Assessment of functional abilities among geriatric patients: A MIMIC model of the functional independence measure.

Objective: To investigate the influence of population heterogeneity among geriatric patients on the factor structure and differential item functioning on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and thereby evaluate the appropriateness of using 2 factor composite scores (FIM motor and FIM cognition) among geriatric patients. Design: A specific application of structural equation modeling (i.e., multiple indicators, multiple causes [MIMIC] model) was conducted on FIM admission scores from 718 geriatric rehabilitation patients. Setting: A large urban rehabilitation hospital. Participants: 718 inpatients referred for medical rehabilitation (M?=?77.5 yrs; 62% African American; 68% female). Measurements: All participants' functional abilities were rated on the FIM by trained physical and occupational therapists on admission to the rehabilitation hospital. In addition, all patients completed the Geriatric Depression Scale. Results: Three motor functioning items and 3 cognitive functioning items differed systematically across groups within this geriatric sample (i.e., young-old vs old-old, male vs female, depressed vs nondepressed) even after controlling for group differences on levels of overall motor and cognitive functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The do re mi's of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences.

The present research examined individual differences in music preferences. A series of 6 studies investigated lay beliefs about music, the structure underlying music preferences, and the links between music preferences and personality. The data indicated that people consider music an important aspect of their lives and listening to music an activity they engaged in frequently. Using multiple samples, methods, and geographic regions, analyses of the music preferences of over 3,500 individuals converged to reveal 4 music-preference dimensions: Reflective and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, Upbeat and Conventional, and Energetic and Rhythmic. Preferences for these music dimensions were related to a wide array of personality dimensions (e.g., Openness), self-views (e.g., political orientation), and cognitive abilities (e.g., verbal IQ). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance following ability-focused physical therapy intervention in individuals with severely limited physical and cognitive abilities

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Do individuals with severely limited physical and cognitive abilities improve their gross motor abilities when given physical therapy intervention, and does improvement transfer to nontreatment settings? SUBJECTS: The subjects were 24 individuals (10 female, 14 male), aged 3 to 30 years (X = 20.1, SD = 8.1), who were nonambulatory and had limited adaptive behavior. METHODS: Change in gross motor ability during 18 weeks of twice-weekly therapy was measured using goal attainment scaling (GAS). Three gross motor goals were developed for each subject based on individual or caregiver needs, with one goal randomly selected as a control. Physical impairments were treated, and behavioral management principles, low-level communication approaches, high-repetition practice of goals, and a progressive reduction of both physical assistance and multisensory cues were used. An independent rater scored goal level from randomly ordered videotapes recorded during therapy and in recess and home settings. RESULTS: Mean GAS T scores were higher for treatment goals (X = 45.6, SD = 10.5) compared with control goals (X = 34.6, SD = 11.8). When the expected goal level (50) was met during therapy, mean GAS T scores in recess settings ( X = 35.9, SD = 11.5) and home settings (X = 42.2, SD = 12.2) were lower. At the conclusion of therapy, there were no differences in goal levels between treatment and control goals in both the recess and home settings. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: The subjects demonstrated improvement of gross motor abilities practiced during therapy. Level of ability during therapy, however, did not consistently transfer to the recess of home settings. [Brown DA, Effgen SK, Palisano RJ. Performance following ability-focused physical therapy intervention in individuals with severely limited physical and cognitive abilities.     

Controversy and consensus regarding the use of cognitive ability testing in organizations.

Seven hundred three members of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology indicated agreement or disagreement with 49 propositions regarding cognitive ability tests in organizations. There was consensus that cognitive ability tests are valid and fair, that they provide good but incomplete measures, that different abilities are necessary for different jobs, and that diversity is valuable. Items dealing with the unique status of cognitive ability were most likely to generate polarized opinions. A 2-factor model, classifying items as those reflecting societal concerns over the consequences of ability testing and those reflecting an emphasis on the unique status of "g," fit the data well, and these factors proved especially important for predicting responses to the more controversial items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the quality of life in epilepsy inventory

