How Bias Reduction Is Affected by Covariate Choice,Unreliability, and Mode of Data Analysis: Results From Two Types of Within-Study Comparisons

This study uses within-study comparisons to assess the relative importance of covariate choice, unreliability in the measurement of these covariates, and whether regression or various forms of propensity score analysis are used to analyze the outcome data. Two of the within-study comparisons are of the four-arm type, and many more are of the three-arm type. To examine unreliability, simulations of differences in reliability are deliberately introduced into the 2 four-arm studies. Results are similar across the samples of studies reviewed with their wide range of non-experimental designs and topic areas. Covariate choice counts most, unreliability next most, and the mode of data analysis hardly matters at all. Unreliability has larger effects the more important a covariate is for bias reduction, but even so the very best covariates measured with a reliability of only .60 still do better than substantively poor covariates that are measured perfectly. Why regression methods do as well as propensity score methods used in several different ways is a mystery still because, in theory, propensity scores would seem to have a distinct advantage in many practical applications, especially those where functional forms are in doubt.     

A short‐term perceptual priming account of spacing effects in explicit cued‐memory tasks for unfamiliar stimuli

Memory for repeated items improves when presentations are spaced during study. This effect is found in explicit memory tasks using different types of material, different experimental paradigms, and in different subject populations. Two experiments are described where the spacing effect was assessed on a yes/no recognition memory task using words and nonwords as targets. The main results showed that changing the font between repeated occurrences of targets at study did not affect the spacing effect for words, even under shallow encoding conditions, but effectively removed the spacing effect with nonwords. In both experiments, the font manipulation was made between subjects, ruling out explanations in terms of differential attention to particular font conditions. These results provide further support for short‐term perceptual priming accounts of the spacing effect: Semantically‐based repetition priming affects memory for words; perceptual priming mechanisms affect memory for nonwords.     

The Emergence of Prägnanz: Gaetano Kanizsa's Legacies

This paper is devoted to stress the importance of the contribution of Gaetano Kanizsato contemporary psychology. His theoretical ideas have in many respects been truly seminal. In particular, are emphasized his distinction between the primary and secondary process, his criticism of the concept ofPrägnanz, and his focus on self-organisation in a dynamic approach. To continue his work, the main task is to identify the rules and constraints that enable us to see the world as it appears. In the last years of his scientific work, his insight was that the non-linear dynamic approach may be the best way to achieve this goal, giving a more sound sense to the intuitions of Gestalt psychologie.Unfortunately, he died before he could reap the fruits of this insight. Here are reviewed the first results that some among his direct and indirect pupils have obtained in this direction.     

Comments on “markovian processes with identifiable states: General considerations and applications to all-or-none learning”

When knowledge of the response sequence permits one to specify the sequence of theoretical states that occurred, we propose to say that the theory has observable states. Our earlier usage of identifiable conflicts with established usage in econometrics. We also present a revised definition of implication between theories that avoids a technical flaw in the earlier definition, and we correct a mistake in an example in our earlier paper.     

Sandwich Generation Caregiving: A Complex and Dynamic Role

The overall purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of sandwich generation (SG) women and the influence multigenerational caregiving had on their health behaviors. The specific purpose of this paper was to examine the roles of SG women, whom are individuals providing care to both their aging parents/in-laws and children (Sinha, Spotlight on Canadians: Results from the General Social Survey: Portrait of caregivers, 2012. Statistics Canada catalogue no. 89-652-X – No. 001, Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Ottawa, Ontario, 2013). This study was qualitative in nature and utilized the theoretical orientation of phenomenology. Nine SG women completed a background questionnaire and a semi-structured one-on-one interview. After critically analyzing the data, four salient themes emerged, however, this paper only focused on the theme the role of the caregiver. Five subthemes were developed from this theme: (1) Physical care; (2) “Sounding board”: Emotional aspects of caregiving; (3) Never enough time in the day; (4) Am I a caregiver to my children?; and (5) Transitions and variations in caregiving. These findings provide an in-depth understanding of the role of SG women and the complexities that occur when faced with caregiving. This study hopes to provide more knowledge to support government legislation, sandwich generation caregivers, and healthcare providers.     

