Developing social impact assessment guidelines in a pre-existing policy context

Few jurisdictions have translated internationally agreed social impact assessment (SIA) principles into statutory provisions. Governments and regulatory bodies tend to provide developers with high-level frameworks, or require that social impacts be ‘considered’, without specifying how this is to be done. In Australia, this lack of clarity leaves all parties uncertain about requirements for SIA. The New South Wales (NSW) Government’s 2017 release of the SIA guideline for State-significant mining, petroleum and extractive industry development represents an attempt to clarify requirements and provide guidance. In this paper, we describe the process of bringing this guideline to fruition from the perspective of being directly involved in its development, and highlight the challenges involved in integrating leading-practice principles into the state’s pre-existing policy framework. While the guideline represents a significant advance in policy-based SIA guidance, some aspects leave room for improvement. The real test of the guideline’s impact will lie in its influence on SIA practice in NSW, and ultimately in social outcomes for communities affected by resources projects.     

Cultural differences in complex addition: Efficient Chinese versus adaptive Belgians and Canadians.

In the present study, the authors tested the effects of working-memory load on math problem solving in 3 different cultures: Flemish-speaking Belgians, English-speaking Canadians, and Chinese-speaking Chinese currently living in Canada. Participants solved complex addition problems (e.g., 58 + 76) in no-load and working-memory load conditions, in which either the central executive or the phonological loop was loaded. The authors used the choice/no-choice method to obtain unbiased measures of strategy selection and strategy efficiency. The Chinese participants were faster than the Belgians, who were faster and more accurate than the Canadians. The Chinese also required fewer working-memory resources than did the Belgians and Canadians. However, the Chinese chose less adaptively from the available strategies than did the Belgians and Canadians. These cultural differences in math problem solving are likely the result of different instructional approaches during elementary school (practice and training in Asian countries vs. exploration and flexibility in non-Asian countries), differences in the number language, and informal cultural norms and standards. The relevance of being adaptive is discussed as well as the implications of the results in regards to the strategy choice and discovery simulation model of strategy selection (J. Shrager & R. S. Siegler, 1998). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evidence-based review of the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosocial issues post-spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Systematic review. Objective: To examine the evidence supporting the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for improving psychosocial outcomes in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Method: Electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and PsycINFO) were searched for studies published between 1990 and October 2010. Randomized control trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized control trials (non-RCTs) utilizing a CBT intervention to improve psychosocial outcomes (depressive symptomatology, anxiety, coping, and adjustment to disability) in outpatient persons with SCI were included for review. Levels of evidence were assigned to each study using a modified Sackett scale. Effect size calculations for the interventions were provided where possible. Results: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. The studies reviewed included two RCTs, six prospective controlled trials (PCTs) and one cohort study. All studies examined at least two groups. There is Level 1 and Level 2 evidence supporting the use of specialized CBT protocols in persons with SCI for improving outcomes related to depression, anxiety, adjustment, and coping. Conclusions: CBT holds promise as an effective approach for persons with SCI experiencing depression, anxiety, adjustment, and coping problems. As CBT may involve many different components, it is important in the future to determine which of these elements alone or in combination is most effective in treating the emotional consequences of SCI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic and Efficient Human Pose Estimation for Sign Language Videos

We present a fully automatic arm and hand tracker that detects joint positions over continuous sign language video sequences of more than an hour in length. To achieve this, we make contributions in four areas: (i) we show that the overlaid signer can be separated from the background TV broadcast using co-segmentation over all frames with a layered model; (ii) we show that joint positions (shoulders, elbows, wrists) can be predicted per-frame using a random forest regressor given only this segmentation and a colour model; (iii) we show that the random forest can be trained from an existing semi-automatic, but computationally expensive, tracker; and, (iv) introduce an evaluator to assess whether the predicted joint positions are correct for each frame. The method is applied to 20 signing footage videos with changing background, challenging imaging conditions, and for different signers. Our framework outperforms the state-of-the-art long term tracker by Buehler et al. (International Journal of Computer Vision 95:180–197, 2011), does not require the manual annotation of that work, and, after automatic initialisation, performs tracking in real-time. We also achieve superior joint localisation results to those obtained using the pose estimation method of Yang and Ramanan  (Proceedings of the IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, 2011).     

Food wresting and dodging: Strategies used by rats (Rattus norvegicus) for obtaining and protecting food from conspecifics.

