Schizophrenia and indeterminacy: The problem of validity

The paper attempts to account for the confusion over the validity of the concept of schizophrenia in terms of two closely related aspects of conceptual indeterminacy. Firstly, it is identified on the basis of a breakdown in intelligibility, but what constitutes such a breakdown is indeterminate. Secondly, the concept sits between the categories of natural disease or illness on the one hand, and character trait or moral failing or gift on the other. This entails an indeterminacy in attempting to define the role that physiological explanation could have. Light may be thrown on the concept by exploring a distinction between a life story in which the schizophrenic condition emerges as the conclusion of the story and a causal process in which the condition is the end result or final consequence.     

Ethanol-mediated taste aversions and state-dependency in preweanling (16-day-old) rats

Requirements for conditioning of an ethanol-mediated taste aversion in 16-day-old rat pups were examined. Experiment 1 demonstrated that preweanling rats are capable of acquiring, in two trials, an aversion to a 15% sucrose solution when followed by intragastric intubation of a 1.2 g/kg dose of 17% v/v ethanol, but not when followed by a 0.4 g/kg dose. Comparison was with control animals given sucrose followed by an equivalent volume isocaloric Half and Half. When the 0.4 g/kg dose of ethanol preceded sucrose presentation by 30 min (Experiment 2), the aversion was learned, suggesting that the effective delay between the sucrose and the critical consequences of the ethanol had been too long with the former procedure. Expression of the sucrose aversion required, however, the reinstatement of the context of intoxication--state-dependent retention. Finally, the results of Experiment 3B indicated that, in addition to the association between the sucrose and the aversive consequences of alcohol intoxication, the orosensory cues resulting from alcohol's direct elimination, via such processes as respiration and salivation, became associated with the appetitive properties of the sucrose. This was evidenced by a conditioned increase in preference for ethanol odor. Possible age-related differences in the ability to associate stimuli with alcohol's unconditioned consequences, and in state dependency are discussed.     

MOTHERS' ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION DURING PREGNANCY:

Abstract— Fourteen-year-old adolescents' behavior on a spatial-visual reasoning task was associated with self-report of their mothers' alcohol consumption during pregnancy, IS years earlier The task was arranged so that it was possible to evaluate the examinees' tendency to respond rapidly and less accurately, or slowly and more accurately The greater the mother's reported drinking, the faster and less accurately the adolescent responded The decrement in visual-spatial reasoning related to alcohol appears to be linked to a tendency toward impulsive responding     

Sensation seeking, augmenting-reducing, and absolute auditory threshold: a strength-of-the-nervous-system perspective

The following measures were obtained from 42 student volunteers: the General and the Disinhibition subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale (Form IV), the Reducer-Augmenter Scale, and the Absolute Auditory Threshold. General sensation seeking correlated significantly with the Reducer-Augmenter Scale, r(40) = .59, p less than .001, and the Absolute Auditory Threshold, r(40) = .45, p less than .005. Both results proved general across sex. These findings, that high-sensation seekers tend to be reducers and to lack sensitivity to weak stimulation, were interpreted as supporting strength-of-the-nervous-system theory more than the formulation of Zuckerman and his associates.