Assessing Client Satisfaction with Mental Health Treatment among French-Canadians

La présente étude fournit des résultats à verser au dossier de validation de la version française "Client Satisfaction Questionnaire" (CSQ): une courte échelle en 18 items créée pour mesurer le degré de satisfaction de l'utilisation de différents aspects des services de santé mentale. L'échantillon comprenait 89 anciens patients (en secteur) d'une clinique psychologique universitaire. Les résultats montrent la fidélité et la validité factorielle du CSQ dans le contexte franco-canadien. De plus, comportant des similitudes avec les observations anglaises, espagnoles et hollandaises, ils représentent un important premier pas pour fonder l'équivalence inter-culturelle de la version franco-canadienne de l'échelle.
The present study provides data for the cross-cultural validity of the French version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ); a short 18-item scale which was designed to assess degree of satisfaction with different aspects of mental health services. The sample consisted of 89 former outpatients of a University Psychology Clinic. Results supported the reliability and factorial validity of the CSQ in a French-Canadian context. In addition, the results were similar to those observed for English, Spanish and Dutch versions and represent an important first step towards the cross-cultural equivalence of the French-Canadian version of the scale.     

Visual Elaboration Scale as a measure of imagery

We studied the correlation of one measure of imagery ability, the Visual Elaboration Scale, with two others, absorption of image and effort required to form a mental image. Significant correlations were obtained between the Visual Elaboration Scale and the other scales, with the exception of Absorption for women.     

A developmental-genetic analysis of aggressive behavior in mice (Mus musculus): III. Behavioral mediation by heightened reactivity or immobility?

This research was designed to investigate development and behavioral mediation in lines of ICR mice that have been selectively bred for aggressive behavior. General behavioral reactivity and behavioral immobility have been implicated as potential mediators by prior analyses of preattack interactions. To evaluate the separate roles of these dispositions, the emergence of attacks in genetically selected lines was tracked for 11 years by three levels of analysis: over successive generations, over development, and over dyadic interactions. Convergent outcomes were observed in all three levels with respect to two findings: (a) Robust line differences were obtained in attack behaviors, and (b) strong associations were found between line differences in attacks and line differences in behavioral immobility. Conversely, all three levels of analysis indicated a weak and inconsistent association between line differences in attacks and measures of social and nonsocial reactivity.     

Solving the rod-and-frame test in a tachistoscopic presentation: Effects of stimulus size and perceptual style

This research was undertaken to demonstrate, with correlational evidence, that presenting the rod-and-frame test (RIT) with either limited (tachistoscopic) or unlimited (Oltman’s, 1968, portable RFT) exposure time does not significantly affect the ranking of subjects. The underlying hypothesis is that the intersubject variability of performance on the portable RFT is due essentially to differences in sensitivity to the optostatic vection that appears automatically and almost immediately. Results of the tachistoscopic test show that the effect of angular size of the stimulus is similar to that described in the literature for unlimited time situations, and that subjects’ ranking is very similar regardless of the exposure time (W = .80). However, although a difference is observed between the means of low and high achievers in both types of RFT, intraindividual intertask homogeneity (correlation coefficient) is not verified in each of these subgroups. From these results, one can distinguish two processes in the RFT: the first, vections, has to do with the subject’s postural orientation and seems to playa great role in organizing interindividual differences. The second process, a more cognitive one, has a less striking effect and has to do with the selection of reference frames in perceptual organization.     

The effects of objectives and constraints on motor control strategy in reciprocal aiming movements

The goal of this study was to examine how the kinematics of reciprocal aiming movements were affected by both the objective of the movement and the constraints operating on that movement. In Experiment 1, the objective of the movement was indirectly manipulated by capitalizing on the fact that subjects determine their own accuracy and speed limits, despite uniform task instructions to move as quickly and accurately as possible. A Fitts' type reciprocal aiming paradigm was employed, in which 69 subjects were asked to move a stylus repetitively between two spatially separated targets. Four target widths were orthogonally combined with four movement amplitudes, resulting in 16 conditions. Movements were made on an X-Y digitizing tablet. Based on the mean variable error produced on both targets, subjects were differentiated post hoc into three movement objective groups: speed, accuracy, and speed-plus-accuracy. Kinematic analyses revealed that the programming and execution of movements were systematically influenced by both the movement objective and the movement constraints. That is, movement time, peak velocity, dwell time, acceleration and deceleration time, normalized acceleration and normalized deceleration varied systematically as a function of both the speed-accuracy movement objective and the movement constraints of target size and movement distance. Moreover, the consequences of changing the constraints of the movement were affected by an interaction with the objective of the movement. In Experiment 2, the objective of the movement was directly manipulated by varying speed and/or accuracy instructions to subjects. The basic results of Experiment 1 were substantiated. Overall, the results were consistent with the view that motor control is dependent upon sensory consequences.     

From Monroe to Moreau: an analysis of face naming errors.

Functional models of face recognition and speech production have developed separately. However, naming a familiar face is, of course, an act of speech production. In this paper we propose a revision of Bruce and Young's (1986) model of face processing, which incorporates two features of Levelt's (1989) model of speech production. In particular, the proposed model includes two stages of lexical access for names and monitoring of face naming based on a "perceptual loop". Two predictions were derived from the perceptual loop hypothesis of speech monitoring: (1) naming errors in which a (correct) rare surname is erroneously replaced by a common surname should occur more frequently than the reverse substitution (the error asymmetry effect); (2) naming errors in which a common surname is articulated are more likely to be repaired than errors which result in articulation of a rare surname (the error-repairing effect). Both predictions were supported by an analysis of face naming errors in a laboratory face naming task. In a further experiment we considered the possibility that the effects of surname frequency observed in face naming errors could be explained by the frequency sensitivity of lexical access in speech production. However, no effect of the frequency of the surname of the faces used in the previous experiment was found on face naming latencies. Therefore, it is concluded that the perceptual loop hypothesis provides the more parsimonious account of the entire pattern of the results.     

Search behavior in various breeds of adult dogs (Canis familiaris): object permanence and olfactory cues.

Human analog tests of object permanence were administered to various breeds of adult dogs (Canis familiaris). Experiment 1 showed that the performance of terriers, sporting, and working dogs did not differ. Dogs succeeded in solving invisible displacement problems, but performance was lower than in visible displacement tests. Familiarity with the task had some influence because invisible displacement tests were more successful if they were preceded by visible displacement tests. In Experiment 2, odor cues from the target object and the hiding screens were available or were masked. Results confirmed that success was lower in invisible than in visible displacement tests and that these problems were solved on the basis of representation of visual information rather than on the basis of olfactory cues or of local rule learning. Dogs are compared with other species that display Stage 6 object permanence.