Improving Arguments for Local Carbon Rights: The Case of Forest-Based Sequestration

Land-based climate mitigation schemes such as REDD+ imply the creation of ‘rights to carbon’ for actions that enhance carbon sinks. In many cases, the legal and normative foundations of such rights are unclear. This article focuses on special rights on the basis of improvement. Considering improvement in relation to carbon sinks requires asking what it means to ‘improve’ an environmental resource. Our answer departs in two significant respects from the standard conception of improvement, namely by reconceiving action in relation to ecosystem services, and accordingly, making the case for a counterfactual baseline to be used to compare an improved and unimproved state. Our modifications potentially allow for a variety of agents to claim special carbon rights on the basis of beneficial interactions with land-based carbon sinks. We give three archetypical examples of agents who may claim pro tanto special rights to carbon based on their interaction with carbon sinks.     

Repression, Dissociation, and the Recovered Memory Debate: Constructing Scientific Evidence and Expertise

We examine arguments about the scientific status of repression and dissociation in the written discourse of academic social scientists and clinicians on the controversial issue of recovered memories of child sexual abuse. The rhetorical deployment of theories, methods, and evidence by representatives of both camps regarding the authenticity of recovered memories, repression, and dissociation is compared. The ways in which supporters and sceptics bolster claims for their own expertise while undermining that of opponents are also explored. Supporters of recovered memory emphasise the pragmatic relevance of theories and clinical evidence, while sceptics draw rhetorically on positivist standards of scientific rigour and reliability to undermine claims of recovered memory. The themes of relevance and reliability are then related to discussions of recent legal changes in the United States on the admissibility of expert opinion evidence in recovered memory cases.     

Listening to your heart. How interoception shapes emotion experience and intuitive decision making

Theories proposing that how one thinks and feels is influenced by feedback from the body remain controversial. A central but untested prediction of many of these proposals is that how well individuals can perceive subtle bodily changes (interoception) determines the strength of the relationship between bodily reactions and cognitive-affective processing. In Study 1, we demonstrated that the more accurately participants could track their heartbeat, the stronger the observed link between their heart rate reactions and their subjective arousal (but not valence) ratings of emotional images. In Study 2, we found that increasing interoception ability either helped or hindered adaptive intuitive decision making, depending on whether the anticipatory bodily signals generated favored advantageous or disadvantageous choices. These findings identify both the generation and the perception of bodily responses as pivotal sources of variability in emotion experience and intuition, and offer strong supporting evidence for bodily feedback theories, suggesting that cognitive-affective processing does in significant part relate to "following the heart."     

For the Common Good: The Church of England,Christian–Muslim Relations and A Common Word

This paper seeks to explore some of the dynamics of Christian–Muslim relations today, particularly in England, and asks what might be the relationship between such dynamics and current Anglican theology, belief and practice. It explores the lecture of 7 February 2008 given by Archbishop Rowan Williams to the Royal Courts of Justice in London, and suggests that the Archbishop's remarks on this occasion are consonant with his understanding of Anglican ecclesiology. Finally the paper concludes by looking at the Archbishop's response to the document A Common Word and draws links between the Archbishop's interest in this document and his more domestic concerns.     

A Progression to Transfer RIRD to the Natural Environment

Response interruption and redirection has been shown to be effective for decreasing vocal stereotypy, but treatment effects in the natural environment have yet to be documented in the literature. A recent review indicated the paucity of studies that implemented response interruption and redirection during typically occurring activities or for sessions longer than 5–10 min. One method to promote generalization across settings may be stimulus control procedures. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the progression of the intervention from a highly structured to a more natural setting, and across longer durations. We also investigated the extent to which a signal could acquire stimulus control over stereotypy. Although we were unable to bring stereotypy under the inhibitory control of a signal alone, we maintained low levels of stereotypy in the natural environment and ultimately extended sessions up to 30 min. Clinical implications and areas for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Face-name memory training in subjective memory decline: how does office-based training translate to everyday situations?

This study aimed to examine whether people with subjective memory decline (SMD) benefit from face-name memory training (single session) as much as older adult controls in an office-based setting. Approximately 2 months later, groups were reassessed for translation to a naturalistic setting. In the office setting, there was a significant interaction between stimulus type (cued name; uncued name) and training condition (spaced retrieval, semantic association, no training), but no group differences nor interactions. Semantic association was only beneficial for cued names, whereas spaced retrieval was beneficial in cued and uncued conditions. In the naturalistic setting, however, there were no training effects. Naturalistic performance was predicted by demographics, cognition, and motivation. All groups reported improved memory control beliefs and contentment. Our study demonstrates the benefit of simple memory strategies for older adults, including those with SMD, in office-based settings. Translation to everyday settings is complex and may require prior intervention to increase motivation.     

Facial first impressions and partner preference models: Comparable or distinct underlying structures?

Given the frequency of relationships nowadays initiated online, where impressions from face photographs may influence relationship initiation, it is important to understand how facial first impressions might be used in such contexts. We therefore examined the applicability of a leading model of verbally expressed partner preferences to impressions derived from real face images and investigated how the factor structure of first impressions based on potential partner preference-related traits might relate to a more general model of facial first impressions. Participants rated 1,000 everyday face photographs on 12 traits selected to represent (Fletcher, et al. 1999, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 72) verbal model of partner preferences. Facial trait judgements showed an underlying structure that largely paralleled the tripartite structure of Fletcher et al.'s verbal preference model, regardless of either face gender or participant gender. Furthermore, there was close correspondence between the verbal partner preference model and a more general tripartite model of facial first impressions derived from a different literature (Sutherland et al., 2013, Cognition, 127, 105), suggesting an underlying correspondence between verbal conceptual models of romantic preferences and more general models of facial first impressions.