Information Integration in Juror Decision Making

Research applying information integration theory to jury decision making has long assumed that people average informational scale values when making legal judgments. Although often consistent with research results, this hypothesis has never been tested in a legal context against a more general additive rule. The present paper describes two studies conducted as a critical test between these two models. Incriminating evidence and eyewitness confidence were varied in a full-factorial, within-subjects design involving a total of 131 subjects acting as mock jurors. Subject responses included eyewitness accuracy and defendant-guilt probability estimates, as well as final verdict decisions. Results strongly support an averaging model of legal decision making. Additional results concerning the influence of initial attitudes and the interrelationships between the variables considered are reported and their implications are discussed.     

Enhancing Juror Competence in a Complex Trial

This study examined the effects of providing substantive, case-related, judicial instructions before presentation of evidence and permitting jurors to take notes, on verdicts and cognitive performance in a complex civil trial. Jurors made compensatory awards when the evidence either strongly or modestly favored the plaintiffs. One hundred and twenty jury-eligible participants saw a videotape of a cognitively dense trial involving multiple plaintiffs. Notetakers, while showing superior cognitive performance over non-notetakers, were more effective decision makers when pre-instructed and facing less ambiguous evidence. Results indicated that notetaking when jurors are pre-instructed enhanced recall of probative evidence and resulted in fewer non-probabitive intrusions, which facilitated decision making on legally appropriate grounds. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

世界知识在句子理解中的整合时程

Hagoort等(2004)应用背离范式发现世界知识和单词意义在句末的整合是同时进行的。本研究将背离信息提前到句首短语中,旨在探讨世界知识在句子阅读过程中被整合的时程特征。实验采用四词句子为材料,其中第二个词（目标词）含有单词意义或世界知识背离信息,记录并比较被试在阅读后三个词时诱发的脑电变化。结果发现：与正确句子比较,无论是单词意义背离还是世界知识背离,背离目标词均引发出经典的N400,二者在峰值时间和始潜时上无显著差异,但世界知识背离信息诱发的N400波幅值相对较小。句中的后继单词不再诱发类似的N400;但到句子结尾,两类含有背离信息句子的句末正常单词又诱发出类似N400的一个负波。结果提示,在句子理解过程中,世界知识的整合与单词意义的整合相似,可能是随着句子理解过程即时进行的,整合的结果不影响后继信息的加工;但到了句末,读者在对整个句子内容作真实性判断时会对先前进行过的整合再进行考察。     

Captured in Time: Friendship and Aging

This essay explores the general issues of aging—loneliness, vulnerability, dispossession, disempowerment, fear of death—from a Christian perspective. Drawing on Aristotle and Aelred of Rievaulx, we argue first that Christian stories transform these issues such that we see aging as a gift rather than a threat. Second, friendships among the elderly, and between the elderly and the young, are essential to the church; we need the elderly to tell the Christian stories, to embody the church's memory, and to teach the young how to grow old and die. Finally, we make a few suggestions about how churches can approximate more closely Aelred's vision of a community of friendship.     

Integration of Intermittent Visual Samples Over Time and Between the Eyes

The authors investigated the integration of alternate disparate monocular inputs for binocular perception in 1-handed catching experiments (N = 14, 32, 22, and 15 participants, respectively in Experiments 1-4). They varied the no-vision interval between alternate monocular samples to measure catching performance, and they compared the alternating monocular conditions with binocular and monocular conditions with equal no-vision intervals. They found no evidence of a binocular advantage for one-handed catching in the alternating monocular conditions. Performance in monocular and alternating monocular conditions did not differ across no-vision intervals ranging from 0-80 ms and was particularly worse than performance in binocular viewing conditions when the no-vision interval was 40 ms or more. The authors argue that the dissimilarity between disparate monocular inputs created by the approaching object limited the integration of those inputs and subsequent binocular perception.     

The Effect of Electrophysiological Neuroscientific Deception Detection Evidence on Juror Judgments in a Criminal Trial

There are concerns that if neuroscientific deception detection evidence becomes admissible in court, jurors may weigh it inappropriately. We investigated whether mock jurors were influenced more by electrophysiological than behavioral evidence that a defendant in a criminal trial was lying. Participants’ perceptions of evidence quality predicted verdict choice, and quality ratings were higher for neuroscientific than for behavioral evidence. However, both types of evidence increased guilty verdicts similarly, and the inclusion of neuroimages had no additional impact. These findings suggest that neuroscientific evidence may be processed differently than other types of deception evidence, but it is not necessarily more persuasive.     

