Instrumental escape behavior with extended training

Four groups of nine Ss were run in a straight alley shock situation for 240 trials, 30 per day. Ss received either 180- or 300-V shock and interval intervals (ITI) of 30 or 120 sec. On Day 1 of training, the 300-V groups first started faster than the 180-V groups, but then showed considerable adaptation, resulting in approximately equal performance at the end of Day 1. Over all 8 days, the 180-V group started significantly faster than the 300-V group when a 30-sec ITI was used, but the converse when a 120-sec ITI was used. Over all 8 days, the 300-V groups continued to increase in performance, while the 180-V groups showed a decline after Day 4.     

The validity of the Crites model of career maturity

To test the validity of the Crites model of career maturity, career maturity and noncareer maturity measures were administered to 312 ninth graders and to 200 technical college students. Scores on all measures were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. The results show that, as predicted, most of the Career Choice Competencies have more in common with each other than they have with Career Choice Attitudes; Career Choice Competencies are fairly highly positively related to each other; Career Choice Attitudes and Career Choice Competencies have more in common with each other in grade 9 than they do in the post-secondary grades; and there is a relationship between career maturity and sex and race of ninth graders and technical college students. The results do not support the hypothesized multidimensional structure of the Crites model or the hypothesis that variables in the Crites model have more in common with each other than they have with noncareer maturity variables. Discussion includes several possible explanations for failure to support the Crites model, and suggestions for further research.     

Assessing variability in circumplex models of personality

This paper describes a new methodology for assessing variability in circumplex models of personality. Leary's (1957) method for assessing such variability within his system of interpersonal diagnosis is discussed and critiqued. The authors then propose a new methodology, which is (a) consistent with assumptions underlying circumplex orderings of variables, and (b) generalizable to other circumplex models of personality and/or interpersonal communications.     

Family-level impact of the CHAMP Family Program: a community collaborative effort to support urban families and reduce youth HIV risk exposure

This article presents family-level results from an ongoing study examining the impact of the CHAMP (Chicago HIV prevention and Adolescent Mental health Project) Family Program, a family-based HIV preventative intervention meant to reduce the amount of time spent in situations of sexual possibility and delay initiation of sexual activity for urban youth in the 4th and 5th grades living in neighborhoods with high rates of HIV infection. The CHAMP Family Program has been developed, delivered, and overseen by a collaborative partnership, consisting of community parents, school staff, community-based agency representatives, and university-based researchers. Design of the program was informed by input from this collaborative partnership, child developmental theory of sexual risk, and empirical data gathered from the targeted community. This article presents findings that suggest CHAMP Family Program impact on family communication, family decision-making, and family-level influences hypothesized to be related to later adolescent HIV risk. Implications for future family-based HIV prevention research are discussed here.     

Variability in isochronous tapping: higher order dependencies as a function of intertap interval

Isochronous serial interval production (ISIP) data, as from unpaced finger tapping, exhibit higher order dependencies (drift). This fact has largely been ignored by the timing literature, one reason probably being that influential timing models assume random variability. Men and women, 22-36 years old, performed a synchronization-continuation task with intertap intervals (ITI) from 0.4 s to 2.2 s. ISIP variability was partitioned into components attributable to drift and 1st-order serial correlation, and the results indicate that (a) drift contributes substantially to the dispersion for longer ITIs, (b) drift and 1st-order correlation are different functions of the ITI, and (c) drift exhibits break close to 1.0 s and 1.4 s ITI. These breaks correspond to qualitative changes in performance for other temporal tasks, which suggests common timing processes across modalities and tasks.     

