Test-retest reliability of standard and emotional stroop tasks: an investigation of color-word and picture-word versions

Previous studies have examined the reliability of scores derived from various Stroop tasks. However, few studies have compared reliability of more recently developed Stroop variants such as emotional Stroop tasks to standard versions of the Stroop. The current study developed four different single-stimulus Stroop tasks and compared test-retest reliabilities. The four Stroop tasks included two standard Stroop tasks (color-word and picture-word) as well as two emotional Stroop tasks (color-word and picture-word). The four Stroop tasks were administered on two occasions, separated by 1 week, to 28 undergraduate students. Test-retest reliability coefficients were high for standard and emotional Stroop tasks when reliability was measured using response latencies alone. However, test-retest coefficients were unacceptably low when reliability estimates were calculated using difference scores. The findings have important implications for clinical and experimental use of standard and emotional Stroop tasks.     

Retention of Quiet Eye in Older Skilled Basketball Players

There is mounting research to suggest that cognitive and motor expertise is more resistant to age-related decline than more general capacities. The authors investigated the retention of skills in medium-aged skilled (n = 14) and older-aged skilled (n = 7) athletes by comparing them with medium-aged less skilled (n = 15) and older-aged less skilled (n = 15) participants. Participants performed basketball free throws and dart throws as a transfer task under standardized conditions. Motor performance (accuracy) and perceptual performance (quiet eye) were examined across the four groups. There were significant differences between skill groups and age groups in throwing accuracy on both throwing tasks. Skilled players outperformed less skilled and medium-aged players outperformed older-aged players in basketball and dart throws. There were no significant differences in quiet eye duration across the skill or age groups in either task. These results indicate expertise in a perceptual motor task such as the basketball free throw can be retained in older athletes and that present models of skill maintenance should be re-evaluated to consider the issue of transfer.     

Psychiatric Patients' Responses to MMPI Religion Items

Responses of Jewish and Protestant psychiatric Ss to 10 MMPI religion items were found to differ in the manner expected on the basis of Jewish and Protestant normals' ratings of the unfavorability of item endorsement. Education and private vs. public hospitalization were independently associated with item rejection rate. However, sex of S and psychotic vs. non-psychotic diagnosis were not related to item rejection. The differential response rate of Jewish and Protestant patients provides validity generalization for Gynther, Gray and Strauss' (1970) conclusion that social desirability values of MMPI items vary with relevant subject background characteristics as well as with item content.     

Do Occupational Performance and Social Support Predict Health and Well-Being Among Mothers of Preterm Infants?

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Giving birth to a preterm infant has significant implications on the mother’s life. The purpose of this study was to compare occupational performance...     

Comparing a narcissistic and an autistic retreat: 'looking through or at the window'

In this paper I discuss two different forms of psychic retreats that I encountered in the treatment of a patient who suffered from two traumatic experiences: the loss of his mother when he was 2 years old and his 'near-death' experience when he was five. In the parasitic narcissistic retreat, using intensive projective identification enabled him to create an impasse in the form of a 'high tide - low tide' scenario in which alternating hope and disappointment kept the process going, yet paralyzed development. The autistic retreat, for its part, led to the collapse of projective identification mechanisms, dismantling and disrupting the transference/countertransference negotiations. The emerging state of non-communication and 'near death' seemed to act as a protection against the unbearable pain of abandonment and desolation.