AX+/BX- discrimination learning in the fear-potentiated startle paradigm in monkeys

Individuals with anxiety disorders often do not respond to safety signals and hence continue to be afraid and anxious. Consequently, it is important to develop paradigms in animals that can directly study brain systems involved in learning about, and responding to, safety signals. We previously developed a discrimination procedure in rats of the form AX+/BX-, where cues A and X presented together are paired with an aversive stimulus and cues B and X presented together predict the absence of an aversive stimulus. The present experiment adapted this procedure to the fear-potentiated startle paradigm in rhesus monkeys.     

Reflections on a Vision

An incident in the normal routine of seminary life opens the writer to an experience of the timeless reality of creation itself.     

Ethnicity matters for undergraduate majors in challenges, experiences, and perceptions of psychology

In this investigation of a national sample of undergraduate psychology majors, we directly compare the experiences and perceptions of students of color with those of European Americans. Our aim was to identify factors that might contribute to our discipline's educational pipeline, in which the relative lack of ethnic diversity is a recognized problem. We found that students of color and European American majors are similar in a number of ways but also different in others. Students of color are challenged by less encouragement from and interaction with faculty, perceive a lack of respect, and wish to see more attention to diversity in curriculum, research, faculty, and textbooks. It is not surprising that students of color were significantly less satisfied than European Americans with their studies in psychology.     

A theory-based approach to teaching young children about health: A recipe for understanding

The theory-theory account of conceptual development posits that children's concepts are integrated into theories. Concept learning studies have documented the central role that theories play in children's learning of experimenter-defined categories, but have yet to extensively examine complex, real-world concepts such as health. The present study examined whether providing young children with coherent and causally-related information in a theory-based lesson would facilitate their learning about the concept of health. This study used a pre-test/lesson/post-test design, plus a five month follow-up. Children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: theory (i.e., 20 children received a theory-based lesson); nontheory (i.e., 20 children received a nontheory-based lesson); and control (i.e., 20 children received no lesson). Overall, the results showed that children in the theory condition had a more accurate conception of health than children in the nontheory and control conditions, suggesting the importance of theories in children's learning of complex, real-world concepts.     

Locomotor strategies in response to altered lower limb segmental mechanical properties

The present study sought to use stilt walking as a model to uncover modifications to gait dynamics caused by changes in lower limb anthropometrics. We examined 10 novice and 10 expert stilt walkers, each walking with and without stilts, to determine the specific adaptations brought about by experience. Three-dimensional kinematics and force platform data were used to calculate the intersegmental forces, net joint moments and moment powers at the ankle, knee and hip. Spatio-temporal data were computed to aid the interpretation of these data. Non-dimensional scaling was used to facilitate comparison between stilt- and normal-walking. In general, the stilts induced largely the same alterations in the locomotor patterns of both novices and experts, which did not allow for the conclusion that the experts employed locomotor dynamics that were better suited to the challenges imposed by alterations to limb length, mass and mass moment of inertia induced by the stilts. Nevertheless, the experts exhibited a lesser reduction in dimensionless stride length and velocity and generated larger concentric knee flexor and hip extensor powers, relative to the novices, which may be indicative of enhanced dynamic stability control.     

Synthetic Biology and the Translational Imperative

Science and Engineering Ethics - Advances at the interface between the biological sciences and engineering are giving rise to emerging research fields such as synthetic biology. Harnessing the...     

Memory for autobiographical facts and events: a comparison of women reporting childhood sexual abuse and non‐abused controls

Although there is evidence that many adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) have a period when they forget their abuse, existing research is equivocal about whether such individuals show other autobiographical memory impairments. The present study addressed some of the sampling and measurement problems apparent in previous studies and compared 74 women reporting a history of CSA with 60 non‐abused controls on their ability to recall facts and events from childhood. The results showed that the CSA group did not differ from the controls in the quality of their memories for autobiographical incidents. However, they were significantly less able than controls to recall specific facts about their personal history, such as significant addresses and names of significant individuals, after controlling for educational level, depression and childhood address changes. CSA group participants reporting a period of abuse forgetting appeared more impaired than those with continuous abuse memories in their recall of personal semantic facts, but were similar in their recall of autobiographical incidents. The findings suggest that experiencing a period of abuse forgetting is a more influential factor in predicting the ability to recall personal semantic facts than abuse status alone. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managerial Support for Dual-Career Relocation Dilemmas

This study examined managerial decision making in the context of a dual-career relocation dilemma. Specifically, 143 managers and professionals responded to a memo contained in an in-basket simulation exercise that involved a dual-career employee relocation and corresponding request for spouse employment assistance. Competing theoretical predictions were tested with regard to managerial support for this dual-career work-family situation as a function of the gender of the employee. Findings indicated that managers offered more extensive assistance to the spouse of a female employee than to the spouse of a male employee. A content analysis of decision-makers' responses indicated a wide range of specific responses, with offering multiple forms of assistance being most common (27%), followed by delegating the issue to human resources (22%). The results are discussed in terms of implications for future research on managerial support for work-family and employee mobility. Practical suggestions are outlined.