Bombing and burning: The social organization and values of hip hop graffiti writers and implications for policy∗

Almost twenty years ago, a stylistic kind of graffiti originated in New York City and has since spread to many major cities in the United States, Canada, and other industrialized nations. This type of graffiti, known as “Hip Hop” graffiti (HHG) outside of New York City, accounts for a large share of graffiti in U.S. urban areas. It is found on buses, subways, trains, buildings, bridges, and innumerable other surfaces and ranges from signature “tags,” typically written with ink marker or spray paint, to elaborate, polychrome spray‐painted murals. This article, based on ethnographic research conducted in Seattle, first introduces the types of HHG and the social characteristics of writers, and then focuses on writers’ social organization and values—the two key elements to understanding the proliferation of this graffiti. The paper concludes with several observations on social policies designed to curtail the production of graffiti.     

Improving comprehension of jury instructions with audio‐visual presentation

This study examined whether mock‐jurors' comprehension of judicial self‐defence instructions improved when an audio‐visual instructional format involving computer animations and a flow chart was used. In a mock‐juror paradigm, 90 law students (experts) and 90 legally untrained adults (novices) were randomly allocated to one of three instructional conditions (audio, audio‐elaborated, audio‐visual). Dependent measures of self‐defence comprehension included verdict delivery, multiple‐choice (recognition), paraphrasing (recall) and novel scenarios (transfer). Law students performed better on self‐defence comprehension tests than novices in the audio‐only conditions. The audio‐visual format significantly enhanced novices' comprehension, with their comprehension scores matching those of law students. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Factors that influence search termination decisions in free recall: an examination of response type and confidence

In three experiments search termination decisions were examined as a function of response type (correct vs. incorrect) and confidence. It was found that the time between the last retrieved item and the decision to terminate search (exit latency) was related to the type of response and confidence in the last item retrieved. Participants were willing to search longer when the last retrieved item was a correct item vs. an incorrect item and when the confidence was high in the last retrieved item. It was also found that the number of errors retrieved during the recall period was related to search termination decisions such that the more errors retrieved, the more likely participants were to terminate the search. Finally, it was found that knowledge of overall search set size influenced the time needed to search for items, but did not influence search termination decisions.     

Variation in working memory capacity and episodic memory: Examining the importance of encoding specificity

In the present study, we examined the extent to which encoding specificity influences the relation between individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) and episodic recall. Participants performed a paired associates cued recall task in which a rhyme or a semantic judgment was made during encoding. During recall participants were presented with the cue word along with either a rhyme or semantic cue. Across both rhyme and semantic conditions, encoding and retrieval conditions either matched or mismatched. When encoding and retrieval conditions matched, high WMC individuals outperformed low WMC individuals. When encoding and retrieval conditions mismatched, high and low WMC individuals performed equivalently. Importantly, this occurred because high WMC individuals were hurt more than low WMC individuals when conditions mismatched. These results demonstrate the importance of encoding specificity in the relation between WMC and episodic recall as well as of unifying prior work that has demonstrated that high WMC individuals are hurt more in some recall conditions than are low WMC individuals.     

Extensive performance on the antisaccade task does not lead to negative transfer

Executive-control processes regulate thoughts, emotions, actions, and behaviors that are critical for everyday functioning. Recently, researchers have suggested that these processes can be flexibly modified by tasks that require executive control. Specifically, it has been argued that executive-control tasks can deplete these executive-control processes, which can in turn lead to negative transfer on subsequent task performance. Importantly, the degrees of malleability in executive-control processes and transfer to different tasks are of ongoing debate. The present study critically examined the hypothesis that executive-control processes can be exerted and whether or not this exertion would negatively transfer to performance on various subsequent tasks. Across a series of experiments, negative transfer effects from extensive performance on the antisaccade task were not found. Traditional hypothesis testing and Bayes factor computations were used to validate these findings. Collectively, the present results put in question the use of the antisaccade task to observe both near and far negative transfer from using executive-control processes.     

Postidentification feedback effects on face recognition confidence: evidence for metacognitive influences

Information given to witnesses after an identification decision greatly alters their impressions of the original event and importantly, their identification confidence. Two experiments investigated the possibility that the effect of feedback on confidence may be altered according to the strength of the witness's cues to accuracy. Experiment 1 used a manipulation of exposure duration to alter recognition accuracy prior to the delivery of confirming, disconfirming or no feedback. While the feedback effect was not different across exposure duration conditions, decisions that were made more quickly were less likely to show large changes in confidence due to feedback. Experiment 2 manipulated the distinctiveness of faces and showed that the effects of feedback on confidence, and on the resolution of the confidence judgement, were more pronounced when disconfirming feedback was given for distinctive faces and when confirming feedback was given for typical faces. These studies showed that the impressions that participants formed of their likely accuracy might moderate the effects of feedback on decision confidence. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.