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Background Older adults have proven their ability to overcome adversities throughout their life. This study aims to assess the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on older adultsʼ psychological distress (anxiety and depression) over time. Methods A community‐dwelling Spaniard population (N = 192) completed a survey and reported on their sociodemographic characteristics, appraisal and personal resources. Older adults took part in a longitudinal online survey collected in April 2020 (during the lockdown restrictions) and at two subsequent time points 3 and 9 months after baseline (without lockdown restrictions and during the third wave of the pandemic respectively). Results Older adults did not evidence higher emotional distress than during the initial lockdown. Furthermore, depression remained stable and anxiety significantly decreased. Results also suggest that some sociodemographic characteristics, appraisals and personal resources are relevant. Older participants showed less anxiety than younger ones. Furthermore, being a male, resilience, and acceptance were related with the decrease of anxiety. Otherwise, fear of the COVID‐19 outbreak and depression were related with the increase of anxiety. Conclusion Older adults may adapt to the adverse pandemic impact by using more adaptive resources that reduce their distress. Efforts to ameliorate older adults' anxiety by focusing on older adults' personal resources should be considered.

Some proposals claim that language acts as a link to propagate emotional and other modal information. Thus, there is an eminently amodal path of emotional propagation in the mental lexicon. Following these proposals, we present a computational model that emulates a linking mechanism (mapping function) between emotional and amodal representations of words using vector space models, emotional feature-based models, and neural networks. We analyzed three central concepts within the embodiment debate (redundancy, isomorphism, and propagative mechanisms) comparing two alternative hypotheses: semantic neighborhood hypothesis versus specific dimensionality hypothesis. Univariate and multivariate neural networks were trained for dimensional (N = 11,357) and discrete emotions (N = 2,266), and later we analyzed its predictions in a test set (N = 4,167 and N = 875, respectively). We showed how this computational model could propagate emotional responses to words without a direct emotional experience via amodal propagation, but no direct relations were found between emotional rates and amodal distances. Thereby, we found that there were clear redundancy and propagative mechanisms, but no isomorphism should be assumed. Results suggested that it was necessary to establish complex links to go beyond amodal distances of vector spaces. In this way, although the emotional rates of semantic neighborhoods could predict the emotional rates of target words, the mapping function of specific amodal features seemed to simulate emotional responses better. Thus, both hypotheses would not be mutually exclusive. We also showed that discrete emotions could have simpler relations between modal and amodal representations than dimensional emotions. All these results and their theoretical implications are discussed.

The COVID-19 outbreak could be considered as an uncontrollable stressful life event. Lockdown measures have provoked a disruption of daily life with a great impact over older adults’ health and well-being. Nevertheless, eudaimonic well‐being plays a protective role in confronting adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 situation. This study aims to assess the association between age and psychological well-being (personal growth and purpose in life). Young–old (60–70 years) and old–old (71–80 years) community-dwelling Spaniards (N = 878) completed a survey and reported on their sociodemographic characteristics and their levels of health, COVID-19 stress-related, appraisal, and personal resources. Old–old did not evidence poorer psychological well-being than young–old. Age has only a negative impact on personal growth. The results also suggest that the nature of the COVID-19 impact (except for the loss of a loved one) may not be as relevant for the older adults’ well-being as their appraisals and personal resources for managing COVID-related problems. In addition, these results suggest that some sociodemographic and health-related variables have an impact on older adults’ well-being. Thus, perceived-health, family functioning, resilience, gratitude, and acceptance had significant associations with both personal growth and purpose in life. Efforts to address older adults’ psychological well-being focusing on older adults’ personal resources should be considered.

Automated summary evaluation is proposed as an alternative to rubrics and multiple-choice tests in knowledge assessment. Inbuilt rubric is a recent Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) method that implem...

