tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59633379127410647172012-01-27T20:36:38.813-08:00Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-86603022510232259752011-09-13T21:18:00.000-07:002011-09-13T22:12:26.103-07:00

I've been reading Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, in which he charts the history of official punishment in the Western world. In a section on torture and execution, he attempts to enumerate the reasons why executions were treated as public spectacles, especially in the 17th and early 18th centuries. One reason is to declare the truth of the crime. Prisoners

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-35102141781948880102011-08-29T17:01:00.000-07:002011-09-07T22:08:03.401-07:00

Marnie Rice and Grant Harris have a review article in the May issue of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law on androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and its use to control the sexual behaviors of sex offenders. The big conclusion from the article is, unfortunately, that there just isn't enough quality research (i.e., no randomized blind trials) to say whether ADT actually has any effect on sexual

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-86951491802321053922011-08-19T18:15:00.000-07:002011-08-19T19:55:38.812-07:00

I recently gave an informal talk which focused on a recent special issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science (Vol. 6(2), March 2011). In it, I summarize and discuss five papers that each raise issues with and make suggestions for the current processes of theory construction in psychology. I'm putting the slides here without much explanation, but I'll say that there's a significant amount

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-32144115521203560002011-05-28T09:46:00.000-07:002011-05-28T09:50:02.880-07:00

The Supreme Court just handed down a 5-to-4 ruling stating that California needs to reduce its state prison rolls by more than 30,000 prisoners. The overcrowding in California prisons presents a violation of the constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, according to the court -- and if you've seen or heard anything about our prison system in recent history, it's hard to

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-75533409714504626512011-05-10T20:25:00.000-07:002011-05-10T21:49:21.466-07:00

Last year, Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer put out a monograph, titled "Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America's Classrooms." It describes their nationwide survey of public high school teachers on their views and practices in regards to teaching evolution or nonscientific alternatives.Now, what's clear that evolution is winning in the courts, as time and again efforts to "

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-90292933292540404362011-01-12T19:33:00.000-08:002011-01-12T20:43:04.619-08:00

How do you know how well you're doing when you perform a task? Let's make it really easy -- let's say I quickly flash a word in front of your eyes, and you have to say what that word is. Now how confident are you that you got it right?Making this kind of decision falls into the realm of metacognition, or thinking about thinking. It's something that we do all the time -- "Am I remembering that

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-42385827326910511052011-01-10T08:09:00.000-08:002011-01-10T08:22:03.081-08:00

Vaughan Bell of the excellent Mind Hacks blog has an important article up at Slate. It's an attempted prophylactic to media speculation in the recent Gabrielle Giffords shooting about the mental state of suspected gunman Jared Loughner. Despite advances in public understanding about mental illnesses, there are still pervasive misconceptions, especially when it comes to safety and violence. To

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-15403537338501124322010-12-24T00:34:00.000-08:002010-12-24T01:43:14.130-08:00

Note: for many of the games here you'll need a z-machine interpreter like Frotz or Zoom to play them.I recently finished Blue Lacuna, a tour-de-force showing from Aaron Reed. This game was the only text adventure to be exhibited at this year's Indiecade conference, if you're excluding the fascinating and innovative Groping In The Dark, as I am. (They could both arguably fall under the category

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-65986677950811531902010-11-03T12:00:00.000-07:002010-11-03T12:10:32.036-07:00

Psychologist (and author of The Sexual Paradox: Extreme Men, Gifted Women and the Real Gender Gap) Susan Pinker has a nice article in Toronto's Globe and Mail featuring Bjork Lab research on learning. She tries out a new metaphor for learning: the construction site. I'm not sure it'll catch on.

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-65047580243243969262010-09-24T12:57:00.000-07:002010-09-24T12:59:58.653-07:00

I'm very interested in the subject of expert performance. While I tend more towards dilettantism, I'm fascinated by people who can perform complex tasks or make minute discriminations seemingly effortlessly. If we can isolate the necessary skills, mental processes, and information that experts need to perform like experts, then we can get people to start behaving like experts faster.That's the

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-79157809263031211292010-09-23T08:28:00.000-07:002010-09-23T08:47:42.584-07:00

As I'm combing through the back issues of Science magazine, I came across the story of Frédérique Darragon. Darragon is one of those people you thought only existed in movies; a real-life Indiana Jones. She comes from a high-society background filled with globe-trotting playgirl (?) exploits -- boat racing, polo playing, modeling, famous boyfriends, etc. She's also had numerous brushes with

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-91153269048334322042010-08-04T09:37:00.000-07:002010-08-04T10:53:13.466-07:00

