Comprehension Items Research Articles

Vulnerability to Psychosis, Ideas of Reference and Evaluation with an Implicit Test.

Background: Ideas of reference (IRs) are observed in the general population on the continuum of the psychotic phenotype (as a type of psychotic-like experiences, PLE). The instruments usually used to evaluate IRs show some problems: They depend on the cooperation of the participant, comprehension of items, social desirability, etc. Aims: The Testal emotional counting Stroop (TECS) was developed for the purpose of improving evaluation of individuals vulnerable to psychosis and its relationship with ideas of reference. The TECS (two versions) was applied as an implicit evaluation instrument for IRs and related processes for early identification of persons vulnerable to psychosis and to test the possible influence of emotional symptomatology. Method: A total of 160 participants (67.5% women) from the general population were selected (Mean (M) = 24.12 years, standard deviation (SD) = 5.28), 48 vulnerable and 112 non-vulnerable. Results: Vulnerability to psychosis was related to greater latency in response to referential stimuli. Version 4 of the TECS showed a slight advantage in identifying more latency in response to referential stimuli among participants with vulnerability to psychosis (Cohen’s d = 1.08). Emotional symptomatology (especially stress), and IQ (premorbid) mediated the relationship between vulnerability and IR response latency. Conclusions: The application of the implicit Testal emotional counting Stroop test (TECS) is useful for evaluating processes related to vulnerability to psychosis, as demonstrated by the increased latency of response to referential stimuli.

A qualitative study examining the validity and comprehensibility of physical activity items: developed and tested in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis

BackgroundNot all physical activity (PA) questionnaires (PAQ) gather information regarding PA intensity, duration, and modes and only a few were developed specifically for children. We assessed children’s comprehensibility of items derived from two published PAQs used in children along with three items designed to ascertain PA intensity in order to assess comprehensibility of items and identify response errors. We modified items to create a new PAQ for children (ASCeND). We hypothesized that children would have comprehension difficulties with some original PAQ items and that ASCeND would be easier to comprehend, and would improve recall and reporting of PA.MethodsFor this qualitative study, we recruited 30 Swedish children [ages 10–16 years; mean age = 13.0 (SD = 1.8)]; median disease activity score = 4.5 (IQR 2.2–9.0); median disease duration = 5.0 (IQR 2.6–10.8) with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from a children’s hospital-based rheumatology clinic. We conducted cognitive interviews to identify children’s comprehension of PAQ items. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and independently analyzed. In phase one, 10 children were interviewed and items modified based on feedback. In phase two, an additional 20 children were interviewed to gather more feedback and further refine the modified items, to create the ASCeND.ResultsThe median interview time was 41 min (IQR 36–56). In phase one, 219 comments were generated regarding directions for recording PA duration, and transportation use, walking, dancing, weight-bearing exercise and cardio fitness. Based on feedback we modified the survey layout, clarified directions and collapsed or defined items to reduce redundancy. In phase two, 95 comments were generated. Most comments related to aerobic fitness and strenuous PA. Children had difficulty recalling total walking and other activities per day. Children used the weather on a particular day, sports practice, or gym schedules to recall time performing activities. The most comments regarding comprehension were generated about the 3-item PA intensity survey, suggesting children had problems responding to intensity items.ConclusionsThe newer layout facilitated recall of directions or efficiency in answering items. The 3-item intensity survey was difficult to answer. Sports-specific items helped children more accurately recall the amount of daily PA. The ASCeND appeared to be easy to answer and to comprehend.

