Thesis advisor: Liane Young / Thesis advisor: James Dungan / Moral psychologists disagree over whether descriptively different moral violations represent distinct cognitive domains or are in fact unified by common cognitive mechanisms. The Moral Foundations Theory (MFT; Haidt, 2007) offers five different domains of moral transgressions: Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity. Both intentionality and omission bias (e.g. omissions such as letting someone die being judged less harshly than actions such as killing someone) have been shown to impact moral judgments; however, it remains unclear how these rules modulate judgments across moral transgressions of various types. Here, we investigate the role of intentionality and omission bias across different moral violations to determine if the divide between moral domains represent true cognitive, (as opposed to descriptive), differences. We utilized a 2 x 2 x 5 design to create stories across the 5 domains posited by MFT that were intentional/accidental cases of actions/omissions. Importantly, this study also looks at four distinct moral judgments of wrongness, responsibility, blameworthiness, and punishment to assess the role of these rules across judgments. We found that intent and action play different roles across judgments, particularly when comparing wrongness and punishment. Intent seems to matter more for wrongness, whereas action matters more for punishment. Further, these rules also differ across domains. We found that intent matters more for the individualizing foundations of harm and fairness (versus the binding foundations of ingroup, authority, and purity) in judgments of wrongness and punishment. The difference between action and omission is also more important for the individualizing foundations for punishment. These data suggest intentionality and omission bias manifest themselves uniquely across moral judgments and domains and provide evidence that there are meaningful differences between domains. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Psychology Honors Program. / Discipline: Psychology .

