Effects of Auditory Feedback on Movement Time in a Fitts Task

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the role of auditory feedback and its impact on movement time in a standard Fitts task. Feedback was given at the moment of target acquisition. A 2-way analysis of variance found significant differences between feedback groups at all three indexes of difficulty (F(2, 40) = 156.02, p < .001). Results from a mixed-model multivariate analysis of variance for kinematic factors show significant differences in peak velocity and the location of peak velocity when comparing feedback groups. In general, the addition of auditory feedback decreased the task ID by .5.     

Opportunities and Issues in Modeling Intensive Longitudinal Data: Learning from the COGITO Project

Abstract

Technological developments increasingly permit the collection of longitudinal data sets in which the data structure contains a large number of participants N and a large number of measurement occasions T. Promising new dynamical systems approaches to the analysis of large N, large T data sets have been proposed that utilize both between-subjects and within-subjects information. The COGITO project, begun over a decade ago, is an early large N?=?204, large T?=?100 study that collected high quality cognitive and psychosocial data. In this introduction, I describe the COGITO project and conceptual and statistical issues that arise in the analysis of large N, large T data sets. I provide a brief overview of the five papers in the special section which include conceptual pieces, a didactic presentation of a dynamic structural equation approach, and papers reporting new statistical analyses of the COGITO data set to answer substantive questions. Although many challenges remain, these new approaches offer the promise of improving scientific inquiry in the behavioral sciences.     

A Data Analysis Method for Using Longitudinal Binary Outcome Data from a SMART to Compare Adaptive Interventions

Sequential multiple assignment randomized trials (SMARTs) are a useful and increasingly popular approach for gathering information to inform the construction of adaptive interventions to treat psychological and behavioral health conditions. Until recently, analysis methods for data from SMART designs considered only a single measurement of the outcome of interest when comparing the efficacy of adaptive interventions. Lu et al. proposed a method for considering repeated outcome measurements to incorporate information about the longitudinal trajectory of change. While their proposed method can be applied to many kinds of outcome variables, they focused mainly on linear models for normally distributed outcomes. Practical guidelines and extensions are required to implement this methodology with other types of repeated outcome measures common in behavioral research. In this article, we discuss implementation of this method with repeated binary outcomes. We explain how to compare adaptive interventions in terms of various summaries of repeated binary outcome measures, including average outcome (area under the curve) and delayed effects. The method is illustrated using an empirical example from a SMART study to develop an adaptive intervention for engaging alcohol- and cocaine-dependent patients in treatment. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to demonstrate the good performance of the proposed technique.     

Maintained Individual Data Distributed Likelihood Estimation (MIDDLE)

Maintained Individual Data Distributed Likelihood Estimation (MIDDLE) is a novel paradigm for research in the behavioral, social, and health sciences. The MIDDLE approach is based on the seemingly impossible idea that data can be privately maintained by participants and never revealed to researchers, while still enabling statistical models to be fit and scientific hypotheses tested. MIDDLE rests on the assumption that participant data should belong to, be controlled by, and remain in the possession of the participants themselves. Distributed likelihood estimation refers to fitting statistical models by sending an objective function and vector of parameters to each participant’s personal device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, computer), where the likelihood of that individual’s data is calculated locally. Only the likelihood value is returned to the central optimizer. The optimizer aggregates likelihood values from responding participants and chooses new vectors of parameters until the model converges. A MIDDLE study provides significantly greater privacy for participants, automatic management of opt-in and opt-out consent, lower cost for the researcher and funding institute, and faster determination of results. Furthermore, if a participant opts into several studies simultaneously and opts into data sharing, these studies automatically have access to individual-level longitudinal data linked across all studies.     

