Individual Difference Factors Research Articles

ARE RURAL OLDER ADULTS READY TO ADOPT AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES (AV)? PREDICTORS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD AV IN RURAL AREAS

Abstract Transportation for older adults residing in rural areas is particularly vital for maintaining their everyday activities including access to health services and community activities. Given unique features of rural areas (e.g., limited public transportation, greater distances to travel but less traffic), autonomous vehicles (AV) can be an innovative solution to rural older adults. Nevertheless, attitudes toward AV can be a significant barrier for older adults to adopt it. In fact, older adults in rural areas tend to hold different attitudes toward and experiences with new technologies. The current study explored how individual difference variables (i.e., age group, gender, technology proficiency, & personality traits) predict attitudes toward AV in rural areas. We first conducted a factor analysis on a 16-item attitude survey (collected from rural areas in USA) which uncovered three factors: concern with AV, willingness to adopt AV, confidence on human driving over AV. ANOVAs on the attitudinal factors showed that older adults (60+ yrs, n = 45) had a lower willingness to adopt AV than young adults (17-21 yrs, n = 47) despite a lower confidence on human driving over AV. There was no age group difference in concern with AV. Multiple regressions supported that technology proficiency can be another significant predictor of willingness to adopt AV over and above other individual difference factors (i.e., age groups, gender, & personality). These results indicate that older adults in rural areas have complex and ambivalent attitudes toward AV, which suggest different approaches to the dissemination of AV technology for them.

PREDICTING OLDER ADULTS’ CONTINUED COMPUTER USE AFTER INITIAL ADOPTION

Abstract Digital technologies have the potential to help older adults in various aspects of their lives, but older adults need to adopt and keep using the new technologies to reap the benefits. Previous research on digital divide mainly focuses on adoption and acceptance of new technologies, and little is known about what might influence actual use and disuse after this initial stage. The current study modeled changes in constructs related to computer use after initial computer adoption and examined whether these changes predict continued use. We used data from the computer arm (N = 150, MAge = 76.15) of a 12-month field trial examining the potential benefits of computer use in older adults. Individual differences identified in the technology acceptance literature (perceived usefulness, ease of use, computer interest, computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety, quality of life, social isolation, and social support) were measured before (baseline), during (month 6), and after the intervention (posttest). Univariate and bivariate latent change score models examined changes in each predictor and their potential causal relationship with use. Results demonstrated large inter-individual differences in the change patterns of individual difference factors examined. Change in perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and computer interest, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety were correlated with but not predictive of change in use. Our findings demonstrate the limitation of popular constructs in technology acceptance literature in predicting continued use after initial adoption and point out important gaps in knowledge to be targeted in future investigations.

Sexual alcohol expectancies moderate the relation between alcohol use and sexual behavior among men who have sex with men

BackgroundHIV transmission remains a significant health concern for men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States. Heavy episodic drinking (HED) is related to increased rates of condomless anal intercourse (CAI) among MSM, though evidence suggests that this association may vary by individual difference factors. The present secondary analysis tested whether sexual alcohol expectancies (SAEs) moderate the associations between frequency of HED and anal intercourse (AI) with and without a condom among moderate-to-heavy drinking HIV- MSM. MethodsTwo hundred and forty-eight moderate-to-heavy drinking MSM completed self-report questionnaires including the Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, the Modified Daily Drinking Questionnaire, and the Sexual Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire. ResultsNegative binomial regressions indicated that SAEs moderated the association between frequency of HED and AI with a condom, but not between the frequency of HED and condomless AI (CAI). ConclusionsThese results suggest that stronger SAEs play a role in alcohol-related sexual behavior among MSM, but do not provide evidence that SAEs are associated with increased risk for HIV transmission through CAI.

Motivation and Language Learning Narratives: A Case Study of Indonesian Students

Motivation is a foremost aspect in language learning and has been extensively studied in the field of SLA due to its important contribution to pedagogical implications. However, SLA scholars/researchers have overwhelmingly preoccupied specifically with Asian students such as Japanese and/or Chinese (Gong et al, 2020; Kikuchi, 2019). This ignores the unique individual differences that Indonesian students have which contribute to their learning trajectories. The present study investigated the factors of individual differences influencing their motivation in learning English as foreign language and how the ideal L2 self is expressed through their language learning narratives. A total of two Indonesian students studying abroad in one of the research-integrated universities in the US participated in this study during the Fall semester. Through three stages of open-ended interviews and the researcher's observations, the data were collected and analyzed using narrative analysis and the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) proposed by Dörnyei (2009) as framework. The analysis revealed that factors such as family background and socioeconomic status, education system inequality, and access to the target language contribute to their perception of their ideal L2 self. Additionally, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of Asian immigrant students as a whole and helps to avoid stereotypical identities of Asian students based on previous research.

