1,721,027 research outputs found
Analisi comparata di tematismi e sotto categorie di analisi per i principali indicatori statistici nel turismo
No full textAccording to scientific literature, there is a gap in the statistical analysis of tourism due to missing data or poorly structured statistical information production services. This information, which can be classified as public goods, is currently managed by the public sector and national statistical systems. This article aims to deepen, in the literature, the main dimensions for the analysis of tourism divided into themes and subcategories. Through the use of the analysis methodology with the Leximancer software, content analysis was carried out on 202 scientific articles extracted from international literature through a selection of keywords of over 700 terms. The study returns to the thematic dimensions most frequently dealt with by the scientific literature, showing the principal themes used, the subcategories, and the relationships between them. Finally, the article shows how statistical information in tourism is anchored only to a few families of statistical macro-indicators and how more complex and articulated systems of monitoring, analysis and forecasting of tourism are needed, providing for more effective, efficient tourism policies that can plan and ensure sustainable development and growth plans
On the necessary and sufficient conditions for delineating forward- and backward-graded knowledge structures from skill maps
No full textIn recent years two classes of knowledge structures received particular attention. They are, respectively, forward-graded and backward-graded knowledge structures. Their importance is related to the fact that the basic local independence model applied to such structures turns out to be locally unidentifiable. Spoto et al. (2012) established some sufficient conditions for a skill multimap to delineate forward- and/or backward graded knowledge structures. Drawing upon some of the theoretical results contained in that article, the present theoretical note aims at providing necessary and sufficient conditions for a skill map to delineate a forward- and/or backward graded knowledge structure
Should we worry about how we measure worry? Insights from an updated version of the Italian Penn State Worry Questionnaire
Full text linkBackground: Research indicates a rise in self-reported worry, highlighting the need for updated psychometric tools. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) assesses excessive worry and there is debate over whether only its 11 positively worded items should be used. This study aimed to clarify the factor structure and psychometric properties of the PSWQ and to explore worry features in two diverse Italian community samples from the 2010s and 2020s. Methods: The 2020s sample included 674 participants (44.5 % female; Mage = 29.44 ± 13.20), while the 2010s sample comprised 411 individuals (61.6 % female; Mage = 36.64 ± 13.73). Methods from Classical Test Theory (CTT) were used to compare alternative PSWQ factor structures, assess the best-fitting model's reliability and validity, and evaluate measurement invariance (MI) across sexes in the 2020s sample. Item Response Theory (IRT) was applied to refine and confirm the best-fitting factor structure and to compare item and individual locations across samples. Results: The 11-item one-factor model was the best fit and it showed excellent reliability and concurrent validity. MI across sexes was supported. IRT analyses suggested that items were slightly more difficult for the 2010s sample. Conclusions: The PSWQ-11 is a valid and reliable tool for assessing worry in the Italian community. The findings suggest that societal issues as well as socio-demographic characteristics may contribute shaping differences in worry features across diverse historical contexts
BLIM's identifiability and parameter invariance under backward and forward transformations
No full textThe basic local independence model (BLIM) is one of the most widely applied probabilistic models in knowledge space theory. It is known that the BLIM is not identifiable in general and that its identifiability strictly depends on the properties of the knowledge structure to which it is applied. If the knowledge structure is either forward- or backward-graded in one or more items, then the BLIM is not identifiable. In such cases, there exist continuous transformations of the model's parameters, named forward and backward transformations, that keep constant the value of the model's prediction function. Under certain constraints on the model's parameters, some of the transformations might lose this property. The type of constraints considered in this article consist of fixing the probability of a knowledge state to a constant value. The theoretical results contained in the article shed light on the role of the different state probabilities in reducing the collection of transformations and thus restoring the identifiability of the model's parameters
Social Network Analysis: A brief theoretical review and further perspectives in the study of Information Technology
No full textRefining Constructivist Assessment. How to Measure the Main Traditional Indexes in Binary Grids through Formal Concept Analysis
No full textThis paper aims to expand knowledge on the application of formal concept analysis, a mathematical theory, to the elaboration of a repertory grid, which is a method designed for exploring the structure and content of a respondent’s system of constructs. After a critical reexamination of the ways in which the commonly used statistical procedures for the analysis of repertory grids can affect data analysis, we revisit an alternative methodology that is more consistent with both personal construct theory and measurement properties of the variables collected by means of repertory grids. We use a classic example of repertory grid technique and describe it according to both traditional analysis and the alternative methodology. This comparison is aimed at displaying how formal concept analysis applied to repertory grids can provide all the main measures and cognitive indexes that are included in traditional repertory grid analysis. We then provide further evidence to highlight how this proposal can be used to collect more consistent and detailed information from repertory grids, thus preserving the nature of the respondents’ data
