Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis: Cephalopoda) hunting behavior and associative learning

Because most learning studies in cephalopods have been performed on octopods, it remains unclear whether such abilities are specific to octopus, or whether they correlate with having a larger and more centrally organized brain. To investigate associative learning in a different cephalopod, six sexually mature cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) participated in a counterbalanced, within-subjects, appetitive, classical conditioning procedure. Two plastic spheres (conditioned stimuli, CSs), differing in brightness, were presented sequentially. Presentation of the CS+ was followed 5 s later by a live feeder fish (unconditioned stimulus, US). Cuttlefish began to attack the CS+ with the same type of food-acquisition seizures used to capture the feeder fish. After seven blocks of training (42 presentations of each CS) the difference in seizure probability between CS+ and CS– trials more than doubled; and was found to be significantly higher in late versus early blocks. These results indicate that cuttlefish exhibit autoshaping under some conditions. The possible ecological significance of this type of learning is briefly discussed.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

Media exposure, mood, and body image dissatisfaction: an experimental test of person versus product priming

In the current study, 138 college females were randomly assigned to four media exposure conditions based on the presence or absence of an attractive person (fashion model) and the presence or absence of an appearance-related product. Outcome measures consisted of visual analogue ratings of multiple body image and mood variables. The results revealed a significant main effect for person, indicating that the presence of a model increased levels of body dissatisfaction and negative mood. No product effect emerged and there was no significant interaction between person and product. These findings suggest that the appearance priming effect of media exposure on body dissatisfaction and mood is specific to a person stimulus, with no additional effect promoted by a generic appearance-relevant stimulus.     

Cognitive and Value Correlates of Health-Related Behavior in Brazilian Middle-class Women

The prevalence of several health-related behaviors was studied in a random sample of 294 Brazilian middle-class women between 25 and 45 years of age. The interrelationships among these behaviors confirmed previous findings in North America and provided the basis for the computation of a composite index of health behavior. The sociodemographic, cognitive, and value correlates of scores on the Health Behavior Index (HBI) were investigated using regression analysis. Women who behave in favor of good health were mothers of more children, had a definition of health as higher level functioning and self-realization, believed that care outweighs chance as a determinant of health, and valued inner harmony as opposed to comfort and independence. These findings verified most aspects of Pender's health promotion model (Pender, Walker, Sechrist, & Stromberg, 1990).     

MMPI Profiles of Liver and Heart Transplant Candidates With and Without Significant Histories of Heavy Alcohol Use

This study compared the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of liver and heart transplant candidates with (n = 104) and without (n = 253) significant histories of heavy alcohol consumption. The alcohol and nonalcohol groups had similar overall mean profiles with significant or marginally significant (i.e., T 69) clinical elevations on Scales 1, 2, and 3. However, significantly higher proportions of those in the liver transplant group than in the heart transplant group scored within the clinical range on Scales F, 4, 6, and 8. In addition, the proportions of respondents obtaining clinically elevated scores were significantly higher for the alcohol than for the nonalcohol group on Scale 4 and the MacAndrew Scale; the proportion was higher for the nonalcohol than for the alcohol group on Scale K. The overall similarity of the mean profiles indicates that candidates for liver or heart transplantation with and without histories of heavy alcohol use generally display similar psychological presentations. The observed differences between the liver and the heart transplant groups may reflect impairments in mental status among liver transplant candidates due to metabolic consequences of liver disease. The differences between the alcohol and the nonalcohol groups may be more a reflection of past behavioral patterns than present psychological status.     

