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The current study examines relations between individual differences in attention measured in laboratory and real-world settings. In-laboratory computer-based assessments of orienting, phasic alertness, and executive attention as well as self-report measures of temperament and attention-related problems were administered to 111 undergraduate participants. Participants later completed a walking tour of a multistory building while wearing video recording glasses. The recordings were subsequently coded for orientation and capture of overt attention. Overt attention was correlated with attention-related traits only in high-demand walking conditions (stairways). Our findings suggest that individual differences should be a more important consideration in attention research. The novel methodology piloted here may be especially practical for studying overt attention in social settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dyadic proportions test (DPT) is an analytic approach intended for small sample research (e.g., clinical and exploratory studies). The procedure involves using proportion tests to compare outcomes from dyads (one participant in each condition) associated with the actual experimental assignment with outcomes from all possible dyadic assignments. Monte Carlo analyses in Study 1 revealed that sampling distributions generated by DPTs were normally-distributed, as expected with traditional approaches. In Study 2, data from eight small-sample experiments (n = 8) were analyzed with DPTs and t tests. DPTs provided more power and resulted in more significant effects (p < .05) than did t tests. In Study 3, data from an intervention study conducted with a small clinical sample (n = 12) were analyzed with DPTs and t tests. The experimental effect was significant with the DPT, but not the t test. The DPT is an appropriate approach when large samples are not feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study tested the effect of varying target type and target set size during simple detection versions of Posner's exogenous spatial cueing task. The four target conditions consisted of a single letter, a single number, one of four possible letters, or one of four possible numbers. Responses were faster for numbers than for letters, but only when the cue-target lag was short, the target set included more than one potential number, and the cue and target appeared in different locations. These findings suggest that even during detection tasks, responses are influenced by the object features of the target. Methodological implications for spatial cueing studies and other types of visual perception research were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current practice of relying on single sample null hypothesis tests is being re-evaluated in the behavioral sciences. To highlight the issues raised by both sides of this discussion, a meta-analysis of The Gallup Organization's most recent U.S. Presidential election polling data was conducted. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, most pre-election polling percentages reported Bush ahead of Kerry, although the differences between the voters' preferences were typically within the margin of error. The meta-analyses used in this study showed significant differences between the two candidates' polling percentages, thus yielding a more accurate prediction than the conventional analysis which was based on single samples. These improved predictions provide support for a continued discussion about potential changes in statistical approaches to psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the relative accuracy of targets' self-reports and other-reports of personality in predicting two criteria: (a) emotional experience in daily life and (b) behavior in the laboratory. Ratings of the targets' extraversion and neuroticism were obtained from two knowledgeable informants and the targets themselves. Target participants wore an electronic signaling device ("beeper") for eight days and rated positive and negative emotions at four randomly selected times each day. The participants also interacted with an opposite-sex stranger in a laboratory context and their behavior was coded from videotapes. Targets' self-reports of personality were consistently more accurate than other-reports in predicting daily emotional experience. Self-reports also outperformed other-reports in predicting extraversion-related laboratory behaviors, but not neuroticism-related behaviors. The relative accuracy of self- and other-reports of personality would seem to depend on the criterion employed; self-reports are clearly better for the prediction of emotional experience, while for behavior the picture is mixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the prediction of maternal and pediatrician communication patterns during pediatric well-child examinations in the West Coast of the United States. Analysis of mother-pediatrician interaction; Prediction of specific utterances made by mothers and pediatricians; Implication of personality traits for the development of disease.

Protein synthesis in cultured P3/X63-Ag8 mouse myeloma cells was inhibited by acute exposure to ethanol. However, the synthesis of IgGl antibody, as a percentage of total protein synthesis, increased slightly. Experiments using actinomycin 0 suggest that the overall inhibition of protein synthesis by ethanol occurs at the translational level. Following an L-[35S]methiomne pulse, cultured P3/X63-Ag8 cells contained one light antibody polypeptide and two heavy antibody polypeptides. One of these heavy chains was shown to be the unglycosylated precursor of the other, mature molecule. Only the glycosylated polypeptide is a normal constituent of secreted IgGl antibody. The glycosylation of the immature heavy chains occurred more rapidly during a 1-hr isotopic pulse in cells exposed to ethanol (0.1 v/v % and above), than in unexposed control cells. The observed effects of ethanol on antibody glycosylation may be related to the increased susceptibility of alcoholic patients to infections. Ethanol may also affect the synthesis of other glycoproteins in myeloma cells and other tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]