PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Comment”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Commentary: the cognitivist oversell and comments on symposium contributions.

During the 1980s the behavior therapy movement was infiltrated by cognitivists, people who believe that all maladaptive fears are based on wrong beliefs and all can be overcome by cognitive correction. This article asserts and defends the following propositions: (1) There are numerous maladaptive fears demonstrably immune to cognitive correction but removable by deconditioning. (2) These conditioning based fears constitute the majority, but there are also some based on mistaken beliefs. (3) Proponents of the cognitivist viewpoint have overrated the outcomes of cognitive therapy, because they have not realized the fact that conditioned anxiety is often inadvertently weakened by simultaneous competing emotions (nonspecific therapeutic effects). (4) This overrating led to the fiction that cognitive-behavior therapy is behavior therapy's best resource to overcome non-psychotic depression, a fiction that was exposed by cognitive-behavior therapy's inferior performance in the National Institute of Mental Health's Collaborative Research Project. (5) There is data to suggest that use of the full resources of behavior therapy would have produced notably superior results. The commentary concludes with comments on the other contributions to the symposium, From Behavior Theory to Behavior Therapy.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1996

Reading unspaced text is not easy: comments on the implications of Epelboim et al.'s (1994) study for models of eye movement control in reading.

Epelboim, Booth, and Steinman [1994 Vision Research, 34, 1735-1766] recently published an article in this journal in which they argued that "unspaced text is relatively easy to read" (p. 1760). From this they concluded that the spaces between words "are relatively unimportant for guiding reading eye movements" (p. 1760). We have serious reservations concerning these conclusions. In this letter we argue that (1) reading unspaced text is not easy for most readers and (2) there are more diagnostic ways to examine the role of spacing. We also comment on the implications for models of eye movements in reading.

Eye Movements↗
PubMed1998

Unilateral spatial neglect in dissociable frames of reference: a comment on Farah, Brunn, Wong, Wallace, and Carpenter (1990)

We comment on a paper by Farah et al. in which it is claimed that averaged performance on a letter naming task by a group of patients with left unilateral spatial neglect (USN) provides evidence that spatial allocation of attention is defined by environment-centered and viewer-centred coordinates, but not by object-centred coordinates. We re-analyze the raw data from that paper, and present statistical analyses of the data from individual subjects which show dissociations in the coordinate frames used by the individual subjects with USN. The data from individual cases demonstrate that object-centered USN occurs alone (without evidence of USN in other reference frames) in some cases, and in association with USN in other reference frames other cases. In contrast to the conclusions drawn from the group performance, results from individual subjects provide evidence for the role of dissociable frames of reference, including an object-centred coordinate frame, in the spatial allocation of attention.

Attention↗
PubMed1998

The physician as perfect agent: a comment.

This comment is focused on the nature of the agency relationship between the physician and the patient. Beyond the discussion of the relative merits of the empowered physician versus empowered patient model. it is argued here that two features need to be integrated for an adequate account of this complex interaction: the two stages of the physician's action (the diagnosis and the treatment) and the physician's double agency (to the patient and to the representative of the collective interest).

Decision Making↗
PubMed1993

Comment on 'ventilation and blood lactate increase exponentially during incremental exercise'.

A recent paper in this journal has examined the ventilatory compensation for metabolic acidosis with increasing oxygen uptake, making extensive use of mathematical and statistical techniques. The authors conclude that '...respiratory compensation for metabolic acidosis during incremental exercise is a continuous process...'. While this may indeed be so, the following major aspects of the paper render the evidence at best dubious, surely inconclusive and perhaps even worthless: (1) The mathematical and statistical methodology is sloppy, incomplete and, at times, flawed. (2) No discontinuous model is presented for comparative purposes, only three continuous ones. (3) The authors ignore the fact that some threshold models produce smooth continuous data, and as a consequence, a good fit of a smooth continuous model cannot exclude the presence of a threshold. (4) The data in Table 5 show the amplitude parameter A of the preferred model to be not significantly different from zero. This paper draws these matters to the attention of readers of this journal, reviewers of manuscripts and other researchers, with comment and suggestion. This is done in the hope that all those concerned with mathematical and statistical methodologies will become more aware of their proper use.

Anaerobic Threshold↗
PubMed1990

Help for the gatekeepers: comment and summation on the admission process.

The author comments on articles that discuss the roles of demographic variables, qualitative variables, and the interview in making sound selection for medical school admission; analyze the effectiveness of traditional predictors in selecting successful students; and examine the predictors that best identify minority students likely to succeed in medical training. Together, the articles review the literature, analyze the findings, and recommend sound practices and areas of future research germane to selecting students. The discussions highlight the predictor role, initial importance, and relatively short half-life of academic criteria in physicians' total careers, and emphasize that academic predictors must be complemented by other factors in the applicant's background. Because selection for medical school leads in almost all cases to eventual practice as a physician, the admission decision has far-reaching impact. Those concerned with the admission process should use the distilled information in these articles to improve the assessment of applicants and the selection process.

Achievement↗
PubMed1992

Comments on the objective analysis of motivation and psychotherapy.

