Threshold estimation in two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) tasks: The Spearman-Kärber method

The Spearman-Kärber method can be used to estimate the threshold value or difference limen in two-alternative forced-choice tasks. This method yields a simple estimator for the difference limen and its standard error, so that both can be calculated with a pocket calculator. In contrast to previous estimators, the present approach does not require any assumptions about the shape of the true underlying psychometric function. The performance of this new nonparametric estimator is compared with the standard technique of probit analysis. The Spearman-Kärber method appears to be a valuable addition to the toolbox of psychophysical methods, because it is most accurate for estimating the mean (i.e., absolute and difference thresholds) and dispersion of the psychometric function, although it is not optimal for estimating percentile-based parameters of this function.     

Structural Validation of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale

Despite the prolific use of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), there have been no prior studies using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare competing HDRS latent structures. The current study undertakes this task, examining CFAs on 397 older adults on the most stable latent models previously posited and a new rationally derived model by Cole and Motivala. CFAs were evaluated in their original first-order structure and in hierarchically related counterparts. All hierarchical models performed significantly better than their first-order counterparts. Moreover, the hierarchical Cole and Motivala model was significantly better on all comparative criteria than any of the other models. However, none of the tested models obtained sufficient fit with the data suggesting psychometric, scoring, or content limitations of the scale.     

Federal Funds to Train Clinical Psychologists for Work with Underserved Populations: The Bureau of Health Professions Graduate Psychology Education Grants Program

This paper describes the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr) Graduate Psychology Education program (GPE), which supports projects that train health service psychologists for work with underserved populations. BHPr history and funding criteria are discussed, as are those of BHPr's parent organization, the Health Resources Service Administration. BHPr objectives and methods for support of clinical psychology training parallel those that BHPr has used to support training in other heath professions. The paper also describes three psychology internship training programs in academic medical settings that competed successfully for BHPr GPE funding in 2002. The three training projects differ significantly in training rotation sites, target populations with which trainees work, and the other health care professions that partner with psychology in interdisciplinary training—but they are similar in that each project provides an example of a program that effectively satisfied BHPr criteria for expanding psychology's scope of practice with underserved populations.     

Threatening pictures induce shortened time-to-contact estimates

The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (time-to-collision, TTC) is crucial for any mobile animal. In the present study, we report three experiments examining whether higher level cognitive factors, represented by affective value of approaching objects, could affect judgments of TTC. A theory of TTC estimates based purely on the optical variable tau does not predict an influence of the affective value of an approaching object. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared TTC estimates of threatening and neutral pictures that approached our participants on a screen and disappeared from view before a collision would have occurred. Images were taken from the International Affective Picture System. Threatening pictures??in particular, the picture of a frontal attack??were judged to collide earlier than neutral pictures. In Experiment 3, the approaching stimuli were faces with different emotional expressions. TTC tended to be underestimated for angry faces. We discuss these results, considering the roles of affective and cognitive mechanisms modulating TTC estimation and general time perception.     

Relationship of Adult Representations of Childhood Parenting and Personality Tendencies to Adult Stressors and Political Ideology

Undergraduate students in a Southeastern US University (n = 232) responded to an inventory that included retrospective measures of their parents’ style of parenting (authoritarian vs. authoritative) and their own childhood psychological tendencies (insecurity vs. confidence), as well as their adult stressors and political orientation. Authoritative parenting positively correlated with childhood confidence and negatively correlated with both childhood insecurity and adult stressors. Conversely, authoritarian parenting was positively associated with childhood insecurity and adult stressors but was not significantly correlated with childhood confidence. For the most part, parenting styles, early childhood tendencies, and adult stressors were unrelated to adult political ideology, contrary to previous longitudinal research reporting these connections.     

Nonselective motor-level changes associated with selective response inhibition: evidence from response force measurements

In the present study, we examined the effects of selective response inhibition on motor production using response force measures within a task that was based on that of Aron and Verbruggen (Psychological Science, 19, 1146–1153, 2008). In each trial, participants were signaled to respond bimanually with the two index fingers or the two middle fingers. After a short delay, a stop signal was sometimes presented, indicating that one of the two finger responses should be withheld. A given response was slowed when the response on the other hand was stopped, replicating a previously observed stopping interference effect. In addition, the given response was also made more forcefully when the response on the other hand was stopped, indicating that the requirement to stop one activated response has global motor-level consequences for other responses that are to be carried out normally.