Scaling clinical judgments of symptom pathology by means of the psychophysiological method of magnitude estimation

Summing scores across heterogeneous symptom items without consideration of their differing psychopathological significance has been criticized as producing an inadequate picture of an individual's clinical status. The purpose of this study was to derive symptom item weights representing clinically judged seriousness of each symptom through the application of Stevens's psychophysical method of magnitude estimation. A nationwide sample of 129 clinicians rated the pathological significance of 221 symptom items in a design such that every rater rated 121 items, 21 of which were rated by all raters and 100 of which were rated only by the A or B subgroup to which each rater was randomly assigned. Each item was rated as to the seriousness of the pathology it would represent if manifested by either a boy child, girl child, boy adolescent, or girl adolescent, with one-fourth of the raters assigned to each condition. The results of 211 two-way analyses of variance revealed that age and age and sex in interaction, but not sex alone, significantly influenced the clinical ratings. The resulting magnitude estimation ratings of symptom pathology ranged from 1.0 to 9.9. They were demonstrated to have satisfactory reliability and convergent validity and to have the psychophysical characteristics of a prothetic continuum.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 85th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 1977. The research was supported by HEW grant MH24886. The authors wish to express appreciation to Walter W. Wengel for his work in developing the median quotient ratings used in the study, to Terrance Auger for making available unpublished raw data, and to Merton S. Krause for helpful suggestions regarding the interpretation of results.     

A note on the discovery of ag factor by means of Thurstone's centroid method of analysis

A fictitious factor matrix including 16 tests and 3 factors, one of which was ag factor, was prescribed. From it two typical factor problems, including errors of sampling, were derived. Students in training, without awareness of the factor patterns, arrived at essentially correct solutions by the use of Thurstone's centroid method with rotation of axes. Errors in the calculated factor matrix were very close in size to the sampling errors in the correlation coefficients. It is concluded that ag factor need not escape detection by Thurstone's procedures if the criteria of complete simple structure are not demanded.     

A method of factor analysis by means of which all coordinates of the factor matrix are given simultaneously

In general, the methods of factor analysis developed during the past five years are based on the reduction of the correlational matrix by successive steps. The first factor loadings are determined and eliminated from the correlational matrix, giving a residual matrix. This process is continued for successive factor loadings until the elements of the last obtained residual matrix may be regarded as due to chance. The method outlined in this paper assumes the maximum number of factorsm in the correlational matrix. Them factor vectors are solved for simultaneously. Once them factor vectors are found, any vectors having only negligible factor loadings may be discarded.     

A Uniform Approach for Characterizing the Provably Total Number-Theoretic Functions of KPM and (Some of) its Subsystems

In this article we show how to extract with the use of the Buchholz-Cichon-Weiermann approach to subrecursive hierarchies from Rathjen's 1991 ordinal analysis of KPM a characterization of the provably total number-theoretic functions of KPM and some of its (most prominent) subsystems in a uniform and direct way.     

Verisimilitude by means of short theorems

Conclusion This paper began with the simple object of finding an account that allowed us to compare incompatible false theories. This we achieved with . But that relation is language — or interest — dependent. ' is free from this limitation; though thus liberated it is perhaps rather unconcerned about what is true, and further fails to deliver certain intuitive comparisons. Whether is to be preferred to ' or vice versa, seems to me a largely fruitless question: In fact it might be that as we seek to free the idea of verisimilitude from any dependence on language, interests or problems, so we gradually collapse it to nothing more than logical power.     

Modelling the dynamics of reasoning processes: Reasoning by assumption

To model the dynamics of cognitive processes, often the dynamical systems theory (DST) is advocated. However, for higher cognitive processes such as reasoning and certain forms of natural language processing the techniques adopted within DST are not very adequate. This paper shows how an analysis of the dynamics of reasoning processes can be made using techniques different from those of DST. The approach makes use of temporal traces consisting of sequences of reasoning states over time to describe reasoning processes. It is shown for the example reasoning pattern ‘reasoning by assumption’, how relevant dynamic properties can be identified and expressed using a temporal trace language. Example traces have been acquired in two ways. Firstly, empirical traces have been generated based on think-aloud protocols of a subject solving a number of cases of a reasoning puzzle. Secondly, a simulation model has been developed and executed for the same cases of the reasoning puzzle. For all these traces, the dynamic properties can and have been analysed automatically, using a software environment that has been developed. Thus the feasibility of the approach was shown.     

