Pattern Of Intercorrelations Research Articles

Individual differences in decision-making and the role of cognitive confidence

The present study focused on identifying the generality of decision-making and whether preceding judgement accuracy and confidence were significant predictors of such behaviour. 116 undergraduate psychology students completed four cognitive ability tests and a personality questionnaire. All items were accompanied with confidence ratings and the decision to accept or reject ones answer. A consistent pattern of positive intercorrelations between decision-making indices suggested a more general decision-making factor. That is, despite some sensitivity to varying cognitive requirements, individuals demonstrated consistent tendencies to accept or reject their answers, relative to others. General Accuracy and Confidence factors also emerged and, after controlling for each other, were positively related to these general tendencies. Personality was not a consistent predictor of any indices. Implications are that individual differences in decision-making exist and are somewhat accounted for by stable differences in Ability and Confidence.

Experts’ saliency ratings of speech-language dimensions associated with cluttering

PurposeThe study aimed to investigate how cluttering specialists rated degree of prominence or saliency of various communication dimensions as contributing to the overall cluttering severity. MethodUsing a 9-point Likert type scoring system 31 cluttering specialists (with an average of 19 years of experience with cluttering) rated the relative importance of eight speech and language dimensions often associated with cluttering from ‘1’ (‘not important’) at the low end to a ‘9’ (‘very important’) at the high saliency end. ResultsThough the salience ratings differed the values in most cases were toward the high end of the rating scale. Additionally correlational analyses revealed several patterns of inter-correlation among the dimensions indicating that contribution of each communication dimension to overall cluttering severity may not be the same for all. Rather, it suggested that these dimensions may speak to cluttering severity through differential perceptual pathways that characterized the thinking of the experts who participated. ConclusionGreater understanding of the various communication behaviors contributing to cluttering, severity is needed for theoretical research and clinical purposes. To the extent that the dimensions studied are thought to be relevant for cluttering, the results strengthen the notion that these dimensions (and perhaps others) should be included if we are to capture a comprehensive picture of cluttering severity.Educational objectives: (a) describe the multidimensionality of cluttering; (b) discuss the perceptual saliency of speech-language dimensions associated with cluttering; (c) describe the interrelatedness of various speech-language dimensions associated with cluttering; (d) discuss how experts in cluttering rate the saliency of speech and language dimensions associated with cluttering when provided a list of these dimensions.

FRAME : traitement de première ligne (L1) des cancers bronchiques non à petites cellules (CBNPC) en routine clinique, résultats des analyses de la cohorte française

The world is aging and, as the elderly population increases, age-related cognitive decline emerges as a major concern. Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), allow the investigation of the neural bases of age-related cognitive changes in vivo. Typically, fMRI studies map brain activity while subjects perform cognitive tasks, but such paradigms are often difficult to implement on a wider basis. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has emerged as an important alternative modality of fMRI data acquisition, during which no specific task is required. Due to such simplicity and the reliability of rs-fMRI data, this modality presents increased feasibility and potential for clinical application in the future. With rs-fMRI, fluctuations in regional brain activity can be detected across separate brain regions and the patterns of intercorrelation between the functioning of these regions are measured, affording quantitative indices of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). This review article summarizes the results of recent rs-fMRI studies that have documented a variety of aging-related RSFC changes in the human brain, discusses the neurophysiological hypotheses proposed to interpret such findings, and provides an overview of the future, highly promising perspectives in this field.

Turkish Mothers’ Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions: A Brief Report

This study is one of the first to examine emotion socialization behaviors of Turkish mothers; it also provides information on psychometric properties of the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fabes et al. 1990) in a sample of Turkish mothers of preschoolers. Participants were mothers (Mage = 35.07, SD = 4.14) of 141 children attending daycare centers in middle and upper-middle class suburbs of Istanbul. The patterns of inter-correlations between emotion socialization reactions and general child-rearing behaviors showed that they reflect related but different aspects of broader parenting styles. Both aspects of parenting displayed associations with child emotional reactivity in the expected direction, further confirming patterns previously revealed for emotion socialization in Western samples. The results also confirmed the six emotion socialization behaviors assessed by the CCNES and all dimensions had good internal consistencies. The pattern of inter-correlations among maternal emotion socialization behaviors, general child-rearing behaviors, and child negative emotionality confirmed construct validity of the instrument for Turkish mothers.

