Measuring Farm Labor: Survey Experimental Evidence from Ghana

This study examines recall bias in farm labor through a randomized survey experiment in Ghana, comparing farm labor estimates from an end-of-season recall survey with data collected weekly throughout the agricultural season. Recall households report 10 percent more farm labor per person-plot, which can be explained by recall households’ underreporting of “marginal” plots and household workers. This “selective” omission by recall households, denoted as listing bias, alters the composition of plots and workers across treatment arms and inflates average farm labor hours per person-plot in the recall group. Since listing bias, in this setting, dominates other forms of recall bias at higher levels of aggregation (i.e., when farm labor per person-plot is summed at the plot, person, or household level), farm labor productivity is overestimated for recall households. Consistent with the notion that recall bias is linked to the cognitive burden of reporting on past events, there is no recall bias among more educated households.

Psychological Consequences of Screening Mammography

To examine the psychological consequences at a number of stages in the screening process for women attending a screening mammography programme. Setting- A pilot mammographic screening programme in Melbourne, Australia. Method — The psychological consequences questionnaire (PCQ; a reliable and valid measure of the psychological consequences of screening mammography) was used to measure the emotional, social, and physical functioning of women in a mammographic screening programme and a control community sample. A screening group (in whom no abnormality was detected at initial screen; n=142) had four measurements: at screening clinic; before results were received; one week after all-clear results were received; and eight months after initial visit. The recall group (who were recalled for further investigation which showed the detected abnormality to be benign; n = 58) had measurements at the same points as the screening group and an additional measurement while waiting at the recall assessment clinic. A randomly selected community control group (n = 52) had measurements one week, two weeks, three weeks; and eight months after consenting to participate. Emotional, social, and physical functioning of women in the screening group did not change over time and at no point differed significantly from that of community controls. The profiles of emotional and physical dysfunction of women in the recall group differed significantly from those of the screening and control groups. The level of emotional and physical dysfunction in the recall group was highest while waiting at recall assessment clinic, and scores were still significantly higher than scores obtained at comparable times from screening and control groups one week after obtaining notification that there was no sign of cancer (emotional P< 0·001; physical P < 0·05). This difference had disappeared eight months after the screening visit, when the level of emotional and physical functioning was similar to that of the screening and control groups. Social dysfunction scores did not change significantly over time and were similar for all three groups. Given that up to 10% of women are recalled for further investigations on first round screening, significant numbers of women may have psychological consequences. This speaks for the necessity for accurate reading of mammograms to minimise the false positive recall rate, and for counselling services to be available at recall assessment centres.

Schema of Coins and Memory for Features of Coins

This study was conducted to examine the memory for coins of 7-yr.-old children and junior college students. Subjects in the free-recall group were asked to draw a coin from memory. Those in the cued-recall group used another coin as a retrieval cue to draw a coin. Analysis showed that students recalled significantly more distinctive features than children, but there were no significant differences on common and covariant features recalled by students and children. These results suggest that adults have elaborated schemata with more distinctive features for coins than do children.

Rehearsal Strategy as a Function of Recall Expectation

The subjects were divided into three groups with respect to their expectations concerning a recall task given after the final trial of the usual STM distractor procedure. Group 1 were told only that they would have to recall during each trial's recall interval, thus did not expect to have to recall again. Group 2 were told that they would have to recall all the words presented in the experiment at the end of the last trial, in addition to the trial-by-trial recall. Group 3 were told only that they would have to recall after all words had been presented and they sat passively through the presentation trials. In addition to their recall expectations, half of the subjects in each group received a 2-s presentation and half received a 5-s presentation interval. It was found that the length of the presentation interval had an effect on the number of words recalled at the end of all trials, but recall expectancy did not. However, expectancy did determine the rehearsal strategies of subjects and hence the serial positions from which items were recalled.

Effects of Presleep Procedures and Cognitive Style on Dream Content

The REM period dream reports of two groups of Ss with different kinds of presleep experiences were examined with respect to laboratory references, overt references to E, pleasantness and unpleasantness of content, self-representation of the dreamer in his dreams and dream recall. Group 1 included 17 Ss who were not exposed to any special presleep procedure. Group 2 was composed of 27 Ss who underwent a half-hour presleep association period under conditions of partial sensory isolation which were anxiety provoking and focused Ss attention on laboratory procedures. Group 2 had more dreams related to the laboratory situation (lab dreams) and more unpleasant dreams. They were more often participants in their dreams and they recalled them less well than Group 1. Cognitive style was also a determinant of lab dreams and the participant-observer dimension of dream content.

Pupil Recall Populations: Size, Shape, and Selection for Peer-Rating Reference Frames

Lists of “all persons known” to them were obtained from 50 sixth grade pupils in combined class and take-home sessions. Approximately 13,000 names were recalled. Ratings of these recall persons on a social need succorance scale were subsequently obtained as were peer ratings using the Syracuse Scales of Social Relations. Examinations of the size and composition (adult—non-adult, same sex-opposite sex) and distribution of ratings given his recall persons revealed (a) a wide range in length of recall persons lists, (b) considerably greater listing of non-adult persons and of same sex persons, and (c) a predominance of excessively skewed patterns of ratings. Examination of the selection of recall persons for the Syracuse Scales reference frame revealed appropriate selections of referent persons for the extreme referent positions of “least” and “most” but an undesirably heavy inclusion of highest rated recalled persons in the more medium referent, positions. An r of .54 between the pupil's average rating made of all his recall persons and the average Syracuse Scales rating given his peers indicates that the general leniency (or lack of leniency) in the pupil's ratings given to his much larger recall group tends to extend to those Syracuse Scales ratings given to his peer group.