Test Order Effects Research Articles

Effects of human contact and toys on the fear responses to humans of shelter-housed dogs

This study examined the effects of human contact and toys on fear responses to humans in small breed, shelter-housed dogs. Ninety dogs were assigned to one of three treatments: “control” (control), comprising routine husbandry performed by shelter staff; “human contact” (HC), where dogs additionally received 2min positive contact daily with an experimenter; or “human contact+toys” (HCT), where the additional human contact included the opportunity to interact with toys. Treatments were implemented daily from day 2 (second day in the shelter) until day 6. On day 7, the fear response towards the experimenter was assessed using salivary cortisol concentrations and a human avoidance test. The behavioural parameters measured were approach and withdrawal responses to the experimenter and time spent in each section of the pen while the experimenter was situated at each of three positions outside the pen: 2m (position 1) or 1m away from the pen gate (position 2) or crouched against the pen gate (position 3). On day 8, dogs were assessed by the shelter veterinarian for their suitability for adoption by the public. Treatment had no effect on salivary cortisol concentrations or the proportion of dogs selected for adoption. The results indicated that dogs in the HC and HCT treatments spent more time (P=0.024) at the front of the pen when the experimenter was at position 3 than control dogs (HC 8.8s, HCT 8.7s, control 6.6s from a possible 10s). For those dogs that were not at the front of the pen when the experimenter was in position 3, a higher (P<0.05) percentage of HCT dogs (100%) but not HC dogs (86%, P>0.05) approached the experimenter compared with control dogs (45%). A second experiment on another 40 dogs examined if dogs, based on their behaviour in the human avoidance test, discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans. All dogs received the HC protocol as in Experiment 1 and were observed in the human avoidance test, however, all dogs were tested twice, once with the ‘familiar’ experimenter and once with an ‘unfamiliar’ experimenter. There were no significant (P>0.05) familiarity or testing order effects, except that dogs approached the unfamiliar experimenter more (60%) than the familiar experimenter (29%) at position 2 (P<0.05). The results indicate that additional positive human contact other than that associated with routine husbandry reduced the behavioural fear response of dogs to humans, but did not affect the proportion of dogs selected for adoption. The results also indicate that the shelter dogs did not discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans, in the handling context used in this study, suggesting a degree of stimulus generalisation may occur.

Stability of the Positive Mood Effect on Creativity When Task Switching, Practice Effect, and Test Item Differences are Taken into Consideration

AbstractAlthough experimentally induced positive mood can generally last for 20 min and the induced mood is conducive to creative performance, it is still unclear whether the facilitation effect is stable during these 20 min. Two studies were conducted to examine this issue while controlling for the impacts of task switching, practice effect, and test item differences. In Study 1, participants (N = 42) were randomly assigned to positive, negative, and neutral mood conditions. After watching a short video clip, participants answered four items of the Alternate Uses Test (AUT) in 20 min, with 5 min allotted for each item. Creative performance during each 5‐min period was scored in terms of fluency and flexibility. Separate repeated‐measures analyses of variances on these creativity scores showed that positive mood consistently enhanced performance over 20 min. Study 2 further eliminated the effects of test item differences and test order. Participants (N = 131) underwent the same mood induction procedure and answered the same four items of the AUT, except that these items were presented in four different sequences in accordance with the Latin square design. Consistent with the findings in Study 1, Study 2 showed that the facilitation effect of positive mood lasted for 20 min when the interference of task switching, practice effect, and test item differences were minimized. This finding not only sheds light on the debate regarding the stability of experimentally induced positive mood effect, but also contributes to the body of empirical evidence that future studies may use to examine the positive mood effect over a relatively long period of time.

Insignificant influence of test order on cognitive behavior in Wistar rats

Objectives: The aim was to evaluate the effects of test order in behavioral performance of Wistar rats in cognitive performance tasks. Materials and Methods: The rats were tested with both object recognition and object location tasks in different test orders with an inter-test interval of 1-day. Results: An open field box sized 60 × 60 × 40 cm was associated with better experimental outcome compared with box sized 100 × 100 × 50 cm. Test order has insignificant effects on the exploration activity of rats with the 1-day inter-test interval. Conclusion: Test order of the cognitive performance tasks with inter-test interval of 1-day did not influence the performance of Wistar rats.

