The 1990 Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science.

The Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science (BASICS) was founded in 1982 and has met each spring since then in Banff, Alberta. BASICS was originated to provide an informal atmosphere for the in-depth discussion of a wide variety of research topics within the broadly defined domain of cognitive psychology. Topics covered in this year's seminar included visual spatial attention and target detection, attention and eye movements during reading, the integration of information across eye movements, language production and its dependency on structure, and parallel distributed processing models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crime News and Racialized Beliefs: Understanding the Relationship Between Local News Viewing and Perceptions of African Americans and Crime

A survey of Los Angeles County adults was undertaken to determine whether exposure to the overrepresentation of Blacks as criminals on local news programs, attention to crime news, and news trust predicted perceptions of Blacks and crime. After controlling for a number of factors including the diversity of respondents' neighborhood and neighborhood crime rate, attention to crime news was positively related to concern about crime. In addition, attention to crime news was positively associated with harsher culpability ratings of a hypothetical race-unidentified suspect and a Black suspect but not a White suspect. Finally, heavier consumption of Blacks' overrepresentation as criminals on local television news was positively related to the perception of Blacks as violent. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed in light of chronic activation and accessibility of stereotypical constructs.     

Response of pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides) to an operational application of synthetic semiochemicals of stoat (Mustela erminea)

This paper reports on laboratory bioassays and a large-scale field trial of synthetic mustelid anal-gland compounds in controlled-release devices designed for operational application to burrow systems of northern pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides). The field study was conducted in an apple orchard in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. In laboratory bioassays, a 1∶1 mixture of 2-propylthietane and 3-propyl-1,2-dithiolane from the stoat (Mustela erminea) and 3,3-dimethyl-1,2-dithiolane from the ferret (M. putorius), dispensed in clay pellets (activated alumina), produced a significant avoidance response by gophers. All resident gophers were permanently removed from 4-ha control and treatment blocks prior to placement of stoat odor in burrows. As indexed by soil mounds, significantly fewer gophers colonized the treatment (40) than the control (68) removal area during a 5.5-month overwinter experiment. There was also a significant difference when comparing the number of mounds between pre-(79) and posttreatment (40) censuses. In addition, most gopher activity tended to occur on the perimeter of the treatment block. Abundance of gophers showed little difference between additional 4-ha control and treatment blocks where gophers had not been removed. The results of this study provide an alternative technique to toxicants for pocket gopher control on forest and agricultural land.     

The Influence of Race in Police–Civilian Interactions: A Content Analysis of Videotaped Interactions Taken During Cincinnati Police Traffic Stops

Although the study of police–civilian relations has recently entered the intergroup communication arena, there are no studies of actual interactions between these social categories. In part to rectify that stark omission and guided by communication accommodation theory, 313 randomly sampled video recordings from police cars on traffic stops in Cincinnati, Ohio were content analyzed. The study revealed 3 key differences as a function of the officers' and drivers' races: (a) Black drivers were more likely to experience extensive policing during the stop; (b) the communication quality of White drivers was, on average, more positive than that of the Black drivers; and (c) officers' communication behavior was more positive when the officer and driver were of the same race. These findings are consistent with public opinion data and their implications for theory are discussed.     

Signals and Noise in Evoked Brain Potentials

Event-related brain potentials measured with scalp electrodes are always corrupted by unrelated electrical discharges occurring in the brain. These unrelated electrical discharges, generally referred to as noise, have temporal and spectral characteristics similar to evoked potential waveforms, and they greatly increase the difficulty of detecting and estimating the parameters of the evoked potential waveforms themselves. This problem has been analyzed by computing the probability distributions for measured amplitudes and latencies of ERP components measured in the presence of the ongoing EEG. The analytical results have been verified over a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios by computer simulation. Comparisons of theoretical results to measured data indicate that the latency variations found experimentally greatly exceed what would be expected if they were due only to additive noise. It may be concluded, therefore, that the single ERP is not a signal whose components are deterministically related to the stimulus, but is made up of components that shift significantly in both amplitude and latency from one stimulus application to the next. Using the expressions developed in the paper, it is possible to separate the contributions to the variance due to interference from the ongoing EEG and that inherent in the ERP.     

éditorial.

In this editorial, Peter Dixon expresses what a great honour it is to him to take on the editorship of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. He further remarks that the Journal has a long tradition of scientific excellence and rigour that he intends to uphold and foster. Dixon goes on to discuss various aspects of the Journal's nature, and also touches upon a few topics about the Journal's editorial policies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

TERRA COTTA KILN SLAB INVESTIGATION1

Following several discussions as to the constitution of a good kiln slab for terra cotta manufacture, a coöperative test was made in which slabs of various compositions were manufactured by a producer of refractories, tested under actual service conditions, and physical measurements were determined by the Ceramic Department, Rutgers University. Series included the use of tight-firing medium refractory clays, open-firing refractory clays with grog, both vitreous and porous. Grogs were sized (definite proportions of size ranges constituting the different members). Conclusions were drawn as to effect of all these variables.     

Economic analysis of water temperature reduction practices in a large river floodplain: an exploratory study of the Willamette River,Oregon

This paper examines ecosystem restoration practices that focus on water temperature reductions in the upper mainstem Willamette River, Oregon, for the benefit of endangered salmonids and other native cold‐water species. The analysis integrates hydrologic, natural science and economic models to determine the cost‐effectiveness of alternative water temperature reduction strategies. A temperature model is used to simulate the effects of combinations of upstream riparian shading and flow augmentations on downstream water temperatures. Costs associated with these strategies are estimated and consist of the opportunity costs of lost agricultural production and recreation opportunities due to flow releases from an up‐stream reservoir. Temperature reductions from another strategy, hyporheic flow enhancement, are also examined. Restoration strategies associated with enhanced hyporheic cooling consist of removal/reconnection of current obstacles to the creation of dynamic river channel complexity. The observed reduction of summer water temperatures associated with enhanced channel complexity indicates that restoring hyporheic flow processes is more likely to achieve cost‐effective temperature reductions and meet the total maximum daily load (TMDL) target than conventional approaches that rely on increased riparian shading or/and combinations of flow augmentation. Although the costs associated with the hyporheic flow enhancement approach are substantial, the effects of such a long‐term ecological improvement of the floodplain are expected to assist the recovery of salmonid populations and provide ancillary benefits to society. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.