A Religious Paradox: Can Priming Ideas of God Reduce Rape Victim Blame?

Rape victim blame contributes to unreported incidents of sexual assault and failure to support victims (Ahrens in American Journal of Community Psychology, 38(3-4), 263-274, 2006). The present study investigated the relationship between religiosity, religious priming, and rape victim blame. Using an online Qualtrics panel, 247 U.S. participants were randomly assigned to either a neutral prime or a religious prime. They then read a short vignette of an acquaintance rape scenario and answered questions regarding perceptions of victim blame, victim credibility, benevolent and hostile sexism, religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA). Results revealed that the religious prime reduced victim blame for highly religious participants but not among participants scoring lower in religiosity. The results confirmed that religiosity was positively correlated with both victim blame and RMA. The data also confirmed previous findings that men scored higher on blame than women and that higher religiosity correlated with higher victim blame. Additionally, RMA mediated the relationship between religiosity and rape victim blame. The results of this study could prove valuable in settings where sexual assault demands action from specifically religious individuals or institutions (e.g., jurors on a rape case in a highly-religious region or religious universities trying to confront the high prevalence of sexual assault on campus)

Cognitive remediation versus active computer control in bipolar disorder with psychosis: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Cognitive dysfunction is a major feature of bipolar disorder with psychosis and is strongly associated with functional outcomes. Computer-based cognitive remediation has shown promise in improving cognition in patients with schizophrenia. However, despite similar neurocognitive deficits between patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, few studies have extended neuroscience-based cognitive remediation programs to this population. Methods/Design The Treatment to Enhance Cognition in Bipolar Disorder study is an investigator-initiated, parallel group, randomized, blinded clinical trial of an Internet-based cognitive remediation protocol for patients with bipolar disorder I with psychosis (n = 100). We also describe the development of our dose-matched active control paradigm. Both conditions involve 70 sessions of computer-based activities over 24 weeks. The control intervention was developed to mirror the treatment condition in dose and format but without the neuroplasticity-based task design and structure. All participants undergo neuropsychological and clinical assessment at baseline, after approximately 25 hours of study activities, post treatment, and after 6 months of no study contact to assess durability. Neuroimaging at baseline and post treatment are offered in an “opt-in” format. The primary outcomes are scores on the MATRICS battery; secondary and exploratory outcomes include measures of clinical symptoms, community functioning, and neuroimaging changes. Associations between change in cognitive measures and change in community functioning will be assessed. Baseline predictors of treatment response will be examined. Discussion The present study is the first we are aware of to implement an Internet-based cognitive remediation program in patients with bipolar disorder with psychosis and to develop a comparable web-based control paradigm. The mixed online and study-site format allows accessible treatment while providing weekly staff contact and bridging. Based on user-provided feedback, participant blinding is feasible. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01470781; 11 July 2011

SNAPSHOT USA 2019 : a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August - 24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian's eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the USA. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban-wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as well as future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this paper when using the data for publication.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Agriculture at the Urban Interface: Attitudes of New Rural Residents

As the buffer between farming and residential areas shrinks, pesticide related conflicts increase. Dan Levi and Kathryn Sperry discuss their study examining environmental attitudes and health impacts of living at the agricultural / urban interface in Oceano, California. The discussion illustrates the importance of including these potential environmental impacts and their mitigation in the planning agenda

Jurors Believe Interrogation Tactics Are Not Likely To Elicit False Confessions: Will Expert Witness Testimony Inform Them Otherwise?

Situational factors – in the form of interrogation tactics – have been reported to unduly influence innocent suspects to confess. This study assessed jurors’ perceptions of these factors and tested whether expert witness testimony on confessions informs jury decision-making. In Study 1, jurors rated interrogation tactics on their level of coerciveness and likelihood that each would elicit true and false confessions. Most jurors perceived interrogation tactics to be coercive and likely to elicit confessions from guilty, but not from innocent suspects. This result motivated Study 2 in which an actual case involving a disputed confession was used to assess the influence of expert testimony on jurors’ perceptions and evaluations of interrogations and confession evidence. The results revealed an important influence of expert testimony on mock-jurors decisions