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PURPOSE The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of combined video game distraction and anesthesia mask exposure and shaping intervention as compared to conventional preoperative preparation on the preoperative anxiety, anesthesia induction compliance and emergence delirium of children undergoing day-case surgery. DESIGN AND METHODS The CONSORT guidelines were followed in the current study; a randomized clinical trial, two groups, pre posttest, between subjects design with 1:1 allocation ratio was employed. Children (5-11 years of age; N = 128) admitted for day case surgery were invited to participate in the study. Sixty-four children were assigned to the intervention group receiving combined videogame distraction and anesthesia mask exposure and shaping intervention, and 64 children were assigned to the control group. RESULTS The results showed that children in the intervention group reported statistically significant lower anxiety scores than the children in the control group at three preoperative points of time: postintervention t = 4.48, p

Aim To report a study protocol that examines the impact of adding salient cues in a virtual reality simulation of a senior residential building on wayfinding for older adults with and without Alzheimer's disease. Background An early symptom of Alzheimer's disease is the inability to find one's way (wayfinding). Senior residential environments are especially difficult for wayfinding. Salient cues may be able to help persons with Alzheimer's disease find their way more effectively so they can maintain independence. Design A repeated measures, within and between subjects design. Methods This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (August 2012). Older adults (N = 40) with normal cognition and older adults with early stage Alzheimer's disease/mild cognitive impairment (N = 40) will try to find their way to a location repeatedly in a virtual reality simulation of senior residence. There are two environments: standard (no cues) and salient (multiple cues). Outcome measures include how often and how quickly participants find the target location in each cue condition. Conclusion The results of this study have the potential to provide evidence for ways to make the environment more supportive for wayfinding for older adults with Alzheimer's disease. This study is registered at Trialmatch.alz.org (Identifier 260425-5).

Previous studies of driver stress have utilized in-vehicle in situ questionnaires to measure driver stress during the actual commute. These studies demonstrated several important findings, but all adopted a repeated-measures research design where each participant was exposed to counterbalanced high and low congestion conditions. This approach reduced between-subjects variability but increased the possibility of demand characteristics. The current study replicated the findings of the in situ methodology using a between-subjects research design. State stress was greater in heavy traffic. Time urgency, lack of perceived control, and trait susceptibility to perceiving driving as stressful contributed to higher levels of state driver stress. No gender differences in state driver stress were found. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed.

Building on terror management theory, three experiments tested whether advertisements with a mortality reminder increase purchase intentions for products that provide an (un)important source of self-esteem. Study 1 tested the effects of mortality salience in advertisements (mortality reminder: yes vs. no) for art library and newspaper subscriptions. Study 2 used a 2 (mortality reminder: yes vs. no) × 2 (brand familiarity: low vs. high) between subjects design for newspaper subscriptions. Study 3 used a 2 (mortality reminder: yes vs. no) × 2 (product type: healthy vs. unhealthy) between subjects design for a beverage with importance of the product for consumers' self-esteem as a continuous moderator. Main dependent measures were mood; death-related thoughts; attitudes toward the ad; and purchase intentions. Across studies advertisements with a death reminder increased unconscious thoughts about death (Experiments 1-3), which, in turn, increased purchase intentions (Experiments 2 and 3). These effects occurred independent of mood, brand familiarity, product type, product relevance to self-esteem, and ad liking. Findings suggest that "killer ads" trigger unconscious consumer fears that may be alleviated by the urge to buy.

