Androgens and aggressive behavior in primates: A review

This review deals with possible central and peripheral effects of androgens upon primate aggressive behavior. One problem that clouds interpretation of experimental work is that measurements of dominance have often been employed, such as competition tests for food and water. Such measures often do not correlate with those obtained by quantifying aggressive interactions. It should be remembered that very few of the 188 primate species have been studied experimentally and that great behavioral and physiological diversity occurs within the order. Therefore, generalizations about the effects of androgens upon aggressive behavior in primates (including man) should be made with caution. Testosterone has an organizing influence upon the foetal brain of rhesus monkeys and may affect the development of neural mechanisms which govern aggression in males. More data are required on primates, however, since rhesus monkeys show some important differences from rodents as regards the effects of androgen upon sexual differentiation of the hypothalamus. In future, marmosets may provide a suitable model for such studies, because there is evidence that sexual differentiation of brain by androgen occurs postnatally in these monkeys. At puberty, male primates show a variety of behavioral changes and, during adulthood, males of seasonally breeding species may be more aggressive during the mating season, when testosterone levels are maximal. This does not indicate a causative relationship between testosterone and aggressive responses, because castration and androgen treatments have little effect upon aggression in prepubertal or adult males of several primate species. Androgens have pronounced effects on sexual responses in adult male monkeys, but their central effects upon aggression are much less important than among rodents. Elec trical stimulation of hypothalamic pathways has been employed to evoke aggressive behavior in marmosets and rhesus monkeys. In the rhesus, preliminary evidence indicates that such pathways show some sensitivity to androgens. In rodents it is known that these areas are richly supplied with monoaminergic neurons, which play an important role in aggressive behavior. There is little evidence on primates, however, and this remains a crucial topic for future research. Peripheral effects of androgens should also be considered. Many prosimians and New World monkeys use scent-marking behaviors and, in males, androgen-dependent chemical cues may be involved in sexual recognition and territorial behavior. This possibility awaits investigation. Finally, plasma testosterone levels may alter as a function of aggression itself; thus levels decrease if male rhesus monkeys are defeated by conspecifics. This might occur because neural events associated with giving (or receiving) aggression also influence pituitary function and hence alter gonadal testosterone secretion. Theoretically, it is possible that such changes in circulating testosterone might affect aggressive behavior via a feedback action on the brain, but the experimental evidence does not support such a view.     

Naming and categorization in young children: IV: listener behavior training and transfer of function

Following pretraining with everyday objects, 14 children aged from 1 to 4 years were trained, for each of three pairs of different arbitrary wooden shapes (Set 1), to select one stimulus in response to the spoken word /zog/, and the other to /vek/. When given a test for the corresponding tacts ("zog" and "vek"), 10 children passed, showing that they had learned common names for the stimuli, and 4 failed. All children were trained to clap to one stimulus of Pair 1 and wave to the other. All those who named showed either transfer of the novel functions to the remaining two pairs of stimuli in Test 1, or novel function comprehension for all three pairs in Test 2, or both. Three of these children next participated in, and passed, category match-to-sample tests. In contrast, all 4 children who had learned only listener behavior failed both the category transfer and category match-to-sample tests. When 3 of them were next trained to name the stimuli, they passed the category transfer and (for the 2 subjects tested) category match-to-sample tests. Three children were next trained on the common listener relations with another set of arbitrary stimuli (Set 2); all succeeded on the tact and category tests with the Set 2 stimuli. Taken together with the findings from the other studies in the series, the present experiment shows that (a) common listener training also establishes the corresponding names in some but not all children, and (b) only children who learn common names categorize; all those who learn only listener behavior fail. This is good evidence in support of the naming account of categorization.     

Infant temperament and performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 4, 8, and 12 months of age

Infants were assessed with the Rothbart Infant Behavior Questionnaire (an objective measure of infant temperament based on maternal reports) and the complete Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) at 4, 8, and 12 months of age. Activity level was related to BSID performance at each age with babies who obtained higher scores rated as more active. Activity level was also related to the infants' behavior during the test administration at 8 and 12 months. A negative relation was found between smiling and laughter and the mental development index at 8 and 12 months. These data suggest that aspects of infant temperament as assessed by maternal report share a small amount of variance with BSID performance and the amount of shared variance increases with age.     

