Developmental factors and performance in remedial courses

This study investigated the relations between various developmental factors and performance in remedial courses. The Iowa Developing Autonomy Inventory, Iowa Managing Emotions Inventory, and Iowa Developing Competency Inventory were administered to 231 students enrolled in a developmental studies program at a large state university (enrollment about 25,000). Regression analyses indicated that various developmental measures accounted for a small effect (amount of variance accounted for ranged from 2% to 7%) on performance in remedial courses. The percentage of variance accounted for by the three inventories was similar to what could be accounted for by more traditional measures of SAT scores and high-school grade point averages. The percentage of variance accounted for by traditional measures ranged from 2% to 10%.     

Maximum likelihood additivity analysis

A maximum likelihood estimation procedure was developed to fit unweighted and weighted additive models to conjoint data obtained by the categorical rating, the pair comparison or the directional ranking method. The scoring algorithm used to fit the models was found to be both reliable and efficient, and the program MAXADD is capable of handling up to 300 parameters to be estimated. Practical uses of the procedure are reported to demonstrate various advantages of the procedure as a statistical method.The research reported here was supported by Grant A6394 to the author from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Portions of this research were presented at the Psychometric Society meeting in Iowa City, Iowa, in May, 1980.Thanks are due to Jim Ramsay, Justine Sergent and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.Two MAXADD programs which perform the computations discussed in this paper may be obtained from the author.     

The pastor as genetic counselor

The pastor as pastoral counselor in the setting of the church can play an important role on a genetic team. This article explores the role the pastor plays in the definitive stage: delivery of information, educating, supporting, and counseling in human genetics. Problems that are encountered by team members, patients, and families, and dominant feelings that seem to exist in couples or individuals who discover that their children have a birth defect or that they themselve are carriers of a faulty gene are revealed and illustrated through clinical examples and interviews. Further suggestions are given on how a constructive team approach can help provide information regarding birth defects and how pastors can help and participate in this process.The Rev.M. Wayne Clark, D. Min., is a United Methodist pastor in Sidney, Iowa, and has completed Care and Counseling's two-year graduate training program for pastoral counselors in St. Louis, Missouri. He has served as a consultant to the Division of Medical Genetics at the University Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, and has worked with the staff of Regional Genetic Consultation Services of the Iowa State Department of Health. He is a member of A.A.P.C. and a clinical member of AAMFT.     

Cornell College: Program in Science and Religion

Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, has established a new interdisciplinary program in science and religion. One of the features of this program is an undergraduate major in science and religion that requires substantial course work in at least one of the natural sciences as well as course work in philosophy, religion, and history. As a result of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Cornell College will offer a special course, God and Physics: From Aquinas to Quantum Mechanics (April 1998), and will sponsor an international symposium on creation and contemporary cosmology (April 1999). Opportunities exist for interested scholars to come to Cornell as Templeton Visiting Fellows in order to participate in these activities.     

Stutterer''s scaled attitudes and their prognostic significance in therapy

Thirty individuals who manifested stuttering behavior participated in an intensive therapy program. Measures of pretherapy attitudes on the Attitude and Behavioral Observation Scale, which consists of self-evaluations of attitudes on a scale of five equal-appearing intervals and also two questionnaires, the Iowa Scale of Attitude Toward Stuttering and the Stutterer's Self-Ratings of Reactions to Speech Situations were utilized. These three scales were found to be significantly correlated. A difference score from the Motor Performance Scale, a speech proficiency scale of one to five was completed at pre- and posttherapy, as a measure of the client's success from therapy. Generally, pretherapy attitudes did not correlate significantly with success from therapy.     

风险取向类型与爱荷华赌博任务成绩的影响

神经科学领域的研究者们设计了测量情感决策的经典爱荷华赌博任务并提出了体细胞标记假说来解释其研究结果,但迄今为止这一假说还没有得到一致认可。许多研究提出了可能影响爱荷华赌博任务成绩的其他因素。本研究试图在前人研究的基础上采用实验法探讨风险取向类型这一人格因素是否影响正常个体的爱荷华赌博任务成绩。实验结果显示,不同风险取向类型的个体在爱荷华赌博任务中的成绩和表现截然不同。典型风险趋向型个体在爱荷华赌博任务中的表现类似于某些神经系统患者,倾向于更多地选择不利纸牌,其任务成绩显著差于典型风险回避型个体。这一研究结果表明：风险取向类型是影响正常个体爱荷华赌博任务成绩的重要因素之一。     

The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station and the 1940 debate on intelligence: Carrying on the legacy of a concerned mother

During the late 1930s and early 1940s the nature-nurture issue regarding intelligence generated considerable controversy. The focus of attention for this debate was the Thirty-Ninth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, published in 1940. The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station played a prominent role in this debate. The Iowa researchers, led by George D. Stoddard and Beth L. Wellman, advocated an environmentalist position which challenged the more established hereditarian position held by Lewis M. Terman and his research associates. The Iowa position was closely related to the institutional context of the Child Welfare Research Station.     

