Age Differences in Correction of Context-Induced Biases: Source Monitoring and Timing of Accountability

The present study tested strategies to help older adults correct their context-induced biases. Two hundred and seventy-two young and older adults participated in this study. Participants read vignettes about two target persons, with true statements printed in black and false statements (either positive or negative trait information) printed in red. Participants in the no-strategy condition were asked to rate the target persons on the relevant trait scales immediately after reading the vignettes. Participants in the feedback condition took a traditional source memory test and received feedback of correct sources of true and false statements. For the participants in the next two conditions, accountability was induced either before or after they encoded information about the target persons. It was found that the feedback manipulation helped older adults correct their context-induced biases. In addition, accountability induced before encoding helped older adults reduce their context-induced biases, whereas accountability induced after encoding did not help.     

社会认同与内、外群体态度的关系：群际威胁和群体情绪的中介作用

为探究社会认同、群际威胁和群体情绪如何同时影响内、外群体态度,本研究以中日撞船事件为考察蓝本向天津市431名大学生被试进行调查研究,结果发现：国家认同在认同威胁对两种群体态度的总影响和通过群体愤怒的间接影响中都起到负向的调节作用;群际威胁和群体情绪在社会认同与内、外群体态度之间具有显著中介作用。结论：国家认同在对群体态度的影响中起基础性作用,不同群际威胁与不同群体情绪相对应进而影响群体态度。     

G-DINA认知诊断模型在语言测验中的验证

G-DINA模型是DINA 模型的一般化模型,具有补偿性和饱和性两个主要特征。G-DINA模型的补偿性特征契合了语言测验的综合性和多元性,G-DINA模型的饱和性特征则可以比较理想地应对语言技能的抽象性和难区分性。此项研究以代表性的语言测验类型阅读测验为案例,应用G-DINA模型对1029名被试的PISA英语阅读测验结果进行实证分析,证明了两个假设：补偿饱和型认知诊断模型对多元抽象的语言测验的适应程度较高;G-DINA这一新生认知诊断模型可以被用来诊断较为复杂抽象的语言测验,且经得起统计学和语言学理论的双重考验。     

情绪性工作记忆对选择性注意的影响

选取大学本科生33名,采用情绪启动范式与再认范式相结合,要求被试依次完成情绪词识记、目标面孔性别判断及情绪词再认任务,探讨保存于工作记忆中的情绪性刺激对面孔性别判断任务的影响。结果显示:(1)在中性和恐惧情绪启动刺激条件下,被试对目标面孔性别判断的反应时要显著长于悲伤条件。(2)在愉悦情绪启动词条件下,线索提示有效性差异显著;在无效线索提示条件下,启动刺激的不同情绪效价差异显著。(3)对情绪面孔性别与被试性别一致性/非一致性两种条件下反应时对比发现,男、女被试在情绪面孔性别判断任务中均表现出异性相吸效应。综上所述,保存在工作记忆中情绪刺激会对面孔性别的识别产生自上而下的影响。     

流动儿童疏离感的特点及其与应对方式、学校态度的关系

采取整群抽样的方法,对成都及重庆两地591名流动儿童和272名城市儿童进行问卷调查,考察流动儿童疏离感的特点及其与应对方式和学校态度的关系。结果发现:(1)流动儿童疏离感各维度显著高于城市儿童;流动初中生的疏离感显著高于流动小学生,且男生的疏离感显著高于女生;(2)流动儿童疏离感的三个维度之间存在显著差异,其中社会疏离感最高,其次是环境疏离感,人际疏离感最低;(3)流动儿童疏离感对学校喜欢有显著的负向影响,而对学校回避有显著的正向影响;应对方式在流动儿童疏离感对学校态度的影响中起着部分中介作用。     

I can’t stop looking at them: Interactive effects of body mass index and weight dissatisfaction on attention towards body shape photographs

Although attentional biases toward body-related information contribute to the etiology and maintenance of body dissatisfaction (BD) and eating disorders (EDs), attentional disengagement in women with BD and EDs is not clear. The present study investigated the association between weight dissatisfaction and attentional disengagement from body-related pictures and the possible moderating effect of body mass index (BMI) on this relation. Two hundred and four undergraduate women engaged in an experiment using a pictorial spatial cueing paradigm including fat/thin bodies and neutral household photos. Partial correlations and simple slopes regression analyses were conducted with attentional disengagement index scores of each category of cues. Findings suggested that independent of BMI, weight dissatisfaction was directly associated with attentional disengagement from both fat and thin pictures. In addition, among women with low and medium BMIs, the more they were dissatisfied with their bodyweight, the more difficulty they had disengaging their attention from fat body pictures.     