Assessing Discriminant Validity through Structural Equation Modeling: The Case of Eating Compulsivity
Full text linkFood addiction (FA) and disordered eating behaviors related to obesity are gaining attention in clinical and research fields. The modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (mYFAS2.0) is the gold standard questionnaire to measure FA, while another tool is the Measure of Eating Compulsivity 10 (MEC10). Discriminant validity is present when two measures of similar but distinct constructs show a correlation that is low enough for the factors to be regarded as distinct. However, the discriminant validity of these measures has never been tested. Through a cross-sectional study design, 717 inpatients (females: 56.20%, age: 53.681 ± 12.74) with severe obesity completed the MEC10, Binge Eating Scale (BES), and mYFAS2.0. A structural equation model (SEM) was fitted, freely estimating latent correlations with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). The results confirmed the scales’ excellent psychometric properties. Importantly, latent factor correlations between MEC10 and mYFAS2.0 (est = 0.783, 95% CI [0.76, 0.80]) supported their discriminant validity. In contrast, the latent correlation of MEC10 and BES (est = 0.86, 95% CI [0.84, 0.87]) exceeded the recommended thresholds, indicating the absence of discriminant validity and suggesting a potential overlap, consistent with previous evidence. In conclusion, MEC10 demonstrates excellent psychometric properties but is more a measure of BED and not FA
Investigating acoustic numerosity illusions in professional musicians
Full text linkVarious studies have reported an association between musical expertise and enhanced visuospatial and mathematical abilities. A recent work tested the susceptibility of musicians and nonmusicians to the Solitaire numerosity illusion finding that also perceptual biases underlying numerical estimation are influenced by long-term music training. However, the potential link between musical expertise and different perceptual mechanisms of quantitative estimation may be either limited to the visual modality or universal (i.e., modality independent). We addressed this question by developing an acoustic version of the Solitaire illusion. Professional musicians and nonmusicians listened to audio file recordings of piano and trombone notes and were required to estimate the number of piano notes. The stimuli were arranged to form test trials, with piano and trombone notes arranged in a way to form the Solitaire pattern, and control trials, with randomly located notes to assess their quantitative abilities in the acoustic modality. In the control trials, musicians were more accurate in numerical estimation than nonmusicians. In the presence of illusory patterns, nonmusicians differed from musicians in the esteem of regularly arranged vs. randomly arranged notes. This suggests that the association between long-term musical training and different perceptual mechanisms underlying numerical estimation may not be confined to the visual modality. However, neither musicians nor nonmusicians seemed to be susceptible to the acoustic version of the Solitaire illusion, suggesting that the emergence of this illusion may be stimulus and task-dependent
Empirical indistinguishability: From the knowledge structure to the skills
Full text linkRecent literature has pointed out that the basic local independence model (BLIM) when applied to some specific instances of knowledge structures presents identifiability issues. Furthermore, it has been shown that for such instances the model presents a stronger form of unidentifiability named empirical indistinguishability, which leads to the fact that the existence of certain knowledge states in such structures cannot be empirically tested. In this article the notion of indistinguishability is extended to skill maps and, more generally, to the competence-based knowledge space theory. Theoretical results are provided showing that skill maps can be empirically indistinguishable from one another. The most relevant consequence of this is that for some skills there is no empirical evidence to establish their existence. This result is strictly related to the type of probabilistic model investigated, which is essentially the BLIM. Alternative models may exist or can be developed in knowledge space theory for which this indistinguishability problem disappears
On the empirical indistinguishability of knowledge structures
No full textIn recent years a number of articles have focused on the identifiability of the basic local independence model. The identifiability issue usually concerns two model parameter sets predicting an identical probability distribution on the response patterns. Both parameter sets are applied to the same knowledge structure. However, nothing is known about cases where different knowledge structures predict the same probability distribution. This situation is referred to as ʻempirical indistinguishabilityʼ between two structures and is the main subject of the present paper. Empirical indistinguishability is a stronger form of unidentifiability, which involves not only the parameters, but also the structural and combinatorial properties of the model. In particular, as far as knowledge structures are concerned, a consequence of empirical indistinguishability is that the existence of certain knowledge states cannot be empirically established. Most importantly, it is shown that model identifiability cannot guarantee that a certain knowledge structure is empirically distinguishable from others. The theoretical findings are exemplified in a number of different empirical scenarios
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