We present a longitudinal computational study on the connection between emotional and amodal word representations from a developmental perspective. In this study, children's and adult word representations were generated using the latent semantic analysis (LSA) vector space model and Word Maturity methodology. Some children's word representations were used to set a mapping function between amodal and emotional word representations with a neural network model using ratings from 9-year-old children. The neural network was trained and validated in the child semantic space. Then, the resulting neural network was tested with adult word representations using ratings from an adult data set. Samples of 1210 and 5315 words were used in the child and the adult semantic spaces, respectively. Results suggested that the emotional valence of words can be predicted from amodal vector representations even at the child stage, and accurate emotional propagation was found in the adult word vector representations. In this way, different propagative processes were observed in the adult semantic space. These findings highlight a potential mechanism for early verbal emotional anchoring. Moreover, different multiple linear regression and mixed-effect models revealed moderation effects for the performance of the longitudinal computational model. First, words with early maturation and subsequent semantic definition promoted emotional propagation. Second, an interaction effect between age of acquisition and abstractness was found to explain model performance. The theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Background There is extensive concern about older people’s care in institutions, especially recently in the past years. One of the reasons is linked to the cases of elder abuse, not only shown by academic and scientific sources, but also by social and mass media and their impact on public perception of the institutional setting. What is more, current COVID-19 pandemic consequences on older people have provoked alarm and worry especially about what is happening in institutions. Methods The sample for this study consists of 286 staff working in nursing homes in Spain. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Professional Good Care Scale in Nursing Homes (GCS-NH). Results Results of parallel analyses and exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) showed a four-factor model for the 32-item scale: humanization (9 items), non-infantilization (10 items), respect (7 items) and empowerment (6 items). Then, psychometric properties were tested analysing internal consistency (reliability) and convergent, divergent and criterion validity. High internal consistency (reliability) and different validity evidence were obtained for the total scores of the GCS-NH and its subscales. GCS-NH scores were also capable of detecting risk of probable institutional elder abuse. Conclusions Results show that this scale is an appropriate, valid, and reliable multidimensional instrument to evaluate good care in older institutionalized people by staff. Good care is an outcome of a complex construct in which a wide range of factors converge (staff, older people, and environmental characteristics). The GCS-NH has potential to be used as a multidimensional tool to assess good care.

A good deal of experimental research is characterized by the presence of random effects on subjects and items. A standard modeling approach that includes such sources of variability is the mixed-effects models (MEMs) with crossed random effects. However, under-parameterizing or over-parameterizing the random structure of MEMs bias the estimations of the Standard Errors (SEs) of fixed effects. In this simulation study, we examined two different but complementary perspectives: model selection with likelihood-ratio tests, AIC, and BIC; and model averaging with Akaike weights. Results showed that true model selection was constant across the different strategies examined (including ML and REML estimators). However, sample size and variance of random slopes were found to explain true model selection and SE bias of fixed effects. No relevant differences in SE bias were found for model selection and model averaging. Sample size and variance of random slopes interacted with the estimator to explain SE bias. Only the within-subjects effect showed significant underestimation of SEs with smaller number of items and larger item random slopes. SE bias was higher for ML than REML, but the variability of SE bias was the opposite. Such variability can be translated into high rates of unacceptable bias in many replications.

OBJECTIVE A biopsychosocial approach has been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of anorexia nervosa (AN), despite only a few of the existing etiological models having received empirical support. The aim of this study was to empirically investigate Herpertz-Dahlmann, Seitz, and Konrad (2011, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-011-0246-y)'s developmental model and to consider if interpersonal reactions to the illness might serve as maintaining factors following the model proposed by Treasure and Schmidt (2013, https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-2974-1-13) METHOD: One hundred adolescents and their families were participated in the study: 50 diagnosed with AN, paired by age and parents' socio-economic status with 50 adolescents without a pathology. Biological, psychological and familial variables were assessed using ten questionnaires and a blood analysis test. Additionally, structural equation modeling was conducted to assess two hypothetical models. RESULTS The fit of both models was good after the addition of two covariate parameters (e.g., Comparative Fit Index > 0.96 and Tucker-Lewis Index > 0.95). Premorbid traits were linked to body dissatisfaction and to the number of stressful life events; this in turn was linked to AN symptoms. Biological and familial consequences reinforced this pathology. CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide support for both models, suggesting that inter relationships between bio-psycho-familial variables can influence the course of AN during adolescence.

Objectives To longitudinally analyze the correlates of loneliness and psychological distress in people exposed to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown, exploring the effects of age and self-perceptions of aging (SPA). Methods A longitudinal follow-up of 1,549 participants was carried out at four different time points during the lockdown in Spain. Questions about the risk of COVID-19, age, SPA, family and personal resources, loneliness, and psychological distress were measured. Results Changes in loneliness showed a linear longitudinal trajectory through time, but changes in psychological distress showed a U-shaped relationship with time. Age was a relevant predictor of differences in distress, with older people reporting less psychological distress. Change in both dependent variables was related to change in different predictors like family and personal variables and also to negative SPA. Discussion In a stressful situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults may be more resilient to adverse mental health outcomes by using more adaptive resources that strengthen their resilience. Support is provided for the importance of stereotyped views of the aging process that, independently of chronological age, may put people at risk of suffering adverse mental health outcomes such as loneliness and psychological distress in times of crisis.

