Where am I? Distal cues use requires sensitivity to start location change in the rat

Place learning is impaired when a single plus maze is moved between adjacent locations 33-120 cm apart. This maze translation creates distinct start locations but maintains a single goal location with respect to distal cues. Hippocampal cell recording data suggest the majority of place fields are tied to apparatus boundaries, not to distal cues, when an apparatus is moved these distances to the left or right. Thus, rats may fail to appreciate the existence of multiple start locations with respect to distal cues when the maze is moved in this way and their start location on the surface is constant. Performance on the single plus maze problem was improved when texture cues were correlated with different start locations. Place learning was supported when multiple start locations were provided on a single large surface (double plus maze), even though rats did not explore the entire surface. Place learning was also supported when random extensions were added to a double plus maze such that start locations, relative to surface boundaries, were not informative as to goal location. This outcome suggests sensitivity to multiple start locations is required for distal cue use in translational place problems.     

Non-lateralised deficits of drawing production in hemispatial neglect

Spatially lateralised deficits that typically define the hemispatial neglect syndrome have been shown to co-occur with other non-lateralised deficits of attention, memory, and drawing. However even a simple graphic task involves multiple planning components, including the specification of drawing start position and drawing direction. In order to investigate the influence of these factors in neglect we presented patients with a circle-copying task, and specified the drawing start point. The ability to draw from the instructed location was strongly related to tests that measure constructional abilities, but not related to start point laterality. In contrast, the direction in which patients drew the circle was affected by start point laterality: patients with neglect were less likely to draw in a typical direction when the cue was on the affected side of space and this was strongly related to severity of the neglect. Patients with neglect consistently produced circles that were smaller than the model; however, the scaling was not affected by the laterality of the start point, nor was the proportion of drawings correctly started at the cue. These findings demonstrate the complex relationship between neglect and even the simplest test for the syndrome.     

Assessing the multidimensional and hierarchical structure of SERVQUAL

Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry introduced SERVQUAL in 1998 as a scale to measure service quality. Since then, researchers have proposed several variations. This study examines the development of the tool. Marketing researchers have first challenged the conceptualization of a perceptions-expectations gap and have concluded that the performance-based measures are adequate to capture consumers' perception of service quality. Some researchers have argued that the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL scale only focus on the process of service delivery and have extended the SERVQUAL scale into six dimensions by including the service outcome dimension. Others have proposed that service quality is a multilevel construct and should be measured accordingly. From a sample of 467 undergraduate students data on service quality toward up-scale restaurants were collected. Using the structural equation approach, two measurement models of service quality were compared, the extended SERVQUAL model and the restructured multilevel SERVQUAL model. Analysis suggested that the latter model fits the data better than the extended one.     

An open trial of cognitive therapy for chronic insomnia

We describe the development of a cognitive therapy intervention for chronic insomnia. The therapy is based on a cognitive model which suggests that the processes that maintain insomnia include: (1) worry and rumination, (2) attentional bias and monitoring for sleep-related threat, (3) unhelpful beliefs about sleep, (4) misperception of sleep and daytime deficits and (5) the use of safety behaviors that maintain unhelpful beliefs. The aim of cognitive therapy for insomnia is to reverse all five maintaining processes during both the night and the day. In an open trial 19 patients meeting diagnostic criteria for primary insomnia were treated with cognitive therapy for insomnia. Assessments were completed pretreatment, posttreatment and at 3-, 6- and 12-month followup. The significant improvement in both nighttime and daytime impairment evident at the posttreatment assessment was retained up to the 12 month followup.     

Depression, self-esteem, and anger in emerging adulthood: seven-year trajectories

This study used a school-based community sample (N=920) to examine trajectories of depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and expressed anger in the critical years of emerging adulthood (ages 18-25). Using data from 5 waves, the authors discovered that multilevel models indicated that, on average, depressive symptoms and expressed anger declined, whereas self-esteem increased. Between-persons predictors of variability in trajectories included gender (gender gaps in depressive symptoms and self-esteem narrowed), parents' education, and conflict with parents (depressive symptoms and expressed anger improved fastest in participants with highly educated parents and in those with higher conflict). Across time, increases in social support and marriage were associated with increased psychological well-being, whereas longer periods of unemployment were connected with higher depression and lower self-esteem. Emerging adulthood is a time of improving psychological well-being, but individual trajectories depend on specific individual and family characteristics as well as role changes.     

