The article examines issues involved in comparing groups and measuring change with pretest and posttest data. Different pretest-posttest designs are presented in a manner that can help rehabilitation professionals to better understand and determine effects resulting from selected interventions. The reliability of gain scores in pretest-posttest measurement is also discussed in the context of re...

The concealed information test (CIT) can be used to assess whether an individual possesses crime-related information. However, its discrimination performance has room for improvement. We examined whether screening out participants who do not respond distinctively on a pretest improves the diagnosticity of a mock-crime CIT. Before conducting the CIT, we gave a pretest to 152 participants, 80 of ...

BACKGROUND Focal and generalized neuropathies, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, have high prevalence among the US population. Primary care physicians are increasingly using computerized electrodiagnostic (EDX) testing to evaluate these patients. The impact of this diagnostic modality on physician diagnostic reasoning and patient management has not been directly...

The Mozart effect is an increase in spatial reasoning scores detected immediately after listening to the first movement of a Mozart piano sonata. Rauscher and Shaw (1998) suggested that failure to produce a Mozart effect could arise from carryover effects of a spatial reasoning pretest which may interfere with the effect of listening to Mozart. They cited an unpublished study in which a verbal ...

OBJECTIVE We measured the long-term retention of knowledge gained through selected American Academy of Neurology annual meeting courses and compared the effects of repeated quizzing (known as test-enhanced learning) and repeated studying on that retention. METHODS Participants were recruited from 4 annual meeting courses. All participants took a pretest. This randomized, controlled trial util...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Underutilization of acute stroke therapy is driven by delay to hospital arrival. We present the primary results of a pilot, randomized, controlled trial to encourage calling 911 for witnessed stroke among middle school children and their parents. METHODS This project occurred in Corpus Christi, an urban Texas community of 325,000. Three intervention and 3 control school...

BACKGROUND Sleep is important to brain organization, but few strategies to promote sleep among premature infants have been tested. Behaviorally based measures of sleep have shown increased quiet sleep (QS) and decreased active sleep (AS) during skin-to-skin contact (SSC) with the mother, but these results have not been confirmed with objective electroencephalographic/polysomnographic measures o...

BACKGROUND The individual risk of developing psychosis after being tested for clinical high-risk (CHR) criteria (posttest risk of psychosis) depends on the underlying risk of the disease of the population from which the person is selected (pretest risk of psychosis), and thus on recruitment strategies. Yet, the impact of recruitment strategies on pretest risk of psychosis is unknown. METHODS ...

this study aimed at comparing the effect of self-controlled feedback with 100% frequency on motor skill learning in children. 60 children (11.1±0.86 yr) were selected randomly and based on their pretest results divided into same three groups of 100% feedback, self-controlled and yoked. in the acquisition phase, subjects completed 120 trials. at the end of the second day, subjects performed a 10...

BACKGROUND D-Dimer, a cross-linked fibrin degradation product, has a high sensitivity in patients with suspected venous thrombosis. Traditional latex D-dimer assays, however, have not been sufficiently sensitive to exclude venous thromboembolism. METHODS To determine the clinical utility of a latex D-dimer assay (MDA D-Dimer; Organon Teknika Corporation, Durham, NC) in patients with suspected...