Motion Popout in Selective Visual Orienting at 4.5 But Not at 2 Months in Human Infants

The effect of element density on selective orienting was examined in 2 experiments with 2‐ and 4.5‐month‐old infants. Selective visual orienting to a singleton oscillating target that appeared with other static bars was used to study the effects of element density. Increasing the set size and density of the static bars decreased selective orienting to the moving target in the 2‐month‐old infants, but it increased selective orienting in the 4.5‐month‐olds despite the fact that the overall levels of correct orienting to the target were titrated to be the same at the 2 ages. Thus, density affected the selectivity of visual orienting to movement at these 2 ages differently with popout being evident at the older age. In the 2nd experiment, motion popout for the 4.5‐month‐old infants was replicated using oscillating targets that had the same peak and mean speeds but different temporal frequencies and amplitudes of oscillation. Increases in the efficiency of perceptual grouping of similar elements between 2 and 4.5 months of age could overcome the lateral masking effects of increasing element density seen at the lower end of this age range.     

Nation speaking unto nation? Newspapers and national identity in the devolved UK

There are two problems with the existing account of the relationship between newspapers and national identity in the UK. The first is that although it is widely assumed that the mass media are central to the reproduction and evolution of national identity this has never been empirically demonstrated. The second is that exactly what comprises the relevant ‘national’ context in the UK is unclear. Content analysis of 2,500 sampled articles, together with qualitative comparison of different editions of the same newspaper titles and interviews with editors and journalists are used to show the extent and nature of ‘national’ frames of reference in newspapers in England and Scotland. Paradoxically, devolution may have reduced the spatial diversity of news stories in the press in England and Scotland.     

An Experiment with a Confidentiality Reminder in a Telephone Survey

The effect of a confidentiality reminder was tested during atelephone survey of the general public of a metropolitan area.One-half of the sample was administered the reminder just priorto the demographic questions; the other half of the sample didnot receive the treatment. The results showed no significantdifferences on the distribution of nonsubstantive responsesbetween the two groups. There was some evidence that the confidentialityreminder had a negative effect on data quality.     

The Social Security Advisory Committee

This article examines the work of the Social Security Advisory Committee, whose main role as the ‘eyes, ears and heart’ of the Department of Social Security is explained. The work of the Committee shows that it has taken a keen interest in the effects of changes in benefit entitlement on claimants. Its recommendations attempt to mitigate the worst effects of changes on the most vulnerable benefit claimants. While some pressure groups have expressed disappointment with the SSAC's work, there are grounds for a more positive evaluation of it.     

The stability and sensitivity of subjective well-being measures

A longitudinal investigation of the stability and sensitivity of several subjective social indicators is presented. Over a seven year period, data collected from 93 Canadians indicated moderate stability for measures of enjoyment, satisfaction, and life quality. When respondents were divided into “change” and “no change” groups on the basis of their self-reported health status, the self-anchoring ladder of present life quality was found to be sensitive to change. Implications of this methodological inquiry are examined.     

The application of robust Bayesian analysis to hypothesis testing and Occam's Razor

Summary Robust Bayesian analysis deals simultaneously with a class of possible prior distributions, instead of a single distribution. This paper concentrates on the surprising results that can be obtained when applying the theory to problems of testing precise hypotheses when the “objective” class of prior distributions is assumed. First, an example is given demonstrating the serious inadequacy of P-values for this problem. Next, it is shown how the approach can provide statistical quantification of Occam's Razor, the famous principle of science that advocates choice of the simpler of two hypothetical explanations of data. Finally, the theory is applied to multinomial testing. Research supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant DMS-8923071, and by NASA Contract NAS5-29285 for the hubble Space Telescope.     

A method for simulating familial disease data with variable age at onset and genetic and environmental effects

The field of genetic epidemiology is growing rapidly with the realization that many important diseases are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. For this reason, pedigree data are becoming increasingly valuable as a means of studying patterns of disease occurrence. Analysis of pedigree data is complicated by the lack of independence among family members and by the non-random sampling schemes used to ascertain families. An additional complicating factor is the variability in age at disease onset from one person to another. In developing statistical methods for analysing pedigree data, analytic results are often intractable, making simulation studies imperative for assessing the performance of proposed methods and estimators. In this paper, an algorithm is presented for simulating disease data in pedigrees, incorporating variable age at onset and genetic and environmental effects. Computational formulas are developed in the context of a proportional hazards model and assuming single ascertainment of families, but the methods can be easily generalized to alternative models. The algorithm is computationally efficient, making multi-dataset simulation studies feasible. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the methods.