Fair Test Research Articles

The development and validation of a new cross‐cultural naming test

AbstractBackgroundTraditional naming tests such as the Boston Naming Test are unsuitable to assess naming impairment in diverse populations, given the large influence of culture, language, and education on performance. A more fair naming test is urgently needed. The goal of this study was therefore to develop and validate a new cross‐cultural naming test to diagnose naming impairment in Alzheimer’s disease in diverse populations.MethodWe carried out a multistage pilot study. First, we generated a list of 149 potentially cross‐cultural items, and selected the items with a homogeneous age of acquisition and word frequency across multiple languages. For the 74 items that remained, we selected several colored photographs (examples provided in Figure 1), out of which 194 controls selected the best matching photograph. The 74‐item test was piloted in 15 diverse healthy controls, after which 14 items were removed. The final 60‐item test was validated in 39 controls and 61 culturally, educationally, and linguistically diverse patients – mainly with dementia (30%), psychiatric illness (20%), MCI (16%), or subjective memory impairment (15%). Participants were mostly from North Africa, Suriname, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, and the majority of participants had an education level of primary school or lower (51%).ResultThe new cross‐cultural naming test was well able to discriminate between patients with Alzheimer’s/mixed dementia (n=11, median score: 48/60) and the rest of the sample (median: 58/60, AUC=0.87). Preliminary item analyses indicated that colors, as well as animals (ant, worm, snake) and occupations with a later age of acquisition/lower word frequency were the most sensitive. There were robust correlations with other measures of language (Recall of Pictures Test naming ρ=0.26, p=.04, animal fluency ρ=0.66, p<.001, foods fluency ρ=0.57, p<.001), as well as a culture‐sensitive cognitive screener (ρ=0.69, p<.001). The scores were not correlated with education level, age, or number of years of residence in the Netherlands (analysis in controls).ConclusionThis new naming test is an important step towards a more fair neuropsychological assessment and more accurate dementia diagnosis in culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse individuals.

Investigating the impact of development and internal validation design when training prognostic models using a retrospective cohort in big US observational healthcare data

ObjectiveThe internal validation of prediction models aims to quantify the generalisability of a model. We aim to determine the impact, if any, that the choice of development and internal validation...

Suspect’s access to a lawyer at an early stage of criminal proceedings in view the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights

Access to a lawyer at the pre-trial stage of proceedings is an essential component of the right to defense in criminal proceedings and the right to a fair trial. Access to a lawyer enables the accused to make a good decision for his her defence. At present, there is no doubt that prompt access to a lawyer constitutes an important counterweight to the vulnerability of suspects in police custody, ensures equality of arms and provides a fundamental safeguard against coercion. This study analyses a suspect’s right to access to a lawyer at the initial stage of criminal proceedings in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The first part of the article provides an analysis of the understanding of the right to a lawyer at the pre-trial stage as applied by the ECtHR prior to the Salduz case. This period in the ECtHR’s case law was characterized by a lack of precision as to the temporal limits of the right laid down in Article 6 § 3 (c) of the ECHR. The next part shows the changes brought about by the judgment in the Salduz case regarding the protection of suspects and ensuring their right to counsel. It is argued that the Salduz doctrine not only covered the suspect’s access to a lawyer at the initial stage of the pre-trial proceedings, but also stressed the obligation to inform the suspect of his or her rights, including the right to remain silent. An important element of the Salduz doctrine was the possibility to eliminate evidence obtained during an interrogation conducted at an early stage of the pre-trial proceedings in the absence of a defense counsel. Further, the paper argues that the standard set out in the judgment in the Salduz v. Turkey case was confirmed in a number of rulings. The fourth part of the paper draws attention to the erosion of the Salduz standard that occurred with the judgment in the Ibrahim and Others v. the UK case. The article also brings into focus recent judgments of the ECtHR which have reinforced the view expressed in the Ibrahim and Others v. the UK case concerning a test of fairness of a trial as whole. It is underlined in the conclusions that recent ECtHR’s case law does not provide any cause for optimism regarding legal assistance at an early stage of criminal proceedings.

