Jugendgewalt als Lebensbewältigungsprozess

Aggression und Gewalt bei Jugendlichen stilisieren sich zum Sinnbild für unsere „kranke Gesellschaft“. Was sich bei jüngeren Jugendlichen noch – oft als Lausbuben-Verhalten bagatellisiertes – Herumschubsen und Rangeln im Pausenhof ?u?ert, tritt in Form von Bullying und Mobbing immer st?rker zutage. Jugendliche, die trinken, stehlen, Drogen zu sich nehmen, Mitschüler oder Gruppenmitglieder bedrohen und Gegenst?nde ?ffentlichen Gutes besch?digen etc., stehen auf der Tagesordnung. Selbst Erpressung von Mitschülern ist kein Einzeldelikt mehr.     

Methodological and empirical issues when dissociating cue-related from task-related processes in the explicit task-cuing procedure

In the explicit cuing version of the task-switching paradigm, each individual task is indicated by a unique task cue. Consequently, a task switch is accompanied by a cue switch. Recently, it has been proposed that priming of cue encoding contributes to the empirically observed switch costs. This proposal was experimentally supported by using a 2:1 mapping of cues to tasks, so that a cue switch does not necessarily imply a task switch. The results indeed suggested a substantial contribution of “cue-switch costs” to task-switch costs. Here we argue that the 2:1 mapping potentially leads to an underestimation of “pure” task-switch costs. To support this argument, we report the results of a new study in which we used “transition cues” that indicate the identity of the current task based on the identity of the preceding task. This new type of cue allows a full factorial manipulation of cue switches and task switches because it includes the condition in which a cue repetition can also indicate a task switch (i.e., when the “switch” cue is repeated). We discuss the methodological implications and argue that the present approach has merits relative to the previously used 2:1 mapping of cues to tasks.     

Leitlinie für die Begutachtung von Schmerzen

The present guidelines for expert testimony have been elaborated for the first time in 2004 by medico-legal representatives from several German professional academic societies (neurology, orthopedic surgery, psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, psychotherapy). Their aim is to standardize the course and the content of expert testimony in subjects, who complain about chronic pain as the leading symptom for seeking pension or other compensation. In 2006, the guidelines have been revised and completed by adding detailed data about classification and prognosis of chronic pain, about causality questions, and about estimation of functional impairment in different legal areas.     

Gender differences in cooperation and competition: the male-warrior hypothesis

Evolutionary scientists argue that human cooperation is the product of a long history of competition among rival groups. There are various reasons to believe that this logic applies particularly to men. In three experiments, using a step-level public-goods task, we found that men contributed more to their group if their group was competing with other groups than if there was no intergroup competition. Female cooperation was relatively unaffected by intergroup competition. These findings suggest that men respond more strongly than women to intergroup threats. We speculate about the evolutionary origins of this gender difference and note some implications.     

Temporal distribution of favourite books, movies, and records: differential encoding and re-sampling

The reminiscence bump is the effect that people recall more personal events from early adulthood than from childhood or adulthood. The bump has been examined extensively. However, the question of whether the bump is caused by differential encoding or re-sampling is still unanswered. To examine this issue, participants were asked to name their three favourite books, movies, and records. Furthermore,they were asked when they first encountered them. We compared the temporal distributions and found that they all showed recency effects and reminiscence bumps. The distribution of favourite books had the largest recency effect and the distribution of favourite records had the largest reminiscence bump. We can explain these results by the difference in rehearsal. Books are read two or three times, movies are watched more frequently, whereas records are listened to numerous times. The results suggest that differential encoding initially causes the reminiscence bump and that re-sampling increases the bump further.     

Right-handers' reaching in contralateral hemispace: a kinematic observation

C. Gabbard and C. Helbig (2004) found, when examining seated participants' limb selection for reaching and grasping in hemispace, that right-handers preferred to switch to the nondominant left arm for objects located approximately 20 degrees horizontally from body midline (90 degrees) in left hemispace. In the present study, the authors examined 13 strongly lateralized seated right-handers' kinematics of reaching to object positions ranging from body midline to 40 degrees horizontally in left hemispace. Participants executed faster reaches with the left arm than with the right arm to objects placed 20 degrees-40 degrees from midline, whereas they did not change the proportion of time they spent accelerating the hands when the position of the object changed. A 2nd main finding was an increase in the left hand's trajectory curvature as object position moved farther from midline, with a corresponding decrease in the contribution of upper-arm motion to the reach. Those observations suggest that the switch from dominant right-arm reaching to nondominant left-arm reaching in left hemispace reported in the aforementioned study may have emerged from a shift from a shoulder-driven reach to an elbow-driven action.     

Detection of visual stimuli in correlated noise

The hypothesis of detection by temporal probability summation (TPS) as characterised in Mortensen [(2007). An analysis of visual detection by temporal probability summation, submitted for publication] is critically evaluated, considering data from an experiment of Roufs and Blommaert [(1981). Temporal impulses and step responses of the human eye obtained psychophysically by means of a drift-correcting perturbation technique. Vision Research, 21, 1203-1221], who derived the impulse and the step response for a sustained type of channel. The assumed approximate linearity of the channel is discussed with respect to recent findings from neurophysiological investigations. The data are shown not to be compatible with the TPS-postulate. Further, a model of a cell assembly, consisting of a homogeneous set of neurons, is presented that allows for a natural interpretation of random fluctuations in case of temporal peak detection (TPD). The model may be discussed with respect to TPS as well as to TPD; in any case, the model allows to integrate some results concerning the effects of attentional focussing on the detection process.     

The effects of wording on the understanding and use of uncertainty information in a threshold forecasting decision

Many believe that information about small chances of severe weather would be useful to the general public for precautionary action. What is the best way to explain this kind of information to a non‐expert audience? The studies reported here investigated effects of framing (negative vs. positive), format (frequency vs. probability), likelihood (low vs. high) and compatibility (task‐match) on interpretation of verbal expressions of forecast uncertainty and on subsequent forecasting decisions. The crucial factor was the match between the verbal expression and the overall task goal. Errors increased when there was a mismatch between the expression (e.g. winds less than 20 knots) and the task (e.g. post an advisory when winds will exceed 20 knots). However, framing and format had little impact. We conclude that consideration of user expectations arising from the overall task goal is crucial in explaining uncertainty information to a naïve audience. Global expectations overpower other potential effects. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of the Talmudic Argumentum A Fortiori Inference Rule (Kal Vachomer) using Matrix Abduction

We motivate and introduce a new method of abduction, Matrix Abduction, and apply it to modelling the use of non-deductive inferences in the Talmud such as Analogy and the rule of Argumentum A Fortiori. Given a matrix \({\mathbb {A}}\) with entries in {0, 1}, we allow for one or more blank squares in the matrix, say a _i,j =?. The method allows us to decide whether to declare a _i,j = 0 or a _i,j = 1 or a _i,j =? undecided. This algorithmic method is then applied to modelling several legal and practical reasoning situations including the Talmudic rule of Kal-Vachomer. We add an Appendix showing that this new rule of Matrix Abduction, arising from the Talmud, can also be applied to the analysis of paradoxes in voting and judgement aggregation. In fact we have here a general method for executing non-deductive inferences.