Extreme Group Analysis Research Articles

What motivates future teachers? The influence of Aartificial Iintelligence on student teachers' career choice

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) is reshaping not only the educational landscape but also potentially influencing the motivations of aspiring teachers. This paper explores whether considerations related to AIEd play a role in student teachers' decision to become teachers. For this aim, the study introduces a new AI subscale within the (D)FIT-Choice scale's Social Utility Value (SUV) factor and validates its effectiveness with a sample of 183 student teachers. Descriptive statistics reveal high mean scores for traditional motivators like Intrinsic Value Teaching, while AI-related factors, although considered, exhibit lower influence. A noticeable disconnection exists between digital motivations and the aspiration to shape the future, suggesting a potential gap in student teachers' understanding of digitalization's future impact. An extreme group analysis reveals a subset of student teachers who significantly consider AI. This group also gives value to Job Security and Make a Social Contribution, suggesting an awareness of AI's societal and professional impacts. Based on these findings, it is recommended to put a focus on teacher education programs to ensure student teachers' understanding of the impact of AI on education and society.

Area Deprivation Index as a proxy for socioeconomic status in outpatient orthopaedic surgery patients – A prospective registry cross sectional study

BackgroundWe aimed to determine if Area Deprivation Index (ADI) is associated with self-reported metrics socioeconomic status (SES), and to assess the relationship between ADI and preoperative score on common patient reported outcome scores (PROS). MethodsPatients presenting for outpatient orthopaedic surgery completed Patient-Reported Outcome Metric Information System (PROMIS) and joint-specific PROS. ADI was determined from geocoded home address. Sociodemographic data was collected from self-reported survey. Tests of association were used to describe the relationship between ADI and sociodemographic factors as well as the correlation between ADI and PROS. Extreme group analysis was used to examine which PROS may be subject to clinically meaningful variation. ResultsADI was associated with self-reported SES. ADI was correlated with score on all baseline PROS. Extreme group analysis showed that low SES was associated with clinically meaningful differences in some, but not all, PROS. ConclusionADI is associated with self-reported measures of SES in an orthopaedic outpatient surgical population. Lower SES correlates with worse function to a clinically significant degree for some PROS. SES should be considered in the context of preoperative symptom severity in outpatient orthopaedic surgery patients. ADI may be a useful adjunct to self-reported measures of SES for this purpose.

The Pathology of Imagination: Picturing the Worst

ABSTRACT Imagination, often celebrated for its role in creativity and development, also may be a feature in a range of personality pathology and psychopathology. This pre-registered study evaluates the relationship between imagination and maladaptive personality traits using the Four-Factor Imagination Scale and Personality Inventory for DSM-5. Large-scale, multinational, cross-sectional data (N = 114,559) were collected from the SAPA-Project using a planned-missingness design. Functional sample size (pairwise-n = 600) was derived from the mean number of pairwise-complete administrations of all items. Significant associations were found between imagination and PID-5 facets saturated with negative affect and psychoticism. Extreme groups analysis demonstrated participants with non-normative levels of PID-5 Depressivity and Anxiousness had elevated levels of emotionally negative imagination (mean d = 1.14, p < .001); non-normative Perceptual Dysregulation and Emotional Lability featured greater overall imaginative activity (mean d = 1.00, p < .001). Item-level analyses using machine learning revealed the content of PID-5 items predicted facet-level imagination scores, suggesting imagination features in some pathological traits. All statistical analyses are reproducible and publicly available in the Supplemental Materials file.

Locus of Control and Gender as Moderators of Perceived Stress in Indian Adolescents

Objective: In this study, we examined the effect of locus of control and gender on perceived stress in adolescents. Methods: Using random sampling, 400 adolescents (200 boys and 200 girls) were selected from 5 different educational institutions in the city of Cuttack, India. We administered Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale, and the obtained scores were subjected to an extreme group analysis for shortlisting 200 adolescents (100 boys and 100 girls) with extreme (low and high) scores. Subsequently, the shortlisted students were administered Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale, and the scores obtained were analyzed using a between-subjects ANOVA. Results: The effect of locus of control on perceived stress was found to be statistically significant, and internal-control adolescents reported lower perceived stress than external-control adolescents. However, both the main effect of gender and the interaction effect (locus of control x gender) were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Our results suggest that adolescents with internal locus of control report lower perceived stress than their external counterparts. We discuss the implications and directions for future research.

