Group Testing Situations Research Articles

Ready-to-eat cereal and milk for breakfast compared with no breakfast has a positive acute effect on cognitive function and subjective state in 11\u201313-year-olds: a school-based, randomised, controlled, parallel groups trial

PurposeWe tested the acute effect of breakfast (ready-to-eat-cereal [RTEC] and milk) versus (vs.) no breakfast on cognitive function and subjective state in adolescents.MethodsHealthy adolescents (n = 234) aged 11–13 years were recruited to take part in this school-based, acute, randomised, controlled, parallel groups trial with two interventions; Breakfast or No Breakfast. The breakfast intervention consisted of ad libitum intake of RTEC (up to 70 g) with milk (up to 300 ml) administered in a naturalistic school breakfast programme environment. Cognitive function was assessed at baseline and + 70 and + 215 min post-intervention in a group-testing situation, similar to a school classroom context. The CANTAB test battery included: Simple Reaction Time (SRT), 5-Choice Reaction Time (5-CRT), Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP), and Paired Associates Learning (PAL; primary outcome). Data collection commenced January 2011 and ended May 2011. This trial was retrospectively registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03979027 on 07/06/2019.ResultsA significant effect of the intervention (CMH[1] = 7.29, p < 0.01) was found for the number of levels achieved on the PAL task. A significant difference between interventions was found when baseline performance reached level 2 (JT, z = 2.58, p < 0.01), such that 100% of participants in the breakfast intervention reached the maximum level 4 but only 41.7% of those in the no breakfast intervention reached level 4. A significant baseline*intervention interaction (F[1,202] = 6.95, p < 0.01) was found for total errors made on the PAL task, indicating that participants who made above-average errors at baseline reduced the total number of errors made at subsequent test sessions following breakfast consumption whilst those in the no breakfast intervention did not. There was a positive effect of breakfast on reaction time and visual-sustained attention. The results also demonstrated interactions of intervention with baseline cognitive performance, such that breakfast conferred a greater advantage for performance when baseline performance was poorer.ConclusionConsuming breakfast has a positive acute effect on cognition in adolescents.

Revisiting retesting in the estimation of proportions by group testing

ABSTRACTIn the estimation of a proportion p by group testing (pooled testing), retesting of units within positive groups has received little attention due to the minimal gain in precision compared to testing additional units. If acquisition of additional units is impractical or too expensive, and testing is not destructive, we show that retesting can be a useful option. We propose the retesting of a random grouping of units from positive groups, and compare it with nested halving procedures suggested by others. We develop an estimator of p for our proposed method, and examine its variance properties. Using simulation we compare retesting methods across a range of group testing situations, and show that for most realistic scenarios, our method is more efficient.

Different effects of adding white noise on cognitive performance of sub-, normal and super-attentive school children.

ObjectivesNoise often has detrimental effects on performance. However, because of the phenomenon of stochastic resonance (SR), auditory white noise (WN) can alter the “signal to noise” ratio and improve performance. The Moderate Brain Arousal (MBA) model postulates different levels of internal “neural noise” in individuals with different attentional capacities. This in turn determines the particular WN level most beneficial in each individual case–with one level of WN facilitating poor attenders but hindering super-attentive children. The objective of the present study is to find out if added WN affects cognitive performance differently in children that differ in attention ability.MethodsParticipants were teacher-rated super- (N = 25); normal- (N = 29) and sub-attentive (N = 36) children (aged 8 to 10 years). Two non-executive function (EF) tasks (a verbal episodic recall task and a delayed verbal recognition task) and two EF tasks (a visuo-spatial working memory test and a Go-NoGo task) were performed under three WN levels. The non-WN condition was only used to control for potential differences in background noise in the group testing situations.ResultsThere were different effects of WN on performance in the three groups-adding moderate WN worsened the performance of super-attentive children for both task types and improved EF performance in sub-attentive children. The normal-attentive children’s performance was unaffected by WN exposure. The shift from moderate to high levels of WN had little further effect on performance in any group.SignificanceThe predicted differential effect of WN on performance was confirmed. However, the failure to find evidence for an inverted U function challenges current theories. Alternative explanations are discussed. We propose that WN therapy should be further investigated as a possible non-pharmacological treatment for inattention.

Variations journalières de l'activité intellectuelle d'enfants de 10-11 ans en fonction de conditions psychosociologiques de passation d'épreuves

Summary : Influence of test protocol on diurnal intellectual activity of 10-to 11-year-old pupils. Two studies investigated if test protocol (individual or group testing) changes the level of performance in school and psychotechnical tests and/or influences diurnal patterns of test performance (rhythmicity). Mathematical problems, number cancellation and a spatial structuration (blocks) test were administered four times in individual or group situations at 08:45, 11:45, 13:45, and 16:15. For the two experiments, the population samples were respectivily composed of 32 and 20 ten-to eleven-year-old pupils. The first experiment showed an influence of test protocol on performance for the cancellation test and intellectual rhythmicity for the cancellation and spatial structuration tests. The results of the first experiment were confirmed in the second experiment. An influence of the test protocol was linked to the nature of the task. There was little influence of gender. During the group testing situation we found better performance on the cancellation task and during the individual testing situation performance on the structuration test was improved. We observed a disappearance (cancellation) or an inversion (blocks) in diurnal variation between the group and individual testing situations. Key words : mental activity, pupils, diurnal variations, test protocol.