Some proposals claim that language acts as a link to propagate emotional and other modal information. Thus, there is an eminently amodal path of emotional propagation in the mental lexicon. Following these proposals, we present a computational model that emulates a linking mechanism (mapping function) between emotional and amodal representations of words using vector space models, emotional feature-based models, and neural networks. We analyzed three central concepts within the embodiment debate (redundancy, isomorphism, and propagative mechanisms) comparing two alternative hypotheses: semantic neighborhood hypothesis versus specific dimensionality hypothesis. Univariate and multivariate neural networks were trained for dimensional (N = 11,357) and discrete emotions (N = 2,266), and later we analyzed its predictions in a test set (N = 4,167 and N = 875, respectively). We showed how this computational model could propagate emotional responses to words without a direct emotional experience via amodal propagation, but no direct relations were found between emotional rates and amodal distances. Thereby, we found that there were clear redundancy and propagative mechanisms, but no isomorphism should be assumed. Results suggested that it was necessary to establish complex links to go beyond amodal distances of vector spaces. In this way, although the emotional rates of semantic neighborhoods could predict the emotional rates of target words, the mapping function of specific amodal features seemed to simulate emotional responses better. Thus, both hypotheses would not be mutually exclusive. We also showed that discrete emotions could have simpler relations between modal and amodal representations than dimensional emotions. All these results and their theoretical implications are discussed.

Memory and behavioral difficulties among older people living in nursing homes can cause burden and other consequences in professional caregivers. There is a lack of instruments that evaluate these behaviors and their influence in formal caregivers. The aim of this study is to develop and psychometrically test—the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist for Nursing Homes (RMBPC-NH). A cross-sectional study was carried out. The sample was made up of 312 formal caregivers working in nursing homes from different territories in Spain, 87.5% were women and 12.5% were men. The average age of participants was 39 years (SD = 12.2). The sample was recruited from January 2019 to March 2020. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire, which included sociodemographic information, and assessed quality of technical equipment, level of training, experience of working with older people, job satisfaction, professional quality of life, burnout, and conception of negative stereotypes held towards aging. The four-factor structure of the RMBPC-NH showed a good fit, namely in relation to memory, functional, and emotional factors, and other problems. It has shown adequate psychometric properties, internal consistency, and validity (correlations with professional quality of life, job satisfaction, burnout, and negative stereotypes). The RMBPC-NH is a useful instrument to evaluate the frequency of older people’s memory and behavior problems and professional caregivers’ burden. The practical application in nursing homes is discussed.

Usually, computerized assessments of constructed responses use a predictive-centered approach instead of a validity-centered one. Here, we compared the convergent and discriminant validity of two computerized assessment methods designed to detect semantic topics in constructed responses: Inbuilt Rubric (IR) and Partial Contents Similarity (PCS). While both methods are distributional models of language and use the same Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) prior knowledge, they produce different semantic representations. PCS evaluates constructed responses using non-meaningful semantic dimensions (this method is the standard LSA assessment of constructed responses), but IR endows original LSA semantic space coordinates with meaning. In the present study, 255 undergraduate and high school students were allocated one of three texts and were tasked to make a summary. A topic-detection task was conducted comparing IR and PCS methods. Evidence from convergent and discriminant validity was found in favor of the IR method for topic-detection in computerized constructed response assessments. In this line, the multicollinearity of PCS method was larger than the one of IR method, which means that the former is less capable of discriminating between related concepts or meanings. Moreover, the semantic representations of both methods were qualitatively different, that is, they evaluated different concepts or meanings. The implications of these automated assessment methods are also discussed. First, the meaningful coordinates of the Inbuilt Rubric method can accommodate expert rubrics for computerized assessments of constructed responses improving computer-assisted language learning. Second, they can provide high-quality computerized feedback accurately detecting topics in other educational constructed response assessments. Thus, it is concluded that: (1) IR method can represent different concepts and contents of a text, simultaneously mapping a considerable variability of contents in constructed responses; (2) IR method semantic representations have a qualitatively different meaning than the LSA ones and present a desirable multicollinearity that promotes the discriminant validity of the scores of distributional models of language; and (3) IR method can extend the performance and the applications of current LSA semantic representations by endowing the dimensions of the semantic space with semantic meanings.

Recent studies in different countries indicate that PhD students are more vulnerable to psychological disorders compared to the general population. No such data are available for the Spanish population. This study addresses this issue by studying prevalence rates and factors related to a common response to prolonged stress such as burnout syndrome. Burnout, emotional abilities, resilience, satisfaction with the dissertation advisor, and sociodemographic data were collected from 305 PhD students. The results indicated that the burnout rates are high in this group, especially for the emotional exhaustion dimension. Different linear regression models explained between 14% and 41% of the overall burnout scores variance and its dimensions. The psychological variables and the satisfaction with the dissertation advisor were the most relevant predictors. Consistent with what has been found in other countries, the evidence found indicates that the mental state of PhD students in Spain is alarming. The results of this study have important implications for the design and implementation of interventions to alleviate this problem.