We developed an instrument to measure health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in epilepsy. A 99-item inventory was constructed from the RAND 36-Item Health Survey (generic core), with 9 additional generic items, 48 epilepsy-targeted items, and 6 other items concerning attitudes toward epilepsy and self-esteem. We administered the 99-item inventory to 304 adults with epilepsy at 25 epilepsy centers. Patients and patient-designated proxies completed the inventory and were retested 1-91 days later. A multitrait scaling analysis of these data led to retention of 86 items distributed in 17 multiitem scales (Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.78 to 0.92). Factor analysis of the 17 multiitem scales yielded four underlying dimensions of health: an epilepsy-targeted dimension, a cognitive factor, mental health, and physical health. Construct validity was supported by significant patient-proxy correlations for all scales and correlations between neuropsychologic tests and self-reported emotional and cognitive function (all p values < 0.05). There were significant negative correlations between the four factor scores derived from the HRQOL scales and neurotoxicity, systemic toxicity, and health care utilization (except for the correlation between mental health factor and health care utilization; all p values < 0.05). Patients who were seizure-free in the preceding year reported better HRQOL for the overall score, three of the four factor scores, and 8 of the 17 scale scores than did patients with a high frequency of seizures. Relative validity analysis showed that the epilepsy-targeted factor and three of its four component scales were more sensitive to categorization of patients by severity of seizure frequency and type than scales tapping physical health, mental health, or cognitive function. These cross-sectional data support the reliability and validity of this measure of HRQOL in epilepsy. The addition of an epilepsy-targeted supplement to the generic core improved the sensitivity to severity of epilepsy. The 86 items included in the field testing were supplemented by three additional items to form the Quality of Life in Epilepsy (QOLIE-89) inventory.     

Alcohol beverage drinking, diet and body mass index in a cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVE: The study was carried out to determine the associations of alcohol beverage drinking with macronutrients, antioxidants, and body mass index. SETTING: Dietary subsample of the 1992 Finmonica cardiovascular risk factor survey in Finland; a cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS: 985 women and 863 men were drawn from the population register in the four monitoring areas. All subjects were 25-64 y of age. METHODS: The mailed questionnaire included questions covering socioeconomic factors, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. The diet was assessed using a three-day food record. RESULTS: The dietary differences between abstainers and alcohol consumers were more significant than between consumers of different alcoholic beverages. Among drinkers, fat intake as a percentage of energy was higher and carbohydrate intake was lower than among abstainers. Those who preferred wine, however, had the highest vitamin C intake; female wine drinkers also had the highest carotenoid intake. With the exception of those who mainly preferred spirits, alcohol energy was not added to the diet but seemed to substitute food items both in men and women. Despite the similar total daily energy intakes, daily energy expenditure, and physical activity index, male drinkers were leaner than abstainers. In women, the proportion of underreporters of energy intake increased with increasing alcohol consumption, and the association between alcohol and body mass index was similar to that in men after the exclusion of underreporters. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol consumers were leaner than abstainers, and wine drinkers in particular had more antioxidants in their diet.     

Mental-attentional capacity: does cognitive style make a difference?

There is currently no consensus on whether the difference between field-dependent and field-independent subjects on tasks of cognitive abilities result from different mental processing strategies, from true group differences in cognitive ability, or from both. School-age children (N = 239) were tested for field dependence/independence using the Children's Embedded Figures Test and for mental-attentional capacity using the Figural Intersection Task. Multigroup scaling models were used to separate the contributions of style from ability in children's performance on Figural Intersection items. Results show that field-dependent children have greater odds of success than field-independent children in Figural Intersection items when the task's mental-attentional demand is above the child's mental attentional capacity, as assessed in the same task. The contrary is true when the task's mental-attentional demand is below or equal to the mental-attentional capacity of the child. Overall, field-dependent children obtain lower estimates of mental-attentional capacity than field-independent children in this task. We discuss the implications of these results for the measurement of mental-attentional capacity and the conceptualization of field dependence/independence.     

The structure of intelligence in children and adults with high functioning autism.

Confirmatory factor analyses of the commonly used 11 subtests of the Wechsler child and adult intelligence scales were accomplished for 137 children and 117 adults with high functioning autism (HFA) and for comparable age groups from the standardization samples contained in the Wechsler manuals. The objectives were to determine whether the structure of intelligence in HFA groups was similar to that found in the normative samples, and whether a separate "social context" factor would emerge that was unique to HFA. Four-factor models incorporating a Social Context factor provided the best fit in both the autism and normative samples, but the subtest intercorrelations were generally lower in the autism samples. Findings suggest similar organization of cognitive abilities in HFA, but with the possibility of underconnectivity or reduced communication among brain regions in autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Maudsley Addiction Profile (MAP): a brief instrument for assessing treatment outcome

