Low temporal stability may complicate the interpretation of survey measures of conspiracy theories (CTs). Current study examines the stability of endorsement of CTs on a popular set of items addressing COVID-19-related CTs. An online survey tapping two CTs about COVID-19 was administered to 179 students of general medicine. The same items were presented twice in March 2022 and once in May 2022. The mean endorsement of the CTs did not differ between March and May. The correlation between answers provided in March and May was low (.5 < r < .7). Most of those reporting agreement with CTs in March reported disagreement in May. Conspiracy believers’ responses did not change between two measurements in March but were different in May, suggesting that the low temporal stability was due to situational factors rather than erroneous or random answers. Poor temporal stability of responses endorsing CTs may problematize interpretation of survey data. Respondents’ endorsement of CTs may be affected by situational factors, inflating agreement with CTs, and correlations with other survey-based measures.

Temporal stability is an important fundamental quality when measuring sleep parameters, yet it has been infrequently assessed. Generalizability theory was used to estimate the short-term temporal stability of five variables commonly used to characterize insomnia: sleep onset latency, total sleep time, wake after sleep onset, time in bed, and sleep efficiency. Estimates were calculated for 32 elderly primary insomniacs and 32 elderly normal sleepers, both in the lab and at home, using both sleep logs and polysomnography (PSG). A week of recording using either PSG or sleep logs was typically sufficient to achieve adequate stability (defined as G coefficient of at least 0.80) with some notable exceptions: (a) when using log-derived measures with insomniacs, a 3-week average was necessary for wake after sleep onset and (b) more than a 2-week average was necessary for sleep onset latency. Because of the substantial commitment involved in the physiological recording of sleep, alternative forms of aggregation are considered with the intent of improving temporal stability.

The effect of an attentional manipulation on eye tracking dysfunction (ETD) in the early stages of schizophrenia was examined in 34 recent-onset schizophrenic patients and 24 demographically matched normal subjects over a 1-year period. An attentional enhancement manipulation improved eye tracking performance of recent-onset schizophrenic patients more than that of normal subjects. Eye tracking level also was moderately stable for both groups over the course of 1 year. The possible role of attentional allocation in ETD highlights the need for further examination of the interface between attentional and eye tracking measures of vulnerability to schizophrenia.

The effect of an attentional manipulation on eye tracking dysfunction (ETD) in the early stages of schizophrenia was examined in 34 recent-onset schizophrenic patients and 24 demographically matched normal subjects over a 1-year period. An attentional enhancement manipulation improved eye tracking performance of recent-onset schizophrenic patients more than that of normal subjects. Eye tracking level also was moderately stable for both groups over the course of 1 year. The possible role of attentional allocation in ETD highlights the need for further examination of the interface between attentional and eye tracking measures of vulnerability to schizophrenia.