Does the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery (CANTAB) Distinguish Between Cognitive Domains in Healthy Older Adults?

The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is a semiautomated computer interface for assessing cognitive function. We examined whether CANTAB tests measured specific cognitive functions, using established neuropsychological tests as a reference point. A sample of 500 healthy older (M = 60.28 years, SD = 6.75) participants in the Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project completed battery of CANTAB subtests and standard paper-based neuropsychological tests. Confirmatory factor analysis identified four factors: processing speed, verbal ability, episodic memory, and working memory. However, CANTAB tests did not consistently load onto the cognitive domain factors derived from traditional measures of the same function. These results indicate that five of the six CANTAB subtests examined did not load onto single cognitive functions. These CANTAB tests may lack the sensitivity to measure discrete cognitive functions in healthy populations or may measure other cognitive domains not included in the traditional neuropsychological battery

Uncovering the Moral Heuristics of Altruism: A Philosophical Scale

Extant research suggests that individuals employ traditional moral heuristics to support their observed altruistic behavior; yet findings have largely been limited to inductive extrapolation and rely on relatively few traditional frames in so doing, namely, deontology in organizational behavior and virtue theory in law and economics. Given that these and competing moral frames such as utilitarianism can manifest as identical behavior, we develop a moral framing instrument—the Philosophical Moral-Framing Measure (PMFM)—to expand and distinguish traditional frames associated and disassociated with observed altruistic behavior. The validation of our instrument based on 1015 subjects in 3 separate real stakes scenarios indicates that heuristic forms of deontology, virtue-theory, and utilitarianism are strongly related to such behavior, and that egoism is an inhibitor. It also suggests that deontic and virtue-theoretical frames may be commonly perceived as intertwined and opens the door for new research on self-abnegation, namely, a perceived moral obligation toward suffering and self-denial. These findings hold the potential to inform ongoing conversations regarding organizational citizenship and moral crowding out, namely, how financial incentives can undermine altruistic behavior

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

Given the relationship between language acquisition and music processing, musical perception (MP) skills have been proposed as a tool for early diagnosis of speech and language difficulties; therefore, a psychometric instrument is needed to assess music perception in children under 10 years of age, a crucial period in neurodevelopment. We created a set of 80 musical stimuli encompassing seven domains of music perception to inform perception of tonal, atonal, and modal stimuli, in a random sample of 1006 children, 6–13 years of age, equally distributed from first to fifth grades, from 14 schools (38% private schools) in So Paulo State. The underlying model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. A model encompassing seven orthogonal specific domains (contour, loudness, scale, timbre, duration, pitch, and meter) and one general music perception factor, the “m-factor,” showed excellent fit indices. The m-factor, previously hypothesized in the literature but never formally tested, explains 93% of the reliable variance in measurement, while only 3.9% of the reliable variance could be attributed to the multidimensionality caused by the specific domains. The 80 items showed no differential item functioning based on sex, age, or enrolment in public vs. private school, demonstrating the important psychometric feature of invariance. Like Charles Spearman's g-factor of intelligence, the m-factor is robust and reliable. It provides a convenient measure of auditory stimulus apprehension that does not rely on verbal information, offering a new opportunity to probe biological and psychological relationships with music perception phenomena and the etiologies of speech and language disorders

Social Media Usage Patterns: Research Note Regarding the Lack of Universal Validated Measures for Active and Passive Use

The existing literature regarding social media use provides extant evidence supporting the claim that usage patterns ultimately have the capability of impacting users. However, the vast majority of the literature is based upon experimental laboratory settings where participants are observed by researchers. The current article asserts that there is a significant deficiency within the discipline regarding the validated measurement of usage patterns of social networking sites (SNSs) and offers guidance for those who may want to develop a general measure

Fear and Foxes: An Educational Primer for Use with "Anterior Pituitary Transcriptome Suggests Differences in ACTH Release in Tame and Aggressive Foxes".

