Global Judgments Research Articles

Graduates’ satisfaction as a measure of quality: Evidence from two programs in three Chilean universities

In Chile as elsewhere, there are no direct measures of a university’s impact on learning, that is, the quality of education provided. Parents and prospective students, and university administrators, rely on various indirect measures, including student satisfaction. This paper assesses the satisfaction levels of graduates from two degree programs offered in three universities in Chile, focusing principally on the graduates’ perceptions of the quality of their training programs. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire of a sample of three cohorts of graduates in Psychology and in Teaching. Levels of satisfaction varied according to particular aspects of their degree program as influenced by prior education and later by employment. Global judgments of the quality of one’s degree program are influenced by work experience after graduation; judgments of curriculum and teaching practices pertain to what was experienced as a student or before.

Breaking down a meal.

To decide how much we would like to eat a food item, our brain automatically decomposes it into constituent nutrients. The quantities of the different nutrients are represented in distinct parts of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and then integrated by the medial orbitofrontal cortex to provide a global value judgment.

Is betahistine effective for Ménière’s disease?

Meniere’s disease is an inner ear disorder characterized by episodes of spontaneous vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss and tinnitus. Betahistine has been used to reduce intensity and frecuency of vertigo attacks, but there is controversy regarding its effectiveness. To answer this question we used Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data of primary studies, conducted a meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach. We identified four systematic reviews including 12 trials overall. We concluded betahistine might reduce the number of attacks, vertigo intensity and lead to a symptomatic improvement according to global judgement in patients with Meniere’s disease, but the certainty of evidence is low. On the other hand, it probably does not have significant adverse effects.

The Dark Triad and the PID-5 Maladaptive Personality Traits: Accuracy, Confidence and Response Bias in Judgments of Veracity.

The Dark Triad traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy—have been found to be associated with intra- or interpersonal deception production frequency. This cross-sectional study (N = 207) investigated if the Dark Triad traits are also associated with deception detection accuracy, as implicated by the recent conception of a deception-general ability. To investigate associations between maladaptive personality space and deception, the PID-5 maladaptive personality traits were included to investigate if besides Machiavellianism, Detachment is negatively associated with response bias. Finally, associations between the Dark Triad traits, Antagonism, Negative Affectivity and confidence judgments were investigated. Participants watched videos of lying vs. truth-telling senders and judged the truthfulness of the statements. None of the Dark Triad traits was found to be associated with the ability to detect deception. Detachment was negatively associated with response bias. Psychopathy was associated with global confidence judgments. The results provide additional support that dark and maladaptive personality traits are associated with judgmental biases but not with accuracy in deception detection. The internal consistencies of 4 of the 8 subscales of the used personality short scales were only low and nearly sufficient (αs =0.65–0.69).

Effects of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and positive psychological intervention (PPI) on female offenders with psychological distress in Hong Kong.

Despite rapid growth in the female prison population, there is little research on effectiveness of psychological interventions for them. To test the hypotheses that (1) each of two psychological interventions administered separately - cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or positive psychology intervention (PPI) - would be more effective than 'treatment-as-usual' alone in reducing psychological distress and enhancing psychological well-being; (2) outcomes would differ according to intervention; and (3) combining the interventions would be more effective than delivering either alone. We recruited 40 women in a special Hong Kong prison unit for female offenders with psychological distress. Half of them received eight sessions of CBT followed by eight sessions of PPI; the other half received the same interventions in the reverse order. We recruited another 35 women who received only 'treatment as usual' (TAU) in the same unit. We used various clinical scales to assess the women's psychological distress or well-being before and after the interventions or at similar time points for the comparison women. All intervention group women showed a significant reduction in psychological distress and enhancement in psychological well-being after each intervention alone compared to the TAU women. There were no significant differences between CBT and PPI in this respect. Receiving both treatments, however, did yield significantly more improvement than either intervention alone in reducing depressive thoughts and enhancing global judgement of life satisfaction, self-perceived strengths and hopeful thinking style. Our findings provide preliminary empirical support for the effectiveness of psychological interventions with psychologically distressed women in prison. It would be important now to conduct a full, randomised trial to determine optimal length and combinations of treatment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS FROM NORTHERN INDIA

