Redundancy: a similar principle in independent adaptation techniques

The present study examined the similarities between four auditory adaptation techniques to determine whether the effects were correlated. The four adaptation techniques compared were: Simultaneous Dichotic Loudness Balance technique (SDLB; Hood, 1950), Magnitude Estimated Binaural technique (MEB; Botté, Canévet, & Scharf, 1982), Magnitude Estimated Monaural technique, (MEM; Weiler, Sandman, & Pederson, 1981), and the Monaural Reaction Time technique (RT; Davis & Weiler, 1976). Results did not show significant correlations between the four techniques, except (r = 0.39) between MEB and MEM procedures. This correlation was much less than the reliability of the measures would allow (r = 0.98 and r = 0.99, respectively). Thus, it appears that the different methods either produced different adaptation effects or measured different aspects of auditory adaptation. The normal ear apparently shows several forms of adaptation, which reduces the perceptual strength of a continuing stimulus, in favor of an intermittent, less redundant one.     

Study of neuromotor reaction times under the influence of thyrotropin-releasing hormone

Neuromotor reaction times (simple, choice, and decision) were measured when Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) was administered intravenously to nine healthy men in a double-blind study. Measurements were made of simple reaction time, choice reaction time, and decision time for each subject at various intervals over a 54-hr. period. Given the observed inherent interaction of the drug with the long time used (54 hr.), most analyses were conducted across separate time epochs. Injected subjects showed inhibition in the normal improvement of simple reaction time (which occurs with practice), and they reduced the time required to make a decision. Choice reaction time, however, remained unchanged across the drug-nondrug experimental conditions.     

Linking person and context in the daily stress process

In this study we combined daily diary data with interview data to investigate individual differences in the impact of stressful daily events on mood. Using a sample of 96 women in an urban community, we examined perceived neighborhood quality and major life events as possibly potentiating the effects of stressful daily events, and we viewed social supports as potentially buffering this daily process. Results confirmed that the presence of chronic ecologic stress (neighborhood perceptions) exacerbated the immediate effects of stressful daily events on mood and also increased the likelihood of enduring effects of daily stressors on next day's mood. Contrary to expectations, previous exposure to major life events decreased the impact of stressful daily events. The availability of social supports, although not buffering the impact of stressful daily events on mood, did mitigate the enduring effects of these events on next day's mood. This study also presents a method for analyzing daily time-series data, while correcting for potential problems of autocorrelated error terms. As such, this study represents a significant advance over previous analytic approaches to time-series data in the study of the stress process.     

Predicting child behavior problems in maritally violent families

Previous research indicates that children from violent marriages are more likely to suffer from conduct problems and/or anxiety disorders than children from nonviolent, satisfactory marriages. However, knowledge regarding specific factors present in violent marriages relating to child problems is limited. The present study examined the relationships involving interspousal aggression, parent-child aggression, and child behavior problems in a sample of 45 children from maritally violent families. Mothers indicated how often their children witnessed interspousal aggression and were victims of parent-child aggression. Mothers also rated their children's problem behaviors while children reported on their own depressive symptoms. The witnessing of interspousal aggression was highly associated with parental aggression directed toward children. Parent-child aggression related to attention problems, anxiety-withdrawl, motor excess, and conduct problems in children. However, the witnessing of interspousal aggression was not significantly related to child behavior problems. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions linking marital problems to child behavior by virtue of their association with parenting.This research was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid of Research awarded to the first author by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, and NIMH Grant No. MH35340 awarded to the third author. The authors wish to thank Martha Wray and her staff at VIBS for their help throughout this project.     

Sexual experience and preference for males or females in the female rat

The influence of sexual experience on preference behavior was investigated in adult female rats. In the first experiment, preference behavior for sexually active males versus estrous females was investigated in female rats who were experienced with mounting behavior. Preference of these mount experienced females was compared to preference of females who were naive in this respect. Mount experience with estrous females induced a female-directed preference in ovariectomized female rats, irrespective of whether the females were treated with OIL or with testosterone-propionate (500 micrograms TP, injected once 48 h prior to testing). Sexually naive, OIL-treated females did not show a preference for males or females, but TP induced a preference for a male. Individual differences in mount frequency were not correlated with preference behavior. In the second experiment, the influence of experience with feminine sexual responses on preference behavior was investigated. OIL-treated and TP-treated females oriented equally toward males and females when they had been given the opportunity to copulate with males prior to the preference tests. The results strongly suggest that prior sexual experience is an important determinant of preference behavior. The female's behavior during sexual interactions was, however, not predictive of later preference.