Effect of novel and familiar mating partners on the duration of sexual receptivity in the female hamster

The lordosis duration of the female golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) in response to novel and familiar mating partners was examined. In Experiment 1, females mated to the point of sexual satiation with one male hamster, and following its removal, showed renewed receptivity in response to the introduction of a second male. Upon sexual satiation with the second male, females either received a novel third male or were reexposed to the original male. Total lordosis duration in the third bout in the group receiving a novel male was significantly greater than in the group reexposed to the original male. In Experiment 2, the insertion of a 1-h delay between the second and the third mating partner had no effect on the female's responsiveness, regardless of whether the third male was the original male or a novel male. In Experiment 3, removal of the ovaries followed by hormone replacement treatment (40 micrograms estradiol benzoate, 72 h prior to testing, and 500 micrograms progesterone, 4 h prior to testing) failed to alter the females' ability to discriminate between novel and familiar mating partners. These results demonstrate that females make clear discriminations among individual mating partners, that this can affect sexual receptivity and will continue to do so following a delay of at least 1 h, and that the effect is not mediated by the release of ovarian steroids.     

The role of masculinity and femininity in depression and social satisfaction in elderly females

Several recent meta-analyses indicate a relation between masculinity and psychological adjustment, but there is little correlation between femininity and adjustment. The present study examined the generalizability of this finding in a sample of elderly women. Thirty women ranging in age from 68 to 97 years were administered a battery of questionnaires including the Personal Attributes Questionaire, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Hopelessness Scale, and three subscales from the Self-Evaluation of Life Function Scale. Consistent with previous meta-analytic results, correlational analyses revealed significant negative relations between masculinity and the cognitive measures of depression (i.e., hopelessness and self-esteem), and no correlation between femininity and these same cognitive measures. Femininity, however, was correlated with social satisfaction and symptoms of aging. Masculinity was unrelated to these social and physical indices of depression. The implications of these findings for the androgyny and masculinity models of mental health are discussed with particular reference to the role that femininity may play in potentiating or exacerbating depression.     

Spatial factors in metacontrast

Different mask ring widths, intercontour distances, mask durations, and interstimulus intervals were varied in a parametric manner. Results show decreasing amounts of metacontrast with increases in intercontour distance, and no significant effects of mask width or mask duration. The results provide support for monotonic metacontrast functions with maximum metacontrast at the offset of the target.     

The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (BNBAS)

Summary The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment attempts to capture the behaviors of the neonate as he defends himself from intrusive, negative stimuli, and controls interfering motor and autonomic responses in order to attend to important social and nonsocial stimuli. In order to conceptualize the 26 behavioral items and 20 reflex scores, four clusters or typologies have been identified which help to reduce the data for analytic purposes with small numbers of subjects. So far few long-term validation studies have been completed, although the scale is in use in many different areas, such as obstetrical medication, predicting to neurological deficits, cross-cultural differences, and with low birth weight infants.This work was supported by grant # 7634-4 of the Grant Foundation, New York.This material appears in expanded form in Osofsky, J. (ed.),Handbook on Infancy, Wiley Interscience, 1977, in press.     

Effect of letter orientation and sequential redundancy on the speed of letter search

Subjects searched for target letters through upright or inverted sentences, words, and nonwords. Letters were easier to detect in sentences (vs. words) and words (vs. nonwords) under less demanding search conditions (e.g., one or two target letters in memory set, upright presentation). Familiar letter orientation aided search under all conditions and its aid did not vary with memory set size (intercept effect only). The latter result, taken together with previous findings, indicates a general familiarity effect at the encoding stage. An analysis of facultative and disruptive sequential redundancy effects indicated that facilitation depends on several key factors and, most important, on having words presented in uppercase.     

Search for a matching or mismatching letter pair

The perceptual matching task was modified in order to increase the error rate and thus to reveal more clearly whether internal noise more often changes an objective match into a perceived mismatch than vice versa (noisy-operator theory). In Experiment 1, subjects searched for a “same” pair in a list of “different” pairs or for a “different” pair in a list of “same” pairs. As predicted, the target pair was overlooked or missed more often on “different” lists. False alarms, though, were not higher on “same” lists, owing apparently to rechecking, which also produced slower search through “different” lists. To disable the rechecking mechanism, rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) was used in Experiments 2 and 3. As predicted, misses exceeded false alarms on “different” lists, whereas the reverse held on “same” lists, both at the physical level (Experiment 2) and at the name level (Experiment 3). Letter set size and repetition were varied in Experiments 1 and 2, and the results indicate that when letter pairs are presented in close temporal and spatial proximity, subjects are influenced by extraneous interpair comparisons in addition to relevant intrapair comparisons in deciding whether or not a target pair is present.     

Single judgments of numerosity

In previous studies, subjects generally underestimated the number of elements present in a display. To eliminate the range and intertrial effects that arise when several displays are judged in succession and that might have produced the underestimation, subjects in the present study judged only a single display. The single judgments fitted a power function having an exponent of .83, which is consistent with previous data. Single judgments of loudness, area, and duration, by contrast, have produced abnormally low exponents apparently because the built-in scale unit, or modulus, available on numerosity is lacking for other modalities. The tendency to underestimate numerosity was much stronger for female than for male subjects.