Validity of constructed-response situational judgment tests in training programs for the health professions: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.

BACKGROUND: Situational judgments tests have been increasingly used to help training programs for the health professions incorporate professionalism attributes into their admissions process. While such tests have strong psychometric properties for testing professional attributes and are feasible to implement in high-volume, high-stakes selection, little is known about constructed-response situational judgment tests and their validity. METHODS: We will conduct a systematic review of primary published or unpublished studies reporting on the association between scores on constructed-response situational judgment tests and scores on other tests that measure personal, interpersonal, or professional attributes in training programs for the health professions. In addition to searching electronic databases, we will contact academics and researchers and undertake backward and forward searching. Two reviewers will independently screen the papers and decide on their inclusion, first based on the titles and abstracts of all citations, and then according to the full texts. Data extraction will be done independently by two reviewers using a data extraction form to chart study details and key findings. Studies will be assessed for the risk of bias and quality by two reviewers using the "Quality In Prognosis Studies" tool. To synthesize evidence, we will test the statistical heterogeneity and conduct a psychometric meta-analysis using a random-effects model. If adequate data are available, we will explore whether the meta-analytic correlation varies across different subgroups (e.g., race, gender). DISCUSSION: The findings of this study will inform best practices for admission and selection of applicants for training programs for the health professions and encourage further research on constructed-response situational judgment tests, in particular their validity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The protocol for this systematic review has been registered in PROSPERO [CRD42022314561]. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022314561.

ERP responses to sexual cues among young women attracted to men.

Previous event-related potential (ERP) studies reported larger N170, P3, and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes to sexual than nonsexual stimuli. These ERPs may not be specifically sensitive to processing sexual cues, however, because the sexual stimuli included information beyond sexual cues (e.g., faces, bodies, social interaction) to a greater extent than comparison stimuli. We investigated ERPs to stimuli that focused on sexual and nonsexual body regions, in different states of readiness for activity, to elucidate neural responses involved in processing sexual cues. Forty cisgender, primarily white, undergraduate women who were attracted to men (Mage  = 18.6, SD = 0.9) viewed images that varied by male body part (penis, arm) and activity state (rest, poised for activity). Participants viewed 40 images per category (flaccid penises, erect penises, outstretched arms, bent arms). Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded using a 128-channel net, time-locked to the onset of each image. Using a whole-head cluster-mass approach, we found that the P3 was sensitive to sexual readiness-P3 amplitudes were larger to erect than flaccid penises, but not to bent than outstretched arms. The N170 and LPP components did not show evidence of similarly specific responses to sexual readiness, revealing potential dissociation of different neural processes commonly elicited in response to more complex sexual stimuli. An additional novel finding was that an anterior N270-400 was sensitive to sexual readiness. Findings clarify the brain's rapid responses to sexual stimuli, setting the stage for future research aimed at better understanding the neurocognitive processes that contribute to the coordination of sexual arousal.

Event-related potential studies of cross-situational word learning in four-year-old children.

Young children learn word-referent links in cross-situational learning paradigms despite uncertainty as to a given word's correct referent on individual exposures. However, the semantic status of these word-referent links is unknown. Here, we used a novel event-related potential (ERP) testing approach to investigate whether children showed electrophysiological signatures of semantic representations following a typical cross-situational learning paradigm. In Study 1, 20 4-year-old children (mean age: 51.35 months) learned eight new word-object pairs in a cross-situational learning task which included familiar object labeling before training. Then, they completed an ERP task which involved seeing pictures of the novel objects and then hearing words that were either congruent or incongruent with the word-referent association that was trained. Results showed a robust N400 ERP effect, thereby providing evidence for having acquired a semantic representation during the cross-situational learning paradigm. Children also showed good performance on a comprehension test approximately 20 min after training. In a second study, a different sample of 20 4-year-old children (mean age: 52 months) completed the same cross-situational task but without the initial familiar word pretraining. Here, we did not see the N400 effect we saw in Study 1, but children still showed good performance on the delayed comprehension test. We conclude that rapid semantic encoding can occur during cross-situational learning, but that pretraining on the structure of the paradigm may be critical for facilitating that encoding. We speculate on the mechanisms by which pretraining might have effects and discuss the implications of these findings for early word learning.

Theory of mind in dysphoric and non--dysphoric adults: An ERP study of true-- and false--belief reasoning.

Theory of mind (ToM) - the understanding that others' behaviors are connected with internal mental states - is an important part of everyday social cognition. There is increasing behavioral evidence that ToM reasoning can be affected by mood. To gain insight into the ways sad mood may affect the underlying mechanisms of ToM reasoning, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as dysphoric (N = 16) and non-dysphoric (N = 24) participants reasoned about a protagonist's true or false beliefs about an object's location. Results showed significant group effects on early components of the ERP - individuals in the dysphoric group showed greater amplitudes for the anterior N1 and N2/P2 components relative to those in the non-dysphoric group. Later in the ERP, non-dysphoric individuals showed evidence of neurocognitive dissociations between true and false belief. Dysphoric individuals, however, did not show evidence for these later dissociations. This evidence suggests that dysphoria may be associated with effortful reasoning about other's mental states, even when that effort is not necessary (i.e., when reasoning about true beliefs). We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding how mood affects ToM reasoning and for how especially deliberative ToM processing in dysphoria may lead to social difficulties.

Children remember words from ignorant speakers but do not attach meaning: evidence from event-related potentials.

Although we know much about the conditions under which children demonstrate selective social learning, we have a limited understanding of the cognitive mechanisms by which children's selectivity manifests. Here, we report findings from a brain electrophysiological (ERP) study designed to determine the extent to which words presented by ignorant speakers were later both familiar to children and associated with semantic meaning. Forty-eight children (mean age = 6.5 years) first experienced novel word training from either a knowledgeable or an ignorant speaker. Children's ERPs were subsequently recorded as they heard a recording of the speaker using the novel word, followed by a picture of either the object the word was paired with during training (congruent) or a distractor object that was also present during training (incongruent). Children trained by a knowledgeable speaker showed both N200 and N400 effects to the incongruent word-referent pairings, thereby suggesting that the novel words were both familiar and bore a semantic association. In contrast, children trained by an ignorant speaker demonstrated only the N200 effect, thereby suggesting that the word-referent links were familiar, but not associated with semantic meaning. These findings provide evidence that selective word learning involves the disruption of processes specifically associated with semantic consolidation of word learning events.

Assessing clinical significance using robust normative comparisons.

OBJECTIVE: Clinical significance determines whether an intervention makes a real difference in the everyday life of a client. One of the most recommended approaches for conducting group-level analyses of clinical significance is to evaluate whether the treated clinical group is equivalent to a normal comparison group (normative comparisons). The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the analytical and practical power of assessing clinical significance using normative comparisons that are robust to violations of normality and homogeneity of variance assumptions. METHOD: Six datasets were gleaned from published intervention studies for depression. RESULTS: We found that normative comparisons using a robust Schuirmann-Yuen test determined equivalency for 11% fewer clinical samples compared to original normative comparisons that use a Schuirmann test of equivalence. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend that researchers conducting normative comparisons utilize the Schuirmann-Yuen procedure as it provides the most reliable method available for determining if a treated clinical group is equivalent to a normative comparison group.