Construction and Validation of the HeiQ: An Operation-Oriented Figural Matrices Test.

Figural matrices tests are among the most popular and well-investigated tests used to assess inductive reasoning abilities. Solving these tests requires the selection of a target that completes a figural matrix among distractors. Despite their generally good psychometric properties, previous matrices tests have limitations associated with distractor construction that prevent them from realizing their full potential. Most tests allow participants to identify the correct response by eliminating distractors based on superficial features. The goal of this study was to develop a novel figural matrices test which is less prone to the use of response elimination strategies, and to test its psychometric properties. The new test consists of 48 items and was validated with N = 767 participants. Measurement models implied that the test is Rasch scalable, inferring a uniform underlying ability. The test showed good to very good reliability (retest-correlation: r = 0.88; Cronbach's alpha: α = 0.93; split-half reliability: r = 0.88) and good construct validity (r = 0.81 with the Raven Progressive Matrices Test, r = 0.73 with global intelligence scores of the Intelligence Structure Test 2000R, and r = 0.58 with the global score of the Berlin Intelligence Structure Test). It even superseded the Raven Progressive Matrices Tests in criterion-related validity (correlation with final year high school grades (r = -0.49 p < .001)). We conclude that this novel test has excellent psychometric properties and can be a valuable tool for researchers interested in reasoning assessment.

Developing Cross-Cultural Short Scales Using Ant Colony Optimization.

This article demonstrates how the metaheuristic item selection algorithm ant colony optimization (ACO) can be used to develop short scales for cross-cultural surveys. Traditional item selection approaches typically select items based on expert-guided assessment of item-level information in the full scale, such as factor loadings or item correlations with relevant outcomes. ACO is an optimization procedure that instead selects items based on the properties of the resulting short models, such as model fit and reliability. Using a sample of 5,567 respondents from five countries, we selected a 15-item short form of the Big Five Inventory-2 with the goal of optimizing model fit and measurement invariance in exploratory structural equation modeling, as well as reliability, construct coverage, and criterion-related validity of the scale. We compared the psychometric properties of the new short scale with the Big Five Inventory-2 extra-short form developed with a traditional approach. Whereas both short scales maintained the construct coverage and criterion-related validity of the full scale, the ACO short scale achieved better model fit and measurement invariance across countries than the Big Five Inventory-2 extra-short form. As such, ACO can be a useful tool to identify items for cross-cultural comparisons of personality.

Big Five Personality Traits Predict Successful Transitions From School to Vocational Education and Training: A Large-Scale Study.

Educational transitions play a pivotal role in shaping educational careers, and ultimately social inequality. Whereas parental socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability have long been identified as key determinants of successful educational transitions, much less is known about the role of socio-emotional skills. To address this gap, the present study investigated whether Big Five personality traits predict success in the transition from secondary school to vocational education and training (VET) above and beyond SES, cognitive ability, and other covariates. Using data from Starting Cohort 4 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; N = 4,137), we defined seven indicators of successful transition: obtaining a VET position, number of acceptances for VET positions, starting a VET position, (the absence of) dropout intentions and actual dropout, final VET grade, and satisfaction with VET. The results revealed that some Big Five traits were incrementally associated with several indicators of transition success. Conscientiousness emerged as the single most relevant trait, predicting all the transition success indicators but 1 (dropout intentions). The other Big Five traits had much weaker and less consistent links with transition success. Extraversion predicted the final VET grade and obtaining a VET position; Agreeableness was linked to a higher risk of dropout. Openness and Emotional Stability had no incremental effects on transition success. There was also some evidence for both compensatory and synergistic interactive effects, with Openness moderating mainly the effects of parental SES (on dropout intentions, actual dropout, and number of acceptances), and Agreeableness moderating the effects of cognitive ability (on obtaining a VET position, number of acceptances, and satisfaction with VET). Although individual effect sizes were small, the Big Five's joint contribution to transition success was non-negligible, and often larger than that of sociodemographic characteristics and cognitive ability. Our results suggest a hitherto underappreciated contribution of personality to successful transitions to VET.

