Answer Patterns Research Articles

A Palliative Approach to Existential Issues and Death in End-Stage Dementia Care

The aim of this study was to investigate how, in relation to the palliative philosophy of care, municipal staff caring for patients with dementia deal with existential issues, the dying process, and bereavement follow up with next of kin. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were performed and analyzed using a modified phenomenographic method. Those interviewed experienced existential issues as difficult to handle, and they felt lost. Three patterns of answers emerged: 1) attempting to minimize or ignore the issue, 2) pleading, in relation to the patient, that no one has control over issues concerning life and death, and 3) showing affection for the patient. When faced with dying patients, they made things easier for the family, and their goal was that the patient should not be left alone. No systematic bereavement follow up of next of kin occurred. Suggestions are made for improving municipal care, and applying palliative care principles for patients dying of dementia.

“I will tell, I will tell”

This study focuses on the records of confessions by individuals accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692, both those presented in direct discourse and in reported discourse. We analyze the material from two viewpoints: the pragmatic features of the discourse and narrative structure and function. The data consists of 29 individual records, with eight cases selected for closer scrutiny. The records span the period from March through September 1692. In the pragmatic analysis we study the question and answer patterns from the point of view of the examiners and the accused. The analysis of narrative patterns is based on Labov’s work in oral narratives. It provides a multilayered approach to understanding both the structure of the confessions and the spread of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. The categories of orientation and complicating action reveal that each confession presents a vivid representation of the devil, the accused, and the sociohistorical context.

Collusion detection in multiple choice examinations.

To develop and test a novel method for collusion detection in multiple choice examinations. Answers from two negatively marked medical prize examinations for two different years were analysed. Both examinations were administered electronically. One examination was formally invigilated, while the second was not; instead, candidates were able to sit the test at any time and at any computer with an internet connection. We examine pairs of students and compare correlations between their answers. Our approach allows us to correct for the difficulty of individual questions and for the estimated ability and the degree of risk aversion of the students. We compare the results of this statistical analysis with other information on the timing of the answers and the physical location of the computer, both of which are available to the web-server. Significant correlation between several candidates who either admitted having cheated or could be linked to other corroborating evidence of collusion was found. It is possible to detect collusion in multiple choice examinations in a statistical way by examining the patterns of answers between pairs of candidates. In examinations that are delivered on-line, information is often available on the location of the candidates and the timings of their answers, and can be used as additional corroborative evidence.

What conservation anticipation reveals about cognitive change

A long-running debate about the nature of the thinking involved in conservation judgments resulted in postulating the existence of two different processes. According to the pluralist approach to cognitive development, the two processes can be simultaneously activated with different weights for different children and are likely to interact. A semi-longitudinal study that tests the pluralist approach is reported. The experimental procedure was based on earlier work by Acredolo and Acredolo (1979, 1980). Children from the last year of nursery school (mean age: 5 years and 6 months) were individually tested in two successive occasions separated by a 3-month interval. The first test occasion consisted of a sequence of liquid-conservation-anticipation and level anticipation tasks. This same sequence was reproduced during the second test occasion, which ended with a classical conservation task. Observed patterns of correct-incorrect answers contradict the predictions of a developmental sequence assumed by the Piagetian model. The patterns of change were compatible with a pluralist approach which hypothesizes different routes in the development of conservation.

Teaching molecular 3‐D literacy

Teaching molecular 3‐D literacy

Similarity of TIMSS Math and Science Achievement of Nations

In 1991-97, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) undertook a Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in which data about the mathematics and science achievement of the thirteen year-old students in more than 40 countries were collected. These data provided the opportunity to search for patterns of students' answers to the test items: which group of items was relatively more difficult (or more easy) for the students from a particular country (or group of countries). Using this massive data set an attempt was made to measure the similarities among country profiles of how students responded to the test items.

