Relationship of quantitative EEG and cognitive test performance in patients with cardiac valvular disease

The relationship between computerized quantitative EEG (QEEG) and intellectual, memory and psychornotor test performance was studied in a series of 52 patients suffering from a cardiac valvular disease. After controlling the effect of age, several signifcant positive correlations were found between verbal intellectual and memory performances and the alpha mean frequency, as well as the total mean frequency of the EEG activity. Non-verbal performances were more closely related to age than to brain electrical activity. Of the single test, Vocabulary had the closest connection with the QEEG parameters. No lateral asymmetry was foundin the QEEG—test performance correlations. The alpha mean frequency appeared most promising in studying the QEEG—intelligence relationships.     

The role of domain-specific practice, handedness, and starting age in chess

The respective roles of the environment and innate talent have been a recurrent question for research into expertise. The authors investigated markers of talent, environment, and critical period for the acquisition of expert performance in chess. Argentinian chess players (N = 104), ranging from weak amateurs to grandmasters, completed a questionnaire measuring variables including individual and group practice, starting age, and handedness. The study reaffirms the importance of practice for reaching high levels of performance, but it also indicates a large variability: The slower player needed 8 times as much practice to reach master level than the faster player. Additional results show a correlation between skill and starting age and indicate that players are more likely to be mixed-handed than individuals in the general population; however, there was no correlation between handedness and skill within the sample of chess players. Together, these results suggest that practice is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the acquisition of expertise, that some additional factors may differentiate chessplayers and nonchessplayers, and that starting age of practice is important.     

Influence of articulation rate on two memory tasks in young and older adults

This study investigated the relation between phonological loop functioning and age. Phonological loop is a time-based subsystem of the Working Memory Model of Baddeley and Wilson, which uses rehearsal of information as an active process to avoid phonological decay. Performance differences were examined between young and older adults in two speech-based memory tasks, such as the immediate serial recall of words and the Digit Ordering Task. Analysis showed that performance on both tasks was lower for the older group. Articulation rate was also measured to test the hypothesis that the impairment of some cognitive functions in adults can be associated to their slowness or the greater time needed by older adults for the rehearsal process. A significant negative correlation was found for articulation rate with age. When the effect of articulation rate on Serial Recall and Digit Ordering Tasks was partialled out, the difference between the two groups was eliminated.     

Investigation of the Relationship Between Anxiety Levels of Patients Before Plastic Surgery Operation and Worship Practices in Muslims

There is an increasing interest in the effects of preoperative anxiety on the course and outcomes of surgical treatments and also in the studies about the anxiety-decreasing interventions. The present study aims to identify the relationship between the preoperative anxiety level of the individuals prior to aesthetic surgery operations such as nose, ear, eyelid, and mammoplasty and religious rituals such as performing prayers, fasting, and going to pilgrimage. The frequency of performing the religious rituals was identified through a questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions about the religious rituals such as performing prayers, going to a pilgrimage, and fasting as well as questions about sociodemographic features such as gender, age, and education level of the patients. Preoperative anxiety level was measured using the “Anxiety Specific to Surgery Questionnaire.” The nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test was used for the scale score comparisons of the two independent groups. The scale score comparisons of more than two groups were performed using the Kruskal–Wallis test. The relationships between age and scale scores were analyzed using the Spearman’s correlation coefficient. The study involved 117 patients who were planned to undergo an aesthetic surgery operation. The scale scores were significantly different according to the pilgrimage groups (p = 0.004). The scale scores were significantly different according to the level of fasting (p = 0.022). No significant differences were found between the scales scores of the groups who reported the frequency of performing prayer as never, sometimes or five times (p = 0.515). In conclusion, the present study found that Muslim people who performed religious rituals more often experienced less preoperative anxiety levels in plastic surgeries, which indicates that the belief level is an effective factor in preoperative anxiety levels. The findings of the present study indicate that patients’ beliefs and worship practices should be taken into consideration by doctors, operating room personnel, and even all health workers in order to decrease the anxiety levels of patients who will undergo surgery.

     

幼儿心理理论与情绪理解发展及关系的研究

本研究采用横断设计,以北京市某幼儿园大、中、小班共98名幼儿为被试,通过对其心理理论、情绪理解及语言能力的测试,考察幼儿心理理论和情绪理解的发展状况以及二者之间的关系。研究结果表明：(1)幼儿的心理理论和情绪理解在3～5岁期间发生了巨大的变化,在5岁的时候大多数的幼儿已经基本上具备了心理理论和情绪理解的能力,4岁是幼儿心理理论和情绪理解能力发展的关键年龄;(2)幼儿的心理理论和情绪理解的相关显著,即使在控制了语言和年龄的影响后,心理理论能力仍然和情绪理解能力在总体上相关显著;(3)在排除了语言和年龄的影响后,对他人错误信念的理解能力和情绪观点采择能力的相关也仍然显著。     

