Out of sight, out of mind: the presence of forensic evidence counts more than its absence

Recent evidence suggests that decision makers in criminal procedures are susceptible to biases. We previously found support for the presence of a feature positive effect (FPE, i.e., people attach more meaning to present than to absent information) in legal-decision making. In this study, we tried to uncover the mechanisms behind the FPE. Taking a cue from the literature on situation models in language comprehension, we investigated whether a FPE manifests itself in the memorization and use of forensic evidence. Students read a case file about a fistfight as well as additional evidence. The forensic evidence was manipulated such that a FPE on guilt estimation and conviction rate could be assessed. While subjects read additional forensic evidence, their eye movements were recorded to explore the presence of FPE in online processing. Afterwards, subjects were asked to decide on the suspect's guilt. They had to recall all information they remembered from the case file and indicate which parts of information they considered relevant to this decision. The results provided evidence for the occurrence of FPE in memorization and use of information and can be explained by the theoretical construct of situation models.     

Perceptual simulation in developing language comprehension

We tested an embodied account of language proposing that comprehenders create perceptual simulations of the events they hear and read about. In Experiment 1, children (ages 7–13 years) performed a picture verification task. Each picture was preceded by a prerecorded spoken sentence describing an entity whose shape or orientation matched or mismatched the depicted object. Responses were faster for matching pictures, suggesting that participants had formed perceptual-like situation models of the sentences. The advantage for matching pictures did not increase with age. Experiment 2 extended these findings to the domain of written language. Participants (ages 7–10 years) of high and low word reading ability verified pictures after reading sentences aloud. The results suggest that even when reading is effortful, children construct a perceptual simulation of the described events. We propose that perceptual simulation plays a more central role in developing language comprehension than was previously thought.     

Perceived Risk Following Melanoma Genetic Testing: A 2-Year Prospective Study Distinguishing Subjective Estimates from Recall

A major goal of predictive genetic testing is to alert people to their risk before illness onset; however, little is known about how risk perceptions change following genetic testing and whether information is recalled accurately over time. In the United States, a CDKN2A/p16 mutation confers 76 % lifetime risk of melanoma. Following genetic counseling and test reporting, subjective risk estimates and recall of counselor-provided risk estimates were assessed 5 times over the next 2 years among 60 adult members of 2 extended CDKN2A/p16 kindreds. No sustained changes from baseline in risk perceptions were reported. Unaffected carriers (n?=?15) consistently reported significantly lower subjective risk estimates (46 %) than they were actually given (76 %, p?<?0.001) or recalled having been given (60 %, p?<?0.001). Noncarriers’ (n?=?27) risk estimates decreased following results disclosure, but rebounded, with both subjective and recalled estimates subsequently exceeding what they were told by the counselor (both ps?<?0.001). Affected carriers’ (n?=?18) risk estimates for developing a new melanoma corresponded well to counselor-provided information (p?=?0.362). For all 3 patient groups, results were consistent across multiple risk measures and remained similar when demographic, phenotypic, and baseline behavioral contributors to melanoma risk were statistically controlled. These findings are consistent with other studies of risk perception, but additional studies of more diverse populations are needed to understand the reasons behind both the persistence of initial risk estimates and their divergence from information provided by the counselor during genetic counseling. Additionally, determining whether holding subjective risk perceptions that differ from counselor-provided information ultimately affects adherence to management recommendations will help guide the presentation of risk information in genetic counseling practice.     

Mothers’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of Family Environment and Adolescent Social-Emotional Functioning

Research has emphasized the importance of the relationship between family functioning and adolescent behavioral development. The present study examines family environment and social-emotional functioning of primarily minority adolescents, viewed from both adolescents’ and mothers’ perspectives. Participants were a school-based sample of adolescents with and without risk for emotional and behavioral disabilities and their mothers (N = 86 dyads). Results suggested an association between the mothers’ views of their adolescent children’s problem behaviors and the adolescents’ self-ratings of risk-taking behaviors across 5 years. Overall, mothers of the at risk youth receiving special education services reported higher ratings of youth problem behaviors, but results also indicated that mothers of the at risk adolescent boys not receiving special education services perceived greater depressive symptoms in their children and more family conflict in their homes. Mothers of youth at risk but not receiving special education services experienced higher levels of stress associated with being a parent than mothers of the not-at-risk adolescents. The parent measures of adolescent behavior and depressive symptoms, family conflict, and parental stress were not predictive of the social-emotional functioning of these adolescents in the multilevel models. Implications of these findings for early identification and family focused intervention programs are discussed.     

Conservatives Anticipate and Experience Stronger Emotional Reactions to Negative Outcomes

The present work examined whether conservatives and liberals differ in their anticipation of their own emotional reactions to negative events. In two studies, participants imagined experiencing positive or negative outcomes in domains that do not directly concern politics. In Study 1, 190 American participants recruited online (64 male, M_age = 32 years) anticipated their emotional responses to romantic relationship outcomes. In Study 2, 97 Canadian undergraduate students (26 male, M_age = 21 years) reported on their anticipated and experienced emotional responses to academic outcomes. In both studies, more conservative participants predicted they would feel stronger negative emotions following negative outcomes than did more liberal participants. Furthermore, a longitudinal follow‐up of Study 2 participants revealed that more conservative participants actually felt worse than more liberal participants after receiving a lower‐than‐desired exam grade. These effects remained even when controlling for the Big Five traits, prevention focus, and attachment style (Study 1), and optimism (Study 2). We discuss how the relationship between political orientation and anticipated affect likely contributes to differences between conservatives and liberals in styles of decision and policy choices.     

