Sex-specific cognitive–behavioural profiles emerging from individual variation in numerosity discrimination in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gambusia affinis</Emphasis>

The relationship between an individual’s cognitive abilities and other behavioural attributes is complex, yet critical to understanding how individual differences in cognition arise. Here we use western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, to investigate the relationship between individual associative learning performance in numerical discrimination tests and independent measures of activity, exploration, anxiety and sociability. We found extensive and highly repeatable inter-individual variation in learning performance (r = 0.89; ICC = 0.89). Males and females exhibited similar learning performance, yet differed in sociability, activity and their relationship between learning and anxiety/exploration tendencies. Sex-specific multivariate behaviour scores successfully predicted variation in individual learning performance, whereas combined sex analyses did not. Female multivariate behaviour scores significantly predict learning performance across females (ρ = 0.80, p = 0.005) with high-performing female learners differentiated from female non-learners and low-performing learners by significant contributions of activity and sociability measures. Meanwhile, males of different learning performance levels (high-, low- and non-learners) were distinguished from each other by unique behavioural loadings of sociability, activity and anxiety/exploration scores, respectively. Our data suggest that despite convergence on learning performance, the sexes diverge in cognitive–behavioural relationships that are likely products of different sexual selection pressures.     

Age and gender comparisons of driving while sleepy: Behaviours and risk perceptions

To assist road safety professionals in developing effective strategies to combat the risk associated with driving while fatigued, a survey was administered to 1000 Australian drivers. Participants reported their past behaviours in regards to driving while sleepy and their perceptions of risk associated with driving fatigued as compared to speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Although participants appeared to be aware of the substantial risk associated with driving while sleepy, many drivers reported that they frequently drive when sleepy. Age and gender comparisons, revealed that risk taking behaviour in regards to driving while sleepy is occurring across all age groups and in both male and female drivers. Overall young to middle age drivers and male drivers reported the highest frequency of driving while sleepy and reported the lowest perceived personal risk in regards to driving while sleepy.     

College students, tattoos, and sexual activity

This research examined the association of having a tattoo and engaging in premarital sexual intercourse. Data gathered from a convenience sample of 450 college students indicated that tattooed respondents were substantively and significantly more likely to be sexually active than nontattooed college students. Tattooed men became sexually active at a significantly earlier age than nontattooed men but no such difference was found between tattooed and nontattooed college women.     

The impact of frontal and non-frontal brain tumor lesions on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance

Several lesion and imaging studies have suggested that the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a measure of executive dysfunction. However, some studies have reported that this measure has poor anatomical specificity because patients with either frontal or non-frontal focal lesions exhibit similar performance. This study examined 25 frontal, 20 non-frontal low-grade brain tumor patients, and 63 normal controls (NC) on the WCST. The frontal patients were also assigned to either a left frontal (n=10) group or a right frontal group (n=15) and compared with the non-frontal group and NC. It was hypothesized that the frontal brain tumor patients would display greater deficits on categories achieved and a higher number of perseverative errors than non-frontal brain tumor patients on the WCST. Finally, it was predicted that right frontal brain tumors would result in greater executive functioning deficits than left frontal or non-frontal brain tumors. Results indicated that the left frontal group achieved the fewest categories and committed the most perseverative errors compared to the other patient and normal control groups. In addition, the left frontal group committed significantly more perseverative errors than the right frontal group. These results suggest that the WCST is sensitive to the effects of low-grade brain tumors on executive functioning.     

Haptic perception of linear extent

The perception of linear extent in haptic touch appears to be anisotropic, in that haptically perceived extents can depend on the spatial orientation and location of the object and, thus, on the direction of exploratory motion. Experiments 1 and 2 quantified how the haptic perception of linear extent depended on the type of motion (radial or tangential to the body) when subjects explored different stimulus objects (raised lines or solid blocks) varying in length and in relative spatial location. Relatively narrow, shallow, raised lines were judged to be longer, by magnitude estimation, than solid blocks. Consistent with earlier reports, stimuli explored with radial arm motions were judged to be longer than identical stimuli explored with tangential motions; this difference did not depend consistently on the lateral position of the stimulus object, the direction of movement (toward or away from the body), or the distance of the hand from the body but did depend slightly on the angular position of the shoulder. Experiment 3 showed that the radial-tangential effect could be explained by temporal differences in exploratory movements, implying that the apparent anisotropy is not intrinsic to the structure of haptic space.     

Integrity in Pastoral Counseling

This essay suggests that pastoral counseling involves a spiritual and emotional quest for wholeness. The personal quest of the pastoral counselor has a parallel impact upon the quest of those who seek his or her counsel. The essay presents the view that faith must be established in the life of the pastoral counselor in at least four areas: in community, in the use of one's spiritual gifts, in the love of mercy and the doing of justice, and in communion with God.     

Selective Synaptic Plasticity within the Cerebellar Cortex Following Complex Motor Skill Learning

Complex motor skill learning, but not mere motor activity, leads to an increase in synapse number within the cerebellar cortex. The present experiment used quantitative electron microscopy to determine which synapse types were altered in number. Adult female rats were allocated to either an acrobatic condition (AC), a voluntary exercise condition (VX), or an inactive condition (IC). AC animals were trained to traverse an elevated obstacle course requiring substantial motor coordination to complete. VX animals were housed with unlimited access to running wheels and IC animals received no motor training but were handled briefly each day. Results showed the AC animals to have significantly more parallel fiber to Purkinje cell synapses than both the VX and IC animals. No other synapse type was significantly altered. Thus, the learning-dependent increase in synapse number observed within the cerebellar cortex is accomplished primarily through the addition of parallel fiber synapses.     

Sexual experimentation by adolescents while babysitting.

This paper deals with the sexual experiences an adolescent might have as a result of babysitting. The impact of babysitters in our culture has been ignored in the literature, and yet we find it practiced widely by teenagers in the United States. Parents and society in general have few guidelines in sitter selection and in recognizing the potential impact of the sitter on their children.