Diagnostic validity statistics and the MCMI-III

This article (a) describes and illustrates the nonredundant and clinically important information that may be obtained from 5 diagnostic validity statistics (DVSs): incremental validities of positive and negative test diagnoses, Cohen's kappas, Cohen's effect sizes, and areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and (b) determines values of these DVSs for 24 Million Multiaxial Clinical Inventory III scales from results reported in 1994 and 1997 validity studies. The DVSs for the 1997 study (T. Millon, R. Davis, & C. Millon, 1997) were often more than 3 times larger than corresponding DVSs for the 1994 study (T. Millon, 1994). The author suggests these large differences could reflect not only effects of factors that caused underestimation of validities by DVSs of the 1994 study, but also effects of factors that may have caused overestimation of validities by DVSs of the 1997 study.     

Sentence processing deficits in two Cantonese aphasic patients

This paper reports the performances of two Cantonese aphasics on tasks examining their sentence processing deficits. The data on sentence comprehension show that thematically noncanonical sentences, full passives, and subject-gap sentences present greater difficulty to these patients than canonical sentences, truncated passives, and object-gap sentences, respectively. These patterns are consistent with previous observations on Chinese aphasics and are expected given the structural differences between Chinese and English. In a Cantonese grammaticality judgment test, a set of structures are identified that can elicit clear judgments from normal subjects and aphasics, contrary to the claim that grammaticality judgments in Chinese are probabilistic and fragile. Most interestingly, the patients' overall performance patterns reveal a double dissociation between sentence comprehension and judgment of sentence well-formedness, suggesting that the two tasks are supported by independent processing mechanisms.     

The role of reinforcement contingencies in chronic alcoholism: An experimental analysis of one case

investigators have questioned chronic alcoholics and round that some of them have returned to normal social drinking (Davies, 1962; Lemere, 1953; Nørvig and Nielsen, 1956; Selzer and Holloway. 1957; and Shea, 1954). These findings would seem inconsistent with such notions as loss of control or craving as the basis of compulsive drinking. Moreover, antecedents and consequences of these explanatory constructs, have not been elucidated. The purpose of this research was to make an intensive study of a single subject to see if specific conditions could be identified under which a chronic alcoholic's drinking could be controlled, in a setting in which environmental variables could be systematically varied and drinking behavior documented.     

On the relation between maternal state of mind and sensitivity in the prediction of infant attachment security

Attachment theorists assume that maternal mental representations influence responsivity, which influences infant attachment security. However, primary studies do not support this mediation model. The authors tested mediation using 2 mother-infant samples and found no evidence of mediation. Therefore, the authors explored sensitivity as a moderator, studying the (a) interaction of mental representation and sensitivity as it predicts infant attachment security and (b) level of sensitivity in mothers whose infants' attachment security is either concordant or discordant with their own. The interactional analyses were not significant. But the match-mismatch data showed that when mother-infant attachment strategies were discordant, maternal sensitivity was more consistent with infant than maternal attachment strategy. These findings are congruent with an interpretation of sensitivity as a moderator that can block transmission of attachment strategy.     

How Should a Speech Recognizer Work?

Although researchers studying human speech recognition (HSR) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) share a common interest in how information processing systems (human or machine) recognize spoken language, there is little communication between the two disciplines. We suggest that this lack of communication follows largely from the fact that research in these related fields has focused on the mechanics of how speech can be recognized. In Marr's (1982) terms, emphasis has been on the algorithmic and implementational levels rather than on the computational level. In this article, we provide a computational-level analysis of the task of speech recognition, which reveals the close parallels between research concerned with HSR and ASR. We illustrate this relation by presenting a new computational model of human spoken-word recognition, built using techniques from the field of ASR that, in contrast to current existing models of HSR, recognizes words from real speech input.     

Visual analogue scale correlates of musculoskeletal fatigue

Visual analogue scale has been shown to reflect subjective feelings but rarely has it been used for musculoskeletal fatigue so in the present study VAS ratings were used to quantify musculoskeletal fatigue. A total of 20 students underwent a fatigue protocol (M age=21.3 yr., SD= 1.0). A series of randomized external loads at 0, 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, and 50% of the maximum voluntary contraction was generated by the BTE Primus and applied at the distal end of the dominant arm, which was sustained at the 90 degrees forward flexion position. After 60 sec. of force exertion for each loading, the subject marked the scale to reflect their extent of fatigue at the shoulder muscle. Analysis showed fatigue scores were significantly correlated with the percentages of maximum load applied (r =.73, p < or = .01). The correlation between higher external loads (25-50% maximum load) and fatigue scores was .57 (p < or = .01) and that for lower external loads (0-15% maximum load) was .44 (p < or = .01). The validity of using a visual analogue scale as a measure of musculoskeletal fatigue requires further study, particularly for a low load.     

Biases of success rate differences shown in binomial effect size displays

The intent of a binomial effect size display (BESD) is to show "the [real-world] importance of [an] effect indexed by a correlation [r]" (R. Rosenthal, 1994, p. 242) by reexpressing this correlation as a success rate difference (SRD) (e.g., treatment group success rate-control group success rate). However, SRDs displayed in BESDs generally overestimate real-world SRDs implied by correlations of (a) dichotomous X and Y variables (phi coefficients), (b) dichotomous X and continuous Y variables (point-biserial coefficients [rpbs]). and (c) continuous X and Y variables (rxys). Furthermore, overestimation biases are larger for rxys than for rpbs. Differences in the sizes of biases linked to different correlations suggest that BESD SRDs reported for different correlations are not comparable. The stochastic difference index (N. Cliff, 1993: A. Vargha & H. D. Delaney, 2000) is recommended as an alternative to the BESD.     

Reducing conflicts between motor vehicles and pedestrians: the separate and combined effects of pavement markings and a sign prompt

The effects of a symbolic "yield here to pedestrians" sign and advance yield pavement markings on pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts, motorists' yielding behavior, and the distance motorists' yield in advance of crosswalks were evaluated at multilane crosswalks at uncontrolled T intersections. In Experiment 1, the sign, when used alone, reduced pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and increased motorist yielding distance. The use of fluorescent yellow-green sheeting as the background of the sign did not increase the effectiveness of the sign. Further reductions in pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and further increases in yielding distance were associated with the addition of advance yield pavement markings. In Experiment 2, advance yield pavement markings, when used alone, were as effective in reducing pedestrian/motor vehicle conflicts and increasing yielding distance as the sign combined with pavement markings. These data suggest that the pavement markings were the essential component for reducing conflicts and increasing yielding distance.