Comprehension

This study examines the relationship between a computerized neuropsychological assessment battery, the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) and a widely used ability measure, Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-III). Results indicated substantial relationship between the ANAM throughput (accuracy/response time) scores and the WJ-III Cognitive Efficiency cluster. An unexpectedly strong relationship was evident between accuracy scores on the ANAM Logical Reasoning scale and the WJ-III General Intellectual Ability score, purporting to measure the g factor. The findings support the viability of the ANAM as a time- and cost-effective tool for appraisal of cognitive function.

Using a sample of dental students (N=373) from four Canadian dental schools, this longitudinal study determined whether the new Canadian Dental Association (CDA) structured interview was a predictor of clinical and academic performance. The new interview predicted clinical performance in the third and fourth years of dental school, but not academic performance. The Canadian Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) continued to predict first- and second-year academic performance, but not clinical performance in the senior years. A personality factor, "Conscientiousness," predicted clinical and academic performance to various degrees across the four years of dental school. A second personality factor, "Openness to Experience," predicted third-year academic performance. The results suggest that a combination of scores from the DAT, a valid measure of personality, and a well-designed structured interview will provide the best prediction of those applicants who will do well in both...

CONSTRUCTING COMPETENCE: FORMULATING STANDARDS OF LEGAL COMPETENCE TO MAKE MEDICAL DECISIONS Jessica Wilen Berg, JD Paul S. Appelbaum, MD & Thomas Grisso, Ph.D.* A young woman ... Rodriguez v. Pino, 634 So. ... 31. People v. Delgado, 213 Cal ...

Oral health literacy is emerging as a new public health challenge and poor oral health literacy is increasingly seen as an important predictor of poor oral health outcomes. Within Indigenous populations, there may be benefits to research in using a culturally acceptable, internally consistent and valid instrument to assess oral health literacy. We translated a general health literacy measure, the Health Literacy Management (HeLM) scale to make a dentally relevant scale; Health Literacy in Dentistry (HeLD). This study describes the development and assessment of the reliability and validity of the HeLD in an Indigenous Australian population. The 29 item HeLD scale assesses the components of oral health literacy. The reliability and validity of the seven HeLD subscales were evaluated in a convenience sample of 209 Indigenous Australians with mean age 35 years (range 17-81) and of which 139 were female. The scale was supported by exploratory factor analysis and established seven distinc...

The "average" patient has a literacy level of US grade 8 (age 13-14 years), but this may be lower for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Current guidelines suggest that patient education materials should be pitched at a literacy level of around 5th grade (age 10-11 years). This study aims to evaluate the readability of written materials targeted at patients with CKD. Systematic review. Patient information materials aimed at adults with CKD and written in English. Patient education materials designed to be printed and read, sourced from practices in Australia and online at all known websites run by relevant international CKD organizations during March 2014. Quantitative analysis of readability using Lexile Analyzer and Flesch-Kincaid tools. We analyzed 80 materials. Both Lexile Analyzer and Flesch-Kincaid analyses suggested that most materials required a minimum of grade 9 (age 14-15 years) schooling to read them. Only 5% of materials were pitched at the recommended level (grade 5). Readability formulas have inherent limitations and do not account for visual information. We did not consider other media through which patients with CKD may access information. Although the study covered materials from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, all noninternet materials were sourced locally, and it is possible that some international paper-based materials were missed. Generalizability may be limited due to exclusion of non-English materials. These findings suggest that patient information materials aimed at patients with CKD are pitched above the average patient's literacy level. This issue is compounded by cognitive decline in patients with CKD, who may have lower literacy than the average patient. It suggests that information providers need to consider their audience more carefully when preparing patient information materials, including user testing with a low-literacy patient population.

Sex trafficking (ST) victims have unique medical and mental health needs and are often difficult to identify. Our objectives were to evaluate knowledge gaps and training needs of medical providers, to demonstrate the importance of provider training to meet the pediatric ST victim's specific needs, and to highlight barriers to the identification of and response to victims. A survey was sent to providers in specialties that would be most likely to encounter victims of ST. Participants included physicians, nurses, physician assistants, social workers, and patient and family advocates at multiple hospitals and medical clinics in urban, suburban, and rural locations. Of ∼500 survey recipients, 168 participants responded. In 2 clinical vignettes, 48% correctly classified a minor as an ST victim, and 42% correctly distinguished an ST victim from a child abuse victim. In all, 63% of respondents said that they had never received training on how to identify ST victims. Those with training...

Citizens are often asked to sign a variety of legal documents such as contracts, monetary agreements, and consent forms, but the adequacy of how well informed average citizens become when they sign such documents is unclear. A recent survey indicated that respondents signed a variety of legal documents that they did not fully read or understand (Howe and Wogalter, 1994). Participants in that survey also identified characteristics of legal documents that hinder their understanding and offered suggestions for improving understandability. In the current study, these characteristics and suggestions were used to create two different consent forms: a conventional “legalistic” consent form and an improved consent form. These were compared with each other and with a third, one-line, consent form (a control). Understandability was assessed using an objective comprehension test and measures of participants' subjective perceptions of understandability. Consistent with the hypotheses, objec...

To provide guidelines for the development of two types of closed-set speech-perception tests that can be applied and interpreted in the same way across languages. The guidelines cover the digit triplet and the matrix sentence tests that are most commonly used to test speech recognition in noise. They were developed by a working group on Multilingual Speech Tests of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA). The recommendations are based on reviews of existing evaluations of the digit triplet and matrix tests as well as on the research experience of members of the ICRA Working Group. They represent the results of a consensus process. The resulting recommendations deal with: Test design and word selection; Talker characteristics; Audio recording and stimulus preparation; Masking noise; Test administration; and Test validation. By following these guidelines for the development of any new test of this kind, clinicians and researchers working in any language will be ...

