Consorting among juvenile Midas cichlids (Cichlasoma citrinellum) in relation to own and to parents' color

Adults of the Midas cichlid, Cichlasoma citrinellum, are either normal (N) colored or gold (G); they mate assortatively by color, and that choice is influenced by prior experience with their parents. Three groups of N and two groups of G juveniles were reared by parents which were either N or G. After some months of separation from their parents, the juveniles were tested to ascertain whether the color of their parents or of their cohorts affected their affiliative responses; they were given a choice between four G and four N juveniles. There was no demonstrable effect of either their parents' or their own color. All groups spent more time with N than with G and directed more behavior toward N. The subjects differed only in that they attacked more (at a higher rate) at N and spread their fins more (at a higher rate) at G, consistent with findings in earlier studies of the effect of gold color on dominance relationships. Thus mate choice does not result from continuous associations during development.     

Parental monitoring,sensitivity toward parents,and a child's mate preferences

This study investigated gender differences in parental monitoring and sensitivity toward parents and the extent to which these measures can influence children's mate preferences. In 2 samples (the United States and the Netherlands), females reported experiencing higher levels of parental monitoring and being more sensitive toward their parents' feelings regarding mate choice (e.g., being more upset if their parents did not approve of their partner) than males. Individuals displaying higher sensitivity toward parents rated parental investment and cooperation, and to a lesser extent genetic quality, as being more important in a potential mate than individuals lower in sensitivity toward parents. The level of parental monitoring did not significantly predict the importance of parental investment and cooperation or genetic quality in a potential mate.     

性感刺激下两性对产品特性的选择冲突——以手机的色彩选择为例

本研究用实验方法考察同一性感刺激对两性可能产生的动机冲突,使得两性在选择能够展示拥有者特性的商品时,偏好可能大相径庭。本文以i Phone5S手机的色彩选择为例,两个实验的结果显示,来自性感女性的性感刺激,一方面会激发男性的配偶吸引动机,提高其对代表财富的金色手机（相比代表沉稳的黑色手机）的购买欲望;另一方面,会激发女性的配偶维系动机,使她们在给情人（相比给非情人关系男士）选购礼物时,对金色手机的偏好降低（相比黑色手机）。     

An initial evaluation of the role of emotion and impulsivity in explaining racial/ethnic differences in the use of corporal punishment

The authors sought to provide an initial evaluation of the hypothesis that corporal punishment is less strongly associated with parental emotion and impulsivity among African American ("Black") in contrast to European American ("White") parents. White-Latino and Black-Latino differences in corporal punishment, emotion, and impulsivity were explored, given the lack of existing theory predicting group differences. Couples with 3- to 7-year-old children were recruited via random digit dialing, and the parents completed questionnaires and an analog parent-child conflict task in the laboratory. Group differences were tested pooling mothers and fathers via dyadic data analyses. Black parents (N = 57) had more positive attitudes toward and used more corporal punishment than White parents (N = 730). Latino American parents' (N = 78) views and use of corporal punishment were similar to those of White parents. By and large, associations of corporal punishment with parents' impulsivity and emotion did not significantly vary by race/ethnicity. The present findings, although preliminary, do not support the emotion-impulsivity hypothesis of racial differences in the use of corporal punishment suggested by K. Deater-Deckard, K. A. Dodge, J. E. Bates, and G. S. Pettit (1996).     

Comparison and contrast in perceptual categorization

People categorized pairs of perceptual stimuli that varied in both category membership and pairwise similarity. Experiments 1 and 2 showed categorization of 1 color of a pair to be reliably contrasted from that of the other. This similarity-based contrast effect occurred only when the context stimulus was relevant for the categorization of the target (Experiment 3). The effect was not simply owing to perceptual color contrast (Experiment 4), and it extended to pictures from common semantic categories (Experiment 5). Results were consistent with a sign-and-magnitude version of N. Stewart and G. D. A. Brown's (2005) similarity-dissimilarity generalized context model, in which categorization is affected by both similarity to and difference from target categories. The data are also modeled with criterion setting theory (M. Treisman & T. C. Williams, 1984), in which the decision criterion is systematically shifted toward the mean of the current stimuli.     