Child and Adolescent Risk for Violence (CARV): A Tool to Assess Juvenile Risk

Youths with serious behavior problems usually have a complex array of difficulties. The CARV (Child & Adolescent Risk for Violence) allows youth workers to compare a particular child or teen with a sample of youths who are at low, medium, or high risk for behavioral acting-out or assaultive behavior. The CARV is divided into five risk sections: Behavior Problems, Mental Health/Substance Abuse, Peer Issues, Educational Problems, and Family Characteristics. There is a section for resiliency factors, as well. The pattern of answers on the CARV allows a worker to develop an intervention plan. Youths' scores can be compared with those of youths in secure placements or receiving treatment in their communities.

An Innovative Unified Brand and Market Measurement System for Strategic Investment Decisions

Describes experimental work by Whitbread aimed at creating a research system to facilitate board decisions about brands. Companies like Whitbreads are constantly faced with decisions whether to enter or exit a market (illustrated). Brand research is less helpful than it might be, because it tends to be too much focused on the brand's product category competition; brand image data is often too rational and ‘obvious’. Two markets were studied: beer (Stella Artois) and Coffee Shops (Starbucks). First, the markets were considered in terms of two key factors: how far they are commoditised (are brands important?), and the market dynamics (is the market getting more interesting?). The pattern of answers to these questions helps managers to look at the market more broadly, in terms of its value to the business. Brand measures were then sought in terms which cross category boundaries. Two brand models (both described in detail) are used: a ‘mechanical metaphor’ (a combination of ‘motivators’, what the brand promises, and ‘hygiene factors’, required for its fitness to do its job, but where increases above the required level add no value), and an ‘organic metaphor’, in which the brand is viewed as a person to whom the consumer relates. These models are described operationally and illustrated from the Guinness and Starbucks research. The value of thinking about brands in both these ways, and their integration, is discussed. The approach helps management to think about brands strategically and make strategic decisions, such as market entry or exit, increasing or reducing brand support, etc., in time to take the necessary actions.

Italian Children’s Understanding of War: A Domain‐Specific Approach

Studies of children’s conceptions of war, which have been carried out up to now mainly by asking for a definition of war and associating it with other notions, have found few age‐related changes after the age of 6. Considering the complexity of the concept, and its embeddedness in the political conceptual domain, which emerges at around 11 years, we expect that greater differences should emerge if children’s ideas on the causes and consequences of war, and the actors involved, are carefully assessed. Semi‐structured interviews carried out with a total of 80 Italian children from 2nd to 8th grades confirmed this hypothesis. Many 2nd graders described war as a clash between collectives without structure, attributing all decisions about starting, the development of, and ending a war to the individual fighters and explaining these decisions (when they did) as due to emotions such as hatred, envy, revenge, or being tired or unwilling to fight any longer. Most 6th and 8th graders depicted war as a clash between nation‐states, attributing decisions about its starting and ending to political authorities on the basis of political and economic reasons, and the actual fighting of battles to an organized army collaborating with, or subordinate to, political authorities. Many 2nd and 4th graders also showed a mixed pattern of answers, involving both political authorities and individual fighters, thus showing that the transition from the rudimentary backward conception to the more advanced one occurs through the piecemeal addition and deletion of concepts and beliefs.

Professional Attitudes and Experience in Relation to Bilingual Children Attending Language Units

AbstractA large‐cohort study looking at children with speech and language difficulties attending ‘language units’ across England identified a small subgroup of the cohort who were bilingual. Interview data were collected to try to shed light on differences found between this ‘bilingual’ subgroup and the rest of the cohort. Head‐teachers and language unit teachers were asked about levels of involvement of bilingual parents in school or unit life, about the level of provision available for bilingual children in the local education authority (LEA) and about the adequacy of this provision. Qualitative analysis of ‘themes’ indicated that differences existed between head and unit teachers in patterns of answers in all of these areas. However, relating these qualitative results to quantitative data from a questionnaire survey of English LEAs revealed that attitudes and knowledge also varied according to the location of the school (in a Greater London, metropolitan or non‐metropolitan LEA). It is thus suggested that these differences in attitude may be linked to the experience that unit and headteachers have of bilingual children and their families.