Grammar Learning Strategies: Towards a Pedagogical Intervention

Despite undeniable advances in research on language learning strategies in the last several decades, empirical investigations of actions and thoughts that learners engage in to better understand and use grammar structures in different contexts, or grammar learning strategies (GLS), remain scarce. Moreover, there is a paucity of studies examining the effects of pedagogical interventions in this area, both with respect to the use of different types of GLS and the mastery of grammar structures in terms of explicit and implicit (automatized) knowledge. There is also no empirical evidence concerning the mediating role of individual difference (ID) factors in this respect. The paper outlines a study currently in progress that seeks to address all of these gaps. The first part is devoted to a brief overview of key issues related to the definition and classification of GLS as well as a synthesis of available research in this area. This is followed by a description of an intervention-based research project which explores the effects of strategies-based instruction (SBI) targeting GLS by English majors in Poland, also taking into account the moderating impact of selected ID variables. In particular, the methodology of the study is presented and the envisaged contributions of the intervention are considered.

Exploring Resilience in Social Work Trainees

Exploring Resilience in Social Work Trainees

Chinese first-year undergraduates’ strategy use in the English writing from sources task: influences from genders, critical thinking, and L2 proficiency

English is widely used as a lingua franca in academic settings, including academic writing, in the modern age. When faced with complex writing tasks that involve multiple sources, the ability to effectively employ writing strategies becomes crucial for achieving writing success. This is particularly true for first-year university students who are learning English as a foreign language. Although previous studies have examined various individual difference factors that influence students’ use of source-based writing strategies, such as L2 proficiency and gender, there is a lack of research exploring the impact of critical thinking skills on students’ strategy use. To address this gap, the current study utilized a convenience sampling procedure to involve 526 first-year EFL undergraduates from six classes in mainland China. A writing task and questionnaire were employed to investigate the students’ critical thinking skills and strategy use during the English writing from sources task. Furthermore, the study examined whether there were differences in strategy use based on gender, L2 proficiency groups, and levels of critical thinking ability. A three-way MANOVA was conducted, revealing significant variations in the students’ writing strategy use based on gender, L2 proficiency groups, and critical thinking levels. Notably, interaction effects between critical thinking ability and gender were also observed. The study discusses important implications, emphasizing the need for teachers to integrate critical thinking and strategy training into practical writing classes, and to consider the diverse learning needs of different groups of students.

Critical culturalized comprehension: Exploring culture as learners thinking about texts

We examine the role of culture in comprehension. Prominent theories of comprehension conceptualized the outcome of reading as learners’ construction of a cognitive representation of texts. We emphasize that such representation reflects not only texts’ content, but also individuals’ understandings of the real world, as described in texts. We suggest that, thus, individuals should be supported to question and analyze the mental representations that they form; we use the term “culture” to capture such questioning and analysis. Rather than an individual difference factor, we argue for conceptualizing culture as a way of thinking, or as individuals’ reasoning about the commonalities and differences in their and others’ worldviews and the linking of these to underlying values. When such reasoning is engaged in reference to texts, we refer to this as culturalized comprehension; when such reasoning is further engaged to resist or recast the values introduced in texts to generate counternarratives, we refer to this as critical culturalized comprehension. In emphasizing the importance of culturalized and critical culturalized comprehension and describing the set of cognitive processes involved, we argue for research in educational psychology to examine how learners may be consciously, reflectively, and critically engaged in using texts to understand their world.

The desire for side-effect information in pain treatment: an experimental analysis of contextual and individual difference factors.

