How do giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) respond to varying properties of enrichments? A comparison of behavioral profiles among five enrichment items

This study investigated the responses of 14 giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to 5 enrichment items (3 manipulable objects, 2 feeding devices) that possess different properties affording varying behavioral opportunities. Enrichment items were quantitatively described by using 12 properties. Pandas displayed no preferences among the 5 enrichment treatments, all of which had similar positive effects on behavioral measures of well-being (behavioral diversity, stereotypy). However, each item promoted a distinct behavioral profile, readily mapped onto the enrichment's properties. These results suggest that it may be important to stimulate behavioral diversity but that specific behaviors or enrichment properties are not required. The unique behavioral topography seen with these enrichments also suggests that providing multiple enrichments with varying properties will maximize overall behavioral diversity.     

Parent and Adolescent Responses to PovertyRelated Stress: Tests of Mediated and Moderated Coping Models

We tested several models of the associations among economic strain, life stress, coping, involuntary stress responses, and psychological symptoms in a sample of 57 parent-adolescent dyads from rural, lower-income families. Economic strain and life stress predicted symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Stressor-symptom specificity was found for parents, such that economic strain uniquely predicted depression, whereas negative life events predicted hostility. Involuntary stress responses were associated with higher levels of symptoms for both parents and the adolescent children. Secondary control coping was associated with fewer symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Results support a mediational role of coping and responses to stress during adolescence, with a shift to moderational status in adulthood. Implications of these results are discussed with regard to developmental coping theory and potential interventions with at-risk families.     

A prospective examination of body image and smoking cessation in women

This study prospectively examined body image in a community sample of women smokers (N = 141, 89% European–American, M age = 39.5, M BMI = 25.5) participating in a 12-week randomized smoking cessation trial. Participants completed measures assessing subjective and perceptual aspects of body image. Regression analyses showed that subjective body image was predictive of smoking rate at the end of treatment. A MANCOVA revealed that perceptual body image (body size estimation) significantly predicted smoking cessation. Quitting smoking actually worsened body image, although these results were no longer significant after controlling for weight gain. Results support the theory that a negative body image may hamper cessation attempts. In addition, weight gain during smoking cessation may adversely impact body image and lead to an increased risk for relapse.     

Removing eyebrows impairs recognition of famous faces, or doesn't, depending on how the eyebrows are removed

Matching photos of famous people's faces with their names was as fast with photos that had eyebrows masked by adhesive plaster as with unretouched original photos. But matching was slower with photos that had eyebrows erased and replaced with adjacent skin texture and colour than with original photos. The conjecture that erasure impairs recognition because it alters a face's configuration was examined by repeating the experiment with the photos shown upside down, the rationale being that because configural information is difficult to encode from inverted faces the erasure effect should diminish. With inverted faces, matching was no different for original, eyebrows-masked, and eyebrows-erased photos. Eyebrows appear to be less important for face recognition as informative parts and features than as sources of information about a face's configuration.     

You’ll see what you mean: Students encode equations based on their knowledge of arithmetic

This study investigated the roles of problem structure and strategy use in problem encoding. Fourth-grade students solved and explained a set of typical addition problems (e.g., ) and mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., or ). Next, they completed an encoding task in which they reconstructed addition and equivalence problems after viewing each for 5 s. Equivalence problems of the form overlap with a perceptual pattern found in traditional arithmetic problems (i.e., answer blank in final position), and students’ encoding was poorest on problems of this type. Individual differences in encoding the equivalence problems were related to variations in strategy use. Some students solved blank-final equivalence problems using the standard arithmetic strategy of performing all given operations on all given numbers. These students made more errors in encoding problem structure, but fewer errors in encoding the numbers, than did students who solved the problems using correct or other incorrect strategies. Moreover, students who expressed many strategies for solving the blank-final equivalence problems made fewer errors in encoding problem structure, but more errors in encoding the numbers, than did students who expressed only a single strategy. Results highlight that encoding is intended to guide action and that prior experience can simultaneously facilitate and interfere with accurate encoding.     

Phonologically mediated priming of preexisting and new associations in young and older adults

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated phonologically mediated priming of preexisting and new associations in word retrieval. Young and older adults completed paired word stems with the first word that came to mind. Priming of preexisting associations occurred when word-stem pairs containing homophones (e.g., beech-s____) showed more completions with the target (e.g., sand) relative to unrelated pairs (e.g., batch-s____), with more priming for subordinate than for dominant homophones. Priming occurred for new associations independent of dominance such that word-stem pairs containing homophones (e.g., beech-l____ and beach-l____) were completed with the same word (e.g., laugh) more often than unrelated pairs (e.g., beech-l____ and batch-l____). No age differences in phonologically mediated priming were found for either type of association, suggesting age equivalence in the use of bottom-up phonological connections.     

Girls' and boys' developing interests in math and science: do parents matter?

Previous studies (for example, Bregman & Killen, 1999; Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998; Jacobs, 1991;Jacobs & Eccles, 2000) have demonstrated the important role that parents' attitudes play in shaping their children's later self-perceptions and achievement behaviors. Studies indicate that in the math and science arena, parents' perceptions of their children's abilities as well as their own values about math and science are related to their children's later self-perceptions and values for achieving in these domains. The previous work suggests that parents are conveying their attitudes and values about math to their children through their words and actions; however, little research has documented the ways in which parents' beliefs and specific behaviors might promote positive achievement attitudes and behaviors in their children. The goal of the study reported here was to document relations between parents' math and science--promotive behaviors and attitudes and their children's later activity choices, values, and achievement in these subjects.     

The relationship between metacognitive awareness of olfactory ability and age in people reporting chemosensory disturbances

When determining how much to rely on olfactory information, accurate estimates of olfactory ability are important. Nevertheless, metacognitive errors regarding olfactory ability are common in the normal population. Are older adults less accurate at estimating olfactory ability, or do they simply tend to make a particular type of estimation error? We examined data from 203 patients, all of whom self-rated olfactory ability and then were tested with the Odorant Confusion Matrix. The patients' self-reports did not match the objective measure of olfactory ability in 42% of the cases, thus demonstrating a high level of impairment in metacognitive knowledge. Neither the cause of loss nor the patient's age was related to the inability to accurately estimate olfactory loss, but both contributed to the type of metacognitive errors patients made. Younger patients tended to underestimate their olfactory ability, thus behaving similarly to patients with "blindsight" who demonstrate residual visual function in the absence of awareness. Older patients tended to overestimate their olfactory ability, thus making the metacognitive error of deficit unawareness that is observed in a number of other clinical syndromes. These findings indicate that older patients are not necessarily more likely to make errors in estimating their olfactory ability; rather, they are more prone to a particular type of metacognitive error than are younger patients.