Objectives. This study investigates worrying in mothers of adolescents with internalizing disorders, and tests the hypothesis that these mothers will produce a greater number of worries with higher catastrophic content compared to control groups. Design. Differences in worry steps and in catastrophic content of worries were investigated in a cross-sectional, between groups design, employing a clinical internalizing group, a clinical control, and a non-referred control group. Methods. Twenty-five mothers of adolescents with internalizing disorders, 24 mothers of adolescents with externalizing disorders, and 28 mothers with non-referred adolescents participated in two interviews about their ‘real’ pre-existing worries and their worries in response to a hypothetical situation. Results. The internalizing group produced both a greater number of worry steps and a higher catastrophic content when they talked about their ‘real’ worries, compared to both control groups. They also produced a greater number of worry steps in response to a hypothetical situation compared to the other two groups. The number of worry steps and the level of catastrophic content of ‘real’ worries were associated with adolescent depression and anxiety. Additionally, the number of worry steps and the level of catastrophic content of worries in response to a hypothetical situation were related to adolescent depression. The number of worry steps in ‘real’ worries and the level of catastrophic content in hypothetical worries were also associated with maternal depressive symptoms. Conclusions. Mothers of adolescents with internalizing disorders may worry more catastrophically about their children than other mothers

Faces are important for non-verbal communication in daily life, and eye gaze direction provides important information for adult-infant interaction. Four-month-old infants and adults better recognize faces when accompanied with direct gaze, suggesting a special status of 'eye contact'. Whether mutual gaze plays a role in face recognition from birth, or whether it requires expertise, is investigated in this paper. We conducted a between subjects design, for a total of four experiments, two involving habituation (1a, 1b) and two involving preference tests (2a, 2b), to investigate newborns' ability to recognize faces when gaze direction is manipulated. We predicted that a face accompanied with direct gaze would be better recognized by newborns. In contrast, we expected no evidence of identity recognition when newborns were familiarized with a face with averted gaze. According with our expectations, newborns were able to recognize a face identity when previously familiarized with direct gaze, but not with averted gaze. However, this effect was face identity-specific. Overall, our results suggest that direct gaze can modulate face processing and affects preferences and face identity learning in newborns. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A meta-analytic review of age-discrimination research from laboratory and field settings spanning the years 1963 to 1998 revealed a significant, yet modest overall effect size with younger applicants and workers evaluated more positively than older applicants and workers. The present predictions and findings were compared and contrasted with those from previous meta-analytic investigations by Kite and Johnson (1988) and by Finkelstein, Burke, and Raju (1995). A number of significant moderational relationships were revealed, including negative linear relationships between the relative generalizability of the research (in terms of participants, setting, and stimulus materials) and effect size. A significant negative relationship was also found between the publication year of a study and effect size. In addition, the type of design used (between-subjects vs. within-subject) and the specific type of dependent measures used to evaluate applicants and workers (e.g., potential for development, interpersonal skills, worker reliability and stability) were found to significantly moderate effect size. These results, along with suggestions for future investigations, are discussed.A

Organizations are increasingly using computerized tests (e.g., multimedia, web-based, computer adaptive testing) in selection systems. A 2 (mode of presentation: paper-and-pencil – computerized)×2 (technical level of the job: high technical job–low technical job)×2 (selection decision: rejected or selected) between subjects design was used to assess proposed relationships between reactions to tests, their antecedents, and their consequences. While test-takers' post-test perceptions did not significantly differ as a result of mode of administration, computer anxiety and experience with computing were important factors in performing successfully. Significant relationships were found between post-feedback reactions and test-takers' intentions. The discussion highlights implications for implementing computerized selection tools.

In this paper, a view of the nature, purpose, and methods of experimentally controlled between-group therapy outcome research is presented. It is argued that the greatest progress in the development of increasingly useful interventions based on between-group therapy designs will come from (a) viewing such controlled therapy outcome research as basic science in which knowledge is acquired through experimental designs constructed to yield specific cause-and-effect conclusions and (b) combining this form of research with the clinical and nonclinical types more commonly called “basic research.” © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 55: 147–158, 1999.