Thesis advisor: Walt Haney / Migration is now a major component of globalization. The combination of better economic opportunities and lower fertility rates in developed nations suggests that the current migratory wave will last for many decades to come (United Nations Population Fund, 2007). In the U.S., immigration over the last thirty years has significantly changed the face of the workforce and the classroom. At the state level, Massachusetts has been one of the top immigrant-receiving states in the Union. Since the 1990's, Massachusetts has been implementing a policy of standardized testing for accountability and graduation. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is a set of standardized, norm-referenced tests administered to comply with the test-based accountability provisions of the 1993 No Child Left Behind federal legislation (NCLB). Used today for high-stakes decisions such as NCLB accountability as well as high school graduation requirements, MCAS has raised a number of validity concerns. Differential item functioning analysis, a technique to statistically identify potentially biased in tests, has not been used to challenge the validity of the tests, although it can provide new insights into test bias that were not previously available. This dissertation investigates the presence of differential item functioning in MCAS between native students and immigrant students. It identifies one test, the 2008 Grade 3 MCAS Mathematics test, as having a significant number of items exhibiting differential functioning and compares the original test version to a purified test version with these items removed. The purified test version results in larger test score improvements for immigrants as well as other non-mainstream students. These alternative test scores are sufficiently large to affect the determination of NCLB-based performance status for many schools and districts that are comparatively poorer and more diverse than the average. While the lack of more precise data on immigrants and other characteristics of the data set reduce the definiteness of the results, there is ample cause for concern about the presence of differential item functioning-based bias on MCAS and the need to further study this phenomenon as NCLB-based accountability determinations impact a growing number of schools, districts and communities. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Com o objetivo de avaliar a acurácia, a precisão e a robustez de diferentes indicadores internos na predição da digestibilidade aparente total da matéria seca (MS), matéria orgânica (MO), proteína bruta (PB), energia bruta (EB) e fibra em detergente neutro (FDN) para equinos, foi realizado um experimento no Setor de Equideocultura da Prefeitura do Campus de Pirassununga da Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos em parceria com o Laboratório de Fermentabilidade Ruminal, no qual foram utilizadas cinco éguas em mantença, alojadas em baias individuais, dispostas em quadrado latino 5x5 (cinco dietas e cinco animais) sendo as formulações isoproteicas e isoenergéticas. Os alimentos e as fezes deste experimento foram usados para a comparação dos dados estimados com os dados calculados através do experimento in vivo de coleta total de fezes. A determinação das frações indigestíveis foi feita após incubação in vitro com inóculo fecal equino diluído e tamponado. As amostras foram incubadas por 168 horas, retiradas, lavadas e então realizadas as análises dos nutrientes e estimativas da digestibilidade aparente, corrigida pela taxa de recuperação dos indicadores internos. A acurácia foi avaliada pela comparação do viés médio (dado predito - dado observado) entre os indicadores; a precisão, por meio da raiz quadrada do erro de predição e do erro residual; e a robustez, pelo estudo da regressão entre o viés e o consumo de matéria seca, consumo do indicador e peso vivo. Observando as taxas de recuperação (TR), pode-se dizer que a celulose indigestível (CELi) e a fibra em detergente neutro indigestível (FDNi) tiveram melhores TR, uma vez que sua recuperação média não diferiu de 100% (P>0,05). O viés médio obtido com FDNi não difere do viés médio obtido pela lignina em detergente ácido indigestível (LDAi). Por consequência de uma menor TR, os indicadores FDNi e LDAi possuem vieses negativos e diferentes de zero (P<0,05), mostrando que estes são menos acurados e subestimam o coeficiente de digestibilidade da MS. Quanto à precisão, as variâncias dos vieses (RQMEP2) para os indicadores CELi e LDAi foram maiores que a dos demais indicadores avaliados, pelo teste de Barllet. Não houve diferença significativa entre os coeficientes angulares da regressão dos vieses dos indicadores e as variáveis consumo de matéria seca, consumo de indicador e peso vivo (P>0,05). Nas condições em que o trabalho foi realizado, pode-se concluir que os indicadores mais acurados foram FDAi e CELi, seguidos da FDNi e LDAi. Quanto à precisão, FDAi e FDNi foram mais precisos que CELi e LDAi, sendo todos os indicadores robustos quanto a consumo de matéria seca, consumo de indicador e peso vivo. / Aiming to evaluate the accuracy, precision and robustness of different internal markers to predict total digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), gross energy (GE) and detergent fiber neutral (NDF) in horses, an experiment was carried out at the Horse Breeding Sector of the Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering in partnership with the Laboratory of Rumen Fermentability, in which five maintenance mares were used, housed in individual pens, arranged in a 5x5 Latin square design (five treatments and five animals) with isoproteic and isocaloric formulations. Feeds and faeces from this experiment were used to compare estimated and observed data obtained by the in vivo assay with total faecal collection. The determination of indigestible fractions was done after in vitro incubation with buffered diluted equine faecal inoculum. The samples were incubated for 168 hours, removed, washed and then conducted to the analysis of nutrients and the estimative of apparent digestibility, corrected by the recovery rate of internal markers. The accuracy was evaluated by comparing the mean bias (predicted data - observed data) between indicators; the precision by means of the square root of the prediction error and the residual error, and the robustness, by the study of regression between the bias and dry matter intake, marker intake and body weight. Observing the recovery rates (RR), it is possible to see that indigestible cellulose (CELi) and indigestible acid detergent fibre (ADFi) had better RR, since their average recovery did not differ of 100% (P>0.05). The mean bias obtained with indigestible NDF (NDFi) was not different of mean bias obtained by indigestible acid detergent lignin (ADLi). By consequence of lower RR, the markers NDFi and LDAi have negative biases and different of zero (P<0.05), showing that they are less accurate and underestimate the coefficient of DM digestibility. For precision, the variances of the biases (RQMEP2) for markers CELi and ADLi were higher than the other markers (Barllet test). There was no significant difference between the slopes of the regression of the biases of markers and the variables dry matter intake, markers intake and body weight (P>0.05). In conditions in which the work was done, it can be concluded that the most accurate indicators were ADFi and CELi followed by NDFi and ADLi. For precision, ADFi and NDFi were more precise than CELi and ADLi, and all markers were robust for dry matter intake, markers intake, and body weight.

How do people allocate responsibility for inter-racial conflict (Black vs. White) under ambiguous circumstances? We tested the hypothesis that responsibility allocation reflects people’s implicit racial bias—with greater blame allocated to the Black protagonist by observers with stronger implicit anti-Black bias—but only when they identify the conflict in low-level terms (i.e., the specific momentary actions of the individuals). When observers identify the conflict in high-level terms (e.g., the intentions of the individuals), they are conscious of their biases and can suppress them in favor of less prejudicial judgments. White and Black participants read or listened to an ambiguous inter-racial conflict narrative, then allocated responsibility for the conflict and rated the protagonists’ personalities. The results showed the defendants were rated as more responsible when rated more positively for personality and affective reaction. Methodological reasons for the direction of the relationship are discussed, as are suggestions for future research. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Previous studies suggested that the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ-10) has minimal ethnic bias and that a shorter version (FAQ-6) can equally diagnose MCI and dementia. Objective: We analyzed whether FAQ-6 is similar to FAQ-10 in diagnosing MCI and dementia. We examined their applicability across European Americans (EA) and Hispanic Americans, and how scores correlated to beta amyloid. Method: 222 participants (116 EA) completed a neuropsychological battery, FAQ, and PET scans, and were classified as cognitively normal (CN), MCI, or dementia. The diagnostic capacity of FAQ-10 and FAQ-6 were compared for the total sample and across ethnic groups. Scores were correlated to beta amyloid. Results: Both versions showed good item discrimination. Ethnicity did not affect scores when controlling for diagnosis and education. Both versions classified CN and dementia, and positively correlated to beta amyloid. Conclusions: Results suggest FAQ-6 and FAQ-10 similarly predict diagnosis and is adequate in these ethnic groups. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

