Perceptual and motor skills
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The study focused on the feasibility and validity of pain instruments and the optimal period of diary registration for measuring chronic pain intensity of 13 children. Highly positive associations were found between the registration of pain on a Visual Analogue Scale and on the Postoperative Pain Measure for Parents. For children under medical treatment for chronic limb pain a one-week dairy registration suffices.
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38 college students estimated the survival rates of people administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The mean estimated survival rate (54.5%) was significantly higher than the actual survival rate (10%).
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The study reported here originates from a county in California between Los Angeles and San Francisco. 658 mothers were tested over a 1-mo. period in June 1991 to ascertain the prevalence of drug misuse among pregnant women. 11% of the mothers tested positive for some type of substance. Of those substances found in the urine of the mothers who tested positive, the most prevalent were barbiturates, marijuana, methamphetamines, and amphetamines. When the multivariate analysis of logistic regression was performed with test results as the dependent variable, history of drug use was the most important factor related to mothers testing positive for drugs.
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Two experiments were carried out to study operant conditioning of pain report. Further, it was investigated whether pain-related psychophysiological and psychological measures (skin conductance response and magnitude matching) could also be conditioned operantly. In both experiments subjects received 12 painful electric shocks of equal intensity. ⋯ These inconsistent results are most probably due to modified punishment of responses. The consequences for the results of Exp. 1 are discussed. Based on the results of post hoc analyses, some suggestions are made for operant conditioning studies of pain.