Empirical sleep assessment in the home: A convenient,inexpensive approach

We have previously reported on a sleep assessment device (SAD) that addresses shortcomings inherent in self-report sleep data and polysomnography. The SAD produces a sleep record by tape recording subjects' verbal responses to auditory cues spaced at fixed intervals throughout the night. In prior studies, the SAD proved to be a reliable and valid assessment tool according to electroencephalographic comparisons. Herein, we report on the unassisted home use of the SAD by eight normal volunteers and four bedmates. Subjects and bedmates completed sleep questionnaires for 12 nights and subjects also employed the SAD the last 6 nights. Comparisons of subjects and bedmates self-report sleep data before and during SAD use indicated that the SAD did not disrupt sleep. Subjects were able to self-administer successfully the SAD in their homes. SAD data closely matched subjects' self-report data. The present study found the SAD to be an accurate, unobtrusive, and easily utilized empirical measure of sleep in the natural environment. In so doing, it extends the demonstrated reliability and validity of the SAD from the sleep laboratory to the home with normal sleepers.     

Interpersonal Reactions to Depression and Physical Disablllty In Dyadic Interactions1

Examined the interpersonal responses of persons engaged in dyadic interactions with confederates who enacted either depressed or socially appropriate roles and appeared either with or without a physical disability. Subject negative evaluations of confederates were indirectly obtained from a thought-listing measure. The overt behaviors of subjects were surreptitiously recorded on videotape and measures of verbal and nonverbal behavior were acquired. Subjects spoke less to the depressed targets and had significantly higher rates of negative evaluations of these persons. In addition, subjects gazed less at the depressed confederates. These effects were not moderated by target physical appearance. Findings are discussed as they relate to social models of depression and the stigmatizing effects of disability.     

Non-dominance,third person and non-action Newcomb problems,and metatickles

It is plausible that Newcomb problems in which causal maximizers and evidential maximizers would do different things would not be possible for ideal maximizers who are attentive to metatickles. An objection to Eells's first argument for this makes welcome a second. Against it I argue that even ideal evidential and causal maximizers would do different things in some non-dominance Newcomb problems; and that they would hope for different things in some third-person and non-action problems, which is relevant if a good theory of rational choices of acts should fit smoothly into a good theory of rational desires for facts.This paper elaborates on Section V of Sobel. forthcoming.     

Confidence depends on level of aggregation

The credible intervals that people set around their point estimates are typically too narrow (cf. Lichtenstein, Fischhoff, & Phillips, 1982). That is, a set of many such intervals does not contain the actual values of the criterion variables as often as it should given the probability assigned to this event for each estimate. The typical interpretation of such data is that people are overconfident about the accuracy of their judgments. This paper presents data from two studies showing the typical levels of overconfidence for individual estimates of unknown quantities. However, data from the same subjects on a different measure of confidence for the same items, their own global assessment for the set of multiple estimates as a whole, showed significantly lower levels of confidence and overconfidence than their average individual assessment for items in the set. It is argued that the event and global assessments of judgment quality are fundamentally different and are affected by unique psychological processes. Finally, we discuss the implications of a difference between confidence in single and multiple estimates for confidence research and theory.     

Duration estimates of two information processing components

Adult humans attempted to make quick responses to the first of two sequentially presented visual stimuli. At short interstimulus intervals (less than about 100 msec) accuracy was impaired by a different second stimulus and this was hypothesized to reflect the activity of an information processing component concerned with stimulus registration. At longer interstimulus intervals (up to approximately 350 msec) reaction time was inhibited by a different second stimulus and this was assumed to reflect the activity of a second component concerned with decision. The stimulus registration component was insensitive to variations in the complexity of the task, while the decision component was found to be greater for a task requiring recognition (is the current stimulus the same as an earlier one?) than for one merely requiring choice (what is the current stimulus?). This functional independence and the sizeable difference in the temporal range of susceptibility led to the conclusion that two distinct information processing components were involved.     

Perceived control in continuous loud noise

The effects of two types of perceived control were assessed for performance during and following exposure to continuous loud noise at 90 dBC. Subjects performed a tracking task during exposure and the Stroop test in the period following exposure. Control could be effected either (1) by attenuating the intensity of the noise or (2) by reducing the difficulty of the tracking task. In both cases subjects were encouraged not to exercise control. Performance in treatments involving loud (90 dBC) and soft (55 dBC) noise served as baseline conditions. Perceived control of task difficulty accentuated the tendency for root-mean-square error to rise during the tracking task. There were no significant effects of noise intensi ty on tracking performance. Loud noise reduced the incidence of errors in the Stroop test but perceived control failed to influence this effect. The results are discussed in terms of the generality of perceived control phenomena.     

Verbal ability and mental processing speed

The notion that verbal ability is related to mental processing speed was examined using tasks that systematically varied in semantic content. Subjects' reaction times were measured in five tasks involving arrow matching, physical identity word matching, or taxonomic identity word matching. The findings indicated that matching tasks using different decision rules and different stimuli were all related to verbal ability. In fact, reaction time for subjects required to judge whether two arrows pointed in the same direction was the best predictor of verbal ability. One explanation of the results is that speed of information processing (a general factor) may be the important component of verbal ability which is measured by seemingly different matching tasks.