A developmental-genetic analysis of aggressive behavior in mice: I. Behavioral outcomes

In order to investigate the proposal that modifications in developmental rate may mediate differences in aggressive behavior, two series of selective breeding studies were completed. Stable lines of mice that differed in the frequency and latency of attacks were rapidly established in two series (by S1 in the first series and S3 or S4 in the second series). For evaluation of the developmental-genetic proposal, an analysis was made of the ontogeny of aggressive expression in male mice of the two series, with a detailed report provided of the S1 and S4 generations of the second breeding series. Comparisons between the results of a longitudinal design and the results of a new type of cross-sectional design (involving only siblings, or co-sibial) indicated (a) a reliable developmental course of attack expression, with a sharp rise in early maturity and a slow decline thereafter; (b) a convergence in later maturity of the behavior of lines selectively bred for high or low aggressive behavior, if the animals had been assigned to the longitudinal design; (c) a strong effect of repeated testing on attack latency and frequency, even though the dyadic tests were brief in duration and separated by long intervals. In addition, cross-generational comparisons suggested that the selective breeding differences came about primarily by changes in the behavior of the low aggressive lines, in that these animals failed to show in early maturity the sharp increases in attack occurrence that were observed in earlier generations. Certain implications of these findings for developmental and evolutionary concepts (e.g., neoteny, acceleration, heterochrony) are discussed.     

Assessment in Career Guidance: Toward Truly Developmental Counseling

The model of assessment in educational and vocational counseling is the “matching model.” It inhibits developmental counseling. A stage-theory model is proposed instead and is case illustrated.     

Assessment of cognitive control in psychopathic and normal prisoners

It has been suggested that psychopaths exhibit specific deficits in cognitive processes associated with frontal lobe functioning. There is also evidence which indicates that level of intelligence may influence expression of impulse control among psychopaths. The present study investigated these hypotheses by comparing groups of 44 psychopaths and 14 normal controls selected from a sample of incarcerated male felons using Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-defined criteria. Dependent variables included several measures of cognitive flexibility, perseveration, and impulsiveness. Compared to normal controls, psychopaths showed no greater tendencies to persist in incorrect responding, disregard cues suggesting the need to modify behaviors, or proceed impulsively in problem solving. Level of intelligence was found to be a moderator variable influencing performance for psychopaths and normal controls. Results suggest that deficits in cognitive functioning are not necessarily characteristic of psychopaths across situations.     

The Pittsburgh Initial Neuropsychological Testing System (PINTS): A neuropsychological screening battery for psychiatric patients

This paper presents a new neuropsychological screening battery for psychiatric patients. It takes 1.5 to 2 hr to administer and briefly assesses general level of performance, memory, language skills, attention, and spatial-constructional abilities. Scoring and profiling are computerized. Initial validation based on discriminant analysis of a group of brain-damaged and non-brain-damaged psychiatric patients yielded a diagnostic accuracy level of 84.51%. Cross-validation on a different population led to a substantial attrition of classificatory accuracy, but cross-validation based on a comparison between two samples drawn from a homogeneous population yielded substantially less attrition. It was concluded that while the battery discriminates accurately in a homogeneous population, it is necessary to develop separate norms for populations varying in level of impairment.     

Duplex perception with musical stimuli

Duplex perception, a phenomenon previously demonstrated for speech stimuli, is demonstrated here for musical stimuli. In the first experiment, major and minor chords are produced by dichotic fusion of two simultaneous piano notes presented to one ear (perfect fifth) with a “natural” or “flat” single note presented to the opposite ear. Musically trained subjects perceive simultaneously both the single tone and a fused (major or minor) chord. The chords are labeled more consistently than the single notes, even though the fused chords differ solely in terms of the contralateral notes. In a second experiment, using pure tones in place of piano notes, other musically trained subjects individually exhibited categorical perception for either the fused chord or the single tones, but never for both types of stimuli. The duplex phenomenon is discussed in terms of its implications for its specific component modes of perception.     

Glutamate as a transmitter in the CNS and its presumed significance in the pathogenesis of cerebral seizure forms--recent aspects

Glutamate is believed to be quantitatively the most outstanding of the excitatory transmitters in the CNS. Certain conformationally related analogues, e. g. kainate, N-methyl-D-aspartate, ibotenate, and homocysteate, act as glutamate agonists. The local or systemic administration of these "excitotoxic" compounds induces epileptiform activity pointing out new and deeper insights into the epileptic process. Additionally, the glutamate transmitter hypothesis is expected to give a chance of a causal comprehension for choreatic processes as well as for the mode of action of anticonvulsant and antispastic agents.     

AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF AFFECTIVE RESPONSE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE*

The purpose of this study was to determine whether an affective response affects the dimensionality of perceptual measures of organizational climate. To accomplish this 8,938 nonsupervisory employees of a large utility completed both an organizational climate questionnaire and a measure of job satisfaction. The raw scores on the climate instrument were factor analyzed. Then the job satisfaction scores were partialed out of the intercorrelations of the items making up the climate instrument and the residual scores were submitted to a factor analysis. The results suggest that partialing job satisfaction out of responses to an organizational climate questionnaire served to improve the dimensionality of the climate instrument.     

Written spelling deficit of Broca''s aphasics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the written spelling deficit manifested by Broca's aphasics. Four spelling tests were given to eight Broca's aphasic patients. Analysis of misspelling errors led the investigators to conclude that Broca's aphasics do not spell phonically, but rather adhere exclusively to a visual/orthographic strategy. Possible cognitive deficits underlying the spelling problem are identified. The written spelling deficit is related to other features of the syndrome of Broca's aphasia, and finally, speculations are offered concerning the neurological substrate of written spelling in Broca's aphasic patients.