Physical Attractiveness and Psychological Adjustment Among Substance Abuse Inpatients: A Longitudinal Study1

Relations between psychological adjustment and physical attractiveness were examined longitudinally in substance abuse inpatients, controlling for the effects of length of drug abuse, length of inpatient stay, age, and socioeconomic status. Measures of adjustment and attractiveness were obtained during the first week of admission and six weeks later (within two weeks of discharge). Regression analyses indicated that initial attractiveness did not predict later adjustment, and initial adjustment did not predict later attractiveness. Partial correlation analyses revealed a positive association between attractiveness and adjustment at the first time point, but not at the later time point. These results suggest that physical attractiveness exerts only a temporary effect on judgments of adjustment in an inpatient setting. Attractiveness may affect decisions made when screening patients at mental health facilities, but may not affect decisions made over the full course of inpatient treatment.     

Cognitive addition: strategy choice and speed-of-processing differences in young and elderly adults

Sixty young and 60 elderly adults completed a pencil-and-paper addition test and solved 40 computer-presented simple addition problems. Strategies and problem solution times were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis and were classified in accordance with the distributions of associations model of strategy choices. The elderly group showed a performance advantage on the ability measure and for the developmental maturity of the mix of problem-solving strategies, but the young group showed an advantage for overall solution times. A componential analysis of the overall solution times for memory retrieval trials, however, showed no reliable age difference for rate of retrieving addition facts from long-term memory but did suggest that the elderly adults might have been slower than the younger adults for rate of encoding digits and verbally producing an answer. Overall results are interpreted within the context of the strategy choice model.     

Trial Lawyers and Testosterone: Blue-Collar Talent in a White-Collar World1

Three studies considered whether trial lawyers, in their hormones and their language, might be regarded as blue-collar workers of the legal system. Study 1 found that lawyers as a group had testosterone levels similar to other white-collar workers and lower than blue-collar workers. Study 2 found that male and female trial lawyers had testosterone levels higher than nontrial lawyers of the same gender; the difference between lawyer types was approximately the same as the difference between blue- and white-collar workers. Study 3 found that trial lawyers used fewer cognitive mechanisms than did appellate lawyers in oral arguments before the Supreme Court. High levels of testosterone are associated with energy, dominance, persistence, combativeness, and focused attention, qualities that are useful both in trial lawyering and blue-collar work.     

Effects of massed practice and meprobamate on spasmodic torticollis: an experimental analysis

In recent years a variety of behavioral techniques have been used in the treatment of spasmodic torticollis including negative practice (Agras and Marshall, 1965). faradic aversion (Brierly, 1967). instructions and negative feedback (Bernhardt et al., 1972). and systematic desensitization (Meares. 1973). However, in most of the aforementioned reports the controlling effects of the particular technique over dependent measures (voluntary and/or involuntary evocations of the tic) have not been demonstrated experimentally (see Hersen and Eisler, 1973 for review). In the present single case experimental analysis (Barlow and Hersen. 1973; Hersen and Barlow, 1974). the effects of massed practice (see Yates. 1958) and meprobamate on a subject exhibiting spasmodic torticollis were systematically examined. Following Bernhardt. Hersen and Barlow (1972). treatment efficacy was evaluated by monitoring rate of involuntary torticollis movements per 10-min videotaped recording sessions.     

Concept attainment,generalization, and retention through observation and verbal coding

Observationally induced acquisition, generalization, and retention of a novel clustering concept were studied in second-graders. All children earned zero scores in baseline (which were maintained by the no-modeling controls), demonstrating initial ignorance of the concept. No extrinsic reinforcers were promised or dispensed. In separate groups, a model accompanied performance of correct responses with no verbalization, with provision of a weak verbal code, a strong verbal code, or the strong code plus a rule to guide correct response. Concept acquisition and generalization to new stimuli were found, and were partially retained at retesting after several weeks delay. Strength of immediate concept attainment and generalization were related to amount and saliency of information verbally coded by the model, but more complex results were obtained with the retention data.     

Sex differences in spatial cognition, computational fluency, and arithmetical reasoning

Alternative explanations for the male advantage in arithmetical reasoning, as measured by the ability to solve complex word problems, include a male advantage in spatial cognition and a male advantage in computational fluency. The current study was designed to test these competing hypotheses. To this end, 113 male and 123 female undergraduates were administered arithmetical computations and arithmetical reasoning tests, along with an IQ test and a test of spatial cognition. There was no sex difference on the IQ test, but males showed significantly higher mean scores on the arithmetical computations, arithmetical reasoning, and spatial cognition measures. A series of structural equation models indicated that individual differences in arithmetical reasoning were related to individual differences in IQ, spatial abilities, and computational fluency. Moreover, the results suggested that the male advantage in arithmetical reasoning is mediated by the male advantages in both computational fluency and spatial cognition.     

Evolution and proximate expression of human paternal investment

In more than 95% of mammalian species, males provide little direct investment in the well-being of their offspring. Humans are one notable exception to this pattern and, to date, the factors that contributed to the evolution and the proximate expression of human paternal care are unexplained (T. H. Clutton-Brock, 1989). The nature, extent, and influence of human paternal investment on the physical and social well-being of children are reviewed in light of the social and ecological factors that are associated with paternal investment in other species. On the basis of this review, discussion of the evolution and proximate expression of human paternal investment is provided.     

进化心理学：心理科学的未来发展

“Evolutionary psychology is an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind” (Cosmides & Tooby, 2001, p.1). The approach can be used to study and to provide broad theoretical framing of nearly all of the     

First-grade predictors of mathematical learning disability: A latent class trajectory analysis

Kindergarten to third grade mathematics achievement scores from a prospective study of mathematical development (n = 306) were subjected to latent growth trajectory analyses. The four corresponding classes included children with mathematical learning disability (MLD, 6% of sample), and low (LA, 50%), typically (TA, 39%) and high (HA, 5%) achieving children. The groups were administered a battery of intelligence (IQ), working memory, and mathematical-cognition measures in first grade. The children with MLD had general deficits in working memory and IQ and potentially more specific deficits on measures of number sense. The LA children did not have working memory or IQ deficits but showed moderate deficits on these number sense measures and for addition fact retrieval. The distinguishing features of the HA children were a strong visuospatial working memory, a strong number sense, and frequent use of memory-based processes to solve addition problems. Implications for the early identification of children at risk for poor mathematics achievement are considered.     

Octopuses (Octopus bimaculoides) and cuttlefishes (Sepia pharaonis, S. officinalis) can conditionally discriminate

In complex navigation using landmarks, an animal must discriminate between potential cues and show context (condition) sensitivity. Such conditional discrimination is considered a form of complex learning and has been associated primarily with vertebrates. We tested the hypothesis that octopuses and cuttlefish are capable of conditional discrimination. Subjects were trained in two maze configurations (the conditions) in which they were required to select one of two particular escape routes within each maze (the discrimination). Conditional discrimination could be demonstrated by selecting the correct escape route in each maze. Six of ten mud-flat octopuses (Octopus bimaculoides), 6 of 13 pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis), and one of four common cuttlefish (S. officinalis) demonstrated conditional discrimination by successfully solving both mazes. These experiments demonstrate that cephalopods are capable of conditional discrimination and extend the limits of invertebrate complex learning.