Reflections on Accuracy

The difference between test accuracy and predictive accuracy is presented and defined. The failure to distinguish between these two types of measures is shown to have led to a misguided debate over the interpretation of prevalence estimates. The distinction between test accuracy defined as sensitivity and specificity, and predictive accuracy defined as positive and negative predictive value is shown to reflect the choice of the denominator used to calculate true positive, false positive, false negative, and true negative rates. It is further shown that any instrument will tend to overestimate prevalence in low base rate populations and underestimate it in those populations where prevalence is high. The implications of these observations are then discussed in terms of the need to define diagnostic thresholds that have clinical and policy relevance.     

Community reactions to campaigns addressing crystal methamphetamine use among gay and bisexual men in New York City

Crystal methamphetamine (aka "crystal meth") use with high-risk sex has become an emerging health problem for gay and bisexual men in New York City since the late 1990s. Public health campaigns were eventually developed to encourage gay and bisexual men to avoid or reconsider using crystal meth. Reactions to three campaigns were measured with a cross-sectional survey administered in 2004. Among an ethnically-diverse sample of 971 gay and bisexual men, 61.8% reported seeing the campaigns. Those who reported ever using crystal meth, recent use, and recent use with sex were significantly more likely to have seen the campaigns. In general, white men, HIV-negative men, and men not currently using crystal meth responded more positively to the campaigns than their counterparts; yet, more men of color reported having discussions with partners and friends about their crystal use as a result of these campaigns. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Youth talking about news and civic daily life

This paper considers how young people talking about news and politics in their family and peer contexts influences their civic life. The research involved 35 Portuguese youngsters from diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds that were interviewed in 2010, in Portugal, at the onset of the Eurozone crisis. Based on talking and news-mediated contexts and habits, we identified three different profiles: Limitations to empowerment; Civic capital and self-empowerment; and socioeconomic conditions and empowerment. These profiles show how family and peer talking play a central role in strengthening and making a habitus of being an active citizen, even in contexts with limited cultural, economic and social conditions.     

Treatment and reporting of item-level missing data in social science research

Most quantitative studies in the social sciences suffer from missing data. However, despite the large availability of documents and software to treat such data, it appears that many social scientists do not apply good practices regarding missing data. We analyzed quantitative papers published in 2017 in six top-level social science journals. Item-level missing data was found in at least 69.5% of the papers, but their presence was explicitly reported in only 44.4% of all analyzed papers. Moreover, in the majority of cases, the treatments applied to missing data were incorrect, with many uses of deletion methods that are known to produce biased results and to reduce statistical power. The impact of missing data and of their treatment on results was barely discussed. Results show that social scientists underestimate the impact of missing data on their research and that they should pay more attention to the way such data are treated.     

Observing Tacting Increases Uninstructed Tacts in Children with Autism

The effects of observing an adult emitting tacts on children’s rate of uninstructed (i.e., “spontaneous”) tacts were examined in three children diagnosed with autism. Each participant was exposed to two conditions in four settings each: in condition 1, participants received 20 trials of teacher-initiated interactions in which the child was asked to tact 20 objects during 5 min. Condition 2 was identical to condition 1 except that the teacher also tacted 20 objects interspersed with the 20 tact trials. The number of uninstructed tacts was recorded in both conditions. Children emitted between 1.58 and 2.68 times more uninstructed tacts in condition 2 than in condition 1. These results indicate that teachers’ emission of tacts increases the emission of uninstructed tacts in children with autism.     

Emerging Tacts and Selections from Previous Learned Skills: A Comparison between Two Types of Naming

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - Naming consists of tacting an object and selecting it upon hearing its name as a result of emergence. After acquiring naming, children learn object–name...     

The influence of the COVID-19 lockdown on infants' physiological regulation during mother-father-infant interactions in Switzerland

In this study, we investigated the physiological regulation of vagal tone during dyadic and triadic parent-infant interactions in infants born before or around the COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. We hypothesized that there would be a decrease in vagal tone in triadic interactions compared with dyadic interactions, as triadic interactions are more complex and therefore more resource demanding. However, we expected this difference to be smaller for infants who experienced the period of confinement, as the lockdown led parents to spend more time at home. We also hypothesized that parents would have less stressful interactional events in the triadic interaction because they would be used to interacting with the child together. This study included 36 parents with their 3 month-old infants. Eighteen families met the study authors before the onset of the pandemic (pre-COVID) and 18 met them after its onset, having experienced a period of confinement during the infants' first 3 months of life (COVID). Results showed that the COVID group had no decrease in vagal tone during triadic interactions, whereas the pre-COVID group did. This difference could not, however, be explained by less stressful interactional events in triadic interactions, as the COVID group showed more stressful interactional events in mother-father-infant interactions.