Role of the serotonin 5-HT(2A) receptor in learning

This study reviews the role of the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor in learning as measured by the acquisition of the rabbit's classically conditioning nictitating membrane response, a component of the eyeblink response. Agonists at the 5-HT2A receptor including LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) enhanced associative learning at doses that produce cognitive effects in humans. Some antagonists such as BOL (d-bromolysergic acid diethylamide), LY53,857, and ketanserin acted as neutral antagonists in that they had no effect on learning, whereas others (MDL11,939, ritanserin, and mianserin) acted as inverse agonists in that they retarded learning through an action at the 5-HT2A receptor. These results were placed in the context of what is known concerning the anatomical distribution and electrophysiological effects of 5-HT2A receptor activation in frontal cortex and hippocampus, as well as the role of cortical 5-HT2A receptors in schizophrenia. It was concluded that the 5-HT2A receptor demonstrates constitutive activity, and that variations in this activity can produce profound alterations in cognitive states.     

Development of a new critical thinking test using item response theory

The authors describe the initial development of the Wagner Assessment Test (WAT), an instrument designed to assess critical thinking, using the 5-faceted view popularized by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA; G. B. Watson & E. M. Glaser, 1980). The WAT was designed to reduce the degree of successful guessing relative to the WGCTA by increasing the number of response alternatives (i.e., 80% of WGCTA items are 2-alternative, multiple-choice), a change that was hypothesized to result in more desirable test information and standard-error functions. Analyses using the 3-parameter logistic item response theory (IRT) model in a sample of undergraduates (N = 407) supported this prediction, even when the WAT item pool was shortened to match the length of the WGCTA. Convergent validity between full-pool IRT score estimates was r = .69. Implications for subsequent research on IRT-based measurement of critical thinking are discussed.     

The clinical aspects of newborn screening: importance of newborn screening follow-up

The aim of newborn screening is to identify presymptomatic healthy infants that will develop significant metabolic or endocrine derangements if left undiagnosed and untreated. The goal of ultimately reducing or eliminating irreversible sequelae is reached by maximizing test sensitivity of the primary newborn screening that measures specific analytes by a number of methodologies. Differentiation of true from false negatives is accomplished by the test specificity. This review discusses disorders for which, in general, there are available therapies and that are detected by routine and expanded newborn screening. Recommendations are presented for evaluation by a primary care physician, with confirmation by a metabolic or endocrinology specialist. Disorders are organized in tabular format by class of pathway or analyte, with attention to typical clinical presentations, confirmatory biochemical and molecular tests, and therapies. There are numerous challenges in clinical follow-up, including diagnosis and appropriate understanding of the consequences of the disorders. The data required to meet these challenges can be acquired only by large scale longitudinal comprehensive studies of outcome in children identified by newborn screening. Only with such data can newborn screening fully serve families.     

Stroop-like serial position effects in color naming of words and nonwords

Color-naming latencies to noncolor words and nonwords were faster when the onset or final phoneme of the displays corresponded to the onset or final phoneme of the color response. For example, for displays printed in red, the word rack and nonword rask, which share the initial onset phoneme with the response, led to faster naming than did the control word chap and nonword chup. Conversely, when the onset or final phoneme of the displays matched the onset or final phoneme of a conflicting color response (e.g., rack printed in blue), latencies were longer than to control items. Facilitation effects were stronger than interference effects, and the onset phoneme facilitation effect was augmented by coloring only the initial letter in the display. It is hypothesized that nonlexical processes that govern the translation of print to speech may be a source of facilitation in Stroop-like tasks, whereas lexical processes are more likely to contribute to interference.