Equitable Assessment of Gifted Students Using the Naglieri General Ability Tests

Even though it is well documented that Black, Hispanic, Native American students have been denied access to gifted education for decades, injustice continues. The authors present research showing that traditional IQ tests with their verbal and quantitative questions contribute to under-representation because they yield large differences for students of color. Some (e.g., NNAT), but not all, nonverbal tests help but verbal and quantitative content is omitted. The authors suggest that students of color who are intellectually capable (gifted) but perhaps not talented (knowledgeable) could be more equitably evaluated if the verbal comprehension of instructions and verbal and quantitative knowledge were taken out of the tests used for identification. Research evidence is provided which shows that the Naglieri General Ability Tests: Verbal, Nonverbal, and Quantitative, which have nonverbal directions, do not demand knowledge acquired at school and do not require verbal response yield small differences by gender, race, ethnicity, and parental education.

Perceived Timing of Cutaneous Vibration and Intracortical Microstimulation of Human Somatosensory Cortex

BackgroundElectrically stimulating the somatosensory cortex can partially restore the sense of touch. Though this technique bypasses much of the neuroaxis, prior studies with non-human primates have found that conscious detection of touch elicited by intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) lags behind the detection of vibration applied to the skin. These findings may have been influenced by a mismatch in stimulus intensity; typically, vibration is perceived as more intense than ICMS, which can significantly impact temporal perception.ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to evaluate the relative latency at which intensity-matched vibration and ICMS are perceived in a human subject.MethodsA human participant implanted with microelectrode arrays in somatosensory cortex performed a reaction time task and a temporal order judgment (TOJ) task. In the reaction time task, the participant was presented with ICMS or vibration and verbal response times were obtained. In the TOJ task, the participant was sequentially presented with a pair of stimuli – ICMS followed by vibration or vice versa – and reported which stimulus occurred first.ResultsWhen ICMS and vibration were matched in perceived intensity, the reaction time to vibration was ∼50 ms faster than ICMS. However, in the TOJ task, ICMS and vibratory sensations arose at comparable latencies, with points of subjective simultaneity that were not significantly different from zero.ConclusionsBecause the perception of ICMS is slower than that of intensity-matched vibration, it may be necessary to stimulate at stronger ICMS intensities (thus decreasing reaction time) when incorporating ICMS sensory feedback into neural prostheses.

The effortful and invisible cost of repairing speech misperceptions by individuals who use cochlear implants

PurposeSpeech recognition percent-correct scores fail to capture the effort of mentally repairing the perception of speech that was initially misheard. This study includes two experiments to simulate and measure the effort of this experience of mental repair, from the perspective of both listener and talker.MethodsCochlear implant (CI) listeners heard and repeated sentences where single words were distorted or masked by noise, but recoverable based on later context – a signature of mental repair. Changes in pupil dilation were tracked as an index of effort and time-locked with specific landmarks during perception. Later, audio recordings of the participants’ responses were played for outside observers who judged whether they thought the CI user mentally repaired a word.ResultsEffort significantly increases when a listener needs to repair a misperceived word, even if the verbal response is ultimately correct. That increased effort lasts longer for CI users than for listeners with normal hearing. There was no success in detecting that effort by nearly 200 external observers including audiologists and others who profess to have experience and skill in conversing with people who have hearing loss. Mental repair of words in a sentence were accompanied by greater prevalence of errors elsewhere in the same sentence, suggesting that effort spreads to consume resources across time. ConclusionsListening effort is better explained by the mental repair and reconstruction of words rather than the appearance of correct or incorrect perception. Linguistic coherence drives effort more heavily than the mere presence of mistakes, highlighting the importance of effort that cannot be tracked with individual words or digits. However, an external observer is not able to reliably detect that extra effort in the listener’s voice.

