THE MANAGEMENT OF DEHYDRATION AND INCONTINENCE IN NONAMBULATORY GERIATRIC PATIENTS

We evaluated a health care routine designed to decrease incontinence and improve the hydration level of nonambulatory nursing home patients. To implement this routine, a 3′ × 4′ cart was equipped with liquids and toileting equipment. A nurse's aid was assigned the task of taking the cart to each nonambulatory resident in a nursing home and offering specified assistance on a regular basis. Data demonstrated a decrease in physical dehydration, as well as in fecal and urinary incontinence.     

Young children's use of spatial categorization as a mnemonic strategy

The interdependence of knowledge and strategic behavior is becoming increasingly well established. The purpose of this research was to determine whether young children could use spatial categorization--a cognitive skill well within the repertoire of even 2-year-olds--as a mnemonic strategy. The results of three studies revealed that young children are capable of spatially organizing objects as a strategy in the service of future retrieval. There were clear developmental trends in the strategic deployment of categorization. Although there was some evidence of the mnemonic use of perceptually defined categories by 2- and 3-year-olds, these children rarely executed the strategy effectively. Four-year-old children were quite successful at exploiting perceptually defined categories to aid retrieval. By five years of age, children were able, in addition, to actively construct physical categories based on an internal representation and use them in the service of memory.     

The calculus of dissent: An analysis of terrorists' choice of targets

This article applies formal modeling to study a terrorist group's choice of whether to attack or not, and, in the case of an attack, which of two potential targets to strike. Each potential target individually takes protective measures that influence the terrorists' perceived success and failure, and, hence, the likelihood of attack. For domestic terrorism, a tendency for potential targets to overdeter is indicated. For transnational terrorism, cases of overdeterrence and underdeterrence are identified. We demonstrate that increased information about terrorists' preferences, acquired by the targets, may exacerbate inefficiency when deterrence efforts are not coordinated. In some cases, perfect information may eliminate the existence of a noncooperative solution.Yet the need for improved international cooperation is growing. Terrorism is inherently international in character, so that, paradoxically, the more individual states improve their national measures, the more it becomes attractive for the terrorists to cross frontiers ... (Wilkinson 1986, p. 49)     

Inferential theory for partially disattenuated correlation coefficients

Four measurement designs are presented for use with correlation coefficients corrected, in one variable, for attenuation due to unreliability—coefficients that we term partially disattenuated correlation coefficients. Asymptotic expressions are derived for the variances and covariances of the estimates accompanying each design. Empirical simulation results that bear on the preceding mathematical developments are then presented. In addition to providing insights into the distributions of the estimates, the empirical results demonstrate satisfactory Type I error control for typical inferential applications. Power is shown to be equal to or greater than that of corresponding product-moment correlations in three of the four designs. Implications for practice are discussed.Support for the research reported in this article was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The authors acknowledge with thanks the contributions of Nancy E. Heckman to some of the theoretical aspects of the study.     

Ordinal structure in the visual perception and cognition of smoothly curved surfaces

In theoretical analyses of visual form perception, it is often assumed that the 3-dimensional structures of smoothly curved surfaces are perceptually represented as point-by-point mappings of metric depth and/or orientation relative to the observer. This article describes an alternative theory in which it is argued that our visual knowledge of smoothly curved surfaces can also be defined in terms of local, nonmetric order relations. A fundamental prediction of this analysis is that relative depth judgments between any two surface regions should be dramatically influenced by monotonicity of depth change (or lack of it) along the intervening portions of the surface through which they are separated. This prediction is confirmed in a series of experiments using surfaces depicted with either shading or texture. Additional experiments are reported, moreover, that demonstrate that smooth occlusion contours are a primary source of information about the ordinal structure of a surface and that the depth extrema in between contours can be optically specified by differences in luminance at the points of occlusion.     

Validation of a personality measure of managerial performance

Recent interest in the characteristics of effective managers raises the notion that personality factors may be part of the effectiveness syndrome. Modern research in personality systematics makes it possible to refine and extend earlier analyses of this topic. A job analysis of three levels of management in a large trucking company identified the personality characteristics of good managers, as described by peers and subordinates. These managers and a large group of incumbents (n=372) completed the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI). Managers were assigned scores reflecting their status in the organization; they also were rated by their supervisors. A subset of HPI components were significantly associated with the criteria, with correlations ranging from .22 to .66. These components were combined and used in five separate validity studies. The resulting measure was significantly associated with managerial performance in a variety of organizational settings. These results are consistent with the growing body of evidence suggesting that a coherent set of noncognitive characteristics promotes managerial performance across organizational types.     

Effects of trait and situational self-handicapping on competitive anxiety among athletes

Initial evidence suggests that the employment of self-handicapping strategies has a beneficial effect on negative affective states associated with the perceived threat of evaluative contexts (Harris & Snyder, 1986; Leary, 1986). The present study sought to describe the type of self-handicapping behaviors demonstrated by youth athletes (N=238) as well as to assess the stress-buffering role of athlete self-handicapping on indices of competitive state anxiety. Specifically, it was hypothesized that among high trait-handicapping athletes, those who report a greater degree of performance-debilitating obstacles prior to competition would demonstrate lowered cognitive and somatic state anxiety as well as greater state self-confidence than nonhandicapping athletes. However, MANOVA results indicated that both high trait and situational self-handicappers demonstrate elevated state anxiety immediately prior to competition. Results are discussed in relation to the possible role of state anxiety as a salient self-handicapping strategy within competitive sport.     

Components of Teamwork: Impact on Evaluations of Contributions to Work Team Effectiveness1

This study examined the relationship between Dickinson's (1993) components of teamwork and ratings of team members' contributions to team success. Undergraduate students (n= 179) each viewed 1 of 8 videotapes depicting a team interacting to solve the Winter Survival Problem. Participants then completed a 52-item questionnaire assessing the connection between teamwork components and perceptions of contributions to team productivity, team viability, teamwork, and overall team performance. With 1 exception, all of the teamwork components manipulated in the study significantly affected appraisals of several aspects of worker effectiveness. Furthermore, raters considered teamwork behaviors that provided direct assistance or direction to team members as being especially critical.