The accuracy of risk assessment instruments in the prediction of impulsive versus predatory aggression

Actuarial violence risk assessments, many of which include the construct of psychopathy, have been shown to be superior to clinical judgment in the prediction of long-term risk of community violence and recidivism. While these instruments initially appeared to provide similarly accurate judgments of risk of institutional aggression, recent research has indicated that such assessments may be less robust in this setting. One explanation may lie in the types of aggression most frequently observed in each setting. Impulsive (or reactive/affective) is the type of physical aggression most commonly exhibited in psychiatric facilities. This research examines the relationship between risk assessments and aggression in an inpatient forensic setting, with such aggression categorized as impulsive, predatory or psychotic aggression. Consistent with previous research, impulsive aggression was the most frequent type observed (58%). Anger (as measured by the Novaco Anger Scale) and clinical issues (as measured by the HCR-20) were most associated with impulsive aggression, with AUC values of .73 and .71 respectively. In contrast, anger and psychopathy (as measured by the PCL-R) were more associated with predatory aggression, with AUC values of .95 and .84 respectively. Psychotic symptoms were highly associated with psychotically motivated aggression (AUC = .90). These results suggest that traditional violence risk assessments may have limited utility in predicting aggression in an institutional setting and that psychiatric symptoms and heightened affect are more relevant. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the space-time structure of human interlimb co-ordination

In three experiments we show, using behavioural measures of movement outcome, as well as movement trajectory information and resultant kinematic profiles, that there is a strong tendency for the limbs to be co-ordinated as a unitary structure even under conditions where the movements are of disparate difficulty. Environmental constraints (an obstacle placed in the path of one limb, but not in the other) are shown to modulate the space-time behaviour of both limbs (Experiment II). Our results obtain for symmetrical (Experiment I) as well as asymmetrical movements that involve non-homologous muscle groups (Experiment III). These findings suggest that in multi-joint limb movements, the many degrees of freedom are organised to function temporarily as a single coherent unit that is uniquely specific to the task demands placed on it. For movements in general, and two-handed movements in particular, such units are revealed in a partitioning of the relevant force demands for each component (a force scaling characteristic) and a preservation of the internal “topology” of the action, as indexed by the relative timing among components. These features, as well as systematic deviations from perfect synchrony between the limbs can be rationalised by a model that assumes the limbs behave qualitatively like non-linear oscillators.     

Comic Immoralism and Relatively Funny Jokes

A widely accepted view in the philosophy of humour is that immoral jokes, like racist, sexist or homophobic jokes, can nevertheless be funny. What remains controversial is whether the moral flaws in these jokes can sometimes increase their humour. Moderate comic immoralism claims that it is possible, in at least some cases, for moral flaws to increase the humour of jokes. Critics of moderate comic immoralism deny that this ever occurs. They recognise that some jokes are both funny and immoral, yet they claim that it is always something other than the moral flaws of jokes that contribute to their humour. In a series of recent papers, Aaron Smuts has pressed this objection to moderate comic immoralism. I argue that Smuts' attempt to narrow the range of cases in which humour can be attributed to immoral features is not sufficient to demonstrate that moderate comic immoralism is false. Specifically, I claim that Smuts cannot rule out a case for moderate comic immoralism grounded in the possibility that humour is normatively relative while the ethical status of jokes is not.     

Children's Narratives Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Linguistic Structure, Cohesion, and Thematic Recall

Narrative discourse and intellectual functioning were examined 3 years following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children 1 to 8 years of age at the time of injury. The language-impaired TBI group (n= 9) had language deficits during the subacute stage of recovery; their performance was contrasted with that of a TBI comparison group equated on neurologic and demographic variables that did not show subacute language impairment (n= 8) and a sibling comparison group (n= 9). The language-impaired TBI group had lower Verbal and Full-Scale IQ scores and produced fewer words and utterances than the sibling group on a story retelling task; their stories were characterized by fewer complete referential and lexical ties and more referential errors, indicating difficulty conjoining meaning across sentences. The language-impaired TBI group recalled approximately one-third of the propositions needed to maintain the story theme and made more errors sequencing the propositions than either the TBI or the sibling comparison groups. Group differences were not obtained on the Performance IQ scores or on measures of rate or fluency of speech production, mazes, use of conjunctives, or naming errors. The discourse deficiencies of children with TBI and acute language impairment were most pronounced at the level of cognitive organization of the text reflecting text macrostructure and were least apparent at the level of lexical and sentential organization reflecting text microstructure. Results are discussed in terms of the vulnerability of developing language abilities to disruption by brain injury.     

Nietzsche and decadence: The revaluation of morality

The creation of moralities is necessary for the enhancement of the species, yet, the assigning of values is a sign of decadence. According to Nietzsche, this is the problem of decadence with which human beings (in particular philosophers) must contend: they must place a value on life, but placing a value on life (even on one's individual life) is problematic because it involves fracturing the whole of life into pieces. The primary objective in this paper is to address Nietzsche's own battle with the problem of decadence as it applies to individuals. I will argue that in this battle, Nietzsche carried out a revaluation of decadence and transformed himself into a strong decadent. In calling himself a strong decadent, Nietzsche not only admitted to his own decadence, but also provided himself as an example for how other strong types might contend with the problem of decadence.     

Extendable high-speed stimulus generation and recording on the Macintosh computer

A new visual electrophysiology and eye-movement laboratory was developed with three goals in mind: (1) rapid execution speed for quick acquisition of data from infant subjects, (2) ease of operation by experimenters, and (3) modularity and flexibility. A powerful system composed of two linked Macintosh computers was constructed in which one computer was used solely to generate visual stimuli and the second solely to record subjects’ responses, allowing recording to execute at maximum speed without being slowed by stimulus graphics generation. A single program on the recording computer allowed the experimenter to choose the stimulus and recording parameters. The two computers intercommunicated via a local EtherNet network to coordinate recording and signal averaging. This paper presents design principles and specific programming techniques relevant to any Macintosh system that must rapidly acquire physiological recordings while simultaneously displaying sensory stimuli.     

Increasing the Generativity of Identity-Based Procedures for Establishing Arbitrary Conditional Relations

The Psychological Record - Previous studies have shown that conditional discrimination training procedures involving identity matching to complex samples can produce emergent arbitrary relations....     

Aggressive Responding in the Laboratory Maintained by the Initiation of a Provocation-Free Interval

The Psychological Record - Four adults participated in an experiment designed to study how the duration of an interval free from provocation, following aggressive responding, affected the...