Post-Event Information Affects Children’s Autobiographical Memory After One Year

In two experiments, we examined whether post-event information (PEI) about true and false events persisted in children’s reports after approximately 1 year. In Experiment 1, 4- to 6-year-olds were given PEI and then were given memory tests 2 weeks and 15 months later. Although PEI appeared in free recall at the initial testing, it decreased substantially by the long-term test. In contrast, on recognition tasks the children showed facilitation and misinformation effects at initial and follow-up tests. Experiment 2 replicated lasting misinformation and facilitation effects in recognition memory among 4- to 9-year-olds who were tested after 1-week and 10-month delays. We conclude that true and false reminders about an experienced event continue to affect children’s memory approximately 1 year later.

Situating soldiers’ demands: mutinies and protests in Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso in 2011 military mutinies followed widespread civilian protests, indicating a crisis of confidence in President Compaoré. Through an in-depth examination of the events, this article encourages an understanding of military revolts that extends beyond the military. Although the mutineers never united with the demonstrators, their grievances mirrored those of the civilians. The article puts the revolts into a historic context and shows a pattern of interconnectedness between military revolts and civilian demonstrations in Burkina Faso. The work draws on interviews conducted with military personnel and civilians involved in the widespread protests.     

A distributive N-amendment game with endogenous agenda formation

In this paper I analyze a 3-person voting game in which players sequentially choose amendments to a bill and then vote sophisticatedly on the resulting agenda. This game differs from previous work on endogenous agenda formation in that the number of items on the agenda is not fixed. Players keep making proposals until they can do no better. I find that there is a nonempty set of minimax equilibrium outcomes to the game, and that this set contains the simple von Neumann–Morgenstern stable set.     

Early Adolescent Peer Ecologies in Rural Communities: Bullying in Schools That Do and Do not Have a Transition During the Middle Grades

The transition to middle school is considered to be a heightened period for involvement in bullying because the lack of a defined dominance hierarchy is thought to promote jockeying for social positions among students. Accordingly, this study examined bullying in peer ecologies at the beginning of the middle grade years in rural schools that did and did not have a transition to middle school. Thirty-six schools (20 with transitions, 16 without transitions) participated in this research with a sample of 1,800 participants (52% female) who were in sixth grade during the second year of data collection. Overall, 67% were White, 19% African American, 7% Latino, 2% Native American, and 5% other (multi-racial, Asian, unknown). Compared to schools without a transition, schools with a transition had fewer bullies following the move from fifth to sixth grade and the social dynamics in schools with a transition appeared to be less supportive of bullying. Further, students in schools with a transition reported being bullied less frequently in sixth grade and they perceived the sixth grade peer ecology as being more protective against bullying than did students in schools without a transition. In addition, proportionally more youth had controversial sociometric status in schools without a transition during sixth grade than in schools with a transition. Collectively, these findings suggest that risk for involvement in bullying may be elevated in schools that do not have a transition to middle school. They also bring into question the conventional view of the small K-8 or K-12 rural school as a peaceful and supportive peer community.     

Cross-validation of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ): an offender risk and need assessment measure on Australian, British, Canadian, Singaporean, and American offenders

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a 72-item self-report measure designed to predict violent and nonviolent recidivism among adult criminal offenders. The results from using samples from Australia, Canada, England, Singapore, and two samples from the United States (North Carolina and Pennsylvania) indicated that (a) the SAQ has sound psychometric properties, with acceptable reliability and concurrent validity for assessing recidivism and institutional adjustment; (b) there were no significant differences among the scores of the White, African American, Hispanic, and Aboriginal Australian offenders on the SAQ; (c) there were no significant differences among offenders who completed the SAQ for research purposes versus offenders who completed it as part of a decision-making process. Results provided support for the validity of the SAQ to be used with the culturally diverse offenders involved in this research and provided further evidence that contradicts concerns that the SAQ as a self-report measure may be susceptible to lying, and self-presentation biases.     

Drugs, alcohol, and accidental death coverage

Accidental death policies insure against what their name implies, but what is an accidental death? This is often not a question easily answered, and when alcohol and drugs (prescribed or illegal) are the causes of, or contributors to, the death, the issue becomes even thornier, and highly fact- and jurisdiction-specific. As this survey shows, the law in this area is inconsistent but nevertheless susceptible of coherent and organized analysis.