Medical students (N=284) from four Northeastern medical schools interacted with standardized patients, then were given a free-response form (blank form for writing diagnostic impressions) and then they completed a cued-response form, which listed a series of diagnoses generated by the case author. The patients also completed a checklist. (MLW)

Background: Little is known about the predictive validity of hyperkinetic disorder (HKD) as defined by the Diagnostic Criteria for Research for mental and behavioral disorders of the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10; World Health Organization, 1993), particularly when the diagnosis is given to younger children.…

In an attempt to replicate an earlier study by H. G. Schmidt, H. P. A. Boshuizen, and P. P. M. Hobus (1988), 96 students and physicians at the University of Limburg (Netherlands) studied 4 clinical cases, produced a diagnosis, and recalled each case. Subjects were 24 second-year, 24 fourth-year, and 24 sixth-year medical students and 24 internists…

The construct validity of the standardized-patient (SP) examination used at Southern Illinois University (Springfield) School of Medicine was assessed by comparing 66 second-year and 70 fourth-year medical students on 5 SP cases. The results show sizable differences between the groups. The usefulness of passing rates the effect-size measures as a…

The use of a traditional syndrome-classification system for aphasics is examined critically from the different perspectives of medicine and psychometrics. Medicine views syndromes as dichotomous (present or not present) and necessarily indicative of an underlying pathognomic state or process, and psychometrics sees performances as varying along a…

The study examined differences between 23 younger (ages 5-11) and 32 older (ages 12-19) children diagnosed with overanxious disorder (OAD). Expression of OAD varied by developmental level, with older children more frequently exhibiting major depression or simple phobia, while younger children had coexisting separation anxiety or attention deficit…

The Psychotic Behavior Rating Scale uses a factor analysis approach to aid in differential diagnosis of autism, schizophrenia, mental retardation, aphasia, and other severe handicaps. The scale is compared with five existing qualitatively developed instruments, noting similarities and dissimilarities among the various scales. (Author/JDD)

Syntactic development in the oral language of learning disabled and normal students at two intermediate and two secondary-school age levels was compared using two indices, the T-unit and the Syntactic Density Score. It was concluded that no single, sensitive, numerical index exists to quantify syntactic development. (SW)

Ninety-six children from a high-iodine Chinese village were found to have higher goiter incidence, thyroid gland volume, and urinary/creatinine ratio than 51 children from an iodine-normal village. All children from both villages were euthyroid. Excess iodine did not substantially affect the children's physical or intellectual growth. (Author/JDD)

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the utility of clinical swallowing examination (CSE) measures for detecting aspiration as defined by videofluoroscopic swallowing examination (VFSE). This study, involving 165 participants, is a follow-up to a previously published investigation of 60 participants. Findings are compared with that…

Previous research has shown that, unlike novice physicians' performance, diagnostic quality of expert physicians improves when contextual information (the "Enabling Conditions") about a patient is available. The present study was designed to explore these findings further by systematically varying the typicality of enabling conditions…

Studies in psychology and clinical decision making have shown that research subjects and physicians are often overconfident in the accuracy of their judgments. In these studies, groups of 20 first-year and 27 third-year osteopathic medical students at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (Athens) were slightly underconfident in…

The applicability of Rosch and coworkers' concept of prototypes to the mental categorization of medical disorders, and the influence of clinical experience on those memory structures were studied with 100 preclinical medical students and 77 experienced physicians from Quebec, Canada. The third-year medical students were French-speaking and read…

A comparison was made of Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty and informal reading inventory (IRI) independent and instructional level designations for 15 children, aged 9 to 11 years, who had been referred to a diagnostic clinic for reading assessment. The children's reading performance was first scored according to procedures outlined in the…

Assessment of clinically depressed and nondepressed children (ages 9-17) on measures of attributional style, hopelessness, depression, life stress, and child temperament suggested absence of a unique constellation of cognitive characteristics in depressed children compared with the nondepressed sample. Treatment appeared to affect self-reported…