A Rasch Model Analysis of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

The 10-item Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) was developed to measure individual differences in the tendency to use two common emotion regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal and suppression. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the ERQ in a heterogeneous mixed sample of 713 (64.9% female) community residents using the polytomous Rasch model. The results showed that the 10-item ERQ was multidimensional and supported the two distinct factors. The reappraisal and suppression subscales were both found to be unidimensional and fit the Rasch model. No evidence of local dependence was observed. The five response categories also functioned as intended. Differential item functioning (DIF) was assessed across sub-samples defined by gender, self-report experiencing symptoms of mental illness, regular meditation practice, and age groupings. No evidence emerged of items functioning differently across any of these groups. Using Rasch measure scores, a number of meaningful group differences in person location emerged. Less use of reappraisal was reported by younger adults, non-meditators, and those reporting experiencing symptoms of mental illness. Non-meditators also reported greater use of suppression compared with regular meditators; no other age group, gender, or symptomatic group differences emerged on suppression.

The Impact of Differential Item Functioning on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale.

Establishing the internal validity of psychometric instruments is an important research priority, and is especially vital for instruments that are used to collect data to guide public policy decisions. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) is a well-established and widely-used instrument for assessing individual differences in well-being. The current analyses were motivated by concerns that metal wellbeing items that refer to interpersonal relationships (Items 9 and 12) may operate differently for those in a relationship compared to those not in a relationship. To assess this, the present study used item characteristic curves (ICC) and ANOVA of residuals to scrutinize the differential item functioning (DIF) of the 14 WEMWBS items for participant relationship status (n with partner = 261, n without partner = 210). Items 5, 9, and 12 showed evidence of DIF which impacted group mean differences. Item 5 ("energy to spare") was unexpected, however plausible explanation is discussed. For participants at the same level of mental wellbeing, those in a relationship scored higher on items 9 and 12 than those not in a relationship. This suggests these items are sensitive to non-wellbeing related variance associated with relationship status. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

A Rasch Model Analysis of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale.

The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale was developed to measure individual differences in the tendency to be mindful. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale in a heterogeneous sample of 565 nonmeditators and 612 meditators using the polytomous Rasch model. The results showed that some items did not function the same way for these two groups. Overall, meditators had higher mean estimates than nonmeditators. The analysis identified a group of items as highly discriminating. Using a different model, Van Dam, Earleywine, and Borders in 2010 identified the same group of items as highly discriminating, and concluded that they were the items with the most information. Multiple pieces of evidence from the Rasch analysis showed that these items discriminate highly because of local dependence, hence do not supply independent information. We discussed how these different conclusions, based on similar findings, result from two very different paradigms in measurement.

Phonological effects in forward and backward serial recall: qualitative and quantitative differences.

Forward serial recall is affected by a diverse range of phonological factors that are readily replicated and relatively well understood. In contrast with backward recall, these phonological effects are not consistently replicable in that some studies show that the effects are present and some show the effects are absent or severely attenuated. Moreover at the theoretical level there is no consensus about how participants perform backward recall. The current research was aimed at understanding the differences between forward and backward recall by using meta-analytic techniques on 16 previously published experiments that examined the effects of benchmark phonological factors on both forward and backward recall. In each of the studies, recall was decomposed into 2 components, the first 2 items output and the remaining later responses. A consistent pattern emerged in the data. Each effect was present in both the early and late output positions in forward recall. The effects were present in the late output positions in backward recall, but the effects were weaker than in forward recall. The phonological variables had little impact on early output in backward recall (with the exceptions of articulatory suppression). The presence of qualitative differences between forward and backward recall and quantitative differences between studies have implications for the theoretical understanding of direction of recall in immediate memory tasks.