Economic group testing

SUMMARY Group testing, the simultaneous testing of more than one item by one test, can provide a substantial economy. In this paper, group testing situations with retest and without retest are respectively investigated from the economic viewpoints. Furthermore, the procedure for deciding the group size of the group testing without retest is presented which minimizes the expected testing cost. Preliminary test for deciding the adoption of group testing is also considered based on prior information about the lot quality.

An Innovative Approach to Data Capture in Automated Assessment

Abstract The microcomputer has had a significant impact on the development of computer‐assisted learning. It has not resulted in a parallel development in computer‐managed learning especially in the area of computer‐based testing. One of the reasons for this is that testing, especially in the conventional group testing situation, requires efficient data capture. The usual medium for this has been by marked cards. Equipment to read cards is expensive compared with the processing power required. The development of a low cost input system is discussed in terms of the appropriateness of imposing program controlled answering strategies on candidates attempting a conventional multiple choice objective question achievement test.

A validation study of forms A and B of the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking.

Hospitalized psychiatric patients (n = 115) completed either Form A or Form B of the Whitaker Index of Schizophrenic Thinking, along with the Beck Depression Inventory, State Anxiety Inventory, and the MMPI. Only error scores on the WIST were calculated in an effort to assess validity of the WIST for use in group testing situations where individual timing and administration is cumbersome. Results supported the convergent and discriminant validity of Form A where significant correlations were found with measures of thought disorder (MMPI F, Pt, Sc and Pa) but not with indices of other symptomatology, such as depression and anxiety. Form B did not show such validity, with only one significant correlation with other measures (MMPI Pd). Both WIST Forms correctly identified nonschizophrenics (76% for Form A and 73% for Form B) more often than schizophrenics (57% for each form). Also, Form A was found to be negatively related to years of education. Suggestions for further research on the influence of intelligence and social class variables on WIST scores were made. Overall, Form A emerged as the most valid WIST form, with suggestions for its clinical use being offered.

Attributing the causes of group performance: Effects of performance quality, task importance, and future testing1

Abstract : An egocentric perception model of attribution suggests that three major factors affect self-serving perceptual biases which occur after task performance: performance quality, the importance of the task, and the possibility of continuing to work on similar future tasks. To assess the effects of these variables on attributions, 126 subjects worked in four-person, same-sex groups on a social sensitivity task. The 2 by 2 by 2 by 2 factorial design included: (a) group success or failure, (b) high versus low task importance, (c) expectations of future testing versus no future testing, and (d) sex of subjects. Although the manipulation checks indicated that the task importance and future testing manipulations were quite successful, only group performance consistently affected attributions. As compared to subjects in groups that failed, successful subjects attributed greater responsibility for the performance to self, average group member, and group as a whole, and attributed the cause of the performance more to personal ability and less to internal constraints, situational distractions, and task difficulty. The results support an information processing model of egocentrism rather than a self-serving motivational model, and extend previous findings of attributed causality that were obtained in individual testing situations to group testing situations. (Author)

Testing the Early Educational and Psychological Development of Children. Ages 3-6

A general overview of trends in testing for the age group considered was obtained by a perusal of The Sixth Mental Measurements Yearbook (Buros, 1965). This overview indicated that general ability tests rather than specific ability tests were given primary consideration. Individual testing continued to be the most frequently used procedure; among the tests reviewed for children under five years of age, only two general ability tests were suggested for use in group testing situations. Since the publication of Buros, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence has appeared (Wechsler, 1967). Eight of the subtests parallel the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The standardization sample of 1,200 children was stratified on five variables in accordance with latest population statistics.

Recall of sentences as a function of syntactic and associative habit

The effects of syntactic (grammatical and ungrammatical word order) and associative (high, moderate, and low free-association strength) relationships between words upon performance in a sentence-recall task were studied. A 3 × 2 factorial design was used, and Ss in each group were exposed for 4 trials to a list of short sentences in a group-testing situation. Recall was facilitated by grammatical word order and by strong associative relationships between words. Recall of sentences that were designed to arouse a moderate level of associative habit, however, was poorer than had been anticipated. None of the interactions were significant. Syntactic errors were more prevalent in the recall of ungrammatical sentences than in the recall of grammatical sentences, and intrusion errors occurred more frequently in the recall of sentences of moderate and low associative habit than in the recall of high-strength associative sentences. There was also evidence to suggest that the relationship between recall and sentence position for the group in which grammatical word order and high associative strength were combined was different from what it was in all other groups.