Poster #27 NEURAL CORRELATES OF TOM IN SCHIZOPHRENIA: A META-ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONAL NEUROIMAGING STUDIES

The world is aging and, as the elderly population increases, age-related cognitive decline emerges as a major concern. Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), allow the investigation of the neural bases of age-related cognitive changes in vivo. Typically, fMRI studies map brain activity while subjects perform cognitive tasks, but such paradigms are often difficult to implement on a wider basis. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has emerged as an important alternative modality of fMRI data acquisition, during which no specific task is required. Due to such simplicity and the reliability of rs-fMRI data, this modality presents increased feasibility and potential for clinical application in the future. With rs-fMRI, fluctuations in regional brain activity can be detected across separate brain regions and the patterns of intercorrelation between the functioning of these regions are measured, affording quantitative indices of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). This review article summarizes the results of recent rs-fMRI studies that have documented a variety of aging-related RSFC changes in the human brain, discusses the neurophysiological hypotheses proposed to interpret such findings, and provides an overview of the future, highly promising perspectives in this field.

Isolating and Examining Sources of Suppression and Multicollinearity in Multiple Linear Regression

The presence of suppression (and multicollinearity) in multiple regression analysis complicates interpretation of predictor-criterion relationships. The mathematical conditions that produce suppression in regression analysis have received considerable attention in the methodological literature but until now nothing in the way of an analytic strategy to isolate, examine, and remove suppression effects has been offered. In this article such an approach, rooted in confirmatory factor analysis theory and employing matrix algebra, is developed. Suppression is viewed as the result of criterion-irrelevant variance operating among predictors. Decomposition of predictor variables into criterion-relevant and criterion-irrelevant components using structural equation modeling permits derivation of regression weights with the effects of criterion-irrelevant variance omitted. Three examples with data from applied research are used to illustrate the approach: the first assesses child and parent characteristics to explain why some parents of children with obsessive-compulsive disorder accommodate their child's compulsions more so than do others, the second examines various dimensions of personal health to explain individual differences in global quality of life among patients following heart surgery, and the third deals with quantifying the relative importance of various aptitudes for explaining academic performance in a sample of nursing students. The approach is offered as an analytic tool for investigators interested in understanding predictor-criterion relationships when complex patterns of intercorrelation among predictors are present and is shown to augment dominance analysis.

MMPI-2-RF Characteristics of Custody Evaluation Litigants

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) is a 338-item objective self-report measure drawn from the 567 items of the MMPI-2. Although there is a substantial MMPI-2 literature regarding child custody litigants, there has been only one previously published study using MMPI-2-RF data in this population that focused on Validity scales L-r and K-r. The current study evaluated the MMPI-2-RF results of 344 child custody litigants and showed substantial consistency between T-score elevations typically found on MMPI-2 Validity scales L and K, and comparable elevations for MMPI-2-RF validity scales L-r and K-r. Mean T-scores well within normal limits characterized results for clinical scales on both instruments. The RC scale intercorrelation patterns, and alpha coefficient values found for MMPI-2-RF scales in a custody population, were also found to be very similar to those reported for other populations. Directions for future research are presented.

