Predicting the unpredictable: critical analysis and practical implications of predictive anticipatory activity.

A recent meta-analysis of experiments from seven independent laboratories (n = 26) indicates that the human body can apparently detect randomly delivered stimuli occurring 1-10 s in the future (Mossbridge etal., 2012). The key observation in these studies is that human physiology appears to be able to distinguish between unpredictable dichotomous future stimuli, such as emotional vs.

A double-blind, randomized study to assess the validity of applied kinesiology (AK) as a diagnostic tool and as a nonlocal proximity effect.

Premise: Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a diagnostic technique widely used within the Integrative Medical community. In essence, it posits that a question can be mentally held in a person's mind, sometimes while they are holding a substance like a vitamin, or a food sample, and by measuring relative muscular weakness an answer as to whether the substance or the condition represented by the question is good for that person can be obtained. This AK is presumed to have a diagnostic capability.

Testing the Storm et al. (2010) meta-analysis using Bayesian and frequentist approaches: reply to Rouder et al. (2013).

Rouder, Morey, and Province (2013) stated that (a) the evidence-based case for psi in Storm, Tressoldi, and Di Risio's (2010) meta-analysis is supported only by a number of studies that used manual randomization, and (b) when these studies are excluded so that only investigations using automatic randomization are evaluated (and some additional studies previously omitted by Storm et al., 2010, are included), the evidence for psi is "unpersuasive." Rouder et al.

Predictive physiological anticipation preceding seemingly unpredictable stimuli: a meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis of 26 reports published between 1978 and 2010 tests an unusual hypothesis: for stimuli of two or more types that are presented in an order designed to be unpredictable and that produce different post-stimulus physiological activity, the direction of pre-stimulus physiological activity reflects the direction of post-stimulus physiological activity, resulting in an unexplained anticipatory effect. The reports we examined used one of two paradigms: (1) randomly ordered presentations of arousing vs. neutral stimuli, or (2) guessing tasks with feedback (correct vs.

Evaluation of the association of menopausal status with delta and beta EEG activity during sleep.

Study Objectives: Women report increasing sleep difficulties during menopause, but polysomnographic measures do not detect sleep disturbances. We examined whether two spectral analysis sleep measures, delta and beta power, were related to menopausal status.

Design: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Sleep Study compared cross-sectionally spectral sleep measures in women in different stages of menopause.

Must psychologists change the way they analyze their data?

Wagenmakers, Wetzels, Borsboom, and van der Maas (2011) argued that psychologists should replace the familiar "frequentist" statistical analyses of their data with bayesian analyses. To illustrate their argument, they reanalyzed a set of psi experiments published recently in this journal by Bem (2011), maintaining that, contrary to his conclusion, his data do not yield evidence in favor of the psi hypothesis. We argue that they have incorrectly selected an unrealistic prior distribution for their analysis and that a bayesian analysis using a more reasonable distribution yields strong evidence in favor of the psi hypothesis.

Bayesian estimation of the receiver operating characteristic curve for a diagnostic test with a limit of detection in the absence of a gold standard.

The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is commonly used for evaluating the discriminatory ability of a biomarker. Measurements for a diagnostic test may be subject to an analytic limit of detection leading to immeasurable or unreportable test results. Ignoring the scores that are beyond the limit of detection of a test leads to a biased assessment of its discriminatory ability, as reflected by indices such as the associated area under the curve (AUC).

Use of complementary and alternative medicine during the menopause transition: longitudinal results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: This study examined whether use of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies during the menopause transition varied by ethnicity.

Design: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation is a prospective cohort study following a group of 3,302 women from five racial/ethnic groups at seven clinical sites nationwide. Using longitudinal data encompassing 6 years of follow-up, we examined trends in use of five categories of CAM (nutritional, physical, psychological, herbal, and folk) by menopause status and ethnicity.

Quality of life and everyday activities in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Unlabelled: Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is generally a slowly progressive disease that may lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. However, patients with PBC often suffer from a variety of symptoms long before the development of cirrhosis that include issues of daily living that have an impact on their work environment and their individual quality of life. We therefore examined multiple parameters by taking advantage of the database of our cohort of 1032 patients with PBC and 1041 matched controls.

Diet and lifestyle factors associated with premenstrual symptoms in a racially diverse community sample: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Aims: We sought to determine if the frequency of reported physical or emotional premenstrual symptoms (PMSx) was associated with (1) dietary intake of phytoestrogens, fiber, fat, or calcium, (2) consumption of alcohol or caffeine, (3) active or passive smoke exposure or lack of physical exercise, and (4) race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of PMSx and demographic and lifestyle factors reported at baseline in the multiethnic sample of 3302 midlife women in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Stepwise multiple logistic regression analyses were performed for the overall sample and for each racial/ethnic group for each of five PMSx groupings.

Cross-sectional analysis of specific complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by racial/ethnic group and menopausal status: the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

Objective: To examine the relationships of race/ethnicity, menopausal status, health characteristics, and symptoms with use of 21 types of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in midlife women.

Design: Cross-sectional, multiple logistic regression analyses of 2,118 women completing the sixth annual visit in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, a multisite, multiethnic, longitudinal study.

Results: More than half of women used some type of CAM.

Complementary and alternative medicine use among American women: findings from The National Health Interview Survey, 2002.

Background: The prevalence of use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among Americans is high, especially among women, but a national profile of women CAM users has yet to be characterized. This study identified sociodemographic, health, and lifestyle factors associated with use of various types of CAM among women in the United States and examined health conditions and reasons for use.

Methods: Data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a nationally representative sample of U.

Risk factors and comorbidities in primary biliary cirrhosis: a controlled interview-based study of 1032 patients.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an autoimmune disease of unknown etiology, often associated with other autoimmune conditions. Controlled studies have so far provided conflicting data on risk factors and comorbidity rates in PBC. We enrolled patients with PBC (n = 1032) from 23 tertiary referral centers for liver diseases in the United States and random-digit-dialed controls (n = 1041) matched for sex, age, race, and geographical location.

Distant intentionality and the feeling of being stared at: two meta-analyses.

Findings in parapsychology suggest an effect of distant intentionality. Two laboratory set-ups explored this topic by measuring the effect of a distant intention on psychophysiological variables. The 'Direct Mental Interaction in Living Systems' experiment investigates the effect of various intentions on the electrodermal activity of a remote subject.

Distant healing intention: definitions and evolving guidelines for laboratory studies.

This paper provides definitions and a discussion of evolving guidelines for conducting research on the effects of distant healing intention (DHI) on living systems in the laboratory. We consider the relevance of DHI laboratory research to applied healing, special theoretical challenges, and other considerations that distinguish DHI research from other domains of laboratory science. Two sample protocols for investigating DHI are provided, one involving the human autonomic nervous system as the "target" of distant intention, and the other involving cell cultures.

Functional status of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Objectives: Although autoimmune diseases can have a significant impact on the quality of life, there has been a relative paucity of data with respect to the functional status of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC).

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of 182 patients ("cases") with PBC as well as 225 age- and sex-matched friend control subjects using a standardized instrument obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Results: In all, 126 of 182 cases (69%) and 141 of 225 friend controls (62.

The association between gravidity and primary biliary cirrhosis.

Purpose: Primary biliary cirrhosis is an autoimmune disease with female predominance that leads to liver failure. The goal of this study was to identify reproductive risk factors associated with this disease.

Methods: We compared 182 cases of PBC with 225 age- and sex-matched friend controls to examine the role of reproductive factors.