The Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth as a predictor of recidivism in a United Kingdom cohort of adolescent offenders with conduct disorder

This prospective study examined the predictive validity of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) and the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) in 99 male adolescents who were assessed in custody and followed up 12 months post release. Outcome data on recidivism were based on official Home Office records. The base rates for violent and general recidivism, respectively, were 38.4% and 70.7%. The predictive validity of the SAVRY Risk Total and the SAVRY Risk Rating was moderate for both violent and general recidivism, but both showed incremental validity in predicting outcomes compared with the PCL: YV. Data are discussed in relation to the limited published international literature.     

Behavioral specifications of reward-associated long-term memory enhancement in humans

Recent functional imaging studies link reward-related activation of the midbrain substantia nigra-ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), the site of origin of ascending dopaminergic projections, with improved long-term episodic memory. Here, we investigated in two behavioral experiments how (1) the contingency between item properties and reward, (2) the magnitude of reward, (3) the uncertainty of outcomes, and (4) the contextual availability of reward affect long-term memory. We show that episodic memory is enhanced only when rewards are specifically predicted by the semantic identity of the stimuli and changes nonlinearly with increasing reward magnitude. These effects are specific to reward and do not occur in relation to outcome uncertainty alone. These behavioral specifications are relevant for the functional interpretation of how reward-related activation of the SN/VTA, and more generally dopaminergic neuromodulation, contribute to long-term memory.     

Not all sources of familiarity are created equal: the case of word frequency and repetition in episodic recognition

Low-frequency (LF) words produce higher hit rates and lower false alarm rates than high-frequency (HF) words. This word frequency mirror pattern has been interpreted within dual-process models of recognition, which assume the contributions of a slower recollective process and a relatively fast-acting familiarity process. In the present experiments, recollection and familiarity were placed in opposition using Jacoby, L. L., Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 513–541 (1991), two-list exclusion paradigm with HF and LF words. Exclusion errors to LF words exceeded those to HF words at fast deadlines, whereas the reverse occurred at slow deadlines. In Experiments 2 and 3, false alarms to HF nonpresented lures were higher than to LF nonpresented lures, indicating the use of baseline familiarity for totally new items. Combined, these results indicate that in addition to baseline familiarity and recollection, a third process involving the assessment of a relative change in familiarity is involved in recognition performance. Both relative changes in familiarity and recollection processes have distinct time courses and are engaged when there is diagnostic list information available, whereas baseline familiarity is used when there is no diagnostic information available (e.g., for nonpresented lure items).     

Testing overall and moderator effects in random effects meta‐regression

Random effects meta‐regression is a technique to synthesize results of multiple studies. It allows for a test of an overall effect, as well as for tests of effects of study characteristics, that is, (discrete or continuous) moderator effects. We describe various procedures to test moderator effects: the z, t, likelihood ratio (LR), Bartlett‐corrected LR (BcLR), and resampling tests. We compare the Type I error of these tests, and conclude that the common z test, and to a lesser extent the LR test, do not perform well since they may yield Type I error rates appreciably larger than the chosen alpha. The error rate of the resampling test is accurate, closely followed by the BcLR test. The error rate of the t test is less accurate but arguably tolerable. With respect to statistical power, the BcLR and t tests slightly outperform the resampling test. Therefore, our recommendation is to use either the resampling or the BcLR test. If these statistics are unavailable, then the t test should be used since it is certainly superior to the z test.     

Intimate partner cohesion and military unit cohesion: Different types of interpersonal relationships each uniquely predict soldier well-being

Although research on military populations has found that measures of personal well-being are correlated with both intimate partner cohesion and military unit cohesion, it is not clear how these correlations should be interpreted. Based on Relationship Regulation Theory, it was expected that each type of interpersonal relationship would have independent effects, that each would uniquely predict outcomes, and that effects would remain significant after controlling for person-level traits and experiences, such as trait resilience and exposure to combat. A sample of 273 active-duty military personnel completed self-report measures of cohesion in two types of interpersonal relationships (intimate relationships and military unit relationships), two control variables (trait resilience and combat exposure), and three outcome variables (well-being, negative emotionality, and trauma-related stress). Results indicated that cohesion in the two types of relationships were minimally related to each other, but both correlated with outcome variables. Effects for each type of interpersonal relationship remained significant after controlling for the other type and controlling for trait resilience and combat exposure. The results suggest that the effects of interpersonal cohesion are best understood as reflecting experiences in specific types of relationships rather than general characteristics of people in those relationships.     

On the transition from childhood amnesia to the recall of personal memories

When adults are asked to report and date personal memories of their pasts, they show childhood amnesia, that is, diminished recall of experiences over the childhood years. This way of demonstrating the phenomenon was supplemented in the present study with a more direct approach: Participants reported events of early childhood that they knew they had experienced (because of family stories, photographs, etc.) but did not actually remember. The resulting cumulative relative frequency distributions produced by the two methods were substantially different, with the median age of remembered events being 6.07 years and of known events, 3.20 years. We suggest that the mean of these two ages, 4.64 years, gives a good indication of when childhood amnesia is eclipsed by personal memories in adults' recall of their personal pasts.     

Risk preference and choice stochasticity during decisions for other people

In several contexts, such as finance and politics, people make choices that are relevant for others but irrelevant for oneself. Focusing on decision-making under risk, we compared monetary choices made for one’s own interest with choices made on behalf of an anonymous individual. Consistent with the previous literature, other-interest choices were characterized by an increased gambling propensity. We also investigated choice stochasticity, which captures how much decisions vary in similar conditions. An aspect related to choice stochasticity is how much decisions are tuned to the option values, and we found that this was higher during self-interest than during other-interest choices. This effect was observed only in individuals who reported a motivation to distribute rewards unequally, suggesting that it may (at least partially) depend on a motivation to make accurate decisions for others. Our results indicate that, during decision-making under risk, choices for other people are characterized by a decreased tuning to the values of the options, in addition to enhanced risk seeking.     

Personifying the State: Consequences for Attitude Formation

Because states are abstract entities, they often require embodiment for mass publics and elites to understand them. This embodiment often occurs as personification, where the state is associated with the most salient figure in the political system, but embodiment can also occur through political institutions and social groups. Surprisingly, there is virtually no systematic empirical work on the political and psychological consequences of state personification, or other forms of embodiment. In this experiment, we investigate how various ways of embodying the state influence attitude formation processes. Drawing on the on-line/memory-based processing and entitativity literatures, we hypothesize that personification of the state should facilitate on-line processing and stronger attitudes, whereas embodying the state as a parliamentary institution should produce weaker attitudes that are formed in a memory-based fashion. The results support these hypotheses. Embodiment as a social group produced inconsistent results. This study provides the first systematic evidence that the widespread practice of personification of the state has robust and potentially far-reaching attitudinal consequences that have meaningful implications for strategic interaction, perception and learning, and attitude change in the international realm.