When Anxiety Symptoms Masquerade as Medical Symptoms: What Medical Specialists Know about Panic Disorder and Available Psychological Treatments

Under-recognition of somatic symptoms associated with panic in primary care settings results in unnecessary and costly diagnostic procedures and inappropriate referrals to cardiologists, gastroenterologists, and neurologists. In the current study specialists’ knowledge regarding the nature and treatment of panic were examined. One-hundred and fourteen specialists completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge about panic attacks, including their perceptions of psychologists’ role in treating panic. Respondents answered 51% of knowledge items correctly. Although most knew the definition of a panic attack, they knew less about clinical features of panic and its treatment. Specifically, whereas 97.4% believed medication effectively relieves panic symptoms, only 32.5% knew that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a first-line treatment. Only 6% reported knowing how to implement CBT, and only 56.1% recognized that psychologists could effectively treat panic. These findings demonstrate significant gaps in specialists’ knowledge about panic and the need to enhance physician knowledge about panic attacks and their treatment.     

高二理科生物理问题创造性解决的表象特征研究

物理问题创造性解决是一个发散思维和聚合思维交替运行的过程,而表象对问题的创造性解决具有重要作用。本研究通过自编的物理问题对天津市某中学109名高二理科学生进行物理问题创造性解决测验,探讨高中理科学生物理问题创造性解决中的表象特征。验证了表象与物理问题创造性解决中的发散思维具有显著的正相关,与聚合思维无显著相关。对109名高二理科学生K聚类分析发现：物理问题解决过程中,高创造性和中等程度创造性的学生人数较少,而低创造性的学生人数较多;表象丰富性很高和较高的学生较少,表象丰富性较低的学生较多。     

西方诚信度测验研究述评

诚信度测验是指在招聘和选拔过程中用于评价应聘者的诚实、诚信、可依靠性,从而预测他们的偷盗、违反纪律、反工作行为以及今后工作业绩的以纸笔测验为主的测验工具。文章对西方诚信度测验的发展和应用现状做出了综述,指出诚信度测验具有较好的信度和效度。大五人格模型中的责任感、宜人性和情绪稳定性是诚信度测验潜在的测量内容,但诚信度测验与大五人格模型以外的其它人格维度也存在较高的相关性。诚信度测验对反工作行为和整体工作绩效具有良好的预测效度。文章在总结诚信度测验存在的一些争议和问题的基础上,提出了它在中国企业员工招聘和选拔中应用的若干建议     

PAPP-A水平及IVS6+95多态性在预测PCI术后再狭窄的价值

对超敏C反应蛋白(hs-CRP)、妊娠相关蛋白A(PAPP-A)及IVS6+ 95 (C/G)基因多态性预测不稳定型心绞痛(UAP)患者经皮冠状动脉成形术(PCI)术后再狭窄的意义进行探讨.UAP患者行PCI术(TIMI血流达到3级),3个月～9个月复查冠脉造影,选取血管腔内径狭窄≥75％者(再狭窄组)86例、无再狭窄组(对照组)152例,测定术前术后24 hPAPP-A、hs-CRP水平.采用基因测序法分析IVS6+ 95多态性.再狭窄组术后血清PAPP-A、hs-CRP水平较本组术前明显增高(P＜0.001).对照组术后血清PAPP-A、hs-CRP水平较本组术前明显下降(P＜0.001).再狭窄组IVS6+ 95中CC基因频率明显高于未发生组(P＜0.05),而等位基因C频率无明显差异.PCI术后PAPP-A、hs-CRP血清水平可作为预测冠脉再狭窄的指标,IVS6+95(C/G)多态性可能与术后再狭窄有关,其中基因型CC是致病的基础.     