INTRODUCTION:Research on customer satisfaction is often closely associated with the measurement of quality (East, 1997). Customer satisfaction often depends on the quality of product or service offering (Anderson & Sullivan, 1993); (Levesque & McDougall, 1996). Service quality and customer satisfaction are inarguably be two core concepts that are at the crux of marketing theory and practice (Spreng & Mackoy, 1996). (Parasuraman et al., 1988) defined service quality as a global judgment or attitude, relating to the overall superiority of the service. Service quality has been described in the form of attitude that results from the comparison of expectations with performance (Cronin & Taylor, 1992); (Parasuraman et al., 1985). (Sureshchander et al., 2001) identified five factors of service quality as critical from customers' point of view. These factors are namely core service or service products, human elements of service delivery, systematization of service delivery. (Yang et al., 2004) identified five online service quality dimensions such as responsiveness, reliability, competence, access and security. In today's world of intense competition, the key to sustainable competitive advantage lies in delivering high quality service that will in turn result in satisfying customers (Shemwell et al., 1998). Now due to the globalization and technological advancements, banks are also bestowing many new and advanced facilities/services to their customers to fulfill their needs as per their expectations. The advanced way of providing services to the banking customers is electronic banking. The various services through electronic banking are Internet banking, Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), Electronic Clearing Services (ECS), ATMs, National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) system and card based payment systems. Internet banking is the major focus of modern banking system which has resulted in increasing number of customers switching from traditional banking to such banking channel which can be accessed through Internet. It is important for the banks to recognize the importance of improving Internet banking services so that existing customers can receive desired level of service quality and at the same time newer customers can also be attracted also.A thorough review of literature on customer satisfaction in banking industry has shown that there are very less studies which could analyze the customer satisfaction due to Internet banking operations in Northern India. Accordingly, the researcher has conducted this study to fill the research gap relating to the analysis of customer satisfaction with regard to Internet banking operations in Northern India.LITERATURE REVIEW:(Liao & Cheung, 2002) in their study titled 'Internet Based e-Banking and Consumer Attitudes: An Empirical Study' identified and measured the consumers' attitude towards and willingness to use internet based e -banking. The analysis showed that expectations of accuracy, security, network speed, user-friendliness, user involvement and convenience were the most important quality attributes underlying perceived usefulness (Verma & Sehdev, 2004) in their paper titled 'Relative Importance of Service Quality Dimensions: A Multi-Sectoral Study' attempted to explore relative importance of service quality dimensions out of the five quality dimensions named responsiveness, reliability, empathy, tangibility and assurance. Three methods named zone of tolerance, regression and direct evaluation were used to find the relative importance of service attributes and to establish consistency in their order of importance. It was found that in banking, assurance came at the first place, then responsiveness at the second place, followed by reliability, empathy and tangibility in the order of importance. It was observed that the perceived performance was below the 'adequate' level of performance in the four i.e. reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy of the five service dimensions It was also found that banks performed better in case of tangibility dimensions. …

Global loudness of rising- and falling-intensity tones: How temporal profile characteristics shape overall judgments

The mechanisms underlying global loudness judgments of rising- or falling-intensity tones were further investigated in two magnitude estimation experiments. By manipulating the temporal characteristics of such stimuli, it was examined whether judgments could be accounted for by an integration of their loudest portion over a certain temporal window associated to a "decay mechanism" downsizing this integration over time for falling ramps. In experiment 1, 1-kHz intensity-ramps were stretched in time between 1 and 16 s keeping their dynamics (difference between maximum and minimum levels) unchanged. While global loudness of rising tones increased up to 6 s, evaluations of falling tones increased at a weaker rate and slightly decayed between 6 and 16 s, resulting in significant differences between the two patterns. In experiment 2, ramps were stretched in time between 2 and 12 s keeping their slopes (rate of change in dB/s) unchanged. In this context, the main effect of duration became non-significant and the interaction between the two profiles remained, although the decay of falling tones was not significant. These results qualitatively support the view that the global loudness computation of intensity-ramps involves an integration of their loudest portions; the presence of a decay mechanism could, however, not be attested.

