Accuracy Scores (accuracy + score)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Accuracy of self-reported weight and height: Relationship with eating psychopathology among young women

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 4 2009
Caroline Meyer PhD
Abstract Objective: Self-reported height and weight data are commonly reported within eating disorders research. The aims of this study are to demonstrate the accuracy of self-reported height and weight and to determine whether that accuracy is associated with levels of eating psychopathology among a group of young nonclinical women. Method: One hundred and four women were asked to report their own height and weight. They then completed the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire. Finally, they were weighed and their height was measured in a standardized manner. Accuracy scores for height and weight were calculated by subtracting their actual weight and height from their self-reports. Results: Overall, the women overestimated their heights and underestimated their weights, leading to significant errors in body mass index where self-report is used. Those women with high eating concerns were likely to overestimate their weight, whereas those with high weight concerns were more likely to underestimate it. Discussion: These data show that self-reports of height and weight are inaccurate in a way that skews any research that depends on them. The errors are influenced by eating psychopathology. These findings highlight the importance of obtaining objective height and weight data, particularly when comparing those data with those of patients with eating disorders. © 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2009 [source]


Working and Episodic Memory in HIV Infection, Alcoholism, and Their Comorbidity: Baseline and 1-Year Follow-Up Examinations

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 10 2009
Rosemary Fama
Background:, Selective memory deficits occur in individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and those with chronic alcoholism, but the potential compounded effect of these conditions is seldom considered, despite the high prevalence of alcohol use disorders in HIV infection. Methods:, Here, we examined component processes of working and episodic memory in HIV infection and chronic alcoholism (ALC) in 4 subject groups (HIV, ALC, HIV + ALC, and normal controls) at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Accuracy scores, response times, and rate of information processing were assessed with subtests of the computerized neuropsychological test battery, the MicroCog. Results:, Although individuals with either HIV infection or alcoholism generally performed at normal levels, individuals comorbid with HIV infection and alcoholism were impaired relative to controls and to the single diagnosis groups on selective memory processes. Immediate episodic memory was impaired, whereas working memory remained intact. Ability to retain information over time was not impaired in the clinical groups. Little performance change between groups was detected over 1 year. Results could not be explained by amount of alcohol consumed over a lifetime, CD4 cell count, AIDS diagnosis, or HAART medication. Conclusions:, This study provides behavioral support for adverse synergism of HIV infection and chronic alcoholism on brain function and is consistent with neuroimaging reports of compromised hippocampal and associated memory structures related to episodic memory processes in these 2 conditions. [source]


Effects of sample and grid size on the accuracy and stability of regression-based snow interpolation methods

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 14 2010
J. Ignacio López Moreno
Abstract This work analyses the responses of four regression-based interpolation methods for predicting snowpack distribution to changes in the number of data points (sample size) and resolution of the employed digital elevation model (DEM). For this purpose, we used data obtained from intensive and random sampling of snow depth (991 measurements) in a small catchment (6 km2) in the Pyrenees, Spain. Linear regression, classification trees, generalized additive models (GAMs), and a recent method based on a correction made by applying tree classification to GAM residuals were used to calculate snow-depth distribution based on terrain characteristics under different combinations of sample size and DEM spatial resolution (grid size). The application of a tree classification to GAM residuals yielded the highest accuracy scores and the most stable models. The other tested methods yielded scores with slightly lower accuracy and varying levels of robustness under different conditions of grid and sample size. The accuracy of the model predictions declined with decreasing resolution of DEMs and sample size; however, the sensitivities of the models to the number of data points showed threshold values, which has implications (when planning fieldwork) for optimizing the relation between the effort expended in gathering data and the quality of the results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Symptom Perception and Adherence to Asthma Controller Medications