There are several important issues raised in the paper by Cattell and in the comments upon it: the empirical status of the Cattell factors; the experimental verification of factors; difficulties with confirmatory analysis and the value of P-analysis. The relevance of these points is explicated in this paper.

Awareness↗
PubMed1989

Comments on "Earphones in Audiometry" [Zwislocki et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1688-1689 (1988)].

The Zwislocki et al. ["Earphones in Audiometry," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1688-1689 (1988)] Letter to the Editor states that insert earphones have some unresolved technical problems, such as limited frequency response, limited dynamic range and power handling capability, intersubject variability, and hygiene safety. In evaluating circumaural earphones, Zwislocki et al. say that the lack of a standard coupler disqualifies them for audiometry. Since this letter carries the weight of a CHABA committee recommendation, these issues are commented on herein. Section I was written primarily by Mead Killion and Sec. II primarily by Edgar Villchur. For brevity throughout, the authors of the Zwislocki et al. letter will be referred to as "the authors."

Audiometry↗
PubMed1991

Comments on "the Rorschach M response: a return to its roots".

These comments address three interrelated issues posed in Kramer's article concerning Rorschach's definition of the M response and the criteria for M that is applied in the Comprehensive System, the possibility that M may be overscored by the criteria for the Comprehensive System, and the issue of whether the Rorschach is amenable to quantification and empirical scrutiny. Kramer has oversimplified and misconstrued statements by Rorschach, Beck, and Bohm; in reality, the criterion for the scoring of M responses in the Comprehensive System differs very little, if at all, from that suggested by Rorschach. The accumulated history of the test seems to confirm that it is amenable to quantification and empirical scrutiny.

Humans↗
PubMed1996

What determines the detection of changes in motion velocity? A comment on Dzhafarov, Sekuler, and Allik (1993)

We comment on a recent model aimed at explaining data on speed of reaction to motion onset and to changes in motion velocity. The model is based on calculating the running variance of the stimulus positions passed during the motion. We show that although the model is successful in explaining data on motion onset and suprathreshold velocity changes, it may not be able to explain data on time of reaction to changes in velocity when these are near the detection threshold.

Acceleration↗
PubMed1985

Comment on "Religiosity and United States suicide rates, 1972-1978".

This article comments on the Martin article on religiosity and suicide rates in the United States. Specifically, it is pointed out by the present author that Martin's data do not allow him to draw the conclusions that he offered in his article. A correlational study does not allow for cause and effect conclusions, and the use of group data precludes conclusions about individual cases.

Female↗
PubMed1995

Comment on "designing EMF experiments: what is required to characterize 'exposure'?".

Dr. Peter Valberg has written an excellent and clear paper describing our current understanding of the many facets of characterizing exposure to extremely-low-frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields. Dr. Valberg has directed his paper to the characterization of exposures used in laboratory experimentation. In this context, it seems to me that Valberg's program of exposure characterization can be accomplished with currently available instrumentation and with relatively modest effort. Thus, I have no fundamental problems with his recommendations and, really, have only a few minor comments to make. However, if one argues that Valberg's recommendations should be extended to the characterization of exposure in epidemiological research, I have serious reservations, which I will mention briefly at the end of this commentary.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Ejection fraction derived by M-mode echocardiography: a table and comments.

Left ventricular ejection fraction is frequently quantitated by M-mode echocardiography despite limitations, including 1) the ability to measure an accurate left ventricular short axis, 2) the mathematic and geometric assumptions used to derive the volumes from which the ejection fraction is calculated, and 3) the lack of applicability to asynergic ventricles. Nevertheless, using a cubed function or correction formula, ejection fraction can be calculated for symmetrically contracting, normally sized, and enlarged left ventricles. A table and accompanying comments are presented.

Diastole↗
PubMed1986

A comment on "A method to measure the duration of DNA synthesis and the potential doubling time from a single sample".

Recently a method was introduced by Begg et al. (Cytometry 6:620-626, 1985) for the calculation of the DNA synthesis time, TS using flow cytometry to monitor the progression of cells that have been pulse-labeled by bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd). Ideally, the method uses only a single two-parameter histogram of the progressed cells to obtain TS. The essence of the method is to be able to obtain an initial point from general principles, draw a line through it and the measured point, and extrapolate to a level of progression that would be attained when the time is equal to TS. In this comment, explicit values are derived for the initial point and the progression of cells based on kinetic arguments, and a new method is presented for estimating TS. This new method is compared to earlier methods, and the effects of a finite labeling time and variation in the transit times are considered. Finally, an equation is developed for estimating TS following multiple measurements.

Cell Cycle↗
PubMed1992

Salivatory responses to classical and nontraditional parasympatholytic agents in human subjects: critical comments.

Both classical (atropine, scopolamine) and nontraditional (pirenzepine, telenzepine) cholinolytic agents themselves cause no salivation in human subjects. Ordinarily, they block salivation caused by pilocarpine. Conversely, they all stimulate intense salivatory response in the chronically denervated human parotid gland. The author presents critical comments on the concept that cholinolytic agents cause salivation by suppression of the mechanism of presynaptic autoinhibition. An alternative explanation of the initial cholinomimetic effect of cholinolytic agents is suggested.

Adolescent↗