Attitudes toward animal research among psychology students in Spain.

Animal research plays a central role in psychology, and its use, prevalence and quality depends on the attitudes of students who enter psychology in Spain. Attitudes among psychology students about the use of laboratory animals are not known, so the aim of this work was to analyze the attitudes of Spanish psychology students toward animal research. An attitude questionnaire of 15 items was given to 661 undergraduate students of the School of Psychology at the University of Málaga, Spain. Several results were found: (a) 65.7% of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed with animal research. General support for animal research was significantly higher by men than by women. (b) Support for animal research was higher for senior students, suggesting that the psychology curriculum or self-selection to remain in the program might influence students' attitudes. (c) Attitudes toward animal research were similar among students independent of the type of animal being used for research in biological or psychological studies. (d) 58% considered that laboratory animals never or almost never are inappropriately handled. (c) 55.6% indicated that research in psychology on animals could be generalized to humans. Overall, these results suggest that among Spanish psychology students animals research is considered important for the advancement of the science. Likewise, a majority of students displayed positive attitudes toward animal research.     

Exploring the Complexities of Familism and Acculturation: Central Constructs for People of Mexican Origin

We examined the relationships between three dimensions of familism: importance of family, family support, and family conflict with acculturation, assessed orthogonally (Mexican and American cultural contributions assessed independently), and the relative contribution these factors make to psychological adjustment among 248 (124 women, 124 men) adults of Mexican origin. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, positive associations were found between importance of family and the biculturalism of Mexican and American cultural identity; family support and Mexican cultural identity; but no associations between family conflict and level of acculturation. Psychological well-being was positively associated with Mexican cultural identity and family support, whereas psychological distress was associated with greater family conflict and lower family support. The greater relative contribution of Mexican cultural identity to familism and well-being, and the importance of assessing acculturation orthogonally are discussed. This research was supported in part by a Minority Supplement to National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH47193 to the Research Center on the Psychobiology of Ethnicity, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and by a research award from Pitzer College to Norma Rodriguez.     

A mismatch of meaning and intentionality between analyst and analysand

In this paper, I will consider a type of misunderstanding in the analytical dialogue and the possible unconscious motivations underlying this. I will also make reference to the patient's use of the analyst's words for the purpose of narcissistic enactment and will explore the extent of the analyst's involvement in this. The subjects of misunderstanding and narcissistic enactment will be dealt with in relation to a patient's way of processing certain interpretations at the beginning of analysis and the concealment of her way of processing the analyst's words. By contributing dreams and other significant material in the sessions, the patient gradually revealed her phantasies which enabled the analyst to uncover the possible factors which determined her particular attribution of meaning to the analyst's words and her retention of information about how she had initially construed his interpretations.     

A Logical Theory of Localization

A central problem in applying logical knowledge representation formalisms to traditional robotics is that the treatment of belief change is categorical in the former, while probabilistic in the latter. A typical example is the fundamental capability of localization where a robot uses its noisy sensors to situate itself in a dynamic world. Domain designers are then left with the rather unfortunate task of abstracting probabilistic sensors in terms of categorical ones, or more drastically, completely abandoning the inner workings of sensors to black-box probabilistic tools and then interpreting their outputs in an abstract way. Building on a first-principles approach by Bacchus, Halpern and Levesque, and a recent continuous extension to it by Belle and Levesque, we provide an axiomatization that shows how localization can be realized wrt a basic action theory, thereby demonstrating how such capabilities can be enabled in a single logical framework. We then show how the framework can also enable localization for multiple agents, where an agent can appeal to the sensing already performed by another agent and the knowledge of their relative positions to localize itself.     

Nature and role of traditional forms of counselling in Zambia: a case of Lusaka province

The aim of this study was to determine the nature and role of traditional forms of counselling and the scope of common problems presented to traditional counsellors in Lusaka province. It used a qualitative research methodology and deployed a holistic single-case study design with multiple embedded units of analysis. The sample consisted of 80 adult participants and one focus group interview with 8 discussants; and it was selected based on the purposive sampling method and snowball technique. Data collection was elicited through structured individual interviews and semi-structured group interview. The study revealed that traditional forms of counselling are rooted in traditional systems of knowledge and sociocultural values, customs, and practices; and they are essentially community-based and multicultural in nature.     

