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 a paradoxical intervention on a child's anxiety about sleep- and sports-related performance

A paradoxical instruction was used to treat a 10-yr.-old boy's complaint of crying when unable to sleep and the daytime equivalent of fearing the public display of crying when failing at sports performances. The instruction resolved both the sleep disturbance and the public crying. The results suggest that, like adults, children may experience anxiety about sleep difficulties and that paradoxical intention may have promise for the treatment of some children's insomnia.     

Compliance with homework to employ self-instructions in controlling ice water pain: an analogue to counseling

40 women were taught to use self-statements to cope with pain caused by ice water. The trainer used four different strategies for reassigning a homework task of using self-statements to cope with pain produced by immersing one hand in ice water. The strategies were equally effective in eliciting compliance with the homework assignment.     

The horizontal-vertical illusion in photographs of concrete scenes with and without depth information

On the basis of the hypothesis of misapplied constancy scaling, the perception of an abstract horizontal-vertical illusion figure embedded in photographs of natural scenes with depth cues is investigated. The effect is compared with that of a figure on photographs containing no depth information and with a figure on a neutral surface. It is shown that the magnitude of the illusion in the perspective scenes is greater than in the other two conditions. The results are considered compatible with a constancy theory of the illusion. Finally, the evidence for misapplied constancy scaling in the horizontal-vertical illusion in relation to a retinal theory is discussed.     

Auditory-successive selective attention for learning disabled and normal boys

Improvement in auditory-successive selective attention was noted across the age range of 9 through 16 yr. In contrast to comparable paradigms with visual-simultaneous materials, 30 learning disabled and 30 normal boys did not differ. Results of research on selective attention may be affected by task materials and encoding requirements.     

Cognitive styles: illusory phenomena

The relationship between cognitive style and illusion magnitude was examined using the assimilation and contrast Delboeuf distortions. As in previous research, field dependence correlated positively with assimilation; however, a significant negative correlation with contrast was also found, suggesting that, while field dependence may involve the illusory integration of the stimulus field, field independence may involve its equally illusory differentiation.     

Psychometric studies on the specificity of psychological performance disorders of epileptic patients

Using a psychological test battery for registration of psychic/psychomotoric speed and flexibility/perseveration we examined 78 epileptic patients with different forms of epilepsy and the same number of brain healthy control persons, parallelised in sex, age, education, profession and intelligence. The registrated data were varianz-, correlation- and factoranalised. We found a deceleration of psychic/psychomotoric speed as a primary basic disorder in epileptics. Decreases of flexibility independent of speed were not ascertainable.