The Role of Body Weight,Waist-to-Hip Ratio,and Breast Size in Judgments of Female Attractiveness

It was demonstrated by Singh and Young (1995)that morphological features such as overall body fatdistribution measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) andbreast size, influence judgments of femaleattractiveness, age, and desirability for relationships. Thepresent study was a replication and extension of thatresearch, using both male and female participants. Theresults supported the general findings of the original study, and as predicted, the effect of breastsize on attractiveness judgments depended on overallbody fat and WHR. The significance of interactionswithin the different morphological features whichdetermine female attractiveness were noted. Overall,there were surprisingly few sex differences. Results arediscussed in terms of the socio-biological theoriescurrently popular in the literature.     

Identifying Competencies with Behavioral-Event Interviews

Coding competencies from behavioral-event interviews according to the principles of a new approach to assessment (McClelland, 1973) produces assessments that are reliable and validly associated with success as an executive. These assessments are not influenced by length of protocol or by performance in the preceding year. Bias is not a problem if both the interviewer and the coder are blind to executive success. In contrast to a traditional psychometric approach based on regression analysis, an algorithm based on competency scores predicted managerial success and improved performance across a number of samples. This algorithm identified potential outstanding performers as individuals whose scores reached designated tipping points within clusters of substitutable competencies. Experts' judgments of competencies needed or shown by executives in various positions agreed only moderately with competencies shown to be important by the data from behavioral-event interviews.     

The need for Power,sympathetic activation,and illness

This paper provides a brief summary of a number of recent research reports indicating thatn Power, if it is inhibited or stressed, is associated with high blood pressure and with the frequency and severity of infectious diseases. Other motive/stress or inhibition combinations failed to show these relationships. Blockedn Power apparently leads to chronic sympathetic activation, which, over time, results in high blood pressure and which increases epinephrine output that interferes with lymphocyte function, weakening the body's immune defenses against infectious diseases. On the other hand,n Power that is expressed successfully and rewarded may lead to better adaptation.     

Intra-habenular injection of 6-hydroxydopamine produces impaired acquisition of DRL operant behavior

The anatomical connections of the habenula complex indicate it provides a relay between limbic forebrain and midbrain. Somewhat paradoxically, consequences of nonspecific lesion of the habenula are ambiguous with little change in basic response evident within simple behavioral paradigms. However, the potential functional importance for this relay has more recently been indicated by the demonstration of deficits in the ability of lesioned animals to alter behavior appropriate to both internal and external stimuli in more demanding behavioral tasks. Doubts concerning the importance of the habenula remain because of the large number of descending fibers of passage through the habenula. To provide more substantive evidence, 6-hydroxydopamine was injected into the habenula of rats to provide more limited lesion of catecholaminergic terminals. Animals were subsequently trained on an operant DRL 20-s schedule for which deficits have been reported following nonspecific lesion of the habenula. Lesioned animals showed a tendency to overrespond and were significantly less efficient on the schedule with decreased number of reinforcements received relative to controls. While the neurotoxic lesion procedure used does not differentiate noradrenergic and dopaminergic damage, the importance of intact catecholaminergic systems within the habenula for effective DRL acquisition is consistent with the suggested importance of the habenula for feedback regulation of dopamine within the ventral tegmental area through ascending dopamine fibers to the habenula.     

Advertisement–programme congruence in memory of sexual fragrance advertisements

The current study explored the effect of sexual content in advertisements and the programme–advertisement congruence on the memory of sexual and nonsexual advertisements. Seventy participants (41 females and 29 males) were randomly allocated to one of four conditions. They viewed either The Bachelorette (sexual programme) or I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (nonsexual programme) with sexual or nonsexual fragrance advertisements placed within the programme. The order of the advertisements was counterbalanced across participants to control for order effects. Free and cued recall of the advertisements were assessed. As predicted, there was a main effect of advertisement type, with the sexual advertisements better recalled than the nonsexual advertisements. Contrary to our prediction, the sexual content of the programme did not have an effect on advertisement recall. There was an interaction between the advertisement type and programme type; sexual advertisements were remembered better when embedded within a sexual programme. Limitations of this study are considered.     

Connectionist models of development

How have connectionist models informed the study of development? This paper considers three contributions from specific models. First, connectionist models have proven useful for exploring nonlinear dynamics and emergent properties, and their role in nonlinear developmental trajectories, critical periods and developmental disorders. Second, connectionist models have informed the study of the representations that lead to behavioral dissociations. Third, connectionist models have provided insight into neural mechanisms, and why different brain regions are specialized for different functions. Connectionist and dynamic systems approaches to development have differed, with connectionist approaches focused on learning processes and representations in cognitive tasks, and dynamic systems approaches focused on mathematical characterizations of physical elements of the system and their interactions with the environment. The two approaches also share much in common, such as their emphasis on continuous, nonlinear processes and their broad application to a range of behaviors.