Child forensic interviewing in Children's Advocacy Centers: empirical data on a practice model

OBJECTIVE: Children's Advocacy Centers (CACs) aim to improve child forensic interviewing following allegations of child abuse by coordinating multiple investigations, providing child-friendly interviewing locations, and limiting redundant interviewing. This analysis presents one of the first rigorous evaluations of CACs' implementation of these methods. METHODS: This analysis is part of a quasi-experimental study, the Multi-Site Evaluation of Children's Advocacy Centers, which evaluated four CACs relative to within-state non-CAC comparison communities. Case abstractors collected data on investigation methods in 1,069 child sexual abuse cases with forensic interviews by reviewing case records from multiple agencies. RESULTS: CAC cases were more likely than comparison cases to feature police involvement in CPS cases (41% vs. 15%), multidisciplinary team (MDT) interviews (28% vs. 6%), case reviews (56% vs. 7%), joint police/child protective services (CPS) investigations (81% vs. 52%) and video/audiotaping of interviews (52% vs. 17%, all these comparisons p<.001). CACs varied in which coordination methods they used, and some comparison communities also used certain coordination methods more than the CAC with which they were paired. Eighty-five percent of CAC interviews took place in child-friendly CAC facilities, while notable proportions of comparison interviews took place at CPS offices (22%), police facilities (18%), home (16%), or school (19%). Ninety-five percent of children had no more than two forensic interviews, and CAC and comparison differences on number of interviews were mostly non-significant. CONCLUSIONS: Relative to the comparison communities, these CACs appear to have increased coordination on investigations and child forensic interviewing. The CAC setting was the location for the vast majority of CAC child interviews, while comparison communities often used settings that many consider undesirable. CACs showed no advantage on reducing the number of forensic interviews, which was consistently small across the sample.     

Social working memory: Memory for another rat's spatial choices can increase or decrease choice tendencies

In two experiments using a radial-arm maze, pairs of rats made choices among eight maze locations, each containing a large quantity of one of two food types. The choices made by 1 rat affected the choices made by the other rat. Under most conditions, visits by 1 rat increased the tendency of the other rat to subsequently choose that maze location. However, the effect depended on the quality of the food available in a particular location. When it was possible for the rats to observe each other on the maze arms and a rat had experienced that a location contained the less preferred food type, a previous visit to that location by the foraging partner decreased the tendency to visit that location. These effects are attributed to working memory for the spatial choices of another rat, and they indicate that memory produced by a rat’s own visit to a maze location is integrated with memory for the behavior of another rat to determine spatial choice     

Affective learning,teacher clarity,and student motivation as a function of attributional confidence

This study examined the differences in student affective learning, teacher clarity, and student motivation as a function of attributional confidence. More specifically, the degree to which students’ report being able to predict the behavior of his/her teacher should be related to affect toward course and instructor, teacher clarity, and student motivation. Results indicated significant positive correlations between attributional confidence and affective learning, student motivation, and teacher clarity. Results are discussed in terms of implications for Uncertainty Reduction Theory.     

Information recall of younger and older skilled athletes: The role of display complexity,attentional resources and visual exposure duration

This study was concerned with the interactive role of experience of athletic skill with other relevant environmental variables (display complexity, attentional resources, exposure time of stimuli) on perception (recall) of structured handball game situations. Nineteen experienced (older) and 19 less experienced (younger) handball players were assigned randomly either to ball‐bouncing (diverted attention) or to calm seated (focused attention) conditions. In each of the two conditions, the subjects were exposed to a total of 36 slides containing 2–3, 5–6 and 8–10 players. Eighteen slides were exposed for 0.5 s and 18 for 1.0 s. All the slides contained structured defence and offence situations. Recall scores were subjected to repeated‐measures ANOVA using attention condition and age as between‐subject factors and task complexity and exposure duration as within‐subject factors. The results showed that the recall of less experienced players deteriorated more than the recall of more experienced players following exposure to complex displays (≥ 8 players) while engaging in a secondary task (bouncing). The findings suggest that research paradigms should be applied in the field of sport which share both ecological validity and a potential to discover the cognitive substrates underlying experience and age in skilled motor performance.     