We describe two previously undocumented stereotyped behaviors used by group-housed laboratory rats to obtain and protect food. Rats in social groups with limited access to food will attempt to obtain food by wresting it away from each other. To gain food, a rat will approach a feeding rat from behind, walk along its side, and then attempt to seize the food that it holds. To protect the food, the victim dodges laterally away from the approaching rat. The dodge effectively positions the robber to the rear and gives the victim time to continue eating. Contralaterally directed dodges take two general forms: One type involves a body turn and rear leg step that carries the rat about 19 cm in an arc of about 175° contralateral to the robber; the food is held in the forepaws. The second type involves a body turn and rear leg step that carries the rat in a longer arc; the food is transferred to the mouth and then back to the forepaws. Wresting attempts and dodges made by male and female rats are not different. The wrester–dodge relation can be used as a laboratory paradigm for the study of features of social dominance, for the investigation of the neural substrate of orienting behavior, and for investigating other aspects of social behavior or parasitic behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiplication by eye and by ear for Chinese-speaking and English-speaking adults.

Under two conditions, 32 English-speaking and 32 Chinese-speaking adults solved single-digit multiplication problems. In one condition, problems were presented as visual digits (e.g., 8×9). In the other condition, problems were presented as auditory number words in the participant's first language (e.g., /eit/ /taimz/ /nain/). Chinese-speaking adults made proportionately more operand-intrusion errors (e.g., 4×8=24) than English-speaking adults. Both groups made more operand-intrusion errors with auditory than with visual presentation. These findings are similar to those found when participants solve problems presented as visual number words (e.g., eight×nine), suggesting that in both cases the activation of phonological codes interferes with processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between prenatal testosterone and cerebral lateralization in children.

Several theorists have proposed that the sex steroid testosterone acts on the fetal brain during a critical period of development to influence cerebral lateralization (N. Geschwind & A. M. Galaburda, 1987; M. Hines & C. Shipley, see PA, Vol 71:8996; S. F. Witelson, see PA, Vol 79:26441. In the present study. relations were examined between prenatal testosterone levels in 2nd trimester amniotic fluid and lateralization of speech, affect, and handedness at age 10. Girls with higher prenatal testosterone levels were more strongly right-handed and had stronger left-hemisphere speech representation. Boys with higher prenatal testosterone levels had stronger right-hemisphere specialization for the recognition of emotion. This pattern of results is most consistent with Witelson's (1991) claim that prenatal testosterone leads to greater lateralization of function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rats with fimbria-fornix lesions can acquire and retain a visual-tactile transwitching (configural) task.

The idea that the hippocampus is essential for acquisition and retention of a transwitching (configural) problem is evaluated with a visual-tactile task. The task requires the rats to pull up a string of one of two sizes for food, as signalled by room lighting conditions. Rats received cathodal fimbria-fornix lesions either prior to or after learning the task. Rats with fimbria-fornix lesions were unimpaired in acquisition or retention. The results do not support the position that the hippocampal formation is essential for the acquisition and retention of a transwitching configural problem. The result is discussed in relation to the configural theory of hippocampal function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between prenatal testosterone levels and cognitive abilities at 4 years.

Relations between prenatal testosterone (T) levels and cognitive abilities at age 4 were examined for 28 girls and 30 boys. Prenatal T levels were measured in 2nd trimester amniotic fluid samples obtained by amniocentesis and were examined in relation to scores on tests of cognitive abilities. For girls, prenatal T levels showed a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relation to language comprehension and classification abilities. Linear relations also were observed in that prenatal T levels were inversely related to girls' scores on tasks assessing counting and number facts. Similarly, girls with high average block building scores had lower prenatal T and cognitive abilities were not observed. The observation of relations in girls and not boys is discussed, and the findings are examined in relation to theories of hormone-behavior relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple routes to solution of single-digit multiplication problems.

Researchers have assumed that adults solve simple arithmetic problems by retrieving answers from a network of stored facts. In 2 studies, undergraduates described their solutions of single-digit multiplication problems. They reported direct retrieval on approximately 80% of trials but also reported rules (e.g., anything times 0 is 0), repeated addition (e.g., 2?×?4?=?4?+?4), number series (e.g., 3?×?5?=?5, 10, 15), and derived facts (e.g., 6?×?7?=?[6?×?6]?+?6). Participants were slower to retrieve problems that were most likely to be solved by nonretrieval procedures and faster to retrieve problems that were usually solved by retrieval. These results indicate that direct-retrieval models are incomplete accounts of adults' performance and support a continuing influence of learning and experience on the mental representation of simple multiplication problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)