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Saccadic eye movements are preceded by profound changes in visual perception. These changes have been linked to the phenomenon of 'forward remapping', in which cells begin to respond to stimuli that appear in their post-saccadic receptive field before the eye has moved. Few studies have examined the perceptual consequences of remapping of areas of impaired sensory acuity, such as the blindspot. Understanding the perceptual consequences of remapping of scotomas may produce important insights into why some neurovisual deficits, such as hemianopia are so intractable for rehabilitation. The current study took advantage of a naturally occurring scotoma in healthy participants (the blindspot) to examine pre-saccadic perception at the upcoming location of the blindspot. Participants viewed stimuli monocularly and were required to make stimulus-driven vertical eye-movements. At a variable latency between the onset of saccade target (ST) and saccade execution a discrimination target (DT) was presented at one of 4 possible locations; within the blindspot, contralateral to the blindspot, in post-saccadic location of the blindspot and contralateral to the post-saccadic location of the blindspot. There was a significant perceptual impairment at the post-saccadic location of the blindspot relative to the contralateral post-saccadic location of the blindspot and the post-saccadic location of the blindspot in a no-saccade control condition. These data are consistent with the idea that the visual system includes a representation of the blindspot which is remapped prior to saccade onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Situational judgement tests (SJTs) have been widely adopted, internationally, into medical selection. It was hoped that such assessments could identify candidates likely to exhibit future professional behaviours. Understanding how performance on such tests may predict the risk of disciplinary action during medical school would provide evidence for the validity of such SJTs within student selection. It would also inform the implementation of such tests within student recruitment. Methods: This cohort study used data for 6910 medical students from 36 UK medical schools who sat the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) SJT in 2013. The relationship between SJT scores at application and the risk of subsequent disciplinary action during their studies was modelled. The incremental ability of the SJT scores to predict the risk of disciplinary action, above that already provided by UCAT cognitive test scores and secondary (high) school achievement, was also evaluated in 5535 of the students with information available on this latter metric. Results: Two hundred and ten (3.05%) of the students in the cohort experienced disciplinary action. The risk of disciplinary action reduced with increasing performance on the admissions SJT (odds ratio (OR) 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.69 to 0.92, p = 0.002). This effect remained similar after adjusting for cognitive performance and prior academic attainment (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.92, p = 0.004). The overall estimated effect‐size was small (Cohen's d = 0.08) and no evidence of 'threshold' effects were observed for the SJT scores and risk of disciplinary action. Conclusions: Performance on admissions SJTs can, at least modestly, incrementally predict the risk of subsequent disciplinary action, supporting their use in this context. However, for this SJT and outcome, there did not seem a distinct threshold score above which the risk of disciplinary action disproportionately increased. This should be considered when using the scores within medical selection. Performance on an admissions Situational Judgment Test is reported to predict risk of formal disciplinary action in medical students with implications for how such tests should be used to improve medical professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual perception and saccadic eye-movements are more precise when directed at isoeccentric locations along the horizontal compared to vertical meridian. This effect is known as horizontal-vertical anisotropy (HVA). Given that the eye-movement system plays an important role in spatial short-term memory (STM) it was hypothesized that spatial STM would also show a horizontal-vertical anisotropy. Consistent with this hypothesis an online experiment revealed a significant HVA in spatial STM (Experiment 1). This effect persisted even when eye-movements were precluded by using very short display durations (Experiment 2). However, there was no HVA in a colour span or orientation change detection task. It is argued that the HVA in spatial STM may result from greater imprecision in the representation of spatial locations along the vertical meridian relative to the horizontal meridian in the spatial maps underpinning spatial STM, a bilateral field advantage, or some combination of these mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrarunning requires extraordinary endurance but the psychological factors involved in successful ultrarunning are not well understood. One widely held view is that fluctuations in mood play a pivotal role in