Low doses of interleukin-1beta improve the leverpress avoidance performance of Sprague-Dawley rats

Recent research has indicated that the pro-inflammatory cytokines, particularly interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), can affect learning and memory. We injected male Sprague-Dawley rats with IL-1beta (1.0, 3.0, or 6.0 microg/kg, i.p.) or saline vehicle, 24h before a single 4-h session of leverpress escape/avoidance conditioning. No effect of IL-1beta at any dose was observed in the number of escape responses across the 4-h session. However, subjects treated with the two lower doses (1.0 and 3.0 microg/kg) of IL-1beta performed more avoidance responses during the final hour of the 4-h session than the other two groups. Subjects treated with the highest dose of IL-1beta (6.0 microg/kg) did not differ from controls. Results are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms behind the IL-1beta-induced enhancement of learning, as well as the observed dose-response relationship.     

Planning ahead: goal-directed problem solving by 2-year-olds.

On tasks that require overcoming an obstacle along an existing path to a physically present goal, infants and very young children evince planning. In each of 3 experiments, the authors tested 21- and 27-month-olds' ability to construct a path to a mentally re-presented goal. Across experiments, the authors varied the number and type of cues to the solution provided. After exposure to the goal-state configuration of problems, both age groups showed evidence of planning (Experiment 1). Demonstration of the initial step in the solution path in Experiment 2 was not as effective as exposure to the goal state in Experiment 1. Even with specification of a greater proportion of the goal path, goal-state configuration information was particularly effective in facilitating performance (Experiment 3). The results suggest productive generation of solutions to novel problems by young children; planning is facilitated by goal-state configuration information.     

Is Bradburn's measure of psychological well-being fair to introverts? A study among 16- to 18-yr.-old students

The relationship between dimensions of personality characteristics and the perceived rearing attitude of parents in the Japanese population were investigated. The scores on a measure of perceived parental attitude of 153 normal female students, measured on the Parker Parental Bonding Instrument, were correlated with personality features from the Japanese version of the Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory. Self-directedness, especially the subclasses of Responsibility vs Blaming and Congruent Second Nature vs Incongruent Habits, was significantly related to high scores on Maternal Care and low scores on Maternal Overprotection. The subscale of Self-acceptance vs Self-striving correlated only with low scores on Maternal Overprotection. Paternal Care was only related to the total scale scores on Self-directedness. Results suggest that some personality traits may be related to the perceived attitudes of parents, especially of the mother, during childhood.     

Developing a federal policy on research misconduct

Since April 1996, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), in collaboration with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President, has been leading the development of a government-wide Federal policy for research misconduct. The author is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and a participant in this process. This paper places the NSTC/OSTP effort in historical context, outlines the process by which the policy will be finalized, and discusses the principal issues raised during the policy development process.     

Personality and Attraction to the Charismatic Movement: a study among Anglican clergy

A sample of 172 male clergy within the Church of England completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with an index of charismatic experience. The data demonstrate that charismatic experience is positively associated with extroversion, but related to neither neuroticism nor psychoticism.     

Evidence for abstract, schematic knowledge of three spatial diagram representations

Spatial diagram representations such as hierarchies, matrices, and networks are important tools for thinking. Our data suggest that college students possess abstract schemas for these representations that include at least rudimentary information about their applicability conditions. In Experiment 1, subjects were better able to select the appropriate spatial diagram representation for a problem when cued to use general category information in memory about those representations than when cued to use specific example problems given during the experiment. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the superior performance in the general category condition was not based on a comparison of the test problems with examples in memory. The results of Experiment 3 showed that the superior performance was not due to learning that occurred during the experiment or to transfer appropriate processing. The General Discussion section considers the nature of students' representation schemas and the question of why college students have only rudimentary schemas for common and widely applicable diagrammatic representations.     

Chomsky On The ‘Ordinary Language’ View Of Language

There is a common-sense view of language, which is held by Wittgenstein, Strawson Dummett, Searle, Putnam, Lewis, Wiggins, and others. According to this view a language consists of conventions, it is rule-governed, rules are conventionalised, a language is learnt, there are general learning mechanisms in the brain, and so on. I shall call this view the ‘ordinary language’ view of language. Chomsky’s attitude towards this view of language has been rather negative, and his rejection of it is a major motivation for the development of his own theory. In this paper I shall review Chomsky’s long-standing criticisms. I shall show that (1)Chomsky’s argument does not constitute a dismissal of the ‘ordinarylanguage’ view of language, (2) Chomsky’s conclusions about language do not follow from his argument, and (3) the ‘ordinary language’ view actually points to a promising way for us to understand the true nature of language and mind. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sex and cross-cultural differences in the estimated multi-faceted intelligence quotient score for self, parents and siblings

Over four hundred young people from Britain, Hawaii and Singapore estimated their own, their parents and their siblings IQ score on each of Gardner (1983) fundamental human intelligences: verbal (linguistic), logical (mathematical), spatial, musical, body-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. They also answered six simple questions concerning intelligence tests. There were both cultural and sex differences in the estimation of overall own intelligence score. Males gave higher scores than females (109 vs 107) while the British gave the highest score (109) compared with the Singaporeans (106) and Hawaiians (104). Factor analysis of the seven dimensions yielded either a two or three factor solution, the latter being verbal (verbal, inter-intrapersonal), mathematical (mathematical and spatial), and musical (musical, body-kinesthetic). There were consistent sex differences in the estimations of the three factors for self, but not of parents, and only marginally of sisters. Males more than females, and the British more than the other groups, were more likely to believe in sex and race difference in intelligence.