Firearm violence and the effects of gun control legislation

Two gun control laws designed to reduce different types of violent crimes were evaluated. In 1981, East St. Louis, IL, imposed stricter penalties for individuals who carry firearms outside their homes for protection (individuals could keep firearms in their homes). This law had only a temporary impact in reducing firearm use in assaults and robberies. In Evanston, IL, a slightly different approach was taken with legislation that banned handguns in the entire city (i.e., individuals could not keep handguns within their homes). A temporary reduction in firearm assaults occurred a few months before the gun law took effect. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Are visual-perceptual and visual-motor skills separate abilities?

This study explored the independence of visual-perceptual and visual-motor abilities. Scores on the Motor-free Visual Perception Test were correlated by Pearson's method with scores on tests that weight the visual-perceptual, motor, and visual-motor components differently. Small but significant correlations were found between the Motor-free Visual Perception Test and tests of visual-motor integration, but there was no relationship between the motor-free test and tests of motor ability. These findings support the premise that tests of visual perception, visual-motor integration, and motor ability measure different skills.     

Simultaneity in Processing of Verbal and Spatial Information

Recent studies involving recall of verbal and spatial information produced conflicting results. In some cases investigators found males recalled verbal and spatial information equally well whereas females did less well on spatial than verbal information, but in other cases no sex differences were found. They also differed in that one study found processing of verbal and spatial information to be independent whereas others suggested trade-offs might occur. Using college-age subjects (17-25 yrs) with equal numbers of males and females (total n = 186) two experiments were performed to examine these differences. Although overall differences were found favoring verbal recall, females’ recall of spatial information was relatively poorer than males. Using a procedure designed to avoid possible artifactual depression of combined performance, we concluded that processing of spatial and verbal information is simultaneous in nature.

     

Saccade latency and warning signals: Stimulus onset,offset, and change as warning events

Two experiments investigated saccade latency to a peripheral target under various warning signal conditions. In Experiment I, the effects of warning stimulus onset, change, and two offset conditions were compared at warning intervals of 0, 100, 300, and 600 msec. Warning stimulus onset, change, and offset were all effective in reducing saccade latency as compared to a no-warning control condition, but warning stimulus offset resulted in shorter saccade latency than onset or change at all warning intervals. Experiment 2 compared onset and offset warning conditions at ?300-, ?250-, ?200-, ?150-, ?100-, ?50-, 0-, and 50-msec intervals. Responses following onset were slower than those following offset at the latter five intervals, while warning onset resulted in slower saccades than no-warning control conditions at ?150-, ?100-, and ?50-msec intervals. These results indicate that the onset of a visual warning signal can have an interfering effect on the programming or execution of a saccade.     

FOCAL,FORTRAN, and BASIC programs for reformatting and analyzing data collected by the SKED program

Several programs have been written in the FOCAL, FORTRAN, and BASIC languages for reformatting and analyzing SKED data. These programs include selection and explicit labeling of sets of recording counters representing distributions and/or total counts of events, several general manipulations of distributional data, and standard statistical treatment of distributions.     

THE FORMATION OF FRIENDSHIPS AMONG ZAMBIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Les recherches aux Etats-Unis ont fait apparaître une relation entre distance psychologique et distance physique. A L'Université de Zambie, en raison des particularités géographiques du campus et de la complexité sociale du corps étudiant, on peut pousser plus loin L'étude de la relation entre espace et liens sociaux. L'analyse des schémas d'amitié entre étudiants montre que les relations spatiales ont un certain rôle dans L'établissement des liens interpersonnels, mais que les facteurs sociaux et psychologiques sont plus déterminants. Il apparaît comme on pouvait s'y attendre, que dans la plupart des cas, L'amitié s'établit avec un partenaire de même sexe, de même âge et surtout de la même école d'origine. Les facteurs linguistiques ou tribaux sont sans importance: ils semblent dépassés par un sentiment grandissant d'appartenance à une élite. Les étudiants zambiens ont un comportement insulaire bien que non chauvin: ils ont peu d'amis parmi les étudiants qui viennent d'autres parties d'Afrique et aucun parmi les quelques étudiants blancs. La religion joue un grand rôle, ce qui n'a rien d'étonnant dans une société où L'influence des écoles et de la morale des missions n'a pas encore disparu. Les étudiants zambiens sont aussi individualistes dans le choix de leurs amis que les étudiants de n'importe quel autre pays. Ils semblent souvent plus solitaires et avoir plus grand besoin d'un confident que les étudiants anglais et suf-africains.     

Reporting an experiment: A case study in leveling,sharpening, and assimilation

A survey of a number of social psychology books reveals glaring errors in the reporting of the findings in the now classic experiment by Schachter on deviation and rejection. Authors all too frequently have assimilated and sharpened their summaries of this study to a general theme, omitting important details inconsistent with their theme, and also misrepresenting the results in important ways. The tendency to reject opinion deviates may not be as strong as is commonly supposed in social psychology texts and clearly is a far more complicated phenomenon than social psychologist typically indicate to their readers and students.     

The role of eye movements in the perception of visually induced autokinesis

Changes in eye position were recorded physiologically while S experienced visually induced autokinesis. Eye movements did not seem to sufficiently explain this phenomenon. Apparent motion was found to be based upon a change in phenomenal rather than retinal location. Special consideration was given to those parameters possibly responsible for paradoxical motion.