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Biomedical subjects

J T Richardson

Publications and source records attributed to J T Richardson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Asking the gatekeepers: a national survey of judges on judging expert evidence in a post-Daubert world.

Drawing on the responses provided by a survey of state court judges (N = 400), empirical evidence is presented with respect to judges' opinions about the Daubert criteria, their utility as decision-making guidelines, the level to which judges understand their scientific meaning, and how they might apply them when evaluating the admissibility of expert evidence. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used to obtain a representative sample of state court judges. Part I of the survey was a structured telephone interview (response rate of 71%) and in Part II, respondents had an option of completing the survey by telephone or receiving a questionnaire in the mail (response rate of 81%). Survey results demonstrate that judges overwhelmingly support the "gatekeeping" role as defined by Daubert, irrespective of the admissibility standard followed in their state. However, many of the judges surveyed lacked the scientific literacy seemingly necessitated by Daubert. Judges had the most difficulty operationalizing falsifiability and error rate, with only 5% of the respondents demonstrating a clear understanding of falsifiability and only 4% demonstrating a clear understanding of error rate. Although there was little consensus about the relative importance of the guidelines, judges attributed more weight to general acceptance as an admissibility criterion. Although most judges agreed that a distinction could be made between "scientific" and "technical or otherwise specialized" knowledge, the ability to apply the Daubert guidelines appeared to have little bearing on whether specific types of expert evidence were designated as "science" or "nonscience." Moreover, judges' "bench philosophy of science" seemed to reflect the rhetoric, rather than the substance, of Daubert. Implications of these results for the evolving relationship between science and law and the ongoing debates about Frye, Daubert, Joiner, and Kumho are discussed.

Attitude↗
PubMed2000

The constituent structure of autobiographical memory: autobiographical fluency in people with chronic epilepsy.

A total of 59 people with chronic epilepsy recalled autobiographical episodes and personal facts (such as the names of friends or teachers) from various lifetime periods. Also tested was their verbal fluency and their fluency in generating items from semantic categories (animals, vegetables, US presidents, and British prime ministers). Results of a cluster analysis and a common factor analysis confirmed a dissociation between the retrieval of autobiographical information and that of nonpersonal semantic information. There was a similar dissociation between the recall of personal episodes and the recall of the personal information, but the corresponding factors were highly correlated with one another. Finally, verbal fluency performance was significantly correlated with the retrieval of personal information, personal episodes, and common objects, but not with that of public figures. The constituent structure of autobiographical fluency is extremely robust across different populations.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Intellectual and emotional functioning in college students following mild traumatic brain injury in childhood and adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether college students with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in childhood or adolescence show residual deficits in intellectual functioning, approaches to studying, or emotional stability. DESIGN: Participants with a history of mild TBI and two control groups. SETTING: Volunteers were recruited from students taking an introductory psychology course. PARTICIPANTS: 79 students with a history of mild TBI, 75 students with a history of general anesthesia, and 93 students with no history of either TBI or general anesthesia. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants carried out tests of verbal memory, nonverbal memory, verbal fluency, and nonverbal fluency; in addition, they completed a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). RESULTS: In comparison with the two control groups, the students with a history of mild TBI produced similar scores on the cognitive tests and similar orientations to studying. However, they showed a significantly higher level of emotional distress on the SCL-90-R. CONCLUSION: College students with a history of mild TBI in childhood or adolescence are intellectually unimpaired and approach their studying in a similar manner to their uninjured classmates. Nevertheless, they report more severe distress in terms of their general personal and emotional functioning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Approaches to studying in people with hearing loss.

BACKGROUND: There has been little research on the experiences of students with hearing loss in higher education. It has, however, been suggested that children with hearing loss adopt different strategies and styles and that this leads to differences in their academic performance. AIMS: This investigation compared students in higher education with and without hearing loss in terms of their approaches to studying. SAMPLES: We compared 382 students with hearing loss taking courses by distance learning with the Open University and a comparison group of 190 students taking the same courses with no declared form of disablement. METHODS: A questionnaire containing a shortened and adapted version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory was distributed in a postal survey. RESULTS: Students with postvocational hearing loss obtained higher scores than the comparison group on deep approach, and those with postvocational deafness also obtained higher scores on the use of evidence and logic. Students with prevocational deafness obtained higher scores on reproducing orientation than the comparison group, and in particular on improvidence. All of the subgroups of students with hearing loss obtained higher scores than the comparison group on fear of failure. CONCLUSIONS: The impact of hearing loss on cognitive aspects of studying appears to be relatively slight. Future research might focus instead upon its affective consequences and its effects upon a student's self-concept.

Achievement↗
PubMed1999

An exploration of content on legal aspects of practice in nursing programs.

