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Biomedical subjects

D W Kee

Publications and source records attributed to D W Kee.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Dual-task interference in left-handed subjects: hemispheric specialization vs manual dominance.

Thirty-six left-handed subjects performed a dichotic listening task and two concurrent (verbal plus finger-tapping) tasks. Baseline tapping scores revealed both left- and right-hand dominance within left-handed subjects. Moreover when subjects were categorized as consistent or inconsistent for 'sidedness advantage' (e.g. consistent = same side for dominant hand and ear advantage), it was shown that the dual-task interference effects found on the concurrent tapping tasks were due to both hemispheric specialization and manual dominance.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Consistency of hand preference: predictions to intelligence and school achievement.

Gottfried and Bathurst (1983) reported that hand preference consistency measured over time during infancy and early childhood predicts intellectual precocity for females, but not for males. In the present study longitudinal assessments of children previously classified by Gottfried and Bathurst as consistent or nonconsistent in cross-time hand preference were conducted during middle childhood (ages 5 to 9). Findings show that (a) early measurement of hand preference consistency for females predicts school-age intellectual precocity, (b) the locus of the difference between consistent vs. nonconsistent females is in verbal intelligence, and (c) the precocity of the consistent females was also revealed on tests of school achievement, particularly tests of reading and mathematics.

Child↗
PubMed1990

Mental effort and elaboration: effects of accessibility and instruction.

The present study examined the effects of accessibility to relevant schematic knowledge for elaboration in the associative learning of noun pairs. Fifth-grade participants performed two simultaneous tasks--associative learning and finger tapping--so that the mental effort demands of elaborating pairs that varied in accessibility could be estimated. The mental effort expended during the creation of sentence elaborations was greater for inaccessible pairs than accessible pairs. This accessibility difference was not observed when subjects were provided with the pair members in sentences. These findings confirm information-processing analyses of the elaboration process and support a knowledge-base interpretation of developmental differences in elaboration effort.

Attention↗
PubMed1990

Lateralized interference in finger tapping: initial value differences do not affect the outcome.

Willis and Goodwin, Neuropsychologia 25, 719-724, 1987, have suggested that asymmetric interference observed in dual-task/time-sharing studies may be a statistical artifact of "initial-values" differences and not hemispheric lateralization. In the present study lateralized finger-tapping interference produced by concurrent anagram solution was observed even after the initial right-hand advantage in baseline tapping performance was removed experimentally.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Lateralized finger-tapping interference produced by block design activities.

Dual task procedures were used to examine hemispheric specialization for nonmanual block design activities. College subjects performed a finger-tapping task with each hand; on some trials concurrent WISC block design solutions were required. Patterns of lateralized interference in tapping under dual-task conditions indicated more left- than right-hemispheric involvement for males, while more bilateral involvement was shown for females.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

The triple option choice: self-selection bias in traditional coverage, HMOs, and PPOs.

Health care costs and utilization by salaried employees and their dependents at a large self-insured midwestern industrial manufacturing corporation were analyzed for the year before employees were first offered a triple option choice. Members had the option of retaining traditional Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) coverage or switching to either a number of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) or a number of preferred provider organizations (PPOs). Members who switched to HMOs or PPOs were generally younger and had lower average expenses and utilization rates than those who retained the traditional BCBSM plan. The results suggest that a selection bias does occur in this population, as lower cost members were more attracted to the HMOs and PPOs than were more expensive members. Implications for the corporation as well as for the drive toward managed care alternatives are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1986

Lateralized interference in finger tapping: comparisons of rate and variability measures under speed and consistency tapping instructions.

Forty right-handed college subjects tapped with and without a verbal task under two instructional conditions (tap as quickly as possible vs. tap as consistently as possible) and two levels of verbal production (silent vs. aloud). The tapping task consisted of the alternate tapping of two keys with the index finger of the left vs. right hands, while the verbal task was anagram solution. Three rate and four variability measures of tapping performance were evaluated in the identification of lateralized interference. The results indicate that reliable lateralized interference, more right-hand than left-hand tapping disruption, was observed only for variability measures under instructions to tap as consistently as possible. Furthermore, only one of these variability measures was sensitive to an increase in lateralized interference produced by verbal production. Because of the limited demonstration of verbal laterality effects with the two-key tapping procedure in this study, conclusions suggest that the simpler manual task of repetitive tapping of one key should be viewed as the method of choice in future dual-task studies.

Female↗
PubMed1984

Lateralized interference in finger tapping: assessment of block design activities.

Dual task procedures were used to evaluate lateralized processing of block design solutions. Right-handed college students tapped a micro-key alone vs tapped while solving block design problems. Lateralized interference, implicating right-hemisphere processing, was observed when subjects manually completed block designs with their non-tapping band. When manual block manipulation was not required and subjects solved designs mentally, a different laterality pattern suggesting left-hand facilitation in conjunction with right-hand interference in tapping performance was observed. Only the facilitation effect, however, was reliably different from zero.

Brain↗
PubMed1983

Lateralized interference of repetitive finger tapping: influence of familial handedness, cognitive load and verbal production.

The repetitive finger tapping of 24 right-handed subjects from dextral and sinistral families was evaluated. Subjects tapped with and without concurrent verbal tasks which included reciting a nursery rhyme, reading words (silent vs aloud) and solving anagrams (silent vs aloud). Overall, results indicated that the concurrent verbal tasks interfered more with right-hand tapping than with left-hand tapping. This pattern was more pronounced for familial dextral subjects than familial sinistral subjects. This latter finding was most evident with the complex verbal task of solving anagrams.

Adult↗