Instrumental and expressive violence in Belgian homicide perpetrators

The present study aimed to examine offender types in a sample of Belgian single‐perpetrator/single‐victim homicide cases. First, it was investigated if the distinction between instrumental and expressive aggression could be documented in crime scene and offender background characteristics. Second, the instrumental and expressive themes from the first analysis were examined in relation to the motives the perpetrators themselves provided for their offence. A sample of 97 solved homicide cases was analysed using the non‐metric multidimensional scaling procedure Proxscal. The results revealed that 62% of the homicide crime scenes and 67% of the offender backgrounds could be classified as either expressive or instrumental. The self‐reported motives did not correspond with the themes according to the Proxscal analysis. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

学习困难儿童的问题解决特点研究

本研究选取学习困难儿童和正常儿童各 3 2名 ,设置河内塔问题解决的情境 ,采用临床观察法 ,对学习困难儿童在问题解决中的特点作了初步的探究。研究发现 :1与正常儿童相比 ,学习困难儿童在发现和有效运用策略方面明显不足 ,但当学习困难儿童对问题情境比较熟悉后 ,有明显的进步 ;2一定的提示并不能帮助学习困难儿童最有效地应用策略。     

Sex differences in the association of math achievement with visual-spatial and verbal working memory: Does the type of math test matter?

Previous research on sex differences in mathematical achievement shows mixed findings, which have been argued to depend on types of math tests used and the type of solution strategies (i.e., verbal versus visual-spatial) these tests evoke. The current study evaluated sex differences in (a) performance (development) on two types of math tests in primary schools and (b) the predictive value of verbal and visual-spatial working memory on math achievement. Children (N = 3175) from grades 2 through five participated. Visual-spatial and verbal working memory were assessed using online computerized tasks. Math performance was assessed five times during two school years using a speeded arithmetic test (math fluency) and a word problem test (math problem solving). Results from Multilevel Multigroup Latent Growth Modeling, showed that sex differences in level and growth of math performance were mixed and very small. Sex differences in the predictive value of verbal and visual-spatial working memory for math performance suggested that boys seemed to rely more on verbal strategies than girls. Explanations focus on cognitive and emotional factors and how these may interact to possibly amplify sex differences as children grow older.     

Perceived Control’s Influence on Wellbeing in Residential Care Versus Community Dwelling Older Adults

As people age and their control capacity presumably declines, it is argued that the influence of acceptance (or secondary perceived control) increases to help maintain normative levels of wellbeing. While previous studies have typically investigated the relationship between perceived control and global estimates of life satisfaction in community samples, the present study compared the link between perceived control and eight key domains of satisfaction in 101 older adults (65+ years) living in the community and 101 older adults (65+ years) living in residential aged-care. The findings supported the theory that stability in satisfaction and primary perceived control may, in part, be facilitated by a growing acceptance of what cannot be changed. Despite assumptions that old age is associated with lower primary control, particularly when living in an aged-care facility, the data did not indicate that primary perceived control was suppressed as a result of living in residential age-care. The results did indicate, however, that primary and secondary perceived control may predict satisfaction with comparable strength under low-control conditions, and that acceptance takes more of a prime position in low control situations in later life.     

Unawareness of impaired face recognition

We report investigations of the face processing abilities of SP, a right-handed woman who had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage from a right middle cerebral artery aneurysm. Although she could correctly assign visual stimuli to the 'face' category without difficulty, SP performed poorly on all other face processing, tasks, including 'closure' (Mooney faces), perception of facial expression, unfamiliar face matching, and identification of familiar faces. Identification of familiar people from nonfacial cues (names) remained relatively well-preserved, but severe impairments were evident on all face recognition tasks. Her errors mostly involved either failures to find a face familiar at all, or misidentification as another familiar person. In face-name learning tasks, there was evidence of 'covert' recognition of faces she failed to recognize overtly. SP's face processing impairment remained stable across a 20-month period of investigation, yet throughout this period she did not think that she had any problems in face recognition, and continued to show lack of insight into this impairment even when directly confronted with its consequences on formal testing. In contrast, SP showed adequate insight into other physical and cognitive impairments produced by her illness, including poor memory, hemiplegia, and hemianopia. We propose that her lack of insight into her face recognition problems involves a deficit-specific anosognosia, resulting from impairment of domain-specific monitoring abilities.     

Training Observers to Detect Deception Effects of Self-Monitoring and Rehearsal

It was predicted that trained observers would detect deception more accurately than untrained observers. More specifically, it was predicted that the highest deception detection accuracy would be found among trained observers judging the veracity of low self-monitors and unrehearsed liars, whereas the lowest detection accuracy would be found among untrained observers judging the veracity of high self-monitors and rehearsed deceivers. It also was hypothesized that the discrepancy between observers‘actual ability to detect deception and their certainty in the accuracy of their judgments would be smaller for trained observers than for untrained observers. Observers trained to detect deception used six behavioral cues based on research by deTurck and Miller (1985): (a) message duration, (b) response latency, (c) adaptors, (d) pauses, (e) nonfluencies, and (f) hand gestures. Results confirmed both hypotheses.