Informing patients about potential side effects of pain treatment is a requirement that protects patients and aids decision making, but it increases the likelihood of unwanted nocebo side effects. If patients do not desire all side-effect information, it may be possible to ethically reduce nocebo effects through authorized concealment of side effects, whereby patients and clinicians engage in shared decision-making to regulate the disclosure of side-effect information. Currently, there is no experimental data clarifying the factors that causally influence desire for side-effect information in pain treatment. In 2 cross-sectional, between-subjects scenario experiments (experiment 1 N = 498, experiment 2 N = 501), 18 to 79-year-old community adults learned about a lower back pain treatment, and potential side-effect severity, frequency, and duration were manipulated. Individual differences in information avoidance were also recorded. In both experiments, participants reported high desire for side-effect information, but the desire was reduced when side effects were described as less severe, less frequent, and participants scored high in information avoidance. Results were not moderated by participants' level of contact with the health care system, chronic health condition, or clinical pain history. Additional analyses indicated that low side-effect severity and frequency lessen desire for side-effect information because these variables reduce belief that side-effect information will be needed in the future and lower feelings of anticipated regret. The experiments identify situational and individual-difference factors that decrease the desire for side-effect information and provide evidence on when and for whom it may be useful for physicians to engage in shared medical decision-making with the goal of reducing nocebo side effects.

Anxiety sensitivity in terms of mental health among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of sexual minority college students

Objective: Limited work has focused on understanding the function of individual difference factors in terms of mental health among sexual minority college students. Anxiety sensitivity is one individual difference factor which has received substantial empirical attention, but its role is presently understudied among racially/ethnically diverse sexual minority college students.Participants: Participants included a racially and ethnically diverse sample of sexual minority college students (N = 217; Mage = 20.82 years; SD = 3.06).Methods: The present investigation evaluated the role of anxiety sensitivity in relation to anxious arousal, social anxiety, depression, and suicidality.Results: Results indicated that anxiety sensitivity was significantly related to increased anxious arousal, social anxiety, depression, and suicidality after adjusting for age, sex, relationship status, subjective social status, and neuroticism.Conclusions: This investigation provides the first empirical evidence that anxiety sensitivity is related to poorer mental health outcomes for racially/ethnically diverse sexual minority college students.

Effects of individual factors on thermal sensation in the cold climate of China in winter

Due to individual differences in factors, there are differences in thermal sensation among people. This study investigated the effects of three individual factors: age, gender, and BMI on thermal sensation based on the Chinese Thermal Comfort Database. The relationships between the individual factors and thermal comfort were analyzed by thermal sensation evaluation modes and neutral temperatures. The effect of the three factors were explored using Bayesian networks. Furthermore, the reasons why individual factors affect thermal sensation were discussed. The results indicated that there are significant differences in thermal sensation of personnel by age, with the highest thermal neutral temperature of 21.5 °C for the elderly, and the neutral temperature increased with age. There are statistically significant differences in thermal sensation between genders, and female have a 1.3 °C higher thermal neutral temperature than male. The thermal neutral temperature increased with increasing BMI of personnel, and the difference in thermal sensation between different BMI subjects was not statistically significant at the 5 % level. Considering the majority of the people, age has the greatest impact on thermal comfort, followed by gender and then BMI. Individual differences in thermal sensation are caused by physiological, psychological, and lifestyle factors. It is recommended to select subjects with appropriate BMI, while considering the age of the subjects, in order to reduce the effects of individual factors.

Individual Differences in the Susceptibility to the Feature-Positive Effect

Abstract: The feature-positive effect (FPE) is the phenomenon that learning organisms are better at detecting the association between two present stimuli than between the absence of one stimulus and the presence of the other. Although the FPE was first described over 50 years ago, it remains an ill-studied and ill-understood bias. Nonetheless, the FPE can have far-reaching negative consequences in various decision-making contexts. In the present contribution, an attempt was made to document the FPE with a within-subject measurement. Initial psychometric analyses (PCA, Cronbach’s α, test–retest reliability, and concurrent validity correlations) suggest that such intraindividual measurement of the FPE is indeed possible. Consequently, individuals can be expected to differ in their susceptibility to the FPE. This individual difference factor can be measured with the described feature-positive effect test (FPET), which opens new research avenues in which FPE-proneness is taken as a starting point.

Hispanic/Latinx ethnic differences in the relationships between behavioral inhibition, anxiety, and substance use in youth from the ABCD cohort.

