Sampling distributions of the entropy in visual scanning

Identifying true statistical dependencies in visual-scanning data involves showing that the observed scanning pattern is significantly more ordered than that which would be produced by a stratified random-sampling model. In the past, entropy has been used as the index to measure statistical order or dependency. Due to the unknown nature of the underlying sampling distributions of entropy, however, researchers have had to use relatively less powerful nonparametric statistical tests to determine significance. In this paper we present relevant portions of the family of sampling distributions of entropy and show that they are sufficiently normally distributed to allow the use of a more powerful parametric statistical test when attempting to distinguish among the different models of sampling.     

Active and passive distraction using a head-mounted display helmet: effects on cold pressor pain in children.

OBJECTIVE: The current study tested the effectiveness of interactive versus passive distraction that was delivered via a virtual reality type head-mounted display helmet for children experiencing cold pressor pain. DESIGN: Forty children, aged 5 to 13 years, underwent 1 or 2 baseline cold pressor trials followed by interactive distraction and passive distraction trials in counterbalanced order. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pain threshold and pain tolerance. RESULTS: Children who experienced either passive or interactive distraction demonstrated significant improvements in both pain tolerance and pain threshold relative to their baseline scores. In contrast, children who underwent a second cold pressor trial without distraction showed no significant improvements in pain tolerance or threshold. CONCLUSION: Although both distraction conditions were effective, the interactive distraction condition was significantly more effective. Implications for the treatment of children's distress during painful medical procedures are discussed.     

Psychometric evaluation and experimental validation of the statistics anxiety rating scale

The Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) was adapted into German to examine its psychometric properties (n = 400). Two validation studies (n = 66, n = 96) were conducted to examine its criterion-related validity. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire were very similar to those previously reported for the original English version in various countries and other language versions. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated 2 second-order factors: One was more closely related to anxiety and the other was more closely related to negative attitudes toward statistics. Predictive validity of the STARS was shown both in an experimental exam-like situation in the laboratory and during a real examination situation. Taken together, the findings indicate that statistics anxiety as assessed by the STARS is a useful construct that is more than just an expression of a more general disposition to anxiety.     

Perspectives and the World

In this paper I consider metaphysical positions which I label as ‘perspectival’. A perspectivalist believes that some portion of reality cannot extend beyond what an appropriately characterised investigator or investigators can (in some sense) reveal about it. So a perspectivalist will be drawn to claim that a portion of reality is, in some sense, knowable. Many such positions appear to founder on the paradox of knowability. I aim to offer a solution to that paradox which can be adopted by any perspectivalist, which involves no restriction on the claim of knowability and which allows certain sentences to be unknowable. The solution hinges on recognising that what is meant by ‘knowable’ will vary from one type of proposition to another and thus that characterising the modality involved in the notion in terms of possible worlds will be impossible. I thus offer a subjunctive conditional reading of that modality, a reading which, I claim, has the virtues just recounted.     

The Experience of Crisis in Families of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder Across the Lifespan

It is well-established that parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience significant stress in their caregiving role, and research findings indicate that chronic stressors can act as a precipitant to crisis. In the present study, we examined the experience of crisis in families of individuals with ASD from early childhood to adulthood. One hundred and fifty-seven comments provided by family members in response to an online survey were coded using grounded theory methods. We explored three components of crisis drawn from the comments: antecedents (precipitating events and the context of crisis), behaviors (the nature of crisis), and consequences (outcomes and reactions to crisis). Similarities and differences in the crisis experiences among varying age groups are discussed, as well as implications for practice and future research.     

"They" are old but "I" feel younger: age-group dissociation as a self-protective strategy in old age

Age becomes an important self-defining aspect particularly during advanced age. With increasing age, negative attributes related to age and aging become salient. Aging-related declines, losses, as well as the finitude of life seem to threaten older adults' sense of self. We hypothesize that older adults will try to avoid the negative consequences of their age group membership by distancing themselves from their age group. Study 1 (N = 544, 65% women; 18-85 years of age) examined the role of age-group identification for self-conception and self-image (subjective age and future time perspective) across the life span. Results show that weakly identified older adults feel younger than their chronological age and report a more expanded future time perspective relative to their same-age counterparts. A second experiment (N = 68, 69% women; 65-85 years of age) tested the impact of age stereotypes on older adults' level of age-group identification. Results suggest that older adults are more likely to psychologically dissociate themselves from their age group when negative age stereotypes are salient. Discussion focuses on (mal)adaptive consequences of age-group dissociation in later adulthood.     

Changes in Distress Intolerance and Treatment Outcome in a Partial Hospital Setting

Despite the well-established role of distress intolerance (DI) in a wide range of psychological disorders, few studies have examined whether DI improves during treatment and whether these changes are associated with symptom outcomes. Patients (N = 626) enrolled in a brief cognitive-behavioral partial hospital program completed pre- and posttreatment measures of DI. Results indicated that DI decreased significantly during treatment, with more than 30% of the sample exhibiting a reduction of more than 2 standard deviations from the sample mean. Women reported higher DI than men at baseline; however, there were no gender differences in changes in DI over time. Participants also completed a pre- and posttreatment measure of depression and a subset completed a measure of anxiety (n = 167). DI was associated with more severe depression and anxiety at pre- and posttreatment, with participants who reported a decrease in DI also reporting lower depression and anxiety symptoms at post-treatment. These results further highlight the transdiagnostic relevance of DI and suggest that DI may be a relevant factor in treatment outcome for depression and anxiety.     

Who's the Best? A Relativistic View of Expertise

The dictionary and the expert performance approach view an expert as one who, after sufficient training and experience in a domain, can perform the requisite tasks above a threshold level. In contrast, we argue for a performance‐based approach that implies expertise is a continuum; the experts are the best performers. Most tasks in which expertise can be demonstrated have an underlying core of judgment, including domains in which the tasks call for judgment to be overlain with performance, prediction, or instruction. To evaluate judgment, we employ the metaphor of the judge as a measuring instrument. Like an instrument, expert judgment according to the performance‐based approach has three key properties: discrimination, consistency, and validity. Validity requires ground truth and is usually difficult to establish; but the other two properties are readily observable, and they are combined in the Cochran–Weiss–Shanteau index. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

State-dependent changes of prefrontal–posterior coupling in the context of affective processing: Susceptibility to humor

The aim of the present study was to examine whether interindividual differences in the coupling or decoupling of prefrontal and posterior cortices during the exposure to social–emotional information may predict an individual’s positive emotional responsiveness. Susceptibility to humor was assessed in a behavioral paradigm several weeks after the EEG recordings. State-dependent changes of prefrontal–posterior EEG beta coherence were recorded during stimulation with other people’s auditory expressions of cheerfulness and sadness. Greater decreases of coherence during the stimulation with positive affect expressions prospectively predicted greater positive emotional responsiveness, indicated by higher amusement ratings in response to cartoons and higher scores in a questionnaire measure of exhilarability. Greater increases of coherence during the stimulation with negative affect expressions did not predict perceived funniness but were related to shorter response latencies to the amusement ratings. The results further support the notion that a more loose prefrontal–posterior coupling may be related to loosening of control of the prefrontal cortex over incoming emotional information and, thus, to a propensity to deeper emotional involvement and a greater impact of perceptual input, whereas increased prefrontal–posterior coupling may be related to strong control and the propensity to protect oneself from becoming emotionally affected.