Assessment最新文献

Executive functions play a crucial role in daily life. Among them, planning is key to setting and achieving goals efficiently. Therefore, having appropriate and relevant tools for its assessment is essential. This study aimed to analyze the reliability and validity of the Virtual Supermarket Test (VST), a virtual reality (VR)-based tool designed to ecologically assess planning. An instrumental study was conducted with 210 adults from Buenos Aires (55.9% women), aged 18-65 years (M = 32; SD = 14.7). Results indicate that the VST has a unidimensional internal structure, with all items collectively explaining 64.68% of the total variance. Evidence of internal consistency (KR-20 = .80), content validity, and concurrent validity (rho = .425, p < .001) was found. Both neuropsychology experts and participants reported positive feedback, highlighting the clarity of instructions and the task's relevance. These findings support the potential of VR technologies in the development of ecologically valid neuropsychological assessment tools.

Parental emotion regulation is crucial for parent-child interactions and child psychological outcomes. However, limited research has examined whether the Regulation of Emotions in Parenting Scale (REPS) functions equivalently across ethnoracial groups, raising concerns about measurement bias. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the REPS, including measurement invariance, reliability, and differential validity, across an ethnically diverse sample of n = 1,408 parents. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, we tested configural, metric, and scalar invariance. While configural and metric invariance were supported, full scalar invariance was not. A partial scalar invariance model, allowing three item intercepts to vary, showed acceptable fit. McDonald's omega coefficients indicated strong internal reliability across all subscales and racial groups. Multiple regression analyses tested differential validity and found no significant interaction effects, supporting consistent predictive validity. These findings confirm the REPS as a reliable tool for diverse populations. Future research should explore REPS applicability across sociocultural contexts.

The PROMIS Parent Proxy Measures for anxiety and depression are brief, validated, and freely available tools for assessing childhood anxiety and depressive symptoms. To improve their interpretability, we recruited a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents of children aged 5-17 (N = 1,213) to report on their child's anxiety and depressive symptoms using the PROMIS v3.0 measures. Our findings largely validate the PROMIS v3.0 scoring system, with means and medians close to 50. However, we observed narrower standard deviations than the published measure, meaning that some youth not flagged by the existing cutoffs could be experiencing meaningful dysfunction (relative to their peers). We also observed strong floor effects, suggesting that these measures do not differentiate among a large group of youth who are not showing anxiety and depression symptoms. In addition, we present norms by age group and gender, noting that differences emerge in adolescence. We recommend the use of the normative values we present in this study, allowing researchers and clinicians to better understand where a given youth falls within the full distribution of American youth.

This study explores cool and hot executive functions in brain networks using the Cool/Hot Simon Task, which distinguishes between neutral (cool) and emotional/motivational (hot) conditions by varying stimuli while maintaining a consistent task procedure. One hundred thirty-eight participants completed the Cool/Hot Simon Task and brain imaging. Behavioral results showed that reaction time was faster in the cool condition than in the hot condition, indicating that emotional stimuli influence performance. Within the hot condition, we further distinguished between preference (approach) and aversion (avoidance) stimuli, with faster reaction time and a stronger Simon effect for preference stimuli. Brain network analyses found only significant correlation between the hot Simon effect in the preference condition, which correlated positively with clustering coefficient, global efficiency, and local efficiency, and negatively with characteristic path length, suggesting higher neural integration efficiency when processing positive and preferred stimuli. Region-based analyses showed that the cool Simon effect was associated with nodal efficiency in the left superior parietal lobule. In contrast, hot Simon effect was associated with nodal efficiency in the left inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus, emphasizing the role of emotion and motivative processing. The Cool/Hot Simon Task provides new insights and theoretical foundations for the assessment of the hot executive function.

Psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, the "Dark Triad" (DT), share a common core of personality facets from the (dis)agreeableness domain (e.g., callousness, deceitfulness). Most DT scales neglect facet-level measurement, instead, adopting broad multidimensional scales that undermine precision and clarity. In contrast, the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment, Five-Factor Machiavellianism Inventory, and Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory used the basic trait approach (i.e., combining relevant Five-Factor Model [FFM] facets) to avoid these issues and provide numerous innovations. However, because they were developed separately, simultaneous use is problematic due to length and three forms of redundancy: (1) identical facets are used in multiple scales, (2) near-identical facets with different labels are used in multiple scales, and (3) numerous ostensibly different facets, derived from the same FFM facet, were developed. The unintended consequence being construct proliferation and jingle-jangle fallacies. This article describes a multi-study integration of these measures to develop a single set of unique facets to assess the DT at facet (e.g., Straightforwardness), domain (e.g., Antagonism), and construct (e.g., Psychopathy) level: the Faceted Dark Triad (FDT) Scale. The FDT, in long, short, and super-short form, provides efficient and theoretically coherent assessment of the DT, with superior psychometric properties and criterion prediction, compared with the original measures and Short Dark Tetrad (SD4).