O projeto descrito neste documento propõe um modelo para análise de viés em notícias, procurando identificar o viés dos meios de comunicação em relação a entidades políticas. Foram analisados três tipos de viés: o viés de seleção, que avalia o quanto uma entidade é referenciada pelo meio de comunicação; o viés de cobertura, que avalia quanto destaque é destinado a entidade e, por fim, o viés de afirmação, que avalia se estão falando mal ou bem da entidade. Para tal, foi construído um corpus de notícias sistematicamente extraídas de 5 produtores de notícias e classificadas manualmente em relação à polaridade e entidade alvo. Técnicas de análise de sentimentos baseadas em aprendizado de máquina foram validadas utilizando o corpus criado. Criou-se uma metodologia para identificação de viés, utilizando o conceito de outliers, a partir de métricas indicadoras. A partir da metodologia proposta, foi analisado o viés em relação aos candidatos ao governo de São Paulo e à presidência a partir do corpus criado, em que se identificou os três tipos de viés em dois produtores de notícias / The project described here proposes a model to study bias on newswire texts, related to political entities. Three types of bias are analysed: selection bias, which refers to the amount of times an entity is referenced by the media outlet; coverage bias, which assesses the amount of coverage given to an entity and, finally, the assertion bias, which analyses whether the news is a positive or negative report of an entity. To accomplish this, a corpus was systematically built by extracting news from 5 different newswires. These texts were manually classified according to their polarity alignment and associated entity. Sentiment Analysis techniques were applied and evaluated using the corpus. Based on the concept of outliers, a methodology for bias detection was created. Bias was analysed using the proposed methodology on the generated corpus for candidates to the government of the state of São Paulo and to presidency, being identified in two newswires for the three above-defined types

I collect data on subjects' information acquisition during real and hypothetical risky choices using process-tracing software called Mouselab. I also measure subjects' cognitive ability using the cognitive reflective test (CRT). On average, measured risk preferences are not significantly different across real and hypothetical settings. However, cognitive ability is inversely related to risk aversion when choices are hypothetical, but it is unrelated when the choices are real. This interaction between cognitive ability and hypothetical setting is consistent with the notion that some individuals, specifically higher-ability individuals, treat hypothetical choices as "puzzles" and may help explain why some studies find that subjects indicate that they are more tolerant of risk when they make hypothetical choices than when they make real choices. On average, subjects demonstrate a similar degree of consistency across settings, and there are also no significant differences across settings in the amount of time subjects take to make a choice, the amount of information they acquire, or how they distribute their attention. I also find evidence to suggest that subjects acquire information in a manner consistent with the implicit calculation of expected utility. Specifically, individuals do not merely make choices "as if" they are integrating probabilities and outcomes, it appears that they actually are. Moreover, as they progress through a series of choices in a commonly used risk preference elicitation method, their information acquisition becomes progressively more consistent with integration models. Finally, on average, individuals appear to acquire information in real and hypothetical settings in similar ways.

Estereótipos sobre as mulheres estão presentes em abundância no cotidiano da sociedade e do Judiciário. Mulheres retratadas como mentirosas, vingativas e loucas têm seus depoimentos valorizados apenas se corresponderem ao ideal de mulher honesta e se parecerem ter sido vítimas; caso contrário, com frequência - e bastante rapidez -, podem passar de vítimas a culpadas. Esses e outros estereótipos comumente associados às mulheres, como veremos, são utilizados como atalhos cognitivos no processo de tomada de decisão e atuam no sentido de tolher o acesso das mulheres à justiça, além de serem formas de violência institucional, praticadas pelo Estado e seus agentes. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho é identificar quais são os principais estereótipos que dificultam o acesso das mulheres à justiça em casos de estupro. Para tanto, analisaremos sentenças de 1º grau do Tribunal de Justiça do estado de São Paulo, do ano de 2016. Esperamos que a identificação desses estereótipos auxilie a formulação de políticas públicas que visem mitigar esses estereótipos e seus efeitos e, assim, garantir a efetividade do acesso das mulheres à justiça. / Stereotypes about women are frequent in the daily lives of society and the judiciary. Women portrayed as lying, vindictive and insane have their testimonies valued only if they correspond to the ideal of an honest woman and if they seem to have been victims; otherwise, often - and quite quickly - they can pass from victims to guilty. These and other stereotypes commonly associated with women, as we will see, are used as cognitive shortcuts in the decision-making process and act to limit women\'s access to justice, as well as being forms of institutional violence practiced by the state and its agents. In this sense, the objective of this work is to identify which are the main stereotypes that hinder women\'s access to justice in cases of rape. To do so, we will analyze first degree judgments of the Tribunal de Justiça do estado de São Paulo of the year 2016. We hope that the identification of these stereotypes will help to formulate public policies that aim to mitigate these stereotypes and their effects and thus ensure the effectiveness of women\'s access to justice.

