On the Relationship between Impulsivity / Reflectivity Cognitive Style and Performance on TMU English Exam

2004 ◽  
Vol 143-144 ◽  
pp. 61-88
Author(s):  
Gholam Reza Kiany ◽  
Esmaeel Ali Salimi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Test Bias ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Test Method ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Potential Sources ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Performance on language tests varies as a function of various factors. These factors, according to Bachman (1990) include: communicative language ability, test method facets, personal attributes that are not related to the ability we want to measure, and random factors which are unpredictable and temporary. Since the purpose of language tests is to measure language ability, a fundamental concern in the development and use of language tests is to identify potential sources of error and test bias in a given measure of language ability and to minimize the effects of these factors, hence to maximize the reliability and the validity of the tests. This study with 1984 male and female PhD candidates with an age range of 21-51 who took the Tarbiat Modarres University (TMU) TOEFL-like English Examination as a prerequisite for their admission for PhD programs attempted to identify one of the potential sources of test bias called impulsivity / reflectivity (Imp/Ref) cognitive style. The purpose of the present study was two fold: On the one hand, the present research attempted to investigate the relationships and interaction between impulsivity/reflectivity, age, sex and performance on TMU English Exam. This, on the other hand, required restandardization of Persian Impulsiveness Questionnaire in Iran. To achieve this purpose of the study, having gone through the restandardization procedures, the data obtained from 1822 subjects regarding impulsivity/reflectivity were factor-analyzed through Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) in order to check the construct validity of the test. To achieve the main objective of the research, the subjects were classified into three groups of high, medium and low impulsives to see if this cognitive style has any relationship with Ph.D. candidates’ performance on TMU English Exam. Moreover, the role of gender and age in the subjects’ performance and the interaction effect of impulsivity, age and sex on their performance were taken into consideration. The results revealed that both impulsivity and gender are significant factors in the subjects’ performance. The overall main effect of age and the interaction effect were found to be non significant.

scholarly journals Bulgarian students’ impulsivity differentiated by gender, age, and some scientific areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislava Stoyanova ◽  
Vaitsa Giannouli
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Test System ◽  
Test Method ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Main Effects

Impulsivity is opposed to reflexivity as a cognitive style. This study investigated the frequency distribution of impulsivity in Bulgarian students, as well as some socio-demographic (gender, age, and some scientific areas – social sciences and humanities, as well as sport) differences in impulsivity. Impulsivity opposed to Reflexivity was assessed by means of a sub-scale of the computerized test method Attitude towards Work from Vienna Test System among 141 Bulgarian students. The results revealed slightly more frequent impulsivity than reflexivity in Bulgarian students, but not any gender, age or scientific areas main effects on impulsivity/reflexivity, only their interaction effect, such that younger male students in sport were more impulsive than older male students in sport. A minor trend was found reflexivity to increase with longer sports practice. These findings may indicate the quality of taken decisions in youth.

Mind Cure

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wakoh Shannon Hickey
Keyword(s):  
White Male ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Psychology ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Gender ◽  
First Americans ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Political Economic

Mindfulness is widely claimed to improve health and performance, and historians typically say that efforts to promote meditation and yoga therapeutically began in the 1970s. In fact, they began much earlier, and that early history offers important lessons for the present and future. This book traces the history of mind-body medicine from eighteenth-century Mesmerism to the current Mindfulness boom and reveals how religion, race, and gender have shaped events. Many of the first Americans to advocate meditation for healing were women leaders of the Mind Cure movement, which emerged in the late nineteenth century. They believed that by transforming their consciousness, they could also transform oppressive circumstances in which they lived, and some were activists for social reform. Trained by Buddhist and Hindu missionaries, these women promoted meditation through personal networks, religious communities, and publications. Some influenced important African American religious movements, as well. For women and black men, Mind Cure meant not just happiness but liberation in concrete political, economic, and legal terms. The Mind Cure movement exerted enormous pressure on mainstream American religion and medicine, and in response, white, male doctors and clergy with elite academic credentials appropriated some of its methods and channeled them into scientific psychology and medicine. As mental therapeutics became medicalized, individualized, and then commodified, the religious roots of meditation, like the social justice agendas of early Mind Curers, fell away. After tracing how we got from Mind Cure to Mindfulness, this book reveals what got lost in the process.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document