MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'correlation'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:22:56 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050720&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F07%2F18%2Fthe-importance-of-correlational-studies%2F Correlation does not necessarily imply causation, as you know if you read scientific research.  Two variables may be associated without having a causal relationship. However, just because a correlation has limited value as a causative inference doesn’t mean that correlation studies are not important to science.  The idea that correlation does not necessarily imply causation has led many to de-value correlation studies.  However, used appropriately, correlation studies are important to science. Why are correlation studies important? Stanovich (2007) points out the following: “First, many scientific hypotheses are stated in terms of correlation or lack of correlation, so that such studies are directly relevant to these hypotheses…” “Second, although correlation ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050720 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:48:15 +0100 5050720 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975828&cid=t_163685_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfE42ltbBPEc%2F By Neal McCluskeyIt looks like Peter Thiel won’t be unopposed advising kids to stay out of college Thanks to a new report from Georgetown University economist Anthony Carnevale, and a David Leonhardt column based on Carnevale’s study, over the last few days the college-for-all crowd has been striking back. But they seem to have missed something in their own college training: correlation does not equal causation. Carnevale, Leonhardt, and others’ argument is basically that there are big, positive returns on a college degree. It’s something, frankly, that’s not generally in dispute. I say “generally,” because while on average college grads make a lot more than people without a degree, there’s a lot more to the story than averages. Ind... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975828 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:12:10 +0100 4975828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934332&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F06%2F15%2Fcan-bad-journalism-impact-your-respect-for-journalists%2F Miller-McCune, whose tagline reads, “Smart journalism. Real solutions,” recently published an article entitled, Dumb Entertainment Can Have Impact Your IQ: Can Watching ‘Jackass’ Turn You Into One? (I am not making up that first part.) So you’d think it would be an article describing a study about the effects of either entertainment or watching a movie on one’s IQ. Except it’s nothing of the sort. The study described in the article looked at 81 college student responses to reading a story about a man with a directionless life, and then gave them a short, general knowledge survey the researchers made-up just for this study. If you’re having a hard time seeing how this relates to watching a movie or measuring one’s IQ, then you’re n... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934332 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:11:22 +0100 4934332 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753759&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2F25%2Funderstanding-research-an-interview-with-mark-young%2F Mark Young specializes in helping individuals learn to understand scientific research.  He has a degree in kinesiology with a minor in psychology from McMaster University in Canada, and he has conducted graduate research in biomechanics and exercise physiology under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Phillips.  Today, he’s an Ontario-based exercise and nutrition consultant. Here are some of Young’s thoughts about how we can understand research better. Correlation and causation are often confused.  How do we clear up the confusion when informing the lay public of this misunderstanding? Given the large amount of research presented to the lay public through the media I honestly think that everyone should be required to take at least one statistics and research design course in high sch... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753759 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:46:15 +0100 4753759 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615186&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2F21%2Funderstanding-research-methodology%2F In order to fully appreciate and apply the knowledge that has been acquired through the scientific process, it is imperative to have a basic understanding of scientific research methodology. Methodology: scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate data. This is the first in a series of articles that will shed light on scientific research methods.  It is important to understand that all research methods play an important role in leading us to tentative conclusions concerning how things work in the observable universe.  But, it also important to realize different types of research should be interpreted and applied in a different manner. As an example, the primary goal of correlation research is prediction, while the primary goal of experimental research is explanation/understanding.... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615186 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:43:47 +0100 4615186 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4525054&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F02%2F26%2F3-top-sources-of-psychology-myths%2F In a recent interview I asked Scott Lilienfeld, the author of 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology, about the sources of psychology myths.  Here’s what he has to say about where psychology myths come from: The primary source is the huge, burgeoning pop psychology industry: self-help books, the internet, films, TV shows, magazines, and the like. But many of these myths also spring from the allure of our everyday experience; many of these myths seem persuasive because they accord with our common sense intuitions. But these intuitions are often erroneous. The public can defend themselves against shams by becoming armed with accurate knowledge. Many other fields — not just psychology — are subject to myths disseminated by the media. So what are some of the top sources of psy... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4525054 Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:19:26 +0100 4525054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3915071&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F30%2Fnarcissistic-college-students-spend-more-time-on-facebook%2F It probably comes as little surprise to anyone, but a small exploratory study done on 100 college students from a single university suggests that students who score higher on a test of narcissism also spent more time checking and updating their Facebook profile. Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. More than 50% of Facebook’s active users log on to Facebook in any given day, while the average user has 130 social connections (what Facebook calls “friends”). The researcher (Mehdizadeh, 2010) also examined the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem, as well as gender differences in how people use Facebook for self-promotion. “Self-promotion,” according to how it was used in this study, was defined a... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3915071 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:50:52 +0100 3915071 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3913152&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F28%2Fwalking-yoga-helps-your-brain%2F Two studies out last week demonstrate connections between practicing yoga and simple walking may work to help improve your brain health. Previous research has linked exercise to helping keep our brains healthy. The two latest studies independently found that walking and yoga may help our brain health in different ways. To study the effects of walking on brain health, researchers followed a group of older adult “couch potatoes” — ages 59 to 80 — who joined a walking group, or stretching and toning group for a year… Researchers followed a group of “professional couch potatoes,” composed of 65 adults ages 59 to 80, who joined a walking group or stretching and toning group for a year. All of the participants were sedentary before the study, reporting less th... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3913152 Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:10:47 +0100 3913152 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3784306&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F07%2F23%2Fu-s-mood-measured-through-twitter-2006-2009%2F A group of researchers have published a simple word analysis of 300 million tweets (you know, those short, 140 character-maximum status updates from individuals) from Twitter and discovered something amazing — people are happier on the weekends, and before and after work. Yes, that’s right — people are happier when they are not working! It took three researchers from Northeastern University and two from Harvard Medical School to arrive at these stunning conclusions. Now, since researchers didn’t actually look at 300 million tweets individually, the mood of each tweet was inferred using the ANEW word list — Affective Norms for English Words — a word-rating system that gives normative emotional ratings for English language words. These kinds of analyses ar... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3784306 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:45:21 +0100 3784306 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796599&cid=t_163685_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fwhy-can-iq-scores-can-differ-applied.html This report (and future reports) are accessible via a section [(Applied Psychometric 101 (AP101) Reports] on the side bar of this blog.AbstractDespite reported evidence of strong concurrent correlations among IQ tests (concurrent validity), different IQ tests often produce different IQ scores for the same individual. This may be due to a number of factors. Prior to discussing the various factors, one must first understand the basic language of typical IQ-IQ comparison research. In the first of this series, IQ-IQ test correlations are explained. Statistically significant high correlations between different IQ tests, although providing strong concurrent validity evidence for tests, do not guarantee similar or identical IQ scores for all individuals tested.Blogmaster commentsI've made a much ... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796599 Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:27:00 +0100 2796599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2727453&cid=t_163685_165_f&fid=37959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthskills.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F08%2F24%2Fcorrelation-even-multivariate-analysis-is-not-causation%2F Discussion’ and miss the important details of how the researchers drew those conclusions.  Only then can we decide how much weight we put on the findings. Jensen, M. (2009). Research on coping with chronic pain: The importance of active avoidance of inappropriate conclusions Pain DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2009.07.036 (Source: HealthSkills Weblog) HealthSkills Weblog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2727453 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:17:53 +0100 2727453 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2447697&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F05%2F30%2Fwhy-we-believe-medical-myths%2F Why do we keep clinging to myths, even when research or other facts tell us the myths aren’t true? That’s the question posed by Newsweek’s Sarah Kliff, discussing a new book put out by Vreeman and Carroll, who blow away 66 new medical myths in their new book, Don’t Swallow Your Gum! The research offers only a few answers as to why we keep believing things like we must drink 8 glasses of water a day (myth) and the belief that vitamin C helps cure the common cold (myth): The body of research on belief formation is relatively sparse. One expert in the field, York University psychologist James Alcock, admits that it’s difficult to trace where beliefs start. “Even as individuals we usually can’t explain where beliefs come from,” says Alcock, who... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2447697 Sat, 30 May 2009 14:48:10 +0100 2447697 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2398817&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F05%2F08%2Fmany-fmri-studies-fundamentally-flawed%2F In the past decades, brain imaging techniques have become all the rage in neuroscience research. Instead of bland studies that describe psychological processes in 8,000 word articles, brain imaging allows for pretty, compelling pictures of the brain (as we noted in a blog entry over a year ago). But the pictures may not be telling us what we think. A new study by Edward Vul in press in Perspectives on Psychological Science suggests that the validity of many studies that use brain imaging techniques — such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) — may be in question: In those studies, researchers used fMRI to measure blood oxygenation — a marker of neuronal activity — in specific brain regions during behavioral tasks. As is typical in fMRI studies, research... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2398817 Fri, 08 May 2009 17:09:45 +0100 2398817 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2258172&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F03%2F09%2Flower-your-risk-of-death-by-14-percent-right-now%2F Could you lower your risk of death due to a disease or cancer right now? Could it really be as simple as changing one’s attitude and perspective on life? According to new research presented at the American Psychosomatic Society’s annual meeting last week, you may be able to do just that. In a study of 97,000 women, the researchers found that after 8 years, women who had a more optimistic attitude at the start of the study had a 14 percent lower risk of dying from any cause than their pessimistic counterparts. Since men were not studied, one cannot say whether these results also apply to men. People who are optimistic tend to expect good things will happen to them, while those who were pessimistic tended to mistrust others. While the study could not say that optimism directly ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2258172 Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:43:40 +0100 2258172 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2240888&cid=t_163685_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F03%2F06%2Fa-childs-adhd-can-stress-your-marriage%2F This article describes some of the research that’s been done that looks at the connection between ADHD and marital relationships. In one of the experiments, the researcher videotaped interactions between parents with difficult children and non-difficult children: Regardless of whether they had children with ADHD, [...] the parents asked to work with difficult children were four times as likely to exchange negative criticism and questions, or to ignore each other and trade nonverbal barbs, than the parents in the other group. And regardless of whether they were dealing with easy or difficult children, parents who had ADHD children at home were three times as likely to be negative toward each other as parents who did not. Put another way, the parents of children with ADHD simply had ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2240888 Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:19:11 +0100 2240888 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1933330&cid=t_163685_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2FHCVdid_NFWc%2F The “rainfall causes autism?” study is garnering its share of media attention, as in this article, Study links autism and wet weather, in the San Jose Mercury News (which is curiously, or appropriately titled, depending on your views about mercury and autism). But what about the correlation more than a few parents have noted about how their autistic children seem to become increasingly unsettled as the barometric pressure falls and the humidity rises; as a rainstorm, and especially a thunderstorm, is brewing? As the weather changes? Tags: anxiety, asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, correlation, disabilities blog, disability, economics, Education, rain, Technology, tv, WeatherShare This (Source: Autism Vox) Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1933330 Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:13:53 +0100 1933330 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1930299&cid=t_163685_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2FcY2ZdGdpYmA%2F A study to be released today in the November Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, reports on a link between high levels of rainfall and increased rates of autism. From the LA Times blog, Booster Shots: Cornell University economist Michael Waldman found that in areas of California, Oregon and Washington that experienced high levels of rain and snowfall during the years 1987-2001, autism rates among school-aged children rose when measured in 2005. Those children diagnosed with autism would have been under 3 during the periods of high precipitation, the period during which autism is generally diagnosed. There was mention of a precipitation-autism link in 2006, in Prof. Waldman’s study on TV causing autism—more on that finding (which was, may I say, received with many gr... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1930299 Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:03:36 +0100 1930299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1437333&cid=t_163685_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F288396148%2F Daniel Lende and Greg Downey run the though-provoking Neuroanthropology blog. Daniel also teaches a class at University of Notre Dame, and he asked his students to submit group-based blog posts in lieu of the traditional final essays. He explains more on Why A Final Essay When We Can Do This?. Below you have a spectacular post written by 4 of his students. They show how brain imaging is starting to provide a window into the plasticity (glossary here) of our brains, and how our very own actions impact them. For good and for bad. Understanding Brain Imaging --- By Chris Dudley, Matt Gasperetti, Mikey Narvaez, and Sarah Walorski Do you remember the anti-drug public service announcement from the 1980s that showed an egg frying in a hot pan which represented your brain on drugs? During the ... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1437333 Mon, 12 May 2008 02:55:42 +0100 1437333 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1141006&cid=t_163685_111_f&fid=36048&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAHeartyLife%2F%7E3%2F214134403%2F You know the saying “you don’t know what you have till it’s gone”? Those words came to mind when I read the latest scientific find studying oatmeal’s benefits in regard to cholesterol. I love oatmeal!!! Being diabetic, I really don’t eat much of it and it has to be the low sugar, low carb stuff, which quite frankly… just isn’t the same. But being that the benefits of cholesterol reduction are proven to be even stronger than when the FDA first approved the correlation back in the 80’s, I am gonna start enjoying my oats again! The new findings suggest that there is many more healthful benefits that go along with the whole grains then what was first thought including… Reduce the risk for elevated blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, an... A Hearty Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1141006 Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:23:48 +0100 1141006 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=908741&cid=t_163685_134_f&fid=36049&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FDiabetesNotes%2F%7E3%2F162104167%2F Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling — crucial for memory formation — would stop working in Alzheimer’s disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand.”) I know I read something similar to this last year. There was preliminary research released stating that there is a direct correlation the way the brain uses, or misuses, insulin and the way that diabetics fight a similar battle. The most current Northwestern University study is so powerful that they are eve... Diabetes Notes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=908741 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:20:05 +0100 908741