Variety Seeking,Satiation, and Maximizing Enjoyment Over Time

In this article, we examine the different ways in which consumers balance their consumption behavior in order to maximize utility. In particular, we focus on how people balance repeating the same options with the decision to seek variety. While earlier research represented variety seeking as a means of reducing physical satiation (McAlister, 1982), more recent research suggests that the relationship between choosing variety and minimizing satiation is more complex, as these behaviors may be motivated and influenced by exogenous factors. Past reviews have largely looked at the two processes separately. In this article, we discuss the nuanced relationship between these two constructs and point to future research directions that may help us further understand how consumers tackle the everyday challenge of maximizing enjoyment over time.     

Negative Emotions Felt During Trial: the Effect of Fear,Anger, and Sadness on Juror Decision Making

During trial, jurors may experience a variety of emotions, many of which are negative. The current study examined the effects the negative emotions anger, fear, and sadness had on jurors' sentencing decisions and explored whether the cognitive appraisal theory or the intuitive prosecutor model could explain these effects. Jurors viewed the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial and were asked to sentence the defendant. Results indicated that after viewing the trial, jurors reported increased anger and sadness, but not fear. However, only change in anger affected jurors' sentences. Jurors who reported a greater change in anger were more likely to sentence the defendant to death. This effect was mediated by the level of importance that jurors placed on the prosecution's evidence and argument. Consistent with the intuitive prosecutor model, increased anger led to higher ratings of the importance of the aggravating evidence and an increase in death sentences. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religious Involvement,Gratitude, and Change in Depressive Symptoms Over Time

Three hypotheses are evaluated in this study. The first predicts that feelings of gratitude will offset (i.e., moderate) the deleterious effects of chronic financial strain on depressive symptoms over time. The second hypothesis specifies that people who go to church more often will be more likely to feel grateful. The third hypothesis predicts that individuals with a strong sense of God-mediated control will also feel more grateful. Data from a nationwide longitudinal study of older adults in the United States (N = 818) provide support for all three hypotheses. The data suggest that the effects of ongoing economic difficulty on depressive symptoms are especially pronounced for older people who are less grateful. But in contrast, persistent financial difficulties fail to exert a statistically significant effect on depressive symptoms over time for older individuals who are especially grateful. The results further reveal that more frequent church attendance and stronger God-mediated control beliefs are associated with positive changes in gratitude over time.     

Sexual Harassers: Behaviors, Motives, and Change Over Time

This research was designed to examine the characteristics of sexual harasser behaviors in 118 published arbitration decisions. A qualitative coding process was used to describe behaviors in terms of their severity, type, duration, and frequency. The interrelationships between these characteristics were examined along with the individual’s record of discipline and past aggression. The results indicate that harassers tended to repeat the same types of behavior, and that severity generally increased over time. Although past discipline for sexual harassment appeared to reduce this escalation, it was not very effective in stopping the behaviors. Perpetrators who had engaged in gender harassment were more likely to have a record of aggressive behaviors. Additional comparisons indicate important differences in the behavior of perpetrators as categorized by type of behavior.     

Juror Perceptions in a Rape Trial: Examining the Complainant's Ingestion of Chemical Substances Prior to Sexual Assault

This study examined the impact of a rape complainant's willingness to ingest a chemical substance and the type of ingested substance on the decisions of 229 mock jurors. Jurors were influenced by the type of substance used by the complainant, the complainant's willingness to use a substance, and rape myths. The complainant's ingestion of alcohol (compared to gamma-hydroxybutrate [GHB] and marijuana) led to the highest guilt ratings for the defendant. The complainant who willingly ingested a substance was viewed as less credible and more to blame for the rape compared to one who unwillingly used a substance. The complainant was perceived as the most credible when she unwillingly ingested GHB or marijuana. Jurors high in rape myth acceptance gave lower ratings of guilt to the defendant compared to jurors with lower rape myth acceptance. Overall, the results highlight several juror and case factors that might bias jurors in actual rape trials.     

Testimony Concerning Possible Jury Bias in a Black Panther Murder Trial1

This paper reports the application of basic social psychological data to the problem of jury selection procedures in a murder trial. Professional testimony in pretrial proceedings was addressed to potential juror bias arising from the fact that the defendant was (a) black, (b) poor, (c) a Black Panther, and (d) on trial for murder. Some observations regarding the impact of the testimony are made and some future research avenues are discussed.     