The NIH Toolbox^® for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) is a brief neuropsychological assessment tool created as part of the NIH Neuroscience Blueprint. Since its inception, NIHTB-CB has been widely used in a variety of clinical and research settings, including large-scale epidemiological studies. The NIHTB-CB was recently updated and re-normed to Version 3 (V3). We describe the approach to establish normative reference values. The NIHTB-CB tests were administered to a large English-speaking sample of n = 3,904 (average age = 25.7 years, 52.1% female) individuals from the U.S. population, stratified by age, race and ethnicity, sex assigned at birth, and education level within the four U.S. census regions. Normative data were raked via iterative proportional fitting (e.g., by sex assigned at birth, race, ethnicity, and educational attainment nested within geographic region) to derive sampling weights that match the demographic proportions from the U.S. Census targets. Through regression-based continuous norming and bootstrap techniques, age-adjusted and age-and-education-adjusted normative scores were created for individual measure-level and composite scores.

The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors (SAPROF) is a measure of protective factors intended to augment violence risk assessment. While prior research supports the predictive validity of SAPROF ratings, factorial and convergent validity have been underexamined, each of which is required to ensure that the instrument measures intended targeted constructs and converges with test scores from established measures. We evaluated the structural and convergent properties of SAPROF ratings through examining its factor structure and convergence with measures of relevant constructs, as a function of ethnocultural heritage, in a treated sample of 461 men with sexual offense conviction histories. The SAPROF was rated from institutional files pre-and posttreatment. Results of exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) of pre and post SAPROF item ratings identified a temporally stable three-factor model that was invariant across ethnocultural groups; however, it departed from the developers' original subscale structure-the factors were termed Internal-Prosocial, Motivational-Lifestyle, and External-to reflect continuity with, yet departure from, the current subscale structure. SAPROF ratings were correlated in theoretically and clinically meaningful ways with scores on relevant risk-need-responsivity (RNR) measures. The results support the structural and convergent validity of SAPROF ratings and identified a slightly modified subscale structure in the present sample.

In an innovative simulation study, Perley-Robertson et al. found that two correctional risk assessment tools were robust to missing data, with summation, proration, and multiple imputation producing nearly identical relative predictive validity results. However, the uniform deletion of items across cases may have preserved their risk rankings and, consequently, relative predictive accuracy. We extend this research by applying identical missing data conditions (1%-50% of items deleted in 10% increments) to one third, two thirds, and three thirds of a high-risk intimate partner violence (IPV) sample assessed on the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) and Spousal Assault Risk Assessment-Version 2 (SARA-V2; N = 267). Neither missing data nor the handling method affected relative predictive accuracy, though summation underestimated absolute risk. These findings support proration or multiple imputation when IPV risk scale items are missing within a research sample, and underscore that proration is preferable to summed totals in practice.

Intensive longitudinal designs have been used to examine the fluctuations of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and their dynamic links with daily correlates; however, scant research has explored how CU traits manifest in daily contexts at the within-person level. This study evaluated the multilevel factor structure and psychometric properties of a short version of the Inventory of CU Traits in daily contexts among adolescents (n = 99, 2,132 daily reports) and young adults (n = 313, 6,431, and 4,018 daily reports at each wave). Both bifactor and correlated-factor models showed acceptable fit and reliability at the within- and between-person levels, though the general factor in the bifactor model demonstrated low reliability in university students. Longitudinal measurement invariance was supported among university students over a 2.5-year period, while structural differences emerged between the two samples. Findings highlight meaningful within-person fluctuations in daily CU traits. Future studies should evaluate the applicability of different factor models for a more accurate assessment across age groups.

Progressive tests are a popular tailored test format where items are administered in increasing order of difficulty level and discontinued according to a rule system that should counter excessive response burden for test participants and guarantee efficient use of resources for test administrators. To facilitate evidence-based decision-making for setting appropriate discontinue rules, we propose a transparent approach that charts the impact of varied alternative discontinue rules on accuracy and efficiency. These A-E charts are based on retroactively applying discontinue rules to normative item response data. We show that a universal discontinue rule likely does not exist and that the optimal rule varies as a function of the desired efficiency-accuracy trade-off suitable for the intended test use and target population. The proposed approach provides a pragmatic solution for practitioners, researchers, test developers, and test publishers to rethink the existing discontinue rules, systematically evaluate the alternatives, and set appropriate rules.