Evaluating the Iowa Gambling Task as a direct assessment of impulsivity with low-income children

This study examined performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994) as a measure of low-income school-aged children’s affective decision-making and considered its utility as a direct indicator of impulsivity. One hundred and ninety-three 8–11 year olds performed a computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task, a validated measure of decision-making. Multi-level modeling was used to examine children’s performance over the course of the task, with age, gender, and teachers’ ratings of child impulsivity (BIS-11; Patton, Stanford, & Barratt, 1995) used to predict children’s Iowa Gambling performance. Higher impulsivity scores predicted a decrease in slope of Iowa Gambling performance, indicating students rated higher on impulsivity chose more disadvantageously across the task blocks. Results support evidence of the validity of the Iowa Gambling Task as a measure of impulsivity in low-income minority children.     

Relations among scores on Matrix Analogies Test, Draw-A-Person, and the Iowa Tests of basic skills for low socioeconomic children

82 normal Grade 4 students of low socioeconomic status were administered the Matrix Analogies Test, Draw-A-Person Test, and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. The partial correlation coefficient between the Matrix Analogies Test and the Iowa Tests was .51 while that between the Draw-A-Person Test and the Iowa Tests was .30. The correlation coefficient between the Matrix Analogies Test and the Draw-A-Person Test was .32. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Prediction of Future Outcomes Among OASI Referrals Using NMZ Scores

Using samples from Iowa OASI sub-populations, the relationships between NMZ scores and the criteria of acceptance for services by the Iowa DVR as well as future rehabilitation of clients were examined. The results suggest that (a) the relationship of NMZ scores to the acceptance criterion is low; (b) the relationship of NMZ scores to the more ultimate criterion of client rehabilitation is moderate, and, here, empirical weights appear to work better than the intuitive weights assigned in the original development of NMZ scores; (c) through empirical weighting, the variable of age was revealed as most important in predicting such criteria.     

The Initial Efficacy of Stand-Alone DBT Skills Training for Treating Impulsivity Among Individuals With Alcohol and Other Substance Use Disorders

Impulsivity is considered a core feature of substance use disorders (SUDs), including personological (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation) and neuropsychological (i.e., cognitive and motor disinhibition, impulsive choice) dimensions. Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training (DBT-ST) as a stand-alone treatment is an effective intervention for alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other SUDs. However, there are no studies that have investigated changes in impulsivity levels during a DBT-ST program, especially testing the therapeutic effects of DBT skills. Twenty-nine patients with AUD and other SUDs were admitted to a 3-month DBT-ST program. Self-report (i.e., UPPS-P) and computerized neuropsychological (i.e., Attentional Network test; Go/No-Go task; Iowa Gambling Task) measures of impulsivity were administered at the beginning and end of the DBT-ST. Distress tolerance (DTS), mindfulness (MAAS, FFMQ) and emotion regulation (DERS) were also assessed pre- and post-intervention. The study included two age- and gender-matched control groups: (a) untreated patients with SUDs (N = 29); (b) healthy controls (HCs) (N = 29). Twenty-four (82.7%) patients concluded the DBT-ST program. Emotion-based forms of impulsivity significantly improved during the program. At the end of treatment, impulsivity levels were significantly lower than those of untreated patients with SUDs and they were not significantly different from HCs. Cognitive disinhibition significantly decreased during the treatment. The improvement in impulsivity was explained by pre- posttreatment changes in distress tolerance, mindfulness and emotion regulation. Motor disinhibition did not improve during the treatment. These findings supported the initial efficacy of the DBT-ST program for addressing different features of impulsivity among individuals with AUD and other SUDs. Future follow-up studies should demonstrate the role of impulsivity domains in long-term relapse prevention.     

Woman and athlete: Toward role consistency

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of a general population toward female participation in sports and to replicate a previous study. The two areas investigated were (1) the perception of enhancement or detraction of femininity by girls' participation in athletics, and (2) whether different sports elicited different attitudes towards female participation in athletics. A town in Iowa was sampled. The results indicated that, in general, participation in sports neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. Furthermore, most of the people wanted their daughters to play basketball, even though it neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. The data suggest that traditional, rigid sex-role stereotypes were transcended and the opportunity set was dominant.This study was partially funded by a grant from the University of Iowa Graduate School. Appreciation is expressed to Dr. Eldon Snyder for graciously sharing his instrument and recent work.     