AIM: To develop a brief, multi-dimensional instrument for assessing treatment outcome for people with drug and/or alcohol problems. The Maudsley Addiction Profile (MAP) is the first instrument to be developed in the United Kingdom for this purpose. DESIGN: Field testing with quota-recruitment of problem drug users and problem alcohol users in treatment with researcher and clinician-administered test-retest interviews. SETTING: Two community and two inpatient services at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital, London. PARTICIPANTS: Subjects (160 drug users and 80 alcohol users) interviewed by eight interviews (four researchers and four clinicians), each of whom interviewed 30 subjects on two occasions. MEASURES: Sixty items across substance use, health risk, physical/psychological health and personal/social functioning domains. FINDINGS: Average completion time of the MAP was 12 minutes. The questionnaire was acceptable to a majority of subjects and performed well with both researcher and clinician interviewers. Internal reliability and feasible concurrent validity assessments of the scales and items were highly satisfactory. Test-retest reliability was good, average intraclass correlation coefficients across eight substances were 0.94 and 0.81 across health risk, health problems, relationship conflict, employment and crime measures. CONCLUSIONS: The MAP can serve as a core research instrument with additional outcome measures added as required. The collection of a set of reliable quantitative measures of problems among drug and alcohol users by research or treatment personnel for outcome evaluation purposes need not be time-consuming.     

Emotional intelligence: in search of an elusive construct

The view that emotional intelligence should be included within the traditional cognitive abilities framework was explored in 3 studies (total N = 530) by investigating the relations among measures of emotional intelligence, traditional human cognitive abilities, and personality. The studies suggest that the status of the emotional intelligence construct is limited by measurement properties of its tests. Measures based on consensual scoring exhibited low reliability. Self-report measures had salient loadings on well-established personality factors, indicating a lack of divergent validity. These data provide controvertible evidence for the existence of a separate Emotion Perception factor that (perhaps) represents the ability to monitor another individual's emotions. This factor is narrower than that postulated within current models of emotional intelligence.     

Feature distribution and biased estimation of visual displays.

Perceptual equivalents of confirmation biases and framing effects are observed in Ss' estimates of feature numerosity. Ss are asked to estimate the percentage of display items that have a particular feature. Features either are randomly distributed or are spatially clustered such that features of the same type tend to be close. Ss systematically overestimate the prevalence of features in clustered displays. The pattern of results is best explained by a regional salience bias: Features tend to be more salient if they belong to regions that have a high concentration of instruction-mentioned features. The regional salience bias is contrasted with a feature salience bias: Features tend to be more salient if they are mentioned in the instructions. The relations among the observed perceptual bias and traditional confirmation biases, numeric estimation, and attention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Correlation between Price and Quality on Consumer Choice

According to the price-expectancy model of consumer choice, consumers evaluate products by comparing the actual price with a reference or expected price determined from (a) product's quality and (b) the price-quality correlation of the product category. Choices between hypothetical products of beer are used to test the model against a model without a reference price. Consistent with the price-expectancy model, product preferences varied with the subjective correlation between price and quality: the relative preference for higher priced/higher quality products over lower priced/lower quality products increased as the subjective correlation increased. For some pairs, the correlation between price and quality created a preference reversal across contexts: the higher priced/higher quality product was chosen over the lower priced/lower quality product in the higher correlational context, but the lower priced/lower quality product was chosen over the higher priced/higher quality product in the lower correlational context. An additional study provided evidence that the price-quality correlation affects reference price, rather than reference quality, formation. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.     

Expression of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the rat thyroid gland after exposure to bromide

Support groups for individuals who stutter provide an opportunity for consumers to incorporate emerging or newly learned fluency skills in speaking situations outside of the speech-language clinic. One major theme of this article is to promote the idea that support groups can be utilized by clinicians and consumers as an important adjunct to fluency therapy. In addition to addressing feelings and attitudes associated with stuttering, the supportive environment of such groups serves to provide individuals who stutter with opportunities to work on improved communication skills with several different communication partners. For many, this is an important step in the successful transfer of fluency skills from the clinic to the "real world."     

Longitudinal changes in behavioral problems in old age: a study in an adult day care population

BACKGROUND: Four types of agitation have been identified: physically aggressive behaviors, physically nonaggressive behaviors, verbally aggressive behaviors, and verbally nonaggressive behaviors. These pose a major challenge to caregivers and are sometimes indicators of the emotional state of the older person. Longitudinal changes in these four subtypes of agitated behaviors were examined. METHODS: One hundred and four community-dwelling participants of five senior day care centers (mean age = 79) were followed up for 2 years. Their agitation was assessed, as was their cognitive functioning, affect, and medical functioning. RESULTS: Although physically nonaggressive, physically aggressive, and verbally aggressive behaviors increased significantly over 2 years, verbally nonaggressive behaviors did not show significant changes over time. These patterns can be partially explained by the relationship between the different types of agitation and cognitive functioning. Increases in physically nonaggressive behaviors from start to end of the 2 years were predicted by greater cognitive impairment at baseline and by receiving a smaller number of medications at baseline. Increases in verbally aggressive behaviors and in physically aggressive behaviors during the study period correlated significantly with a greater decline in cognitive functioning and increased depression at baseline. In addition, increases in physical aggression were correlated with greater cognitive impairment at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: The course of change for each type of agitation was unique. The relationships between inappropriate behaviors, cognitive functioning, physical health, and depression over time are complex and vary by type of agitation.     

