Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS): Preliminary Australian normative data

The aim of the present study was to establish demographically adjusted normative data for the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) in an Australian context. RBANS data from 172 healthy Australian community dwelling adults enrolled in the “Using our Brains” (UoB) Brain Tissue Donor program between April 2002 and September 2005 were included in this study. The present study group differed from the original North American normative sample on all 12 subtests and five RBANS indices. Education and to a lesser degree age were related to RBANS performance. The present study provides complementary RBANS normative data for clinicians and researchers when interpreting RBANS results for Australian individuals closely matching those reported in this study.     

Loneliness and life satisfaction of boys with developmental coordination disorder: the impact of leisure participation and perceived freedom in leisure

A theoretical model linking motor ability with perceived freedom in leisure, participation in team sports, loneliness, and global life satisfaction was tested using linear confirmatory path analysis. Participants were 173 boys aged 10-13 years who filled in self-report questionnaires about perceived freedom in leisure, loneliness, and global life satisfaction. Parents of boys completed 7-day diaries and 12-month retrospective recall questionnaires about their son's leisure-time activity participation. Results of path analyses confirmed that the fit of the hypothetical model was consistent with predictions. The inferred direct pathways of influence between both total loneliness and global life satisfaction on motor ability were in the expected directions (i.e., inverse and positive relationships, respectively). Perceived Freedom in Leisure (PFL) and participation in team sports were two intermediate variables indirectly influencing these relationships. Although PFL was identified as a motivational process influencing participation levels in team sports it was noted that other psychological and environmental factors must also be considered when evaluating child-activity-environment fit for boys with developmental coordination disorder.     

Clarifying the nature of the distinctiveness by domain interaction in conceptual structure: comment on Cree, McNorgan, and McRae (2006)

The conceptual structure account of semantic memory (CSA; L. K. Tyler & H. E. Moss, 2001) claims that feature correlation (the degree to which features co-occur) and feature distinctiveness (the number of concepts in which a feature occurs) interact with domains of knowledge (e.g., living vs. nonliving) such that the distinctive features of nonliving things are more highly correlated than the distinctive features of living things. Evidence for (B. Randall, H. E. Moss, J. M. Rodd, M. Greer, & L. K. Tyler, 2004) and against this claim (G. S. Cree, C. McNorgan, & K. McRae, 2006) has been reported. This comment outlines the CSA, discusses Cree et al.'s (2006) critiques of the Randall et al. (2004) experiments and the CSA, and reports new analyses of property norm and behavioral data, which replicate the results reported by Randall et al. (2004).     

Acoustic interactions in broods of nestling birds (Tachycineta bicolor)

Studies of acoustic interactions in animal groups, such as chorusing insects, anurans, and birds, have been invaluable in showing how cooperation and competition shape signal structure and use. The begging calls of nestling birds are ideal for such studies, because they function both as a cooperative signals of the brood's needs and as competitive signals for parental allocation within the brood. Nonetheless, studies of acoustic interactions among nestlings are rare. Here we review our work on acoustic interactions in nestling tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor), especially how calls are used in competition for parental feedings. Nestlings attracted parental attention and responded to acoustic interference mainly by increasing call output. However, nestlings also gave more similar calls when they called together and decreased their call bandwidth when exposed to elevated noise. We suggest that these competitive uses of calls might intensify the cooperative brood signal, affecting both parental provisioning and vocal development. Given their tremendous variation across species, begging calls offer promising opportunities for developmental and comparative studies of acoustic signaling.     

Webbing the Common Good: Virtual Environment,Incarnated Community,and Education for the Reign of God

Abstract. Online technologies, recently embraced by seminaries to respond to changing student needs and demographics, compel practitioners to ask questions about the content, methods, and desired outcomes of teaching/learning experiences. Indeed, as Delamarter and Brunner have pointed out in this journal (2005), many seminaries have turned to these strategies only to find that the issues are not technological; rather, they are pedagogical. This article discusses the insights generated by one such teaching experiment, a hybrid course on religious education for social justice. Through this educational experiment, the professor and students discovered that the format of the hybrid course proved to be an effective means by which to promote the praxis of social justice as well as develop some of the skills essential for effective ministry and education. The article begins with the rationale of the course design and content and continues with the perspectives of the students and instructor in reflection on the experiment. It concludes with some preliminary insights into the potential usefulness of hybrid learning for both peace and justice education as well as its value in the overall formation of educators and ministers.     

