Teaching Pedestrian Skills to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of most to least prompting on teaching pedestrian skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Five individuals with developmental disabilities were taught three different pedestrian skills, all related to crossing the streets, using simulation activities on a road model in the gym of their school. A multiple probe design across behaviors was used to evaluate the effects of most to least prompting. The results of the study revealed that most to least prompting was effective in teaching pedestrian skills. The subjects learned each of the skills and managed to generalize these skills to the actual city traffic.     

Overconfidence: It Depends on How, What, and Whom You Ask

Many studies have reported that the confidence people have in their judgments exceeds their accuracy and that overconfidence increases with the difficulty of the task. However, some common analyses confound systematic psychological effects with statistical effects that are inevitable if judgments are imperfect. We present three experiments using new methods to separate systematic effects from the statistically inevitable. We still find systematic differences between confidence and accuracy, including an overall bias toward overconfidence. However, these effects vary greatly with the type of judgment. There is little general overconfidence with two-choice questions and pronounced overconfidence with subjective confidence intervals. Over- and underconfidence also vary systematically with the domain of questions asked, but not as a function of difficulty. We also find stable individual differences. Determining why some people, some domains, and some types of judgments are more prone to overconfidence will be important to understanding how confidence judgments are made.     

Hospitalization of Children with Cystic Fibrosis Adversely Affects Mothers’ Physical Activity,Sleep Quality,and Psychological Status

Having a child with a chronic disease can cause anxiety and depression, which may impair the sleep quality of mothers. The aim of this study was to compare physical activity level, sleep quality, anxiety and depression in mothers of hospitalized cystic fibrosis patients, cystic fibrosis outpatients and healthy controls. Twenty-three of the patients were hospitalized and 38 were outpatients and 37 age-matched healthy children served as controls. The mothers’ fatigue levels, sleep disturbances, stress levels and perceptions of their child’s disease severity were assessed with a Visual Analog Scale. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were administered to the mothers of children. Mothers of hospitalized and outpatient cystic fibrosis children had significantly higher fatigue severity, sleep disturbance, and stress level according to Visual Analog Scale than mothers of healthy controls. All of International Physical Activity Questionnaire scores were significantly lower in cystic fibrosis patients’ mothers than healthy controls’. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale depression score, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index subdomains and total scores of hospitalized patients’ mothers were higher than those of the other two groups (p?<?0.05). Chronic illness in children with cystic fibrosis may impair the physical activity level, sleep quality and psychological state of their mothers, especially during hospitalization period.     

Analyzing Youth’s Activity Patterns in Campus Open Spaces Depending on Their Personal and Social Needs

Campus open spaces play an important role in meeting socialization and personal development needs of youth. Various studies have shown that space use of youth is different from that of general society: particularly their psychosocial nature and the activities they carry out toward this nature differ from those of the children and adults. However, only a limited number of studies have produced findings on the needs of youth toward obtaining gains related to development of psychosocial nature required to carry out the activities aimed at meeting such needs. This study analyzed the use of campus open spaces by youth. The most preferred 3 places in study area have been chosen, and with behavioral observation, the activity types occurred in these places were identified. Which of these activities are for personal development and which of them are for social development were determined.     

When choices give in to temptations: Explaining the disagreement among importance measures

Respondents’ overt statements of relative importance rarely correspond to weights derived from a regression analysis of their decisions. This paper conjectures that differential effects of high-level goals on importance beliefs and choices can explain these discrepancies. It is argued that the goal to justify decisions influences importance beliefs more than choices whereas the goal to assess preferences accurately affects choices more than importance beliefs. It is also argued that differential effects of high-level goals on importance statements and choices vary as a function of whether decision-maker controls the information flow and the extent of prior knowledge and experiences with choice options. These predictions were tested within the context of a contraceptive decision-making task. Choices among contraceptives made the justification goal salient to subjects by requiring tradeoffs between attributes that are either considered rational or tempting in making such decisions (e.g., health risks vs. pleasure/convenience). As predicted, subjects assigned larger importance weights to rational attributes in their subjective evaluations than in their choices whereas the impact of tempting attributes was stronger for choices than for subjective importance evaluations. Moreover, these observed discrepancies between importance measures were reduced in favor of rational attributes when subjects controlled the information flow and could not access their prior experiences. Overall, the results suggest that, although tempting attributes affect choices, decision makers appear to be unwilling to acknowledge the impact of tempting attributes on their decisions in judging attribute importance.     

International physical activity questionnaire: reliability and validity of the Turkish version

Physical inactivity is a global problem which is related to many chronic health disorders. Physical activity scales which allow cross-cultural comparisons have been developed. The goal was to assess the reliability and validity of a Turkish version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). 1,097 university students (721 women, 376 men; ages 18-32) volunteered. Short and long forms of the IPAQ gave good agreement and comparable 1-wk. test-retest reliabilities. Caltrac accelerometer data were compared with IPAQ scores in 80 participants with good agreement for short and long forms. Turkish versions of the IPAQ short and long forms are reliable and valid in assessment of physical activity.