No abstract

The sternal surface of the 4th rib has been suggested as a useful predictor of adult age-at-death (Iscan et al.: Journal of Forensic Sciences 29:1094-1104, 1984; American Journal of Physical Anthropology 65:147-156, 1984). We tested its ability to do so in two tests. In the first, we developed a method of seriation and target age assignment for the 4th rib so that inaccuracy and bias of the method could be assessed by decade. We found that the 4th rib shows characteristic changes in morphology with age and can be included in multifactorial age estimates. In the second test, we applied the phase method developed by Iscan et al. (Journal of Forensic Sciences 29:1094-1104, 1984). The results of our three judges were generally similar to those reported by Iscan and Loth (Journal of Forensic Sciences 31:122-132, 1986). Measures of race differences in 4th rib morphology were included in both tests. Americans of African descent (black) showed a non-significant trend for the rib changes to be delayed compared to Americans of European descent (white). This is in contrast to the work of Iscan et al., which predicted that blacks would show a tendency toward accelerated rib changes compared to whites, especially after the early 30s (phases 5-7) (Iscan et al.: Journal of Forensic Sciences 32(2):452-466, 1987).

In this study, the authors investigated the relation between reward and punishment sensitivity and adolescent substance use. The sample (N = 216; 130 girls, 85 boys) was drawn from high school and middle school students enrolled in a Midwestern suburban school district. Participants completed a substance use questionnaire and the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (R. Torrubia, C. Avila, J. Molto, & X. Caseras, 2001). For 13 of 15 types of substance abuse, students with high reward sensitivity and low punishment sensitivity showed the highest levels of use. This finding supports the hypothesis of an interaction effect between reward sensitivity and punishment sensitivity and suggests that individuals who are high in reward sensitivity but low in sensitivity to punishment may be at a higher risk for substance abuse.

A 2013 paper by Adel, Hossain, and Johnson presented fi ndings that seem to support a tenet of astrology: the relationship between birth sign and celebrity. However, their fi nding was simply an artifact of assigning an arbitrary starting point to the zodiac signs and, consequently, the data do not support the validity of astrology.A 2013 paper by Adel, Hossain, and Johnson presented fi ndings that seem to support a tenet of astrology: the relationship between birth sign and celebrity. Verifi cation of this result would be surprising, fi rst, because previous research has not supported sun sign astrology (e.g., Jackson & Fiebert, 1980 ); and second, because the sun signs of popular astrology no longer coincide with the actual position of the sun against the Zodiac ( Culever & Ianna, 1988 ). Even some astrologers dismiss or downplay sun sign astrology (e.g., Kochunas, 2008 ).Adel, et al . ( 2013) looked at three samples of celebrity birth dates. The sample sizes were 100, 200, and 300, respectively. In each case, a signifi cant correlation between birth sun sign and number of celebrity births was reported. The reported Pearson's correlation coeffi cients were large for the three samples ( r = .47, r = .48, and r = .59, respectively) with the sun sign Aquarius showing the largest number of celebrity births for all three samples. However, the study was methodologically fl awed. In this paper I will explain the fundamental error made by the authors and re-analyze the data.In their analysis, Adel, et al . (2013 ) regressed the number of celebrities' births against the sun signs arranged in order from Aries to Pisces. Aries is given the value of 1, Taurus 2, and so on. The authors freely admit that this ordering is arbitrary, but claim "even if Aries is not marked by '1' by another data analyzer, neither the result nor the academic value changes as long as the consistency is maintained in all cases of assigning the numbers to the zodiacs" (p. 172). The central purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that this claim is false. MethodIn this re-analysis I have used only the data from the largest sample of 300 celebrities. I have calculated the correlations between number of celebrity births and sun sign. However, I have run the analysis 12 times. In each case, I have used a diff erent sun sign as the starting point and assigned it the value of 1, and then from that point, counted off the remaining signs in order. All calculations were made in R. ResultsThe results are shown in Table 1 . Some correlations are small and statistically nonsignifi cant ( r = .02, p = .96), while others are large and statistically signifi cant ( r = .59, p = .04); indeed, some correlations are large and negative ( r = -.45, p = .14). The results reported by Adel, et al . (2013 ) are an artifact of their ordering of the zodiac signs, a choice that they concede is arbitrary. DiscussionSince there is no real zero point in the zodiac, the choice of Aries was arbitrary. While there has been a long tradition of listing Aries as the fi rst sign, this ...

In this study, the author tested the reliability, concurrent validity, and predictive validity of three hemispheric cognitive style instruments: (a) the Preference Test (PT; R. Zenhausern, 1978), (b) the Polarity Questionnaire (PQ; B. E. Morton, 2002), and (c) the Wagner Preference Inventory II (WAPI II; R. F. Wagner & K. A. Wells, 1985). Participants were either teachers or teachers in training. The prediction criterion was in the area of teaching licensure. Scores on the PQ had extremely low reliability, and correlations with the PT and the WAPI II were not significantly different from zero. In addition, the PQ did not correlate with the licensure area. The author found that both the PT and the WAPI II had reasonable levels of reliability, and both instruments were able to explain a small percentage of the variance in the teaching licensure area. Using factor analysis of the PT, the author found a 7-factor structure, which suggests that hemispheric cognitive style might be decomposable into separate holist analytic and visual-verbal dimensions.