Racial discrimination-induced anger and alcohol use among black adolescents

This study explored whether a relationship exists between anger among Black adolescents that has been provoked by racial discrimination, and alcohol consumption. Participants consisted of 134 Black adolescents from 14 to 18 years of age, residing in northeast Texas. All participants were administered a questionnaire measuring whether and the extent to which they might be dependent upon alcohol, a background information questionnaire which included questions about their drinking pattern, and a measure designed to assess the extent to which they feel angry either because they had been discriminated against or observed other Blacks being discriminated against or observed other Blacks being discriminated against in various situations. Only gender was found to be predictive of scores on the dependency scale. However gender, age, and racial discrimination anger scores were found to be predictive of the amount of alcohol consumed by the participants. Some implications for theory, research, and intervention are suggested.     

Figure-ground assignment in pigeons: evidence for a figural benefit

Four pigeons discriminated whether a target spot appeared on a colored figural shape or on a differently colored background by first pecking the target and then reporting its location: on the figure or the background. We recorded three dependent variables: target detection time, choice response time, and choice accuracy. The birds were faster to detect the target, to report its location, and to learn the correct response on figure trials than on background trials. Later tests suggested that the pigeons might have attended to the figural region as a whole rather than using local properties in performing the figure-background discrimination. The location of the figural region did not affect figure-ground assignment. Finally, when 4 other pigeons had to detect and peck the target without making a choice report, no figural advantage emerged in target detection time, suggesting that the birds' attention may not have been automatically summoned to the figural region.     

Does the order of head noun and modifier explain response times in conceptual combination?

We describe a speeded sensibility judgment experiment in which noun-noun combinations in the Indonesian language were used that parallels Gagné and Shoben's (1997) study of combinations in the English language. Like English, Indonesian is read from left to right and contains noun-noun combinations that are formed by juxtaposing the nouns. However, unlike in English, the order of the modifier and the head noun is reversed. This difference between English and Indonesian combinations allowed us to assess whether sensibility judgments of combinations are affected primarily by the left-right order of the nouns or by different functional roles of the nouns (i.e., modifier vs. head noun). As in Gagné and Shoben's study, the modifier's relation frequency contributed significantly to predicting sensibility judgment times in a regression analysis, but the head noun's relation frequency did not. We discuss the implications of this finding for models of conceptual combination.     

Childhood stuttering and dissociations across linguistic domains

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the possible presence of dissociations in the speech and language skills of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) using a correlation-based statistical procedure [Bates, E., Appelbaum, M., Salcedo, J., Saygin, A. P., & Pizzamiglio, L. (2003). Quantifying dissociations in neuropsychological research. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 1128-1153]. Participants were 45 preschool CWS and 45 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years;months), with the two groups matched by age, gender, race, and parental socioeconomic status. Children participated in a parent-child interaction for the purpose of disfluency analysis and responded to four standardized speech-language tests for subsequent analyses as main dependent variables. Findings indicated that CWS were over three times more likely than CWNS to exhibit dissociations across speech-language domains, with 44 cases of dissociation for CWS and 14 for CWNS across 10 possible comparisons. Results suggest that there may be a subgroup of CWS who exhibit dissociations across speech-language domains, which may result in a greater susceptibility to breakdowns in speech fluency. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) summarize findings from previous studies examining differences in speech and language performance between children who do and do not stutter; (2) describe what is meant by "dissociations" in the speech and language skills of young children who do and do not stutter; and (3) discuss three hypotheses that could account for the present findings that suggest CWS, more often than CWNS, exhibit dissociations in their speech-language system.     

Contextual Competence: Multiple Manifestations Among Urban Adolescents

The authors develop and validate multidimensional and contextual profiles of competence among low-income, urban, middle adolescents (N = 560). The assessment of contextual competence was based on youth self-reports of involvement, performance, and relationship quality in the peer, school, athletic, employment, religious, and cultural contexts. A principal components analysis of these engagement indices revealed the six expected components with the addition of a component labeled self-in-context. To identify holistic, multidimensional profiles of contextual competence, scores along the seven domains were cluster analyzed. Nine clusters emerged, each representing a distinct constellation of youth experience. Profiles were associated with demographic variables and youth adjustment. Profiles reflecting high engagement in two or more contexts predicted higher self-esteem and lower depression. In contrast, profiles marked by high engagement in the contexts of athletics or employment predicted more serious delinquency. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for future research and intervention.     