Opposite actions of dopamine on aversive and appetitive memories in the crab

The understanding of how the reinforcement is represented in the central nervous system during memory formation is a current issue in neurobiology. Several studies in insects provide evidence of the instructive role of biogenic amines during the learning and memory process. In insects it was widely accepted that dopamine (DA) mediates aversive reinforcements. However, the idea of DA being exclusively involved in aversive memory has been challenged in recent studies. Here, we study the involvement of DA during aversive and appetitive memories in the crab Chasmagnathus. We found that DA-receptor antagonists impair aversive memory consolidation, in agreement with previous reports in insects, while administration of DA facilitates memory formation after a weak training protocol. In contrast, DA treatment during appetitive training was found to impair formation of long-term appetitive memory. In addition, as a first step in elucidating the neuroanatomical correlates of DA action on memory, we mapped dopaminergic neurons in the central nervous system of the crab. Results of the current study, together with those obtained in a previous work about the role of octopamine (OA), suggest that both amines (DA and OA) play a dual action in memory processes. On the one hand, DA and OA mediate the aversive and the appetitive signals, respectively, throughout training, while on the other hand, they interfere with the formation of memory of the opposite sign (DA in appetitive and OA in aversive). Our results support a new understanding about the way appetitive and aversive stimuli are processed during memory formation to ensure adaptive behavior.     

On the Ethics of Facial Transplantation Research

Transplantation continues to push the frontiers of medicine into domains that summon forth troublesome ethical questions. Looming on the frontier today is human facial transplantation. We develop criteria that, we maintain, must be satisfied in order to ethically undertake this as-yet-untried transplant procedure. We draw on the criteria advanced by Dr. Francis Moore in the late 1980s for introducing innovative procedures in transplant surgery. In addition to these we also insist that human face transplantation must meet all the ethical requirements usually applied to health care research. We summarize the achievements of transplant surgery to date, focusing in particular on the safety and efficacy of immunosuppressive medications. We also emphasize the importance of risk/benefit assessments that take into account the physical, aesthetic, psychological, and social dimensions of facial disfiguration, reconstruction, and transplantation. Finally, we maintain that the time has come to move facial transplantation research into the clinical phase.     

Community responses to a suicidal crisis: implications for suicide prevention

We conducted a cross‐sectional, random‐digit‐dial survey to evaluate public responses to a hypothetical question: “If someone you knew was suicidal, what would you do first?” Younger people were more likely to call a suicide hotline, and less likely to go to an emergency room (ER) or call 911; immigrants (in the U.S. <15 years) were more likely to call 911, and less likely to call a suicide hotline; African Americans were more likely to go to the ER and call 911; Hispanics were more likely to call 911 but less likely to call a suicide hotline. These results suggest that public messages about hotlines and emergency options for suicidal patients need to be tailored to relevant population characteristics including age, education, ethnicity, and language preferences.     

Extinction memory in the crab Chasmagnathus: recovery protocols and effects of multi-trial extinction training

A decline in the frequency or intensity of a conditioned behavior following the withdrawal of the reinforcement is called experimental extinction. However, the experimental manipulation necessary to trigger memory reconsolidation or extinction is to expose the animal to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of reinforcement. Recovery protocols were used to reveal which of these two processes was developed. By using the crab contextual memory model (a visual danger stimulus associated with the training context), we investigated the dynamics of extinction memory in Chasmagnathus. Here, we reveal the presence of three recovery protocols that restore the original memory: the old memory comes back 4 days after the extinction training, or when a weak training is administered later, or once the VDS is presented in a novel context 24 h after the extinction session. Another objective was to evaluate whether the administration of multi-trial extinction training could trigger an extinction memory in Chasmagnathus. The results evince that the extinction memory appears only when the total re-exposure time is around 90 min independently of the number of trials employed to accumulate it. Thus, it is feasible that the mechanisms described for the case of the extinction memory acquired through a single training trial are valid for multi-trial extinction protocols. Finally, these results are in agreement with those reports obtained with models phylogenetically far apart from the crab. Behind this attempt is the idea that in the domain of studies on memory, some principles of behavior organization and basic mechanisms have universal validity.