The paucity of literature on legal content in nursing curricula was used to frame the research question that guided this study. In what ways and to what extent are nursing educators addressing the subject of legal aspects of nursing practice? This study was designed to explore the area of legal aspects of nursing practice in nursing programs curricula. The researchers gathered information on numerous areas, including course content, methods of delivery, topics covered, and time devoted to legal content. The results revealed that content on legal aspects of nursing practice is commonly a component of nursing programs curricula and provided information on many areas; however, the results also revealed other areas that need to be researched.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1998

The role of executive function in imagery mnemonics: evidence from multiple sclerosis.

The use of imagery in learning and memory involves metacognitive skills that seem to depend upon executive function as well as motivational mechanisms. This implies that the efficacy of imagery mnemonics should be impaired in neurological patients who show either executive dysfunction or affective disorders. This hypothesis was tested in patients with multiple sclerosis. Imagery instructions led to improved recall in three different tasks, although experimenter-generated imagery proved to be more effective than subject-generated imagery and there was little evidence that patients maintained the use of imagery mnemonics on follow-up testing. Three other tasks defined a unitary trait of executive processing efficiency, and this was significantly correlated with the benefit obtained from the use of the Method of Loci in a free-recall tasks, but not with the benefit gained from other imagery mnemonics. The patients' scores, on a widely used depression inventory, were not significantly correlated with the benefit obtained from the use of imagery mnemonics. Nonetheless, it is concluded that executive processing capacity determines the benefit that is derived from the use of more complex forms of imagery mnemonic in verbal-learning tasks.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

The globalization of behavioral science evidence about battered women: a theory of production and diffusion.

A theoretical framework is proposed for understanding how the innovative use of behavioral science evidence is both produced and diffused among members of the global legal community. Using case law analyses and interviews with key individuals involved in selected cases, we examine how battered woman syndrome (BWS) is produced and diffused between and among Australia, Canada, England, and the United States. The following diffusion mechanisms are proposed: (1) The availability and accessibility of credible dissemination sources; (2) characteristics of the overall practice environment operating in each legal culture; (3) the attitudes and knowledge of attorneys and judges about the use of scientific evidence; (4) political and social support for the use of the evidence in the legal culture; and (5) the level of structural equivalence, communication, and "neighbor effects" between and among legal cultures. Each mechanism is discussed and supplemented with information from interviews with individuals involved in key cases involving BWS evidence.

Australia↗
PubMed1997

Cognition and multiple sclerosis: a historical analysis of medical perceptions.

The earliest descriptions of multiple sclerosis (MS) rarely distinguished cognitive impairment from the general category of "mental symptoms", which also encompassed a broad range of affective disorders. Case-study methods led to disputes about the extent and nature of these symptoms, exacerbated by different national medical traditions. Appropriate scientific methods were only used to investigate cognitive performance in a modest number of studies up to the 1960s, and it was being argued as late as the mid 1970s that affective processes rather than cognitive processes were the key to understanding the psychological aspects of MS. However, the early 1980s, saw major developments in test procedures for the detection of subtle and selective cognitive changes, in the use of brain imaging techniques, and in collaboration between neurologists and neuropsychologists. Pressure to use research findings to improve patients' daily lives suggests a need to reconsider the connection between affective and cognitive processes in MS.

Cognition↗
PubMed1996

Wound healing and complementary therapies: a review.

A series of five innovative experiments conducted by Wirth et al. which examined the effect of various complementary healing interventions on the reepithelialization rate of full thickness human dermal wounds was assessed as to specific methodological and related factors. The treatment interventions utilized in the series included experimental derivatives of the Therapeutic Touch (TT), Reiki, LeShan, and Intercessory Prayer techniques. The results of the series indicated statistical significance for the initial two experiments and nonsignificance or reverse significance for the remaining three studies. This review article examines the methodological designs of the series of studies, along with the TT practitioners' phenomenologically based journal reports, to provide potential contributing correlative factors for the differential results obtained. These factors include: (1) methodological design restrictions, (2) a transference/inhibitory effect (3) the influence of experimental assistants, (4) healer visualization /imagery techniques, (5) variations in subject populations, and (6) a potential cancellation effect. While the placebo controlled double-blind methodological designs used in the series were as stringent as those used in other fields of scientific inquiry, the overall results of the experiments were inconclusive in establishing the efficacy of the treatment interventions for accelerating the rate of reepithelialization of full thickness dermal wounds.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Memory impairment in multiple sclerosis: reports of patients and relatives.

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire survey on problems in everyday memory that involved 115 community-based patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and their carers or close relatives. Cluster analyses of their responses enabled the patients to be classified as either 'impaired' or 'unimpaired', though the salient items differed between the reports of the patients and the relatives. Both the self-reports and the relatives' reports indicated that roughly 10 per cent of the patients were impaired, a much lower estimate than that which was previously suggested based upon psychometric testing. It is concluded that neuropsychological assessment may underestimate the capacity of MS patients in their daily activities.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1995

The efficacy of imagery mnemonics in memory remediation.

