Content in Context Improves Deception Detection Accuracy

Past research has shown that people are only slightly better than chance at distinguishing truths from lies. Higher accuracy rates, however, are possible when contextual knowledge is used to judge the veracity of situated message content. The utility of content in context was shown in a series of experiments with students (N = 26, 45, 51, 25, 127) and experts (N = 66). Across studies, average accuracy was 75% in the content in context groups compared with 57% in the controls. These results demonstrate the importance of situating judges within a meaningful context and have important implications for deception theory.     

Increasing Deception Detection Accuracy with Strategic Questioning

One explanation for the finding of slightly above‐chance accuracy in detecting deception experiments is limited variance in sender transparency. The current study sought to increase accuracy by increasing variance in sender transparency with strategic interrogative questioning. Participants (total N = 128) observed cheaters and noncheaters who were questioned with either indirect background questions or strategic questioning. Accuracy was significantly below chance (44%) in the background questions condition and substantially above chance (68%) in the strategic interrogative questioning condition. The results suggest that transparency can be increased by strategic question asking and that accuracy rates well above chance are possible even for untrained judges exposed to only brief communications.     

Temporal aspects of slant and inclination perception.

Linear transformations (shear or scale transformations) of either horizontal or vertical disparity give rise to the percept of slant or inclination. It has been proposed that the percept of slant induced by vertical size disparity, known as Ogle's induced-size effect, and the analogous induced-shear effect, compensate for scale and shear distortions arising from aniseikonia, eccentric viewing, and cyclodisparity. We hypothesised that these linear transformations of vertical disparity are processed more slowly than equivalent transformations of horizontal disparity (horizontal shear and size disparity). We studied the temporal properties of the stereoscopic slant and inclination percepts that arose when subjects viewed stereograms with various combinations of horizontal and vertical size or shear disparities. We found no evidence to support our hypothesis. There were no clear differences in the build-up of percepts of slant or inclination induced by step changes in horizontal size or shear disparity and those induced by step changes in vertical size or shear disparity. Perceived slant and inclination decreased in a similar manner with increasing temporal frequency for modulations of transformations of both horizontal and vertical disparity. Considerable individual differences were found and several subjects experienced slant reversal, particularly with oscillating stimuli. An interesting finding was that perceived slant induced by modulations of dilation disparity was in the direction of the vertical component. This suggests the vertical size disparity mechanism has a higher temporal bandwidth than the horizontal size disparity mechanism. However, conflicting perspective information may play a dominant role in determining the temporal properties of perceived slant and inclination.     

Book reviews

PASSINCHAM, R. E. The Human Primate. Oxford and San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. 1982. Pp. xii + 390. ISBN 0 7167 1356 X, £14.95 (hardback); 0 7167 1357 8, £7.50 (paperback).

MACPHAIL, E. M. Brain and Intelligence in Vertebrates. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1982. Pp. 423. £20. ISBN 0 19 854550 9.

KATSUKI, Y. Receptive Mechanisms of Sound in the Ear. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1982. Pp. 155. ISBN 0 521 24346 7. £20.00.     

WHAT DO FEMINISTS BELIEVE?

When a woman says "I am a feminist" what does she mean? What do other people think she means? We asked 71 women to complete the Feminist Perspectives Scale (Henley, Meng, O'Brien, McCarthy, & Sockloskie, 1998) from their own perspective and from the perspective of a "typical feminist." Women who self-identified as feminists had stronger beliefs than those who did not on all feminist perspectives except cultural feminism. Both groups believed that a typical feminist held stronger radical, socialist, and cultural feminist beliefs than they themselves did, although the discrepancies were greater for nonfeminists. Nonfeminists viewed a typical feminist as endorsing stronger cultural feminist views than did feminists. Our results indicate that feminist self-identity is related to endorsement of feminist ideologies, and that both feminists and nonfeminists think that a typical feminist is more extreme than they are. The results also suggest that cultural feminism is a contested ideology; it is not endorsed by feminists, but is ascribed to them by nonfeminists     

Engaging with Cultural Sport Psychology to Explore Systemic Sexual Exploitation in USA Gymnastics: A Call to Commitments

In this article, we engage with cultural sport psychology (CSP) to explore sexual exploitation in USA Gymnastics. Specifically, using critical reflexivity on the Larry Nassar case, we bring to life how systemic abuse in sport is more than a tragedy. We argue that perpetration of abuse persists in sport spaces largely because athletes train and compete in relations of force that privilege structures and practices to which athletes are subordinate. A return to recenter discussions on the significance of oppression and power in the larger discourse and ethical practice of CSP became imperative with the news of U.S. doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual predation. As tools in our advocacy for the reduction of sport sexism and sexual exploitation and abuse, we offer four ethical commitments to the field as we examine the ways systemic gendered violence and oppressions in sport are perpetrated in systems, decision-making, and every practices. We invite CSP scholars and sport psychology practitioners to interrogate and disrupt systemic intersectional disempowerment and cultures of sexual exploitation.