Intracranial cannulation of small animals

Special difficulties are encountered when attempting to provide intracranial cannulation of small animals that have floating or fragile skull bones. The technique described was developed for mice but seems applicable to other species. The cannula system is inexpensive and easy to use. A wound clip anchor seems superior to either skull screws or bonded acrylic, producing less damage to the brain and no necrosis of bone or tissue on the wound margin. Patency data up to 25 days is presented, and the system is as efficacious as other techniques.     

Delayed alternation in the rat: Effect of contextual stimuli on proactive interference

The effect of contextual stimuli on proactive interference in the rat was investigated in three experiments. The task was a modified delayed alternation procedure in which the rat was initially forced to one side of a T maze (the interfering forcing) followed by a forcing to the opposite side (the target forcing). A free choice run followed the target forcing in which a turn in either direction could be made. In order to obtain reinforcement on the free choice run, the rat was required to turn in the direction opposite that of the target forcing (i.e., in the same direction as the interfering forcing). Manipulation of the context prevailing during the interfering forcing, target forcing, and free choice runs revealed that free choice accuracy was (a) greater when the interfering and target forcings were conducted in different contexts than when they were conducted in the same context and (b) influenced only slightly, if at all, by whether the free choice context coincided with that prevailing during the interfering forcing or with that prevailing during the target forcing.     

Factors in the referral of children for behavioral treatment: A comparison of mothers of clinic-referred deviant,clinic-referred non-deviant and non-c

The purpose of this study was to compare a non-clinic sample of mothers and children to two groups of clinic-referred children and their mothers. The two clinic-referred groups differed from one another in that the selection criterion for one group of children (Clinic Deviant) was that they were significantly more deviant and non-compliant than the non-clinic group whereas the selection criterion for the second group of children (Clinic Non-deviant) was that they did not differ significantly from the non-clinic group on deviant and non-compliant behavior. Home observations by independent observers and parent questionnaires examining parental adjustment and parental perceptions of child adjustment were completed. The results indicated that both clinic groups perceived their children as more maladjusted than parents in the non-clinic groups perceived their children. Parents of the children in the Clinic Non-deviant group were significantly more depressed than those in the remaining two groups, whereas parents in the Clinic Deviant group issued more vague, interrupted commands than those in the Clinic Non-deviant group. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Behavioral treatments of primary dysmenorrhea: A review

Behavioral interventions for primary dysmenorrhea are reviewed under four categories: hypnotherapy; Lamaze exercises; biofeedback training; and desensi found in only the last category and even here, the extent to which positive results stem from desensitization-based treatments themselves as opposed to nonspecific factors associated with these treatments is unresolved. Additional issues that bear upon behavioral treatments for primary dysmenorrhea are: (a) the need for further taxonomic refinement; and (b) the need to incorporate pathophysiological findings within the treatment of this disorder.     

Orientation in cognitive maps

In 14 experiments, subjects had to “point to” surrounding environmental locations (targets) while imagining themselves in a particular spot facing in various directions (orientations). The spatial information was either committed to memory (cognitive maps) or directly presented on each trial in the visual or tactile modality. Reaction times (RT) indicated that orientation shifts were achieved through mental rotation in the visual task, but not in the cognitive map or tactile tasks. Further, in the latter two tasks targets were located most quickly when they were adjacent to or opposite the imagined orientation. Several explanations of this finding were tested. Various aspects of the data suggest that cognitive maps are not strictly holistic, but consist of orientation-specific representations, and—at least in part—of relational propositions specific to object pairs.     

Behavioural family therapy and the influence of a systems framework

A family approach using the techniques of behaviour modification, to a family presenting with problems of encopressis in a five-year-old boy, is described. The usefulness of taking a broader analysis of the context of the behaviours targeted for modification under the impact of systems theories is emphasized. A one-year follow-up after treatment demonstrated both symptomatic and family changes.     

Tomboys and sissies: Androgynous children?

Psychological studies of masculinity-femininity in children have paralleled those done with adults, which often consider deviations from masculinity for males and femininity for females as abnormal and perhaps pathological. Children who demonstrate cross-sex behaviors, however, may become androgynous adults whose cross-sex behaviors mean flexibility, not pathology. This study had two purposes: (1) to identify potentially androgynous children as those labeled by their peers as tomboys and sissies; (2) to compare personality characteristics of androgynous children with those of peers. Subjects were 312 elementary school children in a midwestern city. Results indicate that the labels tomboy and sissy are not necessarily indicators of androgynous children, but important social behaviors are related to the labels. For males, the possibility of frustrated creativity was raised.     

Indclus: An individual differences generalization of the adclus model and the mapclus algorithm

We present a new model and associated algorithm, INDCLUS, that generalizes the Shepard-Arabie ADCLUS (ADditive CLUStering) model and the MAPCLUS algorithm, so as to represent in a clustering solution individual differences among subjects or other sources of data. Like MAPCLUS, the INDCLUS generalization utilizes an alternating least squares method combined with a mathematical programming optimization procedure based on a penalty function approach to impose discrete (0,1) constraints on parameters defining cluster membership. All subjects in an INDCLUS analysis are assumed to have a common set of clusters, which are differentially weighted by subjects in order to portray individual differences. As such, INDCLUS provides a (discrete) clustering counterpart to the Carroll-Chang INDSCAL model for (continuous) spatial representations. Finally, we consider possible generalizations of the INDCLUS model and algorithm.We are indebted to Seymour Rosenberg for making available the data from Rosenberg and Kim [1975]. Also, this work has benefited from the observations of S. A. Boorman, W. S. DeSarbo, G. Furnas, P. E. Green, L. J. Hubert, L. E. Jones, J. B. Kruskal, S. Pruzansky, D. Schmittlein, E. J. Shoben, S. D. Soli, and anonymous referees.This research was supported in part by NSF Grant SES82 00441, LEAA Grant 78-NI-AX-0142, and NSF Grant SES80 04815.