Assessing the Directionality of Deindividuated Behavior: Effects of Deindividuation,Modeling, and Private Self-Consciousness on Aggressive and Prosocial Responses

This study investigated the effects of deindividuation, modeling, and private self-consciousness on antisocial and prosocial responses. Groups of four participants (N = 72) were exposed to factorial combinations of situational cues (deindividuating vs. individuating) and modeling prosocial vs. no model vs. antisocial) and subsequently were given the choice to behave either aggressively or altruistically toward another person. Subjects receiving deindividuating cues produced higher levels of aggression and dispensed greater sums of money compared with individuated participants. Subjects exposed to a prosocial model administered more money than did subjects exposed to the no-model or aggressive model. Although an expected main effect of models on aggression approached significance, a predicted Situational Cues x Model interaction did not. This investigation suggests that subjective deindividuation is a neutral condition. When antisocial environmental cues are present, deindividuated persons are likely to engage in aggressive actions, whereas prosocial cues influence deindividuated group members to behave altruistically. Although deindividuated group members are affected by stimuli such as models, they are not influenced to a greater degree than are individuated people. Finally, these results suggest that when the situational manipulations designed to reduce private self-awareness are salient and powerful, they may affect behavior more than do dispositional levels of private self-consciousness.     

Continuity and Change in Emotional Reactivity in Rhesus Monkeys Throughout the Prepubertal Period

We examined continuity and change in emotional reactiviy as assessed by hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) activity in rhesus monkeys. Plasma samples were obtained from mother-peer–reared and surrogate-peer–reared monkeys and assayed for cortisol concentrations at 5 time points in infancy. Both plasma and saliva samples were collected for cortisol assay from the same monkeys as 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old juveniles, respectively. Plasma cortisol concentrations increased during the first 5 months of life and decreased from 1 to 3 years of age. Females consistently had higher plasma cortisol concentrations than males. Plasma cortisol concentrations were lower in surrogate-peer–reared than mother-peer–reared monkeys during the first month of life. Juvenile plasma cortisol concentrations were significantly correlated with infant cortisol levels at all but the earliest time point. Analysis of salivary cortisol from a subset of animals showed a similar age-related decline and the presence of a significant rearing effect, with lower concentrations in surrogate-peer–reared juveniles, but no sex difference. Salivary and plasma cortisol concentrations in these animals were significantly correlated.     

Infant clothing: Sex labeling for strangers

Labeling an infant as a boy or girl affects behavior toward the infant. While intimates know a baby's sex label and behave consistently to the baby, strangers cannot unless given a cue. Forty-eight infants and their caretakers were observed in suburban malls to see if clothing normally provides such cues; 90% of the infants were dressed in sex-typed clothes. Girls wore or carried pink (75%), yellow, ruffles, puffed sleeves, and/or dresses. Boys wore blue (79%) and/or red. Observers were able to correctly guess the sex of “labeled” infants only. Surprisingly, simultaneous caretaker interviews revealed that parents do not spontaneously mention sex as a factor in clothing choice, nor do they feel they would be very bothered by strangers' mistaking the infant's sex.     

On the costs of accessible attitudes: detecting that the attitude object has changed

The present research examined whether individuals with more accessible attitudes have more difficulty detecting that the attitude object has changed. While being repeatedly exposed to photographs of undergraduates, participants either rehearsed their attitudes toward each photo or performed a control task. They then saw these original photos and computer-generated morphs representing varying degrees of change in an original. Participants in the attitude rehearsal condition required more time to correctly identify morphs that were similar to the original as "different" (Experiment 1) and made more errors in response to such morphs (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 revealed that participants with accessible attitudes perceived relatively less change; they were less likely to view a morph as a photo of a novel person and more likely to view it as a different photo of a person seen before. The costs and benefits of accessible attitudes are discussed.     

Effect of color in rearing and testing environment on the behavior of young domestic chicks.

Young domestic chicks were reared individually in compartments of four different colors and then tested either in a color-preference test with stationary objects (N equals 128) or with a moving stimulus (N equals 128). For each type of test we used four background colors in the test arena. The dependent variables included color preferences, following behavior and emotional responses of the young chicks. The results showed no significant effects of the color of the arena-background in either test situation. The color of the rearing compartment was a significant factor affecting color preferences in the test with stationary objects. In both test situations the colors red, and then green, were the most potent in affecting the color preferences and emotional responses exhibited by the chicks.     

