The influence of Afrocentric facial features in criminal sentencing

Prior research has shown that within a racial category, people with more Afrocentric facial features are presumed more likely to have traits that are stereotypic of Black Americans compared with people with less Afrocentric features. The present study investigated whether this form of feature-based stereotyping might be observed in criminal-sentencing decisions. Analysis of a random sample of inmate records showed that Black and White inmates, given equivalent criminal histories, received roughly equivalent sentences. However, within each race, inmates with more Afrocentric features received harsher sentences than those with less Afrocentric features. These results are consistent with laboratory findings, and they suggest that although racial stereotyping as a function of racial category has been successfully removed from sentencing decisions, racial stereotyping based on the facial features of the offender is a form of bias that is largely overlooked.     

Selection from perceptual and conceptual representations

The lateral prefrontal cortex has been implicated in a wide variety of functions that guide our behavior, and one such candidate function is selection. Selection mechanisms have been described in several domains spanning different stages of processing, from visual attention to response execution. Here, we consider two such mechanisms: selecting relevant information from the perceptual world (e.g., visual selective attention) and selecting relevant information from conceptual representations (e.g., selecting a specific attribute about an object from long-term memory). Although the mechanisms involved in visual selective attention have been well characterized, much less is known about the latter case of selection. In this article, we review the relevant literature from the attention domain as a springboard to understanding the mechanisms involved in conceptual selection.     

Head start is too late: integrating and applying infant observation studies, and attachment, trauma, and neurobiological research to groups with pregnant and new mothers

In this paper new knowledge generated from theoretical and empirical work in infant observation studies and attachment, trauma, and neurobiology research is integrated and applied to the development of a group for pregnant and new mothers. The purposes of this group were to (1) promote the establishment of a secure base for each baby through optimum self and dyadic affect regulation, the repair of ruptures, and the emergence of positive heightened affective moments; (2) to facilitate secure attachment between mother and infant by helping mothers mentalize the experiences of their babies; (3) to build affiliative bonds between group members and; at the very least, (4) to prevent insecure disorganized attachments. The group interactions also were thought to prevent new psychopathology from developing, as well as to minimize the intergenerational transmission of trauma. A discussion of how this group came out of gestation and birthed itself in a community setting is included.     

Personality traits and the development of nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug disorders: prospective links from adolescence to young adulthood

The personality traits constraint (CN) and negative emotionality (NE) have been more (CN) or less (NE) consistently associated with alcoholism. The authors examined the association of personality at age 17 with timing of onset and with prospective prediction of nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug disorders 3 years later in a twin sample (569 females; 432 males). Earlier onset of alcohol and drug disorders (by age 17) was related to significantly lower CN compared with later onsets (by age 20); high NE was related to either onset. NE, as well as CN, uniquely predicted new onsets of all 3 types of substance use disorders by follow-up, with preexisting substance disorders taken into account. Personality traits confer generalized risk for developing any substance disorder, though some traits are more strongly linked with some substance disorders than with others.     

Evidence for a double dissociation between spatial-simultaneous and spatial-sequential working memory in visuospatial (nonverbal) learning disabled children

The paper describes the performance of three children with specific visuospatial working memory (VSWM) impairments (Study 1) and three children with visuospatial (nonverbal) learning disabilities (Study 2) assessed with a battery of working memory (WM) tests and with a number of school achievement tasks. Overall, performance on WM tests provides evidence of a double dissociation between spatial-simultaneous processes, underpinning the memorization item positioning in a spatial configuration, and spatial-sequential processes, which allow memorization of the presentation order. In both groups of children of the two studies, a selective impairment either on spatial-sequential or on spatial-simultaneous working memory tasks was observed. These data support the existence of -simultaneous and -sequential modality-dependent processes in visuospatial working memory and confirm the importance of distinguishing between different subtypes of visuospatial (nonverbal) learning-disabled children.     

Self recognition versus recognition of others by biological motion: viewpoint-dependent effects

We investigated the influence of viewing angle on performance in recognising the identity of one's own person and familiar individuals such as friends or colleagues from walking patterns. Viewpoint-dependent recognition performance was tested in two groups of twelve persons who knew each other very well. Participants' motion data were acquired by recording their walking patterns in three-dimensional space with the use of a motion capture system. Size-normalised point-light displays of biological motion of these walking patterns, including one's own, were presented to the same group members on a computer screen in frontal view, half-profile view, and profile view. Observers were requested to assign the person's name to the individual gait pattern. No feedback was given. Whereas recognition performance of one's own walking patterns was viewpoint independent, recognition rate for other familiar individuals was better for frontal and half-profile view than for profile view. These findings are discussed in the context of the theory of common coding of motor and visual body representations.     

Number comprehension by a grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), including a zero-like concept

A Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) that was able to quantify 6 item sets (including subsets of heterogeneous groups, e.g., blue blocks within groupings of blue and green blocks and balls) using English labels (I. M. Pepperberg, 1994a) was tested on comprehension of these labels, which is crucial for numerical competence (K. C. Fuson, 1988; see also record 1987-98811-000). He was, without training, asked "What color/object [number]?" for collections of various simultaneously presented quantities (e.g., subsets of 4, 5, and 6 blocks of 3 different colors; subsets of 2, 4, and 6 keys, corks, and sticks). Accuracy was greater than 80% and was unaffected by array quantity, mass, or contour. His results demonstrated numerical comprehension competence comparable to that of chimpanzees and very young children. He also demonstrated knowledge of absence of quantity, using "none" to designate zero.     

Memory awareness following speeded compared with unspeeded picture recognition

A remember-know paradigm was used to assess memory awareness following speeded and unspeeded yes/no picture recognition. The beneficial effects of picture size congruency at study and test occurred with speeded as well as with unspeeded recognition. In each case, they were associated with remembering, not with knowing, which remained invariant. Thus, size congruency effects were associated with remembering even when recognition occurred more automatically and hence may be more dependent on a relatively fast familiarity process. In a second experiment, speeded remember responses were compared with remember responses that followed speeded yes/no recognition. There was more remembering when it was the remember responses that were speeded, contrary to what might be expected if remembering reflects a relatively slow recollection process. These results have implications for the ability of dual-process models of recognition memory to account for memory awareness.     

Effects of an Internet-based voucher reinforcement program for smoking abstinence: a feasibility study

The present study tested the feasibility of an Internet-based method to obtain objective evidence of smoking abstinence and to deliver vouchers for evidence of abstinence. Four heavy smokers participated in this 4-week study. Twice daily, participants made video recordings of themselves providing a breath carbon monoxide (CO) sample with a Web camera. The video was sent electronically to the smoking clinic. Participants could earn vouchers for gradual reductions in breath CO during an initial shaping condition, and then for achieving abstinence (CO < or = 4 ppm). Vouchers could be exchanged for merchandise at select Internet vendors. Relative to baseline conditions, participants substantially reduced their smoke intake, and 3 achieved sustained periods of abstinence. The study suggests that an Internet-based voucher reinforcement program is a feasible method to promote abstinence from cigarette smoking.