Biomedical subjects

A Bröder

Publications and source records attributed to A Bröder.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Assessing the empirical validity of the "take-the-best" heuristic as a model of human probabilistic inference.

The boundedly rational 'Take-The-Best" heuristic (TTB) was proposed by G. Gigerenzer, U. Hoffrage, and H. Kleinbölting (1991) as a model of fast and frugal probabilistic inferences. Although the simple lexicographic rule proved to be successful in computer simulations, direct empirical demonstrations of its adequacy as a psychological model are lacking because of several methodical problems. In 4 experiments with a total of 210 participants, this question was addressed. Whereas Experiment 1 showed that TTB is not valid as a universal hypothesis about probabilistic inferences, up to 28% of participants in Experiment 2 and 53% of participants in Experiment 3 were classified as TTB users. Experiment 4 revealed that investment costs for information seem to be a relevant factor leading participants to switch to a noncompensatory TTB strategy. The observed individual differences in strategy use imply the recommendation of an idiographic approach to decision-making research.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Test anxiety versus academic skills: a comparison of two alternative models for predicting performance in a statistics exam.

BACKGROUND: Two competing theoretical models to explain academic performance were proposed. The interference model stresses the detrimental effect of task-irrelevant thoughts during the test-taking situation whereas the deficit model suggests Study Habits and domain-specific skills as main predictors of test performance. AIMS: The study compares the two models by determining the relative contribution of Test Anxiety, Study Habits, and Maths Skill to performance in a statistics exam. SAMPLE: Sixty-six undergraduate students who were enrolled in the first semester of two parallel introductory statistic courses participated in the study. METHOD: Hierarchical regression analyses were performed on the performance in the final statistics exam. The unique variance attributable to Test Anxiety, Study Habits, and Maths Skill was calculated. RESULTS: Both Maths Skill and Test Anxiety added unique variance in explaining performance, whereas Study Habits did not. Although Maths Skill emerged as relatively more important than Test Anxiety, a purely deficit-based account nevertheless appears untenable because interfering effects of Test Anxiety during the examination also contributed an important portion of variance. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended that cognitive-attentional accounts stressing test anxiety be supplemented by a deficit formulation, and that multimodal counselling address both Test Anxiety and skill deficits. COMMENT: Methodological problems in investigating the causal relationship between skill deficits, anxiety, and performance are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

[Slip technique, process dissociation model and multinomial modeling: new tools for experimental detection of "Freudian slips"].

The study reported here was conducted as a test of the so-called "weak Freudian hypothesis", which claims that unconscious thoughts are relevant for the generation of speech errors. Spoonerisms were induced experimentally using the so-called SLIP technique. Motley and Baars (1976) demonstrated an increase in speech error rates when spoonerisms were primed semantically. The extensively discussed problems of "unawareness" of briefly presented stimuli were circumvented by using a modified version of Jacoby's process dissociation technique which allows a model-based estimation of conscious and unconscious processes within a task. The two reported experiments combined a wordstem completion task for estimating probabilities of perceptual processes and a SLIP task under identical perceptual conditions. A joint multinomial model was constructed for data analysis. The SLIP technique was successfully applied using German stimuli, adequate experimental variations raised the error rate from 7% in experiment 1 to 19% in experiment 2. Neither the replication of Motley and Baars' results nor unconscious priming of speech errors were statistically confirmed. Despite this negative result, the descriptive pattern of parameter estimates is psychologically meaningful: primes that remained unconscious resulted in a higher speech error probability than primes that were perceived consciously. Conscious perception might trigger control processes that act in opposition of speech errors. Statistical problems of the particular multinomial model and possible solutions in future research are discussed.

Adult↗