Inhibitory avoidance deficit following short-term adrenalectomy in the rat: the role of adrenal catecholamines

Impaired retention of an inhibitory avoidance response was observed in rats subjected to adrenalectomy (ADX) up to 120 hr before the single learning trial. Corticosterone substitution failed to normalize this behavioral deficit. Rats ADX 240 hr prior to the learning trial showed a normalized behavior. Adrenomedullectomy (ADXM) 48 or 240 hr before learning caused a similar impairment as in short-term ADX rats. The 240-hr ADX rats subjected to corticosterone substitution showed the same behavioral deficit as short-term ADX rats or ADXM ones. Immediate postlearning subcutaneous injection of adrenaline in a dose range of 0.005-5.0 micrograms/kg or of noradrenaline (0.005-0.5 microgram/kg) to 48-hr ADX rats resulted in a dose-related improvement of later retention behavior. Higher doses of catecholamines were less or ineffective. Postlearning treatment of 48-hr ADXM rats with adrenaline (0.5-500 micrograms/kg) caused a similar pattern of behavioral changes. It is concluded that adrenal catecholamines play an important role in the modulation of consolidation of memory. In addition, the high circulating ACTH levels that follow long-term ADX may correct for the behaviorial deficit induced by the absence of adrenomedullary catecholamines.     

Father-child relationships from the preschool years through mid-adolescence

In this study, we examined variations in fathering and father-child relationships from the children's preschool years through mid-adolescence. One hundred seventy-seven fathers with first-born children ages 4, 8, 12, and 16 years responded to five sets of questionnaires tapping four domains of childrearing: practices, attitudes, parental role involvement, and role satisfaction. A multivariate analysis of variance identified significant variability among the four age groups in fathers' use of acceptance in childrearing practices, role involvement (frequency and task sharing), satisfaction with paternal role performance, and attitudes about the modifiability of child behavior. The results contribute new information about the nature of fathering throughout the childhood years and adolescence and provide additional support for the view of parenting as dynamic and responsive to the developmental level and gender-related characteristics of the child.     

Differential effects of priming at the encoding and judgment stage

Two experiments investigated whether the direction of priming effects depends on the processing stage at which the individual links the prime to a trait that is applicable to the evaluation of an ambiguously described target person. In line with previous research, it is hypothesized that assimilation effects will emerge when primes are processed in terms of a trait concept that is applicable to the encoding task. However, when the primes are not processed in applicable trait terms, they may still affect subsequent Judgments if the individual recalls the prime when judging the target along a trait dimension. In this case, the primes may serve as an anchor, resulting in contrast effects. Two experiments, in which subjects were primed with names of prototypically nice or hostile famous individuals under instructions that did or did not prompt subjects to process the prime in applicable trait terms, supported these hypotheses. Implications for the emergence of priming effects in everyday social interaction are discussed.     

Reflections on a medical ethics for the future

Recently, the attitude and performance of the physician have been questioned and new codes of medical ethics have been introduced. Any ethics proposed for the future is a scenario reflecting the composer's selectivity. Envisaged ethics of truthful, non-paternalistic, responsible physician-patient interaction will have far-reaching implications for autopsy, euthanasia, abortion, suicide, genetic engineering, transplantation, clinical trials, status of the psychiatric patient, physician immunity and liability. Conflicts between personal and societal medical ethics may continue to be insoluble. A possible projection of the physician's ethics on that of the politician is discussed. A new medical ethics should encompass principles of different creeds and be supranational.     

The relationship of estimated comprehensibility to the rate of connected speech

The relationship between subjective estimates of the comprehensibility of connected, freerunning speech and rate of speech was investigated for each of two types of time-compressed speech: pitch-varying speeded speech and pitch-normalized compressed speech. The midpoints of the resulting functions approximated the values obtained by a previously described speechrate tracking method. For equivalent degrees of comprehensibility, rates were higher for compressed speech than for speeded speech, indicating that estimates are sensitive to the intelligibility of speech. Subjective estimates of comprehensibility of time-compressed speech provide a means of assessing the itelligibility of connected speech.     

Signalled free-operant avoidance of shock by pigeons pecking a key

Two pigeons were trained to peck a key under a free-operant avoidance schedule. Then, changes in key color signalled the beginning (safe period) and the end (warning period) of the response-shock interval, with a response required to change the key color. Finally, a change in key color signalled the warning period and either a response or a shock reinstated the safe stimulus. During signalled avoidance, response rate was higher during the warning stimulus than during the safe stimulus. More responding tended to occur in the warning stimulus when it was terminated by either a response or a shock than by only a response. In either procedure, response latency during the warning stimulus was a function of the duration of the warning stimulus. In general, response and shock rate were higher during unsignalled than during signalled avoidance. When the warning stimulus was brief, the results were similar to those of unsignalled avoidance. These results confirm previous findings with pigeons, are in general agreement with data provided by other species in studies of signalled avoidance, and thereby indicate the transituationality of the key-pecking operant.     

The role of anionic, imidic and amidic forms in structure-activity relationships. Conjugation and bacteriostatic activity in sulphonamides.

The electronic structures of anionic, imidic and amidic forms of sulphonamides were investigated and compared by means of I.R., Raman and U.V. spectroscopy. Indices reflecting the electronic situation of the common moiety p-H2N-C6H4-SO2 was a whole, although not necessarily related, physically, to any event taking place in the biological processes, were found to correlate with the in vitro bacteriostatic activity of the specific individual forms. The influence of N1-substituents both on the SO2 electronic features and on the coupling between the para amino group and the phenyl ring was discussed. It resulted that the most active chemical species, in this class of compounds, are characterized, electronically, by the most electron-rich common moiety and, in particular, by the most negative oxygens in the SO2 group and the most available (less engaged) lone-pair in the rho-amino group. These conclusions give a new settlement both to the problem of resonance and to the relation between resonance effects and bacteriostatic activity in this class of compounds.     

Motivated information processing, strategic choice, and the quality of negotiated agreement

The authors tested a motivated information-processing model of negotiation: To reach high joint outcomes, negotiators need a deep understanding of the task, which requires them to exchange information and to process new information systematically. All this depends on social motivation, epistemic motivation (EM), and their interaction. Indeed, when EM (manipulated by holding negotiators process accountability or not) was high rather than low and prosocial rather than proself, negotiators recall more cooperative than competitive tactics (Experiment 1), had more trust, and reached higher joint outcomes (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that under high EM, negotiators who received cooperative, rather than competitive, tactics reached higher joint outcomes because they engaged in more problem solving. Under low EM, negotiators made more concessions and reached low joint outcomes. Implications for negotiation theory and for future work in this area are discussed.     

Working memory capacity and a notorious brain teaser: the case of the Monty Hall Dilemma

The Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) is an intriguing example of the discrepancy between people's intuitions and normative reasoning. This study examines whether the notorious difficulty of the MHD is associated with limitations in working memory resources. Experiment 1 and 2 examined the link between MHD reasoning and working memory capacity. Experiment 3 tested the role of working memory experimentally by burdening the executive resources with a secondary task. Results showed that participants who solved the MHD correctly had a significantly higher working memory capacity than erroneous responders. Correct responding also decreased under secondary task load. Findings indicate that working memory capacity plays a key role in overcoming salient intuitions and selecting the correct switching response during MHD reasoning.