Bringing color to emotion: The influence of color on attentional bias to briefly presented emotional images

Is color a critical feature in emotional content extraction and involuntary attentional orienting toward affective stimuli? Here we used briefly presented emotional distractors to investigate the extent to which color information can influence the time course of attentional bias in early visual cortex. While participants performed a demanding visual foreground task, complex unpleasant and neutral background images were displayed in color or grayscale format for a short period of 133 ms and were immediately masked. Such a short presentation poses a challenge for visual processing. In the visual detection task, participants attended to flickering squares that elicited the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), allowing us to analyze the temporal dynamics of the competition for processing resources in early visual cortex. Concurrently we measured the visual event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by the unpleasant and neutral background scenes. The results showed (a) that the distraction effect was greater with color than with grayscale images and (b) that it lasted longer with colored unpleasant distractor images. Furthermore, classical and mass-univariate ERP analyses indicated that, when presented in color, emotional scenes elicited more pronounced early negativities (N1–EPN) relative to neutral scenes, than when the scenes were presented in grayscale. Consistent with neural data, unpleasant scenes were rated as being more emotionally negative and received slightly higher arousal values when they were shown in color than when they were presented in grayscale. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for the modulatory role of picture color on a cascade of coordinated perceptual processes: by facilitating the higher-level extraction of emotional content, color influences the duration of the attentional bias to briefly presented affective scenes in lower-tier visual areas.     

Dimensions of maltreated children's home behavior: A factor analytic approach

This study identified dimensions of home behavior of maltreating parents and their children through exploratory factor analysis. Five child factors were identified: self-directed behavior, affiliative behavior, negativity, positive social interaction, and questioning. Five parent factors were identified: positive social interaction, caretaking, discipline, refusal, and hostility. Multivariate analyses indicated that neglected children and abused children had less positive social interaction than adequately reared children. Children showed more questioning and less negativity at older ages. Abusing parents were most hostile, whereas neglecting parents showed the least positive social interaction. Abusing parents directed less hostility toward older children than the other child-rearing groups. Parents exhibited less caretaking behavior toward older children and directed more positive social interaction toward children with higher developmental quotients. The results suggest that factor analysis is a viable means of identifying dimensions of child and parent behavior which could facilitate comparison of effects across studies.     

Trauma, soul murder, and change

The author discusses trauma, particularly in relation to childhood events, as well as one of its possible sequelae, soul murder (Shengold 1989, 1999). Negative interactions with parental figures can have long-term implications for the developing child, sometimes persisting into adulthood, and yet even the most loving parents cannot always behave toward the child in an optimal manner. The profound effect of change on the human psyche is also discussed, and two clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate the author's points.     

I'm hot, so i'd say you're not: the influence of objective physical attractiveness on mate selection

Four studies investigated the importance of objective and subjective attributes to mate selection. This research tested whether perceivers' objective physical attractiveness influenced how they evaluated the physical attractiveness of others and, if considered, may provide a parsimonious account for matching in mate selection. Study 1 (N = 102) demonstrated that ratings of targets' attractiveness decreased as perceivers' objective physical attractiveness increased. Studies 2 (N = 89) and 3 (N = 68) revealed that as perceivers' objective physical attractiveness increased, reductions in expected satisfaction and rejection were mediated by perceivers' reduced assessments of targets' attractiveness. Study 4 (N = 114) produced patterns of matching by finding that attractive perceivers expected to date more attractive targets while unattractive perceivers expected to date less attractive targets. This research emphasizes the importance of objective physical attractiveness to target evaluations and describes how matching results from the combined influence of objective and subjective attributes.     