Lymph node status assessment in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in patients with clinically non palpable lymph nodes: Meta-analysis

Abstract Background The most important prognostic factor in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is the presence or absence of clinically involved neck nodes. The presence of metastases in a lymph node is said to reduce the 5-years survival rate by about 50%. The appropriate diagnosis of the presence of metastatic node is very important for the management of HNSCC Aim To compare difTerent diagnostic modalities for assessment of the clinically non palpable lymph nodes in HNSCC including by meta-analysis: CT, MRI, US, USFNAC and PET/CT for the proper cervical lymph node staging. Methods Met-analysis study on patients with HNSCC of clinically non palpable lymph nodes (cN0). Results Analysis was divided in 6 groups .Each group contain analysis of one modality according to available studies per patient, per level and per lesion .US is fair test per patient and per lesion.CT is good test per patient and excellent test per lesion.MRI is poor test per patient and fair test per lesion.CT-MRl combined is fair per patient and excellent per level.PET/CT is good per patient, fair per lesion and excellent per level. USFNAC is excellent per lesion. Conclusion CT, CT-MRI combined, PET/CT and USFNAC proved to be excellent in detecting cN0.MRI was poor test in detecting cN0.US was a fair test in detecting cN0 if used alone.

Online exams and the COVID-19 pandemic: a hybrid modified FMEA, QFD, and k-means approach to enhance fairness

COVID-19 pandemic caused an increasing demand for online academic classes, which led to the demand for effective online exams with regards to limitations on time and resources. Consequently, holding online exams with sufficient reliability and effectiveness became one of the most critical and challenging subjects in higher education. Therefore, it is essential to have a preventive algorithm to allocate time and financial resources effectively. In the present study, a fair test with sufficient validity is first defined, and then by analogy with an engineering product, the design process is implemented on it. For this purpose, a hybrid method based on FMEA, which is a preventive method to identify potential failure modes and prioritize their risk, is employed. The method's output is provided to the QFD algorithm as the needs of product customers. Then, the proposed solutions to prevent failures are weighted and prioritized as the product's technical features. Some modifications are made to the classic form of FMEA in the proposed method to eliminate its deficiencies and contradictions. Therefore, our proposed algorithm is a precautionary approach that works to prevent breakdowns instead of fixing them following their occurrence. This issue is very effective in increasing the efficiency of activities in times of crisis. Eventually, a prioritized list of preventive actions is provided, allowing us to choose from available solutions in the circumstances with limited time and budgetary, where we cannot take all possible actions.

Test fairness and assessment of differential item functioning of mathematics achievement test for senior secondary students in Cross River state, Nigeria using item response theory

This study used Item Response Theory approach to assess Differential Item Functioning (DIF) and detect item bias in Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT). The MAT was administered to 1,751 SS2 students in public secondary schools in Cross River State. Instrumentation research design was used to develop and validate a 50-item instrument. Data were analysed using the maximum likelihood estimation technique of BILOG-MG V3 software. The result of the study revealed that 6% of the total items exhibited differential item functioning between the male and female students. Based on the analysis, the study observed that there was sex bias on some of the test items in the MAT. DIF analysis attempt at eliminating irrelevant factors and sources of bias from any kind for a test to yield valid results is among the best methods of recent. As such, test developers and policymakers are recommended to take into serious consideration and exercise care in fair test practice by dedicating effort to more unbiased test development and decision making. Examination bodies should adopt the Item Response Theory in educational testing and test developers should therefore be mindful of the test items that can cause bias in response pattern between male and female students or any sub-group of consideration.
 Keywords: Assessment, Differential Item Functioning, Validity, Reliability, Test Fairness, Item Bias, Item Response Theory.

Utility of using electrocardiogram measures of heart rate variability as a measure of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in type 1 diabetes patients.

Aims/IntroductionCardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a predictor of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Cardiovascular reflex tests (CARTs) are the gold standard for the diagnosis of CAN, but might not be feasible in large research cohorts or in clinical care. We investigated whether measures of heart rate variability obtained from standard electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings provide a reliable measure of CAN.Materials and MethodsStandardized CARTs (R‐R response to paced breathing, Valsalva, postural changes) and digitized 12‐lead resting ECGs were obtained concomitantly in Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications participants (n = 311). Standard deviation of normally conducted R‐R intervals (SDNN) and the root mean square of successive differences between normal‐to‐normal R‐R intervals (rMSSD) were measured from ECG. Sensitivity, specificity, probability of correct classification and Kappa statistics evaluated the agreement between ECG‐derived CAN and CARTs‐defined CAN.ResultsParticipants with CARTs‐defined CAN had significantly lower SDNN and rMSSD compared with those without CAN (P < 0.001). The optimal cut‐off points of ECG‐derived CAN were <17.13 and <24.94 ms for SDNN and rMSSD, respectively. SDNN plays a dominant role in defining CAN, with an area under the curve of 0.73, indicating fair test performance. The Kappa statistic for SDNN was 0.41 (95% confidence interval 0.30–0.51) for the optimal cut‐off point, showing fair agreement with CARTs‐defined CAN. Combining SDNN and rMSSD optimal cut‐off points does not provide additional predictive power for CAN.ConclusionsThese analyses are the first to show the agreement between indices of heart rate variability derived from ECGs and the gold standard CARTs, thus supporting potential use as a measure of CAN in clinical research and clinical care.