Elevated levels of behavioral inhibition (BI) may connote risk for both anxiety and substance use disorders. BI has consistently been shown to be associated with increased levels of anxiety, while the association between BI and substance use has been mixed. It is possible that the relationship between BI and substance use varies by individual difference factors. Hispanic/Latinx (H/L) youth in particular may have stronger relationships between BI, anxiety, and substance use. The present study therefore evaluated (1) the prospective relationships between BI [assessed via self-reported behavioral inhibition system (BIS) scale scores], anxiety, and substance use in youth (n = 11,876) across baseline, 1-, and 2-year follow-ups of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (ages 9-12) and (2) whether these relationships differed by H/L ethnicity while covarying for average behavioral approach system scores, race, sex, age, highest parental income, highest parental education, and past-year substance use (for analyses involving substance use outcomes). Baseline levels of BIS scores predicted increased anxiety symptoms at both 1- and 2-year follow-ups and did not differ by H/L ethnicity. Baseline levels of BIS scores also prospectively predicted increased likelihood of substance use at 2-year follow-up, but only for H/L youth and not at 1-year follow-up. High scores on the BIS scale contribute risk to anxiety across ethnicities and may uniquely contribute to risk for substance use in H/L youth.

The impact of anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty on climate change distress, policy support, and pro-environmental behaviour.

As the threat of climate change continues to grow, bolstering individual-level support for climate change initiatives is crucial. More research is needed to better understand how individual difference factors, such as climate change anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty (IU), may shape how people perceive climate change and respond to climate change messaging. To date, the majority of published studies have not taken these individual difference factors into consideration, and IU has been particularly neglected in the climate change literature. This study examined the independent effects of climate change anxiety and IU on three climate change-related outcomes: climate-related distress, support for climate change policies, and behavioural engagement. Participants were Florida residents (N = 441) who completed an online survey, including measures of climate change anxiety and IU. Participants then watched a video describing climate change consequences and completed three outcome measures: post-video distress, climate change policy support, and behavioural engagement. Controlling for demographic covariates, both climate change anxiety (β = .43, p < .001) and IU (β = .27, p < .001) were associated with greater post-video distress, but only IU independently predicted greater policy support (β = .10, p = .034) and behavioural engagement (β = .12, p = .017). Our findings suggest that IU may be an important factor in promoting pro-environmental behaviour and policy support, but climate change anxiety may increase emotional distress without boosting meaningful behaviours or support. Our findings highlight the potential influence of cognitive factors on climate change engagement and suggest that invoking uncertainty rather than anxiety may be more effective in catalysing effective environmental engagement.

Examining students’ help-seeking when learning from multiple texts

This study examines how students’ self-regulation, as an individual difference factor, guides their use of informational help-seeking resources when learning from multiple text. We further examine the extent to which engagement in help-seeking is associated with comprehension ratings and multiple text task performance. In this study, students were able to access two types of help-seeking resources during multiple text use: vocabulary aids and conceptual aids. We found students to frequently access help-seeking resources. Moreover, while accessing of help-seeking aids and comprehension ratings during multiple text use directly impacted task performance, students’ self-regulation, as an individual difference factor, was only found to have a significant direct effect on comprehension ratings. Additional direct and indirect relations and implications for future research on students’ self-regulated learning from multiple texts are discussed.

Exploring Individual Differences in Consumer Understanding of Partially Automated Driving Systems Before and After Exposure

With the driver responsibilities that are required to safely operate ADAS driving systems, it is critical that users understand the capabilities and limitations of these systems. The present study was a secondary analysis of data from a previous study that examined driver understanding and expectations of an SAE L2 driving system after brief training and after brief on-road experience using the system. The current analysis examined the role of demographic and individual difference factors on driver understanding and perceptions of the system immediately after training as well as changes after brief experience using the system. Models were used to examine relationships between the demographic and individual difference factors and various outcomes related to understanding and expectations of the system. It was found that age, gender, prosocial driving scores, aggressive driving scores, and education level were significant predictors of participant understanding outcomes surveyed after system training. Gender, employment status, race and ethnicity, prosocial driving scores, and aggressive driving scores were relevant individual differences for significant changes in perceptions of the L2 system capabilities and limitations after experience using the system themselves. These findings have implications for training and other approaches to address knowledge gaps.

Finding a Natural Fit: A Thematic Analysis of Amputees’ Prosthesis Setting Preferences during User-Guided Auto-Tuning

Amputees’ preferences for prosthesis settings are critical not only for their psychological well-being but also for long-term adherence to device adoption and health. Although active lower-limb prostheses can provide enhanced functionality than passive devices, little is known about the mechanism of preferences for settings in active devices. Therefore, a think-aloud study was conducted on three amputees to unravel their preferences for a powered robotic knee prosthesis during user-guided auto-tuning. The inductive thematic analysis revealed that amputee patients were more likely to use their own passive device rather than the intact leg as the reference for the natural walking that they were looking for in the powered device. There were large individual differences in factors influencing naturalness. The mental optimization of preference decisions was mostly based on the noticeableness of the differences between knee profiles. The implications on future design and research in active prostheses were discussed.

