Cross-domain analogies as relating derived relations among two separate relational networks

Contemporary behavior analytic research is making headway in analyzing analogy as the establishment of a relation of coordination among common types of trained or derived relations. Previous studies have been focused on within-domain analogy. The current study expands previous research by analyzing cross-domain analogy as relating relations among separate relational networks and by correlating participants' performance with a standard measure of analogical reasoning. In two experiments, adult participants first completed general intelligence and analogical reasoning tests. Subsequently, they were exposed to a computerized conditional discrimination training procedure designed to create two relational networks, each consisting of two 3-member equivalence classes. The critical test was a two-part analogical test in which participants had to relate combinatorial relations of coordination and distinction between the two relational networks. In Experiment 1, combinatorial relations for each network were individually tested prior to analogical testing, but in Experiment 2 they were not. Across both experiments, 65% of participants passed the analogical test on the first attempt. Moreover, results from the training procedure were strongly correlated with the standard measure of analogical reasoning.     

Choosing among techniques for quantifying single-case intervention effectiveness

If single-case experimental designs are to be used to establish guidelines for evidence-based interventions in clinical and educational settings, numerical values that reflect treatment effect sizes are required. The present study compares four recently developed procedures for quantifying the magnitude of intervention effect using data with known characteristics. Monte Carlo methods were used to generate AB designs data with potential confounding variables (serial dependence, linear and curvilinear trend, and heteroscedasticity between phases) and two types of treatment effect (level and slope change). The results suggest that data features are important for choosing the appropriate procedure and, thus, inspecting the graphed data visually is a necessary initial stage. In the presence of serial dependence or a change in data variability, the nonoverlap of all pairs (NAP) and the slope and level change (SLC) were the only techniques of the four examined that performed adequately. Introducing a data correction step in NAP renders it unaffected by linear trend, as is also the case for the percentage of nonoverlapping corrected data and SLC. The performance of these techniques indicates that professionals' judgments concerning treatment effectiveness can be readily complemented by both visual and statistical analyses. A flowchart to guide selection of techniques according to the data characteristics identified by visual inspection is provided.     

Effect of first ball possession on partial and final scores in 2003, 2005, and 2007 Water Polo World Championships

The purpose was to analyze the influence of winning the first ball possession on the partial and final score in male and female water polo. The 288 matches disputed by the teams participating in the 2003, 2005, and 2007 Water Polo World Championship were recorded. The results reflect statistically significant differences for the influence of gaining the first ball possession on the partial and final scoreboard of each period and for the influence between the total number of first possessions obtained and the final result.     

One more datum on Rorschach form quality

The central purpose of this work is to examine to what extent Form Quality (FQ) scoring of Rorschach responses, using Exner's (2003) Table A, is the reason for lower FQ to often be found in normative data outside the United States. The Rorschach protocols of 180 Portuguese boys and girls between 6 and 10 years of age were codified with respect to Form Quality in accordance with Exner's table of objects classified as ordinary, unusual, and minus, based on frequencies seen among U.S. adults and on an analogous Portuguese table (Table P) constructed from the protocols of 400 nonpatient children. Mean differences between the various FQ variables of the 2 tables were found to be insignificant. However, use of Janson's (2003) iota coefficient to evaluate agreement between the 2 approaches to scoring on the same protocols revealed that the more striking differences occurred in the FQu variable when agreement was assessed on the basis of each individual response. In view of these results, the authors recognize the possibility of Rorschach normative data to be universally applied, but still consider the possible advantage of each country or culture to build its own FQ table that will permit preservation of its particularities.     

Why are auditory novels distracting? Contrasting the roles of novelty, violation of expectation and stimulus change

Past studies show that novel auditory stimuli, presented in the context of an otherwise repeated sound, capture participants’ attention away from a focal task, resulting in measurable behavioral distraction. Novel sounds are traditionally defined as rare and unexpected but past studies have not sought to disentangle these concepts directly. Using a cross-modal oddball task, we contrasted these aspects orthogonally by manipulating the base rate and conditional probabilities of sound events. We report for the first time that behavioral distraction does not result from a sound’s novelty per se but from the violation of the cognitive system’s expectation based on the learning of conditional probabilities and, to some extent, the occurrence of a perceptual change from one sound to another.     

