Heurísticas, enviezamentos e erros inferenciais na mecânica da avaliação psicológica

Os psicólogos ocupam uma parte importante do seu tempo em tarefas de avaliação sociológica. Este trabalho procura caracterizar algumas das questões colocadas pela existência de heurísticas, enviesamentos e erros inferenciais na prática clínica, em situações de avaliação psicológica. São referidas as variáveis que influenciam o funcionamento cognitivo dos psicólogos no processo de aquisição e integração de dados e na formação e avaliação das hipóteses. Neste contexto, são apresentados alguns exemplos de «heurísticas» e de «enviesamentos» que conduzem a erros que intervêm no raciocínio clínico: a «correlação ilusória)), a «heurística da representatividade » e a «heurística da disponibilidade», o «enviesamento confirmatório e o erro de atribuição fundamental). Finalmente, são indicadas algumas medidas propostas no sentido de minimizar o efeito dos erros e, por isso, orientadas para o aperfeiçoamento dos comportamentos de avaliação psicológica.L‘activité d’évaluation psychologique occupe une place importante dans le travail des psychologues. Le raisonnement chique du psychologue n’échappe pas aux heuristiques et distortions (bias cognitifs) et aux erreurs. Ce travail cherche a caractérise et reconstituer l’itinéraire du raisonnement du psychologue et il déceler les lignes (implicites) qui structurent sa démarche d’evaluation. On présente quelques exemples de ces distortions: la (corrélation illusoire», le «bias de la representativité), le «bias de la disponibilité)), le «bias confirmatoiren et el’erreur de l’attribution fondamentale)). Finalment, on expose quelques unes des solutions proposées qui sont orientées vers le perfectionnement du raisonnement lors de I’évaluation psychologique.Psychologists occupy an important part of their work in psychological assessment tasks. Psychologists are frequently asked to assess, diagnose and predict human behavior; and they are subject to a number of biases that negatively influence the accuracy of their clinical judgments. This paper seeks to characterize cognitive heuristics and biases that may lead to errors on psychological assessment tasks. Impediments to accurate clinical judgment include: the aepresentativeness heuristic)), the availability heuristic», the (illusory correlationn and the «fundamental attribution errar». Solutions or corrective measures that are likely to improve judgment accuracy are discussed

Phonological Awareness Tests of Coimbra’s Neuropsychological Assessment Battery : reliability and validity studies

A Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra (BANC) integra, entre diversos outros instrumentos de avaliação, três testes de consciência fonémica: um teste de eliminação e dois de substituição de fonemas. No presente trabalho, apresentam-se dados relativos às propriedades psicométricas destes testes, designadamente à precisão (consistência interna e estabilidade temporal), à validade de constructo (progressão dos resultados em função da idade e intercorrelações entre os testes), à validade discriminante (diferenciação do desempenho de grupos com e sem problemas de aprendizagem), e à validade concorrente (correlações com testes de inteligência, outros testes da BANC e os resultados escolares dos sujeitos). Os resultados obtidos atestam a adequação psicométrica do teste de eliminação e de um dos testes de substituição, sendo menos favoráveis, em termos de precisão e progressão em função da idade, no que concerne ao outro teste de substituição.Coimbra’s Neuropsychological Assessment Battery contains, amongst several other assessment instruments, phonemic awareness tests: one phoneme elision test and two phoneme substitution tests. This paper presents data concerning their psychometric properties, namely precision (internal consistency and temporal stability), construct validity (age differentiation and tests’ intercorrelations), discriminant validity (differentiation of groups with and without learning problems) and concurrent validity (correlations with intelligence tests, other tests from the Battery and academic grades of subjects). The results obtained demonstrate the psychometric adequacy of the elision test and of one of the substitution’s tests, but are less favourable regarding the other substitution test, namely in terms of precision and age differentiation

Event-related brain potentials in the study of inhibition: cognitive control, source localization and age-related modulations

In the previous 15 years, a variety of experimental paradigms and methods have been employed to study inhibition. In the current review, we analyze studies that have used the high temporal resolution of the event-related potential (ERP) technique to identify the temporal course of inhibition to understand the various processes that contribute to inhibition. ERP studies with a focus on normal aging are specifically analyzed because they contribute to a deeper understanding of inhibition. Three time windows are proposed to organize the ERP data collected using inhibition paradigms: the 200 ms period following stimulus onset; the period between 200 and 400 ms after stimulus onset; and the period between 400 and 800 ms after stimulus onset. In the first 200 ms, ERP inhibition research has primarily focused on N1 and P1 as the ERP components associated with inhibition. The inhibitory processing in the second time window has been associated with the N2 and P3 ERP components. Finally, in the third time window, inhibition has primarily been associated with the N400 and N450 ERP components. Source localization studies are analyzed to examine the association between the inhibition processes that are indexed by the ERP components and their functional brain areas. Inhibition can be organized in a complex functional structure that is not constrained to a specific time point but, rather, extends its activity through different time windows. This review characterizes inhibition as a set of processes rather than a unitary process

