Food quantity discrimination in puppies (Canis lupus familiaris)

Animal Cognition - There is considerable evidence that animals are able to discriminate between quantities. Despite the fact that quantitative skills have been extensively studied in adult...     

Links Between Reactive Attachment Disorder,Caregiving and Temperament: A Differential Susceptibility Perspective

Abstract

The links between Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and temperament received relatively little research attention, in spite of their clinical and social relevance. Children with RAD sustain disproportionate burdens of early adversity related to their caregiving environment. However, there seem to be important individual differences in susceptibility to adversity, since only a small number of children show signs of RAD. Based on the work of Zeanah and Fox, this review aims to bring new insights to this relevant clinical issue in light of recent research. A differential susceptibility hypothesis will be considered as a promising and innovative approach toward a further understanding of the links between temperament and RAD.     

How Preschoolers Associate Power with Gender in Male-Female Interactions: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

Sex Roles - Interactions between males and females often display a power imbalance. Men tend to adopt more dominant physical postures, lead conversations more, and are more likely to impose their...     

Critical stages in mental development: Childhood breath holding spells (BHS)

The authors present the first part of a study on children with BHS (Breath Holding Spells) syndrome. These children were chosen in order to examine a “pathological” situation in infancy that was as close as possible to a “normal” one, and in which obvious somatic symptoms were associated with emotional states. Children with BHSS are not considered to have serious psychological disturbances, even if they are constantly referred to as intolerant of separation, stubborn, oppositional, or easy to temper tantrum. A reduced ability to tolerate frustration is evident in these children both from the patients' history and clinical observation. Parents usually relate BHS to situations in which the child is denied something or gets scolded. The children were observed during three sessions, both with and without the mother, according to a grid used at our Center. Patients are presented to illustrate certain recurrent features in play and interaction with mother. The data suggest that these children stagnate in an area of incomplete mental representation; something makes them oscillate between two states; in one of them, the mental representation of the object and of the bond with it is possible; in the other, the mental representation of the separation, which entails the recognition of the object, is felt as dangerous.     

A Comparison of MMPI-2 Profiles Between Parental Alienation Cases and Custody Cases

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The present study aimed at understanding the personality features of mothers and fathers engaged in parental alienation—a family dynamic in which one...     

BeCause of the Effect the role of health messages ordering on behavioral change intention

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Health messages are central to the field of public health in influencing behavioral change, and previous research does not offer a univocal answer on the most...     

On the Closure Properties of the Class of Full G-models of a Deductive System

In this paper we consider the structure of the class FGModS of full generalized models of a deductive system S from a universal-algebraic point of view, and the structure of the set of all the full generalized models of S on a fixed algebra A from the lattice-theoretical point of view; this set is represented by the lattice FACS_s A of all algebraic closed-set systems C on A such that (A, C) ε FGModS. We relate some properties of these structures with tipically logical properties of the sentential logic S. The main algebraic properties we consider are the closure of FGModS under substructures and under reduced products, and the property that for any A the lattice FACS_s A is a complete sublattice of the lattice of all algebraic closed-set systems over A. The logical properties are the existence of a fully adequate Gentzen system for S, the Local Deduction Theorem and the Deduction Theorem for S. Some of the results are established for arbitrary deductive systems, while some are found to hold only for deductive systems in more restricted classes like the protoalgebraic or the weakly algebraizable ones. The paper ends with a section on examples and counterexamples. Dedicated to the memory of Willem Johannes Blok     

How color enhances visual memory for natural scenes

We offer a framework for understanding how color operates to improve visual memory for images of the natural environment, and we present an extensive data set that quantifies the contribution of color in the encoding and recognition phases. Using a continuous recognition task with colored and monochrome gray-scale images of natural scenes at short exposure durations, we found that color enhances recognition memory by conferring an advantage during encoding and by strengthening the encoding-specificity effect. Furthermore, because the pattern of performance was similar at all exposure durations, and because form and color are processed in different areas of cortex, the results imply that color must be bound as an integral part of the representation at the earliest stages of processing.     

Role of muscarinic M1 receptors in inhibitory avoidance and contextual fear conditioning

The objective of the present study was to observe the effects of pre-training or post-training administration of dicyclomine, a M1 muscarinic antagonist, on inhibitory avoidance (IA) and contextual fear conditioning (CFC) and to investigate if the effects observed with the pre-training administration of dicyclomine are state-dependent. For each behavioral procedure (IA and CFC) groups of Wistar male rats were treated with saline or dicyclomine either 30 min before training (pre-training), immediately after training or 30 min before training/30 min before test (pre-training/pre-test). The animals were tested 24 h after training. The acquisition of IA and CFC was impaired by pre-training administration of dicyclomine. The consolidation of both tasks was not affected by dicyclomine given immediately after training. Pre-training/pre-test administration of dicyclomine impaired both tasks, an effect similar to that observed in the group which only received pre-training administration. Pre-test treatment induced dissociation between both tasks, impairing CFC retrieval, without interfering with the animals avoidance response. These results show that the dicyclomine did not affect IA and CFC consolidation, suggesting specific involvement of M1 muscarinic receptor only in acquisition these tasks, and these effects was not state-dependent. However, it is possible that the retrieval of these tasks may be mediated, at least in part, by different neurochemical mechanisms and may be dissociated by dicyclomine.