Female birds monitor the activity of their mates while brooding nest-bound young

Animal Cognition - In addition to food and protection, altricial young in many species are ectothermic and require that endothermic parents provide warmth to foster growth, yet only one...     

The Role of Social–Emotional Mediators on Middle School Students’ Academic Growth as Fostered by an Evidence‐Based Intervention

The authors describe a school counselor intervention delivered to a predominantly Hispanic group of 193 7th‐grade students. Using multilevel modeling, the authors found that participation resulted in greater rates of academic achievement, particularly in math and for students who pretested at lower achievement levels. Results indicated an indirect effect on math achievement for the executive functioning constructs of plan and organize and task completion, but no executive functioning mediators were found for reading or feelings of connectedness.     

Connecting Opportunity and Strain to Understand Deviant Behavior: A Test of General Strain Theory

This study examined the connection of general strain theory to opportunity, as defined by one’s desire and ability to engage in criminal or deviant behavior. Over 1,000 undergraduate students completed the electronic survey with a response rate of 12.85%. Regression analyses showed removal of positive stimuli predicted deviant behavior in all models, but anger and other affective states were significant only in some models. Peer deviance, social bonds, and opportunity were important significant predictors. This study supports Agnew’s assertions that strain theory works in conjunction with social learning, social control, and, per this study, opportunity theories.     

An expert–novice comparison of feature choice

Perceptual experts have learned to rapidly and accurately perceive the structural regularities that define categories and identities within a domain. They extract important features and their relations more efficiently than novices. We used fingerprint examination to investigate expert–novice differences in feature choice. On each fingerprint within our set, experts and novices selected one feature they thought was most useful for distinguishing a particular print and one feature they thought was least useful. We found that experts and novices often differed in the features they chose, and experts tended to agree more with each other. However, any such expert–novice difference appeared to depend on the image at hand typically emerging when salient or more conspicuous features of a fingerprint were unclear. We suggest that perceptual training ought to direct attention to useful features with the understanding that what is useful may change depending on the clarity of the stimuli.     

Mousekilling,intermale fighting,and conditioned emotional response in rats

Several possible relationships between two forms of aggression in rats were studied. First, mouse killing and spontaneous intermale fighting were found to be correlated. Rats which attacked other rats were those most likely to kill mice. To determine whether aggressive and nonaggressive rats were also differentially responsive to other situations involving emotional arousal, but not aggression, mouse-killers and nonkillers were compared in a conditioned emotional response (CER) situation. Mouse-killers showed greater suppression to the conditioned stimulus (CS) and to the situational cues of the apparatus. Therefore, a common arousal mechanism may underlie a number of diverse agonistic responses. Nevertheless, extensive mouse-killing experience did not increase the tendency of rats to fight with either adult males or juvenile males.