Response bias in self-report measures of general health

This study set out to examine the susceptability of two widely used, self-report, psychiatric inventories to response set bias. Subjects were requested to either fake well (physically and psychologically fit), fake psychologically ill, fake physically ill or respond honestly on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Langner Scale of Distress (L-22). Predictably subjects who faked well had significantly lower scores than either of the other two experimental groups, however there was no difference between the Fake Well and Control group on the GHQ total or the Somatic and Depression scales. Subjects who faked psychologically ill showed 4 out of 11 significant differences between those who faked physically ill. All of the comparisons between the two Fake Ill groups, and the Well and Control groups, were statistically significant the former reporting higher incidences of distress than the latter. The results are discussed in terms of questionnaire design, subject motivation and alternative methods of assessing mental health.     

Mental Health and Employment Status: A Preliminary Study

Nearly 200 people were administered the Langner-22 index of mental health. They were divided into five groups depending on their employment status: full-time employed, part-time employed, unemployed, retired, and students. Although there were no age or sex differences in the total mental-health score, there was a significant difference between the five employment groups' total score, with full-time employed people having the lowest score and unemployed people the highest score. There was, however, no significant difference between the scores of the part-time employed and unemployed, which were moderately high, and of students and retired people, which were intermediate. The results are discussed in terms of the nature of employment in relation to mental health, and in terms of the nature of part-time employment.     

Visual perception of motion in depth: Application of a vector model to three-dot motion patterns

The aim of the present study was to identify spatial properties of three-dot motion patterns yielding perceived motion in depth. A proposed vector model analyzed each pattern in terms of common and relative motion components of the moving parts. The dots moved in straight paths in a frontoparallel plane. The Ss reported verbally what they perceived. The common motion did not affect the kénd of perceived event (translation or rotation in depth). Relative motions toward or away from a common point, i.e. concurrent motions, yielded perceived translatory motion in depth. Parallel relative motions toward or away from a common line generally yielded perceived rotation in depth. Complex motion patterns, consisting of concurrent and parallel relative motion components combined, evoked simultaneously perceived translation and rotation in depth under certain phase conditions of the components. Some limitations of the model were discussed and suggestions made to widen its generality.     

Additivity of components of prismatic adaptation

Ss pointed with each hand at a light or at the unseen toe and looked in the direction of the unseen toe before, during, and after training one arm to point to a visual target which was progressively displaced to one side by a prism. Results show that a proprioceptive change in the trained arm is a universal component of the adaptation. When a change in the eye-head system occurs, it and the proprioceptive change in the arm sum to the total adaptation and it is accompanied by a predictable degree of intermanual transfer of the adaptation, as a felt-position theory of adaptation would predict. However, when there is no change in the eye-head system, the proprioceptive shift is not always sufficient to account for the total adaptive shift.     

THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL ON THE DETECTION OF LIGHT SIGNALS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE VISUAL FIELD

6 subjects performed 12 times each a signal detection task lasting 40 minutes in parallel with a simple tracking task. They reported every 2nd second whether or not a signal was given in any one of 10 widely spaced locations. 0.5 or 1.0 ml alcohol/kg body weight (or no alcohol) was given 35–25 minutes prior to the task. Hit rate ( HR ) covaried with tracking efficiency; FAR was uniformly low. Variation in signal probability had no effect. Alcohol had a strong and uniform effect on 3 "experienced" subjects, reducing HR for all signals and producing a funneling effect, but had little effect on the performance of 3 "inexperienced" subjects. Motivational variables which may account for the individual differences are discussed.     

The Role of Body Weight,Waist-to-Hip Ratio,and Breast Size in Judgments of Female Attractiveness

It was demonstrated by Singh and Young (1995)that morphological features such as overall body fatdistribution measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) andbreast size, influence judgments of femaleattractiveness, age, and desirability for relationships. Thepresent study was a replication and extension of thatresearch, using both male and female participants. Theresults supported the general findings of the original study, and as predicted, the effect of breastsize on attractiveness judgments depended on overallbody fat and WHR. The significance of interactionswithin the different morphological features whichdetermine female attractiveness were noted. Overall,there were surprisingly few sex differences. Results arediscussed in terms of the socio-biological theoriescurrently popular in the literature.     

T × W Completeness

T × W logic is a combination of tense and modal logic for worlds or histories with the same time order. It is the basis for logics of causation, agency and conditionals, and therefore an important tool for philosophical logic. Semantically it has been defined, among others, by R. H. Thomason. Using an operator expressing truth in all worlds, first discussed by C. M. Di Maio and A. Zanardo, an axiomatization is given and its completeness proved via D. Gabbays irreflexivity lemma. Given this lemma the proof is more or less straight forward. At the end an alternative axiomatization is sketched in which Di Maios and Zanardos operator is replaced by a version of actually.