Reality check: using newspapers, police reports, and court records to assess defensive gun use.

OBJECTIVE: To identify legitimate defensive gun uses (DGUs), and provide a reality check on previous estimates of the rate of DGUs by using a novel approach based on newspaper reports and police and court records. Previous estimates have relied on self report, differ by a factor of 10 or more, and are viewed as highly controversial. DESIGN AND SETTING: The reported uses of firearms in a newspaper covering roughly the Phoenix metropolitan area over almost a 3.5 month period were examined, supplemented where necessary by police and court records. RESULTS: Two DGUs involving killing assailants and one involving firing at an assailant were found. The three DGUs stemmed from cases of "mutual combat" or exposed bystanders to gunfire. CONCLUSIONS: These findings cast doubt on rates of DGUs reported in an influential study by Kleck and Gertz, which predict that the police should have known about 98 DGU killings or woundings and 236 DGU firings at adversaries during the time the newspaper was surveyed. The findings reported here were closer to predictions based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, which suggest that the police should have known about eight DGU killings or woundings and 19 DGU firings at adversaries.

Developing organization of mental verbs and theory of mind in middle childhood: evidence from extensions.

The purpose of the study was to assess developments in the theory of mind suggested by changes in the organization of cognitive verb extensions during the elementary school years. Adults and 3rd- and 5th-grade children were provided with a set of mental activity scenarios and were asked to select the best verbs from a list of cognitive verbs that might apply to each scenario. Changes in organization were assessed by examining overlapping uses of cognitive verbs in different contexts. There were 3 major changes with development: (a) the understanding of the role of memory in input functions increased, (b) the interrelatedness of memory- and comprehension-related verbs increased, and (c) the importance of cognitive certainty and uncertainty engaged by constructive processing verbs increased. Together, these findings suggest that a constructivist theory of mind develops in later childhood.

Concepts of drugs: differences in conceptual structure across groups with different levels of drug experience.

Seventy-seven college students varying in degree of drug use experience rated the perceived similarities of all possible combinations of 16 drugs classes (cigarettes, other tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, barbiturates, minor and major tranquilizers, amphetamines, amphetamine derivatives, cocaine, heroin, opiates, hallucinogens, inhalants, PCP, anti-depressants). Multi-dimensional scaling (INDSCAL) and network models (PFNET) indicated that abstainers had only one pharmacological category involving sedatives/depressants, and that they attached more importance to whether drugs were licit vs. illicit than to whether they were depressants vs. stimulants. Conceptions became more coherent, differentiated and based on pharmacological properties for more experienced drug users. In line with previous work, groups with greater experience with drugs had more sophisticated conceptions not only about the drugs they had used, but also about drugs they had not used. These findings suggest that early on in drug behavior sophisticated and interrelated concepts are developing that should be taken into account when designing interventions and information campaigns.

Developing theories of mind: understanding concepts and relations between mental activities.

The purpose of the study was to expand our knowledge of older children's understanding of the unique features and potential relations existing among mental activities. 8- and 10-year-olds as well as adults were asked to rate the similarity of pairs of mental activity scenarios in terms of how their mind would be used for each one. The scenarios involved primarily Prospective Memory, List Memory, Recognition Memory, Comprehension, Interference, Planning, Comparison, or Selective Attention. There was a developing tendency to organize mental activities on the degree to which memory was a component of the activity. Several distinctions were also more likely to be made with age: the distinction between recall and recognition, the distinction between the roles of internal and external cues in mediating cognitive activity, and the distinction among the various roles of attentional processes in regulating input from the sensory world. Together, these findings suggest that a constructivist theory of mind develops in later childhood.

Two roads diverged: young children's ability to judge distance.

In the present studies, we investigated 4- and 5- to 6-year-old's ability to compare the distances covered by a direct route to a location and an indirect route to the same location. The distances ranged between 16 and 22 feet. The routes were visible from a single vantage point, and objects serving as landmarks were sometimes located along the routes. We found clear demonstrations of the two classic Piagetian distance errors--the direct-indirect error, in which children judge that a direct route and an indirect route cover the same distance, and the interposed object error, in which children judge that a route is shorter when it is segmented by an object located somewhere along the route. The interposed object error occurred because children focused on only one segment of the route, which was consistent with Piaget's explanation of the error. However, in contrast to Piaget, we found that about 40% of 4-year-olds could successfully avoid the direct-indirect error, and in addition, when the routes were visually displayed, they could also avoid the interposed object error. It is important that they also gave correct explanations for why the indirect route was longer, by referring to the fact that it was not straight. For these children at least, the interposed object error was due to difficulty they had representing routes, rather than to a misconception of distance. We suggest that future research should examine whether that may also be true for younger children.

Developing theories of the mind: children's and adults' concepts of mental activities.

