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Biomedical subjects

R M McFall

Publications and source records attributed to R M McFall.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Using cognitive science methods to assess the role of social information processing in sexually coercive behavior.

Seventy-four undergraduate men completed cognitive performance tasks assessing perceptual organization, classification, and category learning, as well as self-report measures relevant to sexual coercion. The stimuli were slides of Caucasian women who varied along affect and physical exposure (i.e., sensuality) dimensions. Data were analyzed using a weighted multidimensional scaling model, signal-detection theory analyses, and a connectionist learning model (RASHNL; J. K. Kruschke & M. K. Johansen, 1999). Individual differences in performance on the classification and category-learning tasks were congruent with individual differences in perceptual organization. Additionally, participants who showed relatively more attention to exposure than to affect were less sensitive to women's negative responses to unwanted sexual advances. Overall, the study demonstrates the feasibility and utility of cognitive science methods for studying information processing in psychopathology.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Quantifying the information value of clinical assessments with signal detection theory.

The aim of clinical assessment is to gather data that allow us to reduce uncertainty regarding the probabilities of events. This is a Bayesian view of assessment that is consistent with the well-known concept of incremental validity. Conventional approaches to evaluating the accuracy of assessment methods are confounded by the choice of cutting points, by the base rates of the events, and by the assessment goal (e.g. nomothetic vs idiographic predictions). Clinical assessors need a common metric for quantifying the information value of assessment data, independent of the cutting points, base rates, or particular application. Signal detection theory (SDT) provides such a metric. We review SDT's history, concepts, and methods and provide examples of its application to a variety of assessment problems.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1991

Construct validity of two heterosocial perception skill measures for assessing rape proclivity.

Rape-supportive attitudes and self-reported rape proclivity (using a measure by Malamuth, Haber, & Feshbach, 1980) were negatively correlated with decoding accuracy of women's negative cues (measured by the TRAC-D; McDonel, McFall, Schlundt, & Levenson, 1985) in an unselected sample of male college students. Better decoders of negative female cues on the TRAC-D, as well as subjects expressing fewer rape-supportive beliefs and less rape proclivity, were more conservative in their estimates of a man's justification in continuing to make sexual advances in the face of a woman's negative cues on the Heterosocial Perception Survey (HPS; McDonel, 1986). Ability to decode men's interpersonal cues was not correlated with responses on the HPS or rape attitude and proclivity measures, suggesting that specific rather than global decoding deficits were useful predictors of rape correlates. These results support the construct validity of the two social perception measures, the TRAC-D, and the HPS, as measures of rape proclivity.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Response prevention in the treatment of cigarette smoking.

The present study developed and tested a response prevention treatment for cigarette smoking. Response prevention is based on the conditioning theory of addictions. Thirty-nine smokers were divided into two groups, one receiving response prevention and the other a rapid smoking comparison treatment. No significant differences were found between the two treatments in terms of their effectiveness in achieving abstinence or smoking reduction. The abstinence rate at the 6-month follow-up for response prevention was 7% and for rapid smoking was 23%.

Adult↗