Methods for Studying Morphological Integration and Modularity

Morphological integration and modularity are closely related concepts about how different traits of an organism are correlated. Integration is the overall pattern of intercorrelation; modularity is the partitioning of integration into evolutionarily or developmentally independent blocks of traits. Modularity and integration are usually studied using quantitative phenotypic data, which can be obtained either from extant or fossil organisms. Many methods are now available to study integration and modularity, all of which involve the analysis of patterns found in trait correlation or covariance matrices. We review matrix correlation, random skewers, fluctuating asymmetry, cluster analysis, Euclidean distance matrix analysis (EDMA), graphical modelling, two-block partial least squares, RV coefficients, and theoretical matrix modelling and discuss their similarities and differences. We also review different coefficients that are used to measure correlations. We apply all the methods to cranial landmark data from and ontogenetic series of Japanese macaques,Macaca fuscatato illustrate the methods and their individual strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that the exploratory approaches (cluster analyses of various sorts) were less informative and less consistent with one another than were the results of model testing or comparative approaches. Nevertheless, we found that competing models of modularity and integration are often similar enough that they are not statistically distinguishable; we expect, therefore, that several models will often be significantly correlated with observed data.

Consumers' Acceptance of Smart Clothing -A Comparison between Perceived Group and Non-Perceived Group-

This study explains the consumer acceptance of smart clothing using the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM); in addition, it compares the difference in the path hypotheses of the perceived group and nonperceived group from the aspect of the extended TAM. A total of 815 copies of questionnaire were collected from a web-based survey in March 2009. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the entire pattern of intercorrelations among the constructs and to test related propositions using an AMOS 5.0 package. The fitness of the extended TAM explains the process of the adaptation of smart clothing. Technology Innovation (TI) and Clothing Involvement (CI) were confirmed as antecedent variables to affect TAM. In the perceived group, Technology Innovation (TI) and Clothing Involvement (CI) showed significant impacts on the Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) while Technology Innovation (TI) did not influence the Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) in the non-perceived group. Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) influenced the Perceived Usefulness (PU) and indirectly influenced Attitude (A) through the Perceived Usefulness (PU) in both groups. In addition, Perceived Usefulness (PU) did not influence Acceptance Intention (AI) but indirectly affected Acceptance Intention (AI) through Attitude (A). Therefore, Attitude (A) was found to be an important parameter in the adaptation of smart clothing in both groups. This finding implies that consumers first perceive the usefulness of smart clothing, then take favorable attitudes towards the smart clothing, and finally have the intention to adopt it. Strategies for publishing and informing consumers of the functions of smart clothing and usefulness in life are necessary; in addition, understanding what useful values they expect from the clothing is also crucial.

Technical Adequacy and Cost Benefit of Four Measures of Early Literacy

Technical adequacy and information/cost return were examined for four early reading measures: the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), STAR Early Literacy (SEL), Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE), and the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI). All four assessments were administered to the same students in each of Grades K through 2 over a 5-week period; the samples included 200 students per grade from 7 states. Both SEL and DIBELS were administered twice to establish their retest reliability in each grade. We focused on the convergent validity of each assessment for measuring five critical components of reading development identified by the U.S. National Research Panel: Phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. DIBELS and TPRI both are asserted to assess all five of these components; GRADE and STAR Early Literacy explicitly measure all except fluency. For all components, correlations among relevant subtests were high and comparable. The pattern of intercorrelations of nonfluency measures with fluency suggests the tests of fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and word reading are measuring the same underlying construct. A separate cost—benefit study was conducted and showed that STAR Early Literacy was the most cost-effective measure among those studied. In terms of amount of time per unit of test administration or teachers’ time, CAT (computerized adaptive testing) in general, and STAR Early Literacy in particular, is an attractive option for early reading assessment.

The Impact of Social Networking Websites to Facilitate the Effectiveness of Viral Marketing

The Internet and the World Wide Web have become two key components in today's technology based organizations and businesses. As the Internet is becoming more and more popular, it is starting to make a big impact on people's day-to-day life. As a result of this revolutionary transformation towards the modern technology, social networking on the World Wide Web has become an integral part of a large number of people's lives. Social networks are websites which allow users to communicate, share knowledge about similar interests, discuss favorite topics, review and rate products/services, etc. These websites have become a powerful source in shaping public opinion on virtually every aspect of commerce. Marketers are challenged with identifying influential individuals in social networks and connecting with them in ways that encourage viral marketing content movement and there has been little empirical research study about of this website to diffuse of viral marketing content. In this article, we explore the role of social network websites which has influence on viral marketing, and the characteristics of the most influential users to spread share viral content. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the patterns of inter-correlations among the constructions and to empirically test the hypotheses.