Investigating the Role of Language in Slot Machine Gambling

<p>A systematic replication of Dixon, Nastally, Jackson and Habib (2009) was carried out to further examine the role of relational framing in attaching meaning to near-win stimuli in a slot machine simulation. The original study found that the verbally reported meaning of near-win stimuli could be altered through a verbal matching-to-sample training procedure. The current study confirmed this finding. Additionally this study had participants play on a simulated slot machine to assess if such relational training also resulted in changes in (non-verbal) response latencies when participants were presented with near-win outcomes during play. A study by Daly et al. (in prep.) had found that near-wins produced response latencies (in terms of initiating a new trial or 'spin') between that of wins and losses during slot machine play; a general finding replicated here also. However, in the current study it was also expected that changes to the meanings of near-wins would influence near-win response latencies. For example, response latencies following near-wins might become more like latencies following losses as a result of prior relational framing of near-win stimuli. The results of this study found a dissociation between verbal and non-verbal responses to near-win stimuli. The verbal training affected verbal responses but did not affect non-verbal responses. Some explanations are postulated for why this happened. These include the possibility that the near-win latency was merely an artefact of the experimental paradigm. Another explanation is that the dissociation between response types occurred because the contexts in the ratings and verbal training tasks were different to the context of the slot machine task.</p>

Investigating the Role of Language in Slot Machine Gambling

<p>A systematic replication of Dixon, Nastally, Jackson and Habib (2009) was carried out to further examine the role of relational framing in attaching meaning to near-win stimuli in a slot machine simulation. The original study found that the verbally reported meaning of near-win stimuli could be altered through a verbal matching-to-sample training procedure. The current study confirmed this finding. Additionally this study had participants play on a simulated slot machine to assess if such relational training also resulted in changes in (non-verbal) response latencies when participants were presented with near-win outcomes during play. A study by Daly et al. (in prep.) had found that near-wins produced response latencies (in terms of initiating a new trial or 'spin') between that of wins and losses during slot machine play; a general finding replicated here also. However, in the current study it was also expected that changes to the meanings of near-wins would influence near-win response latencies. For example, response latencies following near-wins might become more like latencies following losses as a result of prior relational framing of near-win stimuli. The results of this study found a dissociation between verbal and non-verbal responses to near-win stimuli. The verbal training affected verbal responses but did not affect non-verbal responses. Some explanations are postulated for why this happened. These include the possibility that the near-win latency was merely an artefact of the experimental paradigm. Another explanation is that the dissociation between response types occurred because the contexts in the ratings and verbal training tasks were different to the context of the slot machine task.</p>

The Eyes Are More Eloquent Than Words: Anticipatory Looking as an Index of Event Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a disorder in which individuals experience a difficulty in maintaining event memory for when, where, who, and what. However, verbal deficiency, one of the other symptoms of AD, may prevent a precise diagnosis of event memory because existing tests are based on verbal instructions by the tester and verbal response from patient. Therefore, non-verbal methods are essential to evaluate event memory in AD. The present study, using eye tracking, investigated whether AD patients deployed anticipatory looking to target acts related to future events based on previous experience when an identical video was presented to them twice. The results revealed the presence of anticipatory looking, although AD patients were unable to verbally report the content of the video. Our results illustrate that AD patients have a one-time event memory better than previously thought.

Verbal Response Inhibition in Adults Who Stutter

Purpose Adults who stutter (AWS) often attempt, with varying degrees of success, to suppress their stuttered speech. The ability to effectively suppress motoric behavior after initiation relies on executive functions such as nonselective inhibition. Although previous studies found that AWS were slower to inhibit manual, button-press response than adults who do not stutter (AWNS), research has yet to confirm a consistent relationship between manual and verbal inhibition. No study has examined verbal inhibition ability in AWS. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to compare verbal response inhibition between AWS and AWNS, and compare verbal response inhibition to both the overt stuttering and the lived experience of stuttering. Method Thirty-four adults (17 AWNS, 17 AWS) completed one manual and three verbal stop-signal tasks. AWS were assessed for stuttering severity (Stuttering Severity Instrument–Fourth Edition: SSI-4) and experience with stuttering (Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience With Stuttering [OASES]). Results Results indicate no correlation between manual and verbal inhibition for either group. Generalized linear mixed-model analyses suggested no significant group differences in manual or verbal inhibition. Manual and verbal inhibition did not predict SSI-4 in AWS. However, verbal inhibition was uniquely associated with OASES scores. Conclusion Although underlying manual and verbal inhibition was comparable between AWS and AWNS, verbal inhibition may be linked to the adverse experience of stuttering rather than the overt symptoms of stuttering severity. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15145185