The effect of augmented input on the auditory comprehension of narratives for people with aphasia: a pilot investigation

Augmented input is the strategy of supplementing expressive language with visuographic images, print, gestures, or objects in the environment. The goal of augmented input is to facilitate comprehension of spoken language. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of two different augmented input conditions in facilitating auditory comprehension of narrative passages in adults with aphasia. One condition involved the communication partner (clinician) of the adult with aphasia actively pointing (AI-PP) out key content words using visuographic supports. The second condition involved no active pointing (AI-NPP) by the communication partner (i.e., attention was not drawn to the visuographic supports). All 12 participants with aphasia listened to two narratives; one in each condition. Auditory comprehension was measured by assessing participants’ accuracy in responding to 15 multiple-choice cloze-type statements related to the narratives. Of the 12 participants, seven gave more accurate responses to comprehension items in the AI-PP condition, four gave more accurate responses in the AI-NPP condition, and one scored the same in both conditions. These differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Communication-partner-referenced augmented input using combined high-context and PCS symbol visuographic supports improved response accuracy for some participants. Continued research is necessary to determine partner involvement with and frequency of augmented input that improve auditory comprehension.

3D Printing Technology in Design of Pharmaceutical Products.

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is a novel technology for fabrication of personalized medicine. As of late, FDA affirmed 3D printed tranquilize item in August 2015, which is characteristic of another section of Pharmaceutical assembling. 3DP incorporates a wide range of assembling procedures, which are altogether founded on computer-aided design (CAD), and controlled deposition of materials (layer-by-layer) to make freestyle geometries. Conventionally, many pharmaceutical processes like compressed tablet have been used from many years for the development of tablet with established regulatory pathways. But this simple process is outdated in terms of process competence and manufacturing flexibility (design space). 3DP is a new technology for the creation of plan, proving to be superior for complex products, customized items and items made on-request. It creates new opportunities for improving efficacy, safety, and convenience of medicines. There are many of the 3D printing technology used for the development of personalized medicine on demand for better treatment like 3D powder direct printing technology, fused-filament 3D printing, 3D extrusion printer, piezoelectric inkjet printer, fused deposition 3D printing, 3D printer, ink-jet printer, micro-drop inkjet 3DP, thermal inkjet printer, multi-nozzle 3D printer, stereolithographic 3D printer. This review highlights features how item and process comprehension can encourage the improvement of a control technique for various 3D printing strategies. It is concluded that the 3D printing technology is a novel potential for manufacturing of personalized dose medicines, due to better patient compliance which can be prepared when needed.

3021 Strengthening Translational Research Through Citizen Scientist Education

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: This project aimed to offer Citizen Scientists basic knowledge about clinical and translational research, as well as introductory information to the topics a Citizen Scientist may work with at the University of Florida (UF). As part of that goal, several objectives were identified: (1) create a curriculum to operationalize training for new Citizen Scientists, (2) utilize best practices in educational research for curriculum design and implementation, (3) create a resource that can be freely available to other groups, and (4) implement the finished curriculum with Citizen Scientists at UF. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Working with an expert in the field of instructional design, an overall design plan was created and implemented. This included first conducting interviews with Citizen Scientists to determine the most appropriate format for the content, creating 10-minute videos with subject matter experts, and crafting learning assessments for each didactic video. Topics for the curriculum were conceptualized by gathering input from CTSI leaders, Citizen Scientists, and staff members, and learning objectives were created to help guide the content creation. The ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) instructional design model was utilized to help guide the creation process, and this included a formative evaluation of the content, where assessment questions or videos were edited in response to Citizen Scientist feedback. It was important to both CTSI leadership and the Citizen Scientists themselves that the curriculum be widely accessible, so the curriculum was made as an open educational resource, meaning that it is available online for use by anyone with content that can be customized to specific programs or organizations. To implement the curriculum with UF Citizen Scientists, the materials were ported into Canvas, a widely utilized learning management system at UF. Participants were split into two groups, one group with Citizen Scientists already in the program (n=6) and a group with new Citizen Scientists (n=2). IRB approval to conduct this pilot test and share the results was obtained, and implementation ran from July 2017- January 2018. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Data were taken from participant scores on the curriculum’s 15 didactic learning assessments, and while the number of attempts on assessments was not limited, only first-attempt results were analyzed. Veteran Citizen Scientists scored higher than the new Citizen Scientists, with an overall score across all assessments of 84% vs 74%. The existing Citizen Scientists performed better on most topics, however the newer Citizen Scientists outscored the veterans on two modules: Cultural Competency (90% vs 77%) and Biomedical Informatics and Big Data (80% vs 73%). The newer members also had fewer retakes on these two modules, with the newer members having only one retake for these two modules, compared to seven total retakes across both modules for the established members. Participants were also asked basic questions about learning comprehension, video quality, and assessment item clarity, in addition to offering narrative feedback. Participants across both groups seemed largely pleased with the curriculum, as indicated by results of the course evaluation. Most (75%) Citizen Scientists felt it was easy to understand the information in the video tutorials, while 75% of Citizen Scientists felt that the assessment items were comprehensive, and 62.50% felt that the assessment items matched the learning objectives. The new Citizen Scientists were far more likely to respond favorably to the video and assessment evaluation questions, with 95% of all responses marked as “agree” or “strongly agree”, compared to 57% of the responses from the established Citizen Scientists. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: The performance of new vs veteran Citizen Scientists underscores the need for introductory information on clinical research topics for new community stakeholders, as well as the need for ongoing refresher training. Though the existing Citizen Scientists had been working with these topics already, and some had experienced the modules already through the formative evaluation, some topics remained a challenge for participants, a notion reflected in their assessment scores. Clinical research, particularly translational research, can be difficult to understand, and when a stakeholder understands the fundamentals underlying the research with which they are assisting, communication barriers are eliminated, feedback is well-reasoned and actionable, and there is greater buy-in from stakeholders. Understanding the clinical research process helps community stakeholders better understand their contribution to research and offer critical feedback to aid in implementation of research findings in health-related settings.