婴儿面孔偏好理论模型述评

在婴儿早期的视觉经验中,面孔是最特殊的一类刺激,小婴儿从出生开始就喜欢看面孔,这种现象称为面孔偏好。面孔偏好的发展反映了婴儿知觉能力的发展规律,具有重要的社会化意义。该文系统介绍了线性系统模型、右脑优势模型、CONSPEC理论、视觉模块理论和非特异化识别理论5种最主要的婴儿面孔偏好理论,并对这些理论的区别和联系进行了探讨。最后,对面孔偏好研究的新趋势和未来方向进行了评价和展望     

Infant observation: A range of questions and challenges for contemporary psychoanalysis1

The author attempts to integrate several perspectives within the field of infant observation that reflect the analyst's personal experience as a clinician, as a professor at the analytic institute and as a researcher in the field of psychoanalysis. Can infant observation contribute to analytic technique, theory and training? If so, what would be the nature of such contribution? To answer these questions, the author reviews the literature on infant observation from Freud to the present, highlighting Latin American contributions to this subject. She makes reference to the role of technological innovations, which have allowed videotaping, repeated observations, temporal segmentation and computerized programs, thus giving rise to microanalytic research. This discussion prompts the question about the contributions made by systematic research to clinical practice. To tackle this question, the author presents both a clinical vignette taken from her personal experience, and the current debate on this subject as it appears in the work of Daniel Stern and André Green. Finally, she presents some conclusions that are part of an ongoing debate in the psychoanalytic field.     

Religion and Infant Mortality in the United States: A Community‐Level Investigation of Denominational Variations in Postneonatal Deaths

Although a growing body of research has detected the effects of community‐level religiosity on various health outcomes, very little scholarship has examined the influence of religious ecology on infant mortality rates (IMRs). We conduct ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses on postneonatal IMRs (PNIMRs) using county‐level data from the National Center for Health Statistics Linked Birth and Infant Death Data (1990, 2000, and 2006–2010), churches and church membership data, and the Area Health Resource File. We find that while overall rates of postneonatal deaths have decreased over time, the effects of religion on this outcome have become more pronounced. Specifically, we find that counties with greater proportions of mainline Protestant and Catholic adherents exhibit significantly lower PNIMRs. We further find that a greater proportion of conservative Protestants, and especially fundamentalists, increases postneonatal infant mortality. Our findings lend additional support to cultural explanations of U.S. infant mortality.     

On the existence and occurrence of mediation in discrimination transfer: A critical note

Discrimination learning studies designed to study mediational processes of young children are discussed using a recent paper by Brown and Scott as a point of departure. It is urged that investigators lay aside demonstrations of the existence of mediation in young children as a focus of research, substituting a search for the conditions of its occurrence.     

竞争合作与学业成绩的关系：学业自我概念的中介作用

该研究旨在探讨学业自我概念对竞争合作与学业成就关系的影响。研究采用合作竞争态度量表、学业自我描述问卷对397名初中生进行调查。结果发现：1）竞争与学业成就间存在显著的正相关,竞争意识强者学业成绩越好;2）合作与学业成绩间不存在显著相关关系;3）学业自我概念在竞争与学业成绩之间起着完全中介作用。     

Infant Mental Health assessment: the use of DC 0-3 in an outpatient child psychiatric clinic in Scandinavia

The study focuses on Infant Mental Health data from an outpatient psychiatric clinic using the "Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood" (DC 0-3) and parental questionnaires, CBCL and ITSC. In total, 138 infants (aged 0-3) went through the diagnostic procedure. Sixty-eight per cent were diagnosed within Axis I, with regulatory disorder, disorder of affect and traumatic stress disorder being the most frequent diagnoses. In addition, 48% were classified as having a relationship disorder according to Axis II, with an additional 40% being considered to be at risk of developing a relationship disorder. The mothers' and fathers' ratings of their children's externalized and sensitivity problems were in agreement with the clinicians, but the ratings of internalized problems as well as relationship problems presented a more complex pattern.     