Factors Associated with Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Medical Students in Bahrain.

Medical training can be a stressful experience and may negatively impact mental health for some students. The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among medical students in one international medical university in the Kingdom of Bahrain and to determine associations between these symptoms, the students' characteristics, and their satisfaction with life. This is a cross sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire, distributed to 350 enrolled medical students. We used Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI) instruments to assess depressive and anxiety symptoms. The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) was used to measure global cognitive judgments of one's life satisfaction. Sociodemographic details including social background and academic information were also documented. Forty percent (n=124) of the participants had depressive symptoms, of which 18.9% (n=58) met the criteria for mild, 13% (n=40) for moderate, and 8.5% (n=26) for severe depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were associated with Arab ethnicity (χ 2=5.66, p=.017), female gender (χ 2=3.97, p=.046), relationship with peers (p<.001), year of study (χ 2=13.68, p=.008), and academic performance (p<0.001). Anxiety symptoms were present in 51% (n=158) of students. Anxiety symptoms were associated with female gender (χ 2=11.35, p<0.001), year of study (χ 2=10.28, p=.036), and academic performance (χ 2=14.97, p=.002). The prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among medical students was high. Medical universities in the Middle East may need to allocate more resources into monitoring and early detection of medical student distress. Medical education providers are encouraged to provide adequate pastoral and psychological support for medical students, including culturally appropriate self-care programs within the curriculum.

Would We Even Know Moral Bioenhancement If We Saw It?

The term "moral bioenhancement" conceals a diverse plurality encompassing much potential, some elements of which are desirable, some of which are disturbing, and some of which are simply bland. This article invites readers to take a better differentiated approach to discriminating between elements of the debate rather than talking of moral bioenhancement "per se," or coming to any global value judgments about the idea as an abstract whole (no such whole exists). Readers are then invited to consider the benefits and distortions that come from the usual dichotomies framing the various debates, concluding with an additional distinction for further clarifying this discourse qua explicit/implicit moral bioenhancement.

Memory underpinnings of future intentions: Would you like to see the sequel?

In two studies, we investigated the memory underpinnings of future intentions related to past hedonic experiences. Preceding research did not make clear whether the specific memory processes supporting the expression of intentions about the future involve global judgments of the past experience (general affective evaluations formed on-line) or judgments derived from the episodic recollection of the past. Adapting a correlational paradigm previously employed to study future intentions, and applying it to the experience of watching a movie, we comparatively tested the influence of global retrospective evaluations vs. episodic-derived evaluations on future intentions. In Study 1, in which the intentions involved a future experience that was very similar to an overall past one (e.g., seeing the movie sequel), the findings showed that participants relied only on global judgments to form future intentions. In Study 2, in which the global judgment on the past was less diagnostic because the future intentions referred to specific parts of the past experience (e.g., watching a movie centered on a minor character in the previously seen movie), the results indicated that relevant episodic memories provided an essential contribution to the prediction of future intentions. These findings are in agreement with the predictions of the accessibility-diagnosticity framework and they show that global judgments and episodic memories of a past experience contribute differentially to diverse kinds of future intentions.

Assessment of Residents Readiness to Perform Lumbar Puncture: A Validation Study.

