Gordon A. Allen

Spirituality in Persons with Heart Failure

Spiritual expression has been proposed as a dimension of quality of life. Persons with chronic diseases such as AIDS or cancer have described the value of spiritual expression in living with their illnesses. The authors examined the role spirituality plays in the lives of 58 people with heart failure being treated medically or by transplant. Instruments used included the Medical Outcome Survey Short Form 36 and Index of Well-Being measures of quality of life, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and the Relative Importance Scale. Combined spirituality scores predicted 24% of the variance in global quality of life. There were no significant gender differences in spiritual well-being or quality of life.

An exploratory study of body awareness in persons with heart failure treated medically or with transplantation.

Heart failure is a chronic disabling problem afflicting a growing number of adults. These individuals experience episodes of exacerbation demonstrated by increasing shortness of breath, fatigue, and fluid retention. The symptoms often develop in a slow and insidious manner making perception of worsening difficult to determine. Theoretically, an increase in body awareness may help individuals recognize symptoms of worsening heart failure earlier, but it is not known whether increased body awareness leads to somatization, an abnormal dwelling on body symptoms. This study was conducted to describe body awareness in 90 persons with heart failure or after transplant. We found that the Body Awareness Quesionnaire was a reliable measure of this concept in this sample. When body awareness was examined for age, gender, and treatment (HF or transplant) group were examined, no significant differences were found. Furthermore, there were no significant relationships between body awarenss and negative moods such as anxiety, depression, or anger. Interventions to enhance body awareness may be a fruitful new direction that will improve symptom recognition without increasing somatization in persons with heart failure.

The Influence of Education Context and Beliefs on the Teaching Behavior of African American Mothers

The goal of this study is to examine the influence of maternal education level, context, and maternal beliefs on the teaching behaviors of African American mothers. In addition, the relationship between maternal teaching and children’s mastery of the information is explored. Fifty-one African American mothers were observed teaching their 4-year-old preschool children three memory tasks and were administered a three-part questionnaire to determine their metamemory beliefs, their assessment of their children’s memory competence, and the amount of time they engaged in memory activities with their children. The results of the MANOVA applied to the data reveal that maternal teaching varied significantly according to education level and context. Several of the maternal strategies are predictive of the preschoolers’mastery of the information as well. Explanation of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Relative effects of acoustic and semantic relatedness on clustering in free recall

An 18-word list was constructed so that each word belonged to both a semantically related category and an acoustically related category. The list was presented, either orally or visually, in a multitrial free-recall task. The results from 40 Ss showed that the organization of recall was dominated by the acoustic properties of the words.

The X2 Statistic and Weber's Law.

remote corners of the world. Probably as a result of his travels, Galton became interested in creating new methods for the prediction of weather patterns He developed a system for collecting weather information from numerous places in the world and then plotting ~t on maps. The important relationships he discovered between high and low pressure systems are still employed In reporting weather conditions.

The priority effect in the A-B, A-C paradigm and subjects' expectations

Abstract The priority effect in the A-B, A-C paradigm is operationally defined to be higher first-list than second-list recall in the MMFR test induced by the absence of an immediate test on the first list. The hypothesis that the priority effect is caused by the subjects expectation of a later test was tested by manipulating expectation in two ways. Subjects either did or did not receive a practice session, and either did or did not receive instructions to ignore the frist list. The hypothesis was supported by the fact that eliminating practice or adding deception eliminated the priority effect.

Accuracy of the precordial V-Quick® patch in persons with cardiac or pulmonary disease

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the equivalence of 12-Lead Electrocardiograms (EKG) obtained with the new V-Quick patch and traditional tab-style electrodes. Using a within-subject design, a convenience sample of 100 subjects with either cardiac or pulmonary disease underwent two 12-lead EKGs, one with the traditional tab-style electrodes and one with the precordial patch. Computer-generated measurements of waveform axes and amplitude were obtained for both EKGs. Comparison of mean and 95% confidence intervals revealed no significant differences in Q, R or S wave amplitude across the six precordial leads. Furthermore, a four-factor ANOVA found no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the Q, R and S wave amplitude between the type of electrode, gender and type of disease. A subset of 29 EKGs read by three experts found intra- (.90) and inter-rater (.84) reliability to be strong. In conclusion, the precordial V-Quick patch provided equivalent EKGs to those obtained using standard tab-style electrodes.