The New York Times has a thoughtful and comprehensive recent article by Jeffrey Rosen, The Web Means the End of Forgetting. With the shifting of more and more aspects of our lives online to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. (and blogs, of course... *ahem*) comes the realization that we ultimately have less and less control over our permanent social records. Even though an

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-20291785814728341312010-07-03T15:56:00.000-07:002010-07-03T16:08:25.492-07:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted. This may well have become a ghost blog, if there were digital tumbleweeds that were able to blow through it. However, I've decided to restart and reboot Mens Rea. Why now, and in what form? Mens rea is latin for "guilty mind." I began this blog because I've had a long-standing interest in forensic psychology, even though it's not my field of

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-71306292515330102132009-09-29T22:25:00.000-07:002009-09-29T22:29:09.210-07:00

It's been a while since the last update. Unfortunately, not a lot of forensic research has been catching my eye lately. Fortunately, on the other hand, I've been busy with other areas of research. So don't take this radio silence as a sign of inactivity.I'm writing today not about some new peer-reviewed research, but instead on a talk I just attended. Zocalo is a fairly new organization in

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-81009143938763512092009-06-19T15:53:00.000-07:002009-06-19T19:20:41.110-07:00

Kern, M., & Chugh, D. (2009). Bounded Ethicality: The Perils of Loss Framing Psychological Science, 20 (3), 378-384 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02296.x We all know that crime doesn't pay. But what if I told you that crime could prevent you from losing something? Would you be more likely to do it?Mary Kern and Dolly Chugh put out a study earlier this year that looked at the issues of framing

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-36598141335542343642009-03-19T13:32:00.001-07:002009-06-19T19:10:57.401-07:00

Keizer, K., Lindenberg, S., & Steg, L. (2008). The Spreading of Disorder Science, 322 (5908), 1681-1685 DOI: 10.1126/science.1161405 In class we've talked a lot about theories of crime that focus on characteristics of the person (e.g., biological, psychological) or characteristics of the social environment and culture (e.g., sociological, learning). But what about the actual physical environment

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-4677375588365942672009-02-14T22:16:00.000-08:002010-12-24T02:06:23.653-08:00

FECTEAU, S., PASCUALLEONE, A., & THEORET, H. (2008). Psychopathy and the mirror neuron system: Preliminary findings from a non-psychiatric sample Psychiatry Research, 160 (2), 137-144 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2007.08.022AGNEW, Z., BHAKOO, K., & PURI, B. (2007). The human mirror system: A motor resonance theory of mind-reading Brain Research Reviews, 54 (2), 286-293 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresrev

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-49677829059612706832009-01-26T20:44:00.000-08:002010-12-24T02:07:10.506-08:00

Lee, T., Chan, S., & Raine, A. (2008). Strong limbic and weak frontal activation to aggressive stimuli in spouse abusers Molecular Psychiatry, 13 (7), 655-656 DOI: 10.1038/mp.2008.46Raine, A. (2008). From Genes to Brain to Antisocial Behavior Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17 (5), 323-328 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00599.x If the name Adrian Raine sounds familiar to you, then

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-55820014986506363332009-01-12T23:17:00.000-08:002010-12-24T02:07:49.109-08:00

Dodge, K. (2008). Framing public policy and prevention of chronic violence in American youths. American Psychologist, 63 (7), 573-590 DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.63.7.573 I'm taking a bit of a different tact this time, in that the paper I'm discussing isn't a research paper. It's not quite a standard review paper, either, but it draws on psychology research to present ideas for application. It's

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-8517563187318294132008-06-20T11:47:00.000-07:002008-06-21T09:32:35.602-07:00

So it should seem fairly obvious that people tend not to commit crimes that hurt people they trust. Likewise, people trust others who have a history of being non-threatening. So trust plays a big part in determining when and whether crime occurs. But how does trust develop?In this month's issue of Scientific American, Paul Zak presents some of the research he's done exploring this issue. As a

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-48390953255869020322008-05-17T23:19:00.000-07:002010-12-24T02:08:55.723-08:00

Vohs, K., & Schooler, J. (2008). The Value of Believing in Free Will: Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increases Cheating Psychological Science, 19 (1), 49-54 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02045.xI've been sitting on this for a while, and I've finally got the discipline together to actually write again. Getting things done! It's just a short post, though.Anyway, the authors in this study

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-31496604835135940022008-03-10T14:11:00.000-07:002010-12-24T02:09:35.968-08:00

