Search for Barents: Evaluation of possible burial sites on north Novaya Zemlya, Russia

Three cairns on northernmost Novaya Zemlya identified as possible rock-pile graves by Russian investigators in 1977 and 1988 were located and inspected for human remains. These cairns are in the area visited by Dutch seafarers between 17 and 22 June 1597, after their wintering on Novaya Zemlya, and may contain the body of Willem Barents. Barents and one of his crewmen died on 20 June 1597 while the winterers were on landfast ice close to shore. Previous research on Spitsbergen and contemporary reports on the efforts of 16th and 17th century Dutch seafarers to prepare a Christian grave led us to conclude that the deceased probably were buried on the beach, possibly in a shallow grave or a snowbank. Inspection of the area indicates that this grave probably was destroyed by high (5+ m asl) wave run-up during storms, cryogenic erosion, and animals (polar bear, fox). None of the cairns, or any of several other prominent rock piles in the ~180 km long search area, contained human remains or had lichen growths that would indicate construction ~400 years ago (>2 cm, Rhizocarpon sp.). Cairns were not reported by the Dutch in 1594-98, and most of those encountered on northern Novaya Zemlya probably date from exploration after ca. 1860, when the region north of ~76°N became accessible in a warming, post-Little Ice Age climat

Using behavior-analytic implicit tests to assess sexual interests among normal and sex-offender populations

The development of implicit tests for measuring biases and behavioral predispositions is a recent development within psychology. While such tests are usually researched within a social-cognitive paradigm, behavioral researchers have also begun to view these tests as potential tests of conditioning histories, including in the sexual domain. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the utility of a behavioral approach to implicit testing and means by which implicit tests can be built to the standards of behavioral psychologists. Research findings illustrating the short history of implicit testing within the experimental analysis of behavior are reviewed. Relevant parallel and overlapping research findings from the field of social cognition and on the Implicit Association Test are also outlined. New preliminary data obtained with both normal and sex offender populations are described in order to illustrate how behavior-analytically conceived implicit tests may have potential as investigative tools for assessing histories of sexual arousal conditioning and derived stimulus associations. It is concluded that popular implicit tests are likely sensitive to conditioned and derived stimulus associations in the history of the test-taker rather than 'unconscious cognitions', per se