Comment on “Two Foreshock Sequences Post Gulia and Wiemer (2019)” by Kelian Dascher-Cousineau, Thorne Lay, and Emily E. Brodsky

Abstract Dascher-Cousineau et al. (2020) apply the so-called foreshock traffic-light system (FTLS) model proposed by Gulia and Wiemer (2019) to two earthquake sequences that occurred after the submission of the model: the 2019 Ridgecrest (Mw 7.1) and the 2020 Mw 6.4 Puerto Rico earthquakes. We show in this comment that the method applied by Kelian Dascher-Cousineau et al. (2020) deviates in at least six substantial and not well-documented aspects from the original FTLS method. As a consequence, they used for example in the Ridgecrest case only 1% of the data available to estimate b-values and from a small subvolume of the relevant mainshock fault. In the Puerto Rico case, we document here substantial issues with the homogeneity of the magnitude scale that in our assessment make a meaningful analysis of b-values impossible. We conclude that the evaluation by Dascher-Cousineau et al. (2020) is misrepresentative and a not a fair test of the FTLS hypothesis.

Deep-time biodiversity patterns and the dinosaurian fossil record of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior, North America.

In order for palaeontological data to be informative to ecologists seeking to understand the causes of today's diversity patterns, palaeontologists must demonstrate that actual biodiversity patterns are preserved in our reconstructions of past ecosystems. During the Late Cretaceous, North America was divided into two landmasses, Laramidia and Appalachia. Previous work has suggested strong faunal provinciality on Laramidia at this time, but these arguments are almost entirely qualitative. We quantitatively investigated faunal provinciality in ceratopsid and hadrosaurid dinosaurs using a biogeographic network approach and investigated sampling biases by examining correlations between dinosaur occurrences and collections. We carried out a model-fitting approach using generalized least-squares regression to investigate the sources of sampling bias we identified. We find that while the raw data strongly support faunal provinciality, this result is driven by sampling bias. The data quality of ceratopsids and hadrosaurids is currently too poor to enable fair tests of provincialism, even in this intensively sampled region, which probably represents the best-known Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. To accurately reconstruct biodiversity patterns in deep time, future work should focus on smaller scale, higher resolution case studies in which the effects of sampling bias can be better controlled.

T\xfcEyeQ, a rich IQ test performance data set with eye movement, educational and socio-demographic information

We present the TüEyeQ data set - to the best of our knowledge - the most comprehensive data set generated on a culture fair intelligence test (CFT 20-R), i.e., an IQ Test, consisting of 56 single tasks, taken by 315 individuals aged between 18 and 30 years. In addition to socio-demographic and educational information, the data set also includes the eye movements of the individuals while taking the IQ test. Along with distributional information we also highlight the potential for predictive analysis on the TüEyeQ data set and report the most important covariates for predicting the performance of a participant on a given task along with their influence on the prediction.

Exploring how science process skills blend with the scientific process: Pre-service teachers’ views following fieldwork experience

In science education, only teachers that are competent in skills, methods and procedures relevant to a science discipline can help learners to develop scientific skills and processes associated with investigating natural phenomena. The purpose of this study was to explore views of pre-service science teachers with regard to science process skills that they had developed through various freshwater activities and the stepwise scientific process. Data were collected through a 4-part questionnaire that included various science process skills and the scientific process. Ninety-four 2nd- and 3rd-year pre-service teachers that registered for a Bachelor of Education degree participated in this study. The results from statistical analyses of the teachers’ responses to skills they had developed showed prominence of observing, yet the teachers failed to link observing and communication to formulating a research question. Similar challenges were also evident in designing experiments. While the teachers were able to link science process skills to hypothesising, they experienced relative challenges in linking relevant skills to observation and drawing conclusions and making inferences. The findings suggest potential challenges to teachers on fair testing investigations in terms of questioning, designing of experiments, drawing of associated conclusions and making inferences.

