Risk factors and the Child Behavior Checklist in a child mental health center setting

The relationship between risk factors and the severity and type of childhood disorder, as measured by parent-completed Child Behavior Checklists, was examined for 768 children, ages 4–16, seen at a child mental health center. Regression analyses revealed no significant relationships between any combination of risk factors and the total number of behavior problems, internalizing, or externalizing scores for the entire group, males and females separately, or for the age and sex groupings of 6- to 11- and 12-to 16-yearolds. Chi-square tests revealed no relationship of profile type with any risk factor or with total number of risk factors. Implications for broad-based child assessment and risk factor research within a clinical population are discussed.We wish to thank Orin Bolstad, Linda Magnuson, and Julian Taplin for their assistance in this project.     

Anisomycin impairs long-term working memory in a delayed alternation task

A long-term temporal component of working memory of rats trained on the radial maze has been shown to be susceptible to disruption by the protein synthesis inhibitor, anisomycin. It is not clear whether protein synthesis played a role in working memory because accurate performance on the radial maze required the storage of a large amount of information, or because the information was to be held in store for relatively long periods of time. This experiment tested these hypotheses by assessing the effect of anisomycin on choice accuracy in a comparatively simple spatial delayed alternation task. Results indicate that under the present training conditions, protein involvement in working memory is related more to the length of the retention interval than to the amount of information retained.     

Evidence for aggression-modulating pheromones in prepuberal pigs

A series of behavioral bioassays were conducted to determine the aggression-influencing properties of urine and other fluids. Subjects were prepuberal castrated male and female domestic pigs from commercial stocks. In the behavior assay, pigs were painted with a test fluid and grouped for a videotaped 90 min observation period. Experiment 1 validated use of videotape recording by showing that duration of aggressive behavior registered live was correlated with that obtained from video records (R = .98). In experiment 2, urine and plasma collected from actively aggressive pigs reduced the durations of aggressive behavior of test pigs compared with the effects of urine and plasma collected from socially stable, handled pigs. In Experiment 3, a new set of test pigs confirmed that urine from fighting pigs reduced the duration of attack by test pigs compared with urine from nonfighting, handled pigs. In addition, the suggested reproductive pheromone, 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one, substantially reduced the duration of attack. The effects of gender and aggressive state of urine-donor pigs on test pigs was determined in Experiment 4. Again, urine from castrated male and female aggressive pigs reduced attack by test pigs compared with the level of attack shown by test pigs coated with urine from handled castrated males and females. Urine from fighting and nonfighting intact males had similar effects on test pig aggression. In Experiment 5, urine was obtained from nonhandled, socially stable pigs in their home pens and again from the same pigs after they had been regrouped (aggressive). These urine types had no significant influence on test pigs' aggression over the entire 90-min observation. However, during the first 30 min nonhandled, nonfighting pigs' urine induced less aggression in test pigs than did urine from fighting pigs. Results indicate that urine and blood plasma from aggressive pigs reduces aggression by test pigs compared with the effects of urine from handled pigs. Handling may increase the aggression-promoting properties of urine, and aggression may inhibit this aggression-promoting property.     

The relationship of affiliative arousal to dopamine release

Higher levels of affiliation motivation after exposure to affiliative films are significantly related to higher dopamine concentrations in saliva in one study of 61 college students of both sexes, and in plasma in another study of 47 adults of both sexes. Individuals high in dispositionaln Affiliation, if they also reported high life stress, showed high gains in dopamine concentration in plasma after exposure to an affiliative film significantly more often than other individuals. Since aroused affiliation motivation was not associated with higher concentrations of norepinephrine, epinephrine, or cortisol in either study, it appears likely that dopamine is especially associated with arousal of affiliation motivation, just as norepinephrine has been found to be associated with arousal of power motivation. Thus, different motives may be subserved by different hormones, making it unlikely that all motives lead to the same state of physiological arousal.This research was carried out when all the authors were connected with the Department of Psychology and Social Relations at Harvard University. We acknowledge with thanks the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation through a grant to the senior author.     

Modification of Type A behavior through aerobic exercise

This psychophysiological evaluation of an aerobic exercise program examined specifically whether aerobic training modified Pattern A for those individuals at behavioral risk for developing coronary heart disease, i.e., young Type A individuals. At pretest and posttest of this secondary prevention study, Type A and Type B subjects were assessed in three conditions: aerobic exercise program, nonaerobic activity (Aikido, a martial art) control, and notreatment control. After 10 weeks, Type A but not Type B subjects exhibited lower Pattern A behavior in the aerobic program than in control conditions. Average workout pulse rates and differentially reliable increases in aerobic capacity indicated that aerobic training was indeed aerobic, whereas aikido activity was not. Even though selected nonaerobic factors, such as locus of control and group participation, did not mediate the Pattern A decrease for Type A's when comparing aikido and aerobic conditions, changes in aerobic capacity may have been the mediator. Generalizability of the results and implications for theoretical development and clinical intervention are discussed.     