The Impact of Proactive and Reactive Focus on Form in Multimodal Settings on EFL Learners' Comprehension and Production of Modal Auxiliaries

The major objective of this experimental research was to assess the differences between two varieties of focus on form instruction, namely proactive and reactive across multimodal vs. traditional input settings in both comprehension and production of modal auxiliaries. The participants of the study were 75 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) high school students at the elementary level in three classes. The students in each class took part in a pre-test including both comprehension and production items. Then, they were randomly exposed to one of the three types of grammar instruction, i.e. proactive focus on form in which students were exposed to multimodal input through preplanned techniques of input enhancement and input flood, reactive focus on form in which the tasks occurred in multimodal episodes including negotiation and correction by the instructor through recasts, clarification requests, and repetition techniques. Lastly, in the control group, the students were provided with a pamphlet and their teacher’s explanations. The post-test was then administered to the three groups, and the results were analyzed by conducting a one-way-analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) which revealed a significant difference among these three groups. The results showed that the proactive group outperformed the reactive and control groups both in the comprehension and production of modal auxiliaries. At the end of the experiment, a brief survey which was accomplished through an interview revealed that the majority of the students highly favored PowerPoint presentations, teacher's explanations, and video clips respectively.

Graded reader comprehension questions and item discrimination analysis

Abstract Although the benefits of extensive reading are well known, very little research has investigated the validity of assessment tools to measure general comprehension of graded readers. To address this, quizzes were authored for 42 level 2 Penguin graded readers and administered to 166 students over a semester. Item facility for high-scorers and low-scorers was calculated for the 168 question items from the 42 graded readers, and the resulting item discrimination (ID) score was used to categorize and group quiz items with shared structural and content-based features. The results showed that certain question types tend to be more effective for measuring comprehension of graded readers than others.