BACKGROUND: It has been claimed that the involvement of commercial companies in medical and health research poses risks relating to potential conflicts of interest. In response, many journals have developed conflict of interest policies, and there has been a proliferation of related guidance from publishers, professional associations and commercial companies, mostly centred on processes of voluntary disclosure. Studies and commentaries on these have raised concerns regarding the adequacy of such practices, but there has been limited analysis of the underlying context – how and why policies have been constructed in this way – or exploration of alternative approaches. AIM: This thesis examines how actors within medical journal publishing conceptualise conflicts of interest. It analyses their understandings of conflicts of interest: which types of interest are deemed most significant; which actor groups are seen as conflicted; and how conflicts are managed. Through doing so, it explores the barriers to, and possibilities of, change. METHODS: The study draws on two distinct sets of data. The first is a sample of conflict of interest policies and guidance. The second is 48 semi-structured interviews with actors working in a range of roles related to medical journal publishing. These data were thematically analysed to illustrate how medical journal publishing conceptualises and manages conflicts of interest, to identify perceived strengths and weaknesses of current approaches, and to identify potential opportunities for improvement. RESULTS: There appears to be an established discourse around conflicts of interest, which emphasises particular stakeholders, while others, who also have opportunities to influence journal content, are frequently absent from the debate. Financial interests are readily highlighted, while non-financial ones receive less attention and are thus often unregulated (Chapter 5). High levels of consistency characterise the ways in which actors discussed the management of conflicts of interest: for example, self-disclosure was regularly highlighted, despite the acknowledged weaknesses of this approach (Chapter 6). The existence of further mechanisms that offer the potential to assist in managing conflicts of interest were identified, though findings suggest that, in practice, these currently have limited uptake (Chapter 7). Interviewees’ suggestions of how conflicts of interest might be better managed (e.g. through greater data transparency) are also analysed. Overall, narrow interpretations of conflicts of interest and their management appear to have become institutionalised in ways that serve to limit the uptake of alternative approaches. DISCUSSION: Given the substantive importance that medical research can have on health policies and treatments, robust processes are required to protect the integrity and legitimacy of journals. This research shows that existing, institutionalised understandings of conflicts of interest have critical limitations, which leaves medical publishing open to potentially unethical practices that may be a source of bias in published evidence. This poses a significant threat to the desire to attain ethically robust, peer-reviewed medical/health research that can be used to inform policy and practice. Drawing on the interview data, the thesis explores some possible alternatives that may warrant further consideration.

Paper 1 provides a systematic review on the association between children over-rating their competence, termed Positive Illusory Bias (PIB), and Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The evidence towards this construct was examined, in addition to its environmental specificity and modifiability. Findings confirmed an association between PIB and ADHD, with most studies evidencing higher discrepancies between self and adult ratings of competence in children with ADHD compared to controls. The nature and magnitude of this association was less clear however, with some of these studies showing absolute ratings of children to be similar to controls, and a PIB only evidenced when adults were used as objective evaluators, not actual performance. Thus the review was unable to discount the idea that the PIB may, in part, be a function of the system around children with ADHD under-estimating their abilities. Clinical implications are discussed. Paper 2 presents an investigation into the efficacy and feasibility of a metacognitive therapy technique, Attention Training (ATT) in children with ADHD. A novel intervention in this population, the study employed a single case series design, followed by an uncontrolled trial, both with a 6-week follow up. A total of 16 children aged 7-11 under the care of a children and adolescent mental health service received 5 sessions of the ATT. Findings revealed that children rated their attention as significantly improved, despite no statistical improvement found on parent ratings. Significant improvements were also shown in working memory and other aspects of executive functioning. Adherence to home practice of the ATT was generally poor, but session attendance was good and the treatment was well-liked by parents. Clinical implications and directions for future research are indicated. Paper 3 is a critical reflection of the research process. Reflections on paper 1 and 2 are given, including limitations and clinical implications. The impact of the research process on my personal development and learning is also discussed.