Objective and subjective comprehension of jury instructions in criminal trials

It would seem important that jury instructions are clear and comprehensible to jurors if they are to effectively carry out their responsibility in criminal trials. Research suggests, however, that jurors may not fully understand instructions despite reporting high levels of comprehension. The current study (N = 33) surveyed jurors who had recently served on a jury to assess their level of comprehension and the factors that contributed to their decisions. It was found that a substantial proportion of jurors were mistaken about directions relating to beyond reasonable doubt and burden of proof. It also was found that higher levels of self-reported comprehension were associated with self-reported reliance on additional factors to arrive at a decision, and a more positive evaluation of the prosecutions' case. Overall, although jurors report that they understand directions, they do not appear to use those directions in arriving at a decision. Subjective comprehension appears to be an important factor in understanding the effect of directions on jurors

Aquatic exercise for residential aged care adults with dementia: benefits and barriers to participation

Background: Pilot work by our group has demonstrated that aquatic exercise has valuable functional and psychosocial benefits for adults living in the residential aged care setting with dementia. The aim of the currents study was to advance this work by delivering the Watermemories Swimming Club aquatic exercise program to a more representative population of older, institutionalized adults with dementia. Methods: The benefits of 12 weeks of twice weekly participation in the Watermemories Swimming Club aquatic exercise program were assessed among an exercise and usual care control group of residential aged care adults with advanced dementia. A battery of physical and psychosocial measures were collected before and after the intervention period, and program implementation was also investigated. Results: Seven residential aged care facilities of 24 approached, agreed to participate and 56 residents were purposefully allocated to exercise or control. Twenty-three participants per group were included in the final analysis. Both groups experienced decreases in skeletal muscle index and lean mass (p < 0.001), but exercise stifled losses in muscle strength and transition into sarcopenic. Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and activities of daily living approached significance (p = 0.06) with positive trends observed across other psychosocial measures. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the value of exercise participation, and specifically aquatic exercise in comparison to usual care for older, institutionalized adults with advanced dementia. However, it also highlights a number of barriers to participation. To overcome these barriers and ensure opportunity to residents increased provider and sector support is required

Deconstructing the simplification of jury instructions: how simplifying the features of complexity affects jurors' application of instructions

Research consistently shows that techniques currently used to simplify jury instructions do not always improve mock jurors' comprehension. If improvements are observed, these are limited and overall comprehension remains low. It is unclear, however, why this occurs. It is possible that current simplification techniques do not effectively simplify the features of complexity, present in standardized instructions, which have the greatest effect on jurors' comprehension. It is not yet known, however, how much each feature of complexity individually affects jurors' comprehension. To investigate this, the authors used existing data from published empirical studies to examine how simplifying each feature of complexity affects mock jurors' application of instructions, as jurors can only apply instructions to the extent they understand them. The results suggest that reducing the conceptual complexity and proportion of supplementary information was associated with increased application of the instructions; however, reducing both the linguistic complexity and amount of information, and providing the instructions in a written format was not. In addition, results showed an unexpected adverse effect of simplification - reducing the amount of information was associated with an increase in the punitiveness of mock jurors' verdicts, independently of the instruction content. Together, these results suggest a need to make jury instructions comprehensible, highlight the key principles in the decision-process, and identify a way to eliminate the negative effect of reducing the amount of information. Addressing these needs is essential for developing a simplification technique that maximizes jurors' comprehension and application of instructions, while minimizing the previously overlooked negative effects of simplification

Re-evaluating how to measure jurors’ comprehension and application of jury instructions

In order for jurors to decide a legally correct verdict, they must comprehend and apply jury instructions. To date, empirical research has focused on jurors' comprehension of instructions. However, it is difficult to know how well jurors actually comprehend instructions, because the tests currently used by researchers to measure jurors' comprehension provide different estimates of jurors' comprehension. It is also difficult to know the degree to which jurors apply instructions, because researchers have not directly examined this question. This article reviews the current tests used to measure jurors' comprehension of instructions, and the current methods used to make inferences about jurors' application of instructions. It then critically analyses these approaches, and recommends ways to improve these approaches in future research, to enable researchers to draw more precise conclusions about the quality of jurors' decision-making

Physical and functional implications of aquatic exercise for nursing home residents with dementia

Exercise has reported benefits for those with dementia. In the current study we investigated the feasibility of delivery and the physical and functional benefits of an innovative aquatic exercise program for adults with moderate to severe dementia living in a nursing home aged care facility. Ten adults (88.4 years, inter quartile range 12.3) participated twice weekly for 12 weeks. Anthropometric and grip strength data, and measures of physical function and balance were collected at baseline and post-intervention. Feasibility was assessed by attendance, participation, enjoyment and recruitment. Following exercise, participant's left hand grip strength had improved significantly (p = .017). Small to moderate effect sizes were observed for other measures. A number of delivery challenges emerged, but participant enjoyment, benefits and attendance suggest feasibility. Aquatic exercise shows promise as an intervention among those with dementia who live in a nursing home aged care facility. Greater program investigation is warranted