Animal Faux Pas: Two Legs Good Four Legs Bad for Theory of Mind,but Not in the Broad Autism Spectrum

Research shows that the general population varies with regard to both autistic traits and theory of mind (ToM) ability. Other work has shown that autistic individuals may not underperform on ToM tests when the agent of evaluation is anthropomorphic rather than typically human. Two studies examined the relation between ToM and autistic trait profiles in over 650 adults using either the standard Faux Pas Recognition Test (FPT) or an anthropomorphized version of the FPT (FPTa). Results showed that autistic trait profiles were related to faux pas detection ability in the FPT but not the FPTa. Furthermore, while those with the broad autism phenotype scored significantly worse than those who were typically developed on the FPT, scores did not significantly differ on the FPTa. These findings add to a growing body of work suggesting that ToM ability is not at a global deficit in those on the autistic spectrum, but may relate to the mindreading of specifically human agents.     

Decoding speech prosody: do music lessons help?

Three experiments revealed that music lessons promote sensitivity to emotions conveyed by speech prosody. After hearing semantically neutral utterances spoken with emotional (i.e., happy, sad, fearful, or angry) prosody, or tone sequences that mimicked the utterances' prosody, participants identified the emotion conveyed. In Experiment 1 (n=20), musically trained adults performed better than untrained adults. In Experiment 2 (n=56), musically trained adults outperformed untrained adults at identifying sadness, fear, or neutral emotion. In Experiment 3 (n=43), 6-year-olds were tested after being randomly assigned to 1 year of keyboard, vocal, drama, or no lessons. The keyboard group performed equivalently to the drama group and better than the no-lessons group at identifying anger or fear.     

Approval of violence by males in western Canada

Violent and defensive attitudes were surveyed in a sample of 1,010 males in western Canada.     

“He Must Learn What Being a Man is All About”: Negotiating the Male Code at the Louisiana State Penitentiary

Much of what has been written about masculinities inside prisons focuses on the pressure to live up to a hypermasculine ideal that privileges aggression, the concealment of vulnerability, and the victimization of weaker inmates. Believing this approach lacks nuance, I explore how prisoners writing in The Angolite, the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s prison newsmagazine, conceive of manhood. Incorporating hundreds of men’s voices into this discussion reveals the complexity of these prisoners’ lives as men—their emotional depth, friendships, and struggles to grow, learn, and better themselves—and compels us to reconsider what we think goes on inside prisons.     

Hitmen and the Spaces of Contract Killing: The Doorstep Hitman

This exploratory paper considers the spaces where hits take place within Britain. It concentrates on those hits that have occurred on the doorstep of the victim and offers analysis of why this location might be chosen. It suggests an emerging modus operandi (MO) of doorstep hits and how knowledge of this MO might be useful to law enforcement. Two cold cases are re‐considered in light of this MO. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of a participatory,competency‐based model of staff training in a community habilitative setting

This study evaluated a participatory model of staff training within a community habilitative setting for adults with developmental disabilities. The objectives were to formulate an approach to training that was not time intensive, included multiple instructional methods, and incorporated all levels of staff involvement. Senior administrative, middle‐level supervisory, and direct‐care personnel comprised a committee that designed and implemented a training program that targeted performance and verbal report competencies required by ‘on‐line’ staff. Training consisted of corrective feedback, modeling, rehearsal, and practice procedures that were carried out with three individuals in a multiple baseline design across sets of target competencies. The training program was effective in establishing staff competencies although individual learning effects were revealed. The implications of these findings for the design of staff training programs within human service agencies are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring User-Centred Design in Practice: Some Caveats

This paper provides a nuanced perspective on the topic of user-centred design (UCD) in the human–computer interaction (HCI) field. After a brief outline of its emergence, we describe some of the central tenets of the approach, using the process model of Gulliksen et al. (Behav Inf Technol 22(6):397–409, 2003) as a well-documented exemplar. We then examine in more detail some of the difficulties one can encounter in performing user-centred design (UCD), illuminating these issues through vignettes from specific projects in which we have been involved. In this paper, we focus on issues that can arise in working with children and with people of differing mental abilities. Our argument is that, while a user-centred perspective is required at all times in the design team, the forms of participation of users in the design process needs to fit the context and can vary significantly from that presented as the prototypical UCD approach.

Veracity is in the eye of the beholder: A lens model examination of consistency and deception

Research has attempted to explain perceived cues to deception based upon self-report of what participants believe are ‘good’ cues to deception, or self-report of what cues participants say they base their veracity judgements on. However, it is not clear to what extent participants can accurately self-report what influences their decision-making. Using a within-subjects design, 285 participants completed a questionnaire regarding their beliefs about deception before rating a selection of truthful and deceptive statements on a variety of cues. Expert coders also rated the statements for the same cues. Laypeople and expert coders do not conceptualise between-subject consistency in the same way. A lens model showed that whilst perceptions of cues, such as consistency and amount of detail, influence veracity judgements, these perceptions (and overall veracity judgements) are mostly inaccurate. Fundamentally, there seems to be inconsistencies between how deception research examines consistency and how it is understood and used by laypeople.     

Decision-Making by Children and Young People in the Home: The Nurture of Trust,Participation and Independence

This article presents the findings of a qualitative research study of children and young people (aged 7–17 years) in Ireland. It seeks to investigate whether, for the children and young people involved, the home is a space where supportive, trusting family relationships can be nurtured; where independence grows with age; and where parents listen, discuss and explain decisions made. It furthermore outlines the views and experiences of parents with regard to children and young people’s participation in the home and will focus on relational and spatial aspects of child participation within the home. The study recognizes children and young people as social actors and is also informed by a relational and spatial approach to children’s participation which recognizes the respective roles and positions of children in facilitating child participation. The results indicate that age and issues of trust and tokenism were significant barriers in young people’s participation and decision making at home. Key enablers of children and young people’s participation included spaces where discussion can happen at home, good family relationships, being listened to by parents, trust and growing levels of independence with age, seeing decisions as fair and having the rationale for decisions explained to them by parents. Among suggestions for improvements the most important were designated family spaces for discussion, encouragement of active listening by parents, and promotion of explanation by adults of their decisions.