Training makes the face fit


PHOTO-ID IS COMMONLY used to prove identity, yet a new study finds that people are surprisingly poor at matching faces to photo-ID. In this study the most common type of error was accepting an invalid photo-ID as being genuine, which is the response posing the largest threat to security. However, researchers found that manipulating photos – for example, cropping or averaging different photos of the same person – improved


recognition to some extent. Interestingly, marked improvement could also be gained by the simple intervention of training people to improve their matching performance. n


i Contact Professor Mike Burton, University of Glasgow


Email mike@psy.gla.ac.uk Telephone 0141 330 4060 ESRC Grant Number RES-000-22-2519


Baby signing fails to reduce parental stress


BABY SIGNING IS BECOMING increasingly popular. Based on hand gestures, it enables parents to interact with their baby before he or she is able to talk. For parents, the promised benefits of baby signing include reduced frustration and stress, greater understanding of the infant’s needs and a better relationship with the child. New research, however, finds that mothers who attended baby signing classes were, contrary to expectation, more stressed than those who attended other mother and baby classes. Researchers suggest that mothers who attended gesturing classes were likely to have higher pre-existing stress levels, which may have motivated them to attend. They further suggest that gesturing classes may raise maternal expectations of improved infant functioning more than other types of classes. If these expectations are not met during classes, mothers’ perceptions of their infant could be negatively affected.


Nevertheless, findings indicate that introducing some simple gestures into interactions at home with an infant may be beneficial, by increasing a mother’s responsiveness to her infant. “Encouraging mothers to use gestures can have linguistic and wider, non-linguistic benefits, albeit mainly for those infants who are at risk of language delay because of social deprivation, low parental education or other factors,” concludes Professor Karen Pine. At present, the majority of mothers who take their babies to baby signing classes are well educated and from higher income families. These babies enjoy a healthy home learning environment so are unlikely to need baby signing. n


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Contact Professor Karen Pine, University of Hertfordshire Email k.j.pine@herts.ac.uk Telephone 01707 285971 ESRC Grant Number RES-000-22-3355


IN BRIEF FORENSIC NURSES


In North America, Forensic Nurses (FNs) have examined rape and sexual assault victims for 20 years. FNs are considered experts in the US and Canada and can provide testimony in court, but not in the UK. Based on interviews with FNs, researchers will explore the similarities and differences between FNs in the UK and Canada.


ESRC Grant Number RES-000-22-4084


POLICY CHANGE ANALYSIS Economists lack realistic theoretical models to analyse the effect of macroeconomic policy changes even though changes to fiscal and monetary policy occur frequently. Policy changes including recent changes to UK capital and labour taxes will be explored using an approach that assumes incomplete knowledge of the economy, both before and after a policy change, on the part of households, firms and policymakers. ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-2617


AUTISM AND MEMORY Prospective memory concerns the ability to remember to do something at a specific point in the future and is associated with the ability to plan effectively – for example, remembering an appointment. This study will compare the performance of children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on two measures of prospective memory ability. Findings will increase understanding of ASD and inform intervention efforts. ESRC Grant Number RES-000-22-4125


AUTUMN 2010 SOCIETY NOW 5


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