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Young Man Describes Living With Autism
Fourteen-year-old Toto
Mukhopadhyay, born and raised in India, has difficulty speaking in English,
though he has a huge vocabulary. But he writes easily and eloquently about what
it is like to be locked up inside an autistic mind.Researchers are taking advantage of this rare opportunity to learn about autism. To
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New Medication for ADHD
It is estimated that as many as one-third of grade school children are being treated for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Up until now, there has been only one type of medication available. The Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug that acts on one of the brain’s neurotransmitters. To
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Why Do People Confess to Crimes They Did Not Commit? And What Can Be Done to Stop It?
In December 2002, a New York judge granted an unusual request of the chief Manhattan prosecutor: He dismissed all charges against five men who had initially confessed to the crimes they were charged with. To
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The Making of a Criminal: John Allen Muhammad
On October 24, 2002, a three-week siege of sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., suburbs ended with the capture of 40-year-old John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Malvo. What the factors led to their violent rampage? In Part I of this two-part series, we examined the life of Lee Malvo. In Part II, we look at the life of John Allen Muhammad. To
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The Making of a Criminal: Lee Malvo
On October 24, 2002, a three-week siege of sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., suburbs ended with the capture of 40-year-old John Allen Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Malvo. What factors led to their violent rampage? In Part I of this two-part series, we examine the life of Lee Malvo. To
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A Challenge to Research on Eyewitness Testimony
One of the greatest contributions psychologists have made to the legal field has been research into the problems with eyewitness testimony. But a New York court believes that the research is flawed and refused to let a famous psychologist testify for a criminal defendant about the vagaries of such testimony. To
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The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM), first published in 1952, categorizes disorders and provides specific criteria for diagnosis. The DSM-IV, published in 1994, is currently being revised. A controversy is brewing over efforts to create a new category—relational disorders. To
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Single-Sex Schools: Back to the Future?
After 30 years of federal policy that discouraged it, in May 2002 the Bush administration announced that it would encourage single-sex education in public schools. Most research touting the benefits of same-sex education talks about its value to girls. Does anyone care about the boys? To
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New Research Shows Prenatal Exposure to Cocaine Affects Cognitive Development
About one million children have been born after fetal cocaine exposure since the mid 1980s. Early research indicated that such exposure could cause serious and permanent damage to the child’s attentional, information processing, and learning abilities. A longitudinal study finds proof of long-term cognitive effects. To
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Explaining the Andrea Yates Verdict
"If this woman doesn’t meet the test of insanity in this state, then nobody does," said Andrea Yates’s defense attorney George Parnham to the jury as they prepared to deliberate his client’s guilt or insanity. It took the jury only three and one-half hours to decide that his client did not meet that stringent Texas standard, and only one hour to spare her life in the sentencing phase. What accounted for the swiftness and certainly of their verdict and sentence?To
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Kansas Court Rules that Transgendered Woman is a Man
When Joe Gardner’s 85-year-old father died in 1999 without a will, meaning that he and his father’s 40-year-old wife would equally divide his father’s $2.5 million estate, Joe set out to find a way to get it all for himself. He did not know how easy it would be until he found out that his father had married a man.To
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Children Conceived Through ART Face Multiple Risks
For men and women whose
opportunities to become parents are limited by health or
genetic problems, assisted reproductive technologies (ART)
offer an alternative to childlessness or adoption. But recent studies indicate that children conceived through these methods face multiple risks. To
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British Professors Stir
Criticism With Prisonlike Experiment for Reality-TV
Show
Two British psychology professors who ventured
into reality television with an experiment that simulated
prison have stirred controversy in Britain. To
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