Tensions of Accountability: Scientists,Technicians and the Ethical Life of Data Production in Astronomy

ABSTRACT

Laboratory ethnographies have emphasized the importance of trust and accountability among scientists and technicians when working in co-presence. But what happens to their relations when data production is outsourced, widely separating scientists and technicians? In contemporary astronomy, observing has largely become a service that observatory staff members do for researchers. This has increased the efficiency of telescope use while also resulting in arrangements prone to some researchers’ dissatisfaction and a raised visibility of technicians’ work. Attending ethnographically to situated evaluations reveals that some data-using researchers and data-producing technicians typify each other as moral figures: staff observers come to be seen as objects of blame and scientists as excessively demanding users. Wherever data travel, the quality and quantity of data can serve as ethical affordances for assigning blame to staff technicians. By contrast, the moral figure of the excessively demanding data user does not travel beyond the observatory, and the social accountability of interactions that visiting astronomers experience in the observatory’s control room is confined to its situated enactment. As scientist–technician interactions have become discontinuous and fraught, moral figures and ethical accounts thus travel unevenly in the landscape of data production, and the importance of social interactions remains often unrecognized.     

From data through discount rates to the area under the curve

The rate of discounting future goods is a crucial factor in intertemporal trade-offs, upon which depends not only individual well-being but also that of our planet: How much privation now for a temperate future for our grandchildren? What is the best way to measure how the value of future goods decreases with its delay? The most accurate discount functions involve several covarying parameters, making interpretation equivocal. A universal and robust measure is the area under the discount curve, the AuC. The AuC of a hyperbolic discount function is a logarithmic function of the discount rate, k. The same integral also approximates the area under a hyperboloid function. A simple technique converts each datum into estimates of the discount rate, eliminating rogue data points in the process. These trimmed estimates are converted into areas and tested against data, where they succeed at predicting the AuC and its relation to log(k).     

Rethink "Affirmative Agreement," but Abandon "Assent"

Training in ethics and professionalism is a fundamental component of residency education, yet there is little empirical information to guide curricula. The objective of this study is to describe empirically derived ethics objectives for ethics and professionalism training for multiple specialties. Study design is a thematic analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups conducted in a setting of an academic medical center, Veterans Administration, and community hospital training more than 1000 residents. Participants were 84 informants in 13 specialties including residents, program directors, faculty, practicing physicians, and ethics committees. Thematic analysis identified commonalities across informants and specialties. Resident and nonresident informants identified consent, interprofessional relationships, family interactions, communication skills, and end-of-life care as essential components of training. Nonresidents also emphasized formal ethics instruction, resource allocation, and self-monitoring, whereas residents emphasized the learning environment and resident-attending interactions. Conclusions are that empirically derived learning needs for ethics and professionalism included many topics, such as informed consent and resource allocation, relevant for most specialties, providing opportunities for shared curricula and resources.     

Mutual Funds Efficiency Measurement under Financial and Social Responsibility Criteria

Socially responsible investors pursue financial as well as nonfinancial goals. Whereas the role of financial criteria in investment decisions is well understood, much less is known on the influence of social responsibility considerations. This work seeks to integrate both dimensions within a data envelopment analysis framework consistent with second‐order stochastic dominance efficiency. We compare the performance of conventional versus socially responsible mutual funds on an empirical data set. Our data do not support the conjecture that conventional mutual funds exhibit superior overall performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A School-Based,Primary Violence Prevention Program

Summary

This article presents findings from an evaluative study of a multidisciplinary violence prevention project jointly administered by a family practice clinic and junior high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The project team hypothesized that an intervention established on a public health model and aimed at enhancing adolescent self-esteem through cognitive and behavioral strategies would reduce the tendency to engage in violence of participating students. The project united health care personnel, social workers and legal profession-als in an effort to teach students specific cognitive tools for the reduction and avoidance of violent encounters. The experimental results do not reveal Project effectiveness in boosting self-esteem indicators among students, although the Project docs seem to have contributed to the control of students' behavioral aggression. Although a clear relationship between self-esteem and violent behavior is not demonstrated by the experimental results, the project study suggests that school-based, anti-violence programs based on a public health model can have a positive effect in the reduction of physical and verbal aggression among adolescents.     

Ethics in Research

Summary

This article presents an overview of the history of efforts to protect human subjects in research. It discusses the establishment of international, national, organizational, and institutional procedures designed to protect human participants. The article provides a detailed summary of the principal ethical codes for research and their origins. It includes discussions of the most frequently encountered ethical issues ranging from the initial decision to undertake the project, through the selection and application of the various research procedures, to the analysis and interpretation of the data.