Daniels, Karen A., et al. “Learning to diminish the effects of proactive interference: Reducing false memory for young and older adults.” Memory & Cognition 38.6 (2010): 820-829. Web of Knowledge. Web. 15 Nov. 2010.
The purpose for this research was to determine whether PI (Proactive Interference) could be reduced by providing test subjects with numerous experiences dealing with PI. PI is the reduction in memory performance for recently learned information resulting from the prior learning of related materials. The article itself produces results from two experiments with proactive interference effects on young and older adults. The test subjects were given two rounds of experience, with different materials, in a situation that produced PI. The authors then compared with control conditions which showed that the effects of PI on accuracy and high-confidence intrusion errors (false memory) were reduced on the second round, as compared with those on the first.
The goal of the experiments was to determine whether PI could be reduced by providing test subjects with multiple experiences dealing with PI. Past experiments have never attempted to examine whether people can adapt their processing to diminish the effects of PI. The results of Experiment 1 showed that PI did diminish effects for both ages of adults. Experiment 2 was conducted to gain insight into the means by which experience with PI allowed participants to diminish its effects.
The article gives data information on the results of each experiment with a detailed description of the results. 48 young and 48 old adults participated in the experiments to help with maximize the results of each experiment, so to allow a low margin of error or bias. This article and experiment is valuable to people in the psychology field and health field. This test allows researchers to better determine the cause of memory loss in young adults vs. old adults. It can also help give better insight into Alzheimer's disease, and how the brain reacts to pulling information out. These experiments may sound minor, but the overall effect the results have can help in many ways, not just with psychology and health. Criminologists can examine if people who have high PI are more likely to be criminals or vise verse.
Dixon, Richard D., Roger Lowery, Lloyd P. Jones. “The Fact and Form of Born-Again Religious Conversions and Sociopolitical Conservatism.” Review of Religious Research 34.2 (1992): 117-131. Web of Knowledge. Web. 15 Nov 2010.
This article is a report that attempts to distinguish Christian Protestant born agains from each other and to determine if the distinction is reliable when examining influences on a composed index of sociopolitical conservatism. The results are from 287 white Protestant adult residents in a county located in the Southeastern U.S. The experiment was conducted through telephone interviews. The goal is to show relevance of the distinction between two forms of born-again religious conversion and the relationship between born-again status and sociopolitical conservatism.
The interview was conducted at random. Data was collected by white adults 18 or older, during six weekday evenings in mid-November and early December 1989. The test subjects were all ask a series of questions from a list of 54 questions listed. To gather the 287 subjects, during the phone interview the first question that is always asked is “What is your religious preference?” Only the subjects who answered Protestant were asked to answer specific questions. The other subjects were released and the researchers found new subjects until they reached 287.
As stated in the report, the results revealed four important findings. 1) That born-gain Protestants elicited affirmative responses from both types of born-agains; 2) whether or not a white Protestant is born again has a significant influence on sociopolitical conservatism, but how one is born again, whether suddenly or gradually, does not. 3) when submitted to multivariate analysis, born-again status loses its sailence as an independent influence on sociopolitical conservatism; and 4) other religious variables tapping fervor correlate at the multivariate level with sociopolitical conservatism.
This report is useful to people in the sociology field and the political science field. It is important because it tells us a significant amount of information about political views in one county, the race in that county, and how it influences their families in the area.
Lanier, Christina. “Structure, Culture, and Lethality: An Integrated Model Approach to American Indian Suicide and Homicide.” Sage Journals. 14.1 (2010): 72-89. Web of Knowledge. Web. 15 Nov 2010.
This article investigates lethal violence in the United States on American Indians. Most investigations that are done in the criminology field seem to primarily focus on whites and/or African Americans. Statistics already show that homicide and suicide rates among American Indians are already higher than other racial/ethnic groups within the United States. This report also attempts to understand the lethal violence patterns associated with American Indians.
The data that was used was from the mortality data for American Indians was obtained from the Indian Health Service Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics. The data provides the total homicide and suicide counts for American Indians in all U.S. counties. Analyses is run on area instead of each individual county to determine factors such as poverty level, single-home families, married families, crime. All these factors could play a potential part in determining the most accurate results.
The results of the report found that lethal violence was found to increase in counties where the economic status of American Indians was lower. The lack of economic resources and options for employment result in an increase of actions or violence. The higher the level of poverty and unemployment, the higher the aggression American Indians have directed at others. The results as stated in the report support the argument of previous research that lethal violence are often not racially invariant, and researchers should consider the possibility of variations across groups when examining lethal violence.
This report and research is the most helpful to people in the criminology field. This helps examine lethal violence in a minority racial/ethnic group. With this information, criminologists can help determine the causes and if they lead to crimes being committed as a result of this happening. Sociologists can also use this information, but only to determine how it would effect families and children as they grow up. Would they be more prone to be subject to lethal violence because of what happen early in their childhood?