Perceived social support and domain-specific adjustment of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties

The perceived availability of social support has been documented as a protective mechanism among adults and adolescents. However, little research has explored the role of social support among children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (E/BD). The current study sought to investigate the effects of perceived social support from family, friends and teachers on domain-specific adjustment for children with E/BD. Fifty-four teacher-nominated children for E/BD completed questionnaires on perceived social support and behavioural, emotional and social functioning. Results suggest a pattern of intercorrelations between indices of child-rated social support and behavioural, emotional and social indicators of adjustment. Specifically, domain-specific social support was found to predict domain-specific adjustment outcomes for children with E/BD, once demographic variables were held constant. Interventions that are child-centred and domain-specific are suggested.

Using Social Network Sites: The Effects of Playfulness, Critical Mass and Trust in a Hedonic Context

The use of Internet social network sites has become an international phenomenon. These websites enable computer-mediated communication between people with common interests such as school, family, and friendship. Popular sites include MySpace and Facebook. Their rapid widespread usage warrants a better understanding. This study contributes to our understanding by empirically investigating factors influencing user adoption of these sites. We introduce the Social Network Site Adoption model to examine the effect of perceptions of normative pressure, playfulness, critical mass, trust, usefulness, and ease of use on usage intention and actual usage of these sites. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the patterns of inter-correlations among the constructs and to empirically test the hypotheses. All the hypothesized determinants have a significant direct effect on intent to use, with perceived playfulness and perceived critical mass the strongest indicators. Intent to use and perceived playfulness have a significant direct effect on actual usage.

Differences in Swiss and German Children’s Intelligence as Measured by the HAWIK-IV

The fourth edition of the Hamburg-Wechsler-Intelligenztest für Kinder und Jugendliche (HAWIK-IV; Petermann & Petermann, 2007 ) is a German-language adaptation of the fourth revision of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV; Wechsler, 2003 ). The norming sample for the HAWIK-IV was composed of 1650 children in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In order to investigate differences in HAWIK-IV results between Germany and Switzerland, this study compared the test results of 126 children from each country (on subtests, index and full-scale IQ level) and examined scale intercorrelation patterns. Two out of 15 cross-sample tests for means as well as 17 out of 55 tests for correlations indicated significant cross-national differences. We concluded that HAWIK-IV can be considered a test that may be used in the different German-speaking language regions with no need to refer to separate norms.

An Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of the MMPI–2 Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales With Mental Health Inpatients

In this study, we compared the internal psychometric properties and external correlates of the MMPI–2 (Butcher et al., 2001; Tellegen et al., 2003) Restructured Clinical (RC) scales and corresponding MMPI–2 non-K-corrected Clinical scales in a sample of 280 men and 264 women admitted to inpatient psychiatric units. We evaluated the internal psychometric properties of the RC and Clinical scales by intercorrelation analyses and alpha coefficients. We investigated external correlates of scores from the RC and Clinical scales using selected chart variables, selected Symptom Checklist 90–Revised (Derogatis, 1983, 1994) items, and clinician ratings on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (Overall & Gorham, 1988). Results showed psychometric support for the RC scales in terms of improved intercorrelation patterns and comparable or greater alpha coefficients. Further, external correlational analyses revealed varying degrees of evidence of improvement in convergent and discriminant validity.

Validity of the Five-Factor Model for the Implicit Self-Concept of Personality

The authors adapted the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in order to assess the implicit self-concept of personality. In two studies (N = 106 and N = 92), confirmatory factor analyses validated the five-factor model for the implicit personality self-concept. Internal consistencies of the IAT proved satisfactory for all Big Five personality dimensions. Correlations between the personality IAT and different self-report measures of personality were generally small, and significant only for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Patterns of means and factor intercorrelations were, however, highly similar for implicit and explicit personality measures.

