Visual Elaboration Scale as a measure of imagery

We studied the correlation of one measure of imagery ability, the Visual Elaboration Scale, with two others, absorption of image and effort required to form a mental image. Significant correlations were obtained between the Visual Elaboration Scale and the other scales, with the exception of Absorption for women.     

The association between intelligence level and brain volume measures: a negative finding

Ratings of pre-morbid intelligence level, derived from the hospital charts of 26 chronic schizophrenics, were correlated with the post-mortem brain volume measures of cortex, white matter, central grey matter, and ventricles. Contrary to hypothesis, no significant correlations were found.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE PERCEPTIONS AND PAY SATISFACTION

A study was conducted with 104 hospital employees to assess the relationship between pay-for-performance perceptions and pay satisfaction. Unlike previous research examining this relationship, a multi-item measure of pay-for-performance perceptions and a multidimensional measure of pay satisfaction were used. As hypothesized, the results indicated a positive relationship between pay-for-performance perceptions and pay-raise satisfaction, pay-level satisfaction, and overall pay satisfaction even after the effects of salary level, salary increases, performance ratings, job tenure, job satisfaction, and promotions were controlled. The importance of gathering perceptual data on characteristics of the pay system believed to have differential relationships with the subdimensions of pay satisfaction are discussed.     

Hemispheric dominance inferred from Your Style of Learning and Thinking on reports of Necker cube reversals and maze learning

30 subjects volunteered from three sources: community adults (M age = 32.8, SD = 13.4), college adults (M age = 23.8, SD = 8.3), and children (M age = 9.5, SD = 1.7) and were categorized as 'left-' and 'right-dominant' by scores on Your Style of Thinking and Learning. They reported the number of Necker cube reversals perceived in 90 sec., attempted to locate four embedded figures, and blindly traversed a 16-choice point finger maze in that order. 'Right-dominant' subjects located more embedded figures and made fewer errors on the finger maze than did 'left-dominant' subjects. College adults reported more Necker cube reversals than did community adults and children, and community adults reported more reversals than did children. Confounds of performance measures with fatigue and/or practice require further research.     

Effect of reaction time condition on EMG activities of the biceps brachii muscle in elbow flexion and forearm supination

Under simple- and choice-RT conditions, the biceps brachii muscle was examined in 8 healthy male subjects to determine how the temporal and spatial characteristics of elbow flexion and forearm supination differed at the initial phase of EMG activity and whether preparation or the presence of response uncertainty influenced the EMG outputs of the two movements. In the simple-RT condition, RT of supination was significantly faster than that of flexion but EMG activity of supination was less than that of flexion. In contrast, in the choice-RT condition, RT of flexion was significantly faster than that of supination but EMG activity of flexion was significantly reduced compared to supination. These findings indicate that advanced preparation or motor set facilitates the differentiation of RTs and EMG activities of the response movements and that response uncertainty causes a significant change in the temporal and spatial specificity of both elbow flexion and forearm supination.     

Sample size determinations for the two rater kappa statistic

This paper gives a method for determining a sample size that will achieve a prespecified bound on confidence interval width for the interrater agreement measure,. The same results can be used when a prespecified power is desired for testing hypotheses about the value of kappa. An example from the literature is used to illustrate the methods proposed here.