Two samples of residents were selected from a Florida work release center. Each group of eight residents differed in their membership with respect to the Megargee MMPI-based inmate classification system. One group was made up entirely of the type considered to be without significant pathology and similar to a noncriminal "normal" population. The other group consisted of two types of residents which prior research had described as impulsive. The "impulsive" label was a function of psychological testing, observation, and background considerations which were an integral part of the original development of the typology. / The experimental portion of the research involved a paradigm in which latencies for both reaction time and a late component (P300) of the auditory evoked potential were measured under two conditions designed to assess the subject's ability to shift his cognitive and behavioral strategy. Prior electrophysiological research had indicated that normal subjects can readily make a strategy shift when asked to go from a "be fast" to a "be accurate" experimental situation. A common-sense assumption is that impulsives think "faster" and thus would fail to shift to a strategy requiring longer cognitive processing. The research design examined that assumption. / A difference score index of the P300/RT relationship revealed a significant shift in cognitive strategy for the Normal Group but not the Impulsive Group. Other findings include the possibility of order of presentation effects and a trend for the impulsives to exhibit longer P300 latencies and shorter RTs. The conclusion discusses the possible future of such research in criminology. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0583. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75024 |
| Contributors | BARNES, ALLAN RANDALL., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 114 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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