Test order effects in simultaneous protocols

Simultaneous protocols typically yield poorer stimulus equivalence outcomes than do other protocols commonly used in equivalence research. Two independent groups of three 3-member equivalence sets of stimuli were used in conditional discrimination procedures in two conditions, one using the standard simultaneous protocol and the other using a hybrid simultaneous training and simple-to-complex testing. Participants completed the two conditions in one long session in Experiment 1, but in separate sessions in Experiment 2. The same stimulus sets used in Experiment 1 were randomized for the two conditions in Experiment 2. Overall, accuracy was better with the hybrid than with the standard protocol in both experiments. The equivalence yield was also better under the hybrid than under the standard protocol in each experiment. The results suggest that the order of testing for emergent relations may account for the difficulty often encountered with the standard simultaneous protocol.

Whole-language and item-specific control in bilingual language production.

The current study investigated the scope of bilingual language control differentiating between whole-language control involving control of an entire lexicon specific to 1 language and lexical-level control involving only a restricted set of recently activated lexical representations. To this end, we tested 60 Dutch-English (Experiment 1) and 64 Chinese-English bilinguals (Experiment 2) on a verbal fluency task in which speakers produced members of letter (or phoneme for Chinese) categories first in 1 language and then members of either (a) the same categories or (b) different categories in their other language. Chinese-English bilinguals also named pictures in both languages. Both bilingual groups showed reduced dominant language fluency after producing exemplars from the same categories in the nondominant language, whereas nondominant language production was not influenced by prior production of words from the same categories in the other language. Chinese-English, but not Dutch-English, bilinguals exhibited similar testing order effects for different letter/phoneme categories. In addition, Chinese-English bilinguals who exhibited significant testing order effects in the repeated categories condition of the fluency task exhibited no such effects when naming repeated pictures after a language switch. These results imply multiple levels of inhibitory control in bilingual language production. Testing order effects in the verbal fluency task pinpoint a lexical locus of bilingual control, and the finding of interference effects for some bilinguals even when different categories are tested across languages further implies a whole-language control process, although the ability to exert such global inhibition may only develop for some types of bilinguals.

Reliability of a High-Intensity Endurance Cycling Test

This study assessed the reproducibility of performance and selected metabolic variables during a variable high-intensity endurance cycling test. 8 trained male cyclists (age: 35.9 ± 7.7 years, maximal oxygen uptake: 54.3 ± 3.9 mL·kg - 1·min - 1) completed 4 high-intensity cycling tests, performed in consecutive weeks. The protocol comprised: 20 min of progressive incremental exercise, where the power output was increased by 5% maximal workload (Wmax) every 5 min from 70% Wmax to 85% Wmax; ten 90 s bouts at 90% Wmax, separated by 180 s at 55% Wmax; 90% Wmax until volitional exhaustion. Blood samples were drawn and heart rate was monitored throughout the protocol. There was no significant order effect between trials for time to exhaustion (mean: 4 113.0 ± 60.8 s) or total distance covered (mean: 4 6126.2 ± 1 968.7 m). Total time to exhaustion and total distance covered showed very high reliability with a mean coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.6% (95% Confidence Intervals (CI) 0.0 ± 124.3 s) and CV of 2.2% (95% CI 0.0 ± 1904.9 m), respectively. Variability in plasma glucose concentrations across the time points was very small (CV 0.46-4.3%, mean 95% CI 0.0 ± 0.33 to 0.0 ± 0.94 mmol·L - 1). Plasma lactate concentrations showed no test order effect. The reliability of performance and metabolic variables makes this protocol a valid test to evaluate nutritional interventions in endurance cycling.

A titanium expandable pedicle screw improves initial pullout strength as compared with standard pedicle screws

Pedicle screws are now standard for spinal arthrodesis as they provide three-column spinal stabilization. Decreased vertebral body bone density because of aging reduces the stability of the bone-screw interface, potentially increasing screw pullout or pseudarthrosis. Modifications to standard pedicle screw designs to improve screw stabilization may help to compensate for the detrimental effects of decreased vertebral bone density. To evaluate differences in initial pullout strength of an expandable titanium pedicle screw as compared with a standard titanium pedicle screw. In vitro human cadaveric biomechanical investigation. Fresh thoracolumbar spines from four human cadavers were imaged using quantitative computed tomography to obtain standard lumbar osteoporosis (Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry [DXA]) T scores. Six bodies were sectioned per spine, and standard titanium 6.5-mm diameter pedicle screws and expandable 6.5-mm diameter titanium screws (maximum expanded diameter=10 mm) were randomized to right and left sides. Screw testing, in axial pullout at 25 mm/min, was randomized to reduce the effects of testing order. Data for stiffness (N/mm), yield load (N), ultimate load (N), and energy (N mm) (area under the load-displacement curve) were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (p<.05). Lumbar DXA scores averaged -3.6. There were no statistical differences between screw types for stiffness. Yield load was not statistically different between groups, although the expandable screw yield load was nearly 25% greater than that of the standard screw. Ultimate load was found to be statistically greater (∼30%) for the expandable screw compared with the standard screw (p<.05). The energy required to cause bone-implant failure was also statistically greater for the expandable screw compared with the standard screw (p<.0001). Expandable titanium pedicle screws demonstrated improved screw pullout stability compared with standard titanium screws in osteopenic or osteoporotic bone. Further studies are warranted examining other loading methods to evaluate the stability provided by an expandable pedicle screw.