Individual differences in cognitive arithmetic

Unities in the processes involved in solving arithmetic problems of varying operations have been suggested by studies that have used both factor-analytic and information-processing methods. We designed the present study to investigate the convergence of mental processes assessed by paper-and-pencil measures defining the Numerical Facility factor and component processes for cognitive arithmetic identified by using chronometric techniques. A sample of 100 undergraduate students responded to 320 arithmetic problems in a true-false reaction-time (RT) verification paradigm and were administered a battery of ability measures spanning Numerical Facility, Perceptual Speed, and Spatial Relations factors. The 320 cognitive arithmetic problems comprised 80 problems of each of four types: simple addition, complex addition, simple multiplication, and complex multiplication. The information-processing results indicated that regression models that included a structural variable consistent with memory network retrieval of arithmetic facts were the best predictors of RT to each of the four types of arithmetic problems. The results also verified the effects of other elementary processes that are involved in the mental solving of arithmetic problems, including encoding of single digits and carrying to the next column for complex problems. The relation between process components and ability measures was examined by means of structural equation modeling. The final structural model revealed a strong direct relation between a factor subsuming efficiency of retrieval of arithmetic facts and of executing the carry operation and the traditional Numerical Facility factor. Furthermore, a moderate direct relation between a factor subsuming speed of encoding digits and decision and response times and the traditional Perceptual Speed factor was also found. No relation between structural variables representing cognitive arithmetic component processes and ability measures spanning the Spatial Relations factor was found. Results of the structural modeling support the conclusion that information retrieval from a network of arithmetic facts and execution of the carry operation are elementary component processes involved uniquely in the mental solving of arithmetic problems. Furthermore, individual differences in the speed of executing these two elementary component processes appear to underlie individual differences on ability measures that traditionally span the Numerical Facility factor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Long-term memory formation in chicks is blocked by 2-deoxygalactose, a fucose analog

When day-old chicks are trained on a passive avoidance task there is enhanced synthesis of glycoproteins. Bilateral intracerebral injections of 20 mumole of 2-deoxygalactose (2-D-gal), administered just before and just after training on the task, produce amnesia for the avoidance. Amnesia develops slowly over the first hour and persists for at least 24 h subsequently. If 2-D-gal injections are administered 4 h prior to the training or delayed for 3 h after training, no amnesia occurs. Apart from a brief initial suppression of pecking following injection there are no effects of 2-D-gal on other observed behaviors of the birds. Within the first hour this dose of 2-D-gal inhibits [3H]fucose incorporation into acid-insoluble material by 26% (or 68%, calculated relative to free pool fucose). The amnestic effect of 2-D-gal is not shown by galactose, glucose, fucose, or 2-D-glucose. Injecting 40 mumole of galactose simultaneously with the 2-D-gal abolishes the 2-D-gal-induced amnesia; 40 mumole of fucose, however, does not abolish the amnesia. The utility of 2-D-gal as an agent for analyzing the role of glycoproteins in memory formation is discussed.     

Hippocampal associative cellular responses: dissociation with behavioral responses revealed by a transfer-of-control technique

Multiunit activity was recorded in the CA3 field of the dorsal hippocampus in freely moving rats during classical conditioning and subsequent presentation of the CS on operant baselines for food reward as well as shock avoidance. Rats were first trained in a nonsignaled bar-pressing-dependent shock omission task and in a food-motivated lever-pressing task (60-s VI). Five sessions with presentations of a previously habituated tone as a CS paired with footshock as a US were then given. Testing was carried out by presenting the CS alone while behavioral responses were maintained by reinforcement in both instrumental tasks on alternate sessions. As expected, the CS induced a marked suppression of lever pressing for food reward and a marked enhancement of bar-pressing for shock avoidance. The analysis of the frequency of multiunit discharges to the CS revealed that the hippocampal cellular responses established during classical conditioning were maintained while two different behavioral responses were exhibited to the CS. The results showed that the associative response of hippocampal neurons may be dissociated from the Pavlovian conditioned responses the CS elicits. They support the hypothesis that hippocampal cellular responses represent a neural index of the acquired CS-US associative representation.     

Eyeheight-scaled information about affordances: a study of sitting and stair climbing

Previous work has shown that both the perceived and actual critical (maximum) heights of surfaces that afford "sitting on " and "climbing on" can be expressed as constant proportions of each actor's leg length. The current study provides evidence that these judgments of critical action boundaries are based on an existing source of size and distance information that is already scaled with reference to the actor's eyeheight. In Experiment 1 changes in judgments of "perceived eyeheight" (an index of the intrinsic scalar) as a function of viewing distance were shown to be highly correlated with changes in the maximum height that was perceived to afford sitting on or climbing on. In Experiments 2 and 3 observers wore 10-cm blocks and made judgments about whether the heights of various surfaces afforded sitting or climbing. The use of eyeheight-scaled information as the basis for their estimates predicted the obtained pattern of errors in these judgments. With a modicum of experience wearing the blocks, however, observers were able to retune accurately their critical action boundary to a degree that would not have been predicted from their consistent overestimation of the height of the block on which they were standing. These results have implications for understanding how observers obtain information about their specific action boundary.