Creating a departmental culture for communication grants

Extramural funding to support communication research influences and is influenced by the culture of our discipline, universities, and departments. Both the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association have established closer ties to funding agencies and encouraged members' grant writing pursuits through mentorship and convention programs, newsletter columns, and publicity. Universities vary in how much support they have available as infrastructure to assist in the submission and administration of grants. Some institutions facilitate extramural funding endeavors through mentoring programs, university-wide research centers, sharing of indirect costs, and space. Department cultures, too, vary in the resources available to support grants. Departments in many ways have the most direct effects on grant-supporting cultures. In addition to activities indicated for the discipline and university, departments can build a grant culture by recognizing grant writing in their personnel practices, creating systems for rewarding and supporting grant activities, and having policies in place for the many related issues (e.g., release time, indirect cost sharing, research assistants). Finally, the interpersonal culture, whether colleagues recognize and support grants, plays a major role in individual pursuit of, and satisfaction with, seeking extramural funding to support communication research.     

Relative shank to thigh length is associated with different mechanisms of power production during elite male ergometer rowing

The effect of anthropometric differences in shank to thigh length ratio upon timing and magnitude of joint power production during the drive phase of the rowing stroke was investigated in 14 elite male rowers. Rowers were tested on the RowPerfect ergometer which was instrumented at the handle and foot stretcher to measure force generation, and a nine segment inverse dynamics model used to calculate the rower's joint and overall power production. Rowers were divided into two groups according to relative shank thigh ratio. Time to half lumbar power generation was significantly earlier in shorter shank rowers (p = 0.028) compared to longer shank rowers, who showed no lumbar power generation during the same period of the drive phase. Rowers with a relatively shorter shank demonstrated earlier lumbar power generation during the drive phase resulting from restricted rotation of the pelvic segment requiring increased lumbar extension in these rowers. Earlier lumbar power generation and extension did not appear to directly affect performance measures of the short shank group, and so can be attributed to a technical adaptation developed to maximise rowing performance.     

Tackle and ruck technique proficiency within academy and senior club rugby union

ABSTRACT

This study examined the validity of a tool that assesses tackle and ruck technique in training and established reference data for tackle, ball-carry and ruck technique at different levels of play in rugby union. One hundred and thirty-one amateur rugby union players; 37 senior, 51 first-grade academy and 43 second-grade academy players, participated in a two-on-two contact drill. The drill was filmed and the players’ tackle, ball-carry and ruck technique were assessed using standardized technical criteria. Senior level players scored significantly higher in all three assessments; tackle technique senior vs academy 1^st (p < 0.01, effect size (ES) = 0.7, moderate), senior vs academy 2^nd (p < 0.01, ES = 0.7, moderate); ball-carry technique senior vs academy 1^st (p < 0.01, ES = 0.6, moderate), senior vs academy 2^nd (p < 0.01, ES = 0.8, moderate); ruck technique senior vs academy 1^st (p < 0.01, ES = 0.7, moderate), senior vs academy 2^nd (p < 0.01, ES = 0.4, small). These findings emphasize the importance of developing contact technique to allow players to progress to higher levels, and provide validity to an assessment tool which can facilitate this process.     

From activity to gestures and scientific language

Abstract: Gestures may provide the long sought‐for bridge between science laboratory experiences and scientific discourse about abstract entities. In this article, we present our results of analyzing students' gestures and scientific discourse by supporting three assertions about the relationship between laboratory experiences, gestures, and scientific discourse: (1) gestures arise from the experiences in the phenomenal world, most frequently express scientific content before students master discourse, and allow students to construct complex explanations by lowering the cognitive load; (2) gestures provide a medium on which the development of scientific discourse can piggyback; and (3) gestures provide the material that “glues” layers of perceptually accessible entities and abstract concepts. Our work has important implications for laboratory experiments which students should attempt to explain while still in the lab rather than afterwards and away from the materials. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 103–136, 2001     

Prenatal Risk Predicts Preschooler Executive Function: A Cascade Model

Little research has considered whether prenatal experience contributes to executive function (EF) development above and beyond postnatal experience. This study tests direct, mediated, and moderated associations between prenatal risk factors and preschool EF and IQ in a longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from the Family Life Project. A composite of prenatal risk factors (i.e., low birth weight, prematurity, maternal emotional problems, maternal prepregnancy obesity, and obstetric complications) significantly predicted EF and IQ at age 3, above quality of the postnatal environment. This relationship was indirect, mediated through infant general cognitive abilities. Quality of the postnatal home and child-care environments did not moderate the cascade model. These findings highlight the role of prenatal experience as a contributor to individual differences in cognitive development.