The analysis of Higher-Order Thinking skills in English reading comprehension tests in Malaysia

Abstract The current English language education in Malaysia has integrated the Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) as part of its testing and evaluation system, which aims to enhance students’ cognitive skills and abilities in learning. Having a higher-order thinking ability at the earliest stage of formal education (primary and elementary levels) is essential in order to meet the growing demand for highly intelligent and professional workers in the future. The present study aims to identify the use of HOTS items in selected English reading comprehension examinations for Standard 6 students in Malaysia. 80 reading comprehension items were selected from various final examination papers distributed in eight different states in the country. Data were quantitatively analysed using content analysis based on the levels of cognitive listed in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Apart from that, the data were also analysed based on a series of professional evaluations made by four content experts in the country. The findings indicate that most reading comprehension questions in the English examination papers need further revisions in order to achieve the standard of HOTS that have become part of the new curriculum and national education policy. Based on the findings, some practical suggestions have also been developed to further enhance the use of HOTS in English teaching and learning practices in Malaysia. Keywords: Bloom's Taxonomy, content analysis, English language assessment, Higher-Order Thinking skills, national education policy, reading comprehension test

Qualitative Interviewing: Testing Health Surveys Among Vietnam War Veterans at the Age of 70 Years

The Vietnam Era Health Retrospective Observational Study (VE-HEROeS) is a nationwide study designed to compare the health of U.S. Vietnam era veterans to age- and sex-matched U.S. residents. Two self-administered mail questionnaires, one for veterans and the other for the U.S. nonmilitary population, were developed using already validated and newly developed items. A pretest was conducted to evaluate item recall and comprehension, new-item response validity, and the overall survey experience (usability of survey materials including the screener questionnaire for nonveterans). Subject recruitment was completed using convenience sampling and a $50 incentive. Cognitive interviewing and usability interviewing, two qualitative research methods, were implemented. Interviews were conducted in two stages (Stage 1, cognitive interviewing, n = 12; Stage 2, usability testing, n = 8) by three experienced methodologists. Concurrent probing techniques, unscripted probes, and retroactive probing were used to elicit response from 14 veterans and six nonveterans (mostly male, White, and aged 65-70 years). Information about the overall survey process was also obtained through observation during usability testing. Results signify that qualitative research is an important part of questionnaire development targeting older veterans due to issues involving comprehension, interpretability, and recall.

The Impact of Using Chunking Technique on Developing Reading Skill and Perception of Intermediate School Students

Teaching reading skill to the students is very difficult thing. The difficulties might come from the teachers who are not creative to simulate in teaching reading, lack of using affective strategies to attract students’ attention to the lesson and keep using traditional ways of teaching. Other difficulties came up from the students who did not interest to read a long passage, lack of vocabulary, and understanding the meaning of what they have read. Students who learn English as foreign language face difficulties in reading long stories, texts and paragraphs. The presented study aims at investigating effects of using chunking technique on developing English language reading skill of Iraqi EFL students. The study uses quantitative research method. The samples of the study were randomly selected from the second intermediate school students. The study adopted a pretest treatment- post-test design. Through the results of the study, the first hypothesis was accepted and was concluded that chunking technique was better than the recommended teaching in both the overall achievement and reading comprehension items

The Impact of Reading Strategy Knowledge and Science Knowledge on Developing Reading Skills of School Students

The samples of the study were randomly selected from the second intermediate school students. The study adopted a pretest treatment-post-test design. The first hypothesis was accepted and was concluded that picture strip story activity was better than the recommended teaching in both the overall achievement and reading comprehension items. Both English teachers and students need to improve and to master the four important language skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Reading is one of the four language skills required when the students learn the target. The presented study aims at investigating the effects of picture strip story on reading comprehension of Iraqi EFL students. The study uses quantitative research method. By reading texts which is categorized as a receptive skill, the students are able to get a lot of information.

Desenvolvimento e avaliação de tecnologia educacional sobre administração de vacinas no vasto lateral da coxa

Desenvolvimento e avaliação de um curso sobre administração de vacinas no vasto lateral da coxa, por meio da Plataforma Moodle. Pesquisa quantitativa, descritiva e transversal, realizada em 2016 e 2017, com 39 estudantes de enfermagem. A Teoria da aprendizagem multimídia e o design instrucional nortearam o desenvolvimento do curso, que contou com três módulos e material de apoio didático, vídeo de cenário simulado, fórum de discussão. O Inquérito COLLES foi utilizado para avaliar a qualidade do AVA; 97,5% dos graduandos consideraram a formatação, o acesso, a navegação e a imagem “adequado” e “muito adequado”. Os itens relevância, reflexão crítica e compreensão obtiveram melhores resultados, segundo o Inquérito COLLES; 92,3% dos estudantes disseram que gostariam de utilizar o AVA em outras disciplinas. Conclui-se que a tecnologia educacional desenvolvida é uma potente ferramenta para a atualização sobre a temática, visando uma prática segura do futuro profissional enfermeiro nos serviços de saúde.

