender. The results also suggest that parental care has an important influence on both school achievement and levels of confidence.

Over-confidence and confusion in using bloom for programming fundamentals assessment

A computer science student is required to progress from a novice programmer to a proficient developer through the programming fundamentals sequence of subjects. This paper deals with the capturing and representation of learning progression. The key contribution is a web-based interactive tutorial that enables computer science educators to practice applying the Bloom Taxonomy in classifying programming exam questions. The tutorial captures participant confidence and self-explanations for each Bloom [5] classification exercise. The results of an evaluation with ten participants were analyzed for consistency and accuracy in the application of Bloom. The confidence and self-explanation measures were used to identify problem areas in the application of Bloom to programming fundamentals. The tutorial and findings are valuable contributions to future ACM/IEEE CS curriculum revisions, which are expected to have a continued emphasis on Bloom [1].

Measures of the trait of confidence

This chapter reviews the item content, intended use, and psychometric properties of two main kinds of assessments that have been employed in studies of individual differences in confidence: Self-report questionnaires assessing one’s own beliefs to accomplish different tasks; and online, on-task confidence judgments of performance accuracy. First, we review six self-report measures that assess either cognitive (academic and vocational tasks) or physical (sports) confidence. We then briefly describe the use of confidence measures in studies of self-efficacy, outlining their differences and similarities with broader on-task measures of confidence. Finally, we focus on the online, performance-based, assessment of confidence and consider different indices of confidence calibration with accuracy. To date, online on-task measures have demonstrated the sound psychometric properties. This includes demonstrations of the greatest predictive validity for a range of outcomes such as educational achievement and decision-making behavior. Currently, no evidence exists relating self-report and online measures of confidence. Directions for future studies are offered for both types of assessments.

Mastering cognitive development theory in computer science education

To design an effective computer science curriculum, educators require a systematic method of classifying the difficulty level of learning activities and assessment tasks. This is important for curriculum design and implementation and for communication between educators. Different educators must be able to use the method consistently, so that classified activities and assessments are comparable across the subjects of a degree, and, ideally, comparable across institutions. One widespread approach to supporting this is to write learning objects in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This, or other such classifications, is likely to be more effective if educators can use them consistently, in the way experts would use them. To this end, we present the design and evaluation of our online interactive web-based tutorial system, which can be configured and used to offer training in different classification schemes. We report on results from three evaluations. First, 17 computer science educators complete a tutorial on using Bloom’s Taxonomy to classify programming examination questions. Second, 20 computer science educators complete a Neo-Piagetian tutorial. Third evaluation was a comparison of inter-rater reliability scores of computer science educators classifying programming questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy, before and after taking our tutorial. Based on the results from these evaluations, we discuss the effectiveness of our tutorial system design for teaching computer science educators how to systematically and consistently classify programming examination questions. We also discuss the suitability of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Neo-Piagetian theory for achieving this goal. The Bloom’s and Neo-Piagetian tutorials are made available as a community resource. The contributions of this paper are the following: the tutorial system for learning classification schemes for the purpose of coding the difficulty of computing learning materials; its evaluation; new insights into the consistency that computing educators can achieve using Bloom; and first insights into the use of Neo-Piagetian theory by a group of classifiers.

Metacognitive Self-Confidence in School-Aged Children

Prior research within the area of metacognition indicates that a self-confidence construct exists among both adults and primary school children aged 9–12. In this chapter, we review findings from several recent studies that demonstrate good predictive validity of the self-confidence construct and examine the predictors of this construct. In these studies, the students’ academic, non-academic and metacognitive self-concepts were assessed. We also assessed students’ perceptions of their key environments: classroom and family. The results from these studies demonstrate stable individual differences in confidence ratings. Higher levels of self-confidence predicted greater school achievement, irrespective of a student’s cognitive ability, age and gender. Metacognitive and academic self-concept acted as both important predictors of the students’ levels of confidence and mediators of the predictions that other variables had on self-confidence. Classroom factors (goal orientation) were linked to metacognitive and academic self-concepts, which in turn positively predicted academic outcomes and self-confidence. Such results support the claim for the existence of a broad self-confidence construct, signifying its pertinence for school achievement. The results also suggest that a student’s perception of classroom and family dynamics has an important influence on both confidence and achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for both parents and teachers, and we consider ways to improve academic outcomes for students.

Development and validation of the solution-focused inventory

Solution-focused coaching and solution-focused therapy are strengths-based approaches which emphasize peoples resources and resilience and how these can be used in the pursuit of purposeful, positive change. The Solution-focused Inventory (SFI) is a 12-item scale with three subscales: Problem Disengagement, Goal Orientation and Resource Activation. Three studies in this article provide support for the validity of the SFI as a measure of solution-focused thinking. The SFI negatively correlated with psychopathology and positively correlated with measures of well-being, resilience and perspective taking. Test–retest reliability over 16 weeks was 0.84. Cronbachs α for the 12-item scale was 0.84. It also demonstrates sensitivity to purposeful change in that participation in a leadership development coaching intervention was associated with significantly increased scores on the SFI, whilst scores for the control group did not change.

Low cognitive load and reduced arousal impede practice effects on executive functioning, metacognitive confidence and decision making.

The present study investigated the effects of low cognitive workload and the absence of arousal induced via external physical stimulation (motion) on practice-related improvements in executive (inhibitory) control, short-term memory, metacognitive monitoring and decision making. A total of 70 office workers performed low and moderately engaging passenger tasks in two successive 20-minute simulated drives and repeated a battery of decision making and inhibitory control tests three times – before, between and after these drives. For half the participants, visual simulation was synchronised with (moderately arousing) motion generated through LAnd Motion Platform, with vibration levels corresponding to a well-maintained unsealed road. The other half performed the same simulated drive without motion. Participants’ performance significantly improved over the three test blocks, which is indicative of typical practice effects. The magnitude of these improvements was the highest when both motion and moderate cognitive load were present. The same effects declined either in the absence of motion (low arousal) or following a low cognitive workload task, thus suggesting two distinct pathways through which practice-related improvements in cognitive performance may be hampered. Practice, however, degraded certain aspects of metacognitive performance, as participants became less likely to detect incorrect decisions in the decision-making test with each subsequent test block. Implications include consideration of low cognitive load and arousal as factors responsible for performance decline and targets for the development of interventions/strategies in low load/arousal conditions such as autonomous vehicle operations and highway driving.