Stability, Growth, and Decline in Adult Life Span Development of Declarative Memory: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data From a Population-Based Study.

Five-year changes in episodic and semantic memory were examined in a sample of 829 participants (35-80 years). A cohort-matched sample (N=967) was assessed to control for practice effects. For episodic memory, cross-sectional analyses indicated gradual age-related decrements, whereas the longitudinal data revealed no decrements before age 60, even when practice effects were adjusted for. Longitudinally, semantic memory showed minor increments until age 55, with smaller decrements in old age as compared with episodic memory. Cohort differences in educational attainment appear to account for the discrepancies between cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Collectively, the results show that age trajectories for episodic and semantic memory differ and underscore the need to control for cohort and retest effects in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integrated model of residential and employment location in a metropolitan region

The purpose of this paper is to improve the tools available for analyzing and evaluating land-use and transport policies in a regional planning context. A normative residential location submodel is combined with a predictive submodel for the location of employment. The demand side of the residential location submodel is formulated as a nested multinomial logit model of the joint choice of residential location and transportation mode. The cost of commuting is assumed to be a major determinant of locational choice. The employment location submodel is based on the assumption that accessibility to the labor force is the strategic location factor. Two versions of the submodels are proposed corresponding to a post- and pre-distribution modal split in the familiar four-step transport model. Policy tests of a newly proposed, large-scale traffic investment program in the Stockholm region are reported.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 30th European Congress, Istanbul, August 1990.     

Studying Individual Aging in an Interindividual Context: Typical Paths of Age-Related, Dementia-Related, and Mortality-Related Cognitive Development in Old Age.

This study has 2 objectives: (a) to explore typical paths of cognitive development associated with aging, terminal decline, and dementia and (b) to promote and illustrate an individual-oriented approach to the study of cognitive aging based on longitudinal panel data from a population-based sample (N = 500; age rangeT1= 60-80, where T refers to time) tested at 3 occasions 5 years apart. Results document interindividual differences in multivariate patterns of change. Although cognitive changes generally covary, the present study indicates that subgroups of individuals develop along different paths characterized by selective changes in subsets of cognitive functions. Typical progression of dementia followed a developmental cascade from low declarative memory, via low functioning across all observed cognitive measures, to dementia diagnosis, and finally, death. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The income return to entrepreneurship: theoretical model and outcomes for Swedish regions

This paper investigates the income return to entrepreneurship and wage employment by means of Lazear’s model of occupational choice. The paper has two major aims. The first is to develop a new theoretical framework for analyzing the income return to entrepreneurship by combining the Lazear model with the assumption that the skill profiles in a population are Fréchet-distributed. The second is to demonstrate that the resulting theoretical derivations can be used for a new type of regional analysis of the income return to entrepreneurship and wage employment. The empirical analysis is based on data for individuals with a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. We compute their income return to self-employment and wage employment in three parts of Sweden: the Stockholm region, the combined Gothenburg and Malmö region, and the Rest of Sweden. The results show that the average return to self-employment is less than 5% in all regions and smaller in the Gothenburg and Malmö region than in the other two regions. The regional differences are explained by the differential supply curves and market values of entrepreneurial talent. The theoretical derivation of the income return to entrepreneurship is the main contribution of the paper. Another contribution is the derivation of regional supply curves for entrepreneurs.     

Interregional allocation models of infrastructure investments

This paper deals with the allocation of public investments to some of the prospective key elements in the regional infrastructure. Two optimization models are suggested for allocating investment resources among regions and various infrastructure elements. Applications of the models illustrate solutions based on policy goals of economic efficiency and regional equity. The optimization models draw on the estimation of an aggregate regional production function.     

One-session treatment of specific phobias in youths: A randomized clinical trial.

Sixty children, ages 7-17 years, who fulfilled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnosis for various specific phobias were randomized to (a) 1-session exposure treatment alone, (b) 1-session treatment with a parent present, or (c) wait-list control group for 4 weeks. After the waiting period, the wait-list patients were rerandomized to the active treatments. The patients' phobias were assessed with behavioral approach tests (approach behavior, experienced anxiety, and physiological reactions), whereas general anxiety, depression, phobic tendencies, and anxiety sensitivity were assessed with self-report inventories. Assessments were done pre-, post-, and 1-year following treatment. Results showed that both treatment conditions did significantly better than the control condition, whereas the treatment groups did equally well on most measures, and the effects were maintained at follow-up. The implications of these results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is it time to use activity-based urban transport models? A discussion of planning needs and modelling possibilities

For some decades now, transport researchers have put considerable efforts into developing what is called activity-based approaches for modelling urban travel demand. The basic idea is that travel demand is derived from people’s desires to take part in different activities. In particular, the interrelationships among different activities with respect to temporal and spatial constraints are in focus. It means that such models treat the activities and the travelling of the households with respect to where and when the activities can be carried out and how they may be scheduled, given characteristics of the households and potential opportunities, the transport networks and various institutional constraints. We discuss what demands we see on future travel demand models, with a focus on urban analysis. This discussion is somewhat biased towards what role activity-based models could play in meeting these demands. We then review in some detail three prominent and distinctly different representatives of operational activity-based models to give an indication of what new modelling possibilities they offer. Theoretical appeal, empirical validity, usefulness for planning, need for data and easiness of implementation are discussed. In the final section we draw some conclusions about the prospects of these models and of their descendants.     

Electrodermal nonresponding, premorbid adjustment, and symptomatology as predictors of long-term social functioning in schizophrenics.

The hypothesis that electrodermal nonresponsiveness to orienting stimuli delineates a core group of "Kraepelinian" type schizophrenics was tested by following up social functioning outcome over a 2-year period in 37 schizophrenics. Good social functioning outcome required both some self-supporting ability in the job market and a minimal social life. The prior assessments included monitoring of electrodermal responses to a series of moderately intense tones, ratings of reported and observed symptoms during an interview, and ratings of premorbid adjustment on the basis of an interview with a close relative. Electrodermal nonresponding, poor premorbid adjustment, and negative symptomatology predicted poor social functioning during the second follow-up year, but the relationship to nonresponding pertained exclusively to a group of 15 first-episode patients. Discriminant analysis showed that electrodermal nonresponding and symptoms were the only independent predictors of outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blood and injection phobia: Background and cognitive, physiological, and behavioral variables.

Blood-phobic (n?=?81) and injection-phobic (n?=?59) patients fulfilling the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III—Revised (DSM-III—R) criteria for simple phobia were compared on a number of variables. There were no differences between the samples in age at onset, age at treatment, marital and occupational status, history of fainting in the phobic situation, and impairment. Higher proportions of blood-phobic Ss than of injection-phobic Ss reported having 1st-degree relatives with the same phobia (61 vs 29%) and reported fearing that they were going to faint in the phobic situation (77 vs 48%). In both samples, these proportions were higher in the subgroup with a history of fainting. Injection-phobic Ss rated 2 of 11 physiological items higher than did blood-phobic Ss, but the groups did not differ on behavioral variables. Overall, the similarities were more marked than the differences, and it is suggested that these two specific phobias should be regarded as one diagnostic entity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)