The Prevalence of Serious Emotional Disturbance: A Re-Analysis of Community Studies

The goal of these analyses was to use existing data to provide an empirically-based estimate of the prevalence in the population of Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) in children and adolescents, to assist States in their task, required under PL 102-321, of including such estimates in their applications for Block Grant funds. Seven data sets were identified that could provide estimates of SED. The principal investigators agreed on common definitions of the key components of SED: a psychiatric diagnosis and significant functional impairment. Two definitions of impairment were used: domain-specific (impairment in one or more of three areas of functioning) and global (in the worst 10% over all). They also defined a set of correlates and risk factors for SED: age, gender, race/ethnicity, and poverty. Investigators then reanalyzed their own data, using these standard definitions, and calculated the proportion of SED youth who received mental health care. The median estimate of SED with global impairment was 5.4%, with a range from 4.3% to 7.4%. Estimates of SED with domain-specific impairment ranged from 5.5% to 16.9% (median 7.7%). Rates were slightly higher in boys. There were no clear ethnic differences. Poverty doubled the risk of SED. Only one SED child in four had recently received mental health care. Estimates of SED are critically dependent on the method used to define diagnosis and functional impairment. Using common definitions, seven studies produced fairly consistent estimates, which were similar to the estimate of prevalence of Serious Mental Illness (SMI) in adults. Implications for the estimate of State-by-State prevalence rates are discussed.     

Procrastination in College Students: The Role of Self-Efficacy and Anxiety

In this study, the authors examined the relationships among procrastination, efficacy expectations, anxiety, gender, and age for 141 university students. Participants were asked to think about a major project and to rate their efficacy regarding the skills needed to accomplish the project. Bivariate correlations showed that efficacy expectations and anxiety had significant, individual relationships with procrastination. When these variables were entered into a regression model, only cumulative efficacy strength was a significant predictor of procrastination. Implications for practice and research suggestions are discussed.     

Contractual prayer of Christians and Muslims in Lebanon

One perspective from which to view Christian‐Muslim relations is to analyse beliefs and practices shared by Christians and Muslims in a particular culture. This paper analyses contractual prayer as practised by many adherents of the four main religious sects of Lebanon: Sunni and Shi^cfa Muslims and Maronite and Orthodox Christians. Contractual prayer (nidr in colloquial Arabic) is a prayer of petition addressed to the supernatural in which the petitioner couples a request with a conditional promise. Many similarities in the practice are attributable to inherent limitations of this type of prayer, to common human concerns that are expressed in the requests made, and to shared perspectives on gender and other cultural norms. Significant sect‐specific differences are most apparent regarding the supernatural being to whom the request is addressed, the nature of the conditional promise, and the manner and extent to which the practice is institutionalized.     

Attentional processing of “unattended” flankers: Evidence for a failure of selective attention

Results from research with the flanker task have been used to argue both that flankers are identified without attention and that flanker identificatin requires attention. In three experiments, we addressed this issue by examining flanker recall. In Experiment 1, we manipulated flanker redundancy, a variable that could influence attention to the flankers, in order to determine whether it affected the magnitude of the flanker effect, the magnitude of flanker recall, or both. Redundancy did not influence the flanker effect, and recall was high in both conditions, suggesting that the flankers were attended. The recall results contradicted those of Miller (1987), the only other study that we could find in which flanker recall was used. In Experiments 2 and 3, we examined differences between Miller’s procedure and ours. Although flanker recall was lower when open-ended rather than forced recall was used and when the flanker task was made more complicated, flanker recall remained well above chance in all conditions. The data strongly suggest that in the typical correlated flanker task there is a failure of selective attention at some point during processing such that flankers receive attentional processing.     

Effects of phoneme repertoire

In three experiments, listeners detected vowel or consonant targets in lists of CV syllables constructed from five vowels and five consonants. Responses were faster in a predictable context (e.g., listening for a vowel target in a list of syllables all beginning with the same consonant) than in an unpredictable context (e.g., listening for a vowel target in a list of syllables beginning with different consonants). In Experiment 1, the listeners’ native language was Dutch, in which vowel and consonant repertoires are similar in size. The difference between predictable and unpredictable contexts was comparable for vowel and consonant targets. In Experiments 2 and 3, the listeners’ native language was Spanish, which has four times as many consonants as vowels; here effects of an unpredictable consonant context on vowel detection were significantly greater than effects of an unpredictable vowel context on consonant detection. This finding suggests that listeners’ processing of phonemes takes into account the constitution of their language’s phonemic repertoire and the implications that this has for contextual variability.