ADAPTACIÓN TRANSCULTURAL PARA CHILE DEL NURSING ACTIVITIES SCORE PARA MEDIR LA CARGA DE TRABAJO DE ENFERMERÍA EN UNIDADES DE CUIDADOS INTENSIVOS

Objective: To describe the adaptation of the Nursing Activities Score (NAS) into Chilean Spanish for use in Chilean intensive care units. Material and methods: Cross-cultural adaptation with semantic and idiomatic equivalence. The methodological steps consisted of translation and back translation, evaluation of content validity and linguistic adaptation to the target population. After the translation, the first version was assessed for content by five expert judges using the content validity coefficient. For the linguistic adaptation, qualitative methodology was applied conducting a focus group with eight clinical nurses, who evaluated the comprehension, viability, clarity and terminology of each NAS item until agreeing upon criteria for a second version of the instrument.Results: Content validity and Lin’s index values were between 0.6 and 1.0 and between 80 and 100, respectively. In the focus group conducted with the clinical nurses some expressions were adjusted to the Chilean culture. There were no changes in the content of the instrument and the second version was considered as the final one. Conclusion: The cross-cultural adaptation of the NAS items were deemed valid and reliable for measuring the workload of nursing in Chilean intensive care units.

A new measure to assess pain in people with haemophilia: The Multidimensional Haemophilia Pain Questionnaire (MHPQ).

People with haemophilia (PWH) experience acute pain during joint bleeds and might develop chronic pain due to joint degeneration. However, there is a lack of standardized measures to comprehensively assess pain in PWH. This study aimed to develop a multidimensional questionnaire for haemophilia-related pain, the Multidimensional Haemophilia Pain Questionnaire (MHPQ), and to present initial validation data among adults.The questionnaire distinguishes between acute/chronic pain and queries about pain locations, duration, frequency, triggering factors, intensity, interference, strategies, specialists for pain management and satisfaction with treatment. An initial version was tested with 16 patients to ensure item comprehensibility and face validity. The final version was answered by 104 adults, with 82 (78.8%) reporting haemophilia-related pain in the previous year (mean age = 43.17; SD = 13.00). The non-response analysis revealed good item acceptability. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA/CFA), reliability (internal consistency, test-retest, inter-item and item-total correlations) and convergent validity were analysed for the intensity and interference dimensions of the questionnaire. A combined EFA with these two constructs supported a 2-factor structure distinguishing intensity (α = 0.88) from interference items (α = 0.91). CFA was tested for the interference dimension, demonstrating suitability for this sample. Item-total correlations were >0.30 on both dimensions and most inter-item correlations were <0.70. Test-retest reliability (n = 42) was good for intensity (r = 0.88) and interference (r = 0.73), and convergent validity was confirmed for most hypotheses (r>0.30).This questionnaire is a comprehensible tool, achieving a thorough assessment of relevant pain dimensions. The MHPQ can help guide treatment recommendations by highlighting relevant topics and contributing to more effective, integrated treatments.

Enhancing validity through cognitive interviewing. A methodological example using the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Comfort Questionnaire.