Typicality effects in face and object perception: further evidence for the attractor field model

In a previous study, it was shown that a 50/50 morph of a typical and an atypical parent face was perceived to be more similar to the atypical parent face than to the typical parent face (Tanaka, Giles, Kremen, & Simon, 1998). Experiments 1 and 2 examine face typicality effects in a same/different discrimination task in which typical or atypical faces and their 80%, 70%, 60%, and 50% morphs were presented sequentially (Experiment 1) or simultaneously (Experiment 2). The main finding was that in both modes of presentation, atypical morphs were more poorly discriminated than their corresponding typical morphs. In Experiment 3, typicality effects were extended to the perception of nonface objects; in this instance, it was found that 50/50 morphs of birds and cars were judged to be more similar to their atypical parents than to their typical parents. These results are consistent with an attractor field model, in which it is proposed that the perception of a face or object stimulus depends not only on its fit to an underlying representation, but also on the representation's location in the similarity space.     

Therapeutic reactivity to confidentiality with HIV positive clients: bias or epidemiology?

Therapeutic reactivity among psychology trainees (N=68) was ascertained by their response to 10 clinical vignettes depicting clients with HIV who are sexually active with uninformed partners. This construct accounts for the relative change in decisions to maintain the confidentiality of clients who acknowledge safe versus unsafe sexual behavior. As anticipated, an analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for safety and a significant 3-way interaction (Sexual Orientation X Safety X Gender). Subsequent analyses revealed that trainees exhibit the highest level of therapeutic reactivity toward heterosexual male clients, and the lowest reactive stance toward heterosexual female clients. Although the decisional pattern evidenced toward heterosexuals seems congruent with epidemiological estimates of risk, the decisions toward lesbians and gay males appear more likely a function of bias. The ethical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Is Disgust Prepared? A Preliminary Examination in Young Children

Children may be prepared to associate adult disgust reactions with adult disgust elicitors. To test this, three-year olds (and adults) were presented with two images and an emotive vocalization. The images and vocalizations included stimuli adults found disgusting, fear-provoking, and sad. On one set of trials, the main dependent variable (DV) was time spent looking at each image and on a second set of repeat trials the DV was knowledge of image-sound matches. Fear and disgust vocalizations were both more effective at orienting a child's attention to adult fear and disgust images, than sad vocalizations. Parental disgust sensitivity was associated with this effect, moderated by explicit matching knowledge. Matching knowledge was poor in children and good in adults. These data suggest that in children, fear and disgust vocalizations may both promote attention to stimuli that adults find disgusting and/or fear-provoking, suggesting that “preparedness” may not be wholly emotion-specific.     

Human mate poaching: tactics and tempations for infiltrating existing mateships.

The authors explored the psychology of romantically attracting someone who is already in a relationship--what can be called the process of human mate poaching. In Study 1 (N = 236), they found that attempts at poaching were relatively common and were linked with distinctive personality dispositions. Study 2 (N = 220) documented that the perceived costs and benefits of poaching differed somewhat for men and women and depended on whether short-term or long-term poaching outcomes were targeted. Study 3 (N = 453) found support for 5 evolution-based hypotheses about the perceived effectiveness of poaching tactics. Study 4 (N = 333) found that poaching effectiveness was influenced by the type of relationship being encroached on-marital, dating, long distance, highly committed, just beginning, or about to end. Discussion focuses on the importance of placing mate poaching within the broader context of human sexual strategies.     

"Do as I say, not as I do": family influences on children's safety and risk behaviors

OBJECTIVE: Although there is considerable speculation that family-based socialization processes influence children's safety and risk behaviors, few studies have addressed this important issue. The present study compared the impact of parent practices and teaching about safety on children's current behaviors and their intended future behaviors when they reach adulthood. DESIGN AND MEASURES: Children 7 to 12 years of age were interviewed and asked to report on their parents' practices and teachings (discussions, expectations for children's behavior) regarding five common safety behaviors. As well, the children reported on their own current practices and how they intended to behave when an adult. When appropriate, they provided explanations about why their parents engage in fewer safety behaviors than they required of their children. RESULTS: Children's current behavior was best predicted by parental teaching, however, how children planned to behave when they were adults was best predicted by parents' practices. Children attributed less frequent safety behaviors by their parents than themselves to general attributes of adults and their parent having special skills that made the safety practices less necessary than was true for children. CONCLUSION: These results highlight family influences on children's adoption of safety and risk practices and support the notion of intergenerational transmission of risk behaviors.