Abstract
The conventionally employed procedure for rating ischemic pain was found to produce a degree of response bias associated with the ceiling points of the scale used. A new approach permitting open-ended ratings followed by transformation of these ratings into a common decile scale provided far greater test-retest reliability. This was explained largely in terms of the attenuation of rating artifact. The new procedure also gave rise to consistently linear functions for ischemic pain. Implications are raised for the measurement of pain as well as other psychological continua.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beecher, H. K. (1957). The measurement of pain.Pharmacological Review, 9, 59–209.
Beecher, H. K. (1959).Measurement of subjective responses. New York: Oxford University Press.
Beecher, H. K. (1975). Quantification of the subjective pain experience. In M. Weisenberg (Ed.),Pain: Clinical and experimental perspectives (pp. 56–66). St. Louis: C. V. Mosby.
Chapman, C. R., Casey, K. L., Dubner, R., Foley, K. M., Gracely, R. H., & Reading, A. E. (1985). Pain measurement: An overview.Pain, 22, 1–31.
Fox, C. D., Steger, H. G., & Jennison, J. H. (1979). Ratio scaling of pain perception with the submaximum effort tourniquet technique.Pain, 7, 21–29.
Gelfand, S. (1964). The relationship of experimental pain tolerance to pain threshold.Canadian Journal of Psychology, 18, 35–42.
Hardy, J. D., Wolff, H. G., & Goodell, H. (1952).Pain sensations and reactions. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Hilgard, E. (1967). A quantitative study of pain and its reduction through hypnotic suggestion.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 57, 1581–1586.
Laszlo, J. I., & Bairstow, P. J. (1971). The compression block technique: A note on procedure.Journal of Motor Behavior, 3, 313–317.
Lewis, T., Pickering, G. W., & Rothschild, P. (1931). Observations upon muscular pain in intermittent claudication.Heart, 15, 359–383.
Moore, P. A., Duncan, G. H., Scott, D. S., Gregg, J. M., & Ghia, J. N. (1979). The submaximal effort tourniquet test: Its use in evaluating experimental and chronic pain.Pain, 6, 375–382.
Posner, J. (1984). A modified submaximal effort tourniquet technique for evaluation of analgesics in healthy volunteers.Pain, 19, 143–151.
Postlethwaite, R., Grieve, N., Santacroce, T., Renfree, L., Wilson, G., & Peck, C. (1980). An analysis of pain produced by the submaximum effort tourniquet test. In C. Peck & M. Wallace (Eds.),Problems in pain: Proceedings of the First Australia-New Zealand Conference on Pain. (pp. 128–135). Sydney: Pergamon Press.
Procacci, P., Zoppi, M., & Maresca, M. (1979). Experimental pain in man.Pain, 6, 123–140.
Smith, G. M., & Beecher, H. K. (1968). Experimental production of pain in man: Sensitivity of a new method to 600 mg of aspirin.Clinical and Pharmacological Therapeutics, 10, 213–216.
Smith, G. M., Egbert, L. D., Markowitz, R. A., Mosteller, F., & Beecher, H. K. (1966). An experimental pain method sensitive to morphine in man: The submaximal effort tourniquet technique.Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 154, 324–332.
Smith, G. M., Lowenstein, E., Hubbard, J. H., & Beecher, H. K. (1968). Experimental pain produced by the submaximal effort tourniquet technique: Further evidence of validity.Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 163, 468–474.
Smith, G. M., Chiang, H. T., Kitz, R. J., & Anton, A. (1974). Accupuncture and experimentally induced pain. In J. J. Bonica (Ed.),Advances in neurology, volume 4: International Symposium on Pain (pp. 827–832). New York: Raven Press.
Sternbach, R. A., Murphy, R. W., Timmermans, G., Greenhoot, J. H., & Akeson, W. H. (1974). Measuring the severity of clinical pain. In J. J. Bonica (Ed.),Advances in neurology, volume 4: International Symposium on Pain (pp. 281–288). New York: Raven Press.
Turk, D. C. (1977).A coping skills-training approach for the control of experimentally-produced pain. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Waterloo, Canada.
von Frey, M. (1897). Untersuchungen iiber die Sinnesfunctionen der menschlichen Haut. I. Druckempfindungen und Schmerz. Ber. Verhandl. Sachs. Ges. Wiss. Leipzig.Math-Phys. Kl., 49, 169–266.
von Graffenried, B., Adler, R., Abt, K., Nuesch, E., & Spiegel, R. (1978). The influence of anxiety and pain sensitivity on experimental pain in man.Pain, 4, 253–263.
Wolff, B. B. (1977). The role of laboratory pain induction methods in the systematic study of human pain.Acupuncture and Electro-Therapeutic Research, 2, 271–305.
Wolff, B. B. (1980). Measurement of human pain. In J. J. Bonica (Ed.),Pain (pp. 173–189). New York: Raven Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fernandez, E. Artifact in pain ratings, its implications for test-retest reliability, and correction by a new scaling procedure. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 12, 1–15 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960450
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960450