The development of sex differences in young children's activities at home: The effect of the social context

Randomly scheduled spot observations of 83 zero to six-year-old American middle-class children were used to investigate factors affecting the development of sex differences in young children's activities in and near their home. Sex and age differences in children's typical play and nonplay activities and in the people with whom they did activities were examined. The results showed that there were fewer sex differences in children's activities, activity partners, and general social settings than expected. Girls spent more time engaged in housework and school-related activities than boys, while boys spent more time in social gross motor play with other children and in self-care activities than girls. Children spent a surprisingly large amount of their time with members of their immediate family — particularly their mother and one other sibling. Boys and girls did not differ, however, in the time they were in settings or doing activities with their father, with their mother, or with same-or mixed-sex child groups.This research was supported by an award to the author from the Wisconsin Alumnae Research Foundation at the University of Wisconsin — Madison. The author would also like to acknowledge the research and editorial assistance of Daniel J. Walsh. In addition, Aletha Huston, Beatrice B. Whiting, and Gary G. Price provided valuable advice on this and earlier versions of this paper.     

Of beasties and butterflies: Evidence for the stability and domain-specificity of individual differences in categorization

Previous research has failed to demonstrate unambiguously the relative stability across time and consistency across tasks of individual differences in categorization, or categorization breadth The present study of categorizing behavior in college students assesses breadth at each of four points in time over a six-week period Results are consistent with an interpretation of breadth as a highly stable individual difference variable, but one that is constrained by the nature of the stimulus sets employed High stability coefficients were observed for each of two redundant tasks In contrast, cross-task consistency indices were generally low Personality correlates of breadth were similarly weak and inconsistent Several variables are suggested that may attenuate the generality of categorization breadth The existence of multiple styles of categorization is discussed     

Dating age and stage as correlates of adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior

Dating experiences, especially the type or stage of dating, have consistently been found to be related to premarital sexual behavior. Findings regarding the age at 1st date and sexual behavior have been less consistent. This paper examined the age at which dating began and the type of dating relationship as correlates of premarital sexual attitudes and behavior among mid-teen adolescents. The analyses were based on a sample of high school students (n=836), most of whom were between the ages of 15 and 18 when the surveys were conducted. Early dating, especially early steady dating, was related to permissive attitudes and to premarital sexual experience among both males and females. The relationship between early dating and intercourse experience was particulary strong among Mormons, a religious group which has institutionalized age 16 as the legitimate age to begin dating.     

Microfeedback: Biofeedback Monitoring Using Home Computers - a Pilot Study

The increasing focus on information technology has led to widespread growth in the use of microcomputer systems in counselling settings. While many applications depend on expensive and sophisticated equipment, the humble home computer has many facilities to offer. High resolution graphics and versatile control interfacing, designed for games use, enable easy adaptation to tasks such as visual presentation of biofeedback with the facility for data retention and analysis. A pilot system based on the Commodore 64 is described.     

Selective association learning in the rat: Generality of response system

Three experiments with rats examined the possibility that the cue-consequence specificity effect is not mediated by the conditioning of selective associations, but instead reflects the selective behavioral expression of taste-illness and exteroceptive-shock conditioning. Experiment 1 showed that the selective aversion performance could be obtained despite the use of locomotor withdrawal from the CS as the index of conditioning. Experiment 2 compared the response profiles of animals conditioned with footshock or illness to presentation of a saccharin or noise CS. During the test with the noise CS, lithium-conditioned subjects did not differ from control rats on any of several behavioral categories, but shock-conditioned rats showed high levels of freezing in response to the noise cue. During the saccharin test, lithium-treated rats engaged in behaviors such as chin wiping, head shaking, and gaping; these behaviors were rarely or never seen in shock-conditioned rats or controls, whose behavioral profiles during the saccharin test were almost identical. Experiment 3, using a blocking design, found that a noise-lithium pairing did not attenuate subsequent conditioning of a saline-lithium association, nor did a saccharin-shock pairing interfere with conditioning of a noise-shock association. These results confirm that the cue-consequence specificity effect is mediated by the selective associability of taste with illness and of exteroceptive cues with footshock.     

Evaluating public posting,goal setting,and rewards to increase physical activity in children

In this study, we evaluated several components of a pedometer-based intervention with children in an elementary-school-aged classroom, across 24-h sessions. The intervention included combinations of self-monitoring, goal setting, feedback, and reinforcement, and data were analyzed at both the classroom level (i.e., average daily step totals) and the individual level (i.e., daily step totals), across phases. The highest levels of physical activity were observed when components of self-monitoring, public posting, goal setting, and feedback with reward were applied concurrently.     

RELATIONS BETWEEN PREDICTION- AND ESTIMATION-RESPONSES IN CUE-PROBABILITY LEARNING AND TRANSFER

B auer M arianne Relations between prediction- and estimation-responses in cue-probability learning and transfer. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972, 13 , 198–207. —Comparisons were made between prediction- and estimation-responses, preceded by training with different types of responding and when task probabilities were shifted. The main results were: ( a ) differential effects of procedure of learning and shift in task structure on predictions and estimates support the hypothesis of two different processes, ( b ) estimates as indicators of probability learning reflect traits assumed to characterize the perception process, viz. sensitivity to shifts in probabilities, and robustness against influence from procedure of learning, and ( c ) prediction-responses were affected in the direction of more extreme responses by simultaneous estimation, which result strengthens the supposition that probability estimates are insufficient as indicators of the complete perception process in a prediction task.