Cognitive Factors and Gender Related to Self-reported Difficulties in Older Drivers

The purpose of this study is to determine the association between selfreported driving difficulties among older drivers and scores on specific cognitive tests. A cross-sectional study of 38 car drivers (22 men and 16 women), aged 61- 81 was carried out. The participants were volunteers recruited from two senior universities and a university health program for older drivers, in the area of Lisbon, Portugal. A battery of visual, psychomotor and cognitive measures was undertaken with a questionnaire about driving difficulties in a sample of healthy older adults. Difficulties in driving were the dependent variable in this study, defined as any reported difficulty in ≥ 4 driving situations. After a multivariate analysis, the independent factors significantly associated with driving difficulties were divided attention subtest of UFOV® (p=0.013), number of trials with success in the Tower of London (p=0.015) and gender (p=0.021). The drivers that reported difficulties in ≥ 4 driving situations made significantly less trials with success in the Tower of London test, had lower performances in divided attention between central and peripheral targets, and were more frequently females. Results suggest that planning ability, divided visual attention and gender are three important factors to be considered in the analysis of driving difficulties. However, further investigation with additional cognitive tests and driving measures (staterecorded crashes, driving simulator and on-road driving performance) could be developed in order to understand the factors related to driving difficulties in healthy older drivers

Metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI): adaptação e validação da versão portuguesa

O Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) de Schraw e Dennison (1994) avalia duas dimensões metacognitivas de natureza geral nos adolescentes e adultos: o conhecimento da cognição, que inclui três subprocessos, e a regulação da cognição, que compreende cinco subprocessos. Neste estudo apresenta-se o processo de tradução e de adaptação do MAI à população portuguesa. A consistência interna nas dimensões conhecimento e regulação da cognição foi 0,82 e 0,90, respetivamente. Os resultados da Análise Fatorial Confirmatória sugerem um fator de segunda ordem com base na correlação dos resultados nas duas dimensões. A subescala conhecimento declarativo apresentou melhor validade relativa ao critério comparativamente com as demais subescalas. O MAI constitui-se um instrumento adaptado à realidade portuguesa, tanto para a avaliação da metacognição no global, como nas suas dimensões principais, permitindo apoiar a investigação relativa ao rendimento em processos de aprendizagem e formação na população adulta e de adolescentes

Cognitive control during a spatial Stroop task: comparing conflict monitoring and prediction of response-outcome theories

Cognitive control allows information processing and behaviour to vary adaptively from moment to moment depending on current goals. Two of the most prominent theories that have been proposed to account for the processing of cognitive control are the Conflict Monitoring Theory (CMT) and the Prediction of Response-Outcome Theory (PRO). According to both theories, the implementation of cognitive control during a trial in a conflict task reflects processing events that occurred in the preceding trial. Both CMT and PRO advocate that the detection of conflict situations leads to the recruitment of cognitive control, but they differ regarding the processing underpinnings of cognitive control during conflict resolution. CMT proposes that conflict between alternative responses is resolved by enhancing the task’s relevant dimension, reducing interference from the task’s irrelevant dimension(s). This control setup promotes conflict adaptation in the subsequent trial. PRO proposes that conflict is resolved by means of a cost-effectiveness analysis that identifies and suppresses action plans linked to the less appropriate responses, facilitating conflict resolution in the subsequent trial. To adjudicate between these alternatives, we manipulated contingencies pertaining to two-trial sequences (n-1; n), namely, the congruency between task relevant/irrelevant dimensions in trial n-1 and response repetition in trial n. A spatial Stroop task was used, in which task-relevant and irrelevant information were integrated within the same stimulus. In this task, participants were required to attend to the direction of an arrow while ignoring its position. The arrow’s direction and position could be congruent (C) or incongruent (IC). In one experiment, trials in which the participant was required to respond according to the position of a circle (PO; position only trials), occupying the sequential position n, were the focus of the analyses. Three experiments were conducted manipulating the trials’ sequence structure. In Experiment 1, we studied a low control/low conflict condition (cC trials), and two high control/low conflict conditions (icC with and without response repetition). In Experiment 2, we studied two low control/no conflict conditions (cPO with and without response repetition) and two high control/no conflict conditions (icPO with and without response repetition). In Experiment 3, we studied a high control/high conflict condition (icIC) and two low control/high conflict conditions (cIC with and without response repetition). Overall, our findings are in agreement with previous studies in which both bottom-up processing, linked to response and stimulus position repetition, and top-down processing, linked to cognitive control, were shown to contribute to sequence effects in conflict tasks. Specifically, our observations mainly support PRO’s account of conflict resolution, in which the intervention of top-down processing is substantially more complex than in CMT’s account

Do Self-Reported Psychopathic Traits Moderate the Relations Between Delinquent History Predictors and Recidivism Outcomes in Juvenile Delinquents?

