Cognitive communication and the law: a model for systemic risks and systemic interventions.

Legal contexts frequently impose steep communication barriers, but because the law's ontological framework of communication views it as an atomized, transaction phenomenon, the law lacks the ability to conceptualize and describe the way in which it itself imposes systemic communication burden. To overcome this shortcoming, this article presents a model for a systemic analysis of communication within the law. Part One operationalizes a set of cognitive-communication resources necessary to navigate communication in legal contexts. Part Two uses the operational model to illustrate how systemic elements of the law pressure the cognitive resources that underlie communication. Finally, Part Three uses the model to predict how possible systemic interventions might improve communication outcomes by alleviating or reducing systemic communication burdens. Not only does this article provide a conceptual tool to articulate the law's systemic impacts on communication, the subsequent analysis offers a framework for exploring interventions that could ultimately lead to better outcomes for persons, particularly vulnerable or at-risk persons, who must navigate legal contexts. By changing how it conceptualizes communication and working to modify the communication dynamics that it itself perpetuates, the law can reduce the weight of the communication burdens that it imposes on the people within it.

Comprehension of social-legal exchanges in adults with and without traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize comprehension of conditional social-legal rules and broader social reasoning in adults with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI). PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 20 adults with moderate-to-severe TBI (11 women) and 21 adults without TBI (13 women), ages 24 to 64 years. METHOD: Participants completed the Wason task, a test of logical reasoning of conditional rules comprising precautionary rules, social-exchange rules, and legal social-exchange rules. Dependent variables were response accuracy and response time. RESULTS: Across rule categories, TBI group participants were significantly less accurate, F(1, 39) = 9.03, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.18, and slower, F(1, 39) = 7.32, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.16, than comparison peers. Rule category had no effect on accuracy, but for both groups legal social-exchange rules were associated with longer response times, F(1, 78) = 9.82, p < .01, semipartial R2 = 0.11. Processing speed test scores correlated with accuracy, F(1, 37) = 4.62, p < .05, semipartial R2 = 0.11, and response times, F(1, 78) = 4.45, p < .05, semipartial R2 = 0.14, in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Adults with TBI underperformed their uninjured peers in both accuracy and speed of comprehending on precautionary rules, social-exchange rules, and legal social-exchange rules. These differences were attributable in part to differences in processing speed both within and between groups. Results highlight the potential costs of TBI-related cognitive problems in social-legal contexts, suggest the need to better accommodate individuals with TBI who are already involved in legal systems, and identify cognitive mechanisms for future study of social-legal rule comprehension in TBI and other populations with cognitive impairments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Comprehension of Legal Language by Adults With and Without Traumatic Brain Injury.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize comprehension of written legal language in adults with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI). PARTICIPANTS: Nineteen adults with moderate-to-severe TBI (11 females) and 21 adults without TBI (13 females), aged 24 to 64 years. METHODS: Participants completed a multiple-choice assessment of legal-language comprehension, with written stimuli either presented in their original legal form or manipulated to simplify syntax or use more frequently occurring words. RESULTS: Across stimulus types, TBI group participants were significantly less accurate and slower than comparison peers, with no effect of linguistic manipulation. Working memory and reading fluency test scores correlated with task accuracy and speed in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Adults with TBI underperformed their uninjured peers in both accuracy and speed on a task of legal-language comprehension, and these differences were attributable in part to differences in working memory and reading fluency. Results highlight the potential costs of TBI-related communication problems in criminal proceedings and the need to formally evaluate language comprehension in individuals with TBI who are in the criminal justice system.

Language impairments in youths with traumatic brain injury: implications for participation in criminal proceedings.

As many as 30% of incarcerated juveniles have a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Moderate or severe TBI is associated with a high risk of impairment in language comprehension and expression, which may have profound effects on juveniles' ability to understand and express themselves in criminal proceedings. In this article, we review common language impairments in youths with TBI and discuss potential effects of these impairments on 3 stages of US criminal proceedings: (1) initial encounter with law enforcement; (2) interrogation and Miranda rights; and (3) competence to undergo trial proceedings. We then describe language assessment tools and procedures that may be helpful in legal contexts. Our aim was to inform clinicians and legal staff working with juvenile defendants with TBI, with the long-term goal of developing empirically based guidelines to ensure that juvenile defendants with TBI can fully and effectively participate in criminal proceedings.

The eye organizes neural crest cell migration.

In the anterior vertebrate head, a population of neural crest cells (NCCs) migrates to the periocular mesenchyme and makes critical contributions to the developing eye and orbit. Improper migration and differentiation of these NCCs have been implicated in human diseases such as congenital glaucoma and anterior segment dysgenesis syndromes. The mechanisms by which these cells migrate to their target tissues within and around the eye are not well understood. We present a fate map of zebrafish diencephalic and mesencephalic NCC contributions to the eye and orbit. The fate map closely resembles that in chick and mice, demonstrating evolutionary conservation. To gain insight into the mechanisms of anterior NCC guidance, we used the eyeless mutant chokh/rx3. We show that, in chokh mutants, dorsal anterior NCC migration is severely disorganized. Time-lapse analysis shows that NCCs have significantly reduced migration rates and directionality in chokh mutants.