Machine Learning Classifier Models Can Identify Delirium in Intensive Care Units

Purpose: The aim of this study was to use machine learning to construct a model for the analysis of risk factors and prediction of delirium among ICU patients.Methods: We developed a set of real-world data to enable the comparison of the reliability and accuracy of delirium prediction models from the MIMIC-III database, the MIMIC-IV database and the eICU Collaborative Research Database. Significance tests, correlation analysis, and factor analysis were used to individually screen 80 potential risk factors. The predictive algorithms were run using the following models: Logistic regression, naive Bayesian, K-nearest neighbors, support vector machine, random forest, and eXtreme Gradient Boosting. Conventional E-PRE-DELIRIC and eighteen models, including all-factor (AF) models with all potential variables, characteristic variable (CV) models with principal component factors, and rapid predictive (RP) models without laboratory test results, were used to construct the risk prediction model for delirium. The performance of these machine learning models was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of tenfold cross-validation. The VIMs and SHAP algorithms, feature interpretation and sample prediction interpretation algorithms of the machine learning black box model were implemented.Results: A total of 78,365 patients were enrolled in this study, 22,159 of whom (28.28%) had positive delirium records. The E-PRE-DELIRIC model (AUC, 0.77), CV models (AUC, 0.77-0.93), CV models (AUC, 0.77-0.88) and RP models (AUC, 0.75-0.87) had discriminatory value. The random forest CV model found that the top five factors accounting for the weight of delirium were length of ICU stay, verbal response score, APACHE-III score, urine volume and hemoglobin. The SHAP values in the eXtreme Gradient Boosting CV model showed that the top three features that were negatively correlated with outcomes were verbal response score, urine volume, and hemoglobin; the top three characteristics that were positively correlated with outcomes were length of ICU stay, APACHE-III score, and alanine transaminase.Conclusion: Even with a small number of variables, machine learning has a good ability to predict delirium in critically ill patients. Characteristic variables provide direction for early intervention to reduce the risk of delirium.

Measuring hygiene competence: the picture-based situational judgement test HygiKo

Background With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020, the crucial role of hygiene in healthcare settings has once again become very clear. For diagnostic and for didactic purposes, standardized and reliable tests suitable to assess the competencies involved in “working hygienically” are required. However, existing tests usually use self-report questionnaires, which are suboptimal for this purpose. In the present study, we introduce the newly developed, competence-oriented HygiKo test instrument focusing health-care professionals’ hygiene competence and report empirical evidence regarding its psychometric properties. Methods HygiKo is a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) to assess hygiene competence. The HygiKo-test consists of twenty pictures (items), each item presents only one unambiguous hygiene lapse. For each item, test respondents are asked (1) whether they recognize a problem in the picture with respect to hygiene guidelines and, (2) if yes, to describe the problem in a short verbal response. Our sample comprised n = 149 health care professionals (79.1 % female; age: M = 26.7 years, SD = 7.3 years) working as clinicians or nurses. The written responses were rated by two independent raters with high agreement (α > 0.80), indicating high reliability of the measurement. We used Item Response Theory (IRT) for further data analysis. Results We report IRT analyses that show that the HygiKo-test is suitable to assess hygiene competence and that it allows to distinguish between persons demonstrating different levels of ability for seventeen of the twenty items), especially for the range of low to medium person abilities. Hence, the HygiKo-SJT is suitable to get a reliable and competence-oriented measure for hygiene-competence. Conclusions In its present form, the HygiKo-test can be used to assess the hygiene competence of medical students, medical doctors, nurses and trainee nurses in cross-sectional measurements. In order to broaden the difficulty spectrum of the current test, additional test items with higher difficulty should be developed. The Situational Judgement Test designed to assess hygiene competence can be helpful in testing and teaching the ability of working hygienically. Further research for validity is needed.