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Biomedical subjects

M J Stones

Publications and source records attributed to M J Stones.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Age, activity, and physical performance: an evaluation of performance models.

Two performance models relating age, physical activity, and physical performance were evaluated on 5 age cohorts involving more than 6,000 persons ranging in age from 20 to 69 years. Significant age and activity main effects, without 1 Age X Activity interaction, were obtained on 5 fitness measures and 2 activity indexes. These results are inconsistent with predictions from the moderation model, but they fit predictions from a recently formulated tonic and overpractice model of physical performance.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1989

Multidimensional assessment of the elderly via a microcomputer: the SENOTS program and battery.

We compared the psychometric adequacy of a multidimensional self-report battery for use with cognitively able, elderly adults under conditions of microcomputer and interviewer administration. The SENOTS battery contains scales of Happiness/Depression, Financial Hardship, Physical Symptoms, Activity Limitation, and Activity Propensity. The SENOTS microcomputer program contains sequential phases intended to (a) select out respondents incapable of interacting adequately with the microcomputer, (b) train respondents to make appropriate keyboard responses. (c) administer the program, and (d) store and process the responses. The SENOTS battery was administered to 80 community residents and 80 institution residents by either a microcomputer or an interviewer. Results indicated a comparable psychometric adequacy to the SENOTS battery under both administration conditions. Internal consistencies were all at acceptable levels, and the scales differentiated the community residents from the institution residents.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1989

The prediction of mortality in elderly institution residents.

The relationship between activity and mortality has been examined mainly in middle-aged and elderly community residents. This study investigated the prediction of five-year mortality in 156 institution residents, including a subsample (n = 121) retested one year after the initial assessment. The measures included demographic variables, three health indexes, happiness, quality of life ratings, personality and life stress indexes, cognitive function, and activity level. The strongest predictors of survival beyond five years from initial testing were a younger age and a high activity level. The relationships of age and activity to survival were mutually independent and were not secondary to the effects of any other variable. Health was not related to activity level and did not emerge as a strong predictor of survival. After a consideration of methodological issues, the findings were interpreted as providing support for an activity theory formulation of mortality prediction.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1989

A controlled evaluation of reminiscence and current topics discussion groups in a nursing home context.

In this randomized study, we compared the psychological well-being of elderly nursing home residents who participated in reminiscence and current topics group discussions with a control group of residents. We rated participants happiness/depression, activity, mood, and functional levels before and after the group interventions. The intervention had a significant effect only on the happiness/depression measure, with both intervention groups showing positive changes compared to the control group.

Affect↗
PubMed1979

Rekitting the Wechsler Paired-Associate Task: the Waterford Index.

The Waterford Index provides a new scoring system for the Wechsler paired-associate task. Item performances across successive trials were coded so as to reflect the psychological phenomena of learning, forgetting and item effects (N = 50). The Index describes two rules for differentiating between cases of cognitive impairment and non-impairment. Rule 1 contrasts the respective contributions of learning and forgetting. Rule 2 takes account of cases characterized by a high proportion of correct responses. Against a criterion index based on performances on other psychological tests of organic dysfunction, the Waterford Index yielded higher predictive efficiencies than associated with other Wechsler indices, intelligence, and age.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

A critique of the clinical-personological approach to idiographic personality study.

Idiographic research occupies an accepted position in personological study and clinical psychology. This review critically examines one such method of investigation, the clinical-personological approach, which relies on inductive inference and attempts to provide description at the level of the "whole person." The data base is essentially clinical, psychosocial and psychometric, and information integration is achieved through "convergent validation." The approach was criticized on three grounds: (a) level of description is only at a single level, ie., the general; (b) the data base is limited to grosser system attributes and is typically of low reliability and validity; and (c) inductive inference formulation is unduly susceptible to influence by chance factors, and attempts to validate the hypothesis are rare. Of the alternative approaches, Personal Construct Theory appears a promising avenue, but is also open to criticism.

Humans↗
PubMed1978

Aging and semantic memory: structural age differences.

The objective of this research was to investigate age differences in the structure of semantic memory. The tasks employed (i.e., vocabulary, word fluency by conceptual category cueing and word fluency by initial consonant cueing) were representative of different age trends in quantitative test scores. Matching across age levels (young versus middle-aged) was in terms of family membership. Results showed a greater intra-individual variability and lower relationships between aspects of semantic memory by the time of middle-age. The results were viewed from process-oriented and environment-oriented explanatory perspectives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

A further study of response, set and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI).

The aims of the investigation were to draw attention to systematic scale score discrepancies between Forms A and B of the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), to suggest that these discrepancies might be mediated by acquiesence response set (ARS), and to provide reliability estimates for ARS and lie scale scores. Evidence relevant to all three intentions was obtained from a student group and a group of psychiatric patients. The predicted discrepancies between scale scores were obtained. The ARS measure derived from the E scale was found to be reliable, and ARS measures from both the E and L scales were found to obtain significantly different values across forms. Practical suggestions were made with regard to the utilization of an individual form of the EPI.

Deception↗
PubMed1977

Self-ratings and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI).

An attempt was made to assess the relationships between self-ratings and psychometric (EPI) estimates on the dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism. Ninety-five individuals served as Ss. The correlations between self-ratings and EPI estimates achieved high significance on both dimensions. Contrary to earlier suggestions (Bem & Allen, 1974), ratings of behavioral variability on the respective dimensions failed to produce a significant moderating effect. However, a tentative trend was observed for cross-procedural comparability (between self-ratings and the EPI) to be higher near the midpoints of the respective distributions. A factor contributory to this was a central regressive tendency (noted at both poles on both dimensions and for both sources of estimation), whereby an extreme estimate from one source was associated with a less extreme estimate from the other.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1977

Memory performance after arousal from different sleep stages.

Learning material was presented to independent groups of subjects either after arousal from non-Rapid Eye Movement (non-REM) sleep, after arousal from REM sleep, or under conditions of no prior sleep. Measures of immediate and subsequent free recall were taken. Memory performance was found to be impaired where learning took place after non-REM arousal. This was manifest in the number of categories recalled, over both immediate and subsequent recall, and in the number of items recalled per category over subsequent recall. It was suggested that the memory performance decrement after non-REM arousal may be understood in terms of a retrieval deficit as well as a coding deficit. It is possible that the former is consequent upon a lower general level of arousal, whereas the latter is specific to memory.

Arousal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Performance on cognitive tasks in predicting the behavioral competences in the institutionalized elderly.

The questions under consideration concern quantitative and qualitative aspects of the relationship between cognitive abilities and behavioral competences in the elderly institution residents. The former was assessed by an array of five cognitive measures, namely, two Piagetian tasks, Set Test, WAIS Vocabulary and Digit Span subtests and the WMS Associative Learning subtest and the latter by the Stockton Geriatric Rating Scale (SGRS). The overall variance in common between the two sets of variables was approximately 70 percent. Of the cognitive tasks, those most highly predictive of behavioral competences were the Piagetian tasks, Set Test and, to a lesser extent, WAIS Vocabulary subtest. Of the four SGRS factors, that predicted to the greatest extent was apathy, with physical disability to a lesser extent.

Aged↗