Childhood and adult behavior disorder: Some experimental comparisons

Seventy-six children with diagnoses of behavior disorder were tested with a motor conditional reflex test and a word association test. Essentially no differences were found when test performance was compared with that of 142 normal controls. When the diagnoses were divided into neuroses, adjustment reaction of childhood, and personality disorder, none of these subgroups showed any distinctive difference. Experimental differences between clinically excitatory and inhibitory types could not be established. The Russian reports about abnormal basic Pavlovian parameters could not be confirmed. In adult behavior disorder marked disturbances of functions are found. It is suggested that the worse prognosis in adult neurotic conditions is related to such pathophysiological factors as passive inhibition, weakness of active inhibition, inertness and complex structures with pathological excitation and inertia.     

Fitness to drive following cerebral pathology: The Rookwood Driving Battery as a tool for predicting on‐road driving performance

The use of neuropsychological testing to determine fitness to drive in people with neuropathology is likely to be an increasingly attractive alternative to on‐road testing for many candidates for assessment. The Rookwood Driving Battery has been shown to have good predictive value for determining some who are likely to fail an on‐road test in early studies. This study replicated earlier research by examining the predictive value and theoretical validity of the battery on a larger sample of 391 participants, as well as extending earlier analysis by examining the effect of older age (over 70 years) and the interaction between age and pathology on battery and on‐road performance. The battery demonstrated good positive and negative predictive values for predicting on‐road performance. There were significant effects of older age on both the Rookwood Battery performance and the on‐road test, with older adults performing significantly poorer on both. There was no interaction between age and pathology on the Rookwood Battery but on‐road age interacted with some pathologies to produce significantly poorer performances. Furthermore, correlation and regression analysis indicate that the battery is a powerful instrument that encompasses tests of core neuropsychological functions needed for driving.     

Factors influencing school achievement of children from low socioeconomic groups in Malaysia(1)

A general model is proposed relating the social and nutritional factors involved in school performance of children from poor socio-economic backgrounds. The model has been tested in a group of 263 primary school children who came from mainly lower-class families in Malaysia. School performance was assessed by the mark in a national school examination; the factors considered were race, sex, type of school attended, nutritional status and score in the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Man test, and also the family size, income and education of parents. Multiple linear regression and extended median test were used in the analysis. There were strong associations between poor school performance on the one hand and nutritional and socio-economic conditions on the other. However, detailed analysis showed that, for most sub-groups, nutritional status was not a direct causal factor in school performance. Both nutrition and school achievement reflected home circumstances, particularly family income. There were however significant differences among children of different races. Many of the pathways on the general model have been shown to be irrelevant in this group of children; those pathways which remain are likely to be causal. The Goodenough-Harris test showed highly significant differences between children of different ethnic groups. The general model seems justified as a framework for investigating school performance. It has been shown that simple correlation between factors is not a good guide to cause-and-effect relationships. Each deprived group is likely to have its own significant pathways, so that each group should be analysed rather than applying generalisations derived from other populations.     

Visual spatial perception and paternal deprivation

College men and women who were father deprived for at least 1 year from birth to 18 years of age or non-deprived were compared on the Spatial Relations Test of the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT), the Identical Blocks Test (IBT) and the Water Level Test (WLT). There was a significant sex difference favoring men—as expected—on the IBT and WLT but not on the DAT. There was no significant effect of father deprivation on the mean performance on any test but there was a correlation between years of deprivation and WLT performance for men (r = 0.48,P < 0.001). No other correlation between deprivation and test performance was significant.     

The diagnostic value of computer-assisted psychometric procedures

Some test procedures of the computer assisted instrumentation system COMBITEST 2 were examined in order to evaluate the strength of diagnostical differentiation. For this purpose tests for evaluating the concentration capacity and the psychomotor performance, especially tapping, were used in a sample of 92 neurological patients (60 patients with and 32 without cerebral impairment). It became evident, that performance differentiations between patients with cerebral impairment and others are predominantly characterized by speed parameters (reaction time, duration of test), scarcely by parameters of accuracy (number of errors). Configuration - frequency - analyses emphasize deceleration of psychic/psychomotoric speed as diagnostic indicator in cerebral impaired patients: the best pattern was the "configuration" of reduced speed in concentration test and in tapping.     