超重女性对食物信息加工的注意偏向和记忆偏向

采用与食物图片相关的点探测任务和学习—再认范式考察超重女性对不同热量食物信息的注意偏向和记忆偏向。结果发现：(1) 超重女性对高热量食物信息存在注意警觉—注意脱离困难模式,对低热量食物信息仅表现为注意回避模式。(2) 超重组女性对高热量食物信息的再认正确率显著高于正常体重组,而对低热量食物信息的再认成绩组间差异不显著。研究结果证实了超重女性对高热量食物信息投入更多的认知资源,存在注意偏向和记忆偏向。     

Recognition of Faces: Own-Race Bias,Incentive, and Time Delay1

The ability of whites and blacks to correctly identify previously-seen faces of each race was assessed in a factorial design varying the length of time between inspection and recognition phases (immediate, 2 days, or 7 days) and incentive (possibility of monetary reward for accurate recognition). Recognition of faces of males was poorer after the longer time delays, but no comparable delay over time occurred for pictures of females. Subjects' criteria for responding became more lax after the longer time delays. Incentive had no significant direct impact on recognition accuracy or on subjects' criterion levels. A significant degree of own-race bias in recognition accuracy occurred, but only among whtte subjects. An own-race bias in response criteria occurred with subjects of both races. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Theory of Mind,Anxiety, and Interpretive Bias During Middle Childhood

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The developmental trajectory of the anxiety-related interpretive bias (a tendency to inappropriately interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening) and its...     

Partisan Bias and Information Discounting in Economic Judgments

Research shows that partisanship biases people's views about the economy. Yet, there is little understanding of the factors, if any, that might mitigate the influence of partisanship on these judgments or the effect of partisanship on metacognitive judgments. This study uses an experimental design to show that partisanship continues to bias economic judgments even when subjects receive direct and neutral information about specific aspects of the economy. Moreover, it extends our understanding of partisan bias by showing it has a direct effect on people's metacognitive assessments of their own attitudes—particularly the degree of uncertainty people have in their own economic judgments. However, it appears that people are aware of the conflict between their partisan‐based judgment and economic information since we observe increases in economic uncertainty when information is counter to a subject's partisan predisposition. The results provide new insight into the extent of partisan bias and the difficulty of countering partisan‐based judgments.     

Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Criminal Activity: Examining Patterns Over Time

This study examined whether street homelessness, sheltered homelessness, and the severity of psychological symptoms predicted non-violent and violent crime among 207 mentally ill participants who were homeless at baseline. Participants were interviewed at 9 time points over 4 years. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine whether changes in homelessness status and symptom severity predicted changes in criminal activity over time. Results indicated that homelessness both on the streets and in shelters and psychological symptom severity predicted increases in non-violent crime. Sheltered homelessness and symptom severity predicted increases in violent crime, although street homelessness did not. A separate mediational analysis with 181 participants showed that the relationship between diagnosis of a psychotic disorder and both non-violent and violent criminal activity was partially mediated through the severity of psychotic symptoms. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.     

Prayer Beliefs and Change in Life Satisfaction Over Time

A considerable number of studies have focused on the relationship between prayer, health, and well-being. But the influence of some types of prayer (e.g., petitionary prayer) has received more attention than others. The purpose of this study is to examine an overlooked aspect of prayer: trust-based prayer beliefs. People with this orientation believe that God knows that best way to answer a prayer and He selects the best time to provide an answer. Three main findings emerge from data that were provided by a nationwide longitudinal survey of older people reveals. First, the results reveal that Conservative Protestants are more likely to endorse trust-based prayer beliefs. Second, the findings suggest that these prayer beliefs tend to be reinforced through prayer groups and informal support from fellow church members. Third, the data indicate that stronger trust-based prayer beliefs are associated with a greater sense of life satisfaction over time.     

The Perceived Prayers of Others,Stress, and Change in Depressive Symptoms Over Time

The purpose of this study was to see if believing that others are praying for them reduces the noxious effect of living in a rundown neighborhood on change in depressive symptoms among older people. Findings from a longitudinal nationwide survey of older adults reveal that the deleterious effect of living in a dilapidated neighborhood on depressive symptoms is significantly reduced for older individuals who believe others often pray for them. Further analyses suggest that the stress-buffering properties of beliefs about being prayed for by others remain virtually unchanged after emotional support from family members and close friends is taken into account. The findings have potentially important implications for studying church-based prayer groups as well as assessing the ways in which individuals might support each other during difficult times.