Stability of Q-sort attachment security from age two to five

The current report demonstrates reliability and stability of Q-sort attachment security in a sample of 46 mothers and their children seen by two observers at age two and again at age four to six years. Security scores were correlated between ages (r=.44), and a high proportion of item-by-item correlations between ages were also significant.     

The relationship between multilevel models and non‐parametric multilevel mixture models: Discrete approximation of intraclass correlation,random coefficient distributions,and residual heteroscedasticity

Multilevel data structures are common in the social sciences. Often, such nested data are analysed with multilevel models (MLMs) in which heterogeneity between clusters is modelled by continuously distributed random intercepts and/or slopes. Alternatively, the non‐parametric multilevel regression mixture model (NPMM) can accommodate the same nested data structures through discrete latent class variation. The purpose of this article is to delineate analytic relationships between NPMM and MLM parameters that are useful for understanding the indirect interpretation of the NPMM as a non‐parametric approximation of the MLM, with relaxed distributional assumptions. We define how seven standard and non‐standard MLM specifications can be indirectly approximated by particular NPMM specifications. We provide formulas showing how the NPMM can serve as an approximation of the MLM in terms of intraclass correlation, random coefficient means and (co)variances, heteroscedasticity of residuals at level 1, and heteroscedasticity of residuals at level 2. Further, we discuss how these relationships can be useful in practice. The specific relationships are illustrated with simulated graphical demonstrations, and direct and indirect interpretations of NPMM classes are contrasted. We provide an R function to aid in implementing and visualizing an indirect interpretation of NPMM classes. An empirical example is presented and future directions are discussed.     

ATTENTION AS AN ESTABLISHING OPERATION AND AS REINFORCEMENT DURING FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES

Results of functional analyses for 36 individuals whose self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by attention indicated that SIB was highest during a condition in which the individual was deprived of attention (establishing operation) except as a consequence (reinforcer). Deprivation in the absence of reinforcement produced marginal increases in SIB in 5 individuals, and a relatively rich schedule of noncontingent attention produced the lowest levels of SIB. These results suggest that clearer functional analysis outcomes are likely to be obtained when test conditions contain both an establishing operation to evoke behavior as well as a reinforcement contingency to maintain it.     

Effect of interval between auditory and preceding visual stimuli on auditory sensitivity

Auditory thresholds were determined by a modified method of limits, in introverts, ambiverts and extraverts, under three intensities of light. Five determinations were made: one before, one during and three (30 sec., c. 8 and 16 min.) after the light stimulation. An analysis of variance of the data showed significant results for the interval conditions, the personality type and the interaction of these parameters, under the weak light. Interval effects were also significant under medium and strong light. A weak light increased, and a strong light decreased, auditory sensitivity when threshold determinations began 30 sec., but not more than about 8 min., after the light stimulation, in introverts.     

Voice-specificity effects on auditory word priming

This research explores the nature of the memory traces that support spoken word identification. Specifically, do voice-specificity effects in implicit memory depend on information in a perceptual representational system or, alternatively, on the similarity of study and test exemplars? Memory for words and voices was assessed with two perceptual identification tests—the identification of words in noise and the identification of low-pass filtered words—after two encoding conditions (identification of words in noise and of words in the clear). At test, a word was presented in the same voice as at study or in a different voice. The data from the two experiments showed that study-to-test changes in voice reduced priming and that voice-specificity effects were greatest when the type of processing engaged at study overlapped with that required at test. Taken together, the results implicate the goodness of the processing match between encoding and test as the primary determinant of voice-specificity effects on perceptual identification tests and support the hypothesis that both voice and word information is represented within a single episodic memory system.     

Assessing stereomotion thresholds with a high-resolution computer monitor

We investigated the feasibility of a computer-graphics-based method of assessing stereomotion thresholds (Silicon Graphics Stereoview stereoscopic system). Stereomotion thresholds for a rectangle oscillating in depth were determined with the use of a dual randomly interleaved staircase design. In a group of 31 naive observers, the average thresholds of 5.97′ of arc forcrossed stereomotion and 6.00′ of arc foruncrossed stereomotion were comparable to those assessed in earlier work done with optics-based techniques. By assessing the thresholds for a rectangle that was defined either by lateral motion or by changing size, in a group of experienced observers, we were able to show that any potential residual translational motion present in the display would not have influenced the stereomotion thresholds. Our findings suggest that this computer-graphics-based technique may be a reasonable alternative to optics-based methods of assessing stereomotion thresholds.     

Contributions of surface and conceptual information to recognition memory

The present experiments were designed to determine whether memory for the voice in which a word is spoken is retained in a memory system that is separate from episodic memory or, instead, whether episodic memory represents both word and voice information. These two positions were evaluated by assessing the effects of study-to-test changes in voice on recognition memory after a variety of encoding tasks that varied in processing requirements. In three experiments, the subjects studied a list of words produced by six voices. The voice in which the word was spoken during a subsequent explicit recognition test was either the same as or different from the voice used in the study phase. The results showed that word recognition was affected by changes in voice after each encoding condition and that the magnitude of the voice effect was unaffected by the type of encoding task. The results suggest that spoken words are represented in long-term memory as episodic traces that contain talker-specific perceptual information.     

Extending Awareness of Catholic Healthcare Ethics Among Junior Clinicians: A Qualitative Study

Journal of Religion and Health - As Catholic healthcare organizations form a substantive part of healthcare delivery in the USA and Australia, ethical standards for Catholic health care were...