Pain, aggression, fantasy, and concepts of sadomasochism

Traumatized infants and children may exhibit syndromes of aggressive, pain-seeking, and self-destructive behavior resembling the so-called sadomasochism seen in adults. Three hypotheses are offered to account for the repetition of sadomasochistic phenomena in childhood and later character disorders: 1) pain and painful affects are sources of aggression; 2) the need to control aggression plays an important role in the development of psychic structure; 3) child abuse and trauma impair the ability to use fantasy for the mastery of impulses. Difficulty in expression and control of aggression are central issues in character disorders.     

The effect of flumazenil on acquisition, retention, and retrieval of spatial information.

The effect of flumazenil, a benzodiazepine-receptor antagonist, was evaluated in a spatial-reference memory procedure in a water maze. Flumazenil (1.0, 3.0, and 10.0 mg/kg, ip) did not modify acquisition of spatial information. Retention was similar between control and experimental rats 24 h after the training phase, as all groups showed bias to the target quadrant in a free swim trial. However, 10 days later, only flumazenil-injected rats (3.0 mg/kg) showed bias to the target quadrant. Flumazenil did not affect retrieval of spatial information in a group of well-trained rats. These results suggest that a benzodiazepine-receptor mediated endogenous mechanism is activated during learning of spatial tasks and that its blockade facilitates retention of spatial information.     

Sequencing of behaviors in Aplysia fasciata: integration of feeding, reproduction, and locomotion.

To begin studying the neural basis of higher-order decision-making in Aplysia fasciata, we examined individual bouts of behavior in various conditions of access to food and/or mates. We then determined rules governing transitions between bouts. The data indicate that a single intermediate condition, moving in place, may be centrally related to transitions between behaviors. In all conditions, over 85% of all transitions between behaviors were via moving in place. Moving in place tended to precede and follow other categories of activity (crawling, swimming, immobile), and feeding. Also, moving in place apparently represents a fixed proportion of all bouts of behavior. In each condition, moving in place represented approximately 40% of all bouts, while the number of bouts of other behaviors varied markedly. After a bout of moving in place there was a strong tendency for the animal to return to the behavior performed before moving in place. Additional preferred sequences of behavior were also seen. Courtship tended to precede mating, and crawling preceded swimming.     

Effects of conspecifics on feeding in Aplysia fasciata

The presence of other Aplysia in the environment increases the time spent feeding. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that a common arousal mechanism modulates feeding and reproductive behaviors. The arousal level is presumably increased by pheromones released by additional animals.     

Imagery and meaning,the cognitive science connection

Taking the integrated viewpoints of causal theory of reference, cognitive science and the notion of correspondence principles from physics, this paper addresses the problems of creativity, the nature of visual imagery and the manner in which science progresses.     

Attractiveness in young children: Sex-differentiated reactions of adults

Attractiveness ratings of 50 children aged 12–38 months were investigated in relation to adult socializing agents' behavior toward the children in their homes and play groups and their attitudes toward the children. Attractiveness scores were derived from 43 judges' ratings of facial photographs of the children. The same children were observed in play groups with female care givers; 40 of them were also observed in their homes with their parents. Play-group care givers rated the children for likability, tractability, and peer relations. Parents rated their attitudes toward giving routine care to their child. Attractiveness scores were not correlated with any adult attitude measures. Girls' attractiveness scores were positively correlated with their attempts to communicate in home and play group, and with mothers', fathers', and care givers' instructional responses, but negatively correlated with passive behavior in the home and with mothers' positive reactions. Boys' attractiveness scores were negatively correlated with passive behavior in the play group; no other significant correlations were found in the data for boys.     

Is there coherence among the cognitive components of gender acquisition?

This study examined the relationships among five measures that assess various cognitive components of the child's acquisition of gender. At around 2 years of age, children were given a task assessing their ability to accurately label as a boy or a girl some head-and-shoulders pictures of boys and girls. At 4 years of age, these children were given tasks measuring (1) the degree to which they found gender a salient parameter of categorization, (2) the amount of gender-related knowledge they could display (SERLI-SRD), (3) the degree to which their preferences were gender-typed (SERLI-SRP) and (4) the accuracy of their memory for gender-typed information. There was no consistent pattern of relationship among the children's scores on these five tools for measuring gender acquisition. Our findings suggest that gender is a multidimensional construct in children's development, and thus these results challenge the undimensional manner in which gender is repeatedly addressed in developmental theory and research.This research was funded in part by a federal biomedical research grant (No. 2507RR07080) awarded to the first author from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon, and by Grant No. RO1HD175751 from the National Institute of Child Development awarded to the third author.We wish to thank Margo Lane, Rachel Robertson, Jacqui Oucalt, Laura Baker, Dale Roberts, and the teachers, parents, and assistants of the Child Research Laboratory at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, for their invaluable contribution to this research.     

Acquisition of a relative class concept by an African gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus): discriminations based on relative size

We report that an African gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus), Alex, responds to stimuli on a relative basis. Previous laboratory studies with artificial stimuli (such as pure tones) suggest that birds make relational responses as a secondary strategy, only after they have acquired information about the absolute values of the stimuli. Alex, however, after learning to respond to a small set of exemplars on the basis of relative size, transferred this behavior to novel situations that did not provide specific information about the absolute values of the stimuli. He responded to vocal questions about which was the larger or smaller exemplar by vocally labeling its color or material, and he responded "none" if the exemplars did not differ in size. His overall accuracy was 78.7%.     

Social feeding reverses learned flavor aversions in spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).

Spotted hyenas are highly social carnivores with competitive feeding habits. It was hypothesized that social feeding might be capable of reversing an established flavor aversion. The dominant hyena of each of 4 captive social groups was given a novel food mixed with LiCl on Day 1; aversion to this food was demonstrated on Day 2. On Day 3, the dominant hyena and 3 or 4 members of her group were offered the food simultaneously. Three of the 4 dominant hyenas ate substantial quantities of the food during this group feeding, and all 4 hyenas ate the following day when offered the food alone. In contrast, when averted to a different novel food, the hyenas refused that food on 3 consecutive days. In this species social factors, such as those operating during group feeding, are sufficiently powerful to attenuate, immediately and dramatically, a strong LiCl-induced aversion.