A woman's struggle in academic psychology (1936-2001)

Tracy S. Kendler's strong desire to get a college education had to overcome economic hardships of the Great Depression and a mother's conviction that finding a suitable husband was more important. Solomon Asch at Brooklyn College, by scholarly example, encouraged her to seek a career in psychology. At the University of Iowa she studied with both Kurt Lewin and Kenneth Spence and finally opted to conduct a research program, ultimately on cognitive development, within a neobehavioristic methodological orientation. Being married to academic psychologist Howard H. Kendler, and a mother of 2 sons, created problems in fashioning an independent academic career, but persistence and research productivity, sometimes a result of collaborative efforts with her husband, finally led to a distinguished career.     

Direct versus indirect emotional consequences on the Iowa Gambling Task

The Iowa Gambling Task has been widely used in the assessment of neurological patients with ventro-mesial frontal lesions. The Iowa Group has claimed that the Gambling Task is too complex for participants to follow using cognition alone, so that participants must rely on emotion-based learning systems (somatic markers). The present study investigates whether similar tasks can be performed without direct somatic markers. In a 'Firefighter' task closely matched to the classic Gambling Task, participants evaluate the performance of others--so that they experience reward and punishment indirectly. In contrast to the gradual improvement in performance seen on the classic Iowa Gambling Task, participants on the Firefighter Task showed no learning effect, mirroring the performance of patients with ventro-mesial frontal lesions, and suggesting that the task is very difficult to perform without direct somatic marker information. The use of this task as empirical measure of 'empathy' are discussed.     

Robustness of the maximum-likelihood estimation procedure in factor analysis

In order to determine the robustness of the maximum-likelihood estimation procedure, random variates from six distributions were generated independently on a high speed computer and then used to represent the common and specific factors in a factor analysis model in which the coefficients of these factors had been specified. Using Lawley's approximatex ² statistic in evaluating the estimates obtained, the estimation procedure is found to be insensitive to changes in the distributions considered.This study was conducted while the authors were members of the Statistical Laboratory at Iowa State University. All computations were done at Iowa State on an IBM 7074.     

Emotion-based learning on a simplified card game: the Iowa and Bangor Gambling Tasks

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has been widely used in the assessment of neurological patients with frontal lesions. Emphasis has been placed on the complexity of the task (i.e., four decks of varying contingency pattern) with the suggestion that the participant must use emotion-based learning to deal with a complex decision-making process. The present study used a single deck card game (the Bangor Gambling Task, BGT), matched in many respects with the Iowa Gambling Task, in which the contingencies varied over time (gradually becoming worse for the participant) rather than across deck (as in the IGT). Forty participants performed both tasks. Performance on the tasks showed many similarities, with participants showing a comparable pattern of incremental learning on both tasks, reaching an analogous final level of performance. More importantly, there was a high correlation (r(2) = .93) in performance between the two tasks, the most salient feature of which was that virtually every participant who fell below categorisation of impaired IGT performance, also did very poorly on the BGT. These findings bear on the question of whether arguments about the 'complexity' of the Iowa Gambling Task necessarily explain why it appears to require emotion-based learning. The Bangor Gambling Task might also be a useful tool for clinical neuropsychologists, in the assessment of patients with executive dysfunction-given that the task is easier and quicker to administer than the Iowa Gambling Task, but appears to share the same performance features.     

The estimation of true score variance and error variance in the classical test theory model

The use of one-way analysis of variance tables for obtaining unbiased estimates of true score variance and error score variance in the classical test theory model is discussed. Attention is paid to both balanced (equal numbers of observations on each person) and unbalanced designs, and estimates provided for both homoscedastic (common error variance for all persons) and heteroscedastic cases. It is noted that optimality properties (minimum variance) can be claimed for estimates derived from analysis of variance tables only in the balanced, homoscedastic case, and that there they are essentially a reflection of the symmetry inherent in the situation. Estimates which might be preferable in other cases are discussed. An example is given where a natural analysis of variance table leads to estimates which cannot be derived from the set of statistics which is sufficient under normality assumptions. Reference is made to Bayesian studies which shed light on the difficulties encountered. Work on this paper was carried out at the headquarters of the American College Testing Program, Iowa City, Iowa, while the author was on leave from the University College of Wales.