New wine in an old bottle? A facet-level perspective on the added value of Grit over BFI-2 Conscientiousness.

There is emerging consensus that Grit's two facets-perseverance of effort and consistency of interest-are best understood as facets of the Big Five dimension of Conscientiousness. However, an in-depth investigation on whether Grit's facet offer any added value over more established facets of Conscientiousness is absent from the literature. In the present study, we investigated whether Grit's facets are empirically distinguishable from three facets of Conscientiousness as conceived in the well-validated Big-Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2), namely, Organization, Responsibility, Productiveness. Moreover, we investigated whether Grit's facets show different (and possibly stronger) associations than the facets of Conscientiousness with a broad set of external criteria (age, educational attainment, monthly income, life satisfaction, mental and physical health, fluid and crystallized intelligence); as well as whether the criterion correlations of Grit's facets are incremental over Conscientiousness. Findings from two latent-variable models in a large and diverse sample (N = 1,244) indicated that the facets of Grit showed moderate to strong relationships related to each other and to the three Conscientiousness facets of the BFI-2 (.41 ≤ r ≤ .94). Grit-Perseverance was almost indistinguishable from the Productiveness facet of Conscientiousness, whereas Grit-Consistency appeared to capture something unique beyond the Conscientiousness facets. The relationships with external criteria of Grit's facets were similar in direction and size to those of the Conscientiousness facets. The results give further purchase to the view that Grit's facets can be subsumed under the Conscientiousness domain.

Grit (effortful persistence) can be measured with a short scale, shows little variation across socio-demographic subgroups, and is associated with career success and career engagement.

Grit (effortful persistence) has received considerable attention as a personality trait relevant for success and performance. However, critics have questioned grit's construct validity and criterion validity. Here we report on two studies that contribute to the debate surrounding the grit construct. Study 1 (N = 6,230) examined the psychometric properties of a five-item grit scale, covering mainly the perseverance facet, in a large and representative sample of German adults. Moreover, it investigated the distribution of grit across sociodemographic subgroups (age groups, genders, educational strata, employment statuses). Multiple-group measurement models demonstrated that grit showed full metric, but only partial scalar, invariance across all sociodemographic subgroups. Sociodemographic differences in the levels of grit emerged for age, education, and employment status but were generally small. Study 2 investigated how grit relates to career success (income, job prestige, job satisfaction) and career engagement (working overtime, participation in continuing professional development courses, attitudes toward lifelong learning) in an employed subsample (n = 2,246). When modeled as a first-order factor, grit was incrementally associated with all indicators of career success and especially of career engagement (.08 ≤ ß ≤ .75)-over and above cognitive ability and sociodemographic characteristics. When modeled as a residual facet of conscientiousness, grit largely retained its criterion validity for success but only partly for engagement (-.14 ≤ ß ≤ .61). Our findings offer qualified support for the psychometric quality of the short grit scale and suggest that grit may provide some added value in predicting career outcomes. We critically discuss these findings while highlighting that grit hardly differs from established facets of conscientiousness such as industriousness/perseverance.

Individual, situational, and cultural correlates of acquiescent responding: Towards a unified conceptual framework.

Acquiescence ('yea-saying') can seriously harm the validity of self-report questionnaire data. Towards a better understanding of why some individuals and groups acquiesce more strongly than others do, we developed a unified conceptual framework of acquiescent responding. Our framework posits that acquiescent responding is a joint function of respondent characteristics (e.g. age, education, values), situational/survey characteristics (e.g., interview privacy, respondents' interest), and cultural characteristics (e.g., social norms, economic development). The framework posits two putative mechanisms through which these characteristics may relate to acquiescence: cognitive processing capacities and deferential communication styles. Multilevel analyses using data from 60 heterogeneous countries from the World Values Survey (N = 90,347) support our framework's proposition that acquiescence is a joint function of respondent, situational, and cultural characteristics. Acquiescence was higher among respondents who were older (over 55 years old), less educated, who valued deference (i.e., conformity and tradition), and, unexpectedly, were male. Interview privacy corresponded to lower acquiescence, but this association was small and vanished after including respondent characteristics. Unexpectedly, acquiescence was higher in interviewees who showed a stronger interest in the interview. Finally, acquiescence was considerably higher in countries with stronger social norms of deference. We discuss implications of these findings for the validity of research based on self-report data and delineate how our framework can guide future inquiries into acquiescent responding.

