TEACHING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN COURSES IN ANOTHER DISCIPLINE

A survey of course titles in African American Studies departments and programs was conducted to examine the course offerings on the psychology of women, the psychology of African American women, and other areas of psychology as well as courses on gender from other disciplines. A total of 82 programs or departments of African American Studies and 182 courses were listed. The course discipline was stated in the majority of courses, with psychology having the most courses. Only a small percentage of the psychology courses listed gender in addition to race in the title. Of those courses listed in psychology, the majority were in social, developmental, or clinical psychology. The disciplines of English, sociology, history, and political science had listings of courses with both gender and race titles. This small survey indicates that the psychology of women has not had much influence on the curriculum of African American Studies. Possible reasons for this are discussed, as are solutions to this problem.     

Studies on retrograde and anterograde amnesia of olfactory memory after denervation of the hippocampus by entorhinal cortex lesions

The effect of hippocampal denervation on olfactory memory in rats was tested after interrupting the lateral olfactory tract projections at the level of the entorhinal cortex. When lesioned animals were trained to learn new odors, they showed no evidence of retention 3 h after acquisition. These results confirm earlier data on rapid forgetting in rats after hippocampal deafferentation and are in parallel to the anterograde amnesia typically found in humans with hippocampal damage. On the other hand, preoperatively learned information was minimally impaired after hippocampal deafferentation even if it was acquired within less than 1 h before the lesion. This finding differs from reports on humans as well as monkeys with hippocampal damage where memories formed during a critical time span of months or even years before the lesion are found to be impaired. This may suggest that the consolidation process in humans and rodents has different time scales or that the roles of the human and the rat hippocampal structure in memory formation are somewhat different.     

Spectral discontinuities and the vowel length effect

Perception of voicing for stop consonants in consonant-vowel syllables can be affected by the duration of the following vowel so that longer vowels lead to more “voiced” responses. On the basis of several experiments, Green, Stevens, and Kuhl (1994) concluded that continuity of fundamental frequency (f0), but not continuity of formant structure, determined the effective length of the following vowel. In an extension of those efforts, we found here that both effects were critically dependent on particular f 0s and formant values. First, discontinuity inf0 does not necessarily preclude the vowel length effect because the effect maintains whenf0 changes from 200 to 100 Hz, and 200-Hz partials extend continuously through test syllables. Second, spectral discontinuity does preclude the vowel length effect when formant changes result in a spectral peak shifting to another harmonic. The results indicate that the effectiveness of stimulus changes for sustaining or diminishing the vowel length effect depends critically on particulars of spectral composition.     

Suicidal behavior among youth with severe emotional disturbance

The purpose of this study was to replicate an investigation of risk behaviors associated with suicidal behavior in public high school students, in a population of high school age youth with severe emotional disturbance (SED). Subjects for the study were clients of the South Carolina Continuum of Care (COC) (N=83). Information on suicidal thoughts and acts, aggressive behaviors, substance use and physical recklessness was gathered using a modified version of the self-report National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Four percent of the youth reported seriously considering suicide, 8% reported planning how they would attempt suicide, 10% reported actually attempting suicide at least once, and 6% reported attempts requiring medical treatment Of the 13 youth who reported attempting suicide, four (31%) did not report planning an attempt. All suicidal behaviors except thoughts occurred more in girls than boys with SED. Alcohol and illicit drug use were associated with suicidal behavior, with larger odds ratios for attempts than for thoughts/plans. Youth with SED who use alcohol and illicit substances are particularly at risk of suicidal behavior. A high index of suspicion is appropriate when evaluating suicidal risk in girls with SED, especially in the presence of known alcohol or substance use.Continuum of Care for Emotionally Disturbed Children Division, S. C. Office of the Governor.     

