Fast and accurate measurement of taste and smell thresholds using a maximum-likelihood adaptive staircase procedure

This paper evaluates the use of a maximum-likelihood adaptive staircase psychophysical procedure (ML-PEST), originally developed in vision and audition, for measuring detection thresholds in gustation and olfaction. The basis for the psychophysical measurement of thresholds with the ML-PEST procedure is developed. Then, two experiments and four simulations are reported. In the first experiment, ML-PEST was compared with the Wetherill and Levitt up-down staircase method and with the Cain ascending method of limits in the measurement of butyl alcohol thresholds. The four Monte Carlo simulations compared the three psychophysical procedures. In the second experiment, the test-retest reliability of ML-PEST for measuring NaCl and butyl alcohol thresholds was assessed. The results indicate that the ML-PEST method gives reliable and precise threshold measurements. Its ability to detect malingerers shows considerable promise. It is recommended for use in clinical testing.     

An in-situ examination of the timing of information pick-up for interception by cricket batsmen of different skill levels

ObjectivesCricket batting is performed under demanding constraints, which requires rapid and accurate decision making for successful achievement of the skill goal. To understand how batsmen negotiate these constraints, the capability of highly skilled and low skilled cricket batsmen to utilise visual information prior to and during sections of ball flight to strike balls delivered by fast bowlers was examined.MethodSix highly skilled and six low skilled batsmen faced different types of balls delivered by three fast bowlers. Batsmen wore vision occlusion spectacles and were required to strike delivered balls, while their vision of the bowler's delivery action and ball flight was selectively occluded. Three vision conditions were randomly designed that included temporal occlusion at: (i) a point prior to ball release (providing only advance information), (ii) a point prior to ball bounce (providing advance and ball flight information) and (iii) no occlusion (where all advance, ball flight and bounce information were visible). Foot movements made forward or backward were assessed as a measure of ball length judgement, while the quality of bat–ball contact was assessed as a measure of interception.ResultsResults demonstrated the superior capability of highly skilled batsmen to utilise information prior to ball release to judge short ball length. Expert batsmen were better able to utilise ball flight information prior to and post-bounce to attain a superior number of bat–ball contacts.ConclusionsFindings demonstrate that the mechanism of experts to deal with task constraints when attempting to intercept a delivered ball is their capability to pick-up visual information to judge ball landing position.     

Functional Psychopathy in Morally Relevant Business Decisions

Literature addressing organizational ethical behavior has focused intensely on cognitive moral development, and more recently the automatic and natural moral inclinations (i.e., moral intuitions). Research addressing the incapacity for moral reasoning, such as psychopathy, is rarely addressed in organizational behavior (Smith & Lilienfeld, 2013; Stevens, Deuling, & Armenakis, 2011). Our first aim is to develop a construct definition for functional psychopathy that is appropriate for organizational science and theoretically consistent with the extensive previous clinical and criminal research in this field. Second, we apply two versions of a scale not previously used in business research relative to moral judgments. This scale is a self-reported measure of functional psychopathy and is useful for its relationships with ethically relevant business decisions. Further, we examine which factors emerge as having the highest relationship with ethical decision making. Third, we seek to advance the usefulness of this construct by more precisely placing psychopathy within its nomological network. With these goals in mind, a combined sample of business school seniors (N = 418) participated in three studies. Findings indicate a significant influence of psychopathy over a range of ethically relevant business decisions, as well as negative correlations with factors of the Moral Approbation (Ryan & Riordan, 2000) and the Moral Awareness (Reynolds, 2006a) scales. We conclude with directions for future research and considerations for practice.     

The cultural theory and model of suicide

A growing body of research has demonstrated important variations in the prevalence, nature, and correlates of suicide across ethnic and sexual minority groups. Despite these developments, existing clinical and research approaches to suicide assessment and prevention have not incorporated cultural variations in any systematic way. In addition, theoretical models of suicide have been largely devoid of cultural influence. The current report presents a comprehensive analysis of literature describing the relationship between cultural factors and suicide in three major ethnic groups (African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos) and LGBTQ¹ sexual minority groups. We utilized an inductive approach to synthesize this variegated body of research into four factors that account for 95% of existing culturally specific risk data: cultural sanctions, idioms of distress, minority stress, and social discord. These four cultural factors are then integrated into a theoretical framework: the Cultural Model of Suicide. Three theoretical principles emerge: (1) culture affects the types of stressors that lead to suicide; (2) cultural meanings associated with stressors and suicide affect the development of suicidal tendencies, one's threshold of tolerance for psychological pain, and subsequent suicidal acts; and (3) culture affects how suicidal thoughts, intent, plans, and attempts are expressed. The Cultural Model of Suicide provides an empirically guided cohesive approach that can inform culturally competent suicide assessment and prevention efforts in future research and clinical practice. Including both ethnic and sexual minorities in our investigations ensures advancement along a multiple identities perspective.     

Structural Equation Modeling Approaches for Analyzing Partially Nested Data

Study designs involving clustering in some study arms, but not all study arms, are common in clinical treatment-outcome and educational settings. For instance, in a treatment arm, persons may be nested in therapy groups, whereas in a control arm there are no groups. Methodological approaches for handling such partially nested designs have recently been developed in a multilevel modeling framework (MLM-PN) and have proved very useful. We introduce two alternative structural equation modeling (SEM) approaches for analyzing partially nested data: a multivariate single-level SEM (SSEM-PN) and a multiple-arm multilevel SEM (MSEM-PN). We show how SSEM-PN and MSEM-PN can produce results equivalent to existing MLM-PNs and can be extended to flexibly accommodate several modeling features that are difficult or impossible to handle in MLM-PNs. For instance, using an SSEM-PN or MSEM-PN, it is possible to specify complex structural models involving cluster-level outcomes, obtain absolute model fit, decompose person-level predictor effects in the treatment arm using latent cluster means, and include traditional factors as predictors/outcomes. Importantly, implementation of such features for partially nested designs differs from that for fully nested designs. An empirical example involving a partially nested depression intervention combines several of these features in an analysis of interest for treatment-outcome studies.     

Affective information processing and the assessment of anxiety

A conceptualization of anxiety as comprising three loosely coupled response systems of overt behavior, verbal report, and physiological activation has proven useful in clinical and theoretical work. With this framework as a starting point, an information-processing approach to the study of emotion is described. Emotions are conceived as affective programs within the brain, with information coded as propositions organized into associative networks. Affective expression results when such a network is accessed and processed, which can occur when a sufficient number of propositions are activated by environmental stimuli and/or internal associations. It is hypothesized that information about the expressive physiology is an integral component of the associative structure, and that processing of the network accordingly results in measurable psychophysiological response. Data from studies of emotional imagery, as well as other areas of research, are reviewed in support of these theories. The utility of this approach for the assessment of anxiety disorders is discussed, and results of clinical studies are presented to suggest that individual differences in accessing and processing emotional information may bear significant implications for prognosis and treatment selection. It is speculated that differences among the anxiety disorders could be interpreted in terms of the degree of cognitive organization of the network, leading to potential refinement of current diagnostic categories. In conclusion, cognitive psychology paradigms are discussed in terms of their application to the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders.The authors' research is supported in part by NIMH Grant MH 37757. Portions of this paper were presented at the NIMH Conference on Anxiety, Tuxedo, NY, September 1983. Several of its themes were developed there at more length, and this material may be found in the publication of the conference proceedings (Tuma & Maser, 1985).