Seeking urgent pediatric treatment: factors contributing to frequency, delay, and appropriateness

The present study explored the factors that contribute to mothers' decisions to seek urgent medical attention for their children when symptoms are not of a traumatic nature. One hundred mothers seeking treatment for their children at a prepaid clinic completed a questionnaire eliciting their expectations regarding the course of their children's problems, seriousness of the problems, perceived responsibility for the symptoms, and extent to which a variety of factors contributed to their decisions to seek treatment. Demographic data and information about each child's symptoms and medical history were also obtained. Four major "reasons for seeking treatment" factors were identified: family history of the presenting complaint, worry regarding the symptoms, situational variables, and the extent of the child's illness behavior. The appropriateness of the visit, delay in seeking treatment, and frequency of mothers' use of the pediatric clinic were predicted by the nature of the presenting symptoms (particularly the presence of fever), the ages of the mother and child, and two of the reasons for seeking treatment factors (i.e., family history and child's illness behavior). The present study suggests that mothers pay more attention to presenting symptoms and to the children's behavior than to psychosocial stressors in deciding to seek urgent care.     

Selective cardiovascular effects of stress and cigarette smoking in young women

In an earlier study, we found that men who smoked a cigarette and then engaged in a mildly stressful activity (video game) evidenced pronounced increases in heart rate and blood pressure, which were approximately equal to the sum of the effects produced by either smoking alone or stress alone. In the present study, a 2 (smoke vs. sham smoke) X 2 (stress vs. no stress) factorial design was used to evaluate the impact of stress and smoking on the cardiovascular responses of young women. The results revealed that the combination of stress and cigarette smoking produced blood pressure and heart rate responses that were larger than the additive effects of smoking and stress taken separately.     

Motivation and performance: Two consequences of winning and losing in competition

The present study examined the effects of competitive outcome—either a win or a loss—on intrinsic motivation. Winning was hypothesized to facilitate both performance and intrinsic motivation. Fifty-four participants, 29 females and 25 males, competed against a same-gender confederate in a puzzle-solving contest. Following the competition, participants' intrinsic motivation was surreptitiously measured by the amount of time spent playing with the puzzle while alone. Results showed that winning facilitated both actual competitive performance and intrinsic motivation relative to losing. The importance of considering the outcome when predicting intrinsic motivation after competition is discussed.     

Intelligence and fertility in the United States: 1912-1982

Results are presented for the 1st analysis of the relationship between IQ and completed fertility using a large, representative sample of the US population. Correlations are predominantly negative for cohorts born between 1894 and 1964 but are significantly more positive for cohorts whose fertility was concentrated in the baby boom years. Previous studies reporting slightly positive correlations appear to have been biased in their restriction of samples to atypical cohorts. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC), a nonprofit research organization affiliated with the University of Chicago, conducted the General Social Survey (GSS) in the US each year from 1972 to 1982, except for 1979. A combination of block quota and full probability sampling was employed. Hour-long interviews were completed with 12,120 respondents who were English-speaking, noninstitutionalized adults (18 years or older) living within the continental US. Such questions as age, place of birth, income and occupation, were asked in each interview. Other questions about attitudes on various social, political, and moral issues were rotated in different years. The unique opportunity this data set affords is an overview of the relationship between intelligence and fertility for a nationally representative sample of Americans whose major reproductive years fell between 1912 and 1982. Data were consolidated from the 4 surveys in which the vocabulary test was given (1974, 1976, 1978, and 1982). Respondents were divided into 15 birth cohorts of 5-year intervals ranging from before 1894 to 1964. Correlations between vocabulary scores and number of siblings are markedly negative across all 15 cohorts. Vocabulary sibling correlations are more negative in every cohort than vocabulary offspring correlations. Previous reports of a neutral or slightly eugenic relationship appear to be due to the nature of the samples used, in part because the cohorts chosen were atypical, and in part because they did not include nonwhites. Childless respondents averaged slightly higher scores than did those with 1 or more children, indicating that the automatic exclusion of the childless from sibling-IQ studies has not spuriously inflated negative correlations.     

Ventral scent marking in Meriones unguiculatus may contribute to thermoregulation

Three experiments were conducted with adult male Meriones unguiculatus in an attempt to demonstrate that ventral scent marking can act to transfer body heat to the object marked. Experiment 1 showed that surgical removal of the ventral gland pad reduced the amount of heat transferred by 50%, even though intact and glandless animals did not differ in the average frequency of scent marking. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the difference in heat transfer due to the presence or absence of the scent pad was not due to differential pressure applied to the substrate during marking. Experiment 3 showed that the pattern of ventral hair spread that occurs as an animal moves over an object is different between intact and glandless animals but that this difference does not account for the difference in heat transfer. It is suggested that heat transfer to the environment with ventral scent marking may increase thermoregulatory competence and also may function to volatilize sebum used in chemocommunication.     

Color discrimination on Mangaia

Bornstein’s hypothesis that there is a loss of color discrimination in tropical areas was not supported in earlier research in the Cook Islands. Using a more sensitive color vision test (the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test), a loss of color discrimination in the red-purple and blue-green regions of the spectrum was found. The lack of sex differences in this color discrimination loss supports a physiological rather than a genetic explanation of the observed decrement.     

Doctoral training in behavior analysis: Training generalized problem-solving skills

This essay provides guidelines for designing a doctoral program in behavior analysis. First, we propose a general accomplishment for all behavior analytic doctoral students: that they be able to solve problems concerning individual behavior within a range of environments. Second, in order to achieve this goal, we propose that students be trained in conceptual and experimental analysis of behavior, the application of behavioral principles and the administration of behavioral programs. This training should include class work, but it should emphasize the immersion of students in a variety of environments in which they are required to use behavior analytic strategies. Third, we provide an example of a hypothetical graduate program that involves the proposed training. Finally, an evaluation plan is suggested for determining whether a training program is in fact producing students who are generalized problem-solvers. At each step, we justify our point of view from a perspective that combines principles from behavior analysis and educational systems design.     

On the impact of human operant research: Asymmetrical patterns of cross-citation between human and nonhuman research

Reactions to published accounts of research with human subjects, as well as research with nonhuman subjects, were assessed by examining citations in several samples of empirical articles in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. A stable, asymmetrical pattern emerged: Nonhuman research was cited in both human and nonhuman articles, but human research was cited primarily in human articles. Thus, human operant research appears to have had little influence on the nonhuman research which constitutes the bulk of the experimental analysis of behavior. Interpretation of this lack of impact depends on the functions one envisions for human research, several of which are discussed.