Psychometric evaluation of the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue scale for use with pregnant and postpartum women

Although fatigue is a common experience for pregnant women and new mothers, few measures of fatigue have been validated for use with this population. To address this gap, the authors assessed psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue (MAF) scale, which was used in 2 independent samples of pregnant women. Results indicated that the psychometric properties of the scale were very similar across samples and time points. The scale possesses a high level of internal consistency, has good convergent validity with measures of sleep quality and depression, and discriminates well from a measure of social support. Contrary to previous evaluations of the MAF, data strongly suggest that the scale represents a unidimensional construct best represented by a single factor. Results indicate that the MAF is a useful measure of fatigue among pregnant and postpartum women.     

Validation and error in multiplicative utility functions

An approach to the concept of error in utility assessment is proposed. Four kinds of errors are considered and each kind is related to four separate elicitation methods - all in the context of a general multiplicative multiattribute utility model. The methods are a Keeney-Raiffa (1976) procedure; SMART, for Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (Edwards 1977); SJT, for a Social Judgment Theory based regression model (Hammond et al. 1975); and HOPE, for Holistic Orthogonal Parameter Estimation (Barron and Person 1979).The individual judgments elicited are either holistic - in which the entity to be evaluated is considered as a whole - or decomposed - in which attention is directed to one or two aspects at a time.If a general multiplicative model can be assumed to be an appropriate representation of the decision maker's basic preference structure, error can occur in the direct estimation of the scaling constants and univariate utility functions for decomposition methods (Keeney-Raiffa and SMART), or in the holistic assessments for holistic methods (SJT and HOPE). Individual estimates may be merely subject to random noise or may be substantially incorrect. The utility model may be incorrectly specified; finally, all four methods may be subject to systematic error. The four assessment methods are considered in conjunction with errors of each kind.     

Selecting K of N alternatives

In some decision contexts (e.g. graduate admissions) the task to select a subset of k distinct alternatives from among the N > k > 1 options available. For moderate values of N and k, the number of possible subsets of size k becomes quite large. Assuming alternatives are evaluated using consistent, though not explicit weights, selecting k, rather than 1, empirically excludes a substantial proportion (more than 80%) of the subsets; unfortunately to the unaided decision maker it is not obvious which subsets should be excluded. The tendency of subjects to select excludable subsets can be called an ‘infeasibility’ bias. The experimental evidence surprisingly shows no ‘infeasibility’ bias, as subjects overwhelmingly chose non-excluded selections.     

‘See it doesn’t look pretty does it?’ Young adults’ airbrushed drinking practices on Facebook

A range of negative health outcomes are associated with young adults’ drinking practices. One key arena where images of, and interaction about, drinking practices occurs is social networking sites, particularly Facebook. This study investigated the ways in which young adults’ talked about and understood their uses of Facebook within their drinking practices. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven New Zealand young adults as they displayed, navigated and talked about their Facebook pages and drinking behaviours. Our social constructionist thematic analysis identified three major themes, namely ‘friendship group belonging’, ‘balanced self-display’ and ‘absences in positive photos’. Drinking photos reinforced friendship group relationships but time and effort was required to limit drunken photo displays to maintain an overall attractive online identity. Positive photos prompted discussion of negative drinking events which were not explicitly represented. Together these understandings of drinking photos function to delimit socially appropriate online drinking displays, effectively ‘airbrushing’ these visual depictions of young adults’ drinking as always pleasurable and without negative consequences. We consider the implications of these findings for ways alcohol health initiatives may intervene to reframe ‘airbrushed’ drinking representations on Facebook and provoke a deeper awareness among young people of drinking practices and their online displays.     

Cognitive control of saccadic eye movements

The saccadic eye movement system provides researchers with a powerful tool with which to explore the cognitive control of behaviour. It is a behavioural system whose limited output can be measured with exceptional precision, and whose input can be controlled and manipulated in subtle ways. A range of cognitive processes (notably those involved in working memory and attention) have been shown to influence saccade parameters. Researchers interested in the relationship between cognitive function and psychiatric disorders have made extensive use of saccadic eye movement tasks to draw inferences as to the cognitive deficits associated with particular psychopathologies. The purpose of this review is to provide researchers with an overview of the research literature documenting cognitive involvement in saccadic tasks in healthy controls. An appreciation of this literature provides a solid background against which to interpret the deficits on saccadic tasks demonstrated in patient populations.     

The effect of gaze cues on attention to print advertisements

Print advertisements often employ images of humans whose gaze may be focussed on an object or region within the advertisement. Gaze cues are powerful factors in determining the focus of our attention, but there have been no systematic studies exploring the impact of gaze cues on attention to print advertisements. We tracked participants' eyes whilst they read an on‐screen magazine containing advertisements in which the model either looked at the product being advertised or towards the viewer. When the model's gaze was directed at the product, participants spent longer looking at the product, the brand logo and the rest of the advertisement compared to when the model's gaze was directed towards the viewer. These results demonstrate that the focus of reader's attention can be readily manipulated by gaze cues provided by models in advertisements, and that these influences go beyond simply drawing attention to the cued area of the advertisement. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hypnotic suggestibility,cognitive inhibition,and dissociation

We examined two potential correlates of hypnotic suggestibility: dissociation and cognitive inhibition. Dissociation is the foundation of two of the major theories of hypnosis and other theories commonly postulate that hypnotic responding is a result of attentional abilities (including inhibition). Participants were administered the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form C. Under the guise of an unrelated study, 180 of these participants also completed: a version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale that is normally distributed in non-clinical populations; a latent inhibition task, a spatial negative priming task, and a memory task designed to measure negative priming. The data ruled out even moderate correlations between hypnotic suggestibility and all the measures of dissociation and cognitive inhibition overall, though they also indicated gender differences. The results are a challenge for existing theories of hypnosis.     

What limits children's working memory span? Theoretical accounts and applications for scholastic development.

Explanations of working memory span in children were studied in a longitudinal follow-up of J. N. Towse, G. J. Hitch, and U. Hutton (1998). Reading span and operation span were lower when within-task retention intervals were lengthened. For each task, variation in span between test waves and age cohorts was systematically related to changes in processing speed. The two spans explained substantial shared variance in both reading and arithmetic scores, with some evidence for domain specificity. Combined span scores predicted unique variance in scholastic attainment over a 1-year interval. The authors concluded that working memory span is constrained by rapid loss of active codes and is not simply a measure of capacity for resource sharing. Working memory is also implicated in scholastic development.