Non-contact paediatric knee injuries, including patellar sleeve fractures.

Different patterns of injury of the knee are seen in children and adults, particularly in non-contact injuries. Examples of these are given, including the important patella sleeve fracture.

Personality structure of elderly drivers.

This paper reports the factor structure of a 37-item personality questionnaire intended to be predictive of driving performance in elderly persons. Subjects were 191 persons 63 years of age of older, about half of whom also were given perceptual/cognitive tasks and drove on a closed driving course. Although the personality questionnaire did not predict driving skill, the factor structure of the questionnaire is of interest. Of several factor analyses, the most satisfactory was a 2-factor solution. We interpreted the approximately orthogonal factors as measuring what we labeled Competence and Emotionality.

The effect of chronic cocaine abuse on human olfaction.

Cocaine has been used for many decades as both a stimulant and as a topical anesthetic/vasoconstrictor. Illicit "snorting" or freebase smoking has increased markedly in recent years. Decreased olfaction has been an often reported subjective complaint of cocaine abusers, but quantification of smell loss using sensitive psychophysical tests has not yet been done, leading to the present study. Eleven cocaine abusers were recruited from a drug treatment clinic. Olfaction was assessed using a butanol threshold test, the UPSIT, and a 7-item discrimination test. One patient tested anosmic, one had a mild discrimination problem, and one had a large septal perforation but was normosmic. From the present study, it appears that most cocaine abusers, even heavy users or those with intranasal damage, do not develop permanent olfactory dysfunction. It is not clear what factors may have resulted in complaints of olfactory loss in previous studies.

On The Nonintuitive Nature Of The Correlation Coefficient: Subjective Estimation Of Three-Variable Relations.

The misleading character of the correlation coefficient was investigated in two studies of intuitive statistical behaviour: subjective estimation of partial correlation and subjective estimation of the minimum possible correlation between two variables given their equal correlation with a third. Fourteen Psychology Department faculty and graduate students provided estimates of partial correlations, r[SUBxy.z'] for varying positive values of rxy and rxy = ryz. Mean estimated rxy.z values were uniformly lower than theoretical (actual) values. Twenty-four statistics students and sixteen Statistics Department faculty and graduate students furnished estimates of minimum possible correlations, min rxy' for varying positive values of rxz = ryz. For both samples mean estimated min rxy was higher than the theoretical (actual) min rxy. Thus, in both studies, subjective overestimated the degree of influence on the correlation between two variables, X and Y, of a third, constraining variable, Z. The Hazards of intuitive statistical inference in the interpretation of correlational data are are discussed.

Buffers items, insight, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale.

The influence of buffer items on response to the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC) was examined. Thirty-four college student subjects received MC questionnaires with intermixed extraversion and neuroticism items, while 35 others received separate MC and extraversion-neuroticism questionnaires. MC means under the two conditions differed nonsignificantly, and confidence interval estimation spoke against the likelihood of any appreciable buffer item effect. Little insight into the purpose of MC was exhibited--less than half that previously reported by Shrauger (1972)--nor was it related to the buffer item manipulation.

Relations between embedded figures test performance and dimensions of the I-E scale.

Relations between an embedded figures measure of field independence and various dimensions of Rotter's internal-external locus of control scale were investigated. The general absence of significant correlations suggests that these variables are essentially unrelated.