Can psychopathic offenders discern moral wrongs? A new look at the moral/conventional distinction

A prominent view of psychopathic moral reasoning suggests that psychopathic individuals cannot properly distinguish between moral wrongs and other types of wrongs. The present study evaluated this view by examining the extent to which 109 incarcerated offenders with varying degrees of psychopathy could distinguish between moral and conventional transgressions relative to each other and to nonincarcerated healthy controls. Using a modified version of the classic Moral/Conventional Transgressions task that uses a forced-choice format to minimize strategic responding, the present study found that total psychopathy score did not predict performance on the task. Task performance was explained by some individual subfacets of psychopathy and by other variables unrelated to psychopathy, such as IQ. The authors conclude that, contrary to earlier claims, insufficient data exist to infer that psychopathic individuals cannot know what is morally wrong.     

Assessment of Psychopathic Traits in an Incarcerated Adolescent Sample: A Methodological Comparison

Analyses of convergent validity and group assignment using self-report, caregiver-report and interview-based measures of adolescent psychopathy were conducted in a sample of 160 incarcerated adolescents. Results reveal significant convergent validity between caregiver-report measures of adolescent psychopathy, significant convergent validity between self-report measures of adolescent psychopathy and an interviewer rating scale, but not between the caregiver-report measures and their corresponding self-report measures nor between the caregiver-report measures and the interviewer rating scale. Analyses of group assignment were also poorer than expected among all the measures with none evidencing significant agreement with the expert-rated device (Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version; PCL-YV), the most common forensic instrument used in clinical practice. Part of the poor agreement may be related to the poor psychometric performance of the callous-unemotional subscale of most of these measures and the low response rates from caregivers (N?=?35). These findings suggest that the measures do not provide an interchangeable assessment of callous-unemotional traits and suggest that further refinement of the measurement of callous-unemotional traits in youth may be warranted.     

The Intergenerational Transmission of Contending Place Identities

Although a considerable amount of research exists regarding the transfer of political orientations within the family, little systematic attention has been devoted to studying the transmission of place (territorial) identities in contexts where such identities constitute a basic cleavage of political competition. This article examines the transfer of place identities in Catalonia, Spain, where contending identities, along with left‐right ideology, give shape to a distinctive regional political life. Using data from region‐wide household surveys, we analyze the reproduction of place identities as observed in parent‐child pairs and triads and find that it exceeds the reproduction of other political orientations, including left‐right self‐location and party preference. The direct transmission model fares well against the rival hypothesis of indirect transmission via parental social characteristics and the competing impact of the local context. Parent‐child congruence varies according to the homogeneity of parental place identities, the same‐sex and cross‐sex combinations of parents and their children, and the ethnic composition of neighborhoods.     

Model-based and model-free Pavlovian reward learning: Revaluation,revision, and revelation

Evidence supports at least two methods for learning about reward and punishment and making predictions for guiding actions. One method, called model-free, progressively acquires cached estimates of the long-run values of circumstances and actions from retrospective experience. The other method, called model-based, uses representations of the environment, expectations, and prospective calculations to make cognitive predictions of future value. Extensive attention has been paid to both methods in computational analyses of instrumental learning. By contrast, although a full computational analysis has been lacking, Pavlovian learning and prediction has typically been presumed to be solely model-free. Here, we revise that presumption and review compelling evidence from Pavlovian revaluation experiments showing that Pavlovian predictions can involve their own form of model-based evaluation. In model-based Pavlovian evaluation, prevailing states of the body and brain influence value computations, and thereby produce powerful incentive motivations that can sometimes be quite new. We consider the consequences of this revised Pavlovian view for the computational landscape of prediction, response, and choice. We also revisit differences between Pavlovian and instrumental learning in the control of incentive motivation.     

An augmented reality home-training system based on the mirror training and imagery approach

Mirror training and movement imagery have been demonstrated to be effective in treating several clinical conditions, such as phantom limb pain, stroke-induced hemiparesis, and complex regional pain syndrome. This article presents an augmented reality home-training system based on the mirror and imagery treatment approaches for hand training. A head-mounted display equipped with cameras captures one hand held in front of the body, mirrors this hand, and displays it in real time in a set of four different training tasks: (1) flexing fingers in a predefined sequence, (2) moving the hand into a posture fitting into a silhouette template, (3) driving a “Snake” video game with the index finger, and (4) grasping and moving a virtual ball. The system records task performance and transfers these data to a central server via the Internet, allowing monitoring of training progress. We evaluated the system by having 7 healthy participants train with it over the course of ten sessions of 15-min duration. No technical problems emerged during this time. Performance indicators showed that the system achieves a good balance between relatively easy and more challenging tasks and that participants improved significantly over the training sessions. This suggests that the system is well suited to maintain motivation in patients, especially when it is used for a prolonged period of time.     

Evolutionary Guidance System: A Community Design Project

The Evolutionary Guidance System (EGS) is a holistic and inclusive model for designing self-organizing social systems. Such a model must be driven by evolutionary values articulated by the members of the system. The small community is an ideal context for the "growing" of an Evolutionary Guidance System. This paper describes the creation of an EGS in a community organization. The rational for the activity is to bring harmony and build community among the members of the organization and, at the same time, to reach out and include the larger community. This organization can provide a model for other organizations in the town, and the ultimate goal is to install an EGS as a nongovernmental design system for the town.     

Epinephrine,Arousal, and Emotion: A New Look at Two-factor Theory

Ever since William James, psychologists of emotion have tended to view affective states as intrinsically conscious. We argue that nonconscious affect also exists, and focus specifically on the possibility of unconscious "liking". We present evidence that positive and negative affective reactions can be elicited subliminally, while a person is completely unaware of any affective reaction at all (in addition to being unaware of the causal stimulus). Despite the absence of any detectable subjective experience of emotion, subliminally induced unconscious "liking" can influence later consumption behaviour. We suggest that unconscious "liking" is mediated by specific subcortical brain systems, such as the nucleus accumbens and its connections. Ordinarily, conscious liking (feelings of pleasure) results from the interaction of separate brain systems of conscious awareness with those core processes of unconscious affect. But under some conditions, activity in brain systems mediating unconscious core "liking" may become decoupled from conscious awareness. The result is a genuinely unconscious emotion.     

The Relationship Between Balance Confidence and Cognitive Motor Interference in Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis

The authors examined and compared the development of oral and manual force control in preschool-aged children. In all, 50 typically developing children (aged 3-5 years) performed maximal strength tasks and submaximal visually guided tasks using tongue elevation, power, and precision grips. Dependent measures included strength, rate of force rise, initial force overshoot, force variability, and rate of force release. The authors performed age- and performance-related analyses. Results revealed similar changes for tongue, fingers, and hands across age- and performance-related measures for strength, initial force overshoot, and rate of force release. There were no significant changes in rate of force rise with increasing age. Force variability measures showed effector-specific changes with decreases across age- and performance-related measures for the hands and fingers but not for the tongue. Changes common across effector systems likely reflect biological development coupled with cognitive-strategic development. Effector-specific changes in force variability likely reflect experience gained through functional tasks influencing biological and cognitive-strategic development. Lack of change in force variability of the tongue suggests that fine control of the tongue is activity specific; thus, nonfunctional tasks are not likely to be sensitive to experience-related biological development.