A contribution to the Italian validation of the General Decision-making Style Inventory

The main purposes of the present study were to evaluate: the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the General Decision-Making Style Inventory (GDMS); the relationship among decision-making styles, as proposed by GDMS, and thinking styles, assessed by Style of Learning and Thinking (SOLAT). The psychometric properties of GDMS were evaluated on a sample of 422 students, while 230 students also completed the Italian version of the SOLAT. The reliability of the GDMS scales (rational, intuitive, dependent, avoidant and spontaneous) appeared to be satisfactory with good internal consistency. The pattern of inter-correlation between the different styles was in line with the results reported by the literature. Confirmatory and Exploratory factor analyses showed that the hypothesized 5-factor model provided an acceptable fit for the data. Furthermore, the patterns of relationship between the decision-making styles and the SOLAT scales provide concurrent validity of the GDMS.

Abnormal Superior Temporal Connectivity During Fear Perception in Schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia have difficulty in decoding facial affect. A study using event-related functional neuroimaging indicated that errors in fear detection in schizophrenia are associated with paradoxically higher activation in the amygdala and an associated network implicated in threat detection. Furthermore, this exaggerated activation to fearful faces correlated with severity of flat affect. These findings suggest that abnormal threat detection processing may reflect disruptions between nodes that comprise the affective appraisal circuit. Here we examined connectivity within this network by determining the pattern of intercorrelations among brain regions (regions of interest) significantly activated during fear identification in both healthy controls and patients using a novel procedure CORANOVA. This analysis tests differences in the interregional correlation strength between schizophrenia and healthy controls. Healthy subjects' task activation was principally characterized by robust correlations between medial structures like thalamus (THA) and amygdala (AMY) and middle frontal (MF), inferior frontal (IF), and prefrontal cortical (PFC) regions. In contrast, schizophrenia patients displayed no significant correlations between the medial regions and either MF or IF. Further, patients had significantly higher correlations between occipital lingual gyrus and superior temporal gyrus than healthy subjects. These between-group connectivity differences suggest that schizophrenia threat detection impairment may stem from abnormal stimulus integration. Such abnormal integration may disrupt the evaluation of threat within fronto-cortical regions.

Stigma, Body Image, and Quality of Life in Women Seeking Orthognathic Surgery

Orthognathic surgery has been increasingly performed in the authors' country. To ascertain the increased satisfaction that comes with surgery, it is necessary to evaluate the patient's motivation for surgery. Seventy-four female patients were evaluated before surgery. The control group consisted of 124 female patients. All participants completed the measures of perception of appearance, body image, stigma, and quality of life on an individual basis. These measures were tested, with satisfactory reliability and validity. Patients scored significantly lower than the control group on the measures for perception of appearance, stigma of surgery, and quality of life, but higher on appearance orientation and stigma of deformity. Correlation analyses revealed various patterns of intercorrelations of subscales of stigma and body image in both groups. Regression analysis yielded three significant predictors for surgery motivation (i.e., satisfaction of facial areas, stigma of surgery, and appearance orientation), altogether accounting for 46.2 percent of the total variance. Given the broadly known importance of body image in seeking surgery, it may be equally important to take stigma into consideration of the patient's motivation. Further investigations are needed.

Validating the Creativity Scale for Diverse Domains Using Groups of Artists and Scientists

The Creativity Scale for Diverse Domains (CSDD) of Kaufman and Baer (2004), measures self-reported creativity in nine different domains, as well as “creativity in general.” The study reports a criterion validation of the scale, using small groups of professional scientists and artists, in addition to two groups of undergraduate students planning major studies in the arts/humanities or in science/mathematics. Similar patterns of inter-correlation between items, and a similar factor structure, were found to those reported in the original study. In support of the validity of the scale, professional scientists were clearly highest on items measuring creativity in science and mathematics; professional artists on items measuring creativity in art and general creativity. There were minimal differences between the student groups. The results provide substantial support for the usefulness of the CSDD when a short measure of creativity in different areas is sought.