Perceptual and motor skills
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Prehabilitation and quality of life three months after total knee arthroplasty: a pilot study.
Knee osteoarthritis (OA), which affects over 27 million Americans, decreases the individual's quality of life through decreasing mobility, deconditioning, reducing functional ability, and increasing knee pain. The present aim was to assess whether such patients engaging in exercise prior to surgery ("prehabilitation"; preoperative exercise intervention) rate higher quality of life 3 mo. after their surgery compared with ratings by patients who did not engage in prehabilitation. Standard populations consist of OA patients that do not participate in any preoperative exercise programs, such as a prehabilitation exercise intervention. 18 knee osteoarthritis patients were randomly assigned to a control or a prehabilitation group. ⋯ The control group participated in their usual preoperative care prescribed by the physician for all patients. Eight health-related quality of life domains were assessed at 3 mo. post surgery. These preliminary findings suggest efficacy of prehabilitation in facilitating quality of life of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients 3 mo. after surgery.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Scotopic sensitivity/Irlen syndrome and the use of coloured filters: a long-term placebo-controlled study of reading strategies using analysis of miscue.
This study investigated the long-term effects of using coloured filters on the frequency and type of errors in oral reading. A double-masked, placebo-controlled crossover experimental design was used, with subjects being assessed over a period of 20 months. ⋯ There was a significant improvement for all groups in the accuracy of miscues over the period, although experimental groups over-all did not improve at a significantly different rate than the control group. The failure to find significantly greater improvement for the experimental groups over the control group for the total period, despite subjects' reports of improved print clarity, may be partly related to the lack of effective letter-sound analysis and synthesis skills and to the use of a word-identification strategy of guessing based on partial visual analysis.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Effect of warning on feigned malingering on the WAIS-R in college samples.
Research indicates claimant malingering of cognitive deficits to be common in personal injury litigation. Efforts have been made to either detect such tendencies or deter efforts at malingering. ⋯ Analysis indicated both feigned malingerer groups performed significantly worse than the control group; however, feigned malingerers with warning did not perform significantly better than those without warning. Unlike previous research using the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, results did not support effectiveness of warning in reducing feigned malingering scores.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Depressive and elative mood inductions as a function of exaggerated versus contradictory facial expressions.
Two studies concerned the relation between facial expression cognitive induction of mood and perception of mood in women undergraduates. In Exp. 1, 20 subjects were randomly assigned to a group who were instructed in exaggerated facial expressions (Demand Group) and 20 subjects were randomly assigned to a group who were not instructed (Nondemand Group). All subjects completed a modified Velten (1968) elation- and depression-induction sequence. ⋯ It was concluded that the primary influence on emotion came from the cognitive mood-induction sequences. Facial expressions only seem to modify the emotion in the case of depression being exacerbated by frowning. A contradictory facial expression did not affect the rating of an emotion.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
An evaluation of rational-emotive imagery as a component of rational-emotive therapy in the treatment of test anxiety.
This study evaluated the efficacy of rational-emotive imagery as a component of rational-emotive therapy in reduction of college students' test anxiety. 11 volunteers met for 6 1-hr. group treatment sessions over a 3-wk. period. After 2 initial treatment sessions subjects were randomly assigned to groups given either rational-emotive therapy with rational-emotive imagery or rational-emotive therapy without imagery. ⋯ Combined groups reported significant improvement on all dependent measures. Although the study did not yield the predicted benefits of the imagery, results lend further support to the efficacy of rational-emotive therapy procedures in the reduction of test anxiety.