Calculation of signal detection theory measures

Signal detection theory (SDT) may be applied to any area of psychology in which two different types of stimuli must be discriminated. We describe several of these areas and the advantages that can be realized through the application of SDT. Three of the most popular tasks used to study discriminability are then discussed, together with the measures that SDT prescribes for quantifying performance in these tasks. Mathematical formulae for the measures are presented, as are methods for calculating the measures with lookup tables, computer software specifically developed for SDT applications, and general purpose computer software (including spreadsheets and statistical analysis software).     

Visual selection mediated by location: Feature-based selection of noncontiguous locations

Experiments using two different methods and three types of stimuli tested whether stimuli at nonadjacent locations could be selected simultaneously. In one set of experiments, subjects attended to red digits presented in multiple frames with green digits. Accuracy was no better when red digits appeared successively than when pairs of red digits occurred simultaneously, implying allocation of attention to the two locations simultaneously. Different tasks involving oriented grating stimuli produced the same result. The final experiment demonstrated split attention with an array of spatial probes. When the probe at one of two target locations was correctly reported, the probe at the other target location was more often reported correctly than were any of the probes at distractor locations, including those between the targets. Together, these experiments provide strong converging evidence that when two targets are easily discriminated from distractors by a basic property, spatial attention can be split across both locations.     

Single-gender group psychotherapy: A “women's group” for adolescent inpatients

This paper describes an attempt at forming and conducting a unique single-gender psychotherapy group with severely disturbed female adolescents on a long-term, psychotherapeutically oriented co-ed inpatient unit. The focus of this group was assisting the female patients in negotiating the tasks and conflicts specific to their gender and developmental stage. The therapeutic approach and the role of female coleaders are described, emphasizing particular modifications made to meet the needs of this group. Clinical examples are offered to high-light salient group themes of identity formation and separation and individuation. Finally, group therapeutic factors specifically enhanced by single gender membership are discussed and observations regarding the group/milieu interface are explored.     

Critique of “the dream in group therapy: A reappraisal of unconscious processes in groups” by Peter J. Schlachet,Ph.D.

This commentary is on an article published inGROUP,16(4), 1992.