The way genes contribute to behavior is complicated. Although there are some single genes with large contributions, most behavioral differences are due to small effects from many interacting genes. This makes it hard to identify the genes that cause behavioral differences. Mutagenesis screens in model organisms, selective breeding experiments in animals, comparisons between related populations with different behaviors, and genome-wide association studies in humans are promising and complementary approaches to understanding the heritable aspects of complex behaviors. To connect genes to behaviors requires measuring behavioral differences, locating correlated genetic changes, determining when, where, and how these candidate genes act, and designing causative confirmatory experiments. This area of research has implications from basic discovery science to human mental health

The influence of social value and selfcongruity on interpersonal connections in virtual social networks by Gen-Y tourists

This research focuses on the relationship of self-congruity and perceived social value with the interpersonal connections established by Generation Y tourists in virtual social networks. A quantitative study was performed using a sample of young travelers from Spain. The methodologies of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Models (SEM) were used to analyze the results. The findings of the research show that self-congruity influences the perceived social value; the perceived social value leads to satisfaction and the creation of interpersonal connections in virtual social networks; and the interpersonal connections in virtual social networks influence the use of these tools by Generation Y travelers

Beyond static representations: development of a multi-channel, dynamic assessment of emotion perception

Research on the perception of emotion in humans has a long and rich literature base. Ekman???s (Ekman, 1972; Ekman & Friesen, 1971) research on the universal recognition of emotions represents some of the earliest work in the area of emotion recognition. However, with the exception of recent work on synthesized faces to examine facial features related to emotion recognition in humans (Spencer-Smith et al., 2001), the field has not progressed very far beyond Ekman???s original stimuli of emotion expressions in terms of developing standardized assessments of emotion perception skills. Recently, several researchers have called for the field to move beyond the emotion stimuli based on posed expressions of high signal clarity (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Ambadar, Schooler, & Cohn, 2005). This research seeks to expand the field of emotion perception by developing a performance-based measure of emotion perception that capitalizes on new technologies incorporating full multimedia stimuli

Negative Results in Computer Vision: A Perspective

A negative result is when the outcome of an experiment or a model is not what is expected or when a hypothesis does not hold. Despite being often overlooked in the scientific community, negative results are results and they carry value. While this topic has been extensively discussed in other fields such as social sciences and biosciences, less attention has been paid to it in the computer vision community. The unique characteristics of computer vision, particularly its experimental aspect, call for a special treatment of this matter. In this paper, I will address what makes negative results important, how they should be disseminated and incentivized, and what lessons can be learned from cognitive vision research in this regard. Further, I will discuss issues such as computer vision and human vision interaction, experimental design and statistical hypothesis testing, explanatory versus predictive modeling, performance evaluation, model comparison, as well as computer vision research culture

Models of collaboration between psychologist and family doctor: a systematic review of primary care psychology

open2noThe prevalence of psychological suffering is greater than the actual request for clinical consultation in Europe (Alonso et al., 2004). In Italy, no more than 5.5% of the population requested psychological assistance during lifetime (Miglioretti et al., 2008). There are different obstacles that prevent the access to mental health services, such as economic restrictions (Mulder et al., 2011), cultural prejudice (Kim et al., 2010), and lack of knowledge about the service providers that can answer to the patient’s psychological needs (Molinari et al., 2012). Therefore, the psychologist is often consulted as a last resort, only after everything else has failed, when problems have become severe, and thus requiring longer, more intensive, and expensive treatments. The introduction of the Primary Care Psychologist, a professional who works together with the family doctor, allows to overcome the above-mentioned problems and intercept unexpressed needs for psychological assistance. This professional role is operating in many countries since several years. In this study, current literature concerning different models of collaboration between physician and psychologist, in Europe and in Italy, was reviewed. A systematic search of Web of Science (ISI), Pubmed, Scopus, and PsychINFO was conducted using the initial search terms Primary Care Psychologist, Family Doctor, Primary Care, Collaborative Practice, and several relevant papers were identified. The review has shown the improved quality of care when mental health care is integrated into primary. Analyzing how different programs are implemented, results indicated that the more efficacious models of Primary Care Psychology are those tailored on the environment’s needs.The results of our systematic review stress the importance of the Primary Care Psychologist implementation also in Italy, to intercept unexpressed psychological needs and enhance clients’ quality of life.openFrancesca, Bianco; Enrico, BenelliBianco, Francesca; Benelli, Enric