AimsTo identify problematic items, assess completeness and user‐friendliness, and undertake modifications to enhance face validity of the newly developed Epilepsy Monitoring Unit Comfort Questionnaire.DesignQualitative‐descriptive cross‐sectional study.MethodsFive iterative rounds of cognitive interviewing were conducted with members of the target population between July ‐ November 2017. Think‐aloud technique, verbal probing, and observation were used, to assess how respondents understood and answered questions. Data analysis was based on the framework method; an eight‐column framework matrix was created for this purpose.ResultsIn 25 interviews, problems regarding completeness of the item pool, comprehension of items, retrieval of information, judgment while finding answers and reporting the appropriate responses could be detected. According to the results, 27 items remained unchanged, 11 items were reworded, and six items were added. Instructions section of the questionnaire was reworked, too.ConclusionAlthough time‐consuming, cognitive interviewing turned out to be a valuable approach for revealing problems in an instrument, which would, otherwise, remain undetected and threaten validity.

PMU115 - AN INVESTIGATION OF ISSUES IN THE TRANSLATION AND COMPREHENSION OF THE TERMS SELF-CONSCIOUS AND EMBARRASSED IN PATIENT REPORTED OUTCOME (PRO) MEASURES

Identifying problematic terminology and proposing solutions for improved translation is critical to increasing PRO content validity and the quality of respondent data. We examined patients’ comprehension of the terms self-conscious and embarrassed, which have considerable semantic overlap and frequently appear together in PROs. Self-conscious can be defined as uncomfortable or intense awareness of being observed or of how one is perceived, while embarrassed connotes more negative qualities of feeling shame or distress and loss of dignity, but is also frequently defined as uncomfortable self-consciousness. RWS Life Sciences translated and harmonized three PROs containing items on self-consciousness and embarrassment into 40 languages for 50 countries across three translation projects (for 72 total translations). The harmonized questionnaires underwent in-person cognitive interviews with atopic dermatitis and head & neck cancer patients. We extracted patient demographic and item comprehension information, as well as feedback regarding comprehension problems, from 356 interviews. Patients (n = 356) were aged 11-95 years, with length of education from 0-20 years (mean = 11.9). Comprehension problems with self-conscious and embarrassed were noted in 12 / 39 languages (31%), 14 / 50 countries (28%), 17 / 72 translations (24%), and accounted for 55% of the total number of comprehension errors across all debriefing sessions. Patients reported that self-conscious and embarrassed were difficult to separate conceptually, and suggested that only one of the concepts was necessary. Patients also had difficulty comprehending / paraphrasing self-conscious itself, and were frequently unable to provide alternative translations. Patients demonstrated considerable difficulty interpreting the terms self-conscious and embarrassed in three PROs. We attribute this to their semantic overlap and co-occurrence in contexts where they are intended to assess different constructs. We recommend greater effort to differentiate self-conscious and embarrassed in PROs containing both in order to improve comprehensibility and translations of both terms.

Identifying the Relationships Between Response Behaviors for Reading Comprehension Items and Student Characteristics

The study aimed to identify the students’ characteristics (perception of self-efficacy, resistance, persistence, taking responsibility and competence for their cognitive processes) that might affect the response behaviors of fifth grade students for open ended questions written in different cognitive levels. This study was designed as relational survey model research. Sample consisted of 392 5th grade students selected by purposeful sampling from Yenimahalle, Mamak and Cankaya districts in Ankara city. Data was collected with reading comprehension achievement test, response behaviors form and student information survey. Analysis was conducted with 366 students’ data after missing values were removed. MPlus package program was utilized to analyze data and structural equation modelling was used. The findings of the research revealed that response behaviors for open ended questions written in different cognitive levels in Turkish learning area were found to be predicted low and at a significant level by students’ perception of self-efficacy, persistence, resistance, taking responsibility and cognitive skills. It might be concluded that improving children’s perception for cognitive and metacognitive skills can enhance their thinking process, lead them to perform complex response behaviors and affect positively their higher order thinking process. In other words, students with high cognitive and metacognitive skills show higher level response behaviors such as putting themselves into author’s shoes, relating their own life to the event in the text or using imagination. Therefore, they can comprehend what they read easily and express it back.

