The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a series of 7 tests that categorize fundamental movement. Each test is scored on an ordinal scale with 4 categories. The purpose of this study was to determine the interrater reliability of the FMS. Forty healthy subjects were videotaped while performing the FMS. The videos were independently scored by 4 raters, including 2 experts who instruct FMS training courses and 2 novices who completed a standardized training course on the FMS. Interrater reliability was analyzed using the weighted kappa statistic. The novice raters demonstrated excellent or substantial agreement on 14 of the 17 tests, whereas the expert raters did the same on 13 of the 17 tests. When the novice raters were paired with the expert raters, all 17 components demonstrated excellent or substantial agreement. These data indicate that the FMS can confidently be applied by trained individuals. This would suggest that the FMS can be confidently used to assess the movement patterns of athletes and to make decisions related to interventions for performance enhancement, and the FMS may assist in identifying athletes at risk for injury.

Defendants' emotions at the time of their crimes may potentially serve as mitigating circumstances in murder/manslaughter cases. The present study examined whether differences between two forms of instructions given juries in such cases affected mockjuries' murder/manslaughter distinctions. Jurors' reasons for their verdicts and definitions of murder and manslaughter were also compared. In addition, three factors found to be predictive of murder/manslaughter distinctions in previous research were evaluated. It was found that, though instruction forms affected jurors' stated reasons for their verdicts and their definitions of murder and manslaughter, they did not significantly affect murder/manslaughter distinctions. Defendants were most likely to be convicted of murder if they had a history of violence with the victim and dwelt upon their emotions. We suggest jurors likely construe instructions given them to fit their a priori understandings of murder, manslaughter, and the potentially mitigating role of defendants' emotions.

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