Training and instructions in the use of mental imagery can lead to improved retention in patients with memory impairment as the result of brain injury or disease. The amount of improvement varies inversely with the severity of memory impairment, but it largely unrelated to either the aetiology or the locus of brain damage. It also appears to depend on the patients' motivation rather than their intelligence, education or imagery ability. However, brain-damaged patients may need explicit prompting if they are to use imagery mnemonics successfully and often fail to maintain their use on similar learning materials or to generalise their use to new learning situations. As a result, imagery mnemonics will typically be of little practical value in enabling memory-impaired individuals to respond to the cognitive challenges of everyday life.

Brain Injuries↗
PubMed1995

The premenstrual syndrome: a brief history.

This paper describes the origins and development of the modern concept of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Symptoms associated with the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle have been acknowledged by physicians and in the general culture for little more than 60 years, while the notion that they define a clinical syndrome is exactly 40 years old. These symptoms are experienced as being primarily psychological (with emotional, somatic and behavioural components), their aetiology is as yet not known, their prevalence varies widely across different cultural groups, and they appear to respond to inactive placebos as effectively as to active preparations. However, the empirical basis for PMS is unclear, and the very use of the term 'syndrome' in this context has a number of connotations about which at least some researchers are exceedingly sceptical.

Europe↗
PubMed1995

The constituent structure of subjective memory questionnaires: evidence from multiple sclerosis.

A number of different instruments have been devised for investigating individual differences in memory on the basis of subjective reports. One such questionnaire was mailed to individuals on a register of patients with multiple sclerosis, a condition that is known to be associated with objective impairments in cognition and memory. A similar questionnaire was enclosed to be completed about each patient by a close relative. The patients' and relatives' responses were found to share a factor structure identifying memory problems in five areas: receptive communication, route finding, absent-mindedness, face recognition, and expressive communication. These were dominated by a single second-order factor representing a global subjective memory impairment. There were some minor differences between the patients and relatives in their factor scores, but there was generally a high degree of concordance in their responses.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The analysis of 2 x 1 and 2 x 2 contingency tables: an historical review.

This paper describes the historical development of analytic techniques for frequency data presented as 2 x 1 or 2 x 2 contingency tables. The issues raised include: the need for a continuity correction when estimating the exceedance probability of a discrete statistic; the vulnerability of such statistics to a conservative bias when used in hypothesis testing; and the different statistical models that may underlie contingency tables. In the case of 2 x 1 contingency tables the recommended technique is the binomial test with a modified decision procedure for hypothesis testing. In the case of 2 x 2 contingency tables there is a single statistic approximating the chi-square distribution which can be used to test the hypothesis of an association between the two relevant variables and which in most practical situations is robust with respect to the occurrence of small expected cell frequencies.

Bias↗
PubMed1994

Gender differences in mental rotation.

Two experiments were carried out to compare the performance of male and female students at different educational levels on tasks that required mental rotation. Exp. 1 also compared their performance on an overt, male-typed version and a disguised, female-typed version of the same task. Amongst introductory undergraduate students, men performed significantly better than women, but this difference was as pronounced on the disguised, female-typed version as on the overt, male-typed task. However, there was no sign of any gender difference on the overt task in advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. The latter finding was not replicated in Exp. 2, in which significant effects of gender regardless of the students' educational level were noted. Nevertheless, the effect size was significantly smaller than that obtained for comparable students tested on the same task during the 1970s. Taken together, these results confirm that gender differences in at least some aspects of mental rotation may be abolished by educational experience and that gender differences in mental rotation have become smaller over the last 20 years. Such findings favor sociocultural explanations of gender differences in mental rotation rather than biological explanations.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Olfactory information processing and temporal lobe epilepsy.

It has been suggested that olfactory information processing is impaired in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. However, the existing evidence is not wholly in accordance with this notion. Patients with epileptogenic foci in the left temporal lobe, the right temporal lobe, or other brain regions were compared with normal control subjects in the identification and retention of common odors. All three patient groups were substantially and equally impaired in verbally labelling the odors in question. The patients with epilepsy associated with the left temporal lobe or with nontemporal regions showed no sign of any impairment on a test of immediate recognition memory for common odors. However, the patients with epilepsy associated with the right temporal lobe showed a specific disturbance in their retention of nameable odors. It is suggested that the latter patients were selectively impaired in their retrieval of the episodic memories which provide the context for the encoding of distinctive odors.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Articulatory rehearsal and phonological storage in working memory.

The theoretical distinction between an articulatory control process and a short-term phonological store was supported in five experiments on immediate serial recall. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the word length effect but not the phonemic similarity effect. In Experiment 2, the two latter effects were found to be independent with auditory presentation. In Experiment 3, the effects of irrelevant speech and word length were found to be independent with visual presentation. In Experiment 4, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the phonemic similarity effect with a slow presentation rate. Nevertheless, in Experiment 5, articulatory suppression with a conventional presentation rate did not reduce the effect of phonemic similarity, even when a 10-sec interval was interposed between presentation and recall. These results indicate that the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of spoken material within the phonological store do not depend on a process of articulatory rehearsal.

Adult↗