Basic Information Processing Abilities at 11 years Account for Deficits in IQ Associated with Preterm Birth

Although it is well established that preterms as a group do poorly relative to their full-term peers on tests of global cognitive functioning, the basis for this relative deficiency is less understood. The present paper examines preterm deficits in core cognitive abilities and determines their role in mediating preterm/full-term differences in IQ. The performance of 11-year-old children born preterm (birth weight < 1750 g) and their full-term controls were compared on a large battery of 15 tasks, covering four basic cognitive domains — memory, attention, speed of processing and representational competence. The validity of these four domains was established using latent variables and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Preterms showed pervasive deficits within and across domains. Additionally, preterm deficits in IQ were completely mediated by these four cognitive domains in a structural equation model involving a cascade from elementary abilities (attention and speed), to more complex abilities (memory and representational competence), to IQ. The similarity of findings to those obtained with this cohort in infancy and toddlerhood suggests that preterm deficits persist — across time, across task, and from the non-verbal to the verbal period.     

When Does 360-Degree Feedback Create Behavior Change? And How Would We Know It When It Does?

360-degree feedback has great promise as a method for creating both behavior change and organization change, yet research demonstrating results to this effect has been mixed. The mixed results are, at least in part, because of the high degree of variation in design features across 360 processes. We identify four characteristics of a 360 process that are required to successfully create organization change, (1) relevant content, (2) credible data, (3) accountability, and (4) census participation, and cite the important research issues in each of those areas relative to design decisions. In addition, when behavior change is created, the data must be sufficiently reliable to detect it, and we highlight current and needed research in the measurement domain, using response scale research as a prime example.     

The unanticipated interpersonal and societal consequences of choice: victim blaming and reduced support for the public good

Choice makes North Americans feel more in control, free, and independent, and thus has many positive consequences for individuals' motivation and well-being. We report five studies that uncovered novel consequences of choice for public policy and interpersonal judgments. Studies 1 through 3 found that activating the concept of choice decreases support for policies promoting intergroup equality (e.g., affirmative action) and societal benefits (e.g., reducing environmental pollution), but increases support for policies promoting individual rights (e.g., legalizing drugs). Studies 4 and 5 found that activating the concept of choice increases victim blaming and decreases empathy for disadvantaged people. Study 5 found that choice does not decrease Indians' empathy for disadvantaged individuals, indicating that the social and interpersonal consequences of choice are likely culture-specific. This research suggests that the well-known positive effects of choice for individuals can be accompanied by an array of previously unexamined and potentially negative outcomes for other people and for society.     

Alcohol intoxication and memory for events: a snapshot of alcohol myopia in a real-world drinking scenario

Alcohol typically has a detrimental impact on memory across a variety of encoding and retrieval conditions (e.g., Mintzer, 2007; Ray & Bates, 2006). No research has addressed alcohol's effect on memory for lengthy and interactive events and little has tested alcohol's effect on free recall. In this study 94 participants were randomly assigned to alcohol, placebo, or control groups and consumed drinks in a bar-lab setting while interacting with a "bartender". Immediately afterwards all participants freely recalled the bar interaction. Consistent with alcohol myopia theory, intoxicated participants only differed from placebo and control groups when recalling peripheral information. Expanding on the original hypervigilance hypothesis, placebo participants showed more conservative reporting behaviour than the alcohol or control groups by providing more uncertain and "don't know" responses. Thus, alcohol intoxication had confined effects on memory for events, supporting and extending current theories.     

The transfer of Crel contextual control (same,opposite, less than,more than) through equivalence relations

