Neuropsychological studies of the frontal lobesStuss, Donald T.; Benson, D. Frank
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.3pmid: N/A
Summarizes the current state of knowledge of prefrontal lobe functions as derived from studies and observations of adult humans following frontal lobe damage. Following an overview of the neuroanatomy and neuropathology, frontal lobe activities are presented under the following headings: motor functions; sensory, perception, and construction functions; attention; abnormal awareness; flexibility–perseveration; language; memory; cognition; personality; localization; and hemispheric activity. Six specific prefrontal functions are suggested as the principal disorders underlying many if not all of the described manifestations. Thus, prefrontal damage can (1) separate action from knowledge, (2) impair the ability to handle sequential behaviors, (3) impair the ability to establish or change a set, (4) impair the ability to maintain a set, (5) impair the ability to monitor personal behavior, and (6) produce attitudes of apathy. (5½ p ref)
The mean IQ of Americans: Massive gains 1932 to 1978Flynn, James R.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.29pmid: N/A
Demonstrates that every Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, WISC, WAIS, WISC-R, WAIS-R, and WPPSI standardization sample from 1932 to 1978 established norms of a higher standard than its predecessor. The obvious interpretation of this pattern is that representative samples of Americans did better and better on IQ tests over a period of 46 yrs, the total gain amounting to a rise in mean IQ of 13.8 points. The implications of this finding are developed: The combination of IQ gains and the decline in Scholastic Aptitude Test scores seems almost inexplicable; obsolete norms have acted as an unrecognized confounding variable in hundreds of studies; and IQ gains of this magnitude pose a serious problem of causal explanation. (114 ref)
Psychosocial factors, immunologic mediation, and human susceptibility to infectious diseases: How much do we know?Jemmott, John B.; Locke, Steven E.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.78pmid: N/A
Recent evidence from animal models of stress suggests that stress can impair immunologic competence, rendering the host more vulnerable to infection and neoplasm. The present authors review studies on the relationship between psychosocial factors and human immunologic functioning, focusing on studies bearing on the relationship of psychosocial factors to altered susceptibility to infectious diseases and those bearing on the relationship of such factors to specific aspects of the human immune response. Findings indicate that a variety of psychosocial variables, disease states, and aspects of both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses have been investigated, and evidence favors the view that psychosocial variables may play a role in modulating the human immune response. More research is needed before it can be definitively concluded that the relationship between stress and human susceptibility to infectious diseases is a psychoimmunologic nexus. Relationships between the endocrine and immune systems are also discussed. (5 p ref)
A comparison of current measures of the accuracy of feeling-of-knowing predictionsNelson, Thomas O.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.109pmid: N/A
Discusses 8 quantitative measures of feeling-of-knowing accuracy that have been used in the literature. The 3 measures considered at length are J. T. Hart's difference score, L. A. Goodman and W. H. Kruskal's (1954) gamma correlation, and the phi correlation. Quantitative relations between these measures are reported, as are connections with some basic axioms and a probabilistic conception of feeling-of-knowing accuracy. The currently most popular measure, the Hart difference score, has serious shortcomings. The Goodman-Kruskal gamma seems to be best. The remaining measures are inappropriate for the available feeling-of-knowing data for a variety of reasons. Also discussed are the implications of these results for other situations in which ordered 2 × 2 tables are examined to determine the relationship between predictions and criterion performance. (60 ref)
Correction to DelucchiDelucchi, Kevin L.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.133pmid: N/A
In the article "The Use and Misuse of Chi-Square: Lewis and Burke Revisited," by Kevin L. Delucchi (Psychological Bulletin, 1983, Vol. 94, No. 1, pp. 166-176; , the standard error of gamma expressed in Equation 19 is incorrect. The variables under the radical should be reciprocals. The correct formula is published here. Delucchi's article reviewed the proper use of the Pearson chi-square for analyzing contingency tables. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in the record attached to the aforementioned citation): Reviews the proper use of the Pearson chi-square for analyzing contingency tables. The 1949 article by D. Lewis and C. J. Burke, who cited 9 sources of error in the use of chi-square, is updated. Since the publication of that article, statisticians have addressed the question of the minimal size of expected cell frequencies. This problem has been examined from 2 perspectives: tests of association hypotheses in contingency tables and testing goodness-of-fit hypotheses. Under certain conditions, expected cell frequencies less than 5 do not substantially alter the Type I error rate. Supplementary and alternative approaches to the chi-square, including those involving log- and log-linear models, log-likelihood ratio, partitioning, comparison of individual proportions, and analysis of ordered categories, are discussed. Emphasis is placed on techniques that are of use to the practicing researcher who often deals with qualitative ordered and unordered data.
Another look at ANCOVA versus blockingMaxwell, Scott E.; Delaney, Harold D.; Dill, Charles A.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.136pmid: N/A
Compared methods of incorporating a concomitant variable into an experimental design. A 3 × 3 conceptual framework for these methods was developed, with one dimension representing 3 methods of assignment to treatment groups and the other dimension representing 3 methods of data analysis. Monte Carlo procedures were used to investigate the relative statistical power and apparent imprecision of the 9 methods. Results show that the recommendation of most experimental design texts to consider the correlation between the dependent and concomitant variables in choosing the best technique for utilizing a concomitant variable is incorrect. Instead, the 2 factors that should be considered are whether scores on the concomitant variable are available for all Ss prior to assigning any Ss to treatment conditions and whether the relationship of the dependent and concomitant variables is linear. (32 ref)
Issues in the use and interpretation of discriminant analysisHuberty, Carl J.
doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.156pmid: N/A
Reviews the 2 problems for which a discriminant analysis is used––separation and classification. Issues related to the use and interpretation of a discriminant analysis are those pertaining to (a) distinguishing between a linear discriminant function and a linear classification function, (b) misusing stepwise discriminant analysis programs, (c) ordering variables and selecting variable subsets, (d) choosing a classification rule, (e) estimating true classification hit rates, (f) assessing classification accuracy, and (g) examining and using classification results. Most of these issues deal with information available from package discriminant analysis computer programs. (50 ref)