Comparing measures of sensitivity for vigilance tasks: Bayesian-estimated and log-linear corrected measures outperform A!

Author(s):  
Jason S. McCarley

Signal detection analyses often attribute the vigilance decrement to a combination of bias shifts and sensitivity losses. In many vigilance experiments, however, false alarm rates are at or near zero, complicating the analysis of sensitivity. Here, we report Monte Carlo simulations comparing three measures of sensitivity that can be calculated even with extreme hit and false alarm rates: A’, an estimate of the area under the curve that is commonly but mistakenly described as nonparametric; Az calculated using the log-linear correction, a statistic that adjusts individual observers’ data to protect against low false alarm rates; and, 4z estimated using a Bayesian hierarchical procedure, a measure that protects against extreme false alarm rates by sharing information between observers. Results confirm that bias shifts produce spurious changes in A’, and demonstrate that, 4z estimated with either a log-linear correction or through hierarchical Bayesian modeling is more robust against low false alarm rates.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica McFadyen ◽  
Christopher Nolan ◽  
Ellen Pinocy ◽  
David Buteri ◽  
Oliver Baumann

Abstract Background The ‘doorway effect’, or ‘location updating effect’, claims that we tend to forget items of recent significance immediately after crossing a boundary. Previous research suggests that such a forgetting effect occurs both at physical boundaries (e.g., moving from one room to another via a door) and metaphysical boundaries (e.g., imagining traversing a doorway, or even when moving from one desktop window to another on a computer). Here, we aimed to conceptually replicate this effect using virtual and physical environments. Methods Across four experiments, we measured participants’ hit and false alarm rates to memory probes for items recently encountered either in the same or previous room. Experiments 1 and 2 used highly immersive virtual reality without and with working memory load (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). Experiment 3 used passive video watching and Experiment 4 used active real-life movement. Data analysis was conducted using frequentist as well as Bayesian inference statistics. Results Across this series of experiments, we observed no significant effect of doorways on forgetting. In Experiment 2, however, signal detection was impaired when participants responded to probes after moving through doorways, such that false alarm rates were increased for mismatched recognition probes. Thus, under working memory load, memory was more susceptible to interference after moving through doorways. Conclusions This study presents evidence that is inconsistent with the location updating effect as it has previously been reported. Our findings call into question the generalisability and robustness of this effect to slight paradigm alterations and, indeed, what factors contributed to the effect observed in previous studies.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1104
Author(s):  
Emilio Fernández-Varón ◽  
Edgar García-Romero ◽  
Juan M. Serrano-Rodríguez ◽  
Carlos M. Cárceles ◽  
Ana García-Galán ◽  
...  

Contagious agalactia is a mycoplasmosis affecting small ruminants that have become an important issue in many countries. However, PK/PD studies of antibiotics to treat this problem in lactating goats affected by Mycoplasma (M.) agalactiae, the main CA-causing mycoplasma are almost non-existent. The aims of this study were to evaluate the plasma and milk disposition of marbofloxacin in lactating goats after intravenous (IV), subcutaneous (SC) and subcutaneous poloxamer P407 formulations with and without carboxy-methylcellulose (SC-P407-CMC and SC-P407) administration. Marbofloxacin concentrations were analysed by the High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of M. agalactiae field isolates from mastitic goat’s milk were used to calculate surrogate markers of efficacy. Terminal half-lives of marbofloxacin after IV, SC, SC-P407 and SC-P407-CMC administration were 7.12, 6.57, 13.92 and 12.19 h in plasma, and the half-lives of elimination of marbofloxacin in milk were 7.22, 7.16, 9.30 and 7.74 h after IV, SC, SC-P407 and SC-P407-CMC administration, respectively. Marbofloxacin penetration from the blood into the milk was extensive, with Area Under the Curve (AUCmilk/AUCplasma) ratios ranged 1.04–1.23, and maximum concentrations (Cmax-milk/Cmax-plasma) ratios ranged 0.72–1.20. The PK/PD surrogate markers of efficacy fAUC24/MIC and the Monte Carlo simulation show that marbofloxacin ratio (fAUC24/MIC > 125) using a 90% of target attainment rate (TAR) need a dose regimen between 8.4 mg/kg (SC) and 11.57 mg/kg (P407CMC) and should be adequate to treat contagious agalactia in lactating goats.


1964 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Norman

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