Medical tourism in india: perceptions of physicians in tertiary care hospitals

Senior physicians of modern medicine in India play a key role in shaping policies and public opinion and institutional management. This paper explores their perceptions of medical tourism (MT) within India which is a complex process involving international demands and policy shifts from service to commercialisation of health care for trade, gross domestic profit, and foreign exchange. Through interviews of 91 physicians in tertiary care hospitals in three cities of India, this paper explores four areas of concern: their understanding of MT, their views of the hospitals they work in, perceptions of the value and place of MT in their hospital and their views on the implications of MT for medical care in the country. An overwhelming majority (90%) of physicians in the private tertiary sector and 74.3 percent in the public tertiary sector see huge scope for MT in the private tertiary sector in India. The private tertiary sector physicians were concerned about their patients alone and felt that health of the poor was the responsibility of the state. The public tertiary sector physicians’ however, were sensitive to the problems of the common man and felt responsible. Even though the glamour of hi-tech associated with MT dazzled them, only 35.8 percent wanted MT in their hospitals and a total of 56 percent of them said MT cannot be a public sector priority. 10 percent in the private sector expressed reservations towards MT while the rest demanded state subsidies for MT. The disconnect between their concern for the common man and professionals views on MT was due to the lack of appreciation of the continuum between commercialisation, the denial of resources to public hospitals and shift of subsidies to the private sector. The paper highlights the differences and similarities in the perceptions and context of the two sets of physicians, presents evidence, that questions the support for MT and finally analyzes some key implications of MT on Indian health services, ethical issues emerging out of that and the need for understanding the linkages between public and private sectors for a more effective intervention for an equitable medical care policy.     

Promoting social responsibility amongst health care users: medical tourists’ perspectives on an information sheet regarding ethical concerns in medical tourism

Background

Medical tourists, persons that travel across international borders with the intention to access non-emergency medical care, may not be adequately informed of safety and ethical concerns related to the practice of medical tourism. Researchers indicate that the sources of information frequently used by medical tourists during their decision-making process may be biased and/or lack comprehensive information regarding individual safety and treatment outcomes, as well as potential impacts of the medical tourism industry on third parties. This paper explores the feedback from former Canadian medical tourists regarding the use of an information sheet to address this knowledge gap and raise awareness of the safety and ethical concerns related to medical tourism.

Results

According to feedback provided in interviews with former Canadian medical tourists, the majority of participants responded positively to the information sheet and indicated that this document prompted them to engage in further consideration of these issues. Participants indicated some frustration after reading the information sheet regarding a lack of know-how in terms of learning more about the concerns discussed in the document and changing their decision-making. This frustration was due to participants’ desperation for medical care, a topic which participants frequently discussed regarding ethical concerns related to health care provision.

Conclusions

The overall perceptions of former medical tourists indicate that an information sheet may promote further consideration of ethical concerns of medical tourism. However, given that these interviews were performed with former medical tourists, it remains unknown whether such a document might impact upon the decision-making of prospective medical tourists. Furthermore, participants indicated a need for an additional tool such as a website for continued discussion about these concerns. As such, along with dissemination of the information sheet, future research implications should include the development of a website for ongoing discussion that could contribute to a raised awareness of these concerns and potentially increase social responsibility in the medical tourism industry.

     

“Advice to the medical students in my service”: the rediscovery of a golden book by Jean Hamburger,father of nephrology and of medical humanities

Jean Hamburger (1909–1992) is considered the founder of the concept of medical intensive care (réanimation médicale) and the first to propose the name Nephrology for the branch of medicine dealing with kidney diseases. One of the first kidney grafts in the world (with short-term success), in 1953, and the first dialysis session in France, in 1955, were performed under his guidance. His achievements as a writer were at least comparable: Hamburger was awarded several important literary prizes, including prix Femina, prix Balzac and the Cino del Duca prize (1979), awarded, among others, to Jorge Luis Borges and Konrad Lorenz.Here we would like to offer a selected reading of a “golden” book, “Conseils aux étudiants en medicine de mon service” (“Advice to the Medical Students in my Service”), the first book dedicated to patient-physician relationship in Nephrology, written when dialysis and transplantation were becoming clinical options (1963). The themes include: the central role of the patient, who should be known by name, profession, life style, and not by disease; the importance of the setting of the care; the need for truth-telling and for leaving hope; the role of research not only in the progression of science, but also in the daily clinical practice.