JOURNAL OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP, Issue 3 2006
Ruth Ohm
Purpose: To explore asthma symptom perception and the relationship between asthma symptom perception and adherence to asthma treatment. Design: Adult patients (N=120) of asthma/allergy specialty clinics, taking Advair® as a controller medication, were enrolled in this cross-sectional descriptive study. Methods: Ninety-seven participants completed 4 weeks of daily diaries to assess subjective symptom perception and measured peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR), both done twice daily. Individual perceptual accuracy scores (PAS) were determined by correlating the subjective symptom perception scores with the PEFRs. Measures included demographic variables, illness identity (personal control and treatment control, consequences, and timeline-cyclical subscales of the IPQ-R), asthma severity (FEV1 percentage) and a single-item indicator of perceived asthma severity. Adherence was measured by the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS) and by an Advair® dose count (percentage of doses taken as prescribed). Findings: Independent t tests comparing adherence rates of good versus poor perceivers were not significant, using either the percentage Advair® dose count or the MARS. Multiple regression analyses showed that years with asthma, illness identity, and peak flow variability were all significant explanatory variables for perceptual accuracy. Conclusion: Peak flow variability adds complexity to the relationship between perceptual accuracy and adherence that warrants further investigation. [source]


Global,Local Interference is Related to Callosal Compromise in Alcoholism: A Behavior-DTI Association Study

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 3 2009
Eva M. Müller-Oehring
Background:, Visuospatial ability is a multifactorial process commonly impaired in chronic alcoholism. Identification of which features of visuospatial processing are affected and which are spared in alcoholism, however, has not been clearly determined. We used a global,local paradigm to assess component processes of visuospatial ability and MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine whether alcoholism-related microstructural degradation of the corpus callosum contributes to disruption of selective lateralized visuospatial and attention processes. Methods:, A hierarchical letter paradigm was devised, where large global letters were composed of small local letters. The task required identification of target letters among distractors presented at global, local, both, or neither level. Attention was either selectively directed to global or local levels or divided between levels. Participants were 18 detoxified chronic alcoholics and 22 age-matched healthy controls. DTI provided quantitative assessment of the integrity of corpus callosal white matter microstructure. Results:, Alcoholics generally had longer reaction times than controls but obtained similar accuracy scores. Both groups processed local targets faster than global targets and showed interference from targets at the unattended level. Alcoholics exhibited moderate compromise in selectively attending to the global level when the global stimuli were composed of local targets. Such local interference was less with longer abstinence. Callosal microstructural integrity compromise predicted degree of interference from stimulus incongruency in the alcoholic group. This relationship was not observed for lateral or third ventricular volumes, which are measures of nonspecific cortical volume deficits. Conclusion:, Global,local feature perception was generally spared in abstinent chronic alcoholics, but impairments were observed when directing attention to global features and when global and local information interfered at stimulus or response levels. Furthermore, the interference-callosal integrity relationship in alcoholics indicates that compromised visuospatial functions include those requiring bilateral integration of information. [source]


Explaining the "Natural Order of L2 Morpheme Acquisition" in English: A Meta-analysis of Multiple Determinants

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue S1 2005
Jennifer M. Goldschneider
This meta-analysis pools data from 25 years of research on the order of acquisition of English grammatical morphemes by students of English as a second language (ESL). Some researchers have posited a "natural" order of acquisition common to all ESL learners, but no single cause has been shown for this phenomenon. Our study investigated whether a combination of 5 determinants (perceptual salience, semantic complexity, morphophonological regularity, syntactic category, and frequency) accounts for the variance in acquisition order. Oral production data from 12 studies, together involving 924 participants, were pooled to obtain weighted accuracy scores for each of 6 grammatical functors. Results of a multiple-regression analysis showed that a large portion of the total variance in acquisition order was explained by the combination of the 5 determinants. Several of these determinants, it was argued, can be seen as part of a broad conceptualization of salience. Since the article was originally published, a number of meta-analyses have appeared in the applied linguistics literature (e.g., Masgoret & Gardner, 2003; Norris & Ortega, 2000; Ortega, 2003), and a book on meta-analysis in applied linguistics research is forthcoming (Norris & Ortega, in press). Meanwhile, research on the acquisition of Hebrew as a second language has begun to provide cross-linguistic evidence for how different aspects of salience contribute to ease or difficulty of second language acquisition (DeKeyser, Alfi-Shabtay, Ravid, & Shi, 2005) and how salience interacts with age of learning (DeKeyser, Ravid, & Alfi-Shabtay, 2005). [source]


