Content validity is defined as the degree to which elements of an assessment instrument are relevant to and representative of the target construct. The available methods for content validity evaluation typically focus on the extent to which a set of items are relevant to the target construct, but do not afford precise evaluation of items' behavior, nor their exhaustiveness with respect to the elements of the target construct. Formal content validity analysis (FCVA) is a new procedure combining methods and techniques from various areas of psychological assessment, such as (a) constructing Boolean classification matrices to formalize relationships among an assessment instrument's items and target construct elements, and (b) computing interrater agreement indices. We discuss how FCVA can be extended through the implementation of a Bayesian procedure to improve the interrater agreement indices' accuracy (Bayesian formal content validity analysis [B-FCVA]). With respect to extant methods, FCVA and B-FCVA can provide a great amount of information about content validity while not demanding much more work for authors and experts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

According to the spatial–temporal association of response codes (STEARC) effect, time can be spatially represented from left to right. However, exploration of a possible STEARC effect along the vertical axis has yielded mixed results. Here, in six experiments based on a novel paradigm, we systematically explored whether a STEARC effect could emerge when participants were asked to classify the actual temporal duration of a visual stimulus. Speeded manual responses were provided using a vertically oriented response box. Interestingly, although a top-to-bottom time representation emerged when only two temporal durations were employed, an inverted bottom-to-top time representation emerged when a denser set of temporal durations, arranged along a continuum, was used. Moreover, no STEARC effects emerged when participants classified the shapes of visual stimuli rather than their temporal duration. Finally, three additional experiments explored the STEARC effect along the horizontal axis, confirming that the paradigm we devised successfully replicated the standard left-to-right representation of time. These results provide supporting evidence for the notion that temporal durations can be mapped along the vertical axis, and that such mapping appears to be relatively flexible.

This review article explores the foundation of laypeople’s understanding of the physical world rooted in perceptual experience. Beginning with a concise historical overview of the study of intuitive physics, the article presents the hypothesis that laypeople possess accurate internalized representations of physical laws. A key aspect of this hypothesis is the contention that correct representations of physical laws emerge in ecological experimental conditions, where the scenario being examined resembles everyday life experiences. The article critically examines empirical evidence both supporting and challenging this claim, revealing that despite everyday-life-like conditions, fundamental misconceptions often persist. Many of these misconceptions can be attributed to a domain-general heuristic that arises from the overgeneralization of perceptual-motor experiences with physical objects. To conclude, the article delves into ongoing controversies and highlights promising future avenues in the field of intuitive physics, including action–judgment dissociations, insights from developmental psychology, and computational models integrating artificial intelligence.