Testing the Identifiable Victim Effect With Both Animal and Human Victims in Anti-Littering Messages

ABSTRACT

The identifiable victim effect is when people are more willing to help identified individuals than those who are unidentified, or statistical, victims. It has primarily been tested in experiments with humans as the victims. A lack of research exists testing whether animal victims could elicit the same level of help, or reactions, as human victims. This study tests the identifiable victim effect with both human and animal stimulus messages focused on the consequences of littering. A total of 198 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to view one of three messages (i.e., an identifiable human victim message, identifiable animal victim message, or a nonvictim control message). While the animal message elicited greater distress and empathy than the human message, the three messages did not differ on behavioral intention outcomes. This study fills a gap in the identifiable victim literature, and it provides insight about responses to risk messages aimed at increasing a prosocial behavior.     

Prayers,punishment, and perception: an analysis of the response to the Tony Stewart – Kevin Ward Jr. incident on Facebook

The purpose of this study was to analyse the response to Tony Stewart’s first public statement following the Kevin Ward Jr. incident and determine how individuals were discussing the incident on Facebook utilizing the theoretical lens of framing. A total of 14,888 comments from 4594 users were analysed with the qualitative software Leximancer. Two frames emerged from the data analysis including judgement and knowledge. Within those frames were five themes including fault, accident, conviction, racing knowledge and evidence. These themes were bi-directional in nature, which allowed users to place blame, question other users’ knowledge, analyse the nature of the incident itself, express support or disdain and call for further examination of the incident. This study’s findings highlight how Facebook can be utilized as a platform for individuals to create an organic framework and attribute their own meaning to a controversial incident.     

Accuracy in direct behavior rating is minimally impacted by completion latency

Direct behavior ratings (DBRs) have been proposed as an efficient method to assess student behavior in the classroom due to their relative ease of administration compared to alternative methods like systematic direct observation. DBRs are considered low‐inference assessments of behavior because they are designed to be completed immediately following a specified observation period of student behavior; however, in practice it is common for teachers and other respondents to delay completion of a DBR until they are reminded to do so. It is unclear what effect, if any, this latency between observation and DBR completion has on rater accuracy. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of completion latency on accuracy in an analogue setting. Two‐hundred forty‐one undergraduate students (83.8% female) with a mean age of 21 participated across eight groups and were asked to complete an electronic DBR immediately after watching a video of student behavior or after a predetermined delay of 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 6 hours. A one‐way analysis of variance revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between completion latency and DBR accuracy, F(7, 233) = .959, p = .46, η² = .028.     

Why Right‐Brain Teaching is Half‐Witted: A Critique of the Misapplication of Neuroscience to Education

Educational tools claiming to use “right‐brain techniques” are increasingly shaping school curricula. By implying a strong scientific basis, such approaches appeal to educators who rightly believe that knowledge of the brain should guide curriculum development. However, the notion of hemisphericity (idea that people are “left‐brained” or “right‐brained”) is a neuromyth that was debunked in the scientific literature 25 years ago. This article challenges the validity of “right‐brain” teaching, highlighting the fact that neuroscientific research does not support its claims. Providing teachers with a basic understanding of neuroscience research as part of teacher training would enable more effective evaluation of brain‐based claims and facilitate the adoption of tools validated by rigorous independent research rather than programs based on pseudoscience.     

Observational learning of discriminative avoidance in hooded rats

To determine the aspects of an observational situation facilitating subsequent acquisition of an observed task, two experimental groups of rats were exposed to a model’s performance of a two-way discriminative shuttlebox avoidance task with a tone as the discriminative stimulus. One experimental group (OND) observed the performance of a naive demonstrator; the other experimental group (OSD) observed a skilled demonstrator. A stimulus control group (SC) was exposed to the tone with no model present; a response control group (RC) observed demonstrator running with no tone present. A naive control group (NC) received no observational experience. All groups were subsequently tested on acquisition of the task. An analysis of variance on avoidance scores and Newman-Keuls tests for differences between means revealed that OND and OSD groups performed significantly more avoidances than the control groups. Exposure to the total tone-running sequence was found to be necessary for observational learning. The results were interpreted in terms of a sensory-sensory conditioning model.