The Aarhus statement on cancer diagnostic research: turning recommendations into new survey instruments

BackgroundOver recent years there has been a growth in cancer early diagnosis (ED) research, which requires valid measurement of routes to diagnosis and diagnostic intervals. The Aarhus Statement, published in 2012, provided methodological guidance to generate valid data on these key pre-diagnostic measures. However, there is still a wide variety of measuring instruments of varying quality in published research. In this paper we test comprehension of self-completion ED questionnaire items, based on Aarhus Statement guidance, and seek input from patients, GPs and ED researchers to refine these questions.MethodsWe used personal interviews and consensus approaches to generate draft ED questionnaire items, then a combination of focus groups and telephone interviews to test comprehension and obtain feedback. A framework analysis approach was used, to identify themes and potential refinements to the items.ResultsWe found that many of the questionnaire items still prompted uncertainty in respondents, in both routes to diagnosis and diagnostic interval measurement. Uncertainty was greatest in the context of multiple or vague symptoms, and potentially ambiguous time-points (such as ‘date of referral’).ConclusionsThere are limits on the validity of self-completion questionnaire responses, and refinements to the wording of questions may not be able to completely overcome these limitations. It’s important that ED researchers use the best identifiable measuring instruments, but accommodate inevitable uncertainty in the interpretation of their results. Every effort should be made to increase clarity of questions and responses, and use of two or more data sources should be considered.

Construction and elaboration of mental models through strategic conjoint processing of text and pictures.

Conjoint processing of text and pictures is assumed to possess an inherent asymmetry, because text and pictures serve fundamentally different but complementary functions. Conjoint processing is assumed to start with general, coherence-oriented mental model construction. When certain tasks have to be solved, the mental model is adjusted to the task requirements by adaptive mental model elaboration. We hypothesized that, due to different constraints on cognitive processing, initial mental model construction is more text-driven than picture-driven, whereas adaptive mental model elaboration is more picture-driven than text-driven. We also hypothesized that there are more transitions between text and picture during initial model construction than during adaptive model elaboration and more task–picture transitions than task–text transitions during adaptive mental model elaboration. To test these hypotheses, we selected 6 text–picture units from textbooks on biology and geography, each combined with 3 comprehension items of different complexity. The units and corresponding items were presented to 204 students from Grades 5 to 8 from the higher tier and the lower tier of the German school system. The participants were required to answer the presented items 1 by 1. Their eye movements were analyzed in terms of fixations and transitions between texts, pictures, and items as dependent variables. The independent variables were school tier, grade, and order of presentation. The results confirmed our hypotheses. We presume that the benefits of learning from text and pictures are due to the inherent asymmetry, which allows the learner to combine the specific advantages of both forms of representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Content validation of the evidence-based nursing practice assessment tool.

The authors designed the evidence-based nursing practice assessment tool (EBNPAT) to measure the competence of nurses in using the five-step evidence-based practice model: ask, acquire, appraise, apply and assess. However, they needed to assess its content validity to show it is a valid tool. Assessing the content validity of a newly developed measurement scale is often challenging. Although the content validity index (CVI) is widely used in nursing research, it is limited to evaluating the chance of variation in agreement and consistency among reviewers of the content. To demonstrate the content validity of EBNPAT. An expert panel of 42 nursing and health academics and researchers evaluated the representativeness, comprehensiveness and clarity of each construct item on EBNPAT. They then rated their agreement on a four-point ordinal scale. The authors used the item-CVI (I-CVI) augmented with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach's to assess the results and determine the content validity of EBNPAT. All I-CVIs for representativeness, comprehensiveness and clarity of the EBNPAT items were greater than 0.9 and the overall agreement and consistency among experts were greater than 0.65. The strengths of this study were the good sample size and the substantial consensus among experts in their view of assessing competence in evidence-based practice. High content validity of all construct items supports the progression to the next step in psychometric evaluation of EBNPAT. This paper has demonstrated a sophisticated statistical approach for evaluating content validity that may be of use to developers of measurement scales in the future.