Hearing-impaired children’s listening skills in a referential communication task: an exploratory study

Twelve hearing-impaired children with a mean age of 6.79 years and a mean hearing loss of 77 dB were matched with 12 normally hearing control subjects. Both were ‘listeners’ in a referential communication game. They received messages of various degrees of ambiguity through the medium of a glove puppet. The experiment was designed to decide between two hypotheses: the first that hearing-impaired children cope better with ambiguity because they must interpret auditorially degraded messages; and the second that their performance would be inferior because of their lack of verbal skills. Their patterns of correct answers and requests for clarification were analysed and their performance was found to be inferior. This is explained in terms of their relatively poor speech; their understanding of the experimental situation; and the possibility of learned helplessness.

Hearing-impaired children's listening skills in a referential communication task: an exploratory study

Abstract Twelve hearing-impaired children with a mean age of 6.79 years and a mean hearing loss of 77 dB were matched with 12 normally hearing control subjects. Both were ‘listeners’ in a referential communication game. They received messages of various degrees of ambiguity through the medium of a glove puppet. The experiment was designed to decide between two hypotheses: the first that hearing-impaired children cope better with ambiguity because they must interpret auditorially degraded messages; and the second that their performance would be inferior because of their lack of verbal skills. Their patterns of correct answers and requests for clarification were analysed and their performance was found to be inferior. This is explained in terms of their relatively poor speech; their understanding of the experimental situation; and the possibility of learned helplessness.

Dimensionality and validity of the Burnout Measure

The dimensionality and validity of the BM (Burnout Measure) is investigated in Dutch samples of human services professionals and white‐collar workers (total N = 2190). Results show that, in contrast to the presumed dimensions ‘physical exhaustion’, ‘emotional exhaustion’ and ‘mental exhaustion’, the factors of the BM are ‘demoralization’, ‘exhaustion’, and ‘loss of motive’. The factorial structure is not affected by using different time frames although an unrestricted time frame results in significantly higher mean scores. A BM version with a seven‐point Likert scale results in more reliable subscales than a five‐point scale. The factor ‘loss of motive’ is substantially affected by inconsistent answering patterns of the respondents. The three‐factor model of the BM fits equally well in samples of professionals with and without patient contact. The BM subscales correlate highly with fatigue and with the dimension ‘emotional exhaustion’ of the Maslach‐Burnout‐Inventory (MBI) but cannot be distinguished from psychological strain and psychosomatic complaints. Problems in the conceptualization of burnout and its operationalization are discussed. It is concluded that the BM captures only a particular aspect of burnout and is rather a measure of general well‐being. Recommendations for further use of a modified BM are given.

Classification of Annoyance Based on the Consciousness of Residents in Urban Area

In this research, it is assumed to be a research purpose to arrange, and to classify the annoyance that occurs in the city. The questionnaire survey was done to residents of the Nagoya City in five districts. Two ideas were intended in designing the questionnaire. One is to look for the experience of the annoyance. Other one is to hear the degree to which information on the annoyance is collected. Four answer patterns are made from whether there is information.on the experience or do not exist. The hierarchical cluster analysis classifies a lot of annoyance phenomena into four types. Annoyance classification A is a typical annoyance act. Annoyance classification B is various, it is a feature that there are difficult items to correspond for the annoyance solution legislation. Annoyance classification C is a classification mainly composed of “Pollution”. Annoyance classification D is noise and familiar annoyance, there is a tendency from which the generation point is limited. Annoyance experience rate in central business district is higher than another district in the city.

Cheating Probabilities on Multiple Choice Tests

This paper is strictly based on mathematical statistics and as such does not depend on prior performance and assumes the probability of each choice to be identical. In a real life situation, the probability of two students having identical responses becomes larger the better the students are. However the mathematical model is developed for all responses, both correct and incorrect, and provides a baseline for evaluation. David Harpp and coworkers (2, 3) at McGill University have evaluated ratios of exact errors in common (EEIC) to errors in common (EIC) and differences (D). In pairings where the ratio EEIC/EIC was greater than 0.75, the pair had unusually high odds against their answer pattern being random. Detection of copying of the EEIC/D ratios at values >1.0 indicate that pairs of these students were seated adjacent to one another and copied from one another. The original papers should be examined for details.