Valid representation of a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario in a driving simulator

In Germany the second-most frequent accidents in road traffic are rear-end collisions. For this reason rear-end collisions are quite important for accident research and the development of driving safety systems. To examine the functionality and to design the human–machine-interface of new driving safety systems, especially in the early development phase, subject tests are necessary. Because of the great hazard potential of such safety critical scenarios for the test persons, they are often conducted in a driving simulator (DS). Accordingly, validity is an important qualification to ensure that the findings collected in a simulated test environment can be directly transferred to the real world.This paper regards the question of driving behavior validity of DS in critical situations. There are hardly any validation studies which analyze the driving behavior in a specific collision avoidance situation.The validation study described in this paper aims to evaluate the behavioral validity of a fixed-base simulator in a collision avoidance situation. For this reason a field study from 2007 was replicated in a fixed-base simulator environment.The main questions of this validation study were if the driver can notice an active hazard braking system and if the driving behavior in a static simulator can be valid in such a critical situation.The key finding of the study states that there is no driving behavior validity in a static driving simulator for the tested dynamic scenario. The missing vestibular feedback causes a different behavior of the participants in field and simulator. The resulting absence of comparability leads to non-valid performance indicators. But these indicators are key parameters for analyzing the function and acceptance of active braking systems. So the question arises, which motion performance does a motion base have to provide in order to achieve valid acceleration simulation of such a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario. The DS’s performance is measured in workspace, velocity and acceleration.     

Validation of Iranian Version of FI-QOL Scale in Patients with Fecal Incontinence

Pelvic floor dysfunction is a general public health problem with great impact on quality of life. Inability to control the passage of stool can produce embarrassment and may limit daily activities. One of the most important indicators of effectiveness of therapy in patients with fecal incontinence (FI) can be patient’s quality of life. Therefore, a well-constructed questionnaires studying quality of life is necessary. The objective of this study was to assess the Iranian version of Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale in a hospital-based study on patients with FI. Two hundred women were recruited in the study. One group included patients with FI (n = 100) and the control group (n = 100) included patients with any gastrointestinal (GI) problems except FI. The Persian version of fecal incontinence quality of life scale completed by two groups. The FI patients completed the SF-36 questionnaire too. Reliability and validity of questionnaire were evaluated by Cronbach’s alpha, test/retest using correlation analysis, Intraclass correlation coefficient, paired t-test, and analysis of variance. There was not any significant differences between two groups for age, marital status, education, and occupation. The mean age of FI patients and controls were 42.6 (±13.3) and 44.5 (±15.0) respectively. Cronbach’s-α for all domains ranged between 0.72 and 0.92. All scales showed significant correlation between the test and retest administration of questionnaire. The FI patients had lower scores than the controls for all domains adjusted for gender. All correlations between six selected domains of Sf-36 scales and FIQL scales were significant at P ≤ 0.05 levels. The Persian version of FIQL had a good validity and reliability and can be used for accurate measure of quality of life in FI patients.     

Metacognitive benefits of taking a test for children and young adolescents

The main purposes of this study were (a) to isolate monitoring of test performance from other forms of monitoring and (b) to determine the effect of taking a test on expectations about future performance. Children in grades 1-2, 4-5, and 7-8 were administered a vocabulary test. They either predicted their performance on tests like the one that was administered before taking the test, predicted after taking the test, or made postdictions about performance on the present test. There was unambiguous improvement in the accuracy of after-test predictions and postdictions compared to before-test predictions at grades 7-8 only. Although all age groups discriminated hard from easy items as they were doing them, such discrimination increased with age. In general, there were few sex differences, although whenever statistically significant sex differences in confidence were detected, boys tended to be more confident than girls. These results are consistent with claims that developmental changes in self-regulation could be tied to developmental changes in monitoring of performance and making predictions about future performance based on past performance.     

The relationship between limb apraxia and the spontaneous use of communicative gesture in aphasia

This study investigated the relationship between limb apraxia, as assessed by a formal clinical test, and the production of spontaneous communicative gesture, as measured by a newly designed rating scale--the Nonvocal Communication Scale (NCS). Subjects were aphasic adult males with cerebrovascular lesions of the left hemisphere. The performance of aphasic patients on the praxis test and the NCS was independent of demographic, neuroanatomic, linguistic, or cognitive variables, except for global aphasics who were low-scoring across the board. There was a significant positive correlation, however, between praxis ability and spontaneous gestural communication. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Testing for Measurement Invariance with Respect to an Ordinal Variable

Researchers are often interested in testing for measurement invariance with respect to an ordinal auxiliary variable such as age group, income class, or school grade. In a factor-analytic context, these tests are traditionally carried out via a likelihood ratio test statistic comparing a model where parameters differ across groups to a model where parameters are equal across groups. This test neglects the fact that the auxiliary variable is ordinal, and it is also known to be overly sensitive at large sample sizes. In this paper, we propose test statistics that explicitly account for the ordinality of the auxiliary variable, resulting in higher power against “monotonic” violations of measurement invariance and lower power against “non-monotonic” ones. The statistics are derived from a family of tests based on stochastic processes that have recently received attention in the psychometric literature. The statistics are illustrated via an application involving real data, and their performance is studied via simulation.     