Infant crying and maternal holding in the first 2 months of age: an Italian diary study

This study aims to confirm previous North American and North European findings about the normal developmental pattern of infant crying by studying the crying of Italian babies. A cohort of 70 healthy, full‐term Italian infants was assessed longitudinally at 2, 5 and 8 weeks of age. Mothers were asked to fill in 24‐h behaviour diaries for 3 consecutive days at each age. Results show significant differences in the amount of daily crying between 2 and 8 weeks and between 5 and 8 weeks. Different from other similar studies, no significant cry peak at 5 weeks was found in the Italian babies, but the amount of time Italian mothers spent holding their babies showed a peak at 5 weeks. Infants cried more during the evenings and mothers carried them most during this part of the day. Significant correlations between maternal holding and infant crying were found both concurrently and predictively. The amount of infant crying at 2 weeks predicted the amount of holding at 5 weeks. Results confirmed previous findings about the individual stability of daily crying in the first 8 weeks of age, but future research should take account of cultural variations in maternal holding in studying infant crying in different societies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observer Influences on Fathers and Mothers: An Experimental Manipulation of the Structure and Function of Parent – Infant Conversation

From studies over the past 20 years four contrasting hypotheses can be made about the nature of parent–infant communication: (1) mothers and fathers display similar skills to their infants and do not exert a differential influence on their development; (2) fathers are less sympathetic to their infants' level of development and therefore inadvertently stretch the child's development more than mothers; (3) both parents differentially socialize their sons' and daughters' early communicative skills; (4) any apparent differences between parents reflect their expectations about being observed. To examine these hypotheses together, this experiment records the communication of 10 mother–infant and 10 father–infant dyads in two conditions: when an observer was present or absent. The analysis revealed two patterns. Firstly, in keeping with most research on parent–child communication, mothers and fathers both simplified their speech to their infants in similar ways. Secondly, both the structure and function of parental communication showed differences between the two conditions and many of these differences were moderated by interactions between condition and sex of parent or child. The data thus provide more support for the first and fourth hypotheses cited above. It is suggested that analyses of parent–infant interaction should move away from simple assumptions about parental ‘influences’ upon children's development to consider the subtleties of different parental styles in different settings.     

Interhemispheric cooperation and non-cooperation during word recognition: evidence for callosal transfer dysfunction in dyslexic adults

Participants report briefly-presented words more accurately when two copies are presented, one in the left visual field (LVF) and another in the right visual field (RVF), than when only a single copy is presented. This effect is known as the 'redundant bilateral advantage' and has been interpreted as evidence for interhemispheric cooperation. We investigated the redundant bilateral advantage in dyslexic adults and matched controls as a means of assessing communication between the hemispheres in dyslexia. Consistent with previous research, normal adult readers in Experiment 1 showed significantly higher accuracy on a word report task when identical word stimuli were presented bilaterally, compared to unilateral RVF or LVF presentation. Dyslexics, however, did not show the bilateral advantage. In Experiment 2, words were presented above fixation, below fixation or in both positions. In this experiment both dyslexics and controls benefited from the redundant presentation. Experiment 3 combined whole words in one visual field with word fragments in the other visual field (the initial and final letters separated by spaces). Controls showed a bilateral advantage but dyslexics did not. In Experiments 1 and 3, the dyslexics showed significantly lower accuracy for LVF trials than controls, but the groups did not differ for RVF trials. The findings suggest that dyslexics have a problem of interhemispheric integration and not a general problem of processing two lexical inputs simultaneously.     

Naming and categorization in young children: III. Vocal tact training and transfer of function

Following pretraining with everyday objects, 10 children aged from 1 to 4 years were given common vocal tact training with a set of three pairs of arbitrary stimuli of differing shapes; Set 1. Nine children learned to tact one stimulus as "zog" and the other as "vek" in each pair, and all passed subsequent pairwise tests for the corresponding listener behavior to each listener stimulus (i.e., /zog/ and /vek/, respectively). The children were next trained to clap to one stimulus of Pair 1 and wave to the other, and all then showed name-consistent transfer of these behaviors to the stimuli of Pair 2 and Pair 3. Seven children also were given a test of listener responding to experimenter-modeled clap and wave gestures, respectively, which they all passed. Four of the children next participated in a category match-to-sample test for the Set 1 stimuli; all 4 passed. For each pair of two additional six-stimuli sets, Set 2 and Set 3, 3 children were trained to wave to one stimulus and to clap to the other. For each set, all 3 children showed perfect transfer of the vocal tacts trained to Set 1, and of listener behavior both to the auditory stimuli /zog/ and /vek/ and to experimenter-modeled clap and wave gestures. They also sorted the stimuli perfectly in category match-to-sample tests for Set 2, Sets 1 and 2 combined, Set 3, and Sets 1, 2, and 3 combined. The results show that even in very young children, naming is a powerful means of generating new category relations among as many as 18 arbitrary stimuli.     

