Sensory control of maternal aggression in Rattus norvegicus

Female rats become aggressive toward adult conspecifics during lactation. This change in social affect is dependent on the presence of the offspring, because maternal aggression disappears when the pups are removed. It was found that a similar decline occurs when the litter is placed in a glass flask while remaining in the home cage. In contrast, maternal aggression persists following placement of the pups in a nylon mesh bag. The pups did not vocalize while being in the mesh bags, so it appears that olfactory cues from the offspring constitute a critical element in the maintenance of maternal aggression in the rat. It has been suggested that the odor not only of the pups but also of the intruder may contribute to eliciting aggressive behavior in lactating rodents. In line with this proposal, it was found that mother rats spend about one third of the time preceding the first attack sniffing the body of the intruder. In contrast to findings in mice, housing of the prospective intruder behind a double wire mesh partition in the lactating female's home cage failed to reduce her aggressiveness toward him. Rats, then, may require more intimate contact with an individual than do mice for the aggression-reducing effect of familiarization to be observed.     

Gender role and person-perception accuracy

The relationship between gender role and person-perception accuracy was examined in this research. Young adults who were masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated in their gender role interacted with a child, and with a peer, in role-playing situations that focused on parenting and marital behaviors. The accuracy with which subjects predicted the child's perception of them, and the accuracy with which they perceived the interpersonal traits of the peer, were assessed. The results indicated that androgynous subjects were clearly superior in predicting the child's perceptions of them, but were no better than the other gender-role groups in terms of peer perceptions. Rather, females were more accurate than males in perceptions of gender-related traits. Implications of this research for the relationship between gender role and parenting behavior, and directions for future research that examines person-perception accuracy, are discussed.     

Gender and time variations in medical students' value development

A classic study by Becker and Geer proposed that medical students underwent cycles of value development during medical school. Initially, high levels of humanitarianism declined then re-emerged as students neared graduation. Declines in humanitarianism were accompanied by increased interest in extrinsic rewards. This paper examines value development in medical school for 200 men and women recent graduates. Questionnaire data collected at three times were used to develop scales of students' orientations toward humanitarianism and extrinsic rewards. We find partial verification for value-change patterns described by Becker and Geer, but gender variations are stronger than time variations. Women showed stronger humanitarianism and stronger interest in work conditions at all times than did men. Interest in extrinsic rewards increased for students of both genders but never surpassed humanitarianism in relative importance.The authors appreciate aid in data analysis from Daniel Duross and Tod Sloan and comments on earlier drafts on the paper by Camille Wortman and Roland K. Hawkes. The research was supported partially by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the American Sociological Association Meeting in Detroit.     

Characteristics of androgynous,undifferentiated, masculine,and feminine middle-class women

The Bem Sex-Role Inventory was given to a random sample of 369 middle-class, 20–59-year-old women during the second year of a panel study. A median split on the masculine and feminine scores was used to define feminine (47%), androgynous (24%), masculine (10%), and undifferentiated (19%) women. The four groups were compared using analysis of variance and multiple regression techniques on a variety of demographic, attitudinal, time utilization, personality, and health characteristics to investigate the relationships among sex-typing, attitudes, and behavior. Significant demographic, time utilization, personality, and attitudinal differences were generally consistent with sex-typing, but differences in health were not found.Research for this paper was funded by a National Institute of Drug Abuse grant (DA 00847) to L. S. Fidell and J. E. Prather. Correspondence should be addressed to Linda S. Fidell, Department of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, California 91330.     

Unconditional-stimulus locus and interstimulus-interval shift in rabbit(Oryctolagus cuniculus) nictitating membrane conditioning

The nictitating membrane response of rabbits was conditioned at a 200 msec interstimulus interval (ISI) with either circumorbital (C) or paraorbital (P) shock as the unconditional-stimulus locus. After 3 acquisition days half of each group was shifted to a 700 msec interstimulus interval. Results indicated: (1) more rapid acquisition for Group C, (2) postshift response decrements for both groups, (3) more rapid and stable, as well as complete return to preshift performance levels for Group C. Results were discussed in terms of the response-shaping hypothesis and the contiguity-substitution hypothesis in explaining both conditional response emergence and subsequent modifications of CR topography.     