Women Behaving Badly: Gender and Aggression in a Military Town, 1653–1781

Magistrates records from the English town of Portsmouth show the towns women to have been exceptionally violent. Women accounted, on average, for just over 31% of all assaults on record for the years 1653 to 1781. We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to compare the fighting styles of men and women and to examine the extent to which these were gendered. Particular attention was paid to levels of violence between pairs of brawlers. The most common form of violence was male-on-male (2,666 cases), followed by female-on-female (1,690), male-on-female (1,675), and female-on-male (299). Of these pairings, female-on-male assaults were the most violent, as measured by the types of weapons used by the aggressors, and female-on-female pairings were the least violent.Funding was provided by grant 410-2000-0467 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The authors are profoundly grateful to the gracious and highly capable staff of Portsmouths Museums and Records Service, including, most notably, Michael Gunton, Diana Gregg, Donna Malcolmson, and Sarah Speller. Special thanks also go to the team of volunteers who transcribed the towns sessions papers, thus greatly facilitating our entry of the same into a database. They were, in alphabetical order, Kate Beatty, Barbara Gower, Ursula Heinrich, Pam Honeysett, George Hothersall, Marjorie Hothersall, Una Lowe, Betty Richardson, Marjorie Ripper, and Brenda Whorton. There was one other volunteer: an inmate at the Kingston Prison just outside Portsmouth. Back in Toronto, several more people assisted in entering the records into a database. They were, in alphabetical order, Joanne Cordingley, James Hewitson, Allyson Lunny, Yvonne Pelletier, and Victoria Vaag.     

Cystic Fibrosis Prenatal Screening in Genetic Counseling Practice: Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

For over a decade, prenatal screening for cystic fibrosis (CF) has been considered a model for the integration of genetic testing into routine medical practice. Data from pilot studies and public policy discourse have led to recommendations by some professional organizations that CF screening should be offered or made available to pregnant women and their partners, and to couples planning a pregnancy. It is crucial that genetic counselors gain thorough understanding of the complexities of CF and the implications of positive test results, so that they may serve as a reliable, educated referral base and resource for health care providers and their patients. While not all pregnant women will be referred for genetic counseling prior to CF carrier testing, genetic counselors often will be asked to counsel clients after they have a positive test result, or who are found to be at increased risk. Genetic counselors can play an important role in providing accurate and current information as well as support for patients informed decisions. These recommendations were created by a multicenter working group of genetic counselors with expertise in CF and are based on personal clinical experience, review of pertinent English language medical articles, and reports of expert committees. The recommendations should not be construed as dictating an exclusive course of management, nor does the use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome. These recommendations do not displace a health care providers professional judgment based on the clinical circumstances of a particular client.     

Transgenic mice expressing a truncated form of CREB-binding protein (CBP) exhibit deficits in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory storage

Deletions, translocations, or point mutations in the CREB-binding protein (CBP) gene have been associated with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome; a human developmental disorder characterized by retarded growth and reduced mental function. To examine the role of CBP in memory, transgenic mice were generated in which the CaMKII alpha promoter drives expression of an inhibitory truncated CBP protein in forebrain neurons. Examination of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP), a form of synaptic plasticity thought to underlie memory storage, revealed significantly reduced late-phase LTP induced by dopamine-regulated potentiation in hippocampal slices from CBP transgenic mice. However, four-train induced late-phase LTP is normal. Behaviorally, CBP transgenic mice exhibited memory deficits in spatial learning in the Morris water maze and deficits in long-term memory for contextual fear conditioning, two hippocampus-dependent tasks. Together, these results demonstrate that CBP is involved in specific forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and hippocampus-dependent long-term memory formation.     

Lateralised processing of the internal and the external facial features of personally familiar and unfamiliar faces: a visual half-field study

In this visual half field (VHF) experiment, we investigated possible differences between the left and the right hemisphere in the processing of the internal and external features of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Previous studies using famous and unknown faces had indicated that both hemispheres use the same qualitative mode of processing with the internal features being more important for the perception of familiar faces. In this experiment, personally familiar faces rather than famous faces are used. There are several, mainly methodological, reasons why personally familiar faces are more appropriate stimuli to investigate face processing. The results of the present study showed that no overall visual field effect occurred, but more importantly, that face processing in the left hemisphere differed qualitatively from that in the right hemisphere. The theoretical repercussions of these findings are discussed.