Interaction and Participation for Young Hispanic and Caucasian Girls' and Boys' Learning of Media Content

Young Hispanic and Caucasian children viewed an animated educational television program in conditions that varied the level of interaction required. Girls and Caucasian children identified with the Hispanic female character more than boys and Hispanic children did. Children who actively responded to character prompts were more likely to understand the important program content than were those who simply observed it. Interaction was especially beneficial to Hispanic girls. The results suggest that programs designed to involve children in the content through participation or interaction provide unique opportunities for children to learn important educational media content, and that even very young children are sensitive to qualities of the symbolic role models who deliver those messages.     

Mindfulness and self-acceptance

The present article will focus on the cognitive theory of mindfulness and its importance in achieving unconditional self-acceptance. The goal of the mindful perspective is to increase cognitive flexibility and to thereby increase behavioral flexibility and the ability to adapt to one’s current environment in a meaningful manner. Empirical evidence spanning four decades attests to the beneficial effects of a mindful vs. mindless perspective. The article will focus on the following aspects of mindfulness as they apply to self-acceptance: the importance of authenticity, the tyranny of evaluation, the benefits of mistakes, the mindlessness of social comparison, the trap of rigid categories, and the acceptance of self as a mindful choice. The article concludes with a number of mindfulness applications geared toward enhancing self-acceptance.     

Assessment of children's Type A behavior: relationship with negative behavioral characteristics and children and teacher demographic characteristics

Thirty-two teachers rated Type A behavior, using Matthews Youth Test for Health, (MYTH) and negative characteristics of hyperactivity, negative peer relations, social withdrawal, and depression in 105 children, between the ages of 6 and 11, from lower to middle class Black and White families. Children's age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES) and teachers' gender, grade taught, and years of teaching experience were not related to teachers' MYTH ratings. However, White teachers rated children higher on Type A behavior than Black teachers. Controlling for teacher race effects, MYTH total scores, rather than reflecting a global negative view of the child, showed a strong overlap with hyperactivity and were differentiated from social withdrawal and depression. The MYTH Impatience/Aggression factor was highly related to hyperactivity and negative peer interactions; the Competitiveness factor was associated with a lack of social withdrawal. The conclusions verify the multidimensional nature of children's Type A behavior pattern and the importance of rater demographic characteristics in the assessment of children's behavior.     

The basis for choice reaction time slowing in Alzheimer's disease

Slowed reaction time has been suggested as an early feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the basis for this slowing has not been established. Patients with mild AD were compared with controls on a choice reaction time task, both cued (CCRT) and uncued (CRT). Initial and 1-year followup data were analyzed both as mean reaction times and as parameters of a fitted two-component quantitative model (the ex-Gaussian model). Slowing of CRT proved to be a sensitive test for AD. Slowing was due to changes in both the sensory/motor and the decisional components of the CRT model. However, these changes were found in both AD and slower, older controls. The modeling of CRT in AD is discussed.     

Sexual behaviour,condom use and prediction in attenders at sexually transmitted disease clinics—implications for counselling

A cohort of 260 clinic attenders completed an inventory to examine sexual behaviour, condom use and appraisal and to determine whether situational factors in their last sexual encounters were predictive of condom use. Response to health education compaigns promoting condoms in the light of HIV were also examined. It was found that risk exposure was consistently high. A subsample induldged in anal intercourse, which was unprotected in over two-thirds of instances. Condom uptake was varied Difficulties with condoms were widespread and fell into physical and psychological categories. The only predictor of condom use was the desire for unprotected sex. This data seems to indicate that sex is not a drive out of conscious control, but that individuals weigh up costs and benefits which may be marginally influenced by some situational variables such as alcohol. This has profound implications for counselling which can be aimed at addressing the misconceptions and beliefs that some individuals hold. Such misconceptions may result in risky behaviour which may potentially expose them to HIV. Such understanding is an important prerequisite for effective interventions. Differences between responses for heterosexual and homosexual men and women were examined.     

Classical conditioning in the leechMacrobdella Ditetra as a function of CS and UCS intensity

Classical conditioning in the leech was obtained using two levels of shock as the UCS, two levels of light as the CS; for each condition there was a CS-UCS paired and unpaired group. Analysis showed significant effects of pairing and a UCS intensity by trials interaction during acquisition. Spontaneous recovery was evident during the second day of extinction.     

Relational responses in tests of transposition with Rhesus monkeys

Three adult Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), one with nonrelated discrimination learning experience and two experimentally naive, were trained to discriminate between two simultaneously presented stimuli differing only in height. After exceeding the learning criteria on a VR 4 reinforcement schedule and considerable overtraining, subjects were tested for transposition. Both upward and downward and near and far tests were administered to determine the effects of distance from the original training pair on the amount of transposition. In these tests, each of the 24 stimulus pairs contained one or more novel stimuli. Training trials were interpolated to avoid extinction effects and measures were taken to avoid motivational deficits or differential rewards during testing. All three subjects responded relationally at far as well as near distances from the original training pair. Stimulus generalization, on the basis of increments of association, was found to be an inferior explanation for these data. Slight decrements on far tests can be better explained in terms of the learning-performance distinction.