Educational Interpreters and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Kruger and Dunning (1999) found the least skilled individuals significantly overestimate their performance. However, as individuals increase their awareness their skills their predictions also become more accurate – the Dunning-Kruger Effect. This study examined the ability of educational interpreters working in public schools to predict their scores on the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA) a measure of interpreting skills. Findings indicate interpreters experience a Dunning-Kruger Effect in that the least skilled interpreters overestimate their interpreting skills, whereas better interpreters underestimate their interpreting skills. These findings raise important questions about whether lesser skilled educational interpreters are able to adhere to ethical requirements of only accepting assignments they are qualified for, if they are prone to overestimate their skills

The Capability to Align Estimated Performance with Actual Performance: Insights from Physical & Cognitive Performance Contexts

Discrepancies between estimated and actual performance occur daily in both normative and performance based tasks. This is synonymous with a type of cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect (DKE). In this thesis, Chapter 2 examined the existing literature on estimation and performance alignment and DKEs using systematic and meta-analytical procedures. Findings identified a small-moderate correlation in the ability to align estimation with actual performance. In DKE terms, quartile 1 performers overestimated, while quartile 4 underestimated. Alignment correlations were also found to be moderated by methodological and task factors, but not participant characteristics. Chapter 3 assessed DKE prevalence and whether sporting experience, the time point of estimation, and reference group moderated trends in the physical tasks of Sprint and Vertical Jump. Notwithstanding DKE presence, trends were affected by time point of estimation. Estimation error was not related to current or previous sporting experience in either task. Chapter 4 examined DKEs in the cognitive contexts of the Stroop and Tower of Hanoi tasks, and assessed whether estimation error was moderated by time point of estimation, reference group, task difficulty, feedback, and efficacy. For both tasks, pre-task efficacy predicted estimation error, and time point of estimation affected estimation, with increases and decreases post-task in the Stroop and Tower of Hanoi respectively. Together, findings highlight DKE prevalence in multiple task contexts. DKE trends were moderated by task and methodological characteristics. Underlying mechanisms appear to implicate metacognitive skill as well as chronic-self views and pre-task efficacy. Increasing metacognitive skill and performance feedback is identified as a key strategy for error prevention and mitigation. Identifying DKE consequences and interventions that improve estimation-performance alignment are important future directions

Metacognition Moderates Math Anxiety and Affects Performance on a Math Task

Math anxiety is a general fear or tension associated with thinking about or engaging in tasks requiring mathematical computations or interpretations. Past research paid little attention to the role of metacognition. It was expected that metacognition would moderate the effects of math anxiety such that performance, reaction time, and confidence would decrease as anxiety levels increased. Participants completed a math anxiety scale, a modular arithmetic task, and a state metacognition scale. Participants also provided information regarding their confidence in how well they answered each math question correctly as well as their estimation of their overall performance. As expected, metacognition moderated math anxiety and predicted that performance would decrease as anxiety increased, except at high metacognition levels. Further, metacognition predicted confidence in accuracy such that individuals with high metacognitive ability were more confident in their ability to correctly answer the problems. This study supports and extends past research findings on the importance of metacognitive processes (evaluation, monitoring, checking, and planning behaviors) and their interaction with anxiety

Towards a Theory of Software Development Expertise

Software development includes diverse tasks such as implementing new features, analyzing requirements, and fixing bugs. Being an expert in those tasks requires a certain set of skills, knowledge, and experience. Several studies investigated individual aspects of software development expertise, but what is missing is a comprehensive theory. We present a first conceptual theory of software development expertise that is grounded in data from a mixed-methods survey with 335 software developers and in literature on expertise and expert performance. Our theory currently focuses on programming, but already provides valuable insights for researchers, developers, and employers. The theory describes important properties of software development expertise and which factors foster or hinder its formation, including how developers' performance may decline over time. Moreover, our quantitative results show that developers' expertise self-assessments are context-dependent and that experience is not necessarily related to expertise.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 26th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE 2018), ACM, 201