performance during endurance events. However, this view is primarily based on comparisons of mood before and after marathons and shorter running events. Indeed, to date no study has explicitly examined mood changes during a competive ultramarathon. To address this issue, we measured mood fluctuations in athletes competing in the Hardmoors 60, a 100 km, single day continuous trail-ultramarathon, and examined how variation in mood related to performance, as measured by completion time. The key finding was that the variability of athletes Total Mood Disturbance (TMD) score was significantly and positively correlated with completion time, consistent with the idea that mood is an important factor in determining race performance. Athletes also experienced a significant increase in tension immediately prior to race onset. This effect was more pronounced in less experienced athletes and significantly attenuated by measurement stage 1 at 35.4 km, which suggests the effect was driven by the release of pre-competition anxiety. Depression, anger and TMD were significantly lower at the pre-race measurement compared to the baseline measurement taken the week before. Consistent with previous studies, there were also significant increases in fatigue, anger and TMD during the race. The data are interpreted in terms of the Psychobiological model of endurance and may have broader implications for the understanding of endurance performance in other domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial position effects are well-documented in working memory literature. Studies of spatial short-term memory that rely on binary response; full report tasks tend to report stronger primacy than recency effects. In contrast, studies that utilize a continuous response, partial report task report stronger recency than primacy effects (Gorgoraptis, Catalao, Bays, & Husain, 2011; Zokaei, Gorgoraptis, Bahrami, Bays, & Husain, 2011). The current study explored the idea that probing spatial working memory using full and partial continuous response tasks would produce different distributions of visuospatial working memory resources across spatial sequences and, therefore, explain the conflicting results in the literature. Experiment 1 demonstrated that primacy effects were observed when memory was probed with a full report task. Experiment 2 confirmed this finding while controlling eye movements. Critically, Experiment 3 demonstrated that switching from a full to a partial report task abolished the primacy effect and produced a recency effect, consistent with the idea that the distribution of resources in visuospatial working memory depends on the type of recall required. It is argued that the primacy effect in the whole report task arose from the accumulation of noise caused by the execution of multiple spatially directed actions during recall, whereas the recency effect in the partial report task reflects the redistribution of preallocated resources when an anticipated item is not presented. These data show that it is possible to reconcile apparently contradictory findings within the resource theory of spatial working memory and the importance of considering how memory is probed when interpreting behavioral data through the lens of resource theories of spatial working memory.

Objectives: To examine factors associated with declaration of disability by medical students and doctors, and the association of declared disability with academic performance., Design: Observational study using record-linked data collected between 2002 and 2018., Setting: UK Medical Education Database is a repository of data relating to training of medical students and doctors. Disability and other data are record-linked., Participants: All students starting at a UK medical school between 2002 and 2018 (n=135 930)., Main Outcome Measures: Declared disability was categorised by the Higher Education Statistics Authority. Outcomes related to undergraduate academic performance included scores in the educational performance measure (EPM), prescribing safety assessment and situational judgement test. Performance in postgraduate examinations was studied, as well as prior attainment in school examinations and aptitude tests., Results: Specific learning disability (SLD) was the most commonly declared disability (3.5% compared with the next most commonly declared disability at 1.0% of n=129 345 all cases in the study), and during the period covered by the data, SLD declarations increased from 1.4% (n=6440 for students starting in 2002) to 4.6% (n=8625 for students starting in 2018). In a logistic regression, the following factors predicted recording of SLD on entry to medical school ((exp(B)±95% CI), p<0.0001 unless otherwise stated): attendance at a fee-paying school (2.306±0.178), graduate status (1.806±0.205), participation of local areas quintile (1.089±0.030), age (1.034±0.012). First year medical students were less likely to declare SLD if they were from a non-white ethnic background (Asian/Asian British 0.324±0.034, black/black British 0.571±0.102, mixed 0.731±0.108, other ethnic groups 0.566±0.120), female (0.913±0.059; p=0.007) or from a low index of multiple deprivation quintile (0.963±0.029); p=0.017. In univariate analysis with Bonferroni corrections applied for