Lumbar puncture is a common procedure in many specialties. The procedure serves to diagnose life-threatening conditions, often requiring rapid performance. However, junior doctors possess uncertainties regarding performing the procedure and frequently perform below expectations. Hence, proper training and assessment of performance is crucial before entering clinical practice. To develop and collect validity evidence for an assessment tool for lumbar puncture performance, including a standard to determine when trainees are ready for clinical practice. Development of a new tool, based on clinician interviews and a literature review, was followed by an explorative study to gather validity evidence. We interviewed 12 clinicians from different specialties. The assessment tool was used to assess 11 doctors at the advanced beginners' level and 18 novices performing the procedure in a simulated, ward-like setting with a standardized patient. Procedural performance was assessed by three content experts. We used generalizability theory to explore reliability. The discriminative ability of the tool was explored by comparing performance scores between the two groups. The contrasting groups method was used to set a pass/fail standard and the consequences of this was explored. The interviews identified that in addition to the technical aspects of the procedure, non-technical elements involving planning and conducting the procedure are important. Cronbach's alpha = 0.92, Generalizability-coefficient was 0.88 and a Decision-study found one rater was sufficient for low-stakes assessments (G-coefficient 0.71). The discriminative ability was confirmed by a significant difference between the mean scores of novices, 40.9 (SD 6.1) and of advanced beginners, 47.8 (SD 4.0), p = 0.004. A standard of 44.0 was established which was consistent with the raters' global judgments of pass/fail. We developed and demonstrated strong validity evidence for the lumbar puncture assessment tool. The tool can be used to assess readiness for practice.

Development of an instrument for patient-reported outcomes in Thai patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (PRO-DM-Thai)

Abstract Background Effectiveness of self-care and treatment of diabetes mellitus depends upon patient awareness of their own health and disease outcomes. Physician decisions are improved by insight into patient perspectives. Objective To develop an instrument for patient-reported outcomes in Thai patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (PRO-DM-Thai). Methods The study consisted of: (1) content development using a literature review and in-depth interviews of providers and patients, and validity testing using a content validity index (CVI); (2) construct validity and reliability testing by confirmatory factor and Cronbach’s α analyses of data from a cross-sectional descriptive survey of 500 participants from May to June, 2011; and, (3) criterion-related validity from a cross-sectional analytical survey of 200 participants from September to November, 2011. Results PRO-DM-Thai passed all of the validity tests. The instrument comprises seven dimensions and 44 items, including physical function, symptoms, psychological well-being, self-care management, social well-being, global judgments of health, and satisfaction with care and flexibility of treatment. The CVI at the item-level (I-CVI) were between 0.83 to 1.00 and the scale-level average agreement (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.98. All dimension models had overall fit with empirical data, while the hypothesized model demonstrated a good fit (χ2 = 5.23; (df = 6), P &gt; 0.05, AGFI = 0.986, RMSEA = 0.000). Cronbach’s α for the total scale was 0.91 and for the subscales was 0.72-0.90. The total scores effectively discriminated groups of patients with different levels of disease control. Conclusion PRO-DM-Thai showed satisfactory levels of validity and reliability when applied to Thai diabetic patients.

Efficacy and Tolerance of an Injectable Medical Device Containing Hyaluronic Acid and Amino acids: A Monocentric Six-Month Open-Label Evaluation

Background: An innovative injectable solution containing low molecular hyaluronic acid (HA) and a specific Amino Acids mixture was formulated to physiologically promote local neo-collagenesis and elastogenesis through fibroblasts chemotaxis migration into the injected area. Objective: Aim of this open clinical trial is to evaluate efficacy and tolerance of the injectable product under study, on main sign of face skin photoaging. Methods: A single Italian center treated 25 female subjects aged 48-65 years with 4 micro-injection sessions with 10-day time laps between each product administration. Subjects were evaluated in basal conditions and after 4, 8, 12 and 24 weeks, using validated clinical scales, subjective evaluations and objective quantitative outcome measures. Assessment of aesthetic results included photographic documentation. Results: Obtained results showed an improvement of all the clinical and subjective assessments and on the majority of objective instrumental parameters. These were already significant 10 days after the first injection procedure and were still significant and still improving after 6 months (at follow up). Global judgment on tolerability was good/excellent, both in the investigators’ opinion and volunteers’ self-evaluation. Conclusions: Obtained results confirm the aesthetic performance of the injectable product on main signs of face skin photoaging. In particular, it was demonstrated the biovolumetric effect, the antiwrinkle efficacy, a superficial and deep moisturising activity and elasticizing properties. This study supports the definition of extracellular matrix targeting (ECM-targeting) for this product.