Viewing the MMPI–2–RF Structure Through the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY–5) Lens

Ben-Porath and Tellegen (2008) recommend organizing MMPI–2–RF scale interpretive information around 3 broad topics, emotional/internalizing dysfunction, thought dysfunction, and externalizing/behavioral dysfunction, and 3 additional topics labeled somatic complaints, interpersonal functioning, and interests. That organization is based primarily on structural analyses of the Restructured Clinical (RC) scales. This study reviewed the MMPI–2–RF's scale structure when the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY–5) scales are included. Principal axis factor analyses with oblique rotation were conducted on the Restructured Clinical, PSY–5, and Special Problem (SP) scales in 2 samples, by gender. One sample was an outpatient community health center, the other a large, metropolitan inpatient psychiatric facility. The 6-factor solution evidenced each of the PSY–5 constructs plus a general somatic concerns factor. Implications of this solution in comparison to the 3-factor organizing structure recommended by Ben-Porath and Tellegen are discussed.     

Possible number systems

Number systems—such as the natural numbers, integers, rationals, reals, or complex numbers—play a foundational role in mathematics, but these systems can present difficulties for students. In the studies reported here, we probed the boundaries of people’s concept of a number system by asking them whether “number lines” of varying shapes qualify as possible number systems. In Experiment 1, participants rated each of a set of number lines as a possible number system, where the number lines differed in their structures (a single straight line, a step-shaped line, a double line, or two branching structures) and in their boundedness (unbounded, bounded below, bounded above, bounded above and below, or circular). Participants also rated each of a group of mathematical properties (e.g., associativity) for its importance to number systems. Relational properties, such as associativity, predicted whether participants believed that particular forms were number systems, as did the forms’ ability to support arithmetic operations, such as addition. In Experiment 2, we asked participants to produce properties that were important for number systems. Relational, operation, and use-based properties from this set again predicted ratings of whether the number lines were possible number systems. In Experiment 3, we found similar results when the number lines indicated the positions of the individual numbers. The results suggest that people believe that number systems should be well-behaved with respect to basic arithmetic operations, and that they reject systems for which these operations produce ambiguous answers. People care much less about whether the systems have particular numbers (e.g., 0) or sets of numbers (e.g., the positives).     

Ensemble coding of faces occurs in children and develops dissociably from coding of individual faces

Ensemble coding allows adults to access useful information about average properties of groups, sometimes even in the absence of detailed representations of individual group members. This form of coding may emerge early in development with initial reports of ensemble coding for simple properties (size, numerosity) in young children and even infants. Here we demonstrate that ensemble coding of faces, which provides information about average properties of social groups, is already present in 6–8‐year‐old children. This access to average information increases with age from 6 to 18 years and its development is dissociable from age‐related improvements in the coding of individual face identities. This dissociation provides the first direct evidence that distinct processes underlie ensemble and individual coding of face identity, evidence that has been lacking from adult studies. More generally, our results add to the emerging evidence for impressively mature sensitivity to statistical properties of the visual environment in children. They indicate that children have access to gist information about social groups that may facilitate adaptive social behaviour.     

Gut interpretations: how difficulties in emotion regulation may help explain the relation of visceral sensitivity with depression and anxiety among young adults with gastrointestinal symptoms

It is widely recognized that abdominal pain and discomfort are common problems in the United States and are often associated with negative quality of life. The prevalence of anxiety/depression elevations and disorders among persons with gastrointestinal disturbances (GI) is estimated to be at least two to three times the rate in the general population. Visceral sensitivity reflects anxiety about GI sensations and its accompanying contexts and often leads to worsening of sensations (e.g. bloating, upset stomach, diarrhea). Among individuals with GI symptoms, visceral sensitivity may be associated with interpreting common sensations as catastrophic which may be related to greater difficulties with emotion dysregulation (e.g. severe anxiety and depression). The current study evaluated the indirect association of visceral sensitivity via emotion dysregulation in relation to depression, anxious arousal, and social anxiety symptoms among 344 young adults with a current history of GI symptoms and problems. Results indicated an indirect effect of visceral sensitivity via emotion dysregulation. These findings provide novel empirical support for the association of visceral sensitivity with emotional distress symptoms among young adults with GI symptoms. Based on the results, targeting emotion dysregulation may be a promising health promotion tactic among young adults with GI symptoms and disorders.     

Elaborative feedback: Engaging reward and task-relevant brain regions promotes learning in pseudoword reading aloud

Although much is known about the cognitive and neural basis of establishing letter-sound mappings in learning word forms, relatively little is known about what makes for the most effective feedback during this process. We sought to determine the neural basis by which elaborative feedback (EF), which contains both reward-related and content-specific information, may be more helpful than feedback containing only one kind of information (simple positive feedback, PF) or the other (content feedback, CF) in learning orthography-phonology (spelling-sound) mappings for novel letter strings. Compared to CF, EF activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, implicated in reward processing. Compared to PF, EF activated the posterior middle temporal, superior temporal, and supramarginal gyri—regions implicated in orthography-phonology conversion. In the same comparison, EF also activated the left fusiform gyrus/visual word form area—implicated in orthographic processing. Also EF, but not CF or PF, modulated activity in the caudate nucleus. In a postscan questionnaire, EF and PF were rated as more pleasant than CF, suggesting that modulation of the caudate for EF may be due to the coupling of reward and skill content. These findings suggest the enhanced effectiveness of EF may be due to concurrent activation of reward-related and task-relevant brain regions.