Grand Theft Auto IV comes to Singapore: effects of repeated exposure to violent video games on aggression

Given the increasingly dominant role of video games in the mainstream entertainment industry, it is no surprise that the scholarly debate about their impact has been lively and well attended. Although >100 studies have been conducted to examine the impact of violent video games on aggression, no clear consensus has been reached, particularly in terms of their long-term impact on violent behavior and aggressive cognitions. This study employs a first-ever longitudinal laboratory-based experiment to examine longer-term effects of playing a violent video game. One hundred thirty-five participants were assigned either to the treatment condition where they played a violent video game in a controlled laboratory setting for a total of 12 hours or to the control group where they did not play a game. Participants in the treatment group played Grand Theft Auto IV over a period of 3 weeks and were compared with a control group on the posttest measures of trait aggression, attitudes toward violence, and empathy. The findings do not support the assertion that playing a violent video game for a period of 3 weeks increases aggression or reduces empathy, but they suggest a small increase in proviolence attitudes. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

When adjunction fails

The rule of adjunction is intuitively appealing and uncontroversial for deductive inference, but in situations where information can be uncertain, the rule is neither needed nor wanted for rational acceptance, as illustrated by the lottery paradox. Practical certainty is the acceptance of statements whose chances of error are smaller than a prescribed threshold parameter, when evaluated against an evidential corpus. We examine the failure of adjunction in relation to the threshold parameter for practical certainty, with an eye towards reinstating the rule of adjunction in some restricted forms, by observing the conditions under which the overall chance of error of the joint statements can be variously bounded.     

短时记忆及其策略一生发展的横断研究

采用横向研究方法探索短时记忆及策略的一生发展状况。测量120名6—70岁被试在三种材料上的记忆广度,并通过观察记录策略的运用。结果发现,记忆广度在16岁达到最高峰,以后下降。不同材料的记忆广度具有相同的发展趋势,近似于年龄对数的二次函数。策略成熟的时间与记忆广度的最高峰的年龄基本相同,在成年期一直保持在较高水平。45岁以后,策略应用的效率有所下降。论文还根据本研究的结果探讨了短时记忆一生发展的具体模式。     

Personality differences between online game players and nonplayers in a student sample.

This study examines the differences in openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion between online game players and nonplayers using a student sample. The matched sample comprised 130 pairs of students, who are paired in gender and age. The results indicate that online game players reported higher scores in openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion than did nonplayers.     

Inaccurate representation of the ground surface beyond a texture boundary

The sequential-surface-integration-process (SSIP) hypothesis was proposed to elucidate how the visual system constructs the ground-surface representation in the intermediate distance range (He et al, 2004 Perception 33 789-806). According to the hypothesis, the SSIP constructs an accurate representation of the near ground surface by using reliable near depth cues. The near ground representation then serves as a template for integrating the adjacent surface patch by using the texture gradient information as the predominant depth cue. By sequentially integrating the surface patches from near to far, the visual system obtains the global ground representation. A critical prediction of the SSIP hypothesis is that, when an abrupt texture-gradient change exists between the near and far ground surfaces, the SSIP can no longer accurately represent the far surface. Consequently, the representation of the far surface will be slanted upward toward the frontoparallel plane (owing to the intrinsic bias of the visual system), and the egocentric distance of a target on the far surface will be underestimated. Our previous findings in the real 3-D environment have shown that observers underestimated the target distance across a texture boundary. Here, we used the virtual-reality system to first test distance judgments with a distance-matching task. We created the texture boundary by having virtual grass- and cobblestone-textured patterns abutting on a flat (horizontal) ground surface in experiment 1, and by placing a brick wall to interrupt the continuous texture gradient of a flat grass surface in experiment 2. In both instances, observers underestimated the target distance across the texture boundary, compared to the homogeneous-texture ground surface (control). Second, we tested the proposal that the far surface beyond the texture boundary is perceived as slanted upward. For this, we used a virtual checkerboard-textured ground surface that was interrupted by a texture boundary. We found that not only was the target distance beyond the texture boundary underestimated relative to the homogeneous-texture condition, but the far surface beyond the texture boundary was also perceived as relatively slanted upward (experiment 3). Altogether, our results confirm the predictions of the SSIP hypothesis.