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Description: Among common goals for assessments of criminal offenders is to characterize their Reading Comprehension (RC) abilities. However, in addition to RC skills, many RC measures also require visual-affective skills (due to the requirement to match written passages to pictorial representations that often include affective cues). This study examined the relationship between performances on Reading Comprehension (RC) and Facial Affect Recognition (FAR) tests among male criminal sex offenders and matched controls. FAR was a robust predictor of RC in both groups, even after controlling for education and IQ. In contrast, FAR did not predict world knowledge or visual-constructional skills (i.e., tests that do not have any affective components) beyond education and IQ. These findings are particularly relevant for clinicians who work with criminal populations, as offenders are at a particular risk for exhibiting FAR deficits, which may in turn lead to an underestimation of their RC skills.
Suggested Citation:
Suchy, Y., Rau, H., Whittaker, W. J., Eastvold A., & Strassburg, D. J. (2009). Facial affect recognition as a predictor of performance on a reading comprehension test among criminal sex offenders [Electronic Version]. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice,
5(1), 73-89.
Keywords: Affect Recognition, Facial Affect, Cognition, Intelligence, Reading Comprehension, Criminal Offenders
Date: Mar 26, 2009 | File Size: 334.25 Kb | Downloads: 2135