The negative influence of food neophobia on food and beverage liking: Time to look beyond extreme groups analysis?

The negative impact of food neophobia (FN) on food and beverage (F&B) liking/disliking is well documented. Against this backdrop, the present research sought to raise awareness of data analysis strategy in FN research. Extreme groups analysis currently dominates as evidenced from the many studies that compare groups of neophobic and neophilic consumers. However, when a variable, like FN, is naturally continuous, full-data analysis has been recommended. We present both approaches using data from online surveys in three Western countries where consumers rated degree of liking/disliking for F&B names (USA, UK and Australia, n = 3454). The first objective was to explore how results from extreme groups analysis were influenced by group extremity (more/less neophobic vs. more/less neophilic). In the case of seafood and ethnic food items, the average difference in liking score between neophobic and neophilic groups ranged from 2 to 4.5 points on the 9-pt hedonic scale depending on FN group definition (less extreme vs. more extreme). To acknowledge this influence contextualisation of degree of FN group extremity is encouraged. For example, FN groups defined by M ± 0.5 × SD and M ± 1.5 × SD should be differently named to convey greater FN extremity in the latter. In the second objective, full-data analysis was performed, treating FN as a continuous variable. Additional knowledge about the impact of FN on F&B liking/disliking beyond that from extreme groups analysis was gained. Linearity in the relationship between FN and degree of F&B liking/disliking was generally observed. Moderating factors were included in additional analyses and illustrated the possibility of accounting for participants’ country of living or differences between consumer populations in overall level of FN (central location vs. online). We suggest that it may be time to rely less on extreme groups analysis in FN research, and if used that adequate justification be given and care taken to describe the FN groups to facilitate more robust interpretations and between-study comparisons. The insights and recommendations have relevance for other continuous psychological traits relating to food liking food-related consumer behaviour in general.

Partitioning switch costs when investigating task switching in relation to media multitasking.

The prevalence of media multitasking - the concurrent use of multiple forms of media - has motivated research on whether and how it is related to various cognitive abilities, such as the ability to switch tasks. However, previous research on the relationship between media multitasking and task-switching performance has yielded mixed results, possibly because of small sample sizes and a confound between task and cue transitions that resulted in switch costs being impure measures of task-switching ability. The authors conducted a large-sample study in which media multitasking behavior was surveyed and task-switching performance was assessed using two cues per task, thereby allowing switch costs to be partitioned into task-switching and cue-repetition effects. The main finding was no evidence of any relationship between media multitasking scores and task-switching effects (or cue-repetition effects), either in correlational analyses or in extreme group analyses of light and heavy media multitaskers. The results are discussed in the context of previous research, with implications for studying media multitasking in relation to task-switching performance.

Eating disorder symptoms and foraging for food related items

BackgroundForaging tasks have recently been increasingly used to investigate visual attention. Visual attention can be biased when certain stimuli capture our attention, especially threatening or anxiety-provoking stimuli, but such effects have not been addressed in foraging studies.MethodsWe measured potential attentional bias associated with eating disorder symptoms to food related stimuli with our previously developed iPad foraging task. Forty-four participants performed a foraging task where they were instructed to tap predesignated food related targets (healthy and unhealthy) and other non-food objects and completed four self-report questionnaires measuring symptoms of eating disorders. Participants were split into two groups based on their questionnaire scores, a symptom group and no symptom group.ResultsThe foraging results suggest that there are differences between the groups on switch costs and target selection times (intertarget times) but they were only statistically significant when extreme-group analyses (EGA) were used. There were also notable food versus non-food category effects in the foraging patterns.ConclusionsThe results suggest that foraging tasks of this sort can be used to assess attentional biases and we also speculate that they may eventually be used to treat them through attention bias modification. Additionally, the category effects that we see between food items and other items are highly interesting and encouraging. At the same time, task sensitivity will need to be improved. Finally, future tests of clinical samples could provide a clearer picture of the effects of eating disorder symptoms on foraging for food.

