On the advantage of being left-handed in volleyball: further evidence of the specificity of skilled visual perception

High ball speeds and close distances between competitors require athletes in interactive sports to correctly anticipate an opponent's intentions in order to render appropriate reactions. Although it is considered crucial for successful performance, such skill appears impaired when athletes are confronted with a left-handed opponent, possibly because of athletes' reduced perceptual familiarity with rarely encountered left-handed actions. To test this negative perceptual frequency effect hypothesis, we invited 18 skilled and 18 novice volleyball players to predict shot directions of left- and right-handed attacks in a video-based visual anticipation task. In accordance with our predictions, and with recent reports on laterality differences in visual perception, the outcome of left-handed actions was significantly less accurately predicted than the outcome of right-handed attacks. In addition, this left-right bias was most distinct when predictions had to be based on preimpact (i.e., before hand-ball contact) kinematic cues, and skilled players were generally more affected by the opponents' handedness than were novices. The study's findings corroborate the assumption that skilled visual perception is attuned to more frequently encountered actions.     

Do Male Politicians Have Big Heads? Face-ism in Online Self-Representations of Politicians

Headshot portraits of all U.S. Governors, Senators, and Representatives and members of Parliament in Canada, Australia, and Norway are analyzed. In all countries, male politicians are represented with higher facial prominence than female politicians, paralleling a pervasive gender bias in media portraits. For American Congresswomen, high facial prominence is associated with a more pro-feminist voting record. Finally, anthropometric data show that gender differences in the facial prominence in portraits cannot be traced to gender differences in actual body proportions.     

Lost in the crowd: Entitative group membership reduces mind attribution

This research examined how and why group membership diminishes the attribution of mind to individuals. We found that mind attribution was inversely related to the size of the group to which an individual belonged (Experiment 1). Mind attribution was affected by group membership rather than the total number of entities perceived at once (Experiment 2). Moreover, mind attribution to an individual varied with the perception that the individual was a group member. Participants attributed more mind to an individual that appeared distinct or distant from other group members than to an individual that was perceived to be similar or proximal to a cohesive group (Experiments 3 and 4). This effect occurred for both human and nonhuman targets, and was driven by the perception of the target as an entitative group member rather than by the knowledge that the target was an entitative group member (Experiment 5).     

Die Dauer der Unterbringung in der Entziehungsanstalt

In Germany offenders can be sentenced to forensic addiction treatment which is realized in secure mental hospitals (according to section 64 of the German Penal Code). As a rule the persons concerned are transferred to the treatment institution after having served part of their prison sentence. There is an ongoing debate regarding the appropriate length of time of inpatient treatment. The average time in treatment differs considerably between the States of the Federal Republic of Germany and varies from somewhat over 1 year (Bavaria) to more than 2 years (North-Rhine Westphalia). In the trials mandating the treatment order, psychiatric experts are expected to exactly quantify the appropriate time of treatment for a specific person. For a number of reasons this surpasses expert capabilities as there is little empirical evidence regarding the effects of the duration of long-term treatment on outcome criteria, such as relapse or reoffending. This article discusses relevant aspects and suggests a pragmatic way to handle courts’ expectations in these lawsuits.     

Extending the Debate Between Spearman and Wilson 1929: When do Single Variables Optimally Reproduce the Common Part of the Observed Covariances?

The covariances of observed variables reproduced from conventional factor score predictors are generally not the same as the covariances reproduced from the common factors. We sought to find a factor score predictor that optimally reproduces the common part of the observed covariances. It was found algebraically that—under some conditions—the single observed variable with highest loading on a factor reproduces the non-diagonal elements of the observed covariance matrix more exactly than the conventional factor score predictors. This finding is linked to Spearman's and Wilson's 1929 debate on the use of single variables as factor score predictors. A population-based and a sample-based simulation study confirmed the algebraic result that taking a single variable can outperform conventional factor score predictors in reproducing the non-diagonal covariances when the nonzero loading size and the number of nonzero loadings per factor are small. The results indicated that a weighted aggregation of variables does not necessarily lead to an improvement of the score over the variable with the highest loading.     

Zur Phänomenologie islamistisch-terroristischer Straftäter

Very little reliable information is currently known about the individual background of terrorist offences. The few empirical studies available are as a rule based on a consideration of the social statistical characteristics without reference to personality or psychopathological diagnostic findings. The present article is based on 40 expert opinions which were given by the author on a total of 29 subjects in the years 2000–2013. All subjects had committed crimes motivated by Islamic beliefs of which 23 could be explored and investigated in detail. Although the offenders included in this study consisted mainly of immigrants to Germany, in recent years a group of young offenders has crystallized, even in this sample of subjects, who were born and grew up in Germany. In the “immigrant” group (n?=?19) no psychopathological traits were detected and also only few ego-syntonic offenders who acted on convictions. In fact, these subjects were more a series of primarily conspicuously dissocial offenders and subjects who had failed to cope with their way of life or with their aims in life. Of the young Moslems who grew up in Germany (n?=?10) three subjects suffered from a schizophrenic psychosis and two had a primarily dissocial psychosis. Among the other subjects there were some special features in the developmental background, especially in the area of identity crises but without any noticeable uniform background pattern for a personality development to an Islamic offender.