English

BACKGROUND Students from various medical and paramedical disciplines require above average intelligence to understand all the medical subjects and concepts as it deals with human body and human life. Students of nursing discipline have huge responsibility of learning cognitive, affective domain and psychomotor skills simultaneously. It is also observed that impulse control (patience) is absolute virtue of health professional courses including nursing profession. Impulsivity always causes undesirable consequences. Nursing professional students are expected to possess good impulse control. We wanted to assess the level of intelligence, level of impulse control and relationship between intelligence and impulse control among new entrants studying nursing profession. METHODS In this descriptive study, a sample size of 100, 50 males and 50 females, first year students of B.Sc. nursing discipline were selected purposively from Nagpur and Wardha districts of Maharashtra, India. All the participants completed scales pertaining to impulse control and intelligence using impulse control scale developed by Shrivastava and Naydoo and Culture fair intelligence test by Cattle. RESULTS It shows that nursing boys significantly had more scores for intelligence (x̄ = 88.66) and for impulse control (x̄ = 206.62) than nursing girls (x̄ = 88.10), (x̄ = 196.80) respectively. There exists a statistically non-significant positive relationship between intelligence and impulse control for overall population (r = 0.153, P &lt; 0.05). The findings suggest that higher the intelligence, greater is the impulse control among new entrants of nursing discipline. CONCLUSIONS Male students show more intelligence and had more impulse control as compared to nursing girls and also show greater magnitude of positive correlation as compared to their female counterparts. KEY WORDS Intelligence, Impulse Control, Relationship

Tone Burst Masseter Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials: Normative Values and Test-Retest Reliability.

Masseter vestibular evoked myogenic potential (mVEMP) is a recent tool for the assessment of vestibular and trigeminal pathways. Though a few studies have recorded mVEMP using click stimuli, there are no reports of these potentials using the more conventional VEMP eliciting stimuli, the tone bursts. The aim of the study is to establish normative values and determine the test-retest reliability of tone burst evoked mVEMP. The research design type is normative study design. Forty-four healthy participants without hearing and vestibular deficits in the age range of 18 to 50 years participated in the study. All participants underwent mVEMP testing using 500 Hz tone-burst stimuli at 125 dB peSPL. Ten participants underwent second mVEMP testing within 1 month of the initial testing to estimate the test-retest reliability. Tone burst mVEMP showed robust responses in all participants. There were no significant ear and sex differences on any mVEMP parameter (p > 0.05); however, males had significantly higher EMG normalized peak-to-peak amplitude than females. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values of tone burst mVEMP showed excellent test-retest reliability (ICC >0.75) for ipsilateral and contralateral p11 latency, ipsilateral EMG normalized p11-n21 peak to peak amplitude, and amplitude asymmetry ratio. Fair and good test-retest reliability (0.4 < ICC > 0.75) was observed for ipsilateral and contralateral n21 latency, contralateral EMG normalized peak-to-peak amplitude, and amplitude asymmetry ratio. Tone burst mVEMP is a robust and reliable test for evaluating the functional integrity of the vestibulomasseteric reflex pathway.

A critic evaluation of methods for COVID-19 automatic detection from X-ray images

In this paper, we compare and evaluate different testing protocols used for automatic COVID-19 diagnosis from X-Ray images in the recent literature. We show that similar results can be obtained using X-Ray images that do not contain most of the lungs. We are able to remove the lungs from the images by turning to black the center of the X-Ray scan and training our classifiers only on the outer part of the images. Hence, we deduce that several testing protocols for the recognition are not fair and that the neural networks are learning patterns in the dataset that are not correlated to the presence of COVID-19. Finally, we show that creating a fair testing protocol is a challenging task, and we provide a method to measure how fair a specific testing protocol is. In the future research we suggest to check the fairness of a testing protocol using our tools and we encourage researchers to look for better techniques than the ones that we propose.

Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor as a diagnostic biomarker for sepsis in intensive care unit patients

Background: Sepsis is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care units (ICUs).It is difficult to differentiate it accurately and timely from other confusing conditions. So, it is of utmost importance to evaluate new biomarkers with a differentiation ability between sepsis and non-sepsis conditions. Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a stable biomarker of inflammation. The aim of the study is to evaluate the value of suPAR in the diagnosis of septic ICU patients and to compare it (if present) with that of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT).Methods: A case-control study was conducted at Zagazig University Hospitals from December 2017 to October 2019. A total of 90 subjects were enrolled in the study. Based on Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) criteria, they were divided into 2 groups: (i)Group A: 60 septic ICU admitted patients;(ii)Group B: 30 non-septic ICU admitted patients as control group.Single determination of level of serum suPAR was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for all the participants.Results: Septic ICU patients had statistically significant higher serum suPAR, CRP and PCT levels than non-septic patients. suPAR had a sensitivity of 72%, specificity of 70% and AUC of 0.7 in sepsis diagnosis.Conclusion: Serum suPAR is a fair diagnostic test for septic ICU patients at cut-off 3.983 ng/ml but does not surpass that of PCT or CRP.

DETERMINATION OF FREQUENCY OF A NOVEL DIAGNOSTIC CATEGORY OF HYPERGLYCEMIA I.E. IMPAIRED RANDOM GLUCOSE IN PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN PATIENTS OF PREDIABETES AND DIABETES MELLITUS

Objective: To determine the frequency of normoglycemia (NG), prediabetes and diabetes mellitus (DM) amongpatients having impaired random glucose (IRG) and establish the optimum cutoff of impaired random glucosefor the diagnosis of diabetes and prediabetes.&#x0D; Study Design: Cross sectional study.&#x0D; Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Rawalpindi and Combined Military HospitalQuetta, from Nov 2016 to Nov 2018.&#x0D; Methodology: Healthy individuals of both genders undergoing investigation for diabetes mellitus were enrolled through non probability consecutive sampling while patients with diabetes, pregnant, hospitalized, using concomitant medications (corticosteroids, immunosuppressive, chemotherapy) and those unable to complete oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were excluded. Random plasma glucose (RPG) was determined and patients having impaired random glucose underwent oral glucose tolerance test, analysis being done on ADVIA1800®using hexokinase methodology.&#x0D; Results: Among the 280 study participants, majority were female {156 (57.5%) vs 124 (44.3%) male}. Mean age in male and female patients was 33.625 ± 3.34 years vs 35.150 ± 2.79 years with p-value 0.50 while mean IRG was 7.12 ± 1.47 vs 6.90 ± 1.17 mmol/L respectively with p-value 0.16 (statistically insignificant). Oral glucose tolerance test results showed NG in 61.8% (173), prediabetes in 24.6% (69) while diabetes was found in 38 (13.6%) patients. Optimal impaired random glucose cutoff value for diagnosis of diabetes was found 7.45 mmol/L (AUC 0.956 [CI 0.927-0.984], p&lt;0.001, sensitivity 94.7%, specificity 74.4%), however, same cut-off value showed impaired random glucose as fair diagnostic test for prediabetes (AUC 0.771 [CI 0.717-0.825], p&lt;0.001, sensitivity 72.5%, specificity 77.3%).......