Development and validation of the disease-specific QOL-CD quality of life questionnaire for patients with Cushing's disease.

Cushing's disease (CD) patients experience a range of debilitating symptoms that impair quality of life (QOL) as assessed using generic measures. These generic measures are inadequate to capture the disease-specific burden of illness. The development of the CD-specific QOL-CD measure of QOL using items generated by CD patients and healthcare professionals will provide a holistic assessment of patient outcomes and efficacy of novel therapies. A total of 96 CD patients participated. A list of 177 items (version 1.0) was generated by treated CD patients (n = 9), caregivers (n = 2), healthcare providers (n = 7), and results of a MEDLINE search. Item reduction was performed through content analysis and dual scaling. Patients' rating of importance was incorporated to reduce to a final version of 56 items (version 3.0). Evidence for test-retest reliability was sought through administering the QOL-CD 1 week apart and Cronbach's α of each subscale. Construct validity was assessed through extreme group analysis and comparison with the normal Canadian population. Concurrent validity was sought through comparison with the SF-36, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain (FACT-Br), and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS). Perioperative testing was conducted on CD patients (n = 25) against nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma controls (n = 25) through pre- and postoperative testing. A total of 96 CD patients (86 females and 10 males; mean age 45.23 ± 14.16 years) participated. The QOL-CD was feasible (mean completion time 15 minutes, with 70% believing accurate capture of QOL), reliable (CD 1 week apart: r = 0.86; control 1 week apart: r = 0.83; Cronbach's α: general health = 0.73, emotional health = 0.85, physical health = 0.78, mental status = 0.82, social well-being = 0.63, medical treatment = 0.54), and valid (extreme group testing p < 0.001; SF-36 and QOL-CD general health: r = 0.56, social well-being: r = 0.21, emotional health: r = 0.61, total score: r = 0.58; FACT-Br and QOL-CD physical health: r = 0.47, social well-being: r = 0.21, emotional health: r = 0.34, total score: r = 0.68; KPS and QOL-CD general health: r = 0.32, total score: r = 0.14). Perioperative testing of CD patients (n = 25) demonstrated improvement in all subscales postoperatively, with a significant difference in emotional health (p < 0.001) and physical health (p < 0.001). The QOL-CD questionnaire has been developed for patients with CD and has demonstrated evidence for validity and reliability.

Positive associations between media multitasking and creativity

The ability to solve problems creatively is a vital educational outcome. Here we pursued the hypothesis that media multitasking (MM), which is becoming increasingly prevalent in modern learning contexts, may be positively associated with creative performance. One hundred and four participants completed a media multitasking questionnaire and three well-established creativity tasks: (1) Alternate Uses Task (AUT), (2) a modified version of the Remotes Associates Task (RAT) and, finally, (3) the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ). We adopted three common approaches in analysing the relationship between MM and creativity: (1) regression analyses with MM scores as a continuous predictor, (2) extreme-group analyses with high vs. low MM levels, as defined by one standard deviation above vs. below the mean, respectively, and (3) median-split analyses with high vs. low MM levels, as determined by scores above vs. below the median, respectively. Of the three approaches, the median-split analyses revealed that high-MM individuals performed better on the RAT task as well as scored higher in fluency and originality on the AUT task than did low-MM individuals. We further demonstrated that the positive relationship between MM and creativity was significantly enhanced by fluid intelligence and attenuated by attentional impulsivity.

The glass is half empty: Negative self-appraisal bias and attenuated neural response to positive self-judgment in adolescence

ABSTRACTSubstantial changes in cognitive-affective self-referential processing occur during adolescence. We studied the behavioral and ERP correlates of self-evaluation in healthy male and female adolescents aged 12–17 (N = 109). Participants completed assessments of depression symptoms and puberty as well as a self-referential encoding task while 128-channel high-density EEG data were collected. Depression symptom severity was associated with increased endorsement of negative words and longer reaction times. In an extreme group analysis, a negative appraisal-bias subsample (n = 28) displayed decreased frontal P2 amplitudes to both positive and negative word stimuli, reflecting reduced early attentional processing and emotional salience. Compared to the positive appraisal-bias subsample (n = 27), the negative appraisal-bias subsample showed reduced LPP to positive words but not negative words, suggesting attenuated sustained processing of positive self-relevant stimuli. Findings are discussed in terms of neural processes associated with ERPs during negative versus positive self-appraisal bias, and developmental implications.

