Geophysical variables and behavior: XXIX. Impact of atmospheric conditions on occurrences of individual violence among Canadian penitentiary populations

This project studied the effects of weather variables and size of the population on minor and major violence rates within six prisons in the Kingston, Ontario, Canada area from January, 1980 through December, 1983. While weather variables have been studied in relation to mood changes within the general population, this study was the first to analyze the impact of weather variables on rates of violence within the prison setting using forward inclusion multiple regression. Analysis showed that population size consistently appeared positively correlated with assaults on other inmates among the male medium-security prisoners during the summer months. In the summer months, temperature tended to be positively related to some minor kinds of offenses, but in the winter months the relationship was negative. Humidity, rain, sunshine hours, snow, and snow on the ground were not consistently related to incidences of minor and major violence. Indices of geomagnetic disturbances had statistically significant inverse relationships with attempted suicide/self-inflicted injury rates among the male prisoners during the summer months. Over 12 months, wind was generally negatively correlated with incidences of major and minor violence among the male inmates. For 6-mo. periods, wind was generally positively correlated with violence rates during the winter months and negatively correlated during the summer months among the male inmates. The findings relating weather variables to violence rates in the women's prison were consistently in opposition to those found for male prisoners during the 4-yr. period.     

Effects of figure-ground reversal on the visual-perceptual and visuo-motor performances of cerebral palsied and normal children

Individuals with brain damage often encounter visual perceptual and visuo-motor difficulties. Studies have indicated an improvement in exceptional individuals' performances when the colors of figure-ground materials were reversed. Effects of reversals were studied for spastic cerebral palsied and normal children's scores on the Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration and the Motor-free Visual Perception Test. Normal children performed better than the cerebral palsied children on all tests; the cerebral palsied children performed best on the reversed-format Motor-free Visual Perception Test. Reversal affected neither group's scores on visual-motor integration.     

The role of the face in human emotion: first system or one of many?

Evidence relating to the hypothesis on facial feedback which ties the experience of discrete emotions to feedback from innately patterned facial expressions is discussed. Strong evidence is deduced for a more general form of the hypothesis, but the requirements of necessity and sufficiency representing the strictest form are only satisfied within narrow limits of experimental manipulations which are not common to all investigations. Evidence is deemed to support a relationship between facial expression and emotion, but facial expression is regarded as one of many systems and cannot be assigned an exclusive role (either as first system or as necessary system).     

Exner's Four Square: useful index in appraisal of learning disability?

Rorschach protocols, focusing on Exner's Four Square, were obtained for 14 boys who had been referred for a second opinion following an initial diagnosis as learning disabled. The findings indicated wide diversity, suggesting that a significant proportion of students manifest fundamental problems which are not essentially cognitive in nature. For these students, traditional psychoeducational decisions may be inappropriate and unproductive.