A signal-detection approach to subception: Concomitant verbal and finger-latency responses in metacontrast

Metacontrast conditions were created by the onset of flanking lights designed to mask the prior blink of an otherwise steady center light. For pseudometacontrast trials, the center light did not blink in advance of the flanking lights. Responses were an immediate finger-key release to the first detectable change in the visual display followed by a statement of whether the center light had been doused. A signal-detection analysis was used to avoid both threshold and response-criterion problems. Verbal report was, on the average, more sensitive than finger latency in detecting the masked blinks. However, there were large and consistent individual differences; reaction time was the more sensitive for a few subjects. Data analysis revealed that each response system showed detection with the other system “partialed out.” A model was offered in which verbal- and finger-response systems act in parallel, with uncorrelated variability between systems accounting for the subception effect.     

Let's Suspend Suspensions: Consequences and Alternatives

National data dispute the value of school suspensions. This article describes specific alternatives to suspension, with special attention devoted to the creation of “in-school” suspension programs. It outlines the philosophies, benefits, essential components, and major difficulties of in-school suspension centers. The author discusses truancy prevention, contingency contracting, and corporal punishment, and provides sources for obtaining detailed information on each disciplinary technique.     

Masculinity-femininity perceptions of job requirements and their relationship to job-sex stereotypes

Perceived sex appropriateness of the work situation is believed to constrain work opportunities, particularly for women. However, sex appropriateness may be defined either with respect to the entire job or with respect to the tasks which comprise the job. In this study sex appropriateness of job tasks was examined by obtaining subjective estimates of the masculinity-femininity of the job requirement dimensions defined by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Results indicate that interacting with things is perceived as masculine, interacting with people is perceived as feminine, and interacting with data is perceived as falling between the other two. There is less agreement on the masculinity-femininity of specific types of interactions with data, people, and things. Sex appropriateness of specific requirements was found to be only moderately associated with the DOT's assessment of the complexity of those requirements. Further, sex appropriateness of job requirements was not highly related to the job sextypes established by Shinar (Shinar, E. H. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1975, 7, 99–110) and Krefting et al. (Krefting, L. A., Berger, P. K., and Wallace, M. J. Jr. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 13, 181–191). This suggests that sex appropriateness of a job and sex appropriateness of the tasks which comprise the job are distinct, separate concepts.     

The influence of the form of the question on the eyewitness testimony of preschool children

Thirty-two preschool children were questioned after viewing four short films. The form of the question (affirmative-negative, definite-indefinite article, some-any quantifier) was systematically varied in a counterbalanced design. The form of the question did not significantly affect answers to questions about entities actually present in the films; however, it did have significant effects on answers concerning entities which were not in the film. Questions such as Did you see the..., Did you see any..., and Didn't you see some... were answered yes more frequently than other question types. Thus young children are aware of the expectation conveyed by certain linguistic forms, such asthe. The results are discussed in the light of current models of constructive memory as well as their implications for accurate questioning of children.An earlier version of this article was delivered to the Stanford Child Language Research Forum, Stanford University, April 1976.     

Acoustic cues and psychological processes in the perception of natural stop consonants

These studies examined the perceptual role of various components of naturally produced stop consonants (/b, d, g, p, t, k/) in CV syllables. In the first experiment, the context-sensitive voiced formant transitions were removed with a computer-splicing technique. Identification accuracy was 84% when the consonant was presented with the same vowel as had been used to produce it. Performance fell to 66% when the consonant was juxtaposed with a different vowel. The second experiment not only deleted the voiced formant transition, but also replaced the aspiration with silence. Here, identification accuracy dropped substantially, especially for voiceless stops, which had contained devoiced formant transitions in the replaced interval. The pattern of errors suggested that listeners try to extract the missing locus of the consonant from the vowel transition, and in the absence of a vowel transition, they try to extrapolate it from the second formant of the steady-state vowel.