Microstructural White Matter Characteristics in Parkinson's Disease With Depression: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Replication Study.

Background: Clarifying the neuropathology of depression as a symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been the goal of recent neuroimaging studies; however, results have been conflicting and lack replication. The purpose of the current study was to replicate recent methods that have used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to compare individuals with PD with and without depression and to extend previous findings to allow for a better understanding of the results.Methods: Thirty-seven participants with de novo PD were retrieved from the Parkinson's Progression Marker's Initiative (PPMI) and were separated into a depressed PD group (dPD) or a non-depressed PD group (ndPD). Groups were determined based on scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form (GDS-15). Initially, a replicated cut off score of ≥ 5 for dPD and <5 for ndPD was applied. To better understand the results, we secondarily applied a more extreme group analysis with ≥ 9 for dPD and 0 for ndPD. White matter integrity between groups was compared between groups using tract-based spatial statistics.Results and Conclusion: The current study did not reveal significant differences in white matter microstructure between dPD and ndPD groups at the whole brain level or in specific regions of interest. The extreme group results were consistent. These findings did not replicate previous work that found reduced white matter integrity in limbic prefrontal regions in dPD relative to ndPD. The current study highlights the need for more replications of neuroimaging research.

Video gaming and working memory: A large-scale cross-sectional correlative study

Studies have indicated that video gaming is positively associated with cognitive performance in select cognitive domains, but the magnitudes of these associations have been called into question, as they have frequently been based on extreme groups analyses that have compared video gamers with non-gamers. When including the whole range of participants, and not just extreme cases, these effects were observed to reduce markedly (Unsworth et al., 2015). To further study this issue, we compared the associations between video gaming and aspects of working memory (WM) performance in an extreme groups design to those of a design that includes the full range of participants in a large adult sample (n = 503). WM was measured with three composite scores (verbal WM, visuospatial WM, n-back). The extreme groups analyses showed that video gamers performed better than non-gamers on all three WM measures, while the whole sample analyses indicated weak positive associations between the time spent playing video games and visuospatial WM and n-back performance. Thus, study design modulated the effects, but two of the three associations between WM and video gaming were consistent across both analysis techniques. A separate study confirmed that our questionnaire-based estimate of gaming hours was reliable when compared with one-week diaries of videogame playing. While the present cross-sectional results preclude causal inferences, possible mechanisms of WM – videogame playing associations and future research directions are discussed. Overall, our results indicate that cognition – videogame playing relationships, albeit weak, are not solely due to recently discussed methodological artefacts concerning the particular analytical approach and survey reliability.

Phenotypic and metabolic dichotomy in obesity: clinical, biochemical and immunological correlates of metabolically divergent obese phenotypes in healthy South Asian adults.

Metabolic heterogeneity among obese individuals is thought to translate into variations in cardiovascular risk. Identifying obese people with an unfavourable metabolic profile may allow preventive strategies to be targeted at high-risk groups. This study aimed to identify clinical, biochemical and immunological differences between insulin-sensitive and insulin-resistant obese subgroups, to understand the population-specific pathophysiological basis of the adverse cardiovascular risk profile in the latter group. Cardiovascular risk indicators, including anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, acanthosis nigricans area, and related biochemical, endocrine and inflammatory markers, were determined in 255 healthy South Asian volunteers aged 18-45 years, with a 2:1 ratio of obese/overweight to normal-weight individuals. Lifetime atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk was also calculated. Body mass index (BMI) and insulin sensitivity-based tertiles independently showed incremental trends in waist-hip ratio, skinfold thickness, acanthosis nigricans area, blood pressure, serum lipids, hepatic enzymes, adipokines, inflammatory markers and ten-year ASCVD risk. The anthropometric, biochemical and inflammatory parameters of obese insulin-sensitive and obese insulin-resistant groups differed significantly. Extreme group analysis after excluding the middle tertiles of both insulin resistance and BMI also showed significant difference in anthropometric indicators of cardiovascular risk and estimated lifetime ASCVD risk between the two obese subgroups. Obese insulin-sensitive individuals had a favourable metabolic profile compared to the obese insulin-resistant group. The most consistent discriminative factor between these phenotypic classes was anthropometric parameters, which underscores the importance of clinical parameters as cardiovascular risk indicators in obesity.