Relationships between Personality and Cognitive Ability: A Facet-Level Analysis.

A growing body of research supports the notion that cognitive abilities and personality are systematically related. However, this research has focused largely on global personality dimensions and single-often equally global-markers of cognitive ability. The present study offers a more fine-grained perspective. Specifically, it is one of the first studies to comprehensively investigate the associations between both fluid and crystallized intelligence with Big Five personality domains as well as their facets. Based on a heterogeneous sample of the adult population in Germany (N = 365), our study yielded three key findings. First, personality was more strongly related to crystallized intelligence than to fluid intelligence. This applied both to the total variance explained and to the effect sizes of most of the Big Five domains and facets. Second, facets explained a larger share of variance in both crystallized and fluid intelligence than did domains. Third, the associations of different facets of the same domain with cognitive ability differed, often quite markedly. These differential associations may substantially reduce-or even suppress-the domain-level associations. Our findings clearly attest to the added value of a facet-level perspective on the personality-cognitive ability interface. We discuss how such a fine-grained perspective can further theoretical understanding and enhance prediction.

Improvement of oral health-related quality-of-life by use of different kinds of double-crown-retained removable partial dentures.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the hypotheses that treatment with double-crown-retained removable partial dentures (RPDs) improves oral health-related quality-of life (OHRQoL) over a 36-month period and that the performance of RPDs retained by use of electroplated double crowns (EP-RPDs) was different to that of RPDs retained by use of cast double crowns (C-RPDs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-four patients (mean age = 64 years, 63% men) were recruited and randomly assigned to C-RPD or EP-RPD. OHRQoL was assessed pre-treatment, post-treatment and 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after insertion, by use of the oral health impact profile (OHIP). An unweighted total score was calculated (OHIP-SUM). A two-level hierarchical model was used for statistical analysis. First-level units were the measurements on the six occasions; second-level units were the patients. RESULTS: Improvement of OHRQoL was observed in both groups after treatment (t = 7.27, p < 0.001). Whereas a treatment-material interaction indicated that treatment with EP-RPDs resulted in greater immediate improvement of OHRQoL, a time-material interaction indicated that long-term improvement was greater for C-RPDs. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with EP-RPDs and C-RPDs improved OHRQoL initially. Over a period of 36 months the effect was significant. The treatment is, therefore, a promising therapeutic option. The cast conical design seems to have advantages with regard to long-term OHRQoL.

Oral health-related quality of life and depression/anxiety in long-term recurrence-free patients after treatment for advanced oral squamous cell cancer.

This report focuses on the association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and depression/anxiety of a homogeneous group of cancer patients who were recurrence-free for 8 years after treatment for advanced oral squamous cell. Participants were 24 patients (mean age 55 years, 75% men) treated with neoadjuvant concurrent radiochemotherapy followed by surgery with a mean recurrence-free period of 95 months (from 39 to 164 months). The OHRQoL (OHIP) and the anxiety/depression (HADS) were assessed twice (1 year between t1 and t2). OHRQoL was impaired in this group (mean OHIP score 65 units). In cross-lagged correlation analysis, the correlation between OHRQoL to t1 and depression to t2 was significant and greater than the non-significant correlation for depression to t1 and OHRQoL to t2 indicating that OHRQoL predicts depression better than vice versa. However, the difference in the correlation coefficients was not significant (ZPF-test). The same was true for OHRQoL and anxiety. The OHRQoL measured with the OHIP was impaired in comparison to the normal population. In the limitations of the study design and bearing the small sample size in mind, the results give evidence that OHRQoL predicts psychological outcomes, namely depression and anxiety, better than vice versa.