Development of approach and handling tests for the assessment of reactivity to humans of sows housed in stall or in group

The aim of the present study was to develop reliable and easy-to-use tests for on-farm assessment of sow reactivity to human in different housing systems. A total of 123 gestating sows at different parities and stages of pregnancy were successively subjected to two tests according to their housing systems: an approach (AS) test and a handling (HS) test for the stall-housed sows and an approach (AG) test and a handling (HG) test for the group-housed sows. The tests were video-recorded. Intra- and inter-observer reliabilities, test–retest reliability, and reproducibility according to the experience of the observer were assessed and the effects of testing order and time of the day were studied. Intra-observer reliability was assessed by double video observation of the same tests by one observer and was high to very high (kappa coefficient κ > 0.73). Inter-observer reliability between two observers was moderate to very high ( κ > 0.61). Test–retest reliability (i.e. consistency of the sow response over time) was medium to very high for the AS and HS tests. The effect of observer experience in pig behaviour and/or management on the reliability of video observation of the AS and HS tests was also studied. The naive group obtained higher reliability than the other groups, which were more experienced in behavioural observation and/or pig management. High to very high intra- and inter-observer reliabilities were obtained regardless of the experience of the observers for continuous variables ( κ > 0.83) but not for categorical ones ( κ < 0.71). There was no significant effect of testing order on the sow response in the AG and HG tests, and time of the day had no impact on the sow response to the AS and HS tests. Because they are quick and easy to use in various housing systems and are also reproducible and reliable, those tests are promising tools for assessing sow welfare on farms. To ensure that the reliability of the tests is high, however, appropriate training to the observers and precise definitions of the behavioural responses are required. Moreover, the ability of those tests to discriminate animals according to their reactivity to humans needs to be further investigated. Finally, studying those tests on a higher number of sows with a higher variability in their individual characteristics and housing conditions would help precise their applicability for on-farm use.

Comparison of a monocular pupillometer and the pupillometry function of a binocular free-viewing autorefractor

To compare a binocular free-viewing autorefractor pupillometer (WAM 5500 Binocular Accommodation Instrument) and a monocular occlusion pupillometer (Neuroptics pupillometer). Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, USA. Evaluation of diagnostic test or technology. Normal subjects were tested under 1 lux and 7 lux ambient illumination with controlled distance fixation. The monocular occlusion pupillometer and free-viewing autorefractor pupillometer test order and eye test order were randomized. Devices were compared using Bland-Altman plots. Effects of eye test order and device test order were analyzed. The number of outliers (ie, difference ≥ 0.5 mm between devices) was tabulated. The mean device difference (monocular pupillometer minus binocular pupillometer) was +0.51 mm ± 0.36 (SD) (range -0.20 to +1.50 mm) in right eyes and +0.27 ± 0.31 mm (SD) (range -0.30 to +1.00 mm) in left eyes at 1 lux and +0.26 ± 0.28 mm (range -0.30 to +0.90 mm) and +0.21 ± 0.24 mm (range -0.80 to +0.40 mm), respectively, at 7 lux. The outlier frequency (N = 49) at 1 lux was 23 (47%) in right eyes and 7 (14%) in left eyes and at 7 lux, 11 (22%) and 10 (20%), respectively. At all age decades, the free-viewing autorefractor underestimated dark-adapted pupil diameter. Eye test order and device order did not cause unidirectional bias. The free-viewing pupillometer frequently disagreed with the monocular occlusion pupillometer by more than 0.5 mm. Testing the first eye with the monocular pupillometer did not induce sustained pupillary constriction that might bias results in the second eye.

A twin study of spatial and non-spatial delayed response performance in middle age

Delayed alternation and object alternation are classic spatial and non-spatial delayed response tasks. We tested 632 middle-aged male veteran twins on variants of these tasks in order to compare test difficulty, measure their inter-correlation, test order effects, and estimate heritabilities (proportion of observed variance due to genetic influences). Non-spatial alternation (NSA), which may involve greater reliance on processing of subgoals, was significantly more difficult than spatial alternation (SA). Despite their similarities, NSA and SA scores were uncorrelated. NSA performance was worse when administered second; there was no SA order effect. NSA scores were modestly heritable ( h 2 = .25; 26); SA was not. There was shared genetic variance between NSA scores and general intellectual ability ( r g = .55; .67), but this also suggests genetic influences specific to NSA. Compared with findings from small, selected control samples, high “failure” rates in this community-based sample raise concerns about interpretation of brain dysfunction in elderly or patient samples.

