Reentry Needs: Men Who Are Young,Hispanic, Older,or With Mental Illness

Perceptions of the needs for successful reentry among incarcerated men from diverse backgrounds were investigated using phenomenological qualitative methods. Twenty‐nine men serving time in a northeastern U.S. correctional facility, which concentrated on treatment of substance use, participated in four focus groups. Young men found it most important to make personal changes, Hispanic men to maintain personal identity, older men to receive structural support, and men with mental illness to connect with family.     

Working memory outcomes following unilateral arterial ischemic stroke in childhood

There is a dearth of research examining working memory (WM) following pediatric arterial ischemic stroke (AIS). This study assesses the WM patterns of 32 children, aged 6 to 14 years, with a history of unilateral AIS and 32 controls using a paradigm based on Baddeley and Hitch’s multi-component WM model. The results indicate compromised WM in children with AIS relative to controls and parent reports confirm higher rates of dysfunction. Supplementary analyses of impairment confirm higher rates in children with AIS, ranging from 31.25% to 38.70% on performance-based measures and 50.00% on parent reports, compared to 0.00% to 21.88% on performance-based measures in controls and 15.63% on parent reports. Continual follow-up is recommended given that a subset of children with stroke appear to be at risk for WM impairment. Moreover, the subtle nature of WM challenges experienced by many children who have experienced a stroke increases the likelihood that WM impairment could go undetected. The long-term trajectories of WM in the pediatric stroke population remains unknown and future studies are needed to track changes in WM functioning over time.     

Emotion,gender, and gender typical identity in autobiographical memory

Gender differences in the emotional intensity and content of autobiographical memory (AM) are inconsistent across studies, and may be influenced as much by gender identity as by categorical gender. To explore this question, data were collected from 196 participants (age 18–40), split evenly between men and women. Participants narrated four memories, a neutral event, high point event, low point event, and self-defining memory, completed ratings of emotional intensity for each event, and completed four measures of gender typical identity. For self-reported emotional intensity, gender differences in AM were mediated by identification with stereotypical feminine gender norms. For narrative use of affect terms, both gender and gender typical identity predicted affective expression. The results confirm contextual models of gender identity (e.g., Diamond, 2012 Diamond, L. M. (2012). The desire disorder in research on sexual orientation in women: Contributions of dynamical systems theory. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 73–83. doi: 10.1007/s10508-012-9909-7[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. The desire disorder in research on sexual orientation in women: Contributions of dynamical systems theory. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 73–83) and underscore the dynamic interplay between gender and gender identity in the emotional expression of autobiographical memories.     

Developmental reversals in false memory: now you see them, now you don't!

A developmental reversal in false memory is the counterintuitive phenomenon of higher levels of false memory in older children, adolescents, and adults than in younger children. The ability of verbatim memory to suppress this age trend in false memory was evaluated using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Seven and 11-year-old children studied DRM lists either in a standard condition (whole words) that normally produces high levels of false memory or in an alternative condition that should enhance verbatim memory (word fragments). Half the children took 1 recognition test, and the other half took 3 recognition tests. In the single-test condition, the typical age difference in false memory was found for the word condition (higher false memory for 11-year-olds than for 7-year-olds), but in the word fragment condition false memory was lower in the older children. In the word condition, false memory increased over successive recognition tests. Our findings are consistent with 2 principles of fuzzy-trace theory's explanation of false memories: (a) reliance on verbatim rather than gist memory causes such errors to decline with age, and (b) repeated testing increases reliance on gist memory in older children and adults who spontaneously connect meaning across events.     

Accuracy, confidence, and calibration: how young children and adults assess credibility

Do children and adults use the same cues to judge whether someone is a reliable source of information? In 4 experiments, we investigated whether children (ages 5 and 6) and adults used information regarding accuracy, confidence, and calibration (i.e., how well an informant's confidence predicts the likelihood of being correct) to judge informants' credibility. We found that both children and adults used information about confidence and accuracy to judge credibility; however, only adults used information about informants' calibration. Adults discredited informants who exhibited poor calibration, but children did not. Requiring adult participants to complete a secondary task while evaluating informants' credibility impaired their ability to make use of calibration information. Thus, children and adults may differ in how they infer credibility because of the cognitive demands of using calibration.     

The role of system-justification motivation, group status and system threat in directing support for hate crimes legislation

We examine factors that explain variability in attitudes toward hate crimes legislation. We find that one's posture toward the current social system directs the conditions under which characteristics of hate crimes exert the most influence. System-justification motivation is negatively related to support for hate crimes legislation (Studies 1-3). This relation is partially mediated by perceptions of harm from hate crimes. Specifically, when hate crimes target low-status groups, system-justification motivation is negatively related to perceived harm and support for hate crimes legislation. Attitudes are unaffected when high-status groups are targeted. The status of the group targeted, perceptions of hate crimes as representative of the status quo, and temporarily enhanced feelings of system threat moderate this relation (Studies 2-4).     

Observed Ward Behavior Strongly Associated with Independent Living Skills: An Analysis of Convergent and Criterion-Related Validity of the NOSIE and the ILSI

Ratings of ward behavior and skill acquisition are important criteria for monitoring an individual’s recovery trajectory during inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation. This study compared data from the Nurses’ Observational Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE) and the Independent Living Skills Inventory (ILSI) to identify relationships between ward behaviors and independent living skills and to support the convergent validity of these instruments. The criterion-related validity of the instruments in their relationships with time in program (TIP) and number of previous hospitalizations (#HOSP) was also investigated. NOSIE “positive” subscales were more strongly related to living skills than NOSIE “negative” subscales. The NOSIE and the ILSI predicted TIP and postdicted #HOSP equally well. Implications for assessment and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Pragmatic enrichment: beyond Gricean rational reconstruction – a response to Mandy Simons

It has been claimed that pragmatic effects that arise in embedded clauses pose a problem for the Gricean reasoning procedure. I maintain, however, that the real issue these phenomena raise for Grice, as he himself acknowledged, is their violation of his saying/implicating distinction. While these effects can be accounted for by Gricean reasoning, which Mandy Simons clearly demonstrates, there is no way round this latter problem other than a major revision of Grice’s notion of ‘saying’ and hence of the saying/implicating distinction.