A test of the micro‐expressions training tool: Does it improve lie detection?

The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the micro‐expressions training tool (METT) in identifying and using micro‐expressions to improve lie detection. Participants (n = 90) were randomly assigned to receive training in micro‐expressions recognition, a bogus control training, or no training. All participants made veracity judgements of five randomly selected videos of targets providing deceptive or truthful statements. With the use of the Bayesian analyses, we found that the METT group did not outperform those in the bogus training and no training groups. Further, overall accuracy was slightly below chance. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Task Decomposition Through Competition in a Modular Connectionist Architecture: The What and Where Vision Tasks

A novel modular connectionist architecture is presented in which the networks composing the architecture compete to learn the training patterns. An outcome of the competition is that different networks learn different training patterns and, thus, learn to compute different functions. The architecture performs task decomposition in the sense that it learns to partition a task into two or more functionally independent tasks and allocates distinct networks to learn each task. In addition, the architecture tends to allocate to each task the network whose topology is most appropriate to that task. The architecture's performance on “what” and “where” vision tasks is presented and compared with the performance of two multilayer networks. Finally, it is noted that function decomposition is an underconstrained problem, and, thus, different modular architectures may decompose a function in different ways. A desirable decomposition can be achieved if the architecture is suitably restricted in the types of functions that it can compute. Finding appropriate restrictions is possible through the application of domain knowledge. A strength of the modular architecture is that its structure is well suited for incorporating domain knowledge.     

Are Reaching Movements Planned to be Straight and Invariant in the Extrinsic Space? Kinematic Comparison Between Compliant and Unconstrained Motions

Two main questions were addressed in the present study. First, does the existence of kinematic regularities in the extrinsic space represent a general rule? Second, can the existence of extrinsic regularities be related to specific experimental situations implying, for instance, the generation of compliant motion (i.e. a motion constrained by external contact)? To address these two questions we studied the spatio-temporal characteristics of unconstrained and compliant movements. Five major differences were observed between these two types of movement: (1) the movement latency and movement duration were significantly longer in the compliant than in the unconstrained condition; (2) whereas the hand path was curved and variable according to movement direction for the unconstrained movements, it was straight and invariant for the compliant movements; (3) whereas the movement end-point distribution was roughly circular for the unconstrained movements, it was consistently elongated and typically oriented in the movement direction for the compliant movements; (4) whereas constant errors varied as a function of target eccentricity for the unconstrained movements, they were independent of this factor for the compliant movements; (5) the instruction to move the final effector along a straight line path influenced the characteristics of the unconstrained movements but not the characteristics of the compliant movements. When considered together, the previous observations suggest that compliant and unconstrained movements involve different planning strategies. Our data support the hypothesis that unconstrained motions, unlike compliant motions, are not programmed to follow a straight line path in the extrinsic space. This observation provides a theoretical frame of reference within which some apparently contradictory results reported in the movement generation literature may be explained.     

Signifik und Biologie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

An unusual case of self-inflicted death in childhood

The authors report the details of the case of a ten year old boy whose self-inflicted death by gunshot featured the involvement of a nine year old companion. The authors examine the material from the viewpoints of a possible case of suicide, of a certain case of violent death, and of a case with repercussions on the other child and the community.     

THE MORALITY,POLITICS, AND IRONY OF WAR: Recovering Reinhold Niebuhr's Ethical Realism

The American experience of war is ironic. That is, there is often an intimate and unexamined relationship between seemingly contrary elements in war such as morality and politics. This article argues that without understanding such irony, we are unlikely to reflect in morally comprehensive ways on past, present, or future wars. Traditional schools of thought, however, such as moralism and political realism, reinforce these apparent contradictions. I propose, then, an alternative—“ethical realism” as informed by Reinhold Niebuhr—that better explains the irony of war. Through an ethical realist examination of the U.S. Civil War, World War II, and the Iraq War, I consider how American political interests have been inextricably linked with deep moral concerns. Ethical realism charts a middle path that ennobles traditional realpolitik while eschewing certain perfectionist tendencies of moralism. Ethical realism provides a conceptual framework for evaluating these other frameworks—a distinct form of moral‐political deliberation about war.