The Canberra Longitudinal Study: Design,Aims, Methodology,Outcomes and Recent Empirical Investigations

The first section of this paper describes methodology and major cognitive outcomes of the Canberra Longitudinal Study (CLS). This community study of 1045 Australians aged 70 years or over commenced in 1990. Participants were reassessed on three subsequent occasions. Its major themes were investigations of prevalence of dementia and depression, risk factors, inter-individual variability and instrument development. Over 60 papers arising from the study have been published.

The second section of this paper describes the use of a Factor of Curves (FOC) latent growth model to examine the existence of a common factor responsible for age-related deterioration in cognitive and non-cognitive processes. This analysis is a logical progression in a series of investigations using the Canberra Longitudinal Study into risk factors and correlates of cognitive change using structural equation modeling techniques. The FOC model is described and is used to explore the nature of an hypothesized common factor and to determine its relationship with age, gender, education, pre-morbid intelligence and to the ApoE genotype. Latent growth models were developed for each of reaction time, Symbol Letter Modalities Test (SLMT), Grip strength, self-reported Sensory disability and memory from three waves of data. Second-order latent level slope factors were established based on the individual factor growth curve models. Although a common factor model could be fitted to the data, there is little support that it represents a single common cause.     

Does the burden of the experience sampling method undermine data quality in state body image research?

Despite growing popularity of experience sampling methodology (ESM) for evaluations of state-based components of body image, there have been concerns that the frequent repeated measurement might encourage problematic responding resulting in low data quantity and/or quality. Using a sample of 105 women (mean age = 24.84), this study used multilevel modelling to investigate whether (a) there were changes in compliance or response variability across a 7-day period, and (b) whether such changes are explained by participant characteristics. Present findings suggest that demands of ESM protocol undermine quantity more so than quality of obtained data. Decline in procedural compliance across the testing period correlated with BMI and body shame, whereas reduced variability in state-based assessments did not adversely impact the strength of association between state body satisfaction ratings and other variables in the dataset. The authors make several recommendations for ensuring the quality of ESM-based data in future studies.     

The Analysis of Character Traits in Group Therapy

The author describes a support group led by two psychiatrists for individuals with AIDS set in the participants' residence, the AIDS Community Residence Association (ACRA) House. Similar to other AIDS groups described in the literature, the residents spoke of existential fears such as losing their physical beauty or intellect. In contrast to the intimate and familial atmosphere of many other AIDS groups, the members' strong sense of invasion by the facilitators and their ongoing ambivalence were striking. This reaction toward the group and the co-leaders appeared to be metaphorically related to the “invasion” of illness and health care workers into their lives. As members better tolerated and expressed these thoughts and feelings, a greater intimacy and sense of “family” emerged.     

Rachel Stutsman,Mental Measurement of Preschool Children (Helen Lois Koch)

Abstract

Rachel Stutsman. Mental Measurement of Preschool Children. Yonkers, N. Y.: World Book Co., 1931. Pp. x+368.     

The Emotional Maturity of Pre- and Post-Menarcheal Girls

The aim of this investigation was to test the hypothesis that early developing adolescent girls have a less favorable attitude towards school than late developers. The Ss were 104 grammar school girls of mean age 14 years 1 month. All Ss were given Fitt's test of attitude towards school. Twenty-two pairs of early and late developers, matched for chronological age, IQ, and social class, were compared with regard to their mean attitude score and their responses to individual items of the attitude scale. The early developers were found to have a significantly less favorable mean attitude score. There was also a tendency for more early developers to endorse unfavorable items and for more late developers to endorse favorable items.     

Mind-body meets metaethics: a moral concept strategy

The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between anti-physicalist arguments in the philosophy of mind and anti-naturalist arguments in metaethics, and to show how the literature on the mind-body problem can inform metaethics. Among the questions we will consider are: (1) whether a moral parallel of the knowledge argument can be constructed to create trouble for naturalists, (2) the relationship between such a “Moral Knowledge Argument” and the familiar Open Question Argument, and (3) how naturalists can respond to the Moral Twin Earth argument. We will give particular attention to recent arguments in the philosophy of mind that aim to show that anti-physicalist arguments can be defused by acknowledging a distinctive kind of conceptual dualism between the phenomenal and the physical. This tactic for evading anti-physicalist arguments has come to be known as the Phenomenal Concept Strategy. We will propose a metaethical version of this strategy, which we shall call the ‘Moral Concept Strategy’. We suggest that the Moral Concept Strategy offers the most promising way out of these anti-naturalist arguments, though significant challenges remain.     

On Being First: Dogma,Disease and Domination in the Rise of an African Church

What might the early institutional history of an indigenous African Church reveal about the institutionalisation of religious innovation? What might findings suggest about the impact of both internal organisational processes and extra-institutional pressures on the routinization of charisma? This article addresses these questions by examining the rise of Christ Apostolic Church, an Aladura church of the Yoruba of Nigeria, and focusing on the interplay of first, the global propagation of Christianity; second, colonial domination; third, symbolic reformulation; and finally, the pursuit of well-being in the face of epidemic disease. This investigation provides a case study of how people negotiate social and natural obstacles while constructing enduring institutional structures. Furthermore, it is argued that, rather than obstructing this religious movement, epidemics, colonial domination and missionary opposition fuelled its transformation into an institutional church.     

Are forward and backward recall the same? A dual-task study of digit recall

There is some debate surrounding the cognitive resources underlying backward digit recall. Some researchers consider it to differ from forward digit recall due to the involvement of executive control, while others suggest that backward recall involves visuospatial resources. Five experiments therefore investigated the role of executive-attentional and visuospatial resources in both forward and backward digit recall. In the first, participants completed visuospatial 0-back and 2-back tasks during the encoding of information to be remembered. The concurrent tasks did not differentially disrupt performance on backward digit recall, relative to forward digit recall. Experiment 2 shifted concurrent load to the recall phase instead and, in this case, revealed a larger effect of both tasks on backward recall, relative to forwards recall, suggesting that backward recall may draw on additional resources during the recall phase and that these resources are visuospatial in nature. Experiments 3 and 4 then further investigated the role of visual processes in forward and backward recall using dynamic visual noise (DVN). In Experiment 3, DVN was presented during encoding of information to be remembered and had no effect upon performance. However, in Experiment 4, it was presented during the recall phase, and the results provided evidence of a role for visual imagery in backward digit recall. These results were replicated in Experiment 5, in which the same list length was used for forward and backward recall tasks. The findings are discussed in terms of both theoretical and practical implications.