Association between patient satisfaction with complete dentures and oral health-related quality of life: two-year longitudinal assessment.

The objective was to evaluate the development of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in patients with complete dentures and the association between OHRQoL and patient satisfaction. Fifty-two patients (mean age, 66.3, 48.1% male) received dentures in at least one jaw. The analysis was conducted on participants with dentures in both jaws (CD-Both; n = 22) or in the upper jaw only (CD-Max; n = 28). Data were collected 4 weeks, 6 months, and 1 and 2 years after insertion. OHRQoL was measured by use of the OHIP-EDENT. Self-rated patient satisfaction was assessed on a scale of 0-10. To prove the hypothesis that patient satisfaction would be a meaningful predictor of OHRQoL, and not vice versa, multilevel analysis and cross-lagged correlation analysis were performed for both groups separately. OHRQoL improved from 22.9 (SD, 20.7) to 12.1 (SD, 14.5) for CD-Both and from 20.3 (SD, 17.2) to 14.7 (SD, 15.1) for CD-Max. Multilevel analysis revealed that patient satisfaction and OHRQoL were significantly associated (p < 0.0001) for both groups. Differences between the groups were found with regard to the effect of time after insertion and the interaction between time and satisfaction with OHRQoL which were significant only for the group CD-Both; however, no evidence was found for the causality of this association in the cross-lagged analysis for both groups (ZPF test, p > 0.016). Patient satisfaction and OHRQoL were associated for wearers of complete dentures. Within the limitations of the study, however, the causality that patient satisfaction predicts OHRQoL, and not vice versa, could not be proven.

Violations of implicit rules elicit an early negativity in the event-related potential.

When participants are asked to learn letter strings, which were constructed on the basis of a complex rule system (an artificial grammar), they are able to classify novel letter strings as being grammatical or nongrammatical better than chance without explicit knowledge about the rules. We tested whether violations of such complex regularities can be detected by the brain, when strings were presented sequentially (i.e. letter by letter). Compared with regular letters, rule-violating letters elicited enlarged amplitudes of the N1 component in the event-related potential, indicating that violations are automatically detected by the brain. However, this effect occurred irrespective of the participants' classification of the strings, indicating that the brain's detection of regularity violations does not necessarily lead to correct classifications.

Psychosomatic or allergic symptoms? High levels for somatization in patients with drug intolerance.

Patients with dermatological diseases often have associated psychological problems. For patients with allergic diseases, only a few publications have focused on psychological aspects. The objective of this study was to assess the psychometric profile, including somatization, depression, anxiety and health-related quality of life (HRQoL), of patients suffering from drug intolerance or hymenoptera venom allergies. In a prospective cohort study design, patients who were admitted to hospital for a challenge test for an alternative drug (n = 49, 24.5% men) or for induction of desensitization therapy with hymenoptera venom (n = 58, 37.9% men) were included. Psychometric screening questionnaires focusing on somatization (Symptom Check List), depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale), and also on HRQoL (Short Form questionnaire) were assessed. The scores were compared with population scores and between the two groups. Both groups had significantly higher somatization scores (P ≤ 0.003) than the normal population, and the challenge-test group had lower HRQoL than the normal population. Between-group analysis revealed significantly higher somatization scores in the challenge-test group (P = 0.011) and more impaired HRQoL (physical health domain P < 0.001). Anxiety/depression scores were not significantly different from those of the normal population, or between groups, although abnormally high scores for anxiety were frequent (18% and 12% for the challenge-test and allergy groups, respectively). Somatization, reduced HRQoL and anxiety seem to be part of the symptoms of patients with allergic diseases, especially for patients with drug intolerance. Standardized questionnaires could help to discover patients who may need psychological support. This may help to improve the patients' symptoms and quality of life.