Unspoken Criticism: Audiovisual Forms of Critique as Fair Use

Imagine a short video from a film critic highlighting the latest superhero summer blockbuster. First, we see a few seconds of the big action finale from the copyrighted film. The superhero flies through the air, zipping between skyscrapers at breakneck speed. The video cuts to a clip of the critic, in closeup, yawning for several seconds. Then, it cuts back to the film, and we see the superhero engaged in the film’s climactic battle, pummeling the villain with superhuman strength. Next, it cuts back to the critic, who is now asleep and snoring loudly. The video ends. Is the resulting video a work of criticism? It may depend on whom you ask. For a court assessing criticism for fair use purposes, the answer is currently unclear.&#x0D; In recent years, the rise of online social media platforms and increased access to the tools of creative expression—smartphone cameras, and photo and video editing software, to name a few—have led to the proliferation of audiovisual criticism on the internet. Online audiovisual criticism is now so ubiquitous that numerous YouTube channels dedicated to film and television criticism boast viewership in the hundreds of millions. Yet, as new technologies have lowered the barriers to entry for creators of works of criticism, these technologies have also fostered a creative evolution of criticism in ways that present novel questions for copyright law.&#x0D; On YouTube and other video sharing sites, reaction videos have become a popular form of audiovisual criticism. Reaction videos are online videos that contain, quite simply, “footage of people reacting to things.” Reaction videos traditionally include footage of the video participant intercut with or superimposed over the pre-existing, and often copyrighted, video footage to which they are reacting. This reaction is frequently extemporaneous, though it need not be, and it may or may not include other graphical, visual, or audio elements that lend emphasis and context to the participant’s commentary. Because reaction videos utilize film-specific conventions and techniques to enhance their commentary, reaction videos sometimes criticize the underlying copyrighted work in a non-spoken, visual manner. Criticism is a classic form of fair use—an affirmative defense to copyright infringement. However, the traditional analysis for fair use criticism has focused heavily on a work’s text or dialogue, with less emphasis placed on a work’s non-textual or non-spoken elements. As reaction videos and other forms of online audiovisual criticism rise in popularity, courts assessing these videos as works of criticism for fair use purposes have struggled to apply the traditional fair use framework to these types of online criticism.&#x0D; This Note argues that the traditional legal framework for analyzing a work of alleged criticism as fair use is particularly constraining for YouTube reaction videos and other audiovisual forms of criticism that largely critique or comment on an original work in a non-spoken, visual manner. It discusses the emphasis that the current fair use jurisprudence places on spoken and written critical elements when undertaking a fair use analysis of a work of criticism, then advocates for a new conception of fair use criticism that incorporates film-specific analytical techniques and concepts when analyzing the critical elements of online audiovisual works. Part I discusses the statutory codification of the fair use doctrine in copyright law and how the doctrine has been shaped through the years by subsequent judicial interpretation. Part I also discusses the history of YouTube reaction videos as a unique audiovisual format. Part II explores the ways in which courts have recently applied the fair use doctrine to alleged works of audiovisual criticism and the emphasis courts place on spoken and written critical elements. Part III argues that courts assessing online audiovisual works as alleged works of criticism should incorporate analytical tools and interpretive theories commonly utilized in film studies contexts—including an analysis of editing, shot composition, and camera movement—when parsing alleged works of audiovisual criticism for transformativeness under factor one of the fair use test. Finally, Part IV uses a recently decided fair use case out of the Southern District of New York as a real-life example to explore how a court could apply film-specific analytical tools to more accurately identify and assess the critical elements of a work of audiovisual criticism for fair use purposes.

Stubborn Sets, Frozen Actions, and Fair Testing

Many partial order methods use some special condition for ensuring that the analysis is not terminated prematurely. In the case of stubborn set methods for safety properties, implementation of the condition is usually based on recognizing the terminal strong components of the reduced state space and, if necessary, expanding the stubborn sets used in their roots. In an earlier study it was pointed out that if the system may execute a cycle consisting of only invisible actions and that cycle is concurrent with the rest of the system in a non-obvious way, then the method may be fooled to construct all states of the full parallel composition. This problem is solved in this study by a method that “freezes” the actions in the cycle. The new method also preserves fair testing equivalence, making it usable for the verification of many progress properties.

The Fair Testing Imperative in Nursing Education: A Living Document From the NLN, Revised.

The Fair Testing Imperative in Nursing Education: A Living Document From the NLN, Revised.

Baseline capacities and motivation in executive control training of healthy older adults

Objectives Normal aging involves progressive prefrontal declines and impairments in executive control. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of an executive-control training focusing on working memory and inhibition, in healthy older adults, and to explore the role of individual differences in baseline capacities and motivation in explaining training gains. Methods Forty-four healthy older adults were randomly assigned to an experimental (training executive control) or active control group (training processing speed). Participants completed six online training sessions distributed across two weeks. Transfer effects to working memory (Operation Span test), response inhibition (Stop-Signal test), processing speed (Pattern Comparison) and reasoning (Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices and Cattell Culture Fair test) were evaluated. Furthermore, we explored individual differences in baseline capacities and assessed motivation during and after the intervention. Results The experimental group, but not the active control, showed significant transfer to response inhibition. Moreover, a general compensation effect was found: older adults with lower baseline capacities achieved higher levels of training improvement. Motivation was not related to training performance. Conclusion Our results encourage the use of executive control training to improve cognitive functions, reveal the importance of individual differences in training-related gains, and provide further support for cognitive plasticity during healthy aging.