Acoustic Distinctions in the Speech of Male Psychopaths

A key feature of psychopathy is the ability to deceive, manipulate, and con the unwary, while seeming to be perfectly sincere. Is this impression of sincerity achieved solely through body gestures and facial expression, or is there also something different about the voice quality of psychopaths? We analyzed the acoustic characteristics of speech in 20 male offenders (10 psychopaths and 10 nonpsychopaths), assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (Hare, 1991). We used a computer program developed by Alpert, Merewether, Homel, Martz, and Lomask (1986) to measure variations in amplitude and prosody. Results indicated that psychopaths spoke more quietly than controls and did not differentiate, in voice emphasis, between neutral and affective words. These findings are consistent with the developing view that psychopaths are insensitive to the emotional connotations of language. In addition, their vocal characteristics may be part of a self-presentation mode designed to manipulate and control interpersonal interactions.     

Immediate effect of two yoga-based relaxation techniques on performance in a letter-cancellation task

The performance in a six-letter cancellation task was assessed with 69 male volunteers, ages 18 to 48 years, immediately before and after two yoga-based relaxation techniques and a control session of equal duration. The techniques were Cyclic Meditation and Supine Rest. Cyclic Meditation consists of alternating cycles of yoga postures and supine rest. After both practices, the net scores were significantly higher, although the magnitude of change was more after Cyclic Meditation than after Supine Rest (24.9% versus 13.6%). There was reduction in scores for wrong cancellations after Cyclic Meditation and not after Supine Rest. The control group showed no change. The results suggest that Cyclic Meditation brings about a greater improvement in performance in this task, which requires selective attention, concentration, visual scanning abilities, and a repetitive motor response.     

Intervention to Strengthen Emotional Self-Regulation in Children with Emerging Mental Health Problems: Proximal Impact on School Behavior

A model for teaching children skills to strengthen emotional self-regulation is introduced, informed by the developmental concept of scaffolding. Adult modeling/instruction, role-play and in vivo coaching are tailored to children’s level of understanding and skill to promote use of skills in reallife contexts. Two-hundred twenty-six kindergarten—3rd grade children identified with elevated behavioral and social classroom problems from a population-based screening participated in a waitlisted randomized trial of the Rochester Resilience Project derived from this model. In 14 lessons with school-based mentors, children were taught a hierarchical set of skills: monitoring of emotions; selfcontrol/ reducing escalation of emotions; and maintaining control and regaining equilibrium. Mentors provided classroom reinforcement of skill use. Multi-level modeling accounting for the nesting of children in schools and classrooms showed the following effects at post-intervention: reduced problems rated by teachers in behavior control, peer social skills, shy-withdrawn and off-task behaviors (ES 0.31–0.47). Peer social skills improved for girls but not for boys. Children receiving the intervention had a 46% mean decrease in disciplinary referrals and a 43% decrease in suspensions during the 4-month intervention period. Limitations and future directions to promote skill transfer are discussed.