Juror Selection: A Comparison of Two Methods In Several Criminal Cases1

Ethical and constitutional issues have been raised by critics concerning the intervention of social science methods in the voir dire, pretrial, screening of prospective jurors. An experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of conventional jury selection methods utilized by attorneys (past experience, intuition, folklore) vs. systematic social science methods (systematic identification of predictive relationships among personality, demographic, and attitudinal variables). The comparison was made over four separate criminal cases. The data indicated that in cases in which the predictive relationships used by the systematic social science methods were relatively strong, this method is superior to the conventional method in predicting favorable jurors' responses. The more intuitive conventional niethod was superior when the critical predictive relationships were weak or absent. Overall, the systematic social science method was not superior to the conventional method. Issues of ecological validity and pretrial discovery rules were discussed.     

Perceptual robustness of the nonrelationship between psychopathology and popular responses on the Hand Test and the Rorschach

A Hand Test Popular response is developed using 106 normal subjects and Rorschach's traditional "one-in-three" criterion. Six popular responses were derived. Neither the newly established Hand Test Popular response nor the Rorschach Popular discriminated psychosis from nonpsychosis, but as expected, Rorschach chi + % and Rorschach WSum6 were significant, and the Hand Test Bizarre (BIZ) score approached significance. Both the Rorschach Popular and the newly developed Hand Test Popular await further elucidation.     

Recruiting Young Adult Cancer Survivors for Behavioral Research

Young adults have been dramatically underrepresented in cancer survivorship research. One contributing factor is the difficulty recruiting this population. To identify effective recruitment strategies, the current study assessed the yield of strategies used to recruit young survivors for an exercise intervention including: clinic-based recruitment, recruitment at cancer-related events, mailings, telephone-based recruitment, advertising on the internet, radio, television and social networking media, distributing brochures and word-of-mouth referrals. When taking into account the strategies for which we could track the number of survivors approached, recruitment at an oncology clinic was the most productive: 38 % of those approached were screened and 8 % enrolled. When evaluating which strategy yielded the greatest percentage of the sample, however, mailings were the most productive. Given widespread use of the internet and social networking by young adults, investigators should also consider these low-cost recruitment strategies.     

Direction information in multiple object tracking is limited by a graded resource

Is multiple object tracking (MOT) limited by a fixed set of structures (slots), a limited but divisible resource, or both? Here, we answer this question by measuring the precision of the direction representation for tracked targets. The signature of a limited resource is a decrease in precision as the square root of the tracking load. The signature of fixed slots is a fixed precision. Hybrid models predict a rapid decrease to asymptotic precision. In two experiments, observers tracked moving disks and reported target motion direction by adjusting a probe arrow. We derived the precision of representation of correctly tracked targets using a mixture distribution analysis. Precision declined with target load according to the square-root law up to six targets. This finding is inconsistent with both pure and hybrid slot models. Instead, directional information in MOT appears to be limited by a continuously divisible resource.     

Predictors of complicated grief

Abstract

This study examined whether process variables predict an outcome of complicated grief. A turbulent and prolonged grief was predicted to occur after the death of a spouse in subjects who had self-blame, used the deceased for an extension of self, had ambivalence toward the deceased, or overcontrolled emotional responses. Ninety subjects were examined at 6, 14, and 25 months after the loss via a self-report battery of process variables and a structured clinical interview designed to assess symptoms. Subjects with complicated grief were compared with those with normative grief. Predictions were supported only in tertiary data analyses; they were not supported well in the primary and secondary statistical analyses. The authors concluded that either self-reports of process variables are inadequate measures or the theory that led to these measures and predictions is in need of revision.     

Communicative factors,conflict progression,and use of reconciliatory strategies in pre‐school boys‐a series of random events or a sequential process?

Affiliative interactions between former opponents soon after a conflict, in non‐human primates and pre‐school children, have been documented to be followed by a reduction of future aggression and stress reactions, and to promote tolerance between individuals. The phenomenon has, therefore, been called reconciliation. Studies of non‐human primates have shown that the conflict cause can influence the reconciliatory outcome, and whether the aggressor or the victim of the aggression is more likely to take the initiative to reconcile, can differ between species. Few studies in pre‐school children have addressed how factors preceding the post‐conflict period, such as social interactions before the conflict outbreak, or the cause of the conflict, may be related to the likelihood of reconciliation, conflict progression, and conflict outcome in the form of possible continuation or initiation of interactions. Twenty boys were video‐recorded during free‐play at six pre‐schools. The existence of social interaction between the opponents in the upcoming conflict was examined in the pre‐conflict period. The observed causes of conflict were determined and classified into five categories. The affiliative behaviors identified in the post‐conflict period were classified into six categories. Finally, whether or not conflicts were followed by communicative exchanges in the succeeding non‐conflict period was documented. The results revealed that the cause of the conflict is associated with whether opponents had established social interaction prior to conflict in the pre‐conflict period. Acceptance rates (for the various categories of affiliative behaviors) appeared to differ. A non‐random pattern of conflict progression was apparent, suggesting the conflict cause was related to the category of reconciliatory strategy shown by the individuals. The aggressor and the victim initiated reconciliation at similar rates, with the exception of verbal apologies, which were initiated most often by the aggressor. Finally, the data also showed that higher frequencies of social interaction between former opponents in the succeeding non‐conflict period were associated both with whether or not social interaction had occurred in the pre‐conflict period, and whether or not the conflict was reconciled. In conclusion, communicative factors preceding conflicts, and conflict cause, are distinctively correlated with both the use and the outcome of post‐conflict affiliation in pre‐school boys. Aggr. Behav. 00:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Smelling more or less: Investigating the olfactory experience of the domestic dog

The performance of tracking dogs and drug-, disease-, and explosives-detection dogs is a testament to trained dogs’ olfactory acuity. The olfactory experience of an untrained dog, by contrast, has not been well documented. In the current research we begin to remedy that by testing untrained pet dogs’ olfactory perception of quantity. While previous research found that dogs could discriminate visible quantities of more or less food (Prato-Previde, Marshall-Pescini, & Valsecchi, 2008), our results find that, by contrast, companion dogs do not reliably discriminate quantities when the food can be smelled but not seen. Sixty-one percent of dogs (39 of 64), given a choice between closed plates with one and five morsels of food, approached plates with the larger quantity: not significantly more than approached plates with the lesser quantity (binomial, p = .169). We did find that during dogs’ initial investigation of both food amounts, subjects gave more attention to the plate containing the larger quantity (binomial, p < 0.001). In a second condition, we replicated, with closed plates, Prato-Previde et al.’s (2008) finding that owner interest in a plate holding a lesser quantity of food reliably leads dogs to approach that plate (binomial, p < 0.001). Though research has demonstrated dogs’ preference for a larger amount of food ( Ward & Smuts, 2007), in a third condition testing the effect of adding a strong odor to a visibly larger food quantity, we found that the addition of odor often reversed that preference (44/69 dogs; p < .03). Finally, we consider the methodological implications of this work on future dog cognition studies.