Self-efficacy and consumer satisfaction with housing

During clinical recovery mental health consumers express increasing interest in assuming control over their community living arrangements. Despite recent policy initiatives toward consumer empowerment in housing services and supports, few studies have explored empowerment issues, such as self-efficacy, in relation to housing satisfaction. This study explored the extent to which specific areas of support and self-efficacy predict consumer satisfaction with housing. This study also explored how different types of housing, and consumer housing preferences, also explain consumer satisfaction with housing. One-hundred twenty-five randomly selected consumers completed structured interviews. As hypothesized, hierarchical multiple predictor regression analyses revealed type of housing and self-efficacy as significant predictor variables. The total regression equation accounted for 67 percent of the explained variance in housing satisfaction. Chi-square analyses across housing groups indicated that consumers prefer less restrictive residential settings. Findings suggest that consumers prefer less restrictive housing, as such relate in part to increasing levels of self-efficacy. Further study is recommended to explore how self-efficacy may best be promoted across different clinical groups and different residential settings.     

Object-recognition and spatial learning and memory in rats prenatally exposed to ethanol.

Prenatal ethanol exposure can produce cognitive and behavioral impairments. In the present study, rats from prenatal ethanol (E), pair-fed (PF), and ad libitum-fed control (C) treatment conditions were tested on the object-recognition delayed-nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) task with nonrecurring items and on the spatial-navigation Morris water maze task. In Experiment 1, there were no significant differences among groups in object-recognition learning and memory, distractibility, or response perseveration on the DNMS task. In Experiment 2, the same rats were tested in the water maze; E rats took significantly longer to learn the task than did the PF or C rats. These data suggest that the mechanisms underlying spatial cognitive abilities are more vulnerable to the teratogenic effects of prenatal ethanol exposure than those underlying object-recognition abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visuospatial reaching preferences of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): An assessment of individual biases across a variety of tasks.

Using multiple measures of hand preference, the authors investigated lateralization at an individual level in 21 common marmosets. Despite showing group biases for sensory and communication functions, these same marmosets did not show a group bias in direction of lateralized hand use. Hand preferences were recorded on four novel reaching tasks requiring different levels of visual guidance and postural control. As found for simple food holding (with the same subjects), they displayed strong individual hand preferences but no group bias indicative of handedness. The strength of hand preference was influenced by task demands: stronger preferences were expressed when subjects adopted a suspended posture, and when "successful" versus "unsuccessful" foraging strategies were compared. Comparisons between visuospatial reaching and simple food holding preferences also revealed that half of the subjects displayed a division of function between the hands/hemispheres; subjects displayed opposing preferences in simple and visuospatial reaching, which would be beneficial for the performance of coordinated bimanual tasks. Given the apparent absence of a selective advantage for handedness, the authors suggest that hand preferences may reflect hemispheric dominance of other cognitive domains (i.e., temperament). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Group Selection Questionnaire: Further refinements in group member selection.

The Group Selection Questionnaire (GSQ), a promising measure intended to aid clinicians in managing group selection and composition, was tested in a two-phase study. Phase 1 was conducted in postwar Bosnia with war-traumatized secondary school students participating in a group treatment program in 10 schools. Results indicated that the GSQ demonstrated a factor structure consistent with theory, and the GSQ factors demonstrated predictive abilities for group process and outcome over multiple measures and multiple time periods. Phase 2 was conducted with college-age students participating in group treatment at a university counseling center. Phase 2 replicated the procedures of Phase 1 and tested 10 new items. Results indicated that the GSQ demonstrated a similar factor structure to Phase 1, and the revised scale was again predictive of group process and outcome, as well as attrition, across multiple time periods. The GSQ may be helpful to clinicians seeking to apply evidence-based practices in their group work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task experience and children's working memory performance: A perspective from recall timing.

Working memory is an important theoretical construct among children, and measures of its capacity predict a range of cognitive skills and abilities. Data from 9- and 11-year-old children illustrate how a chronometric analysis of recall can complement and elaborate recall accuracy in advancing our understanding of working memory. A reading span task was completed by 130 children, 75 of whom were tested on 2 occasions, with sequence length either increasing or decreasing during test administration. Substantial pauses occur during participants' recall sequences, and they represent consistent performance traits over time, while also varying with recall circumstances and task history. Recall pauses help to predict reading and number skills, alongside as well as separate from levels of recall accuracy. The task demands of working memory change as a function of task experience, with a combination of accuracy and response timing in novel task situations being the strongest predictor of cognitive attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)