Age-related changes in aphasia type and stroke location

Two-hundred consecutive CT scans of patients with an infarction in the territory of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) were examined for evaluation of a possible relationship between age and stroke location. Two distinct procedures, one evaluating the incidence of four areas within the MCA territory and the other measuring some quantified parameters, were used. Statistical studies failed to show any significant correlation between these parameters and the age of patients. These results lead to refute previous claims that semiological changes in aphasia type with age in stroke patients may be due to a posterior shift of cerebral infarcts with age.     

HIV-related neuropsychological impairment and immunodeficiency. CD8+ lymphocytes and neopterin are related to HIV-encephalopathy

The relationship between neuropsychological test performance and immunological parameters was studied in 52 HIV-positive patients within different stages of the infection. All subjects were neuropsychologically tested, the CD4 + and CD8 4- lymphocyte count were measured in peripheral blood, and the concentration of neopterin and HIV-p24 antigen were measured in serum. Ten patients with AIDS were defined as neuropsychologically impaired. The CD8 + cell count was the only immunological parameter that could significantly discriminate between AIDS patients with and without neuropsychological impairment. For the total group, significant positive correlations were found between neuropsychological test results and the number of CD8 + and CD4 + lymphocytes, and significant negative correlations were observed between serum concentration of neopterin and neurocognitive function. Regression analyses showed that up to 51% of the variance in test performance could be explained by CD8 + cells and neopterin concentration. The possible role of CD8 + lymphocytes and neopterin in the pathogenesis of HIV-related CNS-dysfunction is discussed.     

Resistance to the impact of interruptions during multitasking by healthy adults and dysexecutive patients

Two experiments (one with healthy adult volunteers and the other with controls and dysexecutive patients) assessed the impact of interruptions on a novel test of multitasking. The test involved switching repeatedly between four tasks (block construction, bead threading, paper folding, alphabetical searching) over a 10 min period. In Experiment 1, there were four groups of 20 healthy participants. One group attempted multitasking with no interruption, a second group was interrupted early in the test, a third group late in the test and a fourth group was interrupted both early and late. Interruption involved carrying out a fifth, unexpected task for a period of 1 min before returning to the four main tasks. There was no difference in multitasking performance between the groups. In Experiment 2 the participants were seven dysexecutive patients and 14 age-matched controls. A repeated measures approach was employed to assess the impact of two interruptions (early and late) for both groups. Contrary to predictions, the patients as well as controls were resistant to the effects of interruptions, despite their clearly impaired multitasking performance. These results suggest that the ability to deal with interruptions may be separable from the ability to organise and execute multiple tasks within a limited time frame.     

Differences in alexithymia and emotional awareness in exhaustion syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome

Symptoms of Exhaustion Syndrome (ES) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are overlapping and create difficulties of differential diagnosis. Empirical studies comparing ES and CFS are scarce. This study aims to investigate if there are any emotional differences between ES and CFS. This cross‐sectional study compared self‐reported alexithymia and observer‐rated emotional awareness in patients with ES (n = 31), CFS (n = 38) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 30). Self‐reported alexithymia was measured with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale‐20 (TAS‐20) and emotional awareness with an observer‐rated performance test, the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). Additionally, depression and anxiety were scored by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results show that patients with ES expressed higher self‐reported alexithymia in the TAS‐20 compared to HC, but had similar emotional awareness capacity in the observer‐rated performance test, the LEAS. Patients with CFS expressed more difficulties in identifying emotions compared to HCs, and performed significantly worse in the LEAS‐total and spent more time completing the LEAS as compared to HC. Correlation and multiple regressions analyses revealed that depression and anxiety positively correlated with and explained part of the variances in alexithymia scores, while age and group explained the major part of the variance in LEAS. Findings of this study indicate that emotional status is different in patients with ES and CFS with respect to both self‐reported alexithymia and observer‐rated emotional awareness. Emotional parameters should be approached both in clinical investigation and psychotherapy for patients with ES and CFS.     

Item Difficulty,Discrimination, and the Confidence-Frequency Effect in a Categorical Judgment Task

Three experiments are presented to examine the role of discrimination abilities in the relationship between confidence and performance across items that vary in difficulty. The studies also test the confidence-frequency effect, predicted in the theory of probabilistic mental models (Gigerenzer, Hoffrage, & Kleinbolting, 1991), by investigating the relationship between performance estimates provided as confidence judgments and as estimates of the frequency of correct responding. The categorical judgment task involved predicting whether a handwriting sample, generated using naturalistic sampling, had been written by a female or male. The results suggest that, when outcome variability is taken into account, discrimination ability differs drastically between easy, medium, and hard items. Discriminability is greatest for easy items and decreases until it disappears for hard items. There was also evidence of a confidence-frequency effect, with mean confidence judgments showing a slight tendency toward overconfidence and frequency estimates showing a slight tendency to underestimate performance.