Sinai et al (1998 Nature 395 497-500) showed that less distance is perceived along a ground surface that spans two differently textured regions than along a surface that is uniformly textured. We examined the effect of texture continuity on judged distance using computer-generated displays of simulated surfaces in five experiments. Discontinuities were produced by using different textures, the ...

The Voting Rights Act has radically altered the political status of minority voters and dramatically transformed the partisan structure of American politics. Given the political and racial salience of cases brought under the Act, it is surprising that the growing literature on the effects of a judge’s ideology and race on judicial decisionmaking has overlooked these cases. This Article provides...

Trial court judges play a crucial role in the administration of justice for both criminal and civil matters. Although psychologists have studied juries for many decades they have given relatively little attention to judges. Recent writings, however, suggest increasing interest in the psychology of judicial decision making. This essay reviews several selected topics where judicial discretion app...

There is a vexing oversight at the end of Book V of the Republic. Socrates engages in a discussion ‘with’ or about the Lovers of Sights and Sounds, in order distinguish philosophers from the seekers of any new experience whatsoever. He’ll do this by showing that there is a difference between knowing, knowledge (γιγνῶσκειν, γνῶσις, ἐπιστήμη) and judging or belief (δοξάζειν, δόξα). This argument ...

Reviewing the work of three political scientists who studied women judges provides an opportunity for rethinking the concept of gender and how to do gender-based research. Scholarship on women judges sometimes veers toward an essentialist view of women and gender differences, despite empirical evidence to the contrary. A close reading of this early work reveals some essentialist missteps but al...