ESSAYS ON RATIONAL INATTENTION IN INDIVIDUAL AND STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

Chapter 1 revisits the model of adverse selection under asymmetric information with the power of the rational inattention framework. I depart from the setup of Akerlof (1970) by revising its extreme information asymmetry assumption. Instead of assuming that the Seller is fully informed and the Buyer is fully uninformed, I consider a setting in which both parties areable to gather information, but at a cost. As a result, both the Seller and the Buyer become partially informed, and the information asymmetry is the consequence of the asymmetry in their incentives and unit information costs. This enhanced framework provides new insights into the implications of incomplete information for market outcomes, efficiency and welfare. When information asymmetries occur endogenously, they do not lead to market collapse, but they do create market inefficiencies. The Buyer is better off and the Seller is worse off compared to the efficient symmetric information benchmark. In Chapter 2, I propose a model that explains the evolution of overconfidence as being a result of the constrained utility-maximizing problem of a decision maker who is rationally inattentive to information, but at the same time biased towards more optimistic subjective beliefs.Empirical studies have shown that individuals with initially fewer skills have more confidence, but as their skill level increases, their overconfidence decreases. The phenomenon is well-known as the Dunning-Kruger effect in the psychology literature. I explain this effect by the simultaneous choice of subjective and objective information. In my model a non-materialistic utility component induces overly optimistic subjective beliefs, which are constrained by the cost of information distortion. The setup is tractable in a range of economic problems. Chapter 3 utilizes the Model of Overconfidence from Chapter 2 in an application which explains the excess entry and high drop out rate of entrepreneurs. In this setting I show that in the presence of overconfidence individuals enter businesses with lower than necessary skill levels to succeed. At the same time, they drop out due to underperforming even when their skill levels would be adequate to stay in, were they not overconfident. The gap between skill thresholds for entry and drop out results in the high failure rate of businesses

EXAMINING MANAGERIAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR, PERCEIVED PROXIMITY, AND JOB SATISFACTION IN DISTRIBUTED WORK ARRANGEMENTS

More than 70% of all employers and managers utilize flexible or distributed work arrangements (Greenfield, 2017; World at work, 2017). Yet, it appears that few organizations are prepared to manage the relationship elements that come with a distributed workforce (Boss, 2017; Miller & Campell, 2013). Using structural equation modeling and data from 838 participants, the study examined the relationship between managerial behavior, perceived proximity, and job satisfaction within organizations that utilize distributed work. The results indicate that managerial behavior has a positive relationship with perceived proximity and employee job satisfaction and supports previous literature showing perceived proximity to be more reliable than objective physical distance when evaluating relationship outcomes

Global and Criteria Based Judgments of an Undergraduate Exit Writing Examination

The effect of a calibration strategy requiring students to predict and postdict their scores on a writing exam was investigated. The utility of rubric-referenced calibration and the interaction between achievement and self-efficacy on calibration accuracy were also explored. Five hundred ninety six undergraduate students enrolled in an urban, comprehensive, public university participated. Students were assigned to one of three calibration conditions: (1) a global condition (overall judgments only), (2) a global and criteria condition (a general rubric), or (3) a global and detailed criteria condition (a detailed rubric). Students in all three conditions provided global calibrations before and after the exam. Students also completed the Writing Self-Regulatory Efficacy Scale. Neither calibration condition alone nor self-efficacy alone was found to effect calibration accuracy. Calibration condition and SAT critical reading achievement were found to be significant for predictive accuracy in organization and development and analysis only. Calibration condition and global writing scores interacted to significantly effect prediction and postdiction accuracy in sentence structure, as well as prediction accuracy - in grammar, diction, and mechanics. Higher achieving students in all three conditions were more accurate than lower achieving students. Additional research is needed to fully examine the relationships among calibration accuracy, achievement, self-efficacy and specific writing criteria

Relationship Between Race, Gender, and Elder Abuse Awareness

Lack of elder abuse awareness and underreporting is an increasing problem in the United States in that only 1 in 14 cases of elder abuse is reported. The failure to report incidents of elder abuse and suspected elder abuse allows further abuse of elders and for elder abusers to go unpunished. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to understand the relationship between race, gender, and elder abuse awareness and fill the gap in elder abuse literature. Research questions tested mean differences between race and gender, respectively, and elder abuse awareness. The theoretical frameworks for this study were the social cognitive theory, self-perception theory, and Dunning Kruger Effect. The study included a convenience sample of 75 federal corrections retirees with diverse educational and professional backgrounds living in the United States. Data were collected using an online survey that ascertained the respondents\u27 attitudes toward elder abuse and knowledge of elder abuse laws. Independent samples t tests were performed to test the mean differences of elder abuse awareness between different races and genders. Results of the study revealed African Americans have a statistically significant higher mean than Caucasians. However, there was not a statistically significant mean difference between males and females, respectively, and elder abuse awareness. The implications for social change include aiding public and private sector elder abuse prevention advocates adopt programs and policies that will increase elder abuse awareness campaigns, increase elder abuse reporting behavior of different races and genders, and prevent deaths resulting from a lack of elder abuse awareness