Memory phenomena in the law

Memory issues arise in the law in many different ways. At the most fundamental level, assumptions about memory are inherent in both substantive laws and procedural rules that govern the operation of the legal system. For example, the rules and procedures used to govern the conduct of jury trials reflect a great deal of faith in jurors' ability to understand and retain information over long periods of time, often with much intervening information. Memory issues also arise in the context of individual cases. For example, the ability of an attorney to satisfactorily prosecute or defend a case on behalf of a client often relies largely upon the completeness and accuracy of the memory of the client and other witnesses. This paper discusses examples of memory issues in the law and describes how applied research on these issues can be used to inform basic memory theory, particularly with respect to the relationship between emotion and memory.     

Body-size estimations in children six through fourteen: a longitudinal study.

Estimates of perceived and ideal body size were collected in 216 boys and girls ages 6 through 14 years. Video methodology was used to adjust the width of a life-size frontal image of the children. Longitudinal data were collected annually for three years, beginning at ages 6, 9, and 12. Three psychological methods were used, including the method of adjustment, staircase method, and adaptive probit estimation technique which permitted separate measures of the children's point of subjective equality and just noticeable difference values. The point of subjective equality is the body size which is subjectively equal to the child's perception of self. The just noticeable difference is the amount of change in body size necessary to detect the difference 50% of the time. Acceptable size boundaries were also measured, using the method of adjustment. Over-all, children were accurate in estimating their body width, with average overestimation of less than 2%. Overestimation decreased within each age group during the three years of the study. There were no differences between ages or sexes. Both point of subjective equality and just noticeable difference values decreased significantly during the three years of the study. The latter values significantly decreased as children became older. Body dissatisfaction (the discrepancy between perceived and ideal size) remained low for boys in all age groups. Girls' body dissatisfaction significantly increased across ages, beginning at age 9. Test-retest consistency of both perceived and ideal size judgments at intervals of one and two years were low. Acceptable boundaries in body width were similar between sexes and across age cohorts.     

INCREASING INDICES OF HAPPINESS AMONG PEOPLE WITH PROFOUND MULTIPLE DISABILITIES: A PROGRAM REPLICATION AND COMPONENT ANALYSIS

We replicated a program to increase indices of happiness among people with profound multiple disabilities and conducted a component analysis of the program. The program involved presentation and contingent withdrawal of stimuli that had been identified as preferred based on preference assessments and staff opinion. The program was implemented with 3 adult students and was accompanied by increased happiness indices for each student. Subsequent implementation of the two types of stimuli indicated that preferred stimuli based on preference assessments were more consistently accompanied by increased happiness indices than were preferred stimuli based on staff opinion. Social validity measures supported the definition of happiness, in that raters' subjective opinions of the students' happiness coincided with the observed happiness indices. Results are discussed regarding the importance and practical implications of using preference assessments for determining stimuli for increasing happiness indices. Future research areas are suggested, focusing on increasing happiness and other quality-of-life indicators during the daily routines of people with profound disabilities.     

A note on temporal relations between language and gestures

The initiation of the spontaneous gestures of Wernicke's aphasics was analyzed in relation to shifts in semantic content between the syntactic boundaries of main clauses and embedded clauses. Gestures proved more likely to arise at the initial boundaries of embedded clauses when these were semantically discontinuous with the main clause than when these were semantically related to the main clause. Spontaneous gestures may signal underlying shifts in semantic intention, thereby reflecting the difficulties encountered by Wernicke's aphasics in maintaining a coherent stream of thought across syntactic boundaries.     

Collateral benefits of the Family Check-Up on early childhood school readiness: indirect effects of parents' positive behavior support

The authors examined the longitudinal effects of the Family Check-Up (FCU) on parents' positive behavior support and children's school readiness competencies in early childhood. It was hypothesized that the FCU would promote language skills and inhibitory control in children at risk for behavior problems as an indirect outcome associated with targeted improvements in parents' positive behavior support. High-risk families in the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program participated in a multisite preventive intervention study (N = 731) with 3 yearly assessments beginning at child age 2 years. Positive behavior support was measured using 4 indicators derived from at-home observations of parent-child interaction during semistructured tasks. Longitudinal structural equation models revealed that parents in families randomly assigned to the FCU showed improvements in positive behavior support from child age 2 to 3, which in turn promoted children's inhibitory control and language development from age 3 to 4, accounting for child gender, ethnicity, and parental education. Findings suggest that a brief, ecological preventive intervention supporting positive parenting practices can indirectly foster key facets of school readiness in children at risk.     

Benefits of membership: the activation and amplification of group identities in response to social rejection

Groups vary in the range of benefits they provide to members, but one potential benefit of membership is a confirmation of individuals' sense of belonging to a larger social whole. The current studies present an exploration of this potential benefit by examining the activation and amplification of group identities and memberships following rejection. Results demonstrate that rejected participants exhibited heightened activation of group constructs, social identities, and idiosyncratic group memberships (Studies 1 and 2) and judged their own groups to be more entitative (meaningful and cohesive) than other groups (Study 3) as compared to controls. Moreover, heightened activation of group constructs and entitative group memberships after rejection was associated with higher self-esteem (Studies 1 and 2) and more positive mood (Study 4). The potential use of group identity activation and amplification as an indirect belonging regulation strategy is discussed within the context of a broader belonging regulation model.     

The impact of stimulants on a clinical measure of attention in children with ADHD.

The effect of stimulant medication on the attentional functioning of 23 children (8-12 yrs) with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated. Significant main effects of medication and TEA-Ch subtests were found, however there was no significant interaction. Planned contrasts showed that stimulants improved performance on the sustained attention, but not the selective or divided attention, subtests. Similar to previous studies, the results indicate that stimulants improve sustained attention in children with ADHD. Significant effects of stimulants on selective and divided attention, however, were not as apparent. Therefore, care must be taken when using TEA-Ch subtests to assess performance change subsequent to stimulant administration.     

The Living Body as the Origin of Culture: What the Shift in Husserl’s Notion of “Expression” Tells us About Cultural Objects

Husserl’s philosophy of culture relies upon a person’s body being expressive of the person’s spirit, but Husserl’s analysis of expression in Logical Investigations is inadequate to explain this bodily expressiveness. This paper explains how Husserl’s use of “expression” shifts from LI to Ideas II and argues that this shift is explained by Husserl’s increased understanding of the pervasiveness of sense in subjective life and his increased appreciation for the unity of the person. I show how these two developments allow Husserl to better describe the bodily expressiveness that is the source of culture. Husserl’s account of culture is thoroughly intentionalistic, but it does not emphasize thought at the expense of embodiment. Culture originates not in an abstract subjectivity, but by persons’ expressing themselves physically in the world. By seeing how Husserl develops his mature position on bodily expressiveness, we can better appreciate the meaningfulness and the bodily concreteness of cultural objects.