multiple tests, no significant difference was observed in the recording of SLD according to socioeconomic class (χ 2 =5.637, p=1), whether or not a student's parents had a higher education (χ 2 =0.140, p=1), or whether or not a student had received a United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) bursary (χ 2 =7.661, p=0.068). Students who declared SLD at some point in medical school (n=4830) had lower EPM normalised deviate values (-0.390) than those who did not (-0.119) (F=189.872, p<0.001). Those for whom SLD was recorded were as likely to complete the course successfully as those who did not declare disability (93.0% successful completion by those for whom SLD declared from year 1 (n=2480), 92.2% by those for whom SLD declared after year 1 (n=2350), 91.6% by those for whom SD not declared at any point (n=85 180)) (χ 2 =6.905, p=0.032). Of 3580 first year students who declared SLD, 43.1% had not sat the UKCAT Special Educational Needs aptitude test (which gives extra time for those with special educational needs), while 28% of 2400 registrants for whom SLD was recorded as medical students did not declare it at General Medical Council registration., Conclusions: Substantial increases in declaration of SLD may reflect changes in the social and legal environment during the period of the study. Those who declare SLD are just as likely to gain a primary medical qualification as those who do not. For some individuals, disability declaration appears to depend on context, based on differences in numbers declaring SLD before, during and after medical school., Competing Interests: Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare their competing interests as per below. Otherwise, there is: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years, no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. Michael Murphy: no competing interest declared. Jon Dowell: UKMED Advisory Board member and chair of the UKMED research group. Daniel Smith is employed by the GMC as data analyst working on the UKMED project., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objectives: To compare in UK medical students the predictive validity of attained A-level grades and teacher-predicted A levels for undergraduate and postgraduate outcomes. Teacher-predicted A-level grades are a plausible proxy for the teacher-estimated grades that replaced UK examinations in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also models the likely future consequences for UK medical schools of replacing public A-level examination grades with teacher-predicted grades., Design: Longitudinal observational study using UK Medical Education Database data., Setting: UK medical education and training., Participants: Dataset 1: 81 202 medical school applicants in 2010-2018 with predicted and attained A-level grades. Dataset 2: 22 150 18-year-old medical school applicants in 2010-2014 with predicted and attained A-level grades, of whom 12 600 had medical school assessment outcomes and 1340 had postgraduate outcomes available., Outcome Measures: Undergraduate and postgraduate medical examination results in relation to attained and teacher-predicted A-level results., Results: Dataset 1: teacher-predicted grades were accurate for 48.8% of A levels, overpredicted in 44.7% of cases and underpredicted in 6.5% of cases. Dataset 2: undergraduate and postgraduate outcomes correlated significantly better with attained than with teacher-predicted A-level grades. Modelling suggests that using teacher-estimated grades instead of attained grades will mean that 2020 entrants are more likely to underattain compared with previous years, 13% more gaining the equivalent of the lowest performance decile and 16% fewer reaching the equivalent of the current top decile, with knock-on effects for postgraduate training., Conclusions: The replacement of attained A-level examination grades with teacher-estimated grades as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may result in 2020 medical school entrants having somewhat lower academic performance compared with previous years. Medical schools may need to consider additional teaching for entrants who are struggling or who might need extra support for missed aspects of A-level teaching., Competing Interests: Competing interests: ICM is a member of the UKMED Research Group and the UKMED Advisory Board, and is also on the UK Medical Applicants Cohort Study advisory group. PAT is a member of the UKMED Research Group. PAT has previously received research funding from the ESRC, the EPSRC, the Department of Health for England, the UCAT Board and the GMC. In addition, PAT has previously performed consultancy work on behalf of his employing University for the UCAT Board and Work Psychology Group and has received travel and subsistence expenses for attendance at the UCAT Research Group. KYFC is a member of the UKMED Research Group and is an employee of Cambridge Assessment, a group of exam boards that owns and administers the BioMedical Admissions Test, UK GCSEs and A levels, and International GCSEs and A-levels. DTS is a member of the UKMED Research Group and the UKMED Advisory Board and is employed by the GMC as a data analyst working on the UKMED project., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)