Biomedical subjects

Boaz Levy

Publications and source records attributed to Boaz Levy.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Increasing the power for detecting impairment in older adults with the Faces subtest from Wechsler Memory Scale-III: an empirical trial.

Empirical studies have questioned the validity of the Faces subtest from the WMS-III for detecting impairment in visual memory, particularly among the elderly. A recent examination of the test norms revealed a significant age related floor effect already emerging on Faces I (immediate recall), implying excessive difficulty in the acquisition phase among unimpaired older adults. The current study compared the concurrent validity of the Faces subtest with an alternative measure between 16 Alzheimer's patients and 16 controls. The alternative measure was designed to facilitate acquisition by reducing the sequence of item presentation. Other changes aimed at increasing the retrieval challenge, decreasing error due to guessing and standardizing the administration. Analyses converged to indicate that the alternative measure provided a considerably greater differentiation than the Faces subtest between Alzheimer's patients and controls. Steps for revising the Faces subtest are discussed.

Aged↗

PubMed2004

Discriminating reinforcement expectancies for studying from future time perspective in the prediction of drinking problems.

In recent work, Levy and Earleywine [Addict. Behav. (2003)] have proposed an expectancy framework of choice for the study of alcohol abuse. Within this framework, the link between alcohol expectancies and drinking problems is studied in the context of expectancies for alternative behaviors. Preliminary findings showed that studying expectancies predicted drinking problems among college students who hold high positive alcohol expectancies. Since the expected gain from studying is inherently long-term, further validation of these results requires to discriminate studying expectancies from the personality construct of future time perspective (FTP), which has been previously shown to predict substance use. In this study, studying expectancies produced larger group differences than FTP on all measures of drinking problems and habits. These differences remained significant after controlling for FTP. The results of the current study thus replicate previous findings and provide further support for an expectancy model of choice. Future research may explore whether enhancing studying expectancies can reduce drinking problems among college and high school students.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Reinforcement expectancies for studying predict drinking problems among college students: approaching problem drinking from an expectancies choice perspective.

Molar behavioral choice theories point to the important role reinforcement for alternative behaviors may play in reducing problem drinking [Psychol. Addict. Behav. 9 (1995) 223.]. A similar molar choice perspective may apply to a cognitive mediational level of analysis: the molecular link between alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior depends on expectancies for alternative behaviors. In this study, 82 college students completed the Alcohol Effects Questionnaire (AEFQ), the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI), a self-report measure of drinking quantity and frequency, and a five-item studying expectancies questionnaire devised for the current study. Analyses indicated that, among students who hold high alcohol expectancies, those who reported high studying expectancies drink less and develop significantly fewer drinking problems than those who hold low studying expectancies. Future research may address the possibility of reducing drinking problems among college students by enhancing studying expectancies.

Adult↗