Consenting to uncertainty: challenges for informed consent to disease screening—a case study

This paper uses chronic beryllium disease as a case study to explore some of the challenges for decision-making and some of the problems for obtaining meaningful informed consent when the interpretation of screening results is complicated by their probabilistic nature and is clouded by empirical uncertainty. Although avoidance of further beryllium exposure might seem prudent for any individual whose test results suggest heightened disease risk, we will argue that such a clinical precautionary approach is likely to be a mistake. Instead, advice on the interpretation of screening results must focus not on risk per se, but on avoidable risk, and must be carefully tailored to the individual. These points are of importance for individual decision-making, for informed consent, and for occupational health.

心理疾病内隐污名述评

心理疾病内隐污名是个体无法内省或精确识别的与心理疾病有关的痕迹, 它潜在地调节着个体对心理疾病患者的观念和行为。心理疾病内隐污名的主要测量方法包括内隐联想测验、简式内隐联想测验、启动任务和生理心理测量。当前该研究领域集中在内隐污名的成分、公众内隐污名、自我内隐污名、去污名化评估等方面。未来研究可从心理疾病内隐污名的构成与结构、认知神经基础、测量整合和本土化等角度做进一步探讨。     

Different practice effects for males and females by psychometric and chronometric mental-rotation tests

Gender differences in the psychometric mental-rotation test are usually larger than in the chronometric version. In both tests, practice effects appear for males and females. In this study, 104 participants (54 females, 50 males, age: 21.72 years) completed both tests in counterbalanced order. In the chronometric test, only males reacted and rotated significantly faster after the practice with the psychometric test. A strong practice effect independently of gender was found in the psychometric test and a gender difference in accuracy in favour of males. Males reported more confidence and females rated the perceived pressure of the time limit of the psychometric test higher than males. Consequently, differences in confidence after the practice could partly explain the gender differences in the improvements of reaction time and rotational speed. Practice from one mental-rotation test on the performance in another seems to be dependent of participants’ gender and the type of the test.     

Rank‐permutation tests for behavior analysis,and a test for trend allowing unequal data numbers for each subject

We advocate for rank‐permutation tests as the best choice for null‐hypothesis significance testing of behavioral data, because these tests require neither distributional assumptions about the populations from which our data were drawn nor the measurement assumption that our data are measured on an interval scale. We provide an algorithm that enables exact‐probability versions of such tests without recourse to either large‐sample approximation or resampling approaches. We particularly consider a rank‐permutation test for monotonic trend, and provide an extension of this test that allows unequal number of data points, or observations, for each subject. We provide an extended table of critical values of the test statistic for this test, and both a spreadsheet implementation and an Oracle® Java Web Start application to generate other critical values at https://sites.google.com/a/eastbayspecialists.co.nz/rank-permutation/ .     

European and American WAIS IV norms: Cross‐national differences in perceptual reasoning,processing speed and working memory subtest scores

International comparisons of IQ test norms show differences between nations. In the present study, nonverbal reasoning, processing speed and working memory subtest scores of the US, German, French, Finnish, and Scandinavian (combined Swedish‐Norwegian‐Danish sample) WAIS IV standardization samples were compared. The European samples had higher scores on the reasoning subtests compared to the American sample, corroborating earlier studies. The Finnish and Scandinavian samples had lower processing speed and working memory scores than the American, German, and French samples. Mechanisms that may underlie the observed national IQ profiles include: (1) test‐taking attitudes—in tests that require balancing speed and accuracy of performance Americans may prioritize fast performance while Europeans avoid mistakes; (2) differences between languages in digit articulation times; and (3) educational factors—the European advantage on reasoning subtests may be based on there being better educational systems in Europe as compared to the US.     

The evil eye effect: vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening

Popular culture has many examples of evil characters having vertically pupilled eyes. Humans have a long evolutionary history of rivalry with snakes and their visual systems were evolved to rapidly detect snakes and snake-related cues. Considering such evolutionary background, we hypothesised that humans would perceive vertical pupils, which are characteristics of ambush predators including some of the snakes, as threatening. In seven studies (aggregate N?=?1458) conducted on samples from American and Turkish samples, we found that vertical pupils are perceived as more threatening on both explicit (Study 1) and implicit level (Studies 2–7) and they are associated with physical, rather than social, threat (Study 4). Findings provided partial support regarding our hypothesis about the relevance of snake detection processes: Snake phobia, and not spider phobia, was found to be related to perceiving vertical pupils as threatening (Study 5), however an experimental manipulation of saliency of snakes rendered no significant effect (Study 6) and a comparison of fears of snakes, alligators, and cats did not support our prediction (Study 7). We discuss the potential implications and limitations of these novel findings.     

基于IAT和SEB的内隐性别刻板印象研究

采用内隐联想测验(IAT)和刻板解释偏差(SEB)两种测量内隐社会认知的方法考察了120名大学生被试的内隐性别刻板印象。结果表明,大学生中普遍存在着较强的内隐性别刻板印象,人们对于男性以及男性本身持有的刻板印象符合传统的认知习惯,而对于女性及女性持有的刻板印象则与传统的认知习惯有所不同。用IAT和SEB这两种方法测量大学生的内隐性别刻板印象,在被试的性别变量上得到的结果不一致。     

成就目标定向、测验焦虑与工作记忆的关系

在工作记忆广度测验情境下,以152名中学生为被试,考察成就目标定向、测验焦虑和工作记忆的关系。结果表明四种成就目标定向与测验焦虑和工作记忆间具有不同的关系模式：成绩-接近目标与较低的测验焦虑水平和较高的工作记忆广度相关;掌握-接近目标与担忧、情绪化,与工作记忆广度相关不显著;成绩-回避目标与测验焦虑中的担忧和情绪化正相关,与工作记忆广度负相关;掌握-回避目标与担忧和情绪化存在正相关,与工作记忆广度存在接近显著的相关。测验焦虑是成绩-接近和成绩-回避目标影响工作记忆的中介变量。在测验焦虑中,情绪化对工作记忆的干扰大于担忧的干扰     

情境判断测验的效度研究述评

情境判断测验是一种为作答者呈现工作相关的典型情境以及该情境下可能的行为反应, 要求根据指导语提示进行选择或评价的测验形式。随着其理论和实践的发展, 研究者越来越关注情境判断测验的效度研究, 包括对其构想效度、效标关联效度和递增效度的探讨, 以及指导语类型、情境保真度以及计分方式等因素对其效度的影响。基于这些研究进展, 未来情境判断测验实践领域可能的方向是：(1)开发针对特定构想的情境判断测验; (2)结合具体构想选用相应的指导语; (3)应用作假和培训对效度影响的研究结果指导实践。     

登楼试验在低肺功能食管癌患者术前心肺功能评估中的作用研究

对需行食管癌手术的418例患者行术前静态肺功能检查后,按第一秒用力呼气量占预计值百分比（FEV1％）分为两组：肺功能正常组（NPF）和低肺功能组（LPF）。NPF组直接手术治疗,LPF组补充登楼试验,选择部分患者经术前功能锻炼后手术治疗,观察两组的临床情况。静态肺功能测定结果较差而进行登楼试验筛选后的部分患者可以通过功能锻炼提高心肺功能储备,从而能够接受手术治疗。