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This study examined the psychometric equivalence of paper-and-pencil and Internet formats of key questionnaires used in couple research. Self-report questionnaires assessing interpersonal constructs (relationship satisfaction, communication/conflict management, partner support, emotional intimacy) and intrapersonal constructs (individual traits, psychological symptoms, contextual influences) were administered to young adults in committed dating relationships. The same measures were administered twice via paper-and-pencil and/or Internet methods over a 2-week period. Method order was counterbalanced among participants, and temporal stability was controlled. Intrapersonal and interpersonal measures generally remained reliable when administered online and demonstrated quantitative and qualitative equivalence across methods. The implications of online administration of questionnaires are discussed, and specific recommendations are made for researchers who wish to transition to online data collection.

Concern has been raised about the lack of participant compliance in diary studies that use paper-and-pencil as opposed to electronic formats. Three studies explored the magnitude of compliance problems and their effects on data quality. Study 1 used random signals to elicit diary reports and found close matches to self-reported completion times, matches that could not plausibly have been fabricated. Studies 2 and 3 examined the psychometric and statistical equivalence of data obtained with paper versus electronic formats. With minor exceptions, both methods yielded data that were equivalent psychometrically and in patterns of findings. These results serve to at least partially mollify concern about the validity of paper diary methods.

Background: Loss of insight is a core diagnostic criterion for frontotemporal dementia (FTD), whereas failure to recognise cognitive deficits and unawareness of disease (anosognosia) are well established findings in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, self awareness of personality has not been quantified in these patient groups. Methods: Twenty two patients (12 with frontal variant FTD; 10 with early AD) and 11 older adult normal controls completed self report questionnaires (the Interpersonal Adjectives Scales) describing their current personality. First degree relative informants completed two questionnaires, one describing the subject’s current personality, the other retrospectively describing the subject’s personality before disease onset. Differences between subject and informant reports of current personality were used to measure the accuracy of self awareness. Results: Discriminant function analysis showed significant differences in self awareness among the three groups, with those in the FTD group showing the greatest magnitude of error in the largest number of personality dimensions (dominance, submissiveness, cold heartedness, introversion, and ingenuousness). Despite personality changes over time, patients with AD showed accurate self awareness in all personality dimensions except submissiveness and extraversion. Normal controls showed a pattern of underestimating positive qualities, whereas patients with FTD exaggerated positive qualities and minimised negative qualities. For the personality facets showing impaired insight, the self reports of patients with FTD and AD most closely matched their premorbid personalities, suggesting a failure to update their self image after disease onset. Conclusions: This study operationalises research criteria for loss of insight in FTD.

Mutual interactions, including reciprocal food sharing and grooming between chlorantraniliprole- and fipronil-treated, and untreated Asian subterranean termites, Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann), were examined using rubidium as a tracer. Two questions were addressed in this study: (1) After insecticide treatment, does the mutual interaction between termiticide-treated termites and untreated nestmates increase? (2) Does the nutritional status of both termiticide-treated termites and untreated nestmates affect the mutual interaction?The comparative data suggested that chlorantraniliprole-treated termites were more regularly attended by untreated termites than the fipronil-treated termites. Mutual interaction between the chlorantraniliprole-treated termites and untreated termites was not affected by their nutritional status. A high level of rubidium was present in the reciprocal exchange from fipronil-treated termites to starved untreated termites, indicating that intoxication induced alimentary or anal fluids served as a food source for starved termites.The results of the present study indicated that termites exposed to chlorantraniliprole were more likely to cease feeding and then undergo starvation. Thus, the treated termites were subject to intensive reciprocal food exchange and frequent attention from untreated nestmates. In the fipronil treatment, starvation status facilitated the reciprocal food exchange rate from treated termites to starved untreated termites.

Objectives: Our social cognition model posits that social knowledge and executive resources guide interpersonal decision making. We investigated this model by examining the resolution of standardised social dilemmas in patients with a social and executive disorder (SOC/EXEC) caused by frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Methods: Patients with SOC/EXEC (n = 12) and those with progressive aphasia (APH, n = 14) completed measures requiring resolution of social dilemmas (Guilford’s Cartoon Predictions Test), social cognition (theory of mind false belief vignettes and a behavioural rating measure of empathy) and executive measures of cognitive flexibility (Visual Verbal Test). Regression analysis related judgments of social dilemmas to cortical volume using voxel based morphometry of high resolution structural MRI. Results: Patients with SOC/EXEC were impaired in judgments of social dilemmas as well as theory of mind, self-awareness of empathy and cognitive flexibility. Patients with APH were much less impaired in the social and cognitive measures. There were strong correlations among social dilemma, theory of mind and mental flexibility measures in patients with SOC/EXEC, and stepwise regression showed that mental flexibility was most predictive of social dilemma judgments. Social dilemma impairments in the SOC/EXEC sample correlated with cortical atrophy in the orbital frontal, superior temporal, visual association and posterior cingulate regions of the right hemisphere. Conclusions: Deficits in patients with SOC/EXEC in resolving social dilemmas are related to depleted executive resources and social knowledge that appear to arise from disease that interrupts a right frontal–temporal neural network crucial for mediating social cognition.

During the academic year 1958/59, a survey was made of interlibrary loan requests originating at Columbia University Medical Library. A high percentage of requests came from a relatively few requesters. However, analysis based on “one-time” and “repeat” categories for the patron and his requests indicated a situation less extreme than “monopoly use by an elite group.” Requests were classed by type, age, language, title, etc., and were also correlated with such variables as citation source, requester's academic status and experience, and estimated importance of material. The analysis aims to uncover patterns significant for cooperative planning. Did the repeat and one-time requester show distinctive characteristics and habits? Which materials attracted more repeat requests? Findings generally favored cooperation, at least for a library servicing nonstudent researchers. Unpredictability of researchers' needs was noted. Apart from specific findings, this paper offers methods for statistical analysis of interlibrary loans.