The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale,a brief version: psychometric data

As a measure of mathematics anxiety, the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) has been a major scale used for research and clinical studies since 1972. Despite the usefulness of the original scale, researchers have sought a shorter version of the scale partly to reduce the administration time of the original 98-item scale. This study created a shorter version of the MARS and provides reliability and validity information for the new version. The Cronbach alpha of .96 indicated high internal consistency, while the test-retest reliability for the MARS 30-item was .90 (p<.001). The validity data confirm that the MARS 30-item test is comparable to the original MARS 98-item scale.     

Is caregiving hazardous to one's physical health? A meta-analysis

Caring for a family member with dementia is generally regarded as a chronically stressful process, with potentially negative physical health consequences. However, no quantitative analysis has been conducted on this literature. The authors combined the results of 23 studies to compare the physical health of caregivers with demographically similar noncaregivers. When examined across 11 health categories, caregivers exhibited a slightly greater risk for health problems than did noncaregivers. However, sex and the health category assessed moderated this relationship. Stronger relationships occurred with stress hormones, antibodies, and global reported health. The authors argue that a theoretical model is needed that relates caregiver stressors to illness and proffers moderating roles for vulnerabilities and resources and mediating roles for psychosocial distress and health behaviors.     

Supernatural religion and the problem of providence

There is a prima facie case of unfairness against God unless Self-revelation is given by the deity to all people. The possible replies that God's Self-revelation has always and everywhere been available to everyone through many religions; or that special knowledge of God is a matter of divine gratuity; or that more is expected of those who receive such enlightenment; or that it comes as a moral reward; are found to be wanting. Nevertheless, provided there remains an argument for selective divine Self-revelation in terms of spiritual readiness, the case against God remains unproven.     

Perceptual completion and object-based representations in short-term visual memory

Object-based representations in visual short-term memory (VSTM) were examined using a change detection memory task. A display comprising two rows of four differently colored elements was followed by a probe display in which only one of the rows reappeared. On same trials, the probed row was identical to the corresponding row in the memory display. On different trials, two of the elements in the probed row had their colors exchanged. In each memory display, a task-irrelevant visual element appeared between the two rows, with the potential to function as an occluder. Performance was enhanced when perceptual completion meant that four, rather than eight, objects were perceived in the memory display and when the probe display revealed that the occluded elements continued behind the occluder. It appears that several forms of representation can co-occur to support VSTM, one of which is object based.     

Predicting stuttering from linguistic factors for German speakers in two age groups

Brown's factors [J. Speech Disorders 10 (1945) 181] predict the likely loci of disfluency in English-speaking adults who stutter. A word is more likely to be stuttered for these speakers if it is a content word, starts with a consonant, is positioned at the beginning of a sentence, and if it is a long word. These same factors were examined in native German-speaking children and adults who stutter. Speech data of 15 German adults and 17 children were coded according to Brown's factors. For the adult group, it was predicted that words starting with consonants would not lead to as much of an increase in disfluencies compared with English samples, because of cross-linguistic differences in syllable onset properties. It was predicted that stuttering would be more likely in later sentence positions in German because in German the verb is usually near the end of a sentence. There were no obvious reasons to expect differences on the two remaining factors, content words and word length. With children, it was hypothesised that Brown's factors that specify level of linguistic difficulty would not be such a good predictor of stuttering rate. Specifically, it was predicted that the difference in stuttering rate between function and content words would be lower in children. For the adults both word type (content/function) and word length increased stuttering rate significantly, whereas changes in stuttering rate for the other two factors were non-significant. It was also found that when word difficulty (based on a combined measure of all factors) increased, stuttering rate rose. With children, only the word-length factor was significant, and stuttering rate was not governed to the same extent by overall word difficulty. Conclusions are drawn as to the effect of linguistic and motor influences on stuttering. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to describe: (1) how linguistic factors affect stuttering rates in German; (2) the different patterns of adults and children who stutter and how language might influence this pattern; and (3) how to interpret these findings in light of a current theory of fluency failure.     

Bimanual interference associated with the selection of target locations

Four experiments were conducted to identify the locus of interference observed during the preparation of bimanual reaching movements. Target locations were specified by color, and the right-hand and left-hand targets could be either the same or a different color. Movements of different amplitudes (Experiment 1) or different directions (Experiment 2) to targets of the same color were initiated more quickly than symmetric movements to targets of different colors. These results indicate that costs observed during bimanual movements arise during target selection rather than during motor programming. Experiments 3 and 4 further examined the interference associated with target selection. Reaction time costs were found with unimanual movements when the target was presented among distractors associated with responses for the other hand. Interference observed during bimanual reaching appears to reflect difficulty in segregating the response rules assigned to each hand.     

Parallel allocation of attention prior to the execution of saccade sequences

In a series of 5 experiments, the allocation of attention prior to the execution of saccade sequences was examined by using a dual-task paradigm. In the primary task, participants were required to execute a sequence of 2 endogenous saccades. The secondary task was a forced-choice letter identification task. During the programming of the saccade sequences, letters were briefly presented at the saccade goals and at no-saccade locations. The results showed that performance was better for letters presented at any of the saccade goals than for letters presented at any of the no-saccade locations. The results support a spatial model that assumes that prior to the execution of a saccade sequence, attention is allocated in parallel to all saccade goals. ((c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laterality effects in perceived spatial location of hallucination-like voices

Aydin and colleagues reported a reversal of physiological 'right-ear advantage' in a group of right-handed patients with schizophrenia, using an auditory acuity test. In schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations may appear to be spatially located inside or outside the patient's head. Here we show, using virtual acoustic space techniques, that normal right-handed subjects have a right-ear advantage for correctly locating the 'source' of hallucination-like voices as from either inside or outside the head. We propose a model for understanding lateralised, external hallucinations in schizophrenia based upon reversal of normal cortical asymmetry for auditory spatial processing.     

Stress symptoms of two groups before and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01

This study investigated stress symptoms before and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Responses to the Smith Stress Symptoms Inventory were compared for Chicago area college students assessed 1 to 5 weeks after 9/11 (n=149) and a comparable sample tested up to 5 months prior to 9/11 (n=320). Post-9/11 participants scored higher on Attention Deficit. Contrary to prior research, post-9/11 participants did not score higher on distress, including Worry, Autonomic Arousal/Anxiety, Striated Muscle Tension, Depression, and Anger. It is suggested that those indirectly exposed to a terrorist attack may display traditional symptoms of distress and arousal (as suggested by previous research). Later symptoms of attention deficit and distancing may emerge. This work was based on independent pre- and post-9/11 samples and must be replicated longitudinally as a test-retest to draw conclusions regarding change over time.