The Effects of Individual Differences in Working Memory on Trust Recovery

While trust repair is an active area of inquiry (i.e., systems that proactively repair users’ trust in itself, De Visser, Pak, and Shaw 2018), most technology does not have the ability to initiate trust repair. Thus, it is crucial to examine how unaided trust recovery occurs and the factors that could influence it. Prior research has highlighted the potential importance of individual difference factors such as working memory capacity (e.g., Rovira, Pak, McLaughlin, 2017). Previous research also suggests operators’ trust on automation recovers naturally without trust repair strategies (e.g., Lee and Moray, 1992; Mishler and Chen, 2023). However, the specific dynamics of unaided trust recovery and how they are influenced by individual differences are unknown. There are theoretical and practical reasons why this topic is important. Theoretically, it is important to know why some people show trust recovery (i.e., trust recovery naturally, over time), but not others, as such information can inform theories of human-machine trust. Practically, a lot of technologies do not have a trust repairing system to rebuild users’ trust after errors occur; information gained in this study may have direct implications for redesigning systems to aid trust recovery (without using trust repair). The current study has two goals; the first is to understand how trust recovers naturally (unaided). The second goal is to specifically examine how working memory is related to the process of unaided trust recovery. This study will use a computer-based automation task to examine participants’ trust level at three different time points (i.e., before, during, and after automation failures). A final exploratory role of this study will be to examine the role of attention control on trust dynamics. The current study will shed light on individual differences in unaided trust recovery and potential causes.

Investigating the Role of Individual Differences in Adherence to Cognitive Training.

Consistent with research across several domains, intervention adherence is associated with desired outcomes. Our study investigates adherence, defined by participants' commitment to, persistence with, and compliance with an intervention's regimen, as a key mechanism underlying cognitive training effectiveness. We examine this relationship in a large and diverse sample comprising 4,775 adults between the ages of 18 and 93. We test the predictive validity of individual difference factors, such as age, gender, cognitive capability (i.e., fluid reasoning and working memory), grit, ambition, personality, self-perceived cognitive failures, socioeconomic status, exercise, and education on commitment to and persistence with a 20-session cognitive training regimen, as measured by the number of sessions completed. Additionally, we test the relationship between compliance measures: (i) spacing between training sessions, as measured by the average time between training sessions, and (ii) consistency in the training schedule, as measured by the variance in time between training sessions, with performance trajectories on the training task. Our data suggest that none of these factors reliably predict commitment to, persistence with, or compliance with cognitive training. Nevertheless, the lack of evidence from the large and representative sample extends the knowledge from previous research exploring limited, heterogenous samples, characterized by older adult populations. The absence of reliable predictors for commitment, persistence, and compliance in cognitive training suggests that nomothetic factors may affect program adherence. Future research will be well served to examine diverse approaches to increasing motivation in cognitive training to improve program evaluation and reconcile the inconsistency in findings across the field.

The Role of Internal and External Individual Difference Factors in Bilingual Development: Exploring Highly Proficient Kurdish-English Bilinguals’ Perceptions

Drawing on qualitative research, the present study examines the characteristics of seven highly proficient Kurdish-English bilingual adolescents and their perceptions of the role of individual difference factors in bilingual development. Adopting a deductive thematic analysis approach, the collected data from semi-structured interviews were analyzed. The findings indicate that special attention should be paid to both internal and external factors in order for Kurdish-English bilinguals to reach high level of proficiency in both languages. External factors of richness of input, input quantity, language output, and socioeconomic status are crucial for fostering morphosyntactic and lexical skills in Kurdish and English. Moreover, the bilingual learners stated that conducting mathematical and logical problem-solving activities frequently and having high level of language learning aptitude are important predictors of rapid development of bilingual language abilities. In terms of age effects, the bilingual adolescents conveyed that having younger age and earlier start to Kurdish and English learning always lead to better morphosyntactic and lexical outcomes in both languages. To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to explore the role of individual difference factors in bilingual development among highly proficient Kurdish-English bilinguals. The paper highlights implications and directions for further research.