Relations Between Continuous Performance Test Performance Measures and ADHD Behaviors

The Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT) is a neuropsychological task that has repeatedly been shown to differentiate ADHD from normal groups. Several variables may be derived from the Conners' CPT including errors of omission and commission, mean hit reaction time(RT), mean hit RT standard error, d', and . What each CPT parameter actually assesses has largely been based upon clinical assumptions and the face validity of each measure (e.g., omission errors measure inattention, commission errors measure impulsivity). This study attempts to examine relations between various CPT variables and phenotypic behaviors so as to better understand the various CPT variables. An epidemiological sample of 817 children was administered the Conners' CPT. Diagnostic interviews were conducted with parents to determine ADHD symptom profiles for all children. Children diagnosed with ADHD had more variable RTs, made more errors of commission and omission, and demonstrated poorer perceptual sensitivity than nondiagnosed children. Regarding specific symptoms, generalized estimating equations (GEE) and ANCOVAs were conducted to determine specific relationships between the 18 DSM-IV ADHD symptoms and 6 CPT parameters. CPT performance measures demonstrated significant relationships to ADHD symptoms but did not demonstrate symptom domain specificity according to a priori assumptions. Overall performance on the two signal detection measures, d' and , was highly related to all ADHD symptoms across symptom domains. Further, increased variability in RTs over time was related to most ADHD symptoms. Finally, it appears that at least 1 CPT variable, mean hit RT, is minimally related to ADHD symptoms as a whole, but does demonstrate some specificity in its link with symptoms of hyperactivity.     

人际关系适应特征的情境评价方法研究

本研究运用情境评价法对人际关系适应特征进行了实验研究 ,结果表明 :1以 Schutz提出的人际关系六因素为评价标准 ,采用情境评价法比问卷形式能更有效地揭示人际适应特征 ;2在情境评价中 ,以合作为主的情境设置比以竞争为主的情境设置更利于反映出人际适应特征 ;3情境评价采用定向、组织、交流和问题解决等阶段的过程设计符合情境评价的实际进程 ,有助于分阶段展开被试的行为特征 ,提高情境评价的可控性和准确性。     

考试自我效能感是考试焦虑影响考试成绩的中介变量

本文采用结构方程的统计分析技术．依据Baron(1986)提出的确定中介变量的规则和标准．对265名中学生的特质考试焦虑、考试自我效能感、数学期末考试成绩的关系进行了探讨。考试焦虑,考试自我效能感和数学考试成绩是三个潜变量。结果表明,考试焦虑通过考试自我效能感这一中介变量对考试成绩产生影响,考试自我效能感对考试成绩有直接的影响作用,是考试焦虑影响考试成绩的中介变量。     

Accountability Forces in Performance Appraisal: Effects of Self-Appraisal Information, Normative Information, and Task Performance

This study investigated the effects of self-appraisal information, normative information, and task performance on performance appraisal ratings. Participants rated a fictitious subordinate's performance on a clerical task (which was either very good or moderately poor) subsequent to receiving self-assessment information (high or low) and normative information (present or absent). Self-appraisals affected performance ratings for poor performers but not for good performers, suggesting that judges are more motivated to please ratees than they are merely to adopt the subordinate's view of their own performance. Furthermore, objective normative information had greater influence than self-appraisals on performance ratings, suggesting that information source credibility has more influence than felt accountability on performance appraisals. Implications of the findings for organizations were discussed.     

HSK主观考试评分的Rasch实验分析

主观评分中存在的不一致性导致主观评分的信度降低。多面Rasch模型基于项目反应理论,可以应用于评分员效应的识别和消除,从而提高主观评分的信度。该文介绍多面Rasch模型的理论和应用框架,设计了基于该模型的HSK主观考试评分质量控制应用框架,利用HSK作文评分数据进行了实验验证。     

Diagnostic Stability of ADHD in a Community Sample of School-Aged Children Screened for Disruptive Behavior

A large school-based sample of children in Grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 were screened for disruptive behavior and subsequently assessed over a 5-year period for DSM-III-R symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other externalizing and internalizing behavior disorders. Parents completed structured diagnostic interviews in Years 1, 4, and 5, and teachers completed Behavioral Assessment for Children—Teacher Rating Scales behavioral ratings annually. For parent-derived diagnostic data, both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom groups declined from Year 1 to Year 4, with hyperactivity showing more significant decline. For teacher-rated behavioral dimensions, the Attention Problems scale declined from Year 1 to Year 3 and stabilized thereafter. The Hyperactivity scale showed stability during the first 3 years before declining in Year 4. Of those children diagnosed with ADHD in Year 1, 69% still met criteria for ADHD in either Year 4 or 5. Persisters were more likely to exhibit coexisting conduct disorder in Year 1 and oppositional defiant disorder in Years 1, 4, and 5. Parents of persisters reported more psychosocial adversity on measures of parenting and marital satisfaction.     