Context Effects on Test Performance

The effects of varied test order within a computer test battery on test performance were investigated. An experiment was performed to determine whether completing objective personality tests sensu R. B. Cattell affects test performance in subsequent cognitive ability tests and vice versa. The sample consisted of managers of an industrial corporation (an automotive supplier) in “higher management positions” (business managers, department chiefs, and team leaders) who attended an investigation of their professional potential that resembled a real selection situation. It was hypothesized that carry-over and priming effects, as well as fatigue and learning effects might occur. Results of a MANOVA showed a main effect of test order on objective personality tests, since “frustration tolerance” decreased and “decisiveness” increased when objective personality tests were presented subsequent to cognitive ability tests, while cognitive ability tests were not affected by prior objective personality tests.

Selective attention for masked and unmasked emotionally toned stimuli: Effects of trait anxiety, state anxiety, and test order

We investigated selective attention for masked and unmasked, threat, and positively valenced words, in high trait anxious (HTA) and low trait anxious (LTA) individuals using the emotional Stroop colour-naming task. State anxiety was varied within participants through the threat of electric shock. To investigate whether the sequencing of the state anxiety manipulation affected colour-naming latencies, the ordering of the shock threat and shock safe conditions was counterbalanced across participants. The results indicated that the ordering of the state anxiety manipulation moderated masked and unmasked threat bias effects. Specifically, relative to LTA individuals, HTA individuals showed a threat interference effect, but this effect was limited to those who performed under the threat of shock in the later stages of the experiment. Irrespective of exposure mode and state anxiety status, all individuals showed interference for threat in the early stages of the experiment, relative to a threat facilitation effect in the later stages of the experiment. For the unmasked trials alone, the data also revealed a significant threat interference effect for the HTA group relative to the LTA group in the shock threat condition, and this effect was evident irrespective of shock threat order. The results are discussed with respect to the automatic nature of emotional processing in anxiety.

Disconnection of monkey orbitofrontal and rhinal cortex impairs assessment of motivational value

Disconnection of monkey orbitofrontal and rhinal cortex impairs assessment of motivational value

Energy Expenditure During Varying Intensity Running On A Position Sensitive Automatic Speed Adjusting Treadmill

PURPOSE: Conventional treadmill provides manually adjustable but fixed speed during exercise. A newly developed treadmill which senses human position on the treadmill and subsequently adjusts its speed to the runners is evaluated in terms of energy requirements of the exercise. METHODS: Eight healthy young adults (n=9 23±4 yrs, 65±11 kg, 169±6 cm) were recruited and participated in two exercise tests; 1) running on a position sensitive treadmill while varying speed (FTT) and 2) running on a conventional treadmill at a fixed speed (CTT). At FTT, subjects were asked to run at approximately 55-65% of pre-determined individual maximal work capacity for 20 min. And speeding-up and slowing-down of the running was determined by subjects. Once FTT was completed, an average speed of the running was calculated. At CTT, subjects ran on a treadmill at the fixed speed calculated from FTT for 20 min matching exercise distance. No testing order effects were noticed. During the tests, oxygen uptake (VO2), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), and heart rate (HR) were measured, and EE was calculated. RESULTS: The average treadmill speed was 7.69±1.16 kph for both FTT and CTT. The average VO2 in FTT (29.9±4.4) was higher than that in CTT (27.1±5.9 ml·kg-1·min-1) (P<0.05). The calculated total EE during the exercise was higher in FTT (191.1±52.5) compared to CTT (175.0±58.7 kcal) (P<0.05). The average HR during exercise was not different between FTT (136.4±14.8) and CTT (134.7±16.3 bpm). No differences were found in RER between conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Running on treadmill at moderate intensity with varying speed required higher energy expenditure than running at a fixed speed when the running duration and distance were matched. It appears that varying running speed on a position sensitive treadmill can be a potential exercise modality to increase energy expenditure.

