Gender Attitudes and Public Opinion Towards Electoral Gender Quotas in Brazil

Research on public opinion towards affirmative action shows that citizens often support the principle of equality while simultaneously rejecting policies that promote it in a pattern described as the “principle-policy puzzle.” The scholarship also shows that ideology and prejudice towards the targeted group explain the puzzle with respect to racial affirmative action. In this article, we use unique survey questions included in the 2014 round of the AmericasBarometer in Brazil to show that citizens tend to support electoral gender quotas while rejecting gender-based egalitarianism in a reversed version of the “principle-policy puzzle.” We argue that a different type of gender attitudes, namely benevolent sexism, shapes support for gender quotas as well as for the principle of equality. While benevolent sexists tend to reject gender equality based on views about gender complementarity and stereotypes about women's purity, they also support quotas as policies to foster such values. Our findings suggest that even though the political and scholarly debates can provide sound normative reasons for the adoption of quotas across different contexts, public support for them often relies on paternalistic views and expectations about the role of women in politics.     

Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: bridging brain activity and behavior

Behavioral sensitivity to object transformations and the response to novel objects (Greebles) in the fusiform face area (FFA) was measured several times during expertise training. Sensitivity to 3 transformations increased with expertise: (a) configural changes in which halves of objects were misaligned, (b) configural changes in which some of the object parts were moved, and (c) the substitution of an object part with a part from a different object. The authors found that holistic-configural effects can arise from object representations that are differentiated in terms of features or parts. Moreover, a holistic-inclusive effect was correlated with changes in the right FFA. Face recognition may not be unique in its reliance on holistic processing, measured in terms of both behavior and brain activation.     

Glucocorticoid involvement in memory formation in a rat model for traumatic memory

Contextual fear conditioning under training conditions involving high stressor intensities has been proposed as an animal model for traumatic memories. The strength of memory for this task has been related to the intensity of the conditioning stressor and post-training corticosterone values. However, administration of a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist only attenuated memory for this task in rats conditioned at a moderate shock intensity (0.4 mA), but failed to influence conditioning in rats trained at a high shock intensity (1 mA). Here, we further questioned whether interfering with glucocorticoid action at the time of training might be effective in influencing contextual fear conditioning in rats trained under different shock intensities. Rats were subcutaneously injected with the glucocorticoid synthesis inhibitor metyrapone (50, 100 mg/kg) 90 min before being trained in the contextual fear conditioning task, at either 0.4 or 1 mA shock intensities. The results showed that metyrapone, in a dose-dependent manner: (i) attenuated long-term expression of contextual fear conditioning, both in 0.4- and 1 mA-trained rats; and (ii) efficiently prevented increased plasma corticosterone concentration. In addition to further supporting a facilitating role of glucocorticoids in memory consolidation, these findings suggest a critical involvement of these hormones in the formation of traumatic memories.     

Socioeconomic status and insomnia

This investigation compared the likelihood of insomnia and insomnia-related health consequences among individuals of different socioeconomic status. A random-digit dialing procedure was used to recruit at least 50 men and 50 women in each age decade from 20 to 80+ years old. Participants completed 2 weeks of sleep diaries as well as questionnaires related to fatigue, sleepiness, and psychological distress. Socioeconomic status was measured by education status assessed at 3 different levels: individual, household, and community. Results indicated that individuals of lower individual and household education were significantly more likely to experience insomnia even after researchers accounted for ethnicity, gender, and age. Additionally, individuals with fewer years of education, particularly those who had dropped out of high school, experienced greater subjective impairment because of their insomnia.     

Generating complex three-dimensional stimuli (Greebles) for haptic expertise training

An apparatus is described that accurately measures response times and video records hand movements during haptic object recognition using complex three-dimensional (3-D) forms. The apparatus was used for training participants to become expert at perceptual judgments of 3-D objects (Greebles) using only their sense of touch. Inspiration came from previous visual experiments, and therefore training and testing protocols that were similar to the earlier visual procedures were used. Two sets of Greebles were created. One set (clay Greebles) was hand crafted from clay, and the other (plastic Greebles) was machine created using rapid prototyping technology. Differences between these object creation techniques and their impact on perceptual expertise training are discussed. The full set of these stimuli may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Measuring Impulsivity in School-Aged Boys and Examining Its Relationship with ADHD and ODD Ratings

Seven different laboratory measures of impulsivity were administered to a group of 165 school-aged boys. Parents' and teachers' ratings of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional/Defiant Disorder were also obtained. Factor analyses of impulsivity measures revealed the existence of a strong Inhibitory Control Factor including measures derived from Stop Task, the Continuous Performance Test, the Matching Familiar Figures Test, and the Circle Tracing Task. Other forms of impulsivity like resistance to interference, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and efficiency in the DRL Task loaded on a second independent factor. The Inhibitory Control factor was correlated with ADHD ratings, whereas the second factor was slightly related to the presence of ODD symptoms. Discussion is focused on the relevance of inhibitory control in impulsivity and ADHD research.