An efficient 3D point cloud data denoising algorithm for ship block visual measurement

For the 3D point cloud data aquired by laser scanning measurement of ship block, an efficient denoising algorithm based on image and normal vector threshold judgement is proposed. Firstly, large scale noise points are eliminated using global threshold judgement based image, then Kuwahara filter algorithm is used for data smoothing and a denoising algorithm based on normal vector threshold judgement is proposed to eliminate noises point excluding ship manufacture sections. The experiment result demonstrates that not only the proposed denoising algorithm keeps key data points but also avoids bluring point cloud boundary and eliminates noise points effectively.

More than just beliefs: Experience and beliefs jointly contribute to volume effects on metacognitive judgments.

Experience-based cues, such as perceptual fluency, have long been thought to influence metacognitive judgments (Kelley & Jacoby, 1996; Koriat, 1997). Studies found that manipulations of perceptual fluency via changes in font and volume alter Judgments of Learning (JOLs) without influencing memory performance (Rhodes & Castel, 2008, 2009). Nonetheless, recent research (Mueller, Tauber, & Dunlosky, 2013; Mueller, Dunlosky, Tauber, & Rhodes, 2014, 2016) has challenged the notion that experience-based cues such as fluency are the primary basis for item-level JOLs, arguing instead that preexisting beliefs about these manipulations are responsible for these effects. For the first time, we compared global metacognitive judgments to item-level JOLs made during study to independently assess the contribution of beliefs and experience to volume-effects on JOLs. In 3 experiments, we found evidence for strong beliefs about volume-effects on memory, both before and after a study-test phase. However, these beliefs either did not account for the volume effect on JOLs (Experiment 3) or only partially accounted for the volume effect on JOLs (Experiments 1 and 2). Further, in Experiments 2 and 3 global performance estimates (before and after study) did not differ with respect to the volume dose whereas item-level JOLs generally varied with dose strength. Taken together, our findings suggest that both beliefs and experience-based cues contribute independently to the effects of volume on item-level JOLs, but that beliefs alone cannot fully account for the effects of volume on item-level JOLs. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ratings of Everyday Executive Functioning (REEF): A parent-report measure of preschoolers' executive functioning skills.

Executive functioning (EF) facilitates the development of academic, cognitive, and social-emotional skills and deficits in EF are implicated in a broad range of child psychopathologies. Although EF has clear implications for early development, the few questionnaires that assess EF in preschoolers tend to ask parents for global judgments of executive dysfunction and thus do not cover the full range of EF within the preschool age group. Here we present a new measure of preschoolers' EF-the Ratings of Everyday Executive Functioning (REEF)-that capitalizes on parents' observations of their preschoolers' (i.e., 3- to 5-year-olds) behavior in specific, everyday contexts. Over 4 studies, items comprising the REEF were refined and the measure's reliability and validity were evaluated. Factor analysis of the REEF yielded 1 factor, with items showing strong internal reliability. More important, children's scores on the REEF related to both laboratory measures of EF and another parent-report EF questionnaire. Moreover, reflecting divergent validity, the REEF was more strongly related to measures of EF as opposed to measures of affective styles. The REEF also captured differences in children's executive skills across the preschool years, and norms at 6-month intervals are reported. In summary, the REEF is a new parent-report measure that provides researchers with an efficient, valid, and reliable means of assessing preschoolers' executive functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record

Category learning judgments in the classroom: Can students judge how well they know course topics?

A category learning judgment (CLJ) involves judging one’s learning or performance for a given topic or category. The present study was the first to investigate CLJs in a classroom, where students’ judgments of how well they have learned topics may be particularly relevant for guiding their study decisions. In an undergraduate statistics class, students predicted their performance on six different exam topics, as well as predicting their global exam performance, for each exam during the semester. Regarding the absolute accuracy of CLJs, we observed slight overestimation (bias), substantial deviation from accuracy (absolute bias), and little improvement across exams. Students’ CLJs varied among topics, but they were less variable than actual topic performance and were poor at discriminating well-learned from poorly-learned topics (i.e., low relative accuracy). We examined two factors predictive of CLJ accuracy: topic difficulty and student mastery of the topics. Regarding topic difficulty, a hard-easy effect was observed, such that more difficult topics produced greater overestimation and easier topics produced more underestimation. A hard-easy effect also extended to absolute bias: difficult topics produced larger deviations from accuracy than easy topics did. Regarding student mastery of topics, we found that lower mastery predicted CLJ overestimation and higher mastery predicted CLJ underestimation. Lower mastery was also associated with larger absolute bias. Compared to global judgments, CLJs were less accurate, although students were more confident in their CLJs. In sum, developing methods to improve the accuracy of CLJs in classrooms is an important direction for future research.