Test Order Effects of Computerized Dynamic Posturography and Calorics

To determine whether there is a test order effect of the caloric subtest of videonystagmography on the Sensory Organization Test (SOT) of computerized dynamic posturography, and to assess the learning effect of multiple posturography test sessions on the SOT score. Scores on the 6 SOT conditions before and after caloric testing were compared for 10 participants age 18-36 years. Four SOT sessions were completed prior to caloric testing to assess the presence of a learning effect and establish precaloric baseline SOT scores. All participants had normal vestibular systems with no history of dizziness or imbalance. Caloric testing had a significant effect on the equilibrium score for only 1 of 6 test conditions. While meeting statistical significance, the actual change in score for this condition was very small. Equilibrium scores improved for the more difficult test conditions between the 1st and 2nd SOT sessions. Results indicate that there are minimal test order effects of calorics on the SOT. Results confirm that a significant improvement in score for more challenging test conditions occurs between SOT Sessions 1 and 2 as a result of learning. Therefore, clinicians must be cautious when using posturography to monitor patient improvement.

Enhanced Early Emotional Intrusion Effects and Proportional Habituation of Threat Response for Symptom and Illness Words in College Students with Elevated Health Anxiety

Studies evaluating attentional biases in health anxiety have produced equivocal results. Little is known about the details and potential moderators of prioritized processing of illness related information. We compared individuals with health anxiety (HAG; N = 54) to not health anxious participants (CG; N = 53) in a blocked emotional Stroop paradigm. Analyses focused on differences between categories of health threatening information (words referring to symptoms and illnesses), on the time course of the emotional intrusion effect, and on test order effects. When symptom words were presented first in the experiment (i.e., before the illness words), the HAG showed a stronger emotional intrusion effect to symptom words in the first test half (trials 1–20) compared to the CG. A similar pattern of results with a smaller effect size was apparent for the illness words, when they were presented first in the experiment. The results contribute to a more fine-grained understanding of attentional processes towards external sources of threat in health anxiety. In particular, they emphasize the importance of taking into account the time course when analyzing data from an emotional Stroop paradigm.

Test anxiety and intelligence testing: A closer examination of the stage-fright hypothesis and the influence of stressful instruction

The influence of test anxiety and the content of instruction (stressful versus reassuring) on measurements of intelligence were investigated. It was expected that components of test anxiety would show differential effects on test performance. A Latin Square design was used to unravel the effects of test type and test order. Furthermore, effects of type of instruction, stressful versus reassuring, were studied by means of a within-subjects design. Test anxiety was measured with the Revised Worry-Emotionality Questionnaire. Measurements for verbal ability, reasoning, and memory were administered. Performance on memory tests showed less vulnerability to test anxiety compared with the other tests, with a picture recall test being insensitive. The negative effect of test anxiety was mostly confined to the beginning of a test session, independent of the type of test. Partial support for the so-called stage-fright hypothesis was found. The effect of instructional content was equivocal.

The Effects of Test Order and Nodal Distance on the Emergence and Stability of Derived Discriminative Stimulus Functions

The present study examined the effects of equivalence test order and nodal distance on the emergence and stability of derived discriminative stimulus functions. Participants in 1 group were exposed to a transfer of functions test following a symmetry and equivalence test, another group of participants completed a symmetry and equivalence test following a transfer test, and a final group of participants received a symmetry test only if they failed to demonstrate immediate transfer, after which time they were retested. At least 1 month following their initial laboratory experience, all participants who had demonstrated the transfer of functions were contacted and asked to return to the laboratory for a follow-up transfer test. Results showed that a prior equivalence test was not necessary for the transfer of functions, although a symmetry test may have facilitated transfer for some participants. A nodal distance effect for the stability of the derived stimulus functions was observed during the follow-up transfer test.

Effects of Test Order on Most Comfortable and Uncomfortable Loudness Levels for Speech

This study examined test-order effects on most comfortable loudness (MCL) and uncomfortable loudness (UCL) levels for spondaic words in 2 groups of 30 normal hearing listeners each. For Group 1, MCL was measured first, followed by UCL. For Group 2, UCL was measured first, and then MCL. A retest was conducted for both groups. Results showed that MCL was significantly elevated for Group 2, but not for Group 1. There was no effect on UCL for either group. In a follow-up experiment, the magnitude of the test-order effect on MCL increased significantly when MCL measurements followed UCL measurements closely in time. These results argue for management of the ordering and temporal spacing of MCL and UCL testing in clinical loudness measurements.

Effects of Test Order and Modality on Sustained Attention in Children With Epilepsy

Neurological conditions affect sustained attention, but the effects of modality and interactions with test order have not been examined. In a 2 × 2 (Order × Modality) design using 54 children with chronic epilepsy, performance was compared on an auditory measure (modified Seashore Rhythm Test) versus a visual measure of attention (modified Conners’ Continuous Performance Test). Auditory scores were worse than visual, F(1, 52) = 98.93, p<.001, but there was no order effect or interaction (p>.05). Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.