Asking Adolescents to Explain Discrepancies in Self-Reported Suicidality

We present a typology of adolescents' most common explanations for discrepant reporting of suicidal behavior. Forty-eight adolescents provided attempt histories by completing a self-report measure of suicidality. A select number of items were subsequently readministered (average interval = 5 days) using a semistructured interview format. Discrepancies in reporting were found among 50% of the sample. Adolescents were also asked to clarify, using an open-ended format, what might have accounted for a particular discrepancy. Based on these responses, seven mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories were derived. High rates of interrater agreement indicated that these categories were reliable.     

A temporal logic for reasoning about processes and plans

Much previous work in artificial intelligence has neglected representing time in all its complexity. In particular, it has neglected continuous change and the indeterminacy of the future. To rectify this, I have developed a first-order temporal logic, in which it is possible to name and prove things about facts, events, plans, and world histories. In particular, the logic provides analyses of causality, continuous change in quantities, the persistence of facts (the frame problem), and the relationship between tasks and actions. It may be possible to implement a temporal-inference machine based on this logic, which keeps track of several “maps” of a time line, one per possible history.     

Young children's responses to media representations of intergroup threat and ethnicity

Two studies are reported in which ethnic majority children's reactions to media representations of ethnic minorities are examined. In Study 1, 20 white Scottish 6‐year‐olds viewed short television stories in which white or ethnic minority children were depicted as hostile to the participants’ in‐group (threat present) or not (threat absent). A strong effect of threat on liking was obtained but no effect of ethnicity of target and no interaction. In Study 2, 4‐ and 6‐year‐old white Scottish children viewed PowerPoint displays in which Scottish people were shown only as white (traditional version) or as ethnically diverse (multicultural version). Intergroup threat was manipulated. Again, a strong effect of threat was obtained. However, when threat was absent, participants exposed to the traditional condition liked the white out‐group more than the multi‐ethnic out‐group, while participants exposed to the multicultural condition liked the multi‐ethnic out‐group more than the white out‐group. The results are interpreted as consistent with the predictions of Social Identity Development Theory.