Symptoms,blood-pressure information and mood effects on symptom recall

Abstract

After completion of an illness symptom checklist (PILL) covering the previous three months, 97 nor-motensives were allocated to either experimental (false pressor feedback, n=42), or information control (accurate pressor feedback, n = 55), groups. The median reported symptom score divided high from low symptom subjects. All were given standard cuff blood pressure (BP) assessment and were normotensive. However, experimental subjects were misinformed that their BP was raised while information control subjects were told their BP was normal. Subsequently, subjects completed the state anxiety form of the State-Trait Personality Inventory, the PILL, and were asked about their belief of the ascribed BP label (normo/hypertensive) and then any perceived causal relationship between their BP and symptoms. Experimental subjects had significantly higher anxiety scores but no change in symptom recall after pressor feedback, whereas control subjects showed lower anxiety scores and decreases in symptom recall.

A post hoc treatment control (no pressor information) group (n = 20) excluded effects of BP labeling on post-BP scores, and a post hoc symptom control group (n = 55) ensured that symptom levels were representative of the normal population. The majority of subjects in both groups rejected any association between BP labels and symptoms. Data are discussed in the light of Leventhal's models of illness representation.     

Ipsilateral Loudness Adaptation Over Multiple Intensity Levels

Three mirror tracing experiments were conducted to investigate the connection between perception and motor behavior. In the first experiment, some subjects traced a hex-maze, other subjects traced a hex-maze after observing a model trace, others traced a hex-maze after reading instructions on mirror images, and others traced a hex-maze after having observed a model and heard the instructions. There were no significant differences between the groups' error scores, but their time scores differed significantly, although not always in the predicted direction. In Experiment 2, the subjects were to trace selected letters of the alphabet. Error scores for the second experiment did not differ much from those for the first experiment. In Experiment 3, the experimenter gave each subject commands for the correct directions of movement, using the subject's body as a frame of reference. There was little improvement in motor performance. These results suggest that the visual information presented in the mirror captured the subjects' attention and blocked their motor tracing program.     

Challenge Point: A Framework for Conceptualizing the Effects of Various Practice Conditions in Motor Learning

The authors describe the effects of practice conditions in motor learning (e.g., contextual interference, knowledge of results) within the constraints of 2 experimental variables: skill level and task difficulty. They use a research framework to conceptualize the interaction of those variables on the basis of concepts from information theory and information processing. The fundamental idea is that motor tasks represent different challenges for performers of different abilities. The authors propose that learning is related to the information arising from performance, which should be optimized along functions relating the difficulty of the task to the skill level of the performer. Specific testable hypotheses arising from the framework are also described.     

The effects of feedback on the gender differences in the performance in a chronometric mental-rotation test

ABSTRACT

Gender differences favouring males are often found in mental-rotation tests and are usually smaller in chronometric than in psychometric test. The individual feedback in the chronometric test could be an explanation for the comparable performance of males and females. To test this hypothesis, 102 undergraduate students (60 females, 42 males) participated in a chronometric mental-rotation study with or without feedback. A subsample of 41 participants was asked to report their confidence about their performance in the test. In reaction time, males outperformed females and participants in the feedback condition reacted faster than participants without feedback. A significant interaction of gender and condition was found. Only females had an advantage in the feedback condition in reaction time while there was no difference for males. Males reported higher scores of confidence. Feedback seemed to help females especially to react faster. Confidence levels are discussed as reasons for differences between conditions and genders.     

Effects of visual focus and gait speed on walking balance in the frontal plane

We investigated how head position and gait speed influenced frontal plane balance responses to external perturbations during gait. Thirteen healthy participants walked on a treadmill at three different gait speeds. Visual conditions included either focus downward on lower extremities and walking surface only or focus forward on a stationary scene with horizontal and vertical lines. The treadmill was positioned on a platform that was stationary (non-perturbed) or moving in a pattern that appeared random to the subjects (perturbed). In non-perturbed walking, medial–lateral upper body motion was very similar between visual conditions. However, in perturbed walking, there was significantly less body motion when focus was on the stationary visual scene, suggesting visual feedback of stationary vertical and horizontal cues are particularly important when balance is challenged. Sensitivity of body motion to perturbations was significantly decreased by increasing gait speed, suggesting that faster walking was less sensitive to frontal plane perturbations. Finally, our use of external perturbations supported the idea that certain differences in balance control mechanisms can only be detected in more challenging situations, which is an important consideration for approaches to investigating sensory contribution to balance during gait.     

Effects of guided reflexivity and team feedback on team performance improvement: The role of team regulatory processes and cognitive emergent states

The effectiveness of decision-making teams depends largely on the quality of information processing. Prior research has shown that guided team reflexivity and team feedback are important means of advancing team information processing and outcomes. However, the nature of the relationships, and how these relate to team regulatory processes, cognitive emergent states, and ultimately team performance, is currently poorly understood. Drawing on reflexivity and team information-processing theory, we proposed and found that teams that received guided team reflexivity or a combination of both guided reflexivity and feedback showed higher levels of actual reflection than teams that received neither a reflexivity intervention nor feedback. Conditional process analysis showed that the effects of team reflection on team performance improvement were mediated by a path from shared team mental models to shared task mental models and to adaptation. Finally, we also expected that team reflection would be lower in virtual teams than in face-to-face teams. These hypotheses were tested experimentally among 98 student teams that communicated either face-to-face or virtual (via chat) while completing a collective decision-making task. The information distribution among team members constituted a hidden profile. The results supported all our hypotheses, except for the one relating to virtuality.     

Using an Advance Time Meter display as means to reduce driving speed

ObjectiveTesting an experimental means to reduce motivation to drive fast.BackgroundOne determinant of that motivation may be a wrong presumption, demonstrated here: Time to reach destination declines about linearly to increase in driving speed. Actually, that time is a linear function of advance time, the inverse of speed. It is hypothesized that the behavioral by-product of the popularity of that fallacy could be counteracted by introducing an essential change to the speed-based continuous feedback provided to the driver – from a speedometer displaying instantaneous velocity to a gauge reporting advance time (denoted ATM), so that both average driving speed and speed variance are reduced.MethodIn two driving simulator experiments, driving speed of participants presented with either of the two types of gauge was recorded.ResultsThe main finding is that driving with feedback provided by an ATM gauge following prior briefing led to a significant reduction – ∼11 km/h – in mean speed, as well as to a significant reduction in between-driver speed variability, as compared with driving with an ordinary speedometer. It was also found that no significant difference was observed in the speeding behavior of participants driving with an ATM display for three ∼2-h sessions administered in three different days, so that the last session took place within seven days from the first one.ConclusionThe ATM gauge serves to reduce motivation to speed.ApplicationWidespread use of the ATM gauge may result in reduction in number and intensity of accidents.     

Strengthening concept learning by repeated testing

The aim of this study was to examine whether repeated testing with feedback benefits learning compared to rereading of introductory psychology key‐concepts in an educational context. The testing effect was examined immediately after practice, after 18 days, and at a five‐week delay in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 83). The results revealed that repeated testing with feedback significantly enhanced learning compared to rereading at all delays, demonstrating that repeated retrieval enhances retention compared to repeated encoding in the short‐ and the long‐term. In addition, the effect of repeated testing was beneficial for students irrespectively of working memory capacity. It is argued that teaching methods involving repeated retrieval are important to consider by the educational system.