One of the most noticeable problems in autism involves the social use of language such as metaphor and metonymy, both of which are very common in daily language use. The present study is the first to investigate the development of metaphor and metonymy comprehension in autism. Eleven children with autism were compared to 17 typically developing children in a metaphor-metonymy comprehension task. Cross-sectional trajectory analyses were used to compare the development of metaphor and metonymy comprehension using a child-friendly story picture task. Trajectories were constructed linking task performance either to chronological age or to measures of mental age. Children with autism showed an impaired metaphor comprehension in relation to both chronological and mental age, whereas performance on metonymy was delayed and in line with their receptive vocabulary. Our results suggest that understanding of metaphors and metonyms are severely affected at all ages examined in the current study.

This research is discussing about the students’ reading comprehension of the second year MTs.Muhammadiyah 22 Padangsidimpuan. This research employed descriptive quantitative  research. Based on the result of the research, researcher got the description of the data was found that mean score was 56.76. It means that the students’ reading comprehension of the second year MTs.Muhammadiyah 22 Padangsidimpuan was categorized into enough ability. Then, from the result of the hypothesis testing, the researcher found that Z count = -3.57Z table 0.3264. It means the hypothesis was rejected. Thus, the result of mean scores the students’ ability in enough ability and actually it should be accepted hypothesis, but based on the result of that score it is rejected. So, maybe there is a mistake in instrument or in calculation.

This study examined the magnitude of differences in standard scores, convergent validity, and concurrent validity when an individual’s performance was gauged using the revised and the normative update (Woodcock, 1998) editions of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test in which the actual test items remained identical but norms have been updated. From three metropolitan areas, 899 first to third grade students referred by their teachers for a reading intervention program participated. Results showed the inverse Flynn effect, indicating systematic inflation averaging 5 to 9 standard score points, regardless of gender, IQ, city site, or ethnicity, when calculated using the updated norms. Inflation was greater at lower raw score levels. Implications for using the updated norms for identifying children with reading disabilities and changing norms during an ongoing study are discussed.

The perormance of two groups of hospitalized mentally ill patients (schizophrenia and major depression) and two groups of non-mentally-ill patients (patients hospitalized for ischemic heart disease and non-ill primary care patients) was compared on a standardized, objective instrument for assessing patients' understanding of information relevant for patient decision making (consent) about treatment with medication. Generally, hospitalized schizophrenic patients manifested significantly poorer understanding of “informed consent” disclosures about potential medication than did the other groups. Considerable variance, however, was apparent within the schizophrenic group and was related to a number of clinical and demographic variables. The results are interpreted with reference to issues of compatence to consent to or refuse treatment.

Informed consent in medical practice is essential and a global standard that should be sought at all the times doctors interact with patients. Its intensity would vary depending on the invasiveness and risks associated with the anticipated treatment. To our knowledge there has not been any systematic review of consent practices to document best practices and identify areas that need improvement in our setting. The objective of the study was to evaluate the informed consent practices of surgeons at University teaching Hospitals in a low resource setting. A cross-sectional study conducted at three university teaching hospitals in Uganda. Self-guided questionnaires were left at a central location in each of the surgical departments after verbally communicating to the surgeons of the intention of the study. Filled questionnaires were returned at the same location by the respondents for collection by the research team. In addition, 20 in-depth interviews were held with surgeons and a rev...

Seriously ill hospitalized patients have identified communication and decision making about goals of care as high priorities for quality improvement in end-of-life care. Interventions to improve care are more likely to succeed if tailored to existing barriers. To determine, from the perspective of hospital-based clinicians, (1) barriers impeding communication and decision making about goals of care with seriously ill hospitalized patients and their families and (2) their own willingness and the acceptability for other clinicians to engage in this process. Multicenter survey of medical teaching units of nurses, internal medicine residents, and staff physicians from participating units at 13 university-based hospitals from 5 Canadian provinces. Importance of 21 barriers to goals of care discussions rated on a 7-point scale (1 = extremely unimportant; 7 = extremely important). Between September 2012 and March 2013, questionnaires were returned by 1256 of 1617 eligible clinicians, for a...

The goal of this study was to identify unique profiles of readers in a sample of 8-16 year olds with higher functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) and examine the profiles in relation to ASD symptom severity. Eighty-one students were assessed utilizing a comprehensive reading battery that included basic word reading, language, and comprehension. Using Latent Profile Analysis, four empirically distinct profiles of readers emerged. Next, using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (Lord et al., Autism diagnostic observation schedule, 2nd edn, Western Psychological Services, Torrance, CA, 2012), analyses were conducted to determine if significant differences existed between profiles as a result of ASD symptomatology. Findings demonstrate the heterogeneous nature of reading profiles in students with HFASD and significant differences between the reading profiles and ASD symptom severity.

Because young children lack reading skills, traditional text-based warnings can be rendered ineffective. Pictorials might be an alternative for text to conveying safety-related information. Surprisingly, very little research has been conducted to explore the comprehensibility of safety symbols by young children. In the current study, 15 young children, aged 3-6 years (M = 4.7 years, SD = 1.2) were asked to: (a) identify the hazards associated with five common household items, (b) interpret the meaning of five associated warning symbols, and then (c) play a matching game where household items were paired with appropriate warning symbols. Results indicated that successful hazard identification varied considerably between household items. All children were able to identify the fall or crush hazard associated with an open window but almost none of them identified the strangulation hazard associated with window-blind cords. When symbol comprehensibility was initially assessed, fewer than half exceeded 50% correct identification but training provided by the experimenter benefited the children in understanding their meaning. Performance on the matching game illustrated that children were able to successfully acquire the safety information after being provided with definitions of the symbols and were able to pair them with the appropriate household items.