A methodology for the capture and analysis of hybrid data: A case study of program debugging

This article describes a methodology for the capture and analysis of hybrid data. A case study in the field of reasoning with multiple representations—specifically, in computer programming—is presented to exemplify the use of the methodology. The hybrid data considered comprise computer interaction logs, audio recordings, and data about visual attention focus. The capture of the focus of visual attention data is performed with software. The software employed tracks the user’s visual attention by blurring parts of the stimuli presented on the screen and allowing the participant to see only a small region of it at any one time. These hybrid data are analyzed via a methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. The article describes the software tool employed and the analytic methodology, and also discusses data capture issues and limitations of the approach.     

Blood glucose symptom beliefs of diabetic patients: accuracy and implications

Both diabetic patients and health care practitioners often assume that the subjective symptoms of extreme low and high blood glucose (BG) levels are easily recognized. This study tested the accuracy of BG symptom beliefs in a group of 26 insulin-dependent diabetic patients. A within-subject, repeated measures design was used to identify symptoms related to low and high glucose levels for individual subjects. On three occasions over a 1-year period, subjects completed symptom checklists just prior to 40 consecutive self-measurements of BG (an average of four times per day for 10 days). At the end of the year, subjects reported which symptoms they believed were related to their own low and high glucose levels. After determining whether each checklist item was empirically related to glucose levels and believed to relate to glucose levels, symptom beliefs were categorized as hits, false alarms, misses, or correct rejections. Across subjects, the frequency of accurate beliefs (hits and correct rejections) was higher than the frequency of inaccurate beliefs (false alarms and misses). Symptom belief accuracy differed greatly for individual subjects, however, and every subject had at least one inaccurate belief. False alarm beliefs were the more common type of error. Female subjects' symptom beliefs yielded more hits, as well as more false alarms. Males missed more symptoms, especially low BG symptoms, than females. Symptom belief accuracy was greater if symptom-glucose relationships remained stable across time.     

Prediction of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder From Peritraumatic Dissociation and Distress Among Men and Women Victims of Violent Crimes

This prospective study evaluated the main and interactive effects of peritraumatic reactions with gender on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) onset, independently of known risk factors. Further, 111 adult victims of violent crime completed the Structured Clinical Interview, the Modified PTSD Symptom Scale, the Peritraumatic Dissociative Experience Questionnaire, and the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory. Hierarchical regressions and chi-square tests were conducted for continuous and categorical measures of PTSD. Extremely elevated scores of peritraumatic dissociation (PD) and peritraumatic distress (PDI) were obtained for both sexes. Greater PDI and PD were related to more PTSD symptoms. No significant interaction effects with gender emerged. These results remained when acute stress disorder was controlled for. Analyses on categorical data produced similar results. Victims of violent crimes recall severe peritraumatic reactions. The more severe these are, the more likely they are to develop significant PTSD symptomatology in the months that follow.     

The Strength of Ethical Matrixes as a Tool for Normative Analysis Related to Technological Choices: The Case of Geological Disposal for Radioactive Waste

The ethical matrix is a participatory tool designed to structure ethical reflection about the design, the introduction, the development or the use of technologies. Its collective implementation, in the context of participatory decision-making, has shown its potential usefulness. On the contrary, its implementation by a single researcher has not been thoroughly analyzed. The aim of this paper is precisely to assess the strength of ethical matrixes implemented by a single researcher as a tool for conceptual normative analysis related to technological choices. Therefore, the ethical matrix framework is applied to the management of high-level radioactive waste, more specifically to retrievable and non-retrievable geological disposal. The results of this analysis show that the usefulness of ethical matrixes is twofold and that they provide a valuable input for further decision-making. Indeed, by using ethical matrixes, implicit ethically relevant issues were revealed—namely issues of equity associated with health impacts and differences between close and remote future generations regarding ethical impacts. Moreover, the ethical matrix framework was helpful in synthesizing and comparing systematically the ethical impacts of the technologies under scrutiny, and hence in highlighting the potential ethical conflicts.     

Tool use in neurodegenerative diseases: Planning or technical reasoning?

Recent works showed that tool use can be impaired in stroke patients because of either planning or technical reasoning deficits, but these two hypotheses have not yet been compared in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to address the relationships between real tool use, mechanical problem‐solving, and planning skills in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 32), semantic dementia (SD, n = 16), and corticobasal syndrome (CBS, n = 9). Patients were asked to select and use ten common tools, to solve three mechanical problems, and to complete the Tower of London test. Motor function and episodic memory were controlled using the Purdue Pegboard Test and the BEC96 questionnaire, respectively. A data‐transformation method was applied to avoid ceiling effects, and single‐case analysis was performed based on raw scores and completion time. All groups demonstrated either impaired or slowed tool use. Planning deficits were found only in the AD group. Mechanical problem‐solving deficits were observed only in the AD and CBS groups. Performance in the Tower of London test was the best predictor of tool use skills in the AD group, suggesting these patients had general rather than mechanical problem‐solving deficits. Episodic memory seemed to play little role in performance. Motor dysfunction tended to be associated with tool use skills in CBS patients, while tool use disorders are interpreted as a consequence of the semantic loss in SD in line with previous works. These findings may encourage caregivers to set up disease‐centred interventions.     

Dispositional happiness and affective forecasting: General or specific effect?

Recent findings suggest that dispositional traits can influence personal affective forecasting. In this study, we investigated the relationship between dispositional happiness and affective prediction about academic performance among undergraduate students. Participants were asked to predict their emotional reactions on a 7-point Likert scale in regard to an important exam’s result two months prior obtaining their results. All the participants were contacted by SMS (Short Text Message) 8 h after the results were available and were requested to rate their actual emotional feelings on the same scale. According to their scores on the subjective happiness scale, participants were assigned into ‘happy’ and ‘unhappy’ groups. Results show no emotional prediction differences between the two groups for extreme results (i.e. good and bad results). In contrast, happy participants predicted less negative emotional feelings than unhappy ones for moderate results. No differences appear for the emotional feelings assessed the day they received their exam’s scores. These findings support the idea that dispositional happiness is related to emotional prediction and, more particularly, indicate that happiness induces more positive feelings concerning moderate future events, but not for extreme ones. This study suggests that happiness induces a positive view about emotional coping for future intermediate accomplishments only and not a positive view of the future in general.     

Destination and source memory in Huntington's disease

Destination memory refers to the recall of the destination of previously relayed information, and source memory refers to the recollection of the origin of received information. We compared both memory systems in Huntington's disease (HD) participants. For this, HD participants and healthy adults had to put 12 items in a black or a white box (destination task), and to extract another 12 items from a blue or a red box (source task). Afterwards, they had to decide in which box each item had previously been deposited (destination memory), and from which box each item had previously been extracted (source memory). HD participants showed poorer source as well as destination recall performance than healthy adults in the proposed tasks. Correlation analysis showed that destination recall was significantly correlated with episodic recall in HD participants. Destination memory impairment in HD participants seems to be considerably influenced by their episodic memory performance.