RECONCEPTUALIZING ISSUES THAT AFFECT WOMEN'S SEXUAL DECISION-MAKING AND SEXUAL FUNCTIONING

This paper addresses five existing societal myths and their underlying faulty assumptions about women's sexuality. The following myths are examined: (a) women possess adequate sexual knowledge to understand their sexual needs, (b) they know how to communicate about sex, (c) they engage in sex because they want to do so, (d) if they are sexually active, they enjoy sex, and (e) they use their knowledge of sex to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. These myths need to be considered when conducting research and developing interventions designed to decrease women's sexual risk-taking. Research that assesses women's levels of factual sexual knowledge, comfort and skills discussing sexual information, and literacy is needed. The importance of examining ethnic, cultural, economic, religious, relationship factors, and psychological issues is discussed in order to encourage research relevant to women's sexual decision-making.     

Probing the limits of tool competence: Experiments with two non-tool-using species (Cercopithecus aethiops and Saguinus oedipus)

Non-human animals vary in their ability to make and use tools. The goal of the present study was to further explore what, if anything, differs between tool-users and non-tool-users, and whether these differences lie in the conceptual or motor domain. We tested two species that typically do not use tools-cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops)-on problems that mirrored those designed for prolific tool users such as chimpanzees. We trained subjects on a task in which they could choose one of two canes to obtain an out-of-reach food reward. After training, subjects received several variations on the original task, each designed to examine a specific conceptual aspect of the pulling problem previously studied in other tool-using species. Both species recognized that effective pulling tools must be made of rigid materials. Subsequent conditions revealed significant species differences, with vervets outperforming tamarins across many conditions. Vervets, but not tamarins, had some recognition of the relationship between a tool's orientation and the position of the food reward, the relationship between a tool's trajectory and the substance that it moves on, and that tools must be connected in order to work properly. These results provide further evidence that tool-use may derive from domain-general, rather than domain-specific cognitive capacities that evolved for tool use per se.     

Pragmatism and Developmentalism in Brazilian Educational Thought in the 1950s/1960

This article proposes to analyse some aspects of the appropriation of New School thinking in Brazil, particularly Deweyan pragmatism, in the 1950s and 1960s. The analysis is based on the assumption that the developmentalist ideology that punctuated the debate on the economic, political and social restructuring of the country in these two decades constituted fertile ground for the return and expansion of pragmatist thinking amongst Brazilian educators, articulating itself, sometimes in contradictory ways, with this ideology. The focus of the analysis will be on the writings of the group of educators which circulated around the figure of Anísio Teixeira, at the time director of the National Institute for Pedagogic Studies (INEP), an organ linked to the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), which set itself the task of producing research that would support public policy in the field of education, as well as constituting itself as a center for teacher education and the stimulus and development of innovative experiences in the public school system. The appropriation of Deweyan pragmatism, in this context, had a triple perspective: pragmatism as scientific method, implying a specific conception of science, particularly the social sciences, with emphasis on the application of scientific knowledge in the solution of practical problems; as a way of democratic life; and as a synonym for experimentalism, in the sphere of schooling.     

Stressor exposure produces long-term reductions in antigen-specific T and B cell responses

Exposure to an acute laboratory stressor at the time of keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) immunization results in a long-term suppression in circulating anti-KLH antibody. The mechanism for the stress-induced reduction in anti-KLH immunoglobulin (Ig) remains unknown. Given that the generation of anti-KLH antibody requires T cell help, we hypothesize that stress reduces the proliferation of anti-KLH T cells, thus leading to a reduction in anti-KLH antibody. The present studies examined the effect of tail shock stress (100, 1.6 mA, 5-s, 60 s ITI) on the KLH specific T cell response. Fischer F344 rats were immunized either intraperitoneally (i.p.) or subcutaneously (s.c.) at the base of the tail with 200 microg KLH, and exposed to inescapable tail shock (IS) or remained in their home cages (HCC). T cell proliferation after KLH restimulation, but not ConA, was markedly suppressed in IS animals in both the spleen after i.p. immunization and the draining lymph nodes after s.c. immunization. Other secondary lymphoid cells did not differ in their proliferative capacity. Anti-KLH IgG, IgG1 and IgG2a, but not anti-KLH IgM serum levels were significantly suppressed. These data support the conclusion that stress suppresses the generation of antigen specific T cells. In addition, the methods employed in the current study allow the isolation of the site of the acquired T cell immune response, making it possible to further elucidate the cellular mechanisms that contribute to stress-induced modulation of the antigen-specific acquired immune response.     