Moral Responsibility and the Irrelevance of Physics: Fischer’s Semi-compatibilism vs. Anti-fundamentalism

The paper argues that it is possible for an incompatibilist to accept John Martin Fischer’s plausible insistence that the question whether we are morally responsible agents ought not to depend on whether the laws of physics turn out to be deterministic or merely probabilistic. The incompatibilist should do so by rejecting the fundamentalism which entails that the question whether determinism is true is a question merely about the nature of the basic physical laws. It is argued that this is a better option for ensuring the irrelevance of physics than the embrace of semi-compatibilism, since there are reasons for supposing that alternate possibilities are necessary for moral responsibility, despite Fischer’s claims to the contrary. There are two distinct reasons for supposing that alternate possibilities might be necessary for moral responsibility—one of which is to do with fairness, the other to do with agency itself. It is suggested that if one focuses on the second of these reasons, Fischer’s arguments for supposing that alternate possibilities are unnecessary for moral responsibility can be met by the incompatibilist. Some possible reasons for denying that alternate possibilities are necessary for the existence of agency are then raised and rejected.

Factor analysis of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire in adults with atopic dermatitis

The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ-R) in adult participants with atopic dermatitis (AD). Two hundred and eighty-four participants who had a GP or dermatologist confirmed diagnosis of AD completed the IPQ-R. The factor structure of the IPQ-R was examined using confirmatory (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results of the CFA did not indicate a good comparative fit with the IPQ-R subscales, while the EFA and a fixed six-factor principal components analysis largely replicated the original factor structure of the IPQ-R. The existence of the acute/chronic and cyclical timeline dimensions, and the illness coherence subscale was most strongly supported, while all items of the consequences and emotional representation subscales consistently loaded onto one factor. The EFA for causal attributions did not produce a stable solution. The findings indicate that although the factor structure of the IPQ-R was not confirmed in the sample of patients with AD using CFA, it was partly reproduced using EFA. Overall, the results suggest that in patients with AD the IPQ-R, in particular the consequences and emotional representations subscales, should be employed and interpreted with care.     

The course of depression 10-weeks post-acute coronary syndrome: assessment using the cardiac depression visual analogue scale

This study investigated depressed mood post-acute coronary syndrome in an Australian sample using the Cardiac Depression Visual Analogue Scale (CD-VAS), which was developed to assess the depression-related symptoms of reduced pleasure, memory, activity, future pessimism, increased irritation and sleep problems. The Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS) and a demographic medical questionnaire were administered at 2 weeks post-ACS to an initial sample of 13 female and 45 male participants whose mean age was 59.16 (SD=11.13) years (range 38-79). Depressed and non-depressed participants, determined by the CDS, then kept a CD-VAS diary between 2 and 12 weeks. 32 participants kept the diary for the entire 10 weeks. Total CD-VAS scores remained elevated in the depressed group for the entire period. The groups differed on the Pleasure, Memory and Future items for a total of 6, 6 and 5 weeks, respectively, and differed on the Activity item only at 1, 3 and 5 weeks. No group differences were seen in the Irritation or Sleep items. Within the depressed group, the only CD-VAS items that differed from each other across time were Irritation and Activity. Further, the Sleep, Irritation and Activity items had a significant time effect. These results indicate that although overall depression, as measured by the CD-VAS, remained elevated in the depressed group, there were key differences in recovery rates of specific depression-related symptoms. These differences could be useful indicators in the treatment of depression post-ACS.     

Classical and Modern Methods of Psychological Scale Construction

Scale construction is a growth enterprise in the psychological literature. Unfortunately, many measures promise much but are severely limited by the inadequacies of their conceptualization and execution. In this paper, a model for developing psychological scales is presented that is rooted in the traditions of construct validity and classical test theory but informed by modern psychometric methods. Construct validity is conceptualized as a guiding principle in each of three phases of scale development, focused on (i) construct conceptualization and development of the initial item pool, (ii) item selection and structural validity, and (iii) assessment of external validity vis‐à‐vis other measures and relevant nontest criteria.