Focusing on fear: Attentional disengagement from emotional faces

Evidence suggests that anxiety is associated with a shift of visual attention toward threatening stimuli in the environment, such as facial expressions (Mogg & Bradley, 1999). More recent evidence, however, indicates that anxiety may be better characterized by a failure to rapidly disengage the visual attention system away from threat-related facial expressions (Fox, Russo, Bowles, & Dutton, 2001). The present study further investigates this delayed disengagement hypothesis. Results show that high trait-anxious individuals, in contrast to low trait-anxious individuals, take longer to classify peripheral target letters when fearful facial expressions were presented at fixation relative to sad, happy, or neutral expressions. These findings demonstrate a specific tendency to dwell on fear-relevant stimuli, as opposed to negative information in general. These findings are considered from an evolutionary perspective and the possible role of delayed disengagement from threat in the maintenance of anxiety states is also discussed.     

Gaze,dominance and humiliation in the Schreber case1

In this paper the author reviews Freud's study of Schreber's Memoirs and the Memoirs themselves from a perspective of nearly 100 years. He argues that Schreber's illness began as a melancholic depression but quickly developed paranoid features which subsequently escalated into a gross paranoia which nevertheless retained its depressive and hypochondriacal base. Finally the chaotic fragmentation became organized under the dominance of an omnipotent narcissistic organisation which led to a clinical improvement without any relinquishment of his delusional beliefs. As a subsidiary theme he examines the role of gaze in Schreber's object relations and argues that gaze was used to project into his objects, then to scrutinise the object to see if the projections had been received and tolerated, and finally as an expression of dominance. His urgent demand for relief provoked an omnipotence in his objects which he was then able triumphantly to frustrate and which ushered in a struggle over dominance in the course ofwhich Schreber was abused and humiliated. He was unable to find an object who could contain his distress and these factors contributed to the failure to tolerate guilt and to work through his depression.     

Discriminant validity and interaction between perceived organizational support and perceptions of organizational politics: A temporal analysis

We used two‐wave panel data based on a sample of 137 employees from a small Korean manufacturing company to examine first the discriminant validity of, and then the interaction between perceived organizational support (POS) and perceptions of organizational politics (POP). We focused on the relationships between POS, POP, and three employee work‐related outcomes, affective organizational commitment, intention to stay, and individually oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (OCBI). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that POS and POP were distinct constructs. Moreover, time‐lagged LISREL estimates showed that POS and POP were differentially related to the three outcomes in a theoretically predictable way. POP did not moderate the relationship between POS and either affective commitment or intention to stay. POS, however, significantly moderated the POP–OCBI relationship. The implications of the results for POS and POP theory and research are discussed.     

Effects of pharmacological manipulations of NMDA-receptors on deliberation in the Multiple-T task

Both humans and non-human animals have the ability to navigate and make decisions within complex environments. This ability is largely dependent upon learning and memory processes, many of which are known to depend on NMDA-sensitive receptors. When humans come to difficult decisions they often pause to deliberate over their choices. Similarly, rats pause at difficult choice points. This behavior, known as vicarious trial and error (VTE), is hippocampally dependent and entails neurophysiological representations of expectations of future outcomes in hippocampus and downstream structures. In order to determine the dependence of VTE behaviors on NMDA-sensitive receptors, we tested rats on a Multiple-T choice task with a reward-delivery reversal known to elicit VTE. Rats under the influence of NMDA-receptor antagonists (CPP) showed a significant reduction in VTE, particularly at the reward reversal, implying a role for NMDA-sensitive receptors in the generation of vicarious trial and error behaviors.