Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) knockout mice exhibit enhanced acquisition of an aversive, but not of an appetitive, Barnes maze task

It is well established that genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of the CB₁ receptor disrupts extinction learning in aversive conditioning tasks, but not in appetitive tasks. Consistent with these findings is that genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the primary catabolic enzyme of the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide (AEA), accelerates acquisition as well as extinction in aversive conditioning tasks. However, it is unknown whether FAAH blockade will affect acquisition in an appetitive conditioning task. Therefore, in the present study, we assessed FAAH (−/−) and (+/+) mice in appetitive and aversive Barnes maze conditioning procedures. Here we report that FAAH (−/−) mice displayed accelerated acquisition rates in an aversively-motivated, but not in the appetitively-motivated, Barnes maze task. The CB₁ receptor antagonist, rimonabant attenuated enhanced acquisition in the aversive procedure, consistent with the idea that elevated AEA levels mediate this apparent nootropic effect. These findings support the hypothesis that stimulation of the endocannabinoid system enhances learned behavior in aversive, but not appetitive, conditioning paradigms.     

Belief in a Just World and Attitudes Toward Immigrants and Foreign Workers: A Cultural Comparison Between Hawaii and Germany

University students in Hawaii ( N = 171) and in Germany ( N = 61) completed the 6-item Belief in a Just World Scale (BJWS; Dalbert, Montada, & Schmitt, 1987), an instrument developed in Germany to measure general just world belief. Results indicated that the BJWS is equally well suited to measure just world belief in an American sample. Subjects also completed a short instrument to assess justice judgments about the situation of a disadvantaged group (in Hawaii: Pacific Island immigrants; in Germany: foreign workers). For both samples, the disadvantaged group's situation was judged as more just by subjects with a greater belief in a just world and by those who were more socially similar to the disadvantaged group. Compared to students in Germany, those from Hawaii held stronger beliefs in a just world. Results were discussed in terms of generality and cultural specifity of the just world belief.     

Training phonological awareness with and without explicit attention to articulation

One hundred twenty-two second- to fifth-grade (7- to 11-year-old) children with reading difficulties studied phonological awareness with or without explicit attention to articulation and with or without manipulation of sounds. They all studied identical phonics and read stories on the computer with speech and decoding support for difficult words. Regular-instruction controls received regularly scheduled language-arts or reading activities. After 40 h of training, children in all three trained conditions outperformed controls on all tests except math. Conditions that manipulated sounds showed advantages over the condition without explicit practice manipulating sounds, but only on the two measures of phonological awareness. Articulatory awareness training yielded no unique benefits during this training period. Individual differences in response to treatment related to initial levels of phonological awareness, naming speed, IQ, and grade. The similar outcomes of the three conditions suggest that specific variations in good phonological training may be less important than once thought for most children with reading difficulties.     

Discrimination of second-formant-like frequency transitions

Discrimination of two types of simulated single-second-formant: frequency transitions was studied, transitions where members of a stimulus set shared the same onset frequency and transitions where stimuli of a set shared the same offset frequency. Experiment 1 employed an adaptive procedure to measure just-noticeable differences for transitions that increased in frequency. Experiment 2 obtained complete psychometric functions, based on a three-interval,forced choice procedure,for transitions that either increased or decreased in frequency. In both experiments, better discrimination occurred for longer stimuli, measured in hertz/millisecond, and for transitions that shared the same onset frequency. There were no differences, in Experiment 2, between discrimination of rising and falling transitions. Results are considered from several theoretical perspectives.     

Academics and entrepreneurs: Factors affecting the quality and utility of government-sponsored research

Evaluations of the factors contributing to the quality and utility of sponsored research have indicated that characteristics of the researchers and funding arrangements tend to explain differences among projects. This article examines the validity of assumptions about the effects of organizational environment, funding level, and project duration on the outcome of funded research. The results of this study suggest a need to reexamine ideas about the determinants of research quality and utility, and implications for managers of research studies are drawn from the findings.