考试焦虑影响考试成绩的基本模式

以整合的思路、建构包括九个中介变量的考试焦虑影响考试成绩的结构方程模型。用AM和MG两种路径分析方式相结合的方法．发现考试焦虑对中介变量的影响甚于中介变量对考试成绩的影响。考试自我效能感、成绩-接近目标、认知干扰是受考试焦虑影响和影响考试成绩程度比较一致的中介变量(简称为“一致性”的中介变量),成绩-回避目标定向、担忧、学习和考试技能变量屑于“非一致性”的中介变量。掌握目标定向、情绪性和应付反应作为中介变量不具有实际意义。     

A Normative Pragmatic Perspective on Appealing to Emotions in Argumentation

Is appealing to emotions in argumentation ever legitimate and, if so, what is the best way to analyze and evaluate such appeals? After overviewing a normative pragmatic perspective on appealing to emotions in argumentation, I present answers to these questions from pragma-dialectical, informal logical, and rhetorical perspectives, and note positions shared and supplemented by a normative pragmatic perspective. A normative pragmatic perspective holds that appealing to emotions in argumentation may be relevant and non-manipulative; and that emotional appeals may be analyzed as strategies that create pragmatic reasons and assessed by the standard of formal propriety or reasonability under the circumstances. I illustrate the explanatory power of the perspective by analyzing and evaluating some argumentation from Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” I conclude that a normative pragmatic perspective offers a more complete account of appealing to emotions in argumentation than a pragma-dialectial, informal logical, or rhetorical perspective alone, identifies a range of norms available to arguers, and explains why appealing to emotions may be legitimate in particular cases of argumentation.     

Normative values on the marks and mathews fear questionnaire: A comparison as a function of age and sex

While the Marks and Mathews Fear Questionnaire (1979) has gained widespread use, little information on its psychometric characteristics has been reported. Thus, one purpose of this investigation was to provide normative information on this device. A second purpose was to examine differences in reported fears as a function of age and sex. Fear Questionnaires were administered to a large sample of high-school students, college students, and adults. Means and standard deviations on the Fear Questionnaire are reported for the various groups. Significant differences were found between groups, with college and high-school women reporting more fears than corresponding men, college and high-school women reporting more fears than adult women, and college men showing a trend toward more fears than other men.Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, November 1985, Houston, Texas.     

Etiology of Inattention and Hyperactivity/Impulsivity in a Community Sample of Twins with Learning Difficulties

A community sample of 373 8 to 18 year-old twin pairs in which at least one twin in each pair exhibited a history of learning difficulties was utilized to examine the etiology of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity (hyp/imp). Symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were assessed by the DSM-III Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents. Inattention and hyp/imp composite scores were created based on results of a factor analysis. Results indicated that extreme ADHD scores were almost entirely attributable to genetic influences across several increasingly extreme diagnostic cutoff scores. Extreme inattention scores were also highly heritable whether or not the proband exhibited extreme hyp/imp. In contrast, the heritability of extreme hyp/imp increased as a linear function of the number of inattention symptoms exhibited by the proband. This finding suggests that extreme hyp/imp may be attributable to different etiological influences in individuals with and without extreme inattention. If this result can be replicated in other samples, it would provide evidence that the hyp/imp symptoms exhibited by individuals with Combined Type ADHD and Predominantly Hyp/Imp Type ADHD may be attributable to different etiological influences.     

Relation Between Outcomes on a Continuous Performance Test and ADHD Symptoms Over Time

This study examined the relationship between the developmental trajectories of neuropsychological functioning and ADHD symptomatology in a longitudinal sample of children ages 9 to 14. Participants and measures were derived from the Multimodal Treatment Study for ADHD including 534MTA participants and 254 normal controls. Despite improvement over time, MTA participants continued to receive higher ratings of ADHD symptomatology and exhibit greater difficulties across the majority of neuropsychological outcomes. No relations were found between improvements in neuropsychological functioning and ADHD symptomatology over time. Findings provide support for the persistence of neuropsychological functioning and ADHD symptomatology. Findings did not support the hypothesized relation between improvements in frontally-mediated neuropsychological functioning and ADHD symptomatology possibly due to the brief 1-year lag and limited assessment battery. Findings are discussed in relation to neuropsychological development including recommendations for future research.     

大连市2006年～2012年流感流行特征分析

分析大连市流行性感冒(流感)的流行趋势和毒株流行情况.收集2006年～2012年大连市18家哨点医院流感监测数据进行描述性分析,并对流感样病例(ILI)咽拭子进行病毒分离检测.2006年～2012年监测医院共接诊患者10 751 432例,其中流感样病例676 860例,流感样病例占门诊病例的百分比(ILI％)为6.30％.流感流行高峰出现在2009年9月～11月和2006年3月～4月.0岁～4岁组和5岁～14岁组的ILI构成比例居前2位,7年间共检测流感样病例咽拭子1 174份,鉴定出流感病毒203株,阳性率为17.29％.2012年与2011年阳性率最高,分别为62.39％和12.15％.此间流感病毒主要以H3型、BY型为主.本文旨在通过监测掌握大连市流感毒株变异情况和流行规律,为下一步流感防控工作提供科学依据.     