Inequalities in health, inequalities in health care: four generations of discussion about justice and cost-effectiveness analysis

The focus of questions of justice in health policy has shifted during the last 20 years, beginning with questions about rights to health care, and then, by the late 1980s, turning to issues of rationing. More recently, attention has focused on alternatives to cost-effectiveness analysis. In addition, health inequalities, and not just inequalities in access to health care, have become the subject of moral analysis. This article examines how such trends have transformed the philosophical landscape and encouraged some in bioethics to seek guidance on normative questions from outside of the contours of traditional philosophical arguments about justice.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Structure of Adult ADHD Symptoms

Previous research has examined the factor structure of ADHD symptoms in adults using confirmatory factor analysis and there is mixed support for two-factor, three-factor, or more complex bifactor models. The current study re-examines these factor structures on the basis of not only overall model fit, but also criteria such as chi-square difference tests, invariance, reliability, and validity. Three datasets were pooled to form a total sample of 430 adults (50% female). Participants completed questionnaires assessing their ADHD symptoms, education, psychopathology, and parenting (the latter as validity variables). Although the bifactor models demonstrated the best fit, the reliability and construct replicability of specific factors in these models was poor. The three-factor model had good fit and demonstrated good reliability, validity, construct replicability, and some invariance across gender and dataset. Our results replicate previous studies that find superior fit for bifactor models. However, the superior statistical fit may reflect only the increased complexity of these models. The more parsimonious three-factor model may demonstrate stronger validity and clinical utility.     

Is open-mindedness truth-conducive?

What makes an intellectual virtue a virtue? A straightforward and influential answer to this question has been given by virtue-reliabilists: a trait is a virtue only insofar as it is truth-conducive. In this paper I shall contend that recent arguments advanced by Jack Kwong in defence of the reliabilist view are good as far as they go, in that they advance the debate by usefully clarifying ways in how best to understand the nature of open-mindedness. But I shall argue that these considerations do not establish the desired conclusions that open-mindedness is truth-conducive. To establish these much stronger conclusions we would need an adequate reply to what I shall call Montmarquet’s objection. I argue that Linda Zagzebski’s reply to Montmarquet’s objection, to which Kwong defers, is inadequate. I conclude that it is contingent if open-mindedness is truth-conducive, and if a necessary tie to truth is what makes an intellectual virtue a virtue, then the status of open-mindedness as an intellectual virtue is jeopardised. We either need an adequate reliabilist response to Montmarquet’s objection, or else seek alternative accounts of what it is that makes a virtue a virtue. I conclude by briefly outlining some alternatives.

     

Everyday executive function in focal onset pediatric epilepsy on the parent-report BRIEF2

Executive function (EF) difficulties are a core neuropsychological feature of pediatric epilepsy, and parent-report measures of EF concerns are an important complement to task-based EF measures. The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) has shown sensitivity to parent-reported EF concerns in epilepsy and other pediatric populations. We compared profiles of parent-reported EF concerns using the BRIEF and its revision, the BRIEF2, in 117 pediatric patients with focal onset epilepsy to examine the clinical utility of the revised scale. We then compared BRIEF2 profiles between patients and age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Among patients, profiles on the BRIEF did not globally differ from the BRIEF2, and agreement was very good across scales. Patients and controls differed significantly on the BRIEF2, with patients showing higher EF difficulties reported by parents across most scales. High rates of clinical elevation among patients emerged on the Task Monitor, Plan/Organize, Working Memory, and Shift scales. Younger age of epilepsy onset, chronic epilepsy, and right hemisphere seizure focus were associated with higher parent-reported EF concerns. Findings suggest that the BRIEF2 demonstrates similar performance to the BRIEF among pediatric patients with focal onset epilepsy who are most at risk in the areas of task monitoring, working memory, planning and organization, and flexibility. These findings are informative when comparing literature across versions and provide additional insight into the nature of parent-reported EF difficulties among children with focal onset epilepsy.     

Meta-Analytic Analysis of Invariance Across Samples: Introducing a Method That Does Not Require Raw Data

Abstract

Invariance of surveys across different groups means that the respondents interpret the items in the same way, as reflected in similar factor loadings, for example. Invariance can be assessed using various statistical procedures, such as Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis. However, these analyses require access to raw data. Here, we introduce a meta-analytic method that requires only the factor correlation matrices of samples as input. It compares the structures of intercorrelations of factors by correlating these values across two samples, yielding a value of overall similarity for how the factors intercorrelate in different samples. This method was tested in three different ways. We conclude that the method yields useful results and can assess invariance when raw data are not available.