The LAD goes to school: a cautionary tale for nativists

Linguistics is supposed to be the study of linguistic competence. The sentences used by linguists to illustrate their arguments are presumably structures that can be generated by the rules that make up the native speaker's competence. Therefore, all normal native speakers should in principle be capable of processing them. In this study, adult respondents of various educational backgrounds were presented with a series of test sentences based on examples drawn from recent publications in the GB framework. The test was carefully designed to minimize the effects of extrinsic factors such as memory limitations and lapses of attention. It was found that performance increased dramatically with educational achievement, with the least-educated respondents consistently obtaining very low scores. An analysis of the patterns of answers given by respondents of various educational backgrounds revealed that the least-educated speakers were also the most likely to ignore syntactic cues and rely on nonlinguistic strategies in interpreting the test sentences. Thus, the results suggest that the ability to deal with the carefully edited, highly syntacticized structures that one encounters in publications dealing with language is acquired in the course of formal education and is far from universal. This in turn raises doubts about the traditional logical argument for innateness

Research in Psychotherapeutic Diagnosis and the Concept of Socio-Empirical Markers

Social sciences in general and psychotherapy in particular have been informed by two fundamentally distinct methodologies of description and explanation: first, causal nomology based on operationalized data, and secondly, empirical hermeneutics focused on the meaningful context of intentions, experiences, and actions. The paper deals with the logical connections between these two modalities of knowledge. We introduce the concept of dynamic interpretation developed by the communication sciences as a tool of intentional description of meaningful situations. We propose the notion of socio-empirical markers as mediator between the two different levels of knowledge. This concept correlates both empirical “hard data” and the sphere of meaningful connections to typical subjective experiences and interpersonal scenes. The concept of socio-empirical markers requires two methodologies for research on psychotherapeutic diagnoses. We need to find markers, e.g., typical answer patterns in questionnaires indicating a distinct nosological typology based on empirical nomology, and we have to discover the subjective and interpersonal meaning of symptoms by hermeneutic single case evaluation. We propose to call the second research methodology “qualitative research in diagnostic processes.”Die Sozialwissenschaften im allgemeinen und die Psychotherapie im speziellen wurden durch zwei völlig unterschiedliche Methodologien der Deskription und Erklärung geformt . Zum einen ist dies die kausale Nomologie, die auf operationalisierten Daten fusst, zum anderen die empirische Hermeneutik, die auf den Bedeutungszusammenhang von Intentionen, Erfahrungen und Handlungen fokussiert. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit den logischen Verbindungen zwischen diesen beiden Modalitäten. Das Konzept der dynamischen Interpretation, in der Kommunikationswissenschaft entwickelt, wird als Mittel der intentionalen Beschreibung bedeutungsvoller Situationen eingeführt. Wir schlagen sog. sozio-empirische Marker als Mediatoren zwischen den beiden Wissensstufen vor. Dieses Konzept korreliert sowohl mit „harten” empirischen Daten als auch mit bedeutsamen Verbindungen zu typischen subjektiven Erfahrungen und interpersonalen Szenen, ohne die biographische Bedeutung dieser Szenen zu symbolisieren. Das Konzept sozio-empirischer Marker erfordert zwei Methodologien zur Erforschung psychotherapeutischer Diagnosen. Es ist nötig Marker zu finden, z.B. typische Antwortmuster in Fragebögen, die eine distinkte nosologische Typologie andeuten, die auf einer empirischen Nomologie basiert. Ausserdem gilt es mit Hilfe hermeneutischer Einfallanalysen, die subjektive und interpersonale Bedeutung von Symptomen zu klären. Wir schlagen vor, die letztgenannte Forschungsmethode als „qualitative Diagnostikforschung” zu bezeichen. (Tress et al.)Les sciences socialies, en général, et la psychothérapie en particulier ont été imprégnées par deux méthodologies fondamentalement distinctes de description et d'explication: premièrement, la nomologie causale basée sur des données opérationnalisées et deuxièmement l'hermèneutique empirique basée sur le contexte significatif des intentions, expériences et actions. Ce papier traite des connexions logiques entre ces 2 modalités de connaissance. Nous présentons le concept de l'interprétation dynamique développé par les sciences de la communication en tant qu'instrument de la description intentionnelle de situations significatives. Nous proposons la notion des marqueurs socio-empiriques comme médiateurs entre les deux niveaux différents des connaissances. Ce concept corrèle à la fois empiriquement “hard date” et la sphère des connections significatives à des expériences subjectives typiques et des scènes interpersonnelles sans la symbolisation de la signification biologique de ces scènes. Le concept du marqueur socio-empirique requière deux methodologies pour la recherche sur le diagnostic thérapeutique. Nous avons besoin de trouver des marqueurs, comme des modèles de réponses typiques indiquant une typologie nosologique distincte basée sur la nomologie empirique; et il faut découvrir la signification subjective et interpersonnelle des symptômes en évaluant le cas herméneutique seul. Nous proposons d'appeler la deuxième méthode de recherche, la recherche qualitative du processus diagnostic. (Tress et al.)