Annotation: Development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence: behavioural and neurological perspectives

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 7 2004
Catherine Herba
Background:, Intact emotion processing is critical for normal emotional development. Recent advances in neuroimaging have facilitated the examination of brain development, and have allowed for the exploration of the relationships between the development of emotion processing abilities, and that of associated neural systems. Methods:, A literature review was performed of published studies examining the development of emotion expression recognition in normal children and psychiatric populations, and of the development of neural systems important for emotion processing. Results:, Few studies have explored the development of emotion expression recognition throughout childhood and adolescence. Behavioural studies suggest continued development throughout childhood and adolescence (reflected by accuracy scores and speed of processing), which varies according to the category of emotion displayed. Factors such as sex, socio-economic status, and verbal ability may also affect this development. Functional neuroimaging studies in adults highlight the role of the amygdala in emotion processing. Results of the few neuroimaging studies in children have focused on the role of the amygdala in the recognition of fearful expressions. Although results are inconsistent, they provide evidence throughout childhood and adolescence for the continued development of and sex differences in amygdalar function in response to fearful expressions. Studies exploring emotion expression recognition in psychiatric populations of children and adolescents suggest deficits that are specific to the type of disorder and to the emotion displayed. Conclusions:, Results from behavioural and neuroimaging studies indicate continued development of emotion expression recognition and neural regions important for this process throughout childhood and adolescence. Methodological inconsistencies and disparate findings make any conclusion difficult, however. Further studies are required examining the relationship between the development of emotion expression recognition and that of underlying neural systems, in particular subcortical and prefrontal cortical structures. These will inform understanding of the neural bases of normal and abnormal emotional development, and aid the development of earlier interventions for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. [source]


Police officers ability to detect deception in high stakes situations and in repeated lie detection tests

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
Aldert Vrij
Thirty-seven police officers, not identified in previous research as belonging to groups that are superior in lie detection, attempted to detect truths and lies told by suspects during their videotaped police interviews. In order to measure consistency in their ability, the officers each participated in four different tests, each of which was on a different day. They were asked to indicate their confidence in being able to distinguish between truths and lies prior to the first test and after completing all four tests. We predicted that accuracy rates would be higher than those typically found in research with police officers; that good or poor performances on an individual test would be partly caused by luck, and, consequently, participants' accuracy scores were likely to progress towards the mean if their performance on all four tests was to be combined; and that officers would underestimate their own performance. These hypotheses were supported. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Developmental Differences in Visual and Auditory Processing of Complex Sentences

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2000
James R. Booth
Children aged 8 through 11 (N= 250) were given a word-by-word sentence task in both the visual and auditory modes. The sentences included an object relative clause, a subject relative clause, or a conjoined verb phrase. Each sentence was followed by a true,false question, testing the subject of either the first or second verb. Participants were also given two memory span measures: digit span and reading span. High digit span children slowed down more at the transition from the main to the relative clause than did the low digit span children. The findings suggest the presence of a U-shaped learning pattern for on-line processing of restrictive relative clauses. Off-line accuracy scores showed different patterns for good comprehenders and poor comprehenders. Poor comprehenders answered the second verb questions at levels that were consistently below chance. Their answers were based on an incorrect local attachment strategy that treated the second noun as the subject of the second verb. For example, they often answered yes to the question ,The girl chases the policeman' after the object relative sentence ,The boy that the girl sees chases the policeman.' Interestingly, low memory span poor comprehenders used the local attachment strategy less consistently than high memory span poor comprehenders, and all poor comprehenders used this strategy less consistently for harder than for easier sentences. [source]