Chronic Noise Exposure and Physiological Response: A Prospective Study of Children Living under Environmental Stress

Chronic exposure to aircraft noise elevated psychophysiological stress (resting blood pressure and overnight epinephrine and nonepinephrine) and depressed quality-of-life indicators over a 2-year period among 9- to 11-year-old children. Data collected before and after the inauguration of a major new international airport in noise-impacted and comparison communities show that noise significantly elevates stress among children at ambient levels far below those necessary to produce hearing damage.     

Travel choice and the goal/process utility distinction

The concept of utility emanating from decision theory is employed in applied research aiming to understand and forecast the travel choices the general public make. Related to a distinction between telic and autotelic motivational theories, it is argued that in this area the prevalent definition of utility as goal-related evaluations of outcomes of activities (goal utility) needs to be complemented by the notion that utility is also experienced from performing the activities themselves (process utility). The validity of the distinction thus introduced between goal and process utility was demonstrated empirically in two studies of choices of travel destinations. In Experiment 1, one group of students rated the likelihood of patronizing fictitious grocery stores and another group rated the likelihood of impulse purchases in these stores. In addition to travel time, the rated likelihood of patronizing the stores was independently affected by the number of desirable goods available to purchase (goal utility) and the quality of personal services provided by staff (process utility). In contrast, the rated likelihood of impulse purchases was only affected by the latter. In Experiment 2, similar results were obtained for choices of fictitious grocery stores by a representative sample of car-owning households participating in a travel survey.     

Goal setting in acquisition of a volleyball skill late in motor learning

To examine the effects of different types of goal setting on motor skill acquisition during advanced stages of learning. 44 female volleyball players were tested in four experimental training groups with generic goals, specific long-term goals, specific short-term goals, and as a control group. This study's pretest, training, and retention test phases used performance of a volleyball dig/forearm pass oriented to a target. Analyses yielded no significant differences among groups, although performance increased from pre- to retention test.     

Object individuation using property/kind information in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Around 1 year of age, infants develop the ability to individuate objects in the absence of spatiotemporal information. Some have proposed that this capacity relies on the emergence of language and, in particular, that comprehending an object's label is required to individuate it as a particular kind. One approach to testing this hypothesis is to conduct experiments on pre-linguistic human infants. A second is to test non-linguistic animals. We followed the second approach, exploring whether semi-free-ranging rhesus macaques can individuate objects using property/kind information. To make the results most directly comparable, we adapted a reaching paradigm used to examine property/kind individuation in infants. Results from three experiments demonstrate that, like 12-month-old infants, adult rhesus macaques can use both spatiotemporal and property/kind information to individuate food objects. In a fourth experiment designed to examine which properties are used to individuate food objects, results revealed that rhesus use color, but not shape. These results, together with experiments involving different procedures, provide support for the conclusion that in the absence of linguistic abilities, some non-human primates spontaneously use property/kind information to individuate objects.     

Motor development during the first year: a comparative study.

This investigation of the motor development characteristics of Brazilian infants during the 1st year of postnatal life compared the findings with those of a widely used U.S. sample (N. Bayley, 1993). Analysis of the 12 monthly assessments indicated that Brazilian infants' scores increased with age, with the greatest increase occurring over the first 8 months. As a general comparison, the results are similar to the U.S. patterns of development. However, the Brazilian sample exhibited mean scores significantly lower than the U.S. sample's in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th months. More specific analyses indicated that the difference within these months was on tasks of sitting and grasping. Possible explanations for the differences focus on variations in child-rearing practices and the influence of biological maturation in early movement behaviors.