Understanding the Determinants of Consumer Composting Behavior1

This study compared 3 models of waste management behavior: (a) a theory of reasoned action model, (b) an environmental belief-behavior model, and (c) an integrated waste management model which is based on the theory of planned behavior. The three models were compared using data from a sample of over 1,400 individual respondents who each completed a survey and a 2-week diary of their consumer composting activities. Overall, the results suggest that while the environmental beliefs-behavior model and the integrated waste management models both fit the data well, the integrated waste management model provided better predictive power and offers significant insight into the factors that influence composting behavior.     

Ethnocentrism and Authoritarianism in the Police: Challenging Stereotypes and Reconceptualizing Ingroup Identification1

Reports of community alienation and high ingroup identification in the police suggest that they are a particularly ethnocentric group. To empirically test this hypothesis, a sample of urban police officers was surveyed to ascertain their social identity pattern. Results indicated a high level of peer solidarity, community alienation differentiated on the basis of race and social class, and the perception that the source of alienation lies more with the community than with the officers themselves. A central finding was that those officers who identified most strongly with peers also tended to report lower levels of alienation from the community groups. This finding, in conjunction with unremarkable levels of authoritarianism and perceived stress in the sample, challenges the stereotype of the ethnocentric, authoritarian, and stressed out police officer. Results are placed within a novel framework for understanding the police solidarity phenomenon, and implications for police-community relations are discussed.     

Stimulus-independent thought depends on central executive resources

Stimulus-independent thoughts (SITs) are streams of thoughts and images unrelated to immediate sensory input. Four experiments examined the contribution of aspects of working memory to production of SITs. In Experiments 1 and 2, interventions that were targeted on, respectively, phonological and visuospatial components of working memory both interfered with production of SITs, but there was evidence that these tasks also made demands on central executive resources. Experiments 3 and 4 specifically examined the hypothesis that production of SITs and control of nonproceduralized tasks both depend on central executive resources, and so should show mutual interference. In Experiment 3, prior practice on pursuit rotor and memory tasks reduced the interference with SITs from concurrent task performance. In Experiment 4, randomness within a task involving random-number generation was less when SITs were being produced concurrently than it was when they were not. The results suggest that production of SITs depends on central executive resources.     

A classroom demonstration of self-monitoring, reactivity, and interobserver agreement

A brief classroom demonstration designed to introduce students to the concepts of self-monitoring, reactivity, and interobserver agreement is presented. The demonstration provides students with opportunities to monitor their own behavior, record the behavior of others, and calculate interobserver agreement percentages. Results of using the demonstration with students from two classes are presented.     

Book reviews

Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel C. Dennett, 1995. London, Penguin. 587 pp., hbk £25, ISBN: 0–713–99090–2

Verificationism: Its History and Prospects, C. J. Misak, 1995. London and New York, Routledge. xviii + 254 pp. ISBN: 0–415–12597–9(hbk); 0–415–12598–7(pbk)

Abductive Inference: Computation, Philosophy, Technology, John R. Josephson & Susan G. Josephson (Eds), 1994. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 306 pp.

Physics and Metaphysics. Theories of Space and Time, Jennifer Trusted, 1994. London, Routledge 210 pp.     

Are research subjects adequately protected? A review and discussion of studies conducted by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments

In light of information uncovered about human radiation experiments conducted during the Cold War, an important charge for the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments was to assess the current state of protections for human research subjects. This assessment was designed to enhance the Committee's ability to make informed recommendations for the improvement of future policies and practices for the protection of research subjects. The Committee's examination of current protections revealed great improvement over those from the past, yet some problems remain. Although the data collected by the Committee highlight specific areas in need of attention, the Committee's work should be viewed in part as the beginning of a series of ongoing assessments of the adequacy and effectiveness of the protections afforded to human subjects.     

Prepulse effects on magnitude estimation of startle-eliciting stimuli and startle responses

The present studies investigated the relationship between prepulse effects on the modification of the brainstem startle reflex and magnitude estimates of startle-eliciting stimuli. In Experiment 1, startle eyeblink responses were elicited in 24 students, half of whom were instructed to estimate the loudness of the startle stimulus (actual intensities of 80, 90, and 100 dB) and half of whom were instructed to estimate the magnitude of their eyeblink. When weak acoustic prepulses preceded the startle-eliciting stimulus, eyeblink amplitude was inhibited, and estimates of response magnitude decreased, but estimates of startle stimulus magnitude decreased only when 100-dB startle stimuli were presented. In Experiment 2, the same startle stimuli were preceded on some trials by a vibrotactile prepulse to the hand. In conditions in which startle amplitude was inhibited, startle stimulus magnitude estimates were not affected. This suggests that the effect of acoustic prepulses on 100-dB startle stimuli in Experiment 1 may have been due to loudness assimilation, an effect independent of the prepulse inhibition of startle responding.     

Behavior of neonates exposed in utero to methadone as assessed on the Brazelton scale

Twenty-nine infants exposed in utero to methadone and 37 comparison infants were examined on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale at early and late neonatal ages. All infants were full-term at birth, over 2500 g, and not yet circumcised at the early assessment. None of the methadone-exposed infants were breast-fed or were being treated pharmacologically for withdrawal. During the first week of life, methadone-exposed neonates differed from comparison ones in motoric behavior. Relative to comparison-group infants, they were jerkier and more tremulous, tense, active, and better able to put hand in mouth. By the end of the first month these differences diminished, although there was still a tendency for the methadone-exposed infants to have elevated body tonus. Neither perinatal complications, birth weight, nor sex of infant could explain the early neonatal differences between the methadone and comparison groups. Past the early stage of acute withdrawal, neonates exposed prenatally to methadone behave not unlike their nonexposed peers.