Categorical shape and color coding by pigeons

Categorical coding is the tendency to respond similarly to discriminated stimuli. Past research indicates that pigeons can categorize colors according to at least three spectral regions. Two present experiments assessed the categorical coding of shapes and the existence of a higher order color category (all colors). Pigeons were trained on two independent tasks (matching-to-sample, and oddity-from-sample). One task involved red and a plus sign, the other a circle and green. On test trials one of the two comparison stimuli from one task was replaced by one of the stimuli from the other task. Differential performance based on which of the two stimuli from the other task was introduced suggested categorical coding rules. In Experiment 1 evidence for the categorical coding of sample shapes was found. Categorical color coding was also found; however, it was the comparison stimuli rather than the samples that were categorically coded. Experiment 2 replicated the categorical shape sample effect and ruled out the possibility that the particular colors used were responsible for the categorical coding of comparison stimuli. Overall, the results indicate that pigeons can develop categorical rules involving shapes and colors and that the color categories can be hierarchical.     

Functional activity in the brain of socially deprivated rats produced by an active avoidance test after razobazam (Hoe 175) treatment: a 2-deoxyglucose study

The 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiographic method was used to map metabolic activity in the brain of socially deprivated rats during an active avoidance test. The method investigated the effects of razobazam during this learning test. The animals were socially deprivated for 5 weeks. On the first experimental day the animals were trained to avoid a footshock by jumping onto a platform. During training and testing, the total number of avoidance responses was scored. On the second day during one 2-DG session of 40 min, razobazam increased the avoidance score by 18% as compared to controls. Autoradiographs were analyzed using a two-dimensional densitometric method. The analysis of the brain structures showed a 22% reduction of optical density in the nucleus habenularis lateralis, a 25% increase in the caudal part of the nucleus accumbens, and a 13% increase in the frontal cortex in rats treated with razobazam, but no change in the amygdala. These results provide a preliminary concept to explain how the new compound razobazam produced a better learning performance in socially deprivated rats.     

Initial environment influences amphetamine-induced stereotypy: subsequently environment change has little effect

Saline-treated and amphetamine-treated (7 mg/kg, ip, immediate) male rats from a Sprague-Dawley substrain were observed in two test environments designed to elicit different investigative responses in normal rats. Snout contact with the substrate was generated by placing the rat in a small enclosed cage. Absence of snout contact was induced by placement of the rat on a square elevated platform. Detailed ethological records were kept of locomotion, rearing, sitting, grooming, gnawing, and sleeping throughout the 90-min session. Amphetamine-treated rats incorporated environmentally contingent bodily postures into their forms of stereotyped behavior. The postures were characteristic of those evinced initially by the saline-treated rats in the same test environment. The control rats showed appropriate changes in their investigative behavior when the apparatus was changed at 10 and at 30 min postinjection. The amphetamine-treated rats, however, were completely unresponsive to such changes at 30 min and only partially so at 10 min postinjection. It was concluded that there is a temporal gradient of decreasing readiness to modify repetitive behavior after a single, large dose of amphetamine.     

An evaluation of the family adaptability and cohesion evaluation scales and the circumplex model

Two basic assumptions of the Circumplex Model of family systems were evaluated: (1) Healthy families evidence balanced degrees of cohesion and adaptability, whereas problem families evidence extreme degrees, and (2) families with balanced degrees of cohesion and adaptability possess more positive communication skills than families with extreme degrees. Subjects were 58 mother-son dyads from father-absent families. In 29 of the families the adolescent was a juvenile offender, while in the remaining families there was no history of arrest or psychiatric referral. The dyads completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales (FACES) and an unrevealed differences interaction task. FACES was highly proficient at differentiating delinquent from nondelinquent families. Moreover, in families with balanced degrees of cohesion and adaptability, the mothers' communication was significantly more supportive and explicit, and the dyads evidenced significantly greater warmth and affection than dyads with extreme degrees.This research was supported by funding to the Department of Psychology at Memphis State University granted through the Centers of Excellence Program of the State of Tennessee. We thank the staff of the Memphis-Metro Youth Diversion Project for their consideration and assistance.     