Regressive research: The pitfalls of post hoc data selection in the study of unconscious mental processes

Many studies of unconscious processing involve comparing a performance measure (e.g., some assessment of perception or memory) with an awareness measure (such as a verbal report or a forced-choice response) taken either concurrently or separately. Unconscious processing is inferred when above-chance performance is combined with null awareness. Often, however, aggregate awareness is better than chance, and data analysis therefore employs a form of extreme group analysis focusing post hoc on participants, trials, or items where awareness is absent or at chance. The pitfalls of this analytic approach are described with particular reference to recent research on implicit learning and subliminal perception. Because of regression to the mean, the approach can mislead researchers into erroneous conclusions concerning unconscious influences on behavior. Recommendations are made about future use of post hoc selection in research on unconscious cognition.

Association of Temperament and Acute Stress Responsiveness with Productivity, Feed Efficiency, and Methane Emissions in Beef Cattle: An Observational Study.

The aim of this study was to assess individual differences in temperament and stress response and quantify their impact on feed efficiency, performance, and methane (CH4) emissions in beef cattle. Eighty-four steers (castrated males) (Charolais or Luing) were used. Temperament was assessed using two standardized tests: restlessness when restrained [crush score (CS)] and flight speed (FS) on release from restraint. Over a 56-day period individual animal dry matter intake (DMI) and weekly body weight was measured. Ultrasound fat depth was measured at the end of 56 days. Average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and residual feed intake (RFI) were calculated. After the 56-day test period, animals were transported in groups of six/week to respiration chamber facilities. Blood samples were taken before and 0, 3, 6, and 9 h after transport. Plasma cortisol, creatine kinase (CK), glucose, and free fatty acids (FFA) were determined to assess physiological stress response. Subsequently, CH4 emissions were measured over a 3-day period in individual respiration chambers. CS (1.7 ± 0.09) and FS (1.6 ± 0.60 m/s) were repeatable (0.63 and 0.51, respectively) and correlated (r = 0.36, P < 0.001). Plasma cortisol, CK, and FFA concentrations increased after transport (P = 0.038, P = 0.006, and P < 0.001, respectively). Temperament (CS) and CK concentration were correlated (r = 0.29; P = 0.015). The extreme group analysis reveals that excitable animals (FS; P = 0.032) and higher stress response (cortisol, P = 0.007; FFA, P = 0.007; and CK, P = 0.003) were associated with lower DMI. ADG was lower in more temperamental animals (CS, P = 0.097, and FS, P = 0.030). Fat depth was greater in steers showing calmer CS (P = 0.026) and lower plasma CK (P = 0.058). Temperament did not show any relationship with RFI or CH4 emissions. However, steers with higher cortisol showed improved feed efficiency (lower FCR and RFI) (P < 0.05) and greater CH4 emissions (P = 0.017). In conclusion, agitated temperament and higher stress responsiveness is detrimental to productivity. A greater stress response is associated with a reduction in feed intake that may both increase the efficiency of consumed feed and the ratio of CH4 emissions/unit of feed. Therefore, temperament and stress response should be considered when designing strategies to improve efficiency and mitigate CH4 emissions in beef cattle.