FacultyofBusinessAdministration,SimonFraserUniversity,Burnaby,B.C.V5A1S6,CanadaABSTRACTThis study reports the results of a field experiment comparing the predictive validity of two approaches tomulticriteria assessments: the absolute measurement mode of AHP and the absolute measurement mode of linkingpin AHP. The questioning procedures of the two differ only in that the former employs unanchored criteria weightassessments and the latter anchored criteria weight assessments.The decision task required insurance agents to respond to a mailed questionnaire in which they evaluated non-monetary incentives (contests) according to (1) the public recognition received from winning, (2) the criteria forwinning and (3) the nature of the reward. There were four levels for each dimension. A between subjects design wasused, with each subject receiving one of the two methods. In addition, all subjects divided 100 points among fourcontests and these hold-out assignments were employed as a validity check. Linking pin AHP was found to besuperior to conventional AHP in this experiment, lending weight to the argument that the use of unanchored criteriaweights is problematic. & 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of item sampling on hindsight bias in experiments using general knowledge material. The results show that the use of random versus traditional experimenter-selected item samples can have different effect

When psychologists compare groups with different people in each condition, they are making use of a between-groups design. Keywords: research; methodology

The present experiment was concerned with the way in which the characteristics of the helper the task and the recipient affect the willingness to seek help. In line with past theory and research it was reasoned that seeking help would be most threatening when one needs help on an ego - central task, and the helper is perceived as similar to oneself. Consequently, individuals were expected to seek least help under these conditions. Further it was expected that individuals who enjoy a high self esteem would be more sensitive to this self threat and seek less help under these self threatening conditions than would individuals who have a low self esteem. The experiment consisted of a 2 (similar versus dissimilar helper) times 2 (ego-central versus non central task) times 2 (high versus low self esteem subjects) between subjects design. Subjects worked on a difficult anagram task, and their actual help seeking behaviour served as a dependent measure. The findings support the experimental hypotheses. The conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

The aim of these studies was to determine the effects of instructions and reinforcement contingency on phasic heart rate (HR) change. In Exp. I, 36 human subjects were given 20 conditioning trials with a muscletensing task which produced a phasic HR acceleration. The experimental manipulation produced an elevated baseline and allowed for the observation of instructed HR change during exercise. A 2 × 2 between subject design varied instructions (to increase or decrease the phasic tension-induced HR acceleration) and contingency (whether the verbal reinforcement was contingent on or unrelated to HR change) as factors. There was a significant instructional effect at the end of conditioning, with increase subjects producing more HR acceleration and decrease subjects less acceleration relative to pretrials. The instructional effect developed over trials and decrease subjects significantly improved with practice. There was no difference between contingent and non-contingent groups in either of the two conditions in ability to change HR in the instructed direction. This study shows the usefulness of the elevated baseline technique for cardiac research. A second experiment demonstrated that, in subjects not instructed to attempt HR change, the phasic HR response did not change in magnitude over conditioning. The results of these studies indicate that subjects are able to control phasic HR during physical-stress induced tension but biofeedback is not relevant for the production of such HR changes.

Using imaginal stimuli, the present investigation examined psychophysiological responses to imagery and the roles of Groves and Thompson's (1970) dual process theory and Sokolov's (1963) model of the defensive response(DR) in mediating the incremental stimulus intensity effect (ISIE). Experiment I was undertaken to determine whether phobic and neutral imagery could be discriminated by DRs and orienting responses (ORs). In a within groups design. 19 analogue speech phobics were exposed to 4 neutral and 4 phobic scenes. Dependent measures were skin conductance measures and second-by-second heart rate (HR). The results showed that DRs occurred only in response to phobic scenes. In a between groups design. Experiment II compared an incremental series (IS) of 16 phobic imaginal stimulus presentations to a constant series. Subjects were analogue speech phobics with 14 subjects per condition. For both conditions the last 4 scene presentations were the same. Dependent measures were second-by-second HR, second-by-second cephalic pulse amplitude, and skin conductance measures. The results showed greater habituation in the IS condition, but were inconclusive with regard to the roles played by dual process theory and the DR model in the ISIE.