Sustained attention in children at risk for schizophrenia: Findings with two visual continuous performance tests in a new sample

In partial replication of an earlier study, 35 children at high risk for schizophrenia, 25 children at high risk for affective disorder, and 53 normal control children from a new sample of 7- to 12-year-old subjects were tested with two new visual continuous performance tests. Response levels and intrasubject variability were analyzed separately. Multivariate analyses on factor scores derived from response levels indicate that "groups" is a significant predictor for a factor reflecting discriminability (or sensitivity) for the more difficult of these tests but not for the less difficult one, and that high risk for schizophrenia is associated with lower performance. Factor scores and multiple regression analyses were used to dichotomize subjects as to whether or not they are low performance outliers. A significantly larger proportion of subjects from the high risk for schizophrenia group than from the control groups were low performance outliers. Among subjects that developed psychopathology in adolescence, subjects at high risk for schizophrenia were more likely to have contributed low performance outliers early during childhood.     

Impact of a preventive social problem solving intervention on children's coping with middle-school stressors

Children receiving 1 year or 1/2 year of a preventive social problem solving program in elementary school were compared with each other and with a no-treatment group upon entry into middle school. One year of training was significantly related to reductions in the severity of a variety of middle-school stressors. Most importantly, a clear mediating role for social problem solving (SPS) skills was found. Children lacking in SPS skills were more likely to experience intense stressors; however, possessing the skills was not necessarily predictive of adjustment to stressors. The results are discussed in terms of the implications of this asymmetry and the strong support given to the value of social problem solving as a preventive intervention for children.     

Assessing depression in community samples of children using self-report inventories: Ethical considerations

Although the methodological problems associated with the use of children's self-report depression inventories have previously been discussed in detail, the ethical problems related to the use of these instruments have been largely ignored. The primary purpose of this survey study was to determine how childhood depression researchers have prepared for and responded to children from community (i.e., nonclinic) samples whose nonanonymous scores on self-report depression inventories have indicated that they might be severely depressed or suicidal. Several recommendations, based upon (a) the results of this survey study, (b) the existing literature relevant to the ethical responsibilities of investigators who conduct research with children, and (c) our own experiences with these instruments and populations, are made to assist researchers in their attempts to use these inventories in an ethical manner.The authors would like to thank those childhood depression researchers who were kind enough to return completed surveys.     

The formation of prejudicial judgements as an interaction between heuristic processes and social identity of the judge: The case of traffic accident participation

This study empirically tested the assumption that in prejudical judgements cognitive processes are mediated by group anchoring. This assumption was supported in the case of estimations about participation in traffic accidents by different groups.     

Effects of treatments and their outcomes on peer perceptions of a hyperactive child

In an exploration of the social impacts of treatments for hyperactivity, two age groups (kindergarteners and first-graders vs. fourth- and fifth-graders) heard about a hyperactive child whose problem was treated either by an internal and controllable means (effort) or by an external and uncontrollable means (medication) and whose behavior either did or did not improve. The attributions and affective responses of both age groups were influenced by both the nature and the effectiveness of treatment, and there was only weak support for the hypothesis that younger children are more influenced by treatment outcome than older children are. However, older children, conforming to attribution theory predictions, held target children more accountabe for the success or failure of their own efforts than for the outcomes of medication, particularly valuing the child whose own efforts succeeded. By contrast, young children judged the child whose efforts failed as more worthy of pride and more likable than the child whose medication failed. Implications for peer acceptance of hyperactive children over the childhood years are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, March 1985. Thanks are extended to the staff and students of the Model Laboratory School.     

Health as a value: methodological and theoretical considerations

The concept of value placed on health is very important in several different theoretical approaches to the study of health behavior. In practice, however, health value is generally assumed to be universally high rather than being directly measured. If this assumption is incorrect, then theories that include health value have rarely been adequately tested. This paper presents a short 4-item Likert scale designed to measure the value placed on health. Norms from the utilization of this scale in five different samples are presented. Health value is found to increase with age among girls, but the increase apparently stops by late adolescence, before full adult levels of health value are achieved. Middle-aged women place a higher value on health than do middle-aged men, although no comparable sex difference appears in a sample of undergraduates. Consistent with theoretical predictions, both health locus of control beliefs and beliefs in the efficacy of certain preventive health behaviors correlate more highly with the performance of those same behaviors 5 to 9 months later among respondents who place a high value of health relative to those who do not value health so highly. However, this interaction is found only when it can be safely assumed that health is the primary value underlying the behavior. The importance of considering a variety of values in addition to health as possible motivators of preventive health behavior is stressed.