According to Relational Frame Theory (RFT) C_rel denotes a contextual stimulus that controls a particular type of relational response (sameness, opposition, comparative, temporal, hierarchical etc.) in a given situation. Previous studies suggest that contextual functions may be indirectly acquired via transfer of function. The present study investigated the transfer of C_rel contextual control through equivalence relations. Experiment 1 evaluated the transfer of C_rel contextual functions for relational responses based on sameness and opposition. Experiment 2 extended these findings by evaluating transfer of function using comparative C_rel stimuli. Both experiments followed a similar sequence of phases. First, abstract forms were established as C_rel stimuli via multiple exemplar training (Phase 1). The contextual cues were then applied to establish arbitrary relations among nonsense words and to test derived relations (Phase 2). After that, equivalence relations involving the original C_rel stimuli and other abstract forms were trained and tested (Phase 3). Transfer of function was evaluated by replacing the directly established C_rel stimuli with their equivalent stimuli in the former experimental tasks (Phases 1 and 2). Results from both experiments suggest that C_rel contextual control may be extended via equivalence relations, allowing other arbitrarily related stimuli to indirectly acquire C_rel functions and regulate behavior by evoking appropriate relational responses in the presence of both previously known and novel stimuli.     

Social and Personal Factors as Predictors of Earthquake Preparation: The Role of Support Provision,Network Discussion,Negative Affect,Age, and Education1

Panel data collected in 1991 as part of the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG) were used to predict reported preparation activities prior to and in response to the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. In late 1994 and early 1995, 163 panelists (representing 107 multigenerational families) were interviewed by phone about their earthquake experiences. The best 1991 predictor of pre‐quake preparation was the extent of instrumental support respondents provided to network members. Earthquake preparation activities undertaken after the quake were associated with the amount and cost of damage experienced during the quake, 1991 neuroticism scores, age (inversely), and having preparedness encouraged by multiple network sources. The results highlight the importance of social roles (e.g., support provision) and discussion by informal network sources in the adoption of public health and safety messages.     

患者知情同意权实现的伦理思考与法律保护

随着医学科学的发展,患者的知情同意已是医学实践的一个基本伦理观念和原则,但是,它的实现不仅需要道德规范的约束,而且还需要法律的保护.     

The Potential of Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) to Reduce Bias in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being

Background: The conventional question (CQ) on subjective well-being (SWB) is e.g. “How is life?”, with ratings between e.g. ‘Best’ and ‘Worst possible’. Disadvantages may be casualness of responses and biases of proximate, peer or cultural relativity. Alternatively, with Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA), the scale anchors are the respondents’ self-defined memories of their best and worst periods in life. Thus ACSA uses life review and experiential scale anchors. Objective: To compare the validity, sensitivity and responsiveness of the CQ and ACSA. Method: ACSA and the CQ were administered in parallel to 2584 university-hospital patients suffering from a wide range of psychiatric and somatic diseases. Results: ACSA and CQ did not measure the same construct (r = 0.50). CQ ratings were almost normally distributed, whereas ACSA ratings were overall lower, and clearly positively skewed, suggesting greater sensitivity to the respondents’ diseased state. Contrary to CQ, ACSA ratings of critically ill patients with end-stage liver disease were very low. After life-saving liver transplantation, ACSA ratings increased significantly more than CQ ratings, suggesting better responsiveness of ACSA to objective change. Trait-like socio-demographic variables such as sex, age, and marital status influenced CQ, but not ACSA ratings. Conclusion: In between-subject studies, depending on one’s study objectives, ACSA should be considered as a complement or an alternative to conventional SWB instruments. The CQ is probably preferable when socio-demographic variables are study endpoints. In longitudinal or intervention studies and for intercultural comparisons, ACSA, which reduces the need for correction of several biases or confounders, seems more useful.     

Scoring Depression on a Common Metric: A Comparison of EAP Estimation,Plausible Value Imputation,and Full Bayesian IRT Modeling

There are a growing number of item response theory (IRT) studies that calibrate different patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures, such as anxiety, depression, physical function, and pain, on common, instrument-independent metrics. In the case of depression, it has been reported that there are considerable mean score differences when scoring on a common metric from different, previously linked instruments. Ideally, those estimates should be the same. We investigated to what extent those differences are influenced by different scoring methods that take into account several levels of uncertainty, such as measurement error (through plausible value imputation) and item parameter uncertainty (through full Bayesian IRT modeling). Depression estimates from different instruments were more similar, and their corresponding confidence/credible intervals were larger when plausible value imputation or Bayesian modeling was used, compared to the direct use of expected a posteriori (EAP) estimates. Furthermore, we explored the use of Bayesian IRT models to update item parameters based on newly collected data.