On the origin of happiness by means of natural felicitation

The present study tested theoretical models of the forgivingness – well-being association with depression symptoms and social justice commitment as outcome measures and with differentiation of self (DoS) and dispositional humility as mediators. In doing so, we addressed the need to explicitly frame the study of virtues in a relational view of the self and extended the research on forgivingness and humility that moves beyond a focus on personal benefit and attends to the ways in which virtues also benefit other persons. The sample consisted of 213 graduate students from a religiously-affiliated university who completed a questionnaire of self-report measures. Results supported the proposed models as significant specific indirect effects were observed through DoS and humility. The findings support a self-regulating mechanism, as measured by DoS and dispositional humility, for the protective influence of forgivingness on depression symptoms and the promotive influence of forgivingness on prosocial relating.     

Testing the Rasch model by means of the mixture fit index

Rudas, Clogg, and Lindsay (RCL) proposed a new index of fit for contingency table analysis. Using the overparametrized two‐component mixture, where the first component with weight 1?w represents the model to be tested and the second component with weight w is unstructured, the mixture index of fit was defined to be the smallest w compatible with the saturated two‐component mixture. This index of fit, which is insensitive to sample size, is applied to the problem of assessing the fit of the Rasch model. In this application, use is made of the equivalence of the semi‐parametric version of the Rasch model to specifically restricted latent class models. Therefore, the Rasch model can be represented by the structured component of the RCL mixture, with this component itself consisting of two or more subcomponents corresponding to the classes, and the unstructured component capturing the discrepancies between the data and the model. An empirical example demonstrates the application of this approach. Based on four‐item data, the one‐ and two‐class unrestricted latent class models and the one‐ to three‐class models restricted according to the Rasch model are considered, with respect to both their chi‐squared statistics and their mixture fit indices.     

Detecting malingerers by means of response-sequence analysis

The feigning of sensory loss (malingering) poses a challenge for psychophysicists. To uncover malingerers by means of psychophysical testing, we combined measures of response-sequence randomness with the maximum-likelihood adaptive-staircase procedure used to measure sensory detection thresholds. The two-alternative, forced-choice maximum-likelihood adaptive-staircase procedure calculates an estimate of the threshold after each trial and also recommends the stimulus concentration for the next trial. Olfactory detection thresholds for butyl alcohol were measured in 7 normals, 6 anosmics, and 6 malingerers. Each participant was tested for 20 trials. A discriminant analysis, using threshold concentration and probability of being correct over the 20 trials, could correctly classify only 68% of the malingerers and anosmics. Correct classification of anosmics and malingerers rose to 100% when statistical measures of randomness in the response sequences were included in the discriminant analysis. We conclude that the maximum-likelihood adaptive-staircase procedure, combined with response-sequence analysis, is a powerful addition to the arsenal of techniques for detecting malingerers in the evaluation of sensory ability.     

Conflict adaptation by means of associative learning

Cognitive control is responsible for adapting information processing in order to carry out tasks more efficiently. Contrasting global versus local control accounts, it has recently been proposed that control operates in an associative fashion, that is, by binding stimulus-response associations after detection of conflict (Verguts & Notebaert, 2009). Here, this prediction is explicitly tested for the first time. In a task-switching study where both tasks use the same relevant information, we previously reported conflict adaptation over tasks (Notebaert & Verguts, 2008). In the current experiment, we demonstrate that this is restricted to conditions where both tasks use the same effectors, thereby supporting the associative control account.     

Identifying schizophrenia by means of scale 8 Sc of the MMPI

A sample of 38 schizophrenic inpatients was found to achieve significantly higher mean scores on Scale 8 of the MMPI relative to 38 schizophrenia-spectrum and 38 control patients regardless of whether K- or non-K-corrected scores were used. However, when patients were individually classified by means of a cutting score (greater than or equal to 70), only K-corrected scores accurately discriminated between schizophrenic and control patients at a statistically significant level.