A brief actuarial assessment for the prediction of wife assault recidivism: the Ontario domestic assault risk assessment

An actuarial assessment to predict male-to-female marital violence was constructed from a pool of potential predictors in a sample of 589 offenders identified in police records and followed up for an average of almost 5 years. Archival information in several domains (offender characteristics, domestic violence history, nondomestic criminal history, relationship characteristics, victim characteristics, index offense) and recidivism were subjected to setwise and stepwise logistic regression. The resulting 13-item scale, the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), showed a large effect size in predicting new assaults against legal or common-law wives or ex-wives (Cohen's d = 1.1, relative operating characteristic area =.77) and was associated with number and severity of new assaults and time until recidivism. Cross-validation and comparisons with other instruments are also reported.     

Let's chat: developmental neural bases of social motivation during real‐time peer interaction

Humans are motivated to interact with each other, but the neural bases of social motivation have been predominantly examined in non‐interactive contexts. Understanding real‐world social motivation is of special importance during middle childhood (ages 8–12), a period when social skills improve, social networks grow, and social brain networks specialize. To assess interactive social motivation, the current study used a novel fMRI paradigm in which children believed they were chatting with a peer. The design targeted two phases of interaction: (1) Initiation, in which children engaged in a social bid via sharing a like or hobby, and (2) Reply, in which children received either an engaged (“Me too”) or non‐engaged (“I'm away”) reply from the peer. On control trials, children were told that their answers were not shared and that they would receive either engaged (“Matched”) or non‐engaged (“Disconnected”) replies from the computer. Results indicated that during Initiation and Reply, key components of reward circuitry (e.g., ventral striatum) were more active for the peer than the computer trials. In addition, during Reply, social cognitive regions were more activated by the peer, and this social cognitive specialization increased with age. Finally, the effect of engagement type on reward circuitry activation was larger for social than non‐social trials, indicating developmental sensitivity to social contingency. These findings demonstrate that both reward and social cognitive brain systems support real‐time social interaction in middle childhood. An interactive approach to understanding social reward has implications for clinical disorders, where social motivation is more affected in real‐world contexts.     

Adaptive learning and forgetting in an unconventional experimental routine

Forgetting is often thought of as the inability to remember, but remembering and forgetting allow behavior to adapt to a changing environment in distinct and separable ways. Learning and forgetting were assessed concurrently in two pigeon experiments that involved the same unconventional routine where the schedule of reinforcement changed every session. Sessions were run back-to-back with a 23-h mid-session break such that in a single visit to the testing chamber, a pigeon completed the second half of one session and the first half of the next. The beginning of a new session was either signaled or unsignaled. Experiment 1 involved concurrent variable–interval variable–interval schedules with four possible reinforcer ratios. Response allocation was sensitive to the richer schedule and was retained through the mid-session break. Experiment 2 involved peak interval schedules of varying durations. Temporal discrimination was rapidly acquired before and after the mid-session break, but not retained. Signaling the session change decreased control by past contingencies in both experiments, demonstrating that learning and forgetting can be investigated separately. These results suggest that the temporal structure of training, such as multiple short daily sessions instead of one long session, can meaningfully impact measurement of animals’ capacity to forget and remember.     

Projection of the Magnocellular Red Nucleus to the Region of the Accessory Abducens Nucleus in the Rabbit

The projection of the magnocellular red nucleus (RNm) to the region of the accessory abducens nucleus (AABD) was traced in rabbit using the bidirectional tracer wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP). In one set of animals, recordings of antidromic responses from RNm neurons elicited by electrical stimulation of the rubrospinal tract were used to localize injections of WGA-HRP for orthograde labeling of RNm terminals. In a different set of animals, horseradish peroxidase was injected into the retractor bulbi muscle to retrogradely label motoneurons of the AABD. The positions of RNm fibers and terminals were examined and compared to the locations and distribution of AABD cell bodies and labeled dendrites. Analyses revealed that along the entire rostrocaudal extent of the AABD, RNm efferents terminate primarily lateral to, or in the lateral aspects of, labeled motoneurons. For the rostral AABD, RNm efferents terminate only lateral to the nucleus. Although the terminals are not positioned to contact cell bodies of the AABD, they could overlap with dendrites that extend in the lateral direction. RNm efferents terminate more extensively within the posterior AABD, overlapping within both dendritic and cell body regions of the nucleus. Even in this posterior region, however, RNm efferents were distributed primarily over the lateral half of the nucleus. These data show that RNm can monosynaptically influence the AABD, through primarily its lateral and posterior aspects. Our findings also show that a major target of RNm efferents is the reticular cell population located lateral to the AABD, suggesting that the RNm also may affect AABD motoneuronal output indirectly through its projection to reticular cells.     

Improving forensic tribunal decisions: the role of the clinician

Three empirical investigations of forensic decision-making were conducted: a study of 104 hearings by a forensic tribunal; an evaluation of which aspects of forensic patients' clinical presentation were empirical predictors of violence; and a survey of forensic clinicians to determine which factors they said they used to assess risk of violent recidivism and which they actually used. Results showed a significant correlation between actuarial risk and clinical advice to the tribunal, and a nonsignificant trend for patients higher in actuarial risk to receive more restrictive dispositions. Psychotic diagnoses and symptoms were not indicators of increased risk of violent recidivism. Clinicians endorsed some empirically valid indicators of risk, but also relied on some invalid indicators. There was also inconsistency between factors clinicians said they used and factors actually related to their hypothetical decision-making. An automated system is presented as an illustration of how the consistency and validity of forensic decisions could be enhanced.     

Grant T. Harris (1950–2014)

This obituary of Dr. Grant Harris describes his life and the outstanding contributions he made to the field of correctional and forensic psychology.