Sporer, S., & Schwandt, B. (2007). Moderators of nonverbal indicators of deception: A meta-analytic synthesis. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 13 (1), 1-34 DOI: 10.1037/1076-8971.13.1.1Caution: this is another post where I deviate a little from what's been covered in class. Make sure you can differentiate what you learn from the book from what you read here before you continue, because

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-14890580743420458082008-02-20T16:28:00.000-08:002010-12-24T02:10:45.112-08:00

Tita, G., & Ridgeway, G. (2007). The Impact of Gang Formation on Local Patterns of Crime Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 44 (2), 208-237 DOI: 10.1177/0022427806298356Before we head away from gangs completely, I wanted to bring up this paper looking at the connection between gangs and crime. Obviously, most gangs are heavily associated with crime in the areas in which they operate.

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-45248185386892181662008-02-04T11:19:00.000-08:002009-06-19T19:30:31.372-07:00

HARE, R. (2006). Psychopathy: A Clinical and Forensic Overview Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 29 (3), 709-724 DOI: 10.1016/j.psc.2006.04.007Guay, J., Ruscio, J., Knight, R., & Hare, R. (2007). A taxometric analysis of the latent structure of psychopathy: Evidence for dimensionality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116 (4), 701-716 DOI: 10.1037/0021-843X.116.4.701 So there's some

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-19141664513845103922007-11-30T15:14:00.000-08:002009-06-19T19:31:26.207-07:00

Blanchard, R., Kuban, M., Blak, T., Cantor, J., Klassen, P., & Dickey, R. (2006). Phallometric Comparison of Pedophilic Interest in Nonadmitting Sexual Offenders Against Stepdaughters, Biological Daughters, Other Biologically Related Girls, and Unrelated Girls Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 18 (1), 1-14 DOI: 10.1007/s11194-006-9000-9 So now we're delving into the mind of

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-37439726029194768802007-11-18T10:19:00.000-08:002010-12-24T02:21:14.096-08:00

Haney, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1998). The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-Five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment American Psychologist, 53 (7), 709-727 As Neal Osherow mentioned in class, all the really groundbreaking research in social psychology was done 30-40 years ago, before people started realizing all the ethical implications of what they were doing. Thus, we ended

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-1236726121475887552007-11-11T12:22:00.000-08:002009-06-19T19:36:10.006-07:00

Gastil, J., Burkhalter, S., & Black, L. (2007). Do Juries Deliberate? A Study of Deliberation, Individual Difference, and Group Member Satisfaction at a Municipal Courthouse Small Group Research, 38 (3), 337-359 DOI: 10.1177/1046496407301967I've been slacking a little on getting these posts out by Friday, but I'm getting back on track. This one is directly relevant to lecture, as it covers

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-31334057191225579062007-11-05T11:37:00.001-08:002009-06-19T19:38:07.892-07:00

van Honk, J., & Schutter, D. (2007). Testosterone Reduces Conscious Detection of Signals Serving Social Correction: Implications for Antisocial Behavior Psychological Science, 18 (8), 663-667 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01955.xHope everyone did well on the midterm and had a nice, relaxing weekend to recuperate. Here's a quick little article to ease you back into normality.The authors of this

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-49818610167003841222007-10-27T12:37:00.000-07:002009-06-19T19:38:58.394-07:00

Neuschatz, J., Lawson, D., Fairless, A., Powers, R., Neuschatz, J., Goodsell, C., & Toglia, M. (2007). The Mitigating Effects of Suspicion on Post-Identification Feedback and on Retrospective Eyewitness Memory Law and Human Behavior, 31 (3), 231-247 DOI: 10.1007/s10979-006-9047-7Okay, now that we're getting into eyewitnessing I decided to post this one about identification instructions. For all

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-1151456252768755572007-10-19T11:26:00.000-07:002009-06-19T19:41:05.230-07:00

Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy Psychological Review, 100 (4), 674-701Remember: the article itself is on Blackboard! Check under "Course Materials -> Journal Club Articles."Okay, this one's pretty hefty, but it's good. Terrie Moffitt develops her idea that there are two very distinct origins of criminal and

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5963337912741064717.post-62089030303473835602007-10-18T22:55:00.000-07:002007-10-19T12:54:32.110-07:00

Okay, the first rule of journal club: read the article. And comment about it.That's pretty much all the rules. I'll post a new article on Blackboard every Friday (I'll also try to link to an online version, which should be available if you're connecting on campus), so make sure to check back. I'll try to pick articles that are relevant to what we're doing in class, but sometimes they might be

Colinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11785649467918785561noreply@blogger.com2