Prior probabilities

The theoretical construction and practical use of prior probabilities, in particular for systems having many degrees of freedom, are investigated. It becomes clear that it is operationally unsound to use mutually consistent priors if one wishes to draw sensible conclusions from practical experiments. The prior cannot usefully be identified with a state of knowledge, and indeed it is not so identified in common scientific practice. Rather, it can be identified with the question one asks. Accordingly, priors are free constructions. Their informal, ill-defined and subjective characteristics must carry over into the conclusions one chooses to draw from experiments or observations.     

Exploring differences in youth and parent reports of antisociality among adolescent sexual and nonsexual offenders

This study examined the extent of, and explored several possible explanations for, the discrepancies found between adolescent and parent reports of conduct problems in adolescent sexual and nonsexual offenders. We found that adolescent sexual offenders scored lower on measures of conduct problems than did nonsexual offenders, whether on the basis of adolescent or parent report, though the difference was much larger for parent reports. Examining this discrepancy more closely, we found that parents of sexual offenders reported less antisocial behavior than did their sons, whereas parents of nonsexual offenders reported more antisocial behavior than did their sons. The same pattern of results was obtained for reports on impulsivity, but much less so with respect to antisocial personality traits such as narcissism and callousness. Measures of family functioning were generally not related to these parent-adolescent discrepancies in reports of conduct problems, but these discrepancies were positively correlated with parental reports of stress. The implications of these findings for the interpretation of research on adolescent sexual offenders and comparisons of sexual and nonsexual offenders are discussed.     

Identifying persistently antisocial offenders using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist and DSM antisocial personality disorder criteria

Early starting, lifetime criminal persistence has been called sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, and psychopathy. There is, however, disagreement about its core features and which measure is best for identifying such individuals. In the 1st of 2 studies of male offenders (n = 74), we found a large association between scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) antisocial personality disorder criteria scored as a scale. The second study (n = 684) replicated this finding and found that, as previously shown for PCL-R scores, a discrete class (or taxon) also underlies scores on items reflecting antisocial personality disorder. The high association among these sets of items and their similarity in predicting violence suggested that the same natural class underlies each. Results indicated that life-course-persistent antisociality can be assessed well by measures of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder.     

Intelligence,Executive Functions,and Decision Making as Predictors of Antisocial Behavior in an Adolescent Sample of Justice‐Involved Youth and a Community Comparison Group

A clinical sample of justice‐involved male adolescents and a community comparison group were compared on a battery of cognitive ability tasks (intelligence and executive functions), decision making measures, and other individual difference measures, including ratings of self‐control, recognition of morally debatable behaviors, and antisocial beliefs. The clinical sample displayed lower performance on cognitive abilities and decision making than the community comparison group. In particular, the clinical group displayed less otherside thinking and more hostile attribution biases in unintentional situations compared with the community comparison group. Cognitive abilities and the decision making performance predicted group membership. Then, group membership, ratings of self‐control, attitudes about morally debatable behaviors, and antisocial beliefs predicted ratings of antisocial behavior in the full sample. These findings suggest that measures of cognitive ability and decision making make separate contributions to explaining antisocial behaviors. In addition, the predictors of group membership and antisocial behavior did not overlap, suggesting that antisocial behavior engagement in clinical samples may be separable from the continuum of antisocial behavior across the full sample. Cognitive science models of decision making can provide a framework for understanding antisocial behavior in clinical and community samples of adolescents. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moderators of informant agreement in the assessment of adolescent psychopathology: extension to a forensic sample

A well-documented finding in developmental psychopathology research is that different informants often provide discrepant ratings of a youth's internalizing and externalizing problems. The current study examines youth- and parent-based moderators (i.e., youth age, gender, and IQ; type of psychopathology; offense category; psychopathic traits; parental education, income, and stress) of informant discrepancies in a sample of young offenders and compares the utility of youth and caregiver reports against relevant clinical outcomes. Results indicate that gender moderated the discrepancy between informant reports of somatic complaints, while parenting stress moderated the discrepancies across reports of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Variables unique to the forensic context (e.g., offense category) were found to moderate cross-informant discrepancies in reports of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Further, youth self-reports of internalizing symptoms predicted a clinician-generated diagnosis of a mood disorder, while caregiver reports of aggressive behaviors predicted the presence of an externalizing diagnosis. Results highlight the importance of assessing informant agreement in the context of forensic assessment and raise questions surrounding the optimal use of informant data in this setting.     

生活医学化与健康恐慌的关系及其反思*--论Michael Fitzpatrick《健康的暴政：医生及生活方式的控制》

迈克尔·菲茨帕特里克的《健康的暴政：医生及生活方式的控制》一书,以健康干预为主线,以健康政治化、生活医学化、疾病道德化为主题,论述了生活医学化的不同方面和形成过程,并力图揭示医学化背后隐含着的医学对社会的干预和控制。其中作者关于生活医学化和健康恐慌的一些哲学思考,尤其是生活医学化与健康恐慌的内涵及特点、生活医学化与健康恐慌的关系以及对生活医学化的审视与反思,在一定程度上蕴涵着对当今社会发展的启示。     

Situation awareness as a function of frame of reference, computer-graphics eyepoint elevation, and geometric field of view

The purpose of this study was to determine how 3 variables for the design of a "heads-down" spatial display--the frame of reference (pilot's eye vs. God's eye), geometric field of view, and elevation of the computer graphics eyepoint--influenced situation awareness. Thirteen flight-naive subjects each flew a simulated F-16 over a computer-generated flight environment to lock onto and intercept a series of sequentially appearing targets. The flight scene consisted of both an "out-the-window" view and a computer-generated heads-down spatial display showing an airplane symbol superimposed on a perspective view of the flight environment. During the interactive phase of the experiment, root mean square flight-path error, target lock-on time, and target acquisition time were measured. After the interactive phase of the study was completed, subjects were required to mark the location of the targets from memory on a computer-generated top-down view of the flight scene in an attempt to reconstruct the spatial mental model which subjects formed of the flight environment. The results for the interactive phase of the study indicated that performance was superior using the pilot's-eye display. However, for the spatial reconstruction task, performance was better using the God's-eye display. It was also shown that the ability to maintain the optimal flight-path using the more top-down view of the scene (600 eyepoint) was superior to the 300 eyepoint elevation. Implications of the results for the design of spatial instruments are discussed.     

Hormones and dichotic listening: evidence from the study of menstrual cycle effects

This report presents evidence for changes in dichotic listening asymmetries across the menstrual cycle, which replicate studies from our laboratory and others. Increases in the right ear advantage (REA) were present in women at phases of the menstrual cycle associated with higher levels of ovarian hormones. The data also revealed correlations between hormone levels and behavioural measures of asymmetry. For example, the pre-ovulatory surge in luteinising hormone (LH) was related to a decrease in left ear scores, which comprised a key part of the cycle related shift in asymmetry. Further analysis revealed a subgroup of women who had not reached postovulatory status by days 18-25 of the cycle, as verified by low progesterone levels. These women showed laterality profiles at days 18-25 that looked more like the other women when measured at the periovulatory phase (i.e., days 8-11). Data were combined with those from a previous study to highlight the stability of effects. Results showed a distinct menstrual cycle related increase in asymmetry in the combined sample. This final comparison confirmed the nature of sex differences in dichotic listening as being dependent on hormone status in women.