8-year-olds', 10-year-olds', and adults' concepts of mental activities involved in acts of knowing were examined in an attempt to gain insight into developmental changes in underlying theories of mind. Subjects rated the similarity of how the mind is used in a variety of common activities, each of which primarily involved either memory, comprehension, attention, or inference. Analyses of conceptual structure revealed 2 developmental changes. Between 8 and 10 years of age, children came to see the most important relation among mental activities to be the degree to which they involved memory. Between 10 years of age and adulthood, Comprehension and Attention first appeared as distinct, coherent concepts. At all ages, Memory and Inference were seen as distinct types of mental activities. These findings suggested that a sophisticated understanding of the representational nature of the mind might not be acquired before the latter part of middle childhood and might be mediated by an understanding of the central role played by memory.

The development of forward search planning in preschoolers.

Previous evidence suggesting that young children have some ability to plan by means of forward search suffers from typical findings that individual performance is inconsistent and group performance is low. In the present study, evidence is sought that children's imperfect performance results from unstable execution of the correct component processes of forward search, rather than from use of flawed or incomplete rules. 4- and 5-year-olds participated in a route-planning task in which they collected items from several locations in a large space. Incorrect routes required having to backtrack to locations previously visited. Forward search in this task required 3 component processes: representing a possible route, evaluating the route for backtracking, and if necessary, repeating the procedure for an alternate route. Evidence from stochastic parameter estimation and from children's self-corrections and explanations showed that 5-year-olds engaged in forward search, but that 4-year-olds used only a rudimentary form of forward search. Developmental changes involved children's ability to foresee and avoid backtracking, to consider alternate routes, and to spontaneously self-correct errors. Results are discussed in terms of implications for our understanding of the structure and development of early problem-solving skills in general.

Young children's sensitivity to logical necessity in their inferential search behavior.

Young children's ability to evaluate the logical necessity of 2 types of inferences was studied in 2 experiments involving 68 3-7-year-olds. Children searched the doors of model houses in order to determine whether a house matched a description specifying certain numbers and types of occupants. A search task used in Experiments 1 and 2 allowed children to search for additional information if initial information was insufficient to support a logically necessary inference about whether the house was correct or incorrect. A judgment condition used in Experiment 2 required a "can't tell" response to insufficient information. Even 3-year-olds showed some ability to evaluate the logical necessity of an inference that confirmed a house was correct. Developmental changes involved increased reliability of individuals' performance and increased range of application of children's inference evaluation procedures to include more difficult, disconfirmatory inferences and cases where greater certainty in reasoning seemed to be required. Results are discussed in terms of an account of the gradual development and consolidation of an ability to evaluate the necessity of inferences, perhaps first apparent in preschoolers' sensitivity to conditions of sufficient and insufficient information in information-acquisition problems.

[Poisoning by hypochlorite-containing disinfectants. A retrospective analysis of 594 cases of poisoning]. / Vergiftungen durch hypochlorithaltige Sanitärreiniger. Eine retrospektive Analyse von 594 Vergiftungsfällen.

Hypochlorite-containing disinfectants or bleaching fluids, if inhaled, may lead to life-threatening poisoning (56% of moderately severe cases, 5% of severe cases) through the immediate liberation of chlorine gas, if they are used together with another cleansing fluid which is very acid. A rough estimate suggests that there must be about 700 cases of such poisonings per year in the Federal Republic of Germany. The characteristic symptom is a respiratory distress syndrome when the liberated chlorine gas is inhaled. Toxic pulmonary oedema and cardiovascular failure can occur if the poisoning takes a fulminating course.

[Poisoning with leather-impregnation sprays. A retrospective analysis of 224 cases of poisoning]. / Vergiftungen durch Leder-Imprägniersprays. Eine retrospektive Analyseüber 224 Vergiftungsfälle.

Annually, there are about 100-200 intoxications in the Federal Republic of Germany caused by inhalation of leather impregnation sprays. The course of these intoxications is moderately severe in 60% and severe in 18% of the cases. The signs and symptoms are characterized by a respiratory distress syndrome which sets in about 15-60 min after spraying and which requires several days of hospitalisation in severe cases. The sprays contain about 7-11 components; their toxicity is not exclusively associated with one substance only. Lower toxicity can be achieved by preparing a basic formulation adjusted to the low-hazard components.

[Electronic data processing in anaesthesia. Development of a data collection form and organisation of data collection (author's transl)]. / Elektronische Datenverarbeitung in der Anaesthesie. Entwicklung eines Erhebungsbogens und Organisation der Datenerfassung.

We report on the development of a data collection form for anaesthesia. The difference between this form and the previously published recommendations is that it does not require any coding of data prior to collection. The anaesthetist completing the form needs no knowledge of data processing. Qualitative data have only to be marked, while quantitative data must be entered as such. So far, more than 90,000 anaesthesias have been collected with the form presented, therefore usefulness may be assumed.