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This study examined age-related differences in the ERP correlates of external feedback processing (i.e., the feedback-related negativity [FRN]) in adolescent and young adult males, using a simple gambling task involving unpredictable monetary losses and gains of low and high magnitude. The FRN was larger after losses than gains, and was modulated by the magnitude of gains, but not the magnitude of losses, for all participants regardless of age. FRN amplitude was larger in adolescents than adults and also discriminated relatively less strongly between gains and losses in adolescents. In addition, the morphology of the waveform after high losses suggests that feedback in this condition may have been processed less efficiently by adolescents. Our results suggest that, although the FRN in adults and adolescents share some common characteristics, the neural processes that generate the FRN are still developing in midadolescence. These findings are discussed in the context of adolescent risk taking.

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A psycholegal research agenda on guilty pleas is in its nascent stage. Multijurisdictional surveys of related law and policy may advance this research agenda by focusing investigators on the specifics of existing policies and motivating cross‐jurisdictional comparisons of diverse policies. We thus conducted a systematic, national survey of statutes, regulations and court rules across the United States pertaining to nine aspects of the guilty plea process, including sentencing differentials, collateral consequences and waiver of rights, which have been identified in existing legal and psycholegal research and commentary. Following a discussion of these issues, including legal concerns and existing research findings, we present the results of our systematic survey. We supplement this review with a non‐systematic sampling of appellate case law. Broadly, there was notable diversity in whether and how jurisdictions approached these issues. We discuss general and specific implications of our findings for future research, emphasizing the importance of data on actual policies and procedures to the design of studies that may contribute to evidence‐based criminal justice policy.

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Adolescence has frequently been characterized as a period of increased risk taking, which may be largely driven by maturational changes in neural areas that process incentives. To investigate age- and gender-related differences in reward processing, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 80 participants in a gambling game, in which monetary wins and losses were either large or small. We measured two ERP components: the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and the feedback P3 (fP3). The FRN was sensitive to the size of a win in both adult (aged 23-35 years) and adolescent (aged 13-17 years) males, but not in females. Small wins appeared to be less rewarding for males than for females, which may in part explain more approach-driven behavior in males in general. Furthermore, adolescent boys showed both delayed FRNs to high losses and less differentiation in FRN amplitude between wins and losses in comparison to girls. The fP3, which is thought to index the salience of the feedback at a more conscious level than the FRN, was also larger in boys than in girls. Taken together, these results imply that higher levels of risk taking that are commonly reported in adolescent males may be driven both by hypersensitivity to high rewards and insensitivity to punishment or losses.

We examined how probability of conviction affects the maximum plea sentence mock defendants will accept. Hypothesis: Relying on Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), we hypothesized that, relative to the expected value of trial, participants would need increasingly better sentences as conviction probability increased and would settle for sentences worse than the expected value of trial when probability was very low. Method: We manipulated conviction probability and potential trial sentence in a series of three between-subjects experiments, with Amazon Mechanical Turk participants assigned to the role of guilty defendants. Participants were majority White (75-82%) and non-Hispanic (92-94%); approximately half (45-51%) identified as female. Study 1 (N ϭ 681) explored the effects of conviction probability (.05, .15, .50, .85, .90) and potential trial sentence (5, 20 years) on the maximum sentence accepted in exchange for a plea. Study 2 (N ϭ 343; X age ϭ 37.5) clarified results of Study 1 for the upper range of probabilities for two potential trial sentences (5, 10 years). Study 3 (N ϭ 1,035; X age ϭ 37.6) replicated the effects of probability (.05, .10, .15, .50, .85, .90) and potential trial sentence (5, 10 years). Results: Across all three studies, participants wanted increasingly better deals (relative to the expected value of trial) as conviction probability increased. For example, in Study 3, when probability of conviction was 0.90, plea sentences were, on average, 58% better than the expected value of trial; in contrast, when the probability was 0.05, sentences that were nearly 4 times the expected value of trial were acceptable. Conclusions: The most commonly used model of plea decision-making, Shadow of the Trial (SOT) (Mnookin & Kornhauser, 1979), assumes a direct and constant linear relationship between conviction probability and plea sentence. In contrast, our data suggest that the way conviction probability affects mock defendants' appraisals of plea offers may change across the probability spectrum. These results can facilitate development of a more comprehensive model of plea decision-making. Public Significance StatementCriminal defedants may become increasingly risk seeking as likelihood of conviction increases, requiring progressively better plea offers before pleading guilty. These findings can be used to update existing models that psycho-legal researchers rely on to understand plea decision-making. In addition, knowledge of these data can better equip attorneys for plea negotiation by improving their understanding of how defendants process information about conviction probability.

Background Most criminal convictions are a result of guilty pleas. Concerns have been raised that large differentials between plea and potential trial sentences can be coercive to some defendants, especially when the threat of potential trial sentence is very large. The limited research, to date, suggests that the likelihood of pleading guilty goes up with increasing size of potential trial sentence. However, existing studies have failed to separate the effects of trial sentence and plea discount; as a result, in almost all studies, large potential trial sentences are paired with large discounts and small trial sentences with small discounts, making it difficult to know how the threat of trial sentence actually affects defendant decisions. Method In this study, we examined the effects of guilt, magnitude of potential trial sentence (5 years and 25 years), and size of plea discount (20%, 50%, and 75%) in a fully crossed, between‐subjects design, with acceptance of plea offer as the dependent variable. Results We found that potential trial sentence and plea discount had independent and opposite effects on plea decisions, with discount carrying the most weight. Specifically, participants accepted more plea offers in higher relative to lower discount conditions and when potential trial sentence was 5 years rather than 25 years. The pattern of effects was similar for participants in guilty and innocent conditions. Implications Our results run somewhat counter to conventional wisdom on how discount and potential trial sentence affect plea decisions and suggest that, given similar discounts, the likelihood for pleading guilty may be higher for defendants facing less serious charges that carry less severe sentences. We discuss the policy and research implications of these data.