Oxford cognitive screen: A critical review and independent psychometric evaluation

The Oxford cognitive screen (OCS) is a stroke-specific cognitive screening assessment. Although the test developers have provided psychometric information for the assessment, the OCS has received minimal external scrutiny, with which to triangulate the underpinning psychometrics. The purpose of this study is to provide a critical review and independent validation of the OCS. This study analysed data from an anonymised clinical database, which consisted of 316 patients who were assessed using the OCS on an Acute Stroke Unit. The rates of impairment on tests of memory and receptive communication were lower than expectation, suggesting that these subtests may be relatively insensitive. Patients with aphasia were more likely to be unable to categorised as impaired on non-language tests, suggesting that they remain sensitive to language processing or non-dominant hand usage. Some of the subtests of the OCS achieve high retest reliability, which makes them good candidates for measuring cognitive change over time. Although the OCS has many advantages, it is also important to adequately consider its limitations, that is insensitivity to memory problems, the potential confounding impact of non-dominant hand usage, and the potential that some tests may sample overall cognitive ability instead of domain-specific functioning.     

Intergroup threat,knowledge of the outgroup,and willingness to purchase ingroup and outgroup products: The mediating role of intergroup emotions

Established theories have acknowledged that intergroup threat is one of the key determinants of intergroup attitudes and behaviours, but how intergroup threat can affect consumer behaviour remains unclear. Here, four preregistered studies (total N = 988) examined the effect of intergroup threat (manipulated in terms of realistic and symbolic threats) on consumers’ willingness to purchase ingroup and outgroup products. In the context of China–West relations, we measured Chinese consumers’ willingness to purchase Chinese (ingroup) and Western (outgroup) products. These studies together revealed that realistic and symbolic threats (versus control) increased willingness to purchase ingroup products and decreased willingness to purchase outgroup products, regardless of the product category. Studies 3a and 3b also measured knowledge of the outgroup as a potential moderator, revealing that realistic threat (versus control) reduced willingness to purchase outgroup products only among individuals who had less knowledge of the outgroup. Furthermore, Study 3b showed that the intergroup threat manipulation indirectly influenced consumers’ willingness to purchase ingroup/outgroup products through increased anger and decreased hope. We discussed the contributions to the intergroup relations and consumer behaviour literature and the implications for transnational marketing practices, as well as the limitations of this research.     

A device for concurrent bilateral measurement of outer eyelid closures in the rabbit

This paper describes a transducer that allows for the concurrent recording of outer eyelid closure on both the left and the right eyes of a rabbit. The device makes use of voltage induced across a current-carrying conductor when the conductor is exposed to a magnetic field perpendicular to its axis (the Hall effect). The transducer is relatively compact, inexpensive, and allows the animal to be loosely restrained.     

A Comparative Study of Knowledge of Changing Demographic Trends and the Importance of HRM Practices in Three European Countries

Recent changes in the demographic structures of industrialized nations pose a potentially serious threat to work organizations in terms of their ability to attract and retain high calibre personnel. Specifically, the number of young people in their late teens and early-to-mid twenties is on the decline at the present time, coupled with a long-term recession, thus posing a dilemma for organizations concerned to develop and maintain a viable workforce. This article reports the findings of a three-country comparative study, conducted in The Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, designed to investigate the extent to which graduate employers are aware of current demographic trends in the labour market and what HRM policies they are instituting, given this context. The findings reveal considerable levels of ignorance across all three countries, suggesting that attempts by various Government bodies, employers' organizations, professional associations and academics to draw attention to the potentially serious consquences of inadequate planning and future skill provision have largely failed. The results indicate that many organizations are engaging in human resource strategies which are not well suited to meeting the challenges of the 1990s.     

An investigation of the gate control theory of pain using the experimental pain stimulus of potassium iontophoresis

This study investigated a prediction derived from gate control theory—that there would be a pulse of pain as a pain stimulus was being ramped off due to the rapidly transmitting, inhibitory large fiber activity falling away sooner at the spinal level than the excitatory activity of the slow-transmitting, small nociceptive afferents. A further prediction was that the more distant the peripheral stimulus was from the spine, the greater the pain pulse would be. Fourteen subjects had the pain stimulus of iontophoretically applied potassium ions (K⁺) applied to an upper and a lower site on the dominant arm. In a threshold detection task using the double random staircase method, subjects were asked to indicate whether they could detect a pulse of additional pain during this ramp-off phase. The average rate of stimulus ramp-off in order to detect a pain pulse was statistically greater for the upper-arm site (14.3 μg K⁺/sec) than for the lower-arm site (9.4 μg K⁺/sec). These results were consistent with gate control theory. Alternative explanations, including intrinsic differences in nociceptive responding for different dermatomes and anode break, were considered. It was concluded that the detection of a pain pulse during the ramping off of a peripheral pain stimulus potentially provides a quantitative measure of the spinal modulation of pain.     

Drooping out: Relationship of speaking anxiety to self-esteem, crime, and educational achievement.

This study focused on the relationship that anxiety about speaking has to educational achievement, self-esteem, and type of crime. The data gathered from 46 female felons indicated significant relationships and suggested that programs designed to decrease anxiety about speaking can be effectively presented. Perhaps such treatment should be the first step in developing and correcting deficiencies in skills thereby preventing the skid toward dropping out and delinquency.     

The relationship of young adolescent Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) scores to their social and cognitive functioning

The relationship of young adolescents' scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) to subjective and objective indices of their social and cognitive functioning was examined. Subjects were 89 young adolescents (11–15 years old), their parents, and their social studies teachers. The correlations of adolescents' CDI scores with recent school grades, objective ratings of overt social behavior, and measures of adolescent social and cognitive competence as perceived by the adolescent, both parents, and the teacher were examined. CDI scores were significantly and negatively correlated with school grades, behavioral ratings of positive social communication, and adolescent, mother, father, and teacher perceptions of the adolescents' social and cognitive competence. The relationship of these findings to those of other CDI validity studies is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.