Winning, Motivational Climate, and Young Athletes' Competitive Experiences: Some Notable Sex Differences

Is winning everything? We investigated the importance of team success and motivational climate on male and female athletes' evaluative reactions to their athletic experience. Seasonal won-lost record had a less pervasive influence on athletes' reactions than coaching behaviors. Notable sex differences were observed, with winning exhibiting stronger relations to attitudes for boys than girls. Although boys and girls responded positively to mastery climates, girls responded negatively to ego climates. Extreme-groups analyses of athletes experiencing strong mastery or ego climates revealed that winning was minimally related to evaluative reactions within a strong mastery climate. In boys, however, enjoyment playing on the team and liking for the coach/teammates were strongly related to winning percentage if they experienced an ego climate. Results are interpreted within the context of a “goodness of fit” of both winning and ego climate to previously reported sex differences in sport socialization and in personality and motivational factors.

Is Playing Video Games Related to Cognitive Abilities?

The relations between video-game experience and cognitive abilities were examined in the current study. In two experiments, subjects performed a number of working memory, fluid intelligence, and attention-control measures and filled out a questionnaire about their video-game experience. In Experiment 1, an extreme-groups analysis indicated that experienced video-game players outperformed nonplayers on several cognitive-ability measures. However, in Experiments 1 and 2, when analyses examined the full range of subjects at both the task level and the latent-construct level, nearly all of the relations between video-game experience and cognitive abilities were near zero. These results cast doubt on recent claims that playing video games leads to enhanced cognitive abilities. Statistical and methodological issues with prior studies of video-game experience are discussed along with recommendations for future studies.

Leadership and adult development: Towards a unified neuro-psycho-economic approach.

The paper first summarizes basic findings of the ongoing interdisciplinary research project on differences in neural processing of individualistic vs. collectivistic oriented test persons (managers vs. non-managers). Test persons had to perform abstract moral decisions within a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) setting. The obtained neurobiological and behavioral data were compared between the above mentioned extreme groups. In this paper the integration of dominant psychological trait theories (BIG-5) and theories of adult development (AD) will be first established on a theoretical level via a synopsis of Furnhams (1996) findings on the integration of different psychological trait theories and neuropsychoeconomic dual process theories primarily related to the importance of intuition in decision making (Kahneman, 2003). A characteristic pattern of a combination of traits will be presented as a possible marker for a high System 1 activation. This pattern will be tested as a signifier for a concording higher development in AD as well. This theoretical approach will be validated by empirical data from the project in which the researchers combined the extreme group analysis with the application of psychological tests as e.g. NEO-FFI and WUSCT.

Academic Achievement in Twins: Extreme Group Analysis

The aim of this study was to compare groups with extreme values of scholastic achievement and analyze the causes of individual differences in cognitive development.The sample comprised twins (2282 pairs) and singletons (3907 children) of school age (1-11 grades). The sample is representative to Russian Federation population for region of residence, number of children in the family and parental socio-demographic status.It is shown that gender, family structure and peculiarities of intra-pair relationship are significant for academic achievement of schoolchildren.

Psychometric properties of the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS), a self-report measure assessing sleep practices theoretically important for optimal sleep. Data were collected on a community sample of 514 adolescents (16-19; 17.7±0.4years; 50% female) participating in the late adolescent examination of a longitudinal study on sleep and health. Sleep hygiene and daytime sleepiness were obtained from adolescent reports, behavior from caretaker reports, and sleep-wake estimation on weekdays from wrist actigraphy. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the empirical and conceptually based factor structure were similar for six of the eight proposed sleep hygiene domains. Internal consistency of the revised scale (ASHSr) was α=0.84; subscale alphas were: physiological: α=0.60; behavioural arousal: α=0.62; cognitive/emotional: α=0.81; sleep environment: α=0.61; sleep stability: α=0.68; daytime sleep: α=0.78. Sleep hygiene scores were associated positively with sleep duration (r=0.16) and sleep efficiency (r=0.12) and negatively with daytime sleepiness (r=-0.26). Results of extreme-groups analyses comparing ASHSr scores in the lowest and highest quintile provided further evidence for concurrent validity. Correlations between sleep hygiene scores and caretaker reports of school competence, internalizing and externalizing behaviours provided support for convergent validity. These findings indicate that the ASHSr has satisfactory psychometric properties for a research instrument and is a useful research tool for assessing sleep hygiene in adolescents.