Reaction time measures of feature saliency in schematic faces

Two separate paradigms utilizing measurements of reaction time were employed to study facial feature saliency in schematic line drawn faces. In the first paradigm the speed of response to the omission of different facial components was measured, and in the second, the speed of response to feature substitution was measured. In both paradigms the facial features were presented in a random temporal sequence in order to minimise preferential scanning strategies. The two separate paradigms reflected the feature hierarchy most commonly found in the literature, ie the outline and eyes are more salient than the nose and mouth in terms of both speed of processing and error rate. In a third study the feature substitution paradigm was used to investigate the effects of feature saliency on the perception of emotional faces. The results suggest a change in the eyes/mouth hierarchy so that the mouth becomes the most salient feature in the surprised, happy, and sad target faces. This reverse in hierarchy, however, was not evident with the angry target face. These results are discussed in terms of changes in the focus of 'attention' and/or changes in 'processing efficiency'.     

Polarizing effects of intergroup comparison

Compared the effects of intergroup and within-group comparison on attitudes differentiating two well-defined student groups. Social work students (n = 48) expressed attitudes either before or after estimating ingroup or outgroup (commerce students) norms. Subjects adopted more extreme attitudes following outgroup comparison, but were unaffected by comparison within the group.     

Development of the auditory orientation response in the albino rat (Rattus norvegicus)

The development of head orientation to auditory stimulation was examined in rat pups at Postnatal Days 8, 11, 14, 17, and 20. The animals were tested in a quiet environment with single bursts of 65 dB (SPL) broad-band noise. A reflexive head turn toward the sound was first seen on Postnatal Day 14 and subsequently on Days 17 and 20. This result demonstrates that the onset of directional auditory responses occurred between Day 11 and Day 14. The role of binaural cues in early sound orientation was examined in 17-day-old pups with monaural ligation of the external meatus. These animals were unable to localize a sound source and consistently turned toward the side of the unligated ear regardless of the position of the stimulus. Thus binaural cues were shown to be important for head orientation to sound in early development. In a separate study, head orientation to high and low frequency tone pips was examined. Directional responses were first seen on Day 12 for a 16-kHz tone and Day 14 for a 2-kHz tone. These results indicate an earlier onset for orientation to high frequency sounds in the rat.     

Book reviews

Postman, L. And Keppel, G. (Eds.). Norms of Word Association. New York and London: Academic Press. 1970. Pp. vi+ 467. £12.00.

Wolstenholme, G. E. W. and Knight, J. (Eds.). Taste and Smell in Vertebrates. London: J. & A. Churchill. 1970. Pp. x + 402. £4.00.

Tobias, J. V. (Ed.). Foundations of Modern Auditory Theory, Vol. I. New York and London: Academic Press. 1970. Pp. xv + 466. £10.50.

Hexmelin, B. and O'connor, N. Psychological Experiments with Autistic Children. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1970. Pp. 142. £3.00.

Black, P. (Ed.). Physiological Correlates of Emotion. New York and London: Academic Press. 1970. Pp. xvi + 309. £6.30.

Baird, J. C. Psychophysical Analysis of Visual Space. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1970. Pp. viii + 321. £4.50.

Flores D'Arcais, G. B. and Levelt, W J. M. (Eds.). Advances in Psycholinguistics. Amsterdam and London: North Holland. 1970. Pp. x + 454. £8.40.

Dodwell, P. C. Visual Pattern Recognition. Holt, Rhinehart & Wilson. 1970. Pp. 276. $9.00.

Gladwin, Thomas. East is a Big Bird. Oxford: University Press. 1970. Pp. 241. £4.75.

GULICR, W. L. Hearing: Physiology and Phychophysics. New York: Oxford University Press. 1971. Pp. viii+257. £4.50.

Plomp, R. and Smoorenburg, G. F. (Eds.). Frequency Analysis and Periodicity Detection in Hearing. Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff. 1970. Pp. xvi+482.

Jaffe, Joseph and Feldstein, Stanley. Rhythms of Dialogue. New York: Academic Press. 1970. Pp. 156. £3.95