In the last two decades, empirical evidence has shown that personality traits could be related to the characteristics of written language. This study describes a meta-analysis that synthesizes 23 independent estimates of the correlations between the Big Five major personality traits, and some computationally obtained indicators from written language. The results show significant combined estimates of the correlations, albeit small to moderate according to Cohen's conventions to interpret effect sizes, for the five traits (between r = 0.26 for agreeableness and neuroticism, and 0.30 for openness). These estimates are moderated by the type of information in the texts, the use of prediction mechanisms, and the source of publication of the primary studies. Generally, the same effective moderators operate for the five traits. It is concluded that written language analyzed through computational methods could be used to extract relevant information of personality. But further research is still needed to consider it as predictive or explanatory tool for individual differences.

IntroductionThe behavior problems in residents may affect professionals’ performance at work, quality of work life, and even their health. Thus, it is important to have instruments that allow to estimate their prevalence. The objective of this study was to validate the Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist-Nursing Homes (RMBPC-NH; Allen et al., 2003) in a Spanish population. Specifically, it was tested the factor structure of the RMBPC-NH proposed by Wagner et al. (1995). Moreover, the relevance of the different types of problems for the working performance, at the level of individuals and institutions, was explored.MethodIn the present study, a total of 200 professionals participated.ResultsA Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted using WLSMV estimator in Mplus 7. Results showed a good fit to the data for the four-factor model (?2(813) = 1733.73, pDiscussionAfter analyzing the factor structure, reliability and validity of the adaptation of the RMBPC-NH scale for Spanish staff nursing homes it has found that it has good psychometric properties, so it could be a useful tool for this population.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant number PSI2016-79803-R).

The purpose of this study was to compare two automatic assessment methods using Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA): A novel LSA assessment method (Inbuilt Rubric) and a traditional LSA method (Golden Summary). Two conditions were analyzed using the Inbuilt Rubric method: The number of lexical descriptors needed to better accommodate an expert rubric (few vs. many) and a weighting function to penalize off-topic contents included in the student summaries (weighted vs. non-weighted). One hundred and sixty-six students divided in two different samples (81 undergraduates and 85 High School students) took part in this study. Students summarized two expository texts that differed in complexity (complex/ easy) and length (1,300/500 words). Results showed that the Inbuilt Rubric method simulates human assessment better than Golden summaries in all cases. The similarity with human assessment was higher for Inbuilt Rubric (r = .78 and r = .79) than for Golden Summary (r = .67 and r = .47) in both texts. Moreover, to accommodate an expert rubric into the Inbuilt Rubric method was better using few descriptors and the weighted function., El objetivo de este estudio es comparar dos métodos de evaluación automática del análisis semántico latente (LSA): Un nuevo método LSA (Inbuilt Rubric) y un método LSA tradicional (Golden Summary). Se analizaron dos condiciones del método Inbuilt Rubric: el número de descriptores léxicos que se utilizan para generar la rúbrica (pocos vs. muchos) y una corrección que penaliza el contenido irrelevante incluido en los resúmenes de los estudiantes (corregido vs. no corregido). Ciento sesenta y seis estudiantes divididos en dos muestras (81 estudiantes universitarios y 85 estudiantes de instituto) participaron en este estudio. Los estudiantes resumieron dos textos expositivos que tenían distinta complejidad (difícil/fácil) y longitud (1,300/500 palabras). Los resultados mostraron que el método Inbuilt Rubric imita las evaluaciones humanas mejor que Golden Summary en todos los casos. La similitud con las evaluaciones humanas fue más alta con Inbuilt Rubric (r = .78 and r = .79) que con Golden Summary (r = .67 and r = .47) en ambos textos. Además, la versión de Inbuilt Rubric con menor número de descriptores y con corrección es la que obtuvo mejores resultados, This study was supported by Grant PSI2013-47219-P from the Ministry of Economic and Competitive (MINECO) of Spain, and European Union

RESUMEN El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar el nivel de la competencia lectora en personas adultas con Discapacidad Intelectual y del Desarrollo (PcDID) en la Comunidad de Madrid ante textos clínicos de diferente complejidad léxica y semántica. Participaron un total de 61 personas adultas con discapacidad intelectual y 31 estudiantes universitarios del último curso de grado como grupo control. Los resultados mostraron que las PcDID mejoran su rendimiento en tareas de comprensión lectora cuando se dispone del tiempo y apoyos necesarios. Así, si se dispone de una mayor cantidad de tiempo, el rendimiento de una parte importante de las PcDID mejora considerablemente, consiguiendo en algunos casos aproximarse al rendimiento de los estudiantes universitarios. El nivel de escolarización de las PcDID fue determinante en su rendimiento en las distintas pruebas.