Peer recognition of prodromal signs of psychosis : a signal detection analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Using signal detection analysis, this study investigated young peoples' sensitivity to prodromal signs or psychotic symptoms compared to more everyday signs of distress in their friends. In a questionnaire format, 117 high school students (aged 13 to 16 years) were asked to report the level of concern they would have if one of their friends exhibited certain characteristics. Half of the latter were neutral, everyday phenomena (no signal), and the remainder were either DSM-IV symptoms of psychosis or empirically-derived prodromal signs of early onset psychosis (signal). Each possible sign was modified (made more serious) by descriptors used in psychological models to define pathology behaviorally: rare in youth, high in frequency, recent change, and lack of obvious (rational) environmental cause. High frequency was the modifier leading to the greatest degree of concern. Accurate and sensitive detection, based on d' values, was adequate for psychotic symptoms, especially by females rather than by males, although depressed mood (a prodromal sign in this context) was most readily detected as a worrisome feature. The study has implications for analyzing how youth judge indices of distress in their friends and for their general ability to recognize that certain characteristics are more troublesome than others. Telling a responsible adult of their concerns was the most frequently suggested response, followed by attempting to help and talking to the peer about their concerns. If rapid detection of early onset psychosis is to be a goal of preventative mental health services, youth who are sensitive to classic symptoms of psychosis may still need educating in recognizing the difference between behavioral characteristics that are part of everyday distress and those that are indicative of more serious adjustment difficulties that might be emerging

Honesty Without Truth: Lies, Accuracy, and the Criminal Justice Process

Focusing on “lying” is a natural response to uncertainty but too narrow of a concern. Honesty and truth are not the same thing and conflating them can actually inhibit accuracy. In several settings across investigations and trials, the criminal justice system elevates compliant statements, misguided beliefs, and confident opinions while excluding more complex evidence. Error often results. Some interrogation techniques, for example, privilege cooperation over information. Those interactions can yield incomplete or false statements, confessions, and even guilty pleas. Because of the impeachment rules that purportedly prevent perjury, the most knowledgeable witnesses may be precluded from taking the stand. The current construction of the Confrontation Clause right also excludes some reliable evidence—especially from victim witnesses—because it favors face-to-face conflict even though overrated demeanor cues can mislead. And courts permit testimony from forensic experts about pattern matches, such as bite-marks and ballistics, if those witnesses find their own methodologies persuasive despite recent studies discrediting their techniques. Exploring the points of disconnect between honesty and truth exposes some flaws in the criminal justice process and some opportunities to advance fact-finding, truth-seeking, and accuracy instead. At a time when “post-truth” challenges to shared baselines beyond the courtroom grow more pressing, scaffolding legal institutions, so they can provide needed structure and helpful models, seems particularly important. Assessing the legitimacy of legal outcomes and fostering the engagement necessary to reach just conclusions despite adversarial positions could also have an impact on declining facts and decaying trust in broader public life

Automatically detecting open academic review praise and criticism

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Emerald in Online Information Review on 15 June 2020. The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version, accessible at https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2019-0347.Purpose: Peer reviewer evaluations of academic papers are known to be variable in content and overall judgements but are important academic publishing safeguards. This article introduces a sentiment analysis program, PeerJudge, to detect praise and criticism in peer evaluations. It is designed to support editorial management decisions and reviewers in the scholarly publishing process and for grant funding decision workflows. The initial version of PeerJudge is tailored for reviews from F1000Research’s open peer review publishing platform. Design/methodology/approach: PeerJudge uses a lexical sentiment analysis approach with a human-coded initial sentiment lexicon and machine learning adjustments and additions. It was built with an F1000Research development corpus and evaluated on a different F1000Research test corpus using reviewer ratings. Findings: PeerJudge can predict F1000Research judgements from negative evaluations in reviewers’ comments more accurately than baseline approaches, although not from positive reviewer comments, which seem to be largely unrelated to reviewer decisions. Within the F1000Research mode of post-publication peer review, the absence of any detected negative comments is a reliable indicator that an article will be ‘approved’, but the presence of moderately negative comments could lead to either an approved or approved with reservations decision. Originality/value: PeerJudge is the first transparent AI approach to peer review sentiment detection. It may be used to identify anomalous reviews with text potentially not matching judgements for individual checks or systematic bias assessments

The feasibility and effectiveness of a web-based personalised feedback and social norms alcohol intervention in UK university students: A randomised control trial

OBJECTIVE Alcohol misuse amongst University students is a serious concern, and research has started to investigate the feasibility of using e-health interventions. This study aimed to establish the effectiveness of an electronic web-based personalised feedback intervention through the use of a randomised control trial (RCT). METHODS 506 participants were stratified by gender, age group, year of study, self-reported weekly consumption of alcohol and randomly assigned to either a control or intervention condition. Intervention participants received electronic personalised feedback and social norms information on their drinking behaviour which they could access by logging onto the website at any time during the 12-week period. CAGE score, average number of alcoholic drinks consumed per drinking occasion, and alcohol consumption over the last week were collected from participants at pre- and post-survey. RESULTS A significant difference in pre- to post-survey mean difference of alcohol consumed per occasion was found, with those in the intervention condition displaying a larger mean decrease when compared to controls. No intervention effect was found for units of alcohol consumed per week or for CAGE scores. Sixty-three percent of intervention participants agreed that the feedback provided was useful. Those intervention participants who were above the CAGE cut off were more likely to report that the website would make them think more about the amount they drank. CONCLUSIONS Delivering an electronic personalised feedback intervention to students via the World Wide Web is a feasible and potentially effective method of reducing student alcohol intake. Further research is needed to replicate this outcome, evaluate maintenance of any changes, and investigate the process of interaction with web-based interventions

Redressing the Silent Interim: Precautionary Action & Short Term Tests in Toxicological Risk Assessment

The author recommends that a stronger emphasis be placed on creating and implementing short-term tests that use iterative, conservative-based, tiered procedures in conjunction with a precautionary attitude during the interim phase of toxicological risk assessments