Test Anxiety,Coping Strategies,and Perceived Health in a Group of High School Students: A Turkish Sample

A group of high school juniors and a group of high school seniors in Izmir, Turkey completed measures of test anxiety, coping skills, and perceived health status both before and after a major exam period. Students with high test anxiety used less effective coping mechanisms and tended to have poorer perceptions of their health. Prior to the exams, juniors displayed higher test anxiety and used less effective coping mechanisms than seniors. After the exam periods, improvements were seen for both age groups on perceived health, but scores of younger students remained significantly higher than scores of seniors on one of the key measures of test anxiety. Results of the study lend support to those of previous studies done in other cultural contexts, and findings have implications for the development of interventions designed to help students cope with stress.     

The Influence of American Urban Culture on the Development of Normative Beliefs About Aggression in Middle-Eastern Immigrants

The effects of a community's culture on children's and adolescents' normative beliefs about the appropriateness of aggression were examined. One hundred forty-seven high school students and 103 fourth graders participated in a survey of normative beliefs; 69 high school and 44 elementary school students were of Middle-Eastern background. Although there were no differences in the beliefs of immigrant and nonimmigrant fourth graders, adolescents born in the United States were more accepting of aggression than those who immigrated from the Middle East. Moreover, adolescents who immigrated to the U.S. at age 12 or later were less accepting of aggression than those who immigrated prior to age 12.     

AULA virtual reality test as an attention measure: Convergent validity with Conners’ Continuous Performance Test

The majority of neuropsychological tests used to evaluate attention processes in children lack ecological validity. The AULA Nesplora (AULA) is a continuous performance test, developed in a virtual setting, very similar to a school classroom. The aim of the present study is to analyze the convergent validity between the AULA and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) of Conners. The AULA and CPT were administered correlatively to 57 children, aged 6–16 years (26.3% female) with average cognitive ability (IQ mean = 100.56, SD = 10.38) who had a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. Spearman correlations analyses were conducted among the different variables. Significant correlations were observed between both tests in all the analyzed variables (omissions, commissions, reaction time, and variability of reaction time), including for those measures of the AULA based on different sensorial modalities, presentation of distractors, and task paradigms. Hence, convergent validity between both tests was confirmed. Moreover, the AULA showed differences by gender and correlation to Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory indexes of the WISC-IV, supporting the relevance of IQ measures in the understanding of cognitive performance in ADHD. In addition, the AULA (but not Conners’ CPT) was able to differentiate between ADHD children with and without pharmacological treatment for a wide range of measures related to inattention, impulsivity, processing speed, motor activity, and quality of attention focus. Additional measures and advantages of the AULA versus Conners’ CPT are discussed.     

Differentiating between ADHD sub-types on CCPT measures of sustained attention and vigilance

The aim of the study was to test whether sustained attention and vigilance, often considered as the same phenomenon, dissociate on the Conners' Continuous Performance Test, and whether subjects with ADHD-Inattentive type and ADHD-Combined type differ with regard to these measures. Sixty-five healthy controls and 67 subjects with ADHD between 9 and 16 years of age participated in the study. The ADHD-I group performed below control children on Hit Reaction Time Block Change, considered to measure sustained attention and the ADHD-C group scored below controls on Hit Reaction Time Inter-Stimulus-Interval, considered to measure vigilance. Comparing the two clinical groups showed a test by group interaction, with ADHD-I subjects performing below ADHD-C subjects with regard to sustained attention and above ADHD-C subjects with regard to vigilance. Sustained attention on the CCPT correlated specifically with parent and teacher ratings of inattention, but not with ratings of hyperactivity-impulsivity, while vigilance correlated with all symptom ratings.     

A Test of Mastery versus Coping Modeling in the Reduction of Children's Dental Fears

This study compared mastery and coping models in the reduction of relatively high fear and tear-related behaviors of children undergoing dental treatment. Boys and girls, ranging form 4-to-12 years of age and reporting high dental fears, were grouped according to previous dental experience (none vs. previous experience). The children were exposed to one of three experimental conditions: a coping model slide-and-audiotape presentation, a mastery model presentation, or a no-slide presentation condition. Subjects' reported levels of dental fear and general anxiety were reassessed following the experimental manipulation. Additionally, subjects' disruptive behaviors were tallied during the subsequent dental treatment. No differences on the dependent measures were found due to exposure to a model, model type, or level of previous dental experience. Combined with other studies, the present results raise critical questions regarding the efficacy of mastery versus coping modeling as well as for the theoretical distinction of the two modeling types.