     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ACCEPTABILITY OF VIDEOCONFERENCING WITHIN A SCHOOL‐BASED BEHAVIORAL CONSULTATION FRAMEWORK

School‐based behavioral consultation with classroom teachers is one of the primary ways school psychologists deliver intervention services to students. The present study aimed to evaluate the acceptability of videoconferencing (VC) with teachers as an alternative medium of consultative communication. Specifically, problem identification interviews (PIIs) were conducted with 60 classroom teachers to simulate a typical consultation interaction. Each teacher completed two PIIs with the researcher consultants, one in a traditional face‐to‐face (FtF) format and one in a videoconference (VC) format Teachers completed two brief pre‐post measures, the Fast Form of the Technology Acceptability Model (FF‐TAM) and the Distance Communication Comfort Scale (DCCS) to evaluate the acceptability of VC. Demographic moderators of the acceptability of VC were evaluated using a multiple regression analysis. The results suggest that although teachers rated VC as an acceptable communication medium prior to participating in the VC interview, teacher acceptability ratings increased to “highly acceptable” after participating in the study. Finally, no variables were identified that significantly moderated the relationship between teachers' acceptability rating of VC and their demographic variables. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Leg soft tissue position and velocity data from skin markers can be obtained with good to acceptable reliability following heel impacts

Quantifying soft tissue motion following impact is important in human motion analysis as soft tissues attenuate potentially injurious forces resulting from activities such as running and jumping. This study determined the reliability of leg soft tissue position and velocity following heel impacts. A grid of black dots was applied to the skin of the right leg and foot (n = 20). Dots were automatically detected (ProAnalyst^®) from high-speed records of pendulum and drop impacts. Three trained measurers selected columns of dots on each participant for analysis; one measurer 6 months later. Between- and within-measurer differences in kinematic variables were all relatively small (<0.8 cm for position; <3.7 cm/s for velocity) between-measurers and (<0.5 cm for position; <2.6 cm/s for velocity) within-measurer. Good (coefficients of variation (CV) ≤ 10%) to acceptable (CV > 10% and ≤20%) reliability was shown for 95% of the position measures, with mean CVs of 10% and 11% within-measurers and between-measures, respectively. Velocity measures were less reliable; 40% of the measures showed good to marginal (CV > 20% and ≤30%) reliability. This study established that leg soft tissue position data from skin markers could be obtained with good to acceptable reliability following heel impacts. Velocity data were less reliable but still acceptable in many cases.     

Application of the neuromuscular fatigue threshold treadmill test to muscles of the quadriceps and hamstrings

PurposeThe purposes of the present study were: (1) to determine whether the physical working capacity at the fatigue threshold (PWC_FT) model that has been used for estimating the onset of neuromuscular fatigue in the vastus lateralis (VL) during incremental treadmill running could also be applied to the vastus medialis (VM), biceps femoris (BF), and semitendinosus (ST) muscles; and (2) if applicable, to compare the running velocities associated with the PWC_FT among these muscles.MethodsEleven subjects (age 21.7 ± 1.8 years) performed an incremental treadmill test to exhaustion with electromyographic signals recorded from the VL, VM, BF, and ST.ResultsThe results indicated there were no significant (p > 0.05) mean differences in the running velocities associated with the PWC_FT for the VL (14.4 ± 2.0 km/h), VM (14.3 ± 1.9 km/h), BF (13.8 ± 1.8 km/h), and ST (14.7 ± 2.3 km/h). In addition, there were significant inter-correlations (r = 0.68–0.88) among running velocities associated with the PWC_FT of each muscle. Individual results also indicated that 9 of the 11 subjects exhibited identical PWC_FT values for at least 3 of the 4 muscles, but there were no uniform patterns for any intra-individual differences.ConclusionThe findings of the present study suggested that the PWC_FT test is a viable method to identify neuromuscular fatigue in the quadriceps and hamstrings during incremental treadmill exercise and results in consistent PWC_FT values among these muscles.