The present study investigates whether self-reported psychopathic traits moderate the relationships between delinquent career features (i.e., age of first detention in a juvenile detention center, crime frequency, crime diversity, crime charges, and Conduct Disorder) and 1-year general delinquency and violent delinquency recidivism outcomes. The sample was composed of male youth (N = 214, M = 16.4 years, SD = 1.3 years) originating from the juvenile detention centers managed by the Ministry of Justice of Portugal. Results mostly suggest that neither the Antisocial Process Screening Device––Self-Report total score nor its Callous-Unemotional, Impulsivity, and Narcissism factor scores moderate the relationships between the delinquent career variables and general and violent delinquency recidivism outcomes. The notable exception was the interaction between crime frequency and callous-unemotional traits in predicting general recidivism. The current findings question the relevance of self-reported psychopathic traits as moderators of recidivism among juveniles despite the general association between psychopathy and conduct problems among youthinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Metacognição : qual o valor incremental no rendimento da formação profissional

A aptidão mental geral é apontada como um preditor estável da aprendizagem (Ree & Earles, 1991). Estudos mais recentes (e.g., Bell & Kozlowski, 2008) atribuem à metacognição capacidade para incrementar a capacidade de previsão do rendimento na formação. Este estudo de validade relativa ao critério foi desenvolvido em contexto real e longitudinalmente, tendo participado 37 militares recém-admitidos à Força Aérea Portuguesa. Foram aplicadas duas provas de aptidão cognitiva, a escala Metacognitive Awareness Inventory e recolhidos os resultados de duas situações de aprendizagem com diferentes durações e programas formativos. Os resultados evidenciam uma maior capacidade preditiva das aptidões cognitivas de g-cristalizado comparativamente com as de g-fluído. Apesar dos oito indicadores metacognitivos considerados não apresentarem uma correlação simples estatisticamente significativa com as duas variáveis critério, a monitorização da aprendizagem incrementa entre 0,08 e 0,13 (R2Aj.) o modelo de regressão linear univariado com as duas provas g-cristalizado.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)Câmara Municipal de BragaMegatrónica InformáticaCaixa Geral de Depósito

Avaliação neuropsicológica de condutores idosos: Relações entre resultados em testes cognitivos, desempenho de condução automóvel e acidentes

The examination of older drivers with neuropsychological tests represents an actual area of investigation in the context of demographic aging. The purpose of the present text is to identify a battery of tests with predictive value in relation to driving measures, which permit the signalling of older drivers with a major risk of accident or a failure in a driving test. Due to the unexistence of related investigations in Portugal, we present a revision of the empirical studies made in other countries. The reported studies show the utility of the neuropsychological tests to assess cognitive functions that are necessary for safe driving such as executive functions, visual-spatial, visual-perceptive and visual attention. More investigations are further needed with a view to the development of a battery of neuropsychological tests for older drivers, contributing to a better precision and predictive value of the psychological examination methods of drivers in this age group.L’examen des conducteurs âgés avec le soutien de tests neuropsychologiques représente un champ d’investigation actuel dans le scénario du vieillissement démographique. Le présente texte à le but de déterminer un ensemble de tests avec une valeur prédictive en rapport aux mesures de conduite automobile, que peuvent signaler les conducteurs âgés donc le risque d’accident ou réprobation dans les preuves de conduite est plus élevé. A cause de l’inexistence des recherches au Portugal, nous présentons ici une révision d’études empiriques réalisées dans d’autres pays. Les travaux reportés en démontrent l’utilité des tests neuropsychologiques afin d’évaluer les fonctions cognitives nécessaires pour une conduite en sécurité, c’est à dire les fonctions exécutives, visuelles-spatiales, visuelles-perceptives et l’a attention visuelle. Il est nécessaire d’effectuer des nouvelles investigations orientées pour le développement d’une ensemble d’évaluation neuropsychologique des conducteurs âgés, contribuant ainsi pour une plus grande précision et validité prédictive des méthodes d’examen psychologique des conducteurs dans cette tranche d’âge.O exame de condutores idosos com recurso a testes neuropsicológicos representa uma área de investigação actual no cenário do envelhecimento demográfico. O objectivo do presente texto é identificar um conjunto de testes com valor preditivo em relação a medidas de condução automóvel, que permitam a sinalização de condutores idosos com maior risco de acidente ou de reprovação em provas de condução. Desconhecida a existência de investigações em Portugal, apresentamos uma revisão de estudos empíricos realizados noutros países. Os trabalhos recenseados evidenciam a utilidade dos testes neuropsicológicos para avaliar funções cognitivas necessárias para conduzir em segurança, nomeadamente funções executivas, visuo-espaciais, visuo-perceptivas e a atenção visual. São necessárias novas investigações orientadas para o desenvolvimento de uma bateria de avaliação neuropsicológica para condutores idosos, que contribuam para uma maior precisão e validade preditiva dos métodos de exame psicológico de condutores neste grupo etário

Ambiente térmico interior avaliaçao de conforto/desconforto. Caso de estudo

Ponencia presentada en: XXXI Jornadas Científicas de la AME y el XI Encuentro Hispano Luso de Meteorología celebrado en Sevilla, del 1 al 3 de marzo de 2010