Oral health-related quality of life is linked with subjective well-being and depression in early old age.

Although a body of research has targeted predictors of well-being and depression in old age, the consideration of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) as a predictor of these major psychosocial endpoints has been rare in the previous literature. The objective of this study was to test whether OHRQoL is associated with well-being and depression, after controlling for relevant confounders; also, the mediating role of subjective health, a major predictor of both well-being and depression, has been explored. OHRQoL was measured by two commonly used assessment instruments, the geriatric oral health assessment index (GOHAI) and oral health impact profile (OHIP); well-being was assessed by the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS) and depression by the self-rating depression scale (SDS). We used a subsample of 197 participants from the older cohort (1930-1932) of the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adult Development. Regression models and structural equations modeling (SEM) were used for the test for study variable relationships. Both GOHAI and OHIP revealed significant associations to both PGCMS and SDS at the bivariate level. In regression analyses considering gender, household situation, subjective health, and both OHRQoL indicators, only OHIP remained a significant predictor of well-being and depression. In addition, supportive evidence for a mediating role of subjective health regarding the linkage between OHRQoL and an overall latent construct of well-being was found in the SEM analysis. In conclusion, OHRQoL is significantly linked with well-being and depression in old age, while subjective health is able to mediate the relationship. The generally underrated role of OHRQoL with respect to well-being and depression in late adulthood deserves more attention.

Multicystic bone disease (Gorham-Stout syndrome) in a spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi ).

BACKGROUND: In April 2000, a 2.5-year-old pet female Geoffroyi's spider monkey presented for reduced activity, a subdued demeanor, and boney enlargement involving both radii. METHODS: On further examination, polyostotic bone cysts were identified involving many of the tubular bones and were identified radiographically. Microscopic examination of a bone biopsy revealed hemorrhage and other characteristics typical of an aneurysmal bone cyst. In addition, excessive osteoclasia was noted, in association with fibrotic areas rather than with Howship's lacunae as expected from a growing animal. RESULTS: These findings were consistent with Gorham-Stout syndrome, a rare condition reported previously in ∼175 human cases and in a dog at necropsy. The diet history and further testing suggested a negative calcium balance. Treatment included the administration of bis-phosphonates, which appeared to bring about marked improvement. Almost 8 years later (November 2008), radiographs were again taken and suggested some resolution of bone cysts, primarily those in the legs. CONCLUSIONS: This represents the first reported case and a potential therapy for this rare condition in a non-human primate.

Is the emergence of functional ability decline in early old age related to change in speed of cognitive processing and also to change in personality?

OBJECTIVE: To test whether the onset of functional ability decline in early old age is related to change in speed of cognitive processing and personality characteristics. METHOD: Among 500 randomly sampled participants, the 230 cases that did not show impairment in functional ability were selected. Mean age at Time 1 was 62.4 years. For this subsample, the emergence of functional ability decline was tracked across a 12-year observation period. RESULTS: The emergence of functional ability decline was related to change in speed of cognitive processing. Decline in functional ability was also related to increased neuroticism and external control, whereas this was not the case regarding extraversion and internal control. DISCUSSION: Cognitive processing speed was shown to be a predictor of functional disability decline; in addition, the results provided initial evidence that functional ability decline in the early aging phase could be accompanied by changes in personality, particularly neuroticism and external control.

Why positive information is processed faster: the density hypothesis.

The authors postulate and show a speed advantage in the processing of positive information and hypothesize that this advantage is caused by the higher density of positive information in memory: Positive information is more similar to other positive information, in comparison with the similarity of negative information to other negative information. This "density" hypothesis is supported by multidimensional scaling of evaluative stimuli and response latency experiments. The relevance and explanatory power of the hypothesis is demonstrated by secondary data analyses of prior research in the evaluative priming paradigm. The final discussion is concerned with further theoretical implications of the density hypothesis, its generality and limitations, and its relation to other theoretical conceptions and applications.