Method of “Single Descent” in Group Audiometry

Various methods for determining threshold in a group testing situation were compared. No significant differences in reliability were found between the method of adjustment (either direct or indirect) and the method of “single descent,” in which the listener presses a button “just when the beeps disappear.” However, the method of single descent is independent of individual differences in adjustment time and requires less apparatus. Thresholds determined by single descent were affected only slightly by rate of descent, starting level and practice factors. A comparison between single descent and the standard clinical technique showed the thresholds to be valid. Field performance of the method, in a 10-man group audiometer, has fulfilled expectations from the pilot studies.

FORMAL AND CONCRETE THOUGHT PROCESSES

ABSTRACTThis project was an empirical investigation of predictions derived from a theory “by Piaget concerning the development of intelligence. In particular, three content areas were to be studied, making use of group testing procedures and special statistical techniques for analysis.Piaget defines a mental operation as an internalized act, i.e., the external object is represented symbolically in the mind of the subject who instigates behavior with respect to the symbol. Concrete operations are operations on the symbols of objects that can be manipulated through the senses. Formal operations are operations on concrete operations. His theory implies a steplike development of intelligence and the possiblility of demonstrating that there are children who can carry out concrete operations but not formal and that all children who can carry out formal operations can also carry out concrete operations. An empirical finding reported by Piaget is that children in general change from the concrete to the formal operations between their twelfth and fifteenth birthdays. Of course, some children make the change before this period and some afterwards, and others again probably never do. Conditions which facilitate or inhibit this change are not explicitly stated by the theory.In the area of arithmetic, for example, Piaget's theory of intelligence is interpreted as representing the development of intelligence as a process of building up a set of elements and an operation with respect to this set, such that the conditions for a semigroup are satisfied. In this way the stage of concrete operations is established.Later in the developments of the individual the condition of an inverse is added and this with the unit changes the semigroup into a group. This is the stage of formal operations.The theory was examined with respect to three content areas, arithmetic, probability and inequalities (also referred to as “comparisons”). In the area of arithmetic, pairs of problems were prepared, one of which required reversibility of operations in the sense that an operation combined with its inverse leaves the original number unchanged, whereas the other could be solved by normal computational operations. In the area of probability theory formal operations were examined through the notion of independence. The children in effect were given in one problem that a certain number of object A and a certain number of object B were placed in a box and were asked which object, A or B, was most likely to come out by random drawing. In another problem it is given that one more of either object is in the box but that it has been removed by chance drawing before they have to decide which is most likely to come out. Formal operations in this case lead to the notion of independence which is an important condition for operations on probabilities. In the case of the comparisons items the items differed solely on the basis of generality. Such items do not examine the theory as stated, but were included for other reasons related to Piaget's work and to evidence found in the literature. The effect of generality was examined also in the other content areas.Data were obtained by administering 74 items, some of which had several parts, to children from Grades IV, VI, VII, VIII, and X. Approximately two hundred from each of the first two grades and three hundred from each of the upper three grades were tested. These data were punched onto IBM cards and analyzed in terms of the relationship between matched pairs of items. The results of this analysis indicated that six of the seven arithmetic item pairs were related in a way suggested by the theory. The seventh item pair required operations with fractions; further study of such items is suggested. For the probability items effects which could be attributed to lack of appreciation of the notion of independence were obtained with Grade IV and Grade VI children, Children in Grades VII, VIII, and X behaved somewhat differently, but this could have been due in part to the effect of the influence of a variable not anticipated in the planning of these items. Further study of this type of item is suggested. No effects were obtained with the inequalities items. Specific suggestions are made as to how items, in this area could be constructed that require reversibility of operations.In general, it was concluded that the group testing situation could be used experimentally with systematic variation of the content of items. Piaget's theory was used as the basis of this variation and certain predicted results were obtained. Some specific suggestions for further studies arose from the results of this study.

The psychological scores of mental patients in an individual and group testing situation.

Journal of Clinical PsychologyVolume 5, Issue 4 p. 405-408 Article The psychological scores of mental patients in an individual and group testing situation† Isidor W. Scherer Ph.D., Isidor W. Scherer Ph.D. Northampton, Mass. Clinical Psychologist, Veterans Administration, Northampton, Mass. Published with the permission of the Chief Medical Director, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Veterans Administration, who assumes no responsibility for the opinions expressed or conclusions drawn by the author.Search for more papers by this author Isidor W. Scherer Ph.D., Isidor W. Scherer Ph.D. Northampton, Mass. Clinical Psychologist, Veterans Administration, Northampton, Mass. Published with the permission of the Chief Medical Director, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Veterans Administration, who assumes no responsibility for the opinions expressed or conclusions drawn by the author.Search for more papers by this author First published: October 1949 https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4679(194910)5:4<405::AID-JCLP2270050413>3.0.CO;2-YCitations: 3 † One of the four experiments submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska. Abstract of this paper was presented to Psi Chi at the American Psychological Association meeting in Boston in May 1948. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume5, Issue4October 1949Pages 405-408 RelatedInformation