@article{ref1,
title="Violent behaviour and interpretative bias: an experimental study of the resolution of ambiguity in violent offenders",
journal="British journal of clinical psychology",
year="1990",
author="Copello, A. G. and Tata, P. R.",
volume="29",
number="4",
pages="417-428",
abstract="The present study used an information-processing approach to investigate differences in interpretation of sentences which were ambiguous for violent or neutral meaning across three groups of subjects: violent offenders, non-violent offender controls and a group of non-offender controls. Subjects were presented with unambiguous and ambiguous sentences. The ambiguous sentences were selected so that they could be interpreted in either a threatening or neutral manner. A recognition memory test indicated that both offender groups were more likely to interpret violent ambiguous sentences in a threatening fashion, with the opposite being shown by the non-offender group. This difference was found to be significant. A control condition suggested that the interpretative bias was specific to violent material and not a general anxiety response. Furthermore, the tendency to infer violent threat was found to correlate with hostility. The results are discussed in relation to cognitive theories of anger and aggression.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0144-6657",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}