A simplified technique for scoring DSM-IV personality disorders with the Five-Factor Model

The current study compares the use of two alternative methodologies for using the Five-Factor Model (FFM) to assess personality disorders (PDs). Across two clinical samples, a technique using the simple sum of selected FFM facets is compared with a previously used prototype matching technique. The results demonstrate that the more easily calculated counts perform as well as the similarity scores that are generated by the prototype matching technique. Optimal diagnostic thresholds for the FFM PD counts are computed for identifying patients who meet diagnostic criteria for a specific PD. These threshold scores demonstrate good sensitivity in receiver operating characteristics analyses, suggesting their usefulness for screening purposes. Given the ease of this scoring procedure, the FFM count technique has obvious clinical utility.     

The roots of self-awareness

In this paper we provide an account of the structural underpinnings of self-awareness. We offer both an abstract, logical account – by way of suggestions for how to build a genuinely self-referring artificial agent – and a biological account, via a discussion of the role of somatoception in supporting and structuring self-awareness more generally. Central to the account is a discussion of the necessary motivational properties of self-representing mental tokens, in light of which we offer a novel definition of self-representation. We also discuss the role of such tokens in organizing self-specifying information, which leads to a naturalized restatement of the guarantee that introspective awareness is immune to error due to mis-identification of the subject.     

A spatial analysis of the discriminability of forms in noise

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques were used to study the form characteristics which transcend noise in a discrimination task. Three dimensions of random polygons were identified and were psychophysically related to quantifted form measures.     

The influence of perceptual anchors and visual noise on the vertical-horizontal illusion

In an earlier study Chapanis and Mankin examined the vertical-horizontal illusion in a visually-rich environment. In that study they feit that perceptual anchors and visual noise may have influenced the Ss’ estimates of the real-world objects that were used as stimuli. The present experiment attempted to test in a controlled laboratory environment the questions raised in the previous experiment. In the present experiment Ss were asked to estimate the height of a vertical stimulus line by indicating its corresponding horizontal distance. The vertical stimulus line was presented in a background of visual noise and potential anchors. The results indicate that the anchors did influence estimates and that this influence was, in turn, affected by the visual noise.     

Short-term retention during a simultaneous detection task

Subjects were required to perform a short-term memory task and a signal detection task, both individually and simultaneously. Memory performance was impaired only when the signals in the detection task were difficult to detect. The impairment in memory was restricted to items which appeared in the early positions of the list to be remembered. Detection performance was unaffected by the simultaneous task requirement and there was no correlation between performance on the two tasks when both were performed together. The results suggest that the difficulties Ss have when they attempt to perform several tasks at the same time may be due to limitations in the processes responsible for storing and retrieving information rather than those involved in the perceptual analysis of the incoming material.     

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF WORKER TRAIT REQUIREMENTS

The purpose of the factor analysis was to reorganize and simplify the sometimes bewildering array of occupational requirements and occupational characteristics that employment counselors and their clients must cope with in their planning. A knowledge of the factor structure of worker trait requirements may enhance the counselor's comprehension of the world of work.     

A graphical test for the significance of differences between frequencies from different samples

For testing the significance of differences between frequencies from different samples, an ellipse can easily be constructed on the basis of a formula developed on the assumption that both observed samples are random samples from the same parent population and that the best estimate of the true proportion is the weighted mean proportion of the two samples. The ellipse provides a very rapid method for testing pairs of frequencies.The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and are not to be construed as those of the Navy Department.     

Stimulus control in fixed ratio matching-to-sample

Pigeons were maintained on a fixed ratio (FR 9) schedule of reinforcement for correct matching-to-sample responses. Included in the test situation was a vertical array of lights, illuminated in relation to the successive steps of the fixed ratio. All five subjects showed regular decrements in matching errors across the sequence of unreinforced responses within the ratio cycle. In the form of a randomly introduced probe, the stimulus situation (array of lights) appropriate to having seven of the FR 9 steps already completed was occasionally introduced at the beginning of an FR cycle. Reinforcement followed the illumination of the two remaining lights by two correct matches. The number of errors in this probe condition was sharply lower than the errors characteristic of the first two steps of the basic FR 9.