Fast acquisition of cooperation and trust: A two-stage view of trusting behavior

Trustful behavior was defined in terms of the consecutive numbers of matching-to-sample problems worth money that each subject worked during sessions that ended in an equitable distribution. Two stages of acquisition are inherent in this definition; the first stage requires acquisition of an equitable method of distributing reinforcers (cooperation) to show that the within-session deviations (trust) from equity that develop during the second stage are temporary and are not part of an inequitable method of distributing reinforcers. Previous research has indicated that a contingency to trust is necessary to override the aversiveness of the inequity inherent in trusting and to produce consistent and maximal trust (half of the problems worked consecutively by each subject). The present experiment examined such a contingency. The trust contingency was an increased requirement for changing the direction of problem allocation. Only the subject who had been allocated a problem could change that allocation, by pulling a lever 45 or more times. On the other hand, no separate responses were required to allow the person who worked the last problem to also work the next one (passive trust). Hence, giving a problem was the only way to increase the distribution of problems to the other person and hence prevent oneself from receiving all of the reinforcers. All eight pairs of subjects cooperated from the outset. Trusting behavior developed for all four pairs exposed to the contingency to trust and expanded to maximal levels by the second session for three of the four pairs.     

Testing Effects of Community Collaboration on Rates of Low Infant Birthweight at the County Level

Interorganizational collaboration has become a popular strategy for addressing population health and well-being. However, evidence for its effectiveness in achieving outcomes at the population level is limited, at least in part due to a variety of methodological challenges such as reduced sample size at the population level, the availability of suitable comparison groups of communities, and study durations that are too short to detect slowly emerging outcomes. The present study addresses these challenges by retrospectively examining the effectiveness of a mature network of community collaboratives, using latent growth modeling of longitudinal change in an archival community-level outcome, low infant birthweight, and propensity score matching of comparison communities. A group of 25 Georgia counties with collaboratives targeting low infant birthweight was compared to a weighted comparison group of counties from other southeastern states, using propensity score matching. We report results of full matching methods and outcome analyses examining differences in change in county rates of low infant birthweight from 1997 to 2004 between intervention and comparison counties. Results indicated significantly smaller increases in low weight birth rates in intervention counties than in comparison counties.     

Self-punitive behavior in humans: Effects of a self-fulfilling prophecy

Human subjects were exposed to contingencies which programmed aversive tones (100 db). Two types of contingencies were employed: self-confirming (i.e., self-fulfilling prophecies), in which the aversive tone was occasioned by the prediction it was about to occur; and self-disconfirming, in which the tone was probable when subjects predicted it would not occur. Experiments 1 and 2 used a modified classical conditioning paradigm, and demonstrated that a self-confirming contingency maintained reliable self-punitive responding, i.e., subjects consistently predicted and therefore obtained tones on every trial. Subjects in Experiment 3 were instructed to express predictions continuously throughout four sessions to ensure adequate sampling of the various predictions. Subjects exposed to a self-disconfirming contnngency reliably evidenced awareness of the contingency in effect (judged by answers on a postexperimental questionnaire), whereas subjects exposed to a self-confirming contingency failed to show effective avoidance behavior or contingency awareness. Experiment 4 investigated free-operant self-punitive behavior, utilizing a single prediction response button, which subjects depressed repeatedly. Subjects were exposed to either periodic or aperiodic punishment schedules over as many as four sessions. In general, more persistent self-punitive responding was found in the groups receiving periodic punishment. The results from the four experiments show that self-confirming contingencies can effectively prolong self-punitive responding in human subjects. The findings are consistent with a blocking interpretation of self-punitive behavior, which asserts that when an aversive event is already predicted by stimuli in the situation (including temporal cues), the association between a response and punishment is impaired, and self-punitive responding is likely to be maintained. An integration of human and animal self-punitive research is proposed.