Development of a portable psychometric testing device for use in the field: an alcohol investigation

Cognitive and psychomotor performance have traditionally been assessed in the laboratory. There is a need for an objective portable assessment tool to assess cognitive and psychomotor performance. This study investigated the viability of a portable psychometric test battery, in a controlled laboratory environment, possibly leading to use in the field. A randomised, double-blind placebo controlled, three-way crossover design was employed. 16 subjects received 50 mg/100 ml and 80 mg/100 ml of alcohol and alcohol placebo. Performance was assessed with a tracking task, and an attention task presented on a small ruggedised handheld computer. The attention task showed no significant training effects; however, an element of the tracking task did. Statistical significance, effect size, and test-retest reliability analyses are presented indicating sensitivity of the portable psychometric test battery to the impairing effects of two separate doses of alcohol. Ability to undertake wide-scale impairment testing in the field with meaningful results in the absence of baseline data collection may have wide reaching implications, particularly in relation to the assessment of drivers impaired by drug use.     

Individual differences in working memory within a nomological network of cognitive and perceptual speed abilities

It has become fashionable to equate constructs of working memory (WM) and general intelligence (g). Few investigations have provided direct evidence that WM and g measures yield similar ordering of individuals. Correlational investigations have yielded mixed results. The authors assess the construct space for WM and g and demonstrate that WM shares substantial variance with perceptual speed (PS) constructs. Thirty-six ability tests representing verbal, numerical, spatial, and PS abilities; the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices; and 7 WM tests were administered to 135 adults. A nomological representation for WM is provided through a series of cognitive and PS ability models. Construct overlap between PS and WM is further investigated with attention to complexity, processing differences, and practice effects.     

Glowing Praise and the Envious Gaze: Social Dilemmas Surrounding the Public Recognition of Achievement

To determine whether well-intentioned attempts to recognize superior achievement might backfire, these studies drew on recent advances to social comparison theory that emphasize interpersonal costs of outperformance (e.g., Exline & Lobel, 1999b). Undergraduates (N = 122) were asked how top performance on exams should be recognized (Study 1). Students strongly preferred private, anonymous forms of recognition to more public forms of recognition. Study 2 suggested that preferences for recognition reflect sensitivity to both positive and negative peer responses. Study 2 also revealed individual differences in preferences for recognition. Narcissism was positively associated with desire for public recognition and negatively associated with concern about being the target of peer hostility. Competitiveness was associated with beliefs that being recognized for superior achievement would bring hostile reactions from peers. Sociotropy was associated with high levels of concern about both negative and positive peer reactions to public recognition. These findings complement prior research suggesting that public recognition, although self-enhancing, may create social dilemmas. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Dreading the boards: stress response to a competitive audition characterized by social-evaluative threat

The capacity of psychosocial stressors to provoke the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis has been demonstrated to vary depending upon a number of psychological factors. Laboratory stressors characterized by social-evaluative threat are proposed to be the most efficacious in the elicitation of a cortisol stress response. Salivary cortisol, cardiovascular, and subjective responses of 16 healthy adults facing a naturalistic stressor characterized by social-evaluative threat (competitive performance auditions) were examined. Audition exposure was sufficient to provoke significant cortisol, arterial blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), and subjective stress responses. Cortisol response reactivity (area under the curve with respect to increase [AUCi]) also correlated with participants' subjective rating of social-evaluative threat. The competitive performance audition context is therefore considered a promising context in which to further explore cortisol responsivity to social-evaluative threat.     

Sex differences in childhood sexual abuse and suicide-related behaviors

Child sexual abuse and suicide-related behaviors are associated, but it remains unclear if the strength of this association differs in boys and girls. In a systematic review of this association in children and youth, we identified 16 relevant studies, all cross-sectional surveys of students. The association is stronger in boys specific to suicide attempt(s). Adjustments for potential confounding variables explained some, but not all of this sex difference. While additional research would strengthen causal inferences, this sex difference may be influenced by the nature and timing of child sexual abuse as well as the sex of the perpetrator, which in turn shapes the disclosure of these events.     

Suicidal Ideation and Behavior in Adolescents Aged 12–16 Years: A 17‐Year Follow‐Up

The prevalence of suicidal ideation/behavior in 1983 or 1987 and its association with future mental health in 2001 were evaluated in a provincially representative sample of Canadian adolescents (n = 1,248) aged 12 to 16 years. Approximately 13.3% (95% CI = 11.5–15.3) of adolescents self‐reported suicidal ideation/behavior. Adolescent agreement with parent (κ = .07) and teacher (κ = .05) reports at baseline was low because adults identified so few subjects. In adulthood, the associations between adolescent self‐reports of suicidal behavior/ideation and major depression and other mental health indicators were explained by respondent sex and adolescent emotional problems reported in 1983/1987. Adolescents with suicidal behavior/ideation often are not recognized by their parents and teachers and may be at risk for persistent psychiatric problems attributable to coexisting mental health problems early‐on.     

Transparency and reflection

ABSTRACT

Much recent work on self-knowledge has been inspired by the idea that the ‘transparency’ of questions about our own mental states to questions about the non-mental world holds the key to understanding how privileged self-knowledge is possible. I critically discuss some prominent recent accounts of such transparency, and argue for a Sartrean interpretation of the phenomenon, on which this knowledge is explained by our capacity to transform an implicit or ‘non-positional’ self-awareness into reflective, ‘positional’ self-knowledge.