Effectiveness of treatments for social phobia in an applied field

Social phobia is one of the most common disorders and one that requires the most attention from psychological clinics. The aim of this article was to study the effectiveness of psychological treatments in a University Psychological Clinic. Seventy-one social phobia patients requested psychological assistance. The average number of assessment sessions was 3.8 and the average number of treatment sessions was 16.1. Therapeutic success reached 64.2%, withdrawal percentage was 11.3%, and drop-out percentage was 24.5%. The effect size (Cohen's d) achieved in the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD) and Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) were 1.96 and 1.78, respectively. Comparing these results with efficacy research (particularly meta-analysis), it has been shown that the treatment effectiveness achieved is very similar. It is concluded that cognitive behavioural treatments for social phobia can be transferred from research settings to clinical practice.     

Accuracy of diagnosis of depression in patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus

This study assesses the clinical accuracy of physicians (Specialists in Endocrinology and Nutrition: SEN) to make the diagnosis of depression in patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1). This study involved 11 SEN physicians, and 153 patients with DM1. The diagnosis of depression was performed using the SCID-1 structured interview and clinical assessment. From the initial sample, 50 patients were randomly selected (imposing the condition that it was included 25 patients with depression and 25 without depression). The results show that clinicians performed a higher percentage of negative diagnoses (patients without depression) than positive ones (patients with depression). A significant percentage of patients with depression were not diagnosed (25%). It therefore seems necessary to provide adequate clinical protocols to evaluate the presence of this disorder in DM1, as well as continuing research into the diagnostic process for clinical decision making.     

Alexithymia and experimentally induced emotion recognition in people with somatizations

This study is part of an investigation aimed at assessing the cognitive-emotional process of emotional recognition in somatizing patients. The specific objective was to verify whether there were differences in the self-assessment of emotional reaction among patients with somatization and non-clinical controls. To obtain the self-assessment of their emotional reaction in the affective dimensions of valence and activation in clinical and control participants, we resorted to a procedure that minimizes the use of verbal skills and comprehension. Participants were 119 people, 47 patients and 72 non-clinical participants. The prevalence of alexithymia in the clinical group was 42.55%, whereas in non-clinical controls, it was 30.55%. Results showed the existence of a deficit in the clinical group's self-assessment of activation in response to the corresponding images with high levels of the affective dimension of activation and high valence images, associated with the clinical condition but not with alexithymia. Alexithymia has a modulatory effect on the clinical participants' and controls' evaluation of the valence of the unpleasant images or of low valence pictures.     

Utility of a statistical model of cognitive styles in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The purpose of this study was to determine the best statistical model of cognitive styles, based on the MFFT-20, CEFT and Stroop tests to predict attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), analyzing the validity of the model for the diagnosis of the disease. We studied 100 ADHD cases (DSM-IV criteria) and 100 controls, age ranging between 7 and 11 years. Controls were randomly recruited and matched in age, gender and sociodemographic area with ADHD cases. On average, ADHD cases showed more impulsiveness (d: 1.28), less cognitive flexibility (d: 0.91) and more field dependence (d: 1.62) than controls. The logistic regression model that predicts ADHD best is made up of age, CEFT, MFFT-20 and Stroop tests and the formula derived from the model shows 85% sensitivity and 85% specificity for ADHD, regarding the DSM-IV criteria as the standard. The statistical model of cognitive styles presents valid indicators to diagnose ADHD, contributing to an increase in the objectivity of its analysis.     

Higher-order structure in the trajectories of depression and anxiety following sudden involuntary unemployment

Recent work on comorbidity finds evidence for hierarchical structure of mood and anxiety disorders and symptoms. This study tests whether a higher-order internalizing factor accounts for variation in depression and anxiety symptom severity and change over time in a sample experiencing a period of major life stress. Data on symptoms of depression, chronic worry, and social anxiety were collected five times across seven months from 426 individuals who had recently lost jobs. Growth models for each type of symptom found significant variation in individual trajectories. Slopes were highly correlated across symptom type, as were intercepts. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses found evidence for a higher-order internalizing factor for both slopes and intercepts, reflective of comorbidity of depression and anxiety, with the internalizing factor accounting for 54% to 91% of the variance in slopes and intercepts of specific symptom sets, providing evidence for both a general common factor and domain-specific factors characterizing level and change in symptoms. Loadings on the higher order factors differed modestly for men and women, and when comparing African American and White participants, but did not differ by age, education, or history of depression. More distal factors including gender and history of depression were strongly associated with internalizing in the early weeks after job loss, but rates of change in internalizing were associated most strongly with reemployment. Findings suggest that stressors may contribute in different ways to the common internalizing factor as compared to variance in anxiety and depression that is independent of that factor.