Conceptions of Happiness and Unhappiness among Italian Psychology Undergraduates.

The present study aims at investigating the conceptions of happiness and unhappiness in a sample of Italian psychology undergraduates. Participants completed a questionnaire asking them to report the most important things that made them feel happy (happiness components) and those ones that made them feel unhappy (unhappiness components). Different measures of overall happiness and overall unhappiness were also obtained by asking respondents to assess to what extent each reported happiness and unhappiness component was present in their life, and by inviting them to provide a global judgment about their happiness and unhappiness. Results indicated that participants did not conceptualize happiness and unhappiness as perfect antonyms. Indeed, both investigated concepts encompassed a similar set of semantic components; however, the perceived salience of some of them − assessed in terms of frequency of citation and average ranking − significantly varied between happiness and unhappiness. With regard to the measurement of overall happiness and unhappiness, on average, respondents considered themselves as moderately happy and only slightly unhappy. However, a judgmental asymmetry was found when comparing global and specific evaluations of unhappiness. Theoretical and empirical implications of the study are discussed.

The Conditional Nature of the Local Warming Effect

Abstract The local warming effect occurs when perceived deviations in the day’s temperature affect individuals’ global warming beliefs. When people perceive the day to be warmer than usual, they tend to overestimate the number of warm days throughout the year, and to report increased belief in and worry about global warming. For many, this is normatively concerning because a single day’s perceived temperature fluctuation is not representative of longer-term, large-scale climate patterns. It thus makes for a poor basis for global warming judgments. Recent work shows that the local warming effect might disappear when people receive a reminder to think about weather patterns over the past year (i.e., a correction). This paper employs a survey experiment that extends past research by exploring the generalizability, conditionality, and durability of the corrective information. It identifies the conditions under which a local warming effect is more or less likely to occur.

The influence of first impressions on subsequent ratings within an OSCE station.

Competency-based assessment is placing increasing emphasis on the direct observation of learners. For this process to produce valid results, it is important that raters provide quality judgments that are accurate. Unfortunately, the quality of these judgments is variable and the roles of factors that influence the accuracy of those judgments are not clearly understood. One such factor is first impressions: that is, judgments about people we do not know, made quickly and based on very little information. This study explores the influence of first impressions in an OSCE. Specifically, the purpose is to begin to examine the accuracy of a first impression and its influence on subsequent ratings. We created six videotapes of history-taking performance. Each video was scripted from a real performance by six examinee residents within a single OSCE station. Each performance was re-enacted with six different actors playing the role of the examinees and one actor playing the role of the patient and videotaped. A total of 23 raters (i.e., physician examiners) reviewed each video and were asked to make a global judgment of the examinee's clinical abilities after 60s (First Impression GR) by providing a rating on a six-point global rating scale and then to rate their confidence in the accuracy of that judgment by providing a rating on a five-point rating scale (Confidence GR). After making these ratings, raters then watched the remainder of the examinee's performance and made another global rating of performance (Final GR) before moving on to the next video. First impression ratings of ability varied across examinees and were moderately correlated to expert ratings (r=.59, 95% CI [-.13, .90]). There were significant differences in mean ratings for three examinees. Correlations ranged from .05 to .56 but were only significant for three examinees. Rater confidence in their first impression was not related to the likelihood of a rater changing their rating between the first impression and a subsequent rating. The findings suggest that first impressions could play a role in explaining variability in judgments, but their importance was determined by the videotaped performance of the examinees. More work is needed to clarify conditions that support or discourage the use of first impressions.