The MOS Short-Form General Health Survey: single item vs multiple measures of health-related quality of life: some nuances.

Researchers concluded that Item 2 of the Short-form General Health Survey of the Medical Outcomes Study can be used as a single-item measure of health-related quality of life. This conclusion is tested again on a random sample of elderly people in the Netherlands. Although it can be concluded that the psychometric properties of the short form are satisfactory, the use of the single item as a measure of health-related quality of life is discussed.     

Goal-performance relations: The effects of initial task complexity and task practice

The current study was conducted to examine the effects of task complexity and task practice (trials) on the goal-performance relationship. Specific, difficult goal assignments were predicted to enhance performance on a complex task only in later task practice. On a simpler task, specific, difficult goal assignments were predicted to enhance performance in early task practice and to disrupt performance in later task practice. The results indicated that goals exerted the predicted effects in the simple task version but had no effect in the complex task version. Possible relationships between amount of task practice and stages of skill acquisition are discussed for tasks differing in complexity. The results are also discussed in terms of cognitive resource demands and self-regulatory processes. Implications for the effectiveness of goals in relation to task complexity and task trials are also discussed.This article is based on the senior author's dissertation at the University of Minnesota. We thank Milt Hakel, Allan Jones, and Bart Osburn for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. The authors also wish to thank Phil Ackerman and John Campbell for their insightful comments throughout the research project and other members of the dissertation committee: Rich Arvey, Mark Davisson, and Marvin Dunnette.This research was partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Project LAMP, under the auspices of the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory (contract AFOSR-87-0234) and by a Research Initiation Grant from the University of Houston.Portions of this data were presented at the American Psychological Association Meetings, Atlanta, 1988.     

Quantitative and qualitative analyses of clock drawings in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.

Although visuoconstructive impairment has been reported in both Alzheimer's (DAT) and Huntington's (HD) disease, there is little knowledge concerning how this cognitive deficit differs quantitatively and qualitatively in these two progressive dementias. To address this issue, the present study compared performances on the Clock Drawing Test (CDT: command and copy) of 25 DAT patients, 25 equally demented HD patients, and 25 elderly normal controls (NC). In the command condition, both patients groups were significantly impaired compared to the NC group. Although there was no significant difference between DAT and HD patients' total quantitative scores, a qualitative error analysis revealed a number of dissociations between the two patient groups. Graphic difficulties, very common in HD patients, were virtually absent in DAT patients; in contrast, conceptual errors were almost exclusively seen in DAT patients and were related to the severity of their dementia. Perseveration and "stimulus-bound" responses were also more frequent in DAT patients, and both groups made visuospatial errors. In the copy condition, the DAT, but not the HD, patients evidenced a marked improvement in performance. These results indicate that while both DAT and HD patients have significant visuoconstructive difficulties even in the early stages of their disorders, the specific cognitive processes underlying their quantitative impairments are quite different. It is possible that the DAT patients' conceptual errors are yet another indicator of the deterioration of their semantic knowledge.     

Dominance,sex, and leader emergence

A 3×2×2 incomplete factorial design was employed to test the effects of sex, dominance, and their interaction on leader emergence. The factors included dominance distribution (high/high, high/low, middle/middle), sex (male-female), and dyad composition (mixed sex-same sex). The subjects were all Caucasians and were pretested on the California Psychological Inventory Dominance Scale. The data revealed that dominance was a predictor of leader emergence in same-sex conditions where high-dominant individuals assumed the role of leader in much greater proportions than their low-dominant partners. In mixed-sex dyads, sex appeared to be a more potent predictor with males becoming leaders at levels greater than would be suspected given dominance levels.     

Spatial cognition and neighborhood use: the relationship in older adults.

Measures of spatial cognition, neighborhood knowledge, and neighborhood use from the research described by Walsh, Krauss, and Regnier (1981) were examined to determine if laboratory tests of spatial cognition were significant predictors of older adults' use of their neighborhoods. The overall results show that laboratory-based measures of spatial cognition and subjects' knowledge of their neighborhoods are both significant predictors of their use of neighborhood goods and services. The ability to learn and remember the location and orientation of objects, when contextual cues were not provided at test, was more predictive of the participants' neighborhood use than either the participants' number of years in the neighborhood or their mobility. Spatial memory as measured by the Educational Testing Service Building Memory task predicted neighborhood knowledge, which was predictive of neighborhood use.     

Age-related differences in three tests of visual imagery.

Adult age differences were explored on 3 short tests of the ability to generate and manipulate mental images. Age-related decrements were found in all 3 tests and were especially marked on the Clock Test. The tests are all reliable, as shown by test-retest reliability coefficients. Correlations also revealed that the Brooks Letter Test and the East-West Test appear to tap one common underlying ability, whereas the Clock Test measured a somewhat different ability. The East-West and Clock tests, in particular, may provide rapid and easily administered assessments of age-related changes in aspects of mental imagery.     

Hypnotic susceptibility and its relationship to outcome in the behavioral treatment of asthma: some preliminary data

12 subjects from an experiment on relaxation therapy for asthma were given the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Full scale hypnotic susceptibility scores were positively correlated, at a borderline significance, with improvement in the methacholine challenge test, a measure of asthma severity. Performance on the amnesia item of the Harvard Group Scale was correlated with improvement in self-reported symptoms of asthma.     

Human optokinetic nystagmus: competition between stationary and moving displays

We reported earlier that occlusion of the central retina and stationary edges have highly interactive effects on the gain of optokinetic nystagmus (OKN; Murasugi, Howard, & Ohmi, 1986). In this study, we explored this effect in more detail. A central occluding band of variable height, flanked by vertical bars, was superimposed onto an array of dots moving at 30 degrees per second. The height of the occluding band required to abolish OKN increased with the separation of the vertical bars. For bars 3.5 degrees apart, OKN was abolished in most subjects when a band only 6' high ran between them. For bars 75 degrees apart, a band at least 20 degrees in height was required to abolish the response. The effects of the stationary figure depended to some extent on the subject's attention, but only at intermediate values of bar separation. Both low- and high-level mechanisms are proposed to account for the results.