Paleolithic art and cognition.

In this article, I have explored some of the possible relationships between the first appearance of representational art in human history and the early development of human cognition. I argue that most Upper Paleolithic depictions directly represent generalized mental images of their animal subjects rather than percepts or recollected scenes from life and that these images, in turn, are representations of concepts at the basic level of categorization. A common feature of Paleolithic art forms is the salience of parts, and the treatment of parts indicates analytic and synthetic (recombinative) abilities. There are some indications of superordinate categorization. An expansion of conceptual thinking seems to be implied as well as the beginnings of operational thought. The presence and practice of depiction may have had the effect of bringing concepts into consciousness and thus inducing reflection in at least a partially abstract mode.     

The importance of similarity in the marital relationship.

Concepts such as "agreement," "consensus," "understanding," and "shared meaning" are very familiar to clinicians. It is argued in this article that similarity in perceptions between spouses is a crucial dimension of the family system underlying these concepts. Findings are presented that support the idea that families vary along a dimension of similarity of perceptions, with more functional families characterized by high similarity between spouses' perceptions of their marriage and their family. In addition, the structure of this similarity was stable over 2 years and little change occurred in the mean level of similarity. Of three sets of predictor variables--psychological stress, marital cohesion, and structural variables--marital cohesion was the most powerful predictor of marital similarity. The importance of similarity of perceptions between family members in clinical work is discussed.     

Preschool children's preferences and recall for stereotyped versus nonstereotyped stories

This study assessed children's preferences and recall for stereotyped versus non-stereotyped stories. The sample consisted of 32 preschool children, ranging in age from 60 months to 75 months. Four stories with boys or girls as the main character, each portraying typically masculine or feminine activities, were read to each child. Both preference and recall measures were obtained immediately and one day later. The hypothesis was confirmed that the stories were differentially preferred by boys and girls as a function of stereotyping of story. Girls preferred the story with a female character and a feminine activity and least preferred the story with a male character and a masculine activity. For boys, the reverse was true. The second choice for both boys and girls involved preference for activity, not sex of main character. A cross-lagged panel revealed that preference at Time 1 was causally related to recall at Time 2. The children remembered the most at Time 2 about the stories they liked the least at Time 1.This article is based on the first author's master's thesis, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a M.S. degree at the University of Georgia. A summary of this research was presented at the Fourth Annual Southeastern Conference on the Family and the Child, Athens, Ga., 1979.     

Distractibility and hypersensitivity

The present paper reports on the development of a modified problem checklist for use in normal samples of elementary school children. The two factors, Hypersensitivity and Distractibility, replicated over male and female samples. Hypersensitivity showed a significant grade effect, with a decrease between the first and second grade for both boys and girls. In contrast, boys scored higher than girls on Distractibility and there were no grade differences. Convergent validitiy data from peer judgments, in-class activity level, physical fitness measures, standardized achievement scores, and a comparison with another teacher judgment are presented. In addition, three Behavioral Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1967) dimensions, Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy--Immaturity, were developed and their relationships to the independent measures, as well as to the new dimensions, are presented. The pattern of correlations of Distractibility was quite similar for boys and girls, with both being rated as Mean-Noisy by their peers. The findings for Hypersensitivity were somewhat weaker. Distractibility and Conduct Problem scores reflected a similar pattern of correlations with other variables; in a like manner, Hypersensitivity and Personality Problem scores reflected a similar pattern of correlations with other variables. Distractibility was related to an increased activity level and Hypersensitivity was related to a decreased activity level in young boys. The total number of behavior problems was related to a decrease in activity level for young girls. Older Distractible and Hypersensitive girls showed different patterns of activity level. It is proposed that problem behavior is more complex for older children and that Distractibility may be less influenced by the usual socialization process of school than is Hypersensitivity and may have some congenital antecedents.     

Early development of letter specialization in left fusiform is associated with better word reading and smaller fusiform face area

A functional region of left fusiform gyrus termed “the visual word form area” (VWFA) develops during reading acquisition to respond more strongly to printed words than to other visual stimuli. Here, we examined responses to letters among 5‐ and 6‐year‐old early kindergarten children (N = 48) with little or no school‐based reading instruction who varied in their reading ability. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure responses to individual letters, false fonts, and faces in left and right fusiform gyri. We then evaluated whether signal change and size (spatial extent) of letter‐sensitive cortex (greater activation for letters versus faces) and letter‐specific cortex (greater activation for letters versus false fonts) in these regions related to (a) standardized measures of word‐reading ability and (b) signal change and size of face‐sensitive cortex (fusiform face area or FFA; greater activation for faces versus letters). Greater letter specificity, but not letter sensitivity, in left fusiform gyrus correlated positively with word reading scores. Across children, in the left fusiform gyrus, greater size of letter‐sensitive cortex correlated with lesser size of FFA. These findings are the first to suggest that in beginning readers, development of letter responsivity in left fusiform cortex is associated with both better reading ability and also a reduction of the size of left FFA that may result in right‐hemisphere dominance for face perception.     

Commitment,ego-involvement,and resistance to attack

Subjects with initially extreme or moderate positions (based on a median split) recorded a consonant speech under public, private, or no commitment and later received a strong, mild, or no attack on their position. Extremes were more ego-involved in terms of wider latitudes of rejection, narrower latitudes of non-commitment, and greater resistance to attack, relative to moderates. Commitment had no effect for extremes, suggesting a ceiling effect on changes in the latitudes and resistance to attack for initially high levels of ego-involvement. For moderates, commitment resulted in narrower latitudes of noncommitment, wider latitudes of rejection (greater rejection of discrepant positions), and greater resistance to attack, suggesting that commitment may elevate ego-involvement with the issue. Commitment and ego-involvement may increase the salience of one's attitude position in later situations, thereby increasing the probability of attitudeconsistent behavior.     

Spatial memory following prenatal alcohol exposure: more than a material specific memory deficit.

Spatial memory deficits have been reported following prenatal alcohol exposure and animal studies have demonstrated hippocampal vulnerability to alcohol. This study examined spatial memory in children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol effects (FAE) and matched controls. Spatial memory was examined with location recall measures. Since visual perceptual skills and nonspecific memory impairment could impact spatial memory, tasks assessing perception and verbal memory were administered. Analyses revealed group differences on perceptual and verbal and spatial memory tasks. There was no significant difference in spatial memory once perceptual and verbal memory task performance was taken into account, suggesting that differences in spatial memory were not solely attributable to a material specific memory deficit.     

Inferior colliculus lesions impair eyeblink conditioning in rats

The neural plasticity necessary for acquisition and retention of eyeblink conditioning has been localized to the cerebellum. However, the sources of sensory input to the cerebellum that are necessary for establishing learning-related plasticity have not been identified completely. The inferior colliculus may be a source of sensory input to the cerebellum through its projection to the medial auditory thalamus. The medial auditory thalamus is necessary for eyeblink conditioning in rats and projects to the lateral pontine nuclei, which then project to the cerebellar nuclei and cortex. The current experiment examined the role of the inferior colliculus in auditory eyeblink conditioning. Rats were given bilateral or unilateral (contralateral to the conditioned eye) lesions of the inferior colliculus prior to 10 d of delay eyeblink conditioning with a tone CS. Rats with bilateral or unilateral lesions showed equivalently impaired acquisition. The extent of damage to the contralateral inferior colliculus correlated with several measures of conditioning. The findings indicate that the contralateral inferior colliculus provides auditory input to the cerebellum that is necessary for eyeblink conditioning.