Children’s lies and their detection: Implications for child witness testimony

The veracity of child witness testimony is central to the justice system where there are serious consequences for the child, the accused, and society. Thus, it is important to examine how children’s lie-telling abilities develop and the factors that can influence their truthfulness. The current review examines children’s lie-telling ability in relation to child witness testimony. Although research demonstrates that children develop the ability to lie at an early age, they also understand that lie-telling is morally unacceptable and do not condone most types of lies. Children’s ability to lie effectively develops with age and is related to their increasing cognitive sophistication. However, even children’s early lies can be difficult to detect. Greater lie elaboration requires greater skill and children’s ability to lie effectively improves with development and as a function of cognitive skill. Different methods of promoting children’s truthful reports as well as the social and motivational factors that affect children’s honesty will be discussed.     

Identification of Interindividual and Intraindividual Movement Patterns in Handball Players of Varying Expertise Levels

The authors examined the movement patterns of 5 left-handed handball players (ranging from beginner to national level) who threw a handball to different sections of a goal as if a goalkeeper were present. The authors used time-continuous, 3-dimensional kinematic data to assess interindividual movement patterns and considered participants' intraindividual differences relative to different targets. Cluster analysis yielded the highest assignment rates for level of expertise; a mean of 92% of trials was correctly assessed. The authors observed an interaction with expertise for the intraindividual movement patterns. Variability in the novice throwers was increased, whereas (a) advanced throwers experienced a period of stability, and (b) the expert thrower's variability was increased. The results indicate that random variability characterizes novice motor performance, whereas active functional variability may exemplify expert motor performance.     

L’expertise médicale fondée sur les faits

The concept of evidence-based medicine applies to medical activity in general in order to rationalize it. The medical expertise, constantly looking to improve its quality, can no longer ignore this concept. This is the best tool to meet the mission entrusted to experts of assessing the conformity of care to the scientific-acquired features, without neglecting the assessment of the involved practitioner's skills and the particular circumstances of the plaintiff. This article develops the new concept of “Medical expertise based on facts”.     

Evaluating Corroborative Evidence

How should we evaluate an argument in which two witnesses independently testify to some claim? In fact what would happen is that the testimony of the second witness would be taken to corroborate that of the first to some extent, thereby boosting up the plausibility of the first argument from testimony. But does that commit the fallacy of double counting, because the second testimony is already taken as independent evidence supporting the claim? Perhaps the corroboration effect should be considered illogical, since each premise should be seen as representing a separate reason in a convergent argument for accepting the claim as plausible. In this paper, we tackle the problem using argumentation schemes and argument diagramming. We examine a number of examples, and come up with two hypotheses that offer methods of analyzing and evaluating this kind of evidence.     

The Legitimacy of Pseudo‐Expert Discourse in the Public Sphere

This article examines the role of expertise in public debate, specifically the ways in which expertise can be mimicked and deployed as “pseudo‐expert discourse” to generate legitimacy for views that have otherwise been discredited. The article argues that pseudo‐expert discourse having a clear public health or safety impact should be regulated. There have been some attempts to legally regulate this speech through various means; however, these attempts at regulation have been met with fierce resistance, because of free‐speech concerns. The article suggests that these appeals to free speech in the context of pseudo‐expert discourse are both misguided and misplaced. Moreover, because speakers with the relevant expertise or perceived expertise are able to secure uptake of their views, they have a moral responsibility to not deceive or mislead audiences, and may also have various legal responsibilities.     

Skills,training, and activism

Most studies of activism and social movements give more attention to methods and strategies than to the development of skills. Yet skills are crucially important to the success of campaigns. Research on expert performance provides insights into what is required to become highly proficient at a well-defined set of skills. These insights are potentially relevant to activists, as shown by the example of training for lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee in 1960. Skill development needs to be given greater attention by activists and scholars.     

浅析专家会诊中心在门诊医疗中的作用

随着物质生活水平的日益提高,人们对医疗、保健的需求越来越高。为缓解看专家门诊难和在门诊能及时解决疑难杂症会诊问题,江苏省人民医院于1997年成立了高级专家会诊中心。中心成立十余年来,会诊、就诊的患者逐年增多,中心以优质的服务,得到患者的好评,作为门诊医疗的“特殊”窗口发挥了越来越大的作用。     

The True Wilkomirski

The paper considers whether it matters that Binjamin Wilkomirski's Fragments is not, as he presented it, a genuine survivor account, but rather a fabrication or fiction. It matters in one way and it doesn't in another. It matters because the truth is important: both in general and with regard specifically to the Holocaust. However, that Fragments is a fiction also doesn't matter, for it can be read independently of its author's identity; can be read as being, indeed, fiction. Read thus, the book retains much of its power and quality as a narrative of what the memories of a child survivor might be. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

影像学医师临床能力与科研水平辩证关系与对策

影像学医师的临床工作能力与科学研究水平的关系与人才培养及成才取向密切相关,对这两项任务的不同态度造就了三种不同类型的影像学医师,即重临床而轻科研、重科研而轻临床,临床与科研并重,认识两者之间的辩证关系对合格影像学人才的成长至关重要。