Diagnosing and altering three aristotelian alternative conceptions in dynamics: Microcomputer simulations of scientific models

AbstractThis is a report on the investigation of a microcomputer‐based system for the diagnosis and remediation of three Aristotelian alternative conceptions of force and motion held by eighth‐grade physical science students. Diagnosis and posttesting were done with computer‐displayed, graphics‐based, multiple‐choice questions. The two remediation simulations were designed to present scientific idealizations and to be perceived by the student as anomalous to the three alternative conceptions. Structured interviews were employed at several points during the study to obtain indications of the conceptions of force and motion of students with different achievement rankings, as well as to determine the students' reactions to the computer pretest questions or the simulations. A student's possession of alternative conceptions was unrelated to whether the student was a strong or weak learner of science. Students who were currently studying dynamics in their classes exhibited a very different pattern of nonscientific answers on the computer diagnostic test than did students who had completed that topic. The completed students who were selected for possession of alternative conceptions were facilitated by the computer simulations in altering their naive conceptions to a significant degree.

Structures used by Nearctic stoneflies (Plecoptera) for drumming, and their relationship to behavioral pattern diversity

There has been some co‐evolution of male ventral abdominal structure with method of producing vibrational call signals and call pattern diversity in Plecoptera. Male Antarcto‐perlaria have no specialized ventral abdominal structures and are not known to drum. Male Arctoperlaria without vesicles, lobes, knobs or hammers all produce relatively simple calls by tapping on substrate, or have derived a tremulation method of producing calls. Elongate, moveable vesicles on abdominal segment 9 are homologous structures in ancestral and some extant Euholognatha families, and are primarily associated with ancestral call patterns. Allocapnia and Taeniopteryx, that have secondarily lost vesicles, have retained the ancestral drumming pattern. The lobes, knobs and hammers of Systellognatha, that are characterized with SEM in this paper, are probably non‐homologous with vesicles of Euholognatha, and presumably have arisen independently in various families and genera. Systellognathan species with these structures have either retained ancestral, tapping call patterns, or have derived highly specialized grouped, or phased patterns or a rubbing method of signal production. Rubbing has been derived only in association with the knobs of Peltoperlidae or hammers of Perlidae. Complex drumming pattern diversity is unnecessary in females, and as expected, we have found no complex answer patterns, rubbing method of answering or specialized drumming structures in them.

Economic socialization in the kibbutz and the town in Israel

This study compared the economic understanding and attitudes of children living in the city with those living in a kibbutz, collective villages where an extreme socialist lifestyle is practised and preached. The differences in the answer patterns of the urban and kibbutz children were not very large, but the pattern was clear, and in keeping with the dominant ideology in both places: socialist in the kibbutz, middle-class capitalist in the city.