Conduct and its Consequences: Attempts at Debiasing Jury Judgments

Jurors in negligence cases are supposed to judge a defendant by the reasonableness of his or her conduct and not by the consequences of that conduct. But several studies have shown that a cognitive heuristic known as hindsight bias can skew post hoc judgments of some prior behavior. Thus, jurors who must evaluate the actions of a defendant may be influenced inappropriately by the consequences of those actions. A complementary problem arises when jurors must evaluate the injuries incurred by the plaintiff. Here, jurors' knowledge about the defendant's allegedly negligent conduct can proactively influence their assessment of the plaintiff's injuries and determination of damages. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of two procedural techniques intended to reduce or eliminate the impact of hindsight bias in negligence cases—multiple admonitions from a judge about the proper use of evidence—and bifurcation (actually withholding irrelevant evidence from jurors). We presented a re-enacted automobile negligence trial to 355 jury-eligible adults drawn from the community, varied the evidence and instructions that they heard, and measured liability judgments and damage awards from individual jurors both before and after deliberating, and from juries. Results showed that admonitions were generally ineffective in guiding jurors to the proper use of evidence but that bifurcation was relatively more effective. Deliberations had no curative effect on jurors' misapplication of evidence.     

Lineup Identification by Children: Effects of Clothing Bias

This study examined effects of clothing cues on children's identification accuracy from lineups. Four- to 14-year-olds (n = 228) saw 12 video clips of individuals, each wearing a distinctly colored shirt. After watching each clip children were presented with a target-present or target-absent photo lineup. Three clothing conditions were included. In 2 conditions all lineup members wore the same colored shirt; in the third, biased condition, the shirt color of only one individual matched that seen in the preceding clip (the target in target-present trials and the replacement in target-absent trials). Correct identifications of the target in target-present trials were most frequent in the biased condition, whereas in target-absent trials the biased condition led to more false identifications of the target replacement. Older children were more accurate than younger children, both in choosing the target from target-present lineups and rejecting target-absent lineups. These findings suggest that a simple clothing cue such as shirt color can have a significant impact on children's lineup identification accuracy.     

Impact of Defense-Only and Opposing Eyewitness Experts on Juror Judgments

Previous research shows that expert testimony on eyewitness memory influences mock-juror judgments. We examined the extent to which opposing expert testimony mitigates the impact of defense-only expert testimony. Participants (N = 497) viewed a video-taped trial involving an eyewitness identification and individually rendered verdicts and evaluated the evidence and the experts. We manipulated the Foils (unbiased vs. biased) and Instructions (unbiased vs. biased) of the lineup and Expert Testimony (no expert vs. defense-only expert vs. opposing experts). Expert testimony did not significantly influence juror judgments, but the opposing expert testimony diminished the credibility of the defense expert in the eyes of the jurors. Results point to the need for further research on conditions that qualify the impact of expert testimony.     

关于留学生"呢"字习得偏误的教学策略

由于"呢"字所传达的语气意义必须依附于一定的语言形式时才能发挥作用,所以,教师在教学过程中不适宜在同一时间内将"呢"字的所有用法都讲给学生,应根据其不同级别,在他们掌握了语言形式的基础上将"呢"字的用法分出等级并循序渐进地加以讲解。这样,才能达到事半功倍的教学效果。     

绘画超常儿童艺术思维过程个案研究

本以个案研究法，探讨了绘画超常獐的艺术过程。认为，艺术思维过程分为知觉，反省，制作三部分。短觉的结果形成知觉概念；反省的结果形成策略；制作的结果形成再现概念。绘画超常獐之间存在显的个别差异，发展前景受多种因素影响，其早期表现并不必然导致成人之后的卓越成就。     

The Relationship Between Crime Reporting and Police: Implications for the Use of Uniform Crime Reports

Empirical studies that use reported crime data to evaluate policies for reducing crime will understate the true effectiveness of these policies if crime reporting/recording behavior is also affected by the policies. For instance, when the size of the police force increases, changes in the perceived likelihood that a crime will be solved may lead a higher fraction of victimizations to be reported to the police. In this paper, three data sets are employed to measure the magnitude of this reporting bias. While each of these analyses is subject to individual criticisms, all of the approaches yield similar estimates. Reporting bias appears to be present but relatively small in magnitude: each additional officer is associated with an increase of roughly five Index crimes that previously would have gone unreported. Taking reporting bias into account makes the hiring of additional police substantially more attractive from a cost–benefit perspective but cannot explain the frequent inability of past studies to uncover a systematic negative relationship between the size of the police force and crime rates.     

从“囧”字流行看当代青年人的思维偏向

目前网络文化中"囧"字流行,文章从心理学角度分析认为,"囧"字的流行,体现了当代青年人思维模式中偏好直觉思维和形象思维的特点,并从文化心理学角度分析了这样两种思维偏向的原因。     

PROFILING AND POLICE LEGITIMACY: PROCEDURAL JUSTICE,ATTRIBUTIONS OF MOTIVE,AND ACCEPTANCE OF POLICE AUTHORITY*

This paper reports the results of four studies that investigate racial profiling as an attribution about police motives. Each study explores, first, the types of police behavior that heighten or lessen the occurrence of profiling attributions and, second, the consequences of such attributions. Results support prior studies in finding that judgments about whether the police are profiling are associated with the level of public support for the police. The studies then extend the analysis of subjective profiling judgments by examining their antecedents. The findings support the procedural justice hypothesis that the fairness with which the police exercise their authority influences whether members of the public view the police as profiling.     

政策转换为法律的正当程序研究

正当程序承载着正义、民主、自由、人权等价值,是民主与法治社会应当遵循的一项普遍法则。政策转换为法律作为民主与法治社会的一项制度,也应当遵循这一法则。同时,遵守正当程序可以保障政策转化为良法,可以保证政策转化为法律过程的正当性。遵循正当程序,就应该在政策转换为法律的过程中注重听取意见制度、公开与说明理由制度和避免偏私制度等。     

推理过程中非理性现象的新解释

人们在实际的推理过程中常违反形式逻辑标准,出现各种偏差现象,表现出非理性,原有理论无法对此作出合理解释.双重加工理论能更好地解释人们实际推理和标准推理(normative reasoning)之间的不一致,认为人类存在着两个完全不同的认知系统:系统1--执行快速、平行、自动化和启发式加工;系统2--执行需要意志努力和认知资源的、控制和分析式加工.当系统1占优势时,人们会违反逻辑形式标准,出现偏差,表现出非理性;而当系统2占主导地位时,人们的推理会符合逻辑形式标准.