Effects of food deprivation on the performance of a two-turn task in a temporal circular maze

Ten hooded rats were trained to perform a two-turn task in a temporal circular maze. The effects of levels of food deprivation (2, 26, 50, 74, 98, 122 hr.) on performance were evaluated. It was found that the correct responses were not affected, but both running time and competing behaviour decreased significantly with increase in hours of food deprivation. In a second experiment 8 rats were trained in a similar way and after attaining a stable performance, were run for a further 4 sessions at 24 hr. deprivation, and then at 72 hr. deprivation. The results precluded the possibility that the results obtained in Experiment I were due to practice effects, and support the findings on the effects of deprivation.     

Young Women's Expected and Preferred Patterns of Employment and Child Care

Researchers have consistently found that evenfemale students who expressed a high value for bothcareer and family roles usually expected to compromisetheir careers to accommodate family responsibilities. However, with the steadily increasinginvolvement of women in careers, it is reasonable to askwhether students still share these expectations.Furthermore, the relationship between expectation andlater behavior merits investigation. This studyaddressed the two questions by determining thepreferences and expectations for career and family rolesof 54 white female students in senior high school, andagain four years later. On both occasions, themajority expected continuous employment. Over time,their values did not change markedly but a discrepancyemerged between their preferences and theirexpectations.     

CA1 Long-Term Potentiation Is Diminished but Present in Hippocampal Slices from α-CaMKII Mutant Mice

Previous work has shown that mice missing the α-isoform of calcium–calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (α-CaMKII) have a deficiency in CA1 hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP). Follow-up studies on subsequent generations of these mutant mice in a novel inbred background by our laboratories have shown that whereas a deficiency in CA1 LTP is still present in α-CaMKII mutant mice, it is different both quantitatively and qualitatively from the deficiency first described. Mice of a mixed 129SvOla/SvJ;BALB/c;C57Bl/6 background derived from brother/sister mating of the α-CaMKII mutant line through multiple generations (>10) were produced by use of in vitro fertilization. Although LTP at 60 min post-tetanus was clearly deficient in these (−/−) α-CaMKII mice (42.6%, n=33) compared with (+/+) α-CaMKII control animals (81.7%, n=17), α-CaMKII mutant mice did show a significant level of LTP. The amount of LTP observed in α-CaMKII mutants was normally distributed, blocked by APV (2.7%, n=8), and did not correlate with age. Although this supports a role for α-CaMKII in CA1 LTP, it also suggests that a form of α-CaMKII-independent LTP is present in mice that could be dependent on another kinase, such as the β-isoform of CaMKII. A significant difference in input/output curves was also observed between (−/−) α-CaMKII and (+/+) α-CaMKII animals, suggesting that differences in synaptic transmission may be contributing to the LTP deficit in mutant mice. However, tetani of increasing frequency (50, 100, and 200 Hz) did not reveal a higher threshold for potentiation in (−/−) α-CaMKII mice compared with (+/+) α-CaMKII controls.     

New perceptual objects that capture attention produce inhibition of return

New perceptual objects are known to capture attention. We show that such attentional capture is similar to that produced by peripheral luminance changes, as opposed to symbolic central cues, in that it produces inhibition of return. Two experiments employed equiluminant texture changes that attracted attention, producing an initial attentional benefit (in detection and discrimination) followed by inhibition of return. However, when the display was altered so that the texture change did not define a new object, no facilitation or inhibition was observed. The results bolster recent claims of the importance of new perceptual objects and extend our understanding of the effect of such objects on attention.     

Effects of picture and even-a-penny-will-help appeals on anonymous donations to charity

The present research explored the effectiveness of a picture and the phrase "even a penny will help" on contributions to charity. Two experiments were conducted, one in the laboratory and one in the field. In both experiments the manipulation of a pleasant picture and the phrase created four types of signs: (1) picture-no phrase, (2) phrase-no picture, (3) picture-phrase, and (4) no picture-no phrase. In the field experiment patrons of local business anonymously put money in a donation box that displayed one of the four signs. In the laboratory experiment, 129 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to view one of the four signs placed on a donation box for a local charity. Analyses for both studies showed that more money was donated when the boxes displayed pictures. The phrase "even a penny will help" had no significant effect on donations.     

What if I am the one? Measuring individual differences in emotional sensitivity to probability and emotional reactivity to possibility

Current theories of risk perception point to the powerful role of emotion and the neglect of probabilistic information in the face of risk, but these tendencies differ across individuals. We propose a method for measuring individuals' emotional sensitivity to probability to assess how feelings about probabilities, rather than the probabilities themselves, influence decisions. Participants gave affective ratings (worry or excitement) to 14 risky events, each with a specified probability ranging from 1 in 10 to 1 in 10,000,000. For each participant, we regressed these emotional responses against item probabilities, estimating a slope (the degree to which emotional responses change with probability) and an intercept (the emotional reaction to an event with a fixed probability). These two parameters were treated as individual difference scores and included in models predicting reactions to several health risk scenarios. Both emotional sensitivity to probability (slope) and emotional reactivity to possibility (intercept) significantly predicted responses to these scenarios, above and beyond the predictive power of other well‐established individual difference measures.     

Fission May Kill You (But Not for the Reasons You Thought)

If a person, A, branches into B and C, then it is widely held that B and C are not identical to one another. Many think that this is because B and C have contradictory properties at the same time. In this paper, I show why this explanation cannot be right. I argue that contradictory properties at times are not necessary for non‐identity between descendants, and that contradictory properties at times are not sufficient for non‐identity. I also argue that the standard explanation cannot be salvaged by a shift to personal time. Appeals to a lack of continuity, or to the absence of unity of consciousness likewise fail. Rather, B and C are non‐identical simply because A branched into B and C. Why branching should be problematic for personal identity remains a deep puzzle though I offer some tentative suggestions.