The effects of violent video games on aggression.

Violent content video games such as Mortal Kombat and Doom have become very popular among children and adolescents, causing great concern for parents, teachers, and policy makers. This study cumulates findings across existing empirical research on the effects of violent video games to estimate overall effect size and discern important trends and moderating variables. Results suggest there is a smaller effect of violent video games on aggression than has been found with television violence on aggression. This effect is positively associated with type of game violence and negatively related to time spent playing the games. Directions for future programmatic research on video games are outlined.     

A code-theoretical note on object handedness

This study is a theoretical exercise dealing with discrimination between images and mirror-images. It focuses on the way codes of shapes represent their handedness. We compare two code systems with different reference frames. These frames determine the specific sensitivity of each system. One system uses an asymmetric reference frame. It is called the H-system and was inspired by an idea of Corballis (1988 Psychological Review 95 115-123). The other system, being our proposal, uses a symmetric reference frame and we have named it the M-system. We demonstrate the following. A code of the H-system provides a cue for the handedness of a shape, but not for rotation, i.e. no cue for the appropriate kind of code rotation which should be tested in case images and mirror-images are discerned by mental rotation. The M-system is the converse in both respects. A code of this system does not provide a handedness cue but, instead, a rotation cue. Thus, for handedness discrimination, the H-system neither needs nor guides mental rotation, whereas the M-system does both. This M-system generates object-centred structural codes enriched with viewpoint information. Various visual experiments reported in the literature favour the M-system over the H-system, implying that perception does not make use of an asymmetric but of a symmetric reference frame.     

Can Implicit Associations Distinguish True and False Eyewitness Memory? Development and Preliminary Testing of the IATe

Eyewitness identification has been shown to be fallible and prone to false memory. In this study we develop and test a new method to probe the mechanisms involved in the formation of false memories in this area, and determine whether a particular memory is likely to be true or false. We created a seven‐step procedure based on the Implicit Association Test to gauge implicit biases in eyewitness identification (the IATe). We show that identification errors may result from unconscious bias caused by implicit associations evoked by a given face. We also show that implicit associations between negative attributions such as guilt and eyewitnesses' final pick from a line‐up can help to distinguish between true and false memory (especially where the witness has been subject to the suggestive nature of a prior blank line‐up). Specifically, the more a witness implicitly associates an individual face with a particular crime, the more likely it is that a memory they have for that person committing the crime is false. These findings are consistent with existing findings in the memory and neuroscience literature showing that false memories can be caused by implicit associations that are outside conscious awareness. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moving Toward Comprehensiveness and Sustainability in a Social Ecological Approach to Youth Violence Prevention: Lessons from the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center

Youth violence is a serious public health problem affecting communities across the United States. The use of a social ecological approach has helped reduce its prevalence. However, those who have put the approach into practice often face challenges to effective implementation. Addressing social ecology in all its complexity presents one obstacle; the ability of private non-profit and public agencies to sustain such comprehensive efforts presents another. Here, we provide an example of our efforts to prevent youth violence. We worked with the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center (APIYVPC) and two communities on O`ahu. We provide a case example from the Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center (APIYVPC) of our work, in collaboration with two communities on O`ahu, to develop and implement a youth violence prevention initiative that is becoming both comprehensive and sustainable. We illustrate the incremental nature of what it means to be comprehensive and we underscore the importance of reaching sustainability as the project unfolds.     

FREEDOM OF THE HEART

Philosophical accounts of freedom typically fail to capture an important kind of freedom—freedom to change what one cares about—that is central to our understanding of what it is to be a person. This paper articulates this kind of freedom more clearly, distinguishing it from freedom of action and freedom of the will, and gives an account of how it is possible. Central to this account is an understanding of the role of emotions in determining what we value, thus motivating a rethinking of the importance of emotions in the mental lives of persons.