An Initial Test of the Cosmetics Dehumanization Hypothesis: Heavy Makeup Diminishes Attributions of Humanness-Related Traits to Women

Sex Roles - Objectification theory suggests that sexualization has significant dehumanizing consequences for how perceivers see women. To date, research has mostly documented how sexualized bodies...     

Heritability of item responses on the Eysenck personality questionnaire

We report estimates of the heritabilities and common environment variances for the 90 items of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Responses from 627 pairs of twins were analysed using the biometrical genetic analysis based on the threshold model described by Falconer. Many of the items revealed very substantial heritabilities. No less than 67/90 had heritabilities > 33%, 19 had > 50% and a few were even > 65%. Some of the useful implications of item heritabilities are discussed.     

Attachment,self-esteem,and psychomotor development in extremely premature children at preschool age

The aim of the study was to evaluate concomitantly self-esteem and model of attachment to the mother in extremely premature (24–28 weeks of gestation) and full-term children, in relation to the child's variables (neonatal condition, gender, cognitive development) and family variables (family adversity, socioeconomic status). Forty-two extremely premature and 27 fullterm children were assessed at 5 years 9 months. For the premature children, neonatal status and developmental quotient (DQ) at 18 months were also obtained. Premature and fullterm children did not differ in attachment and self-esteem categories. For all subjects, IQ at 5 years 9 months differed significantly across self-esteem categories. Seventy percent of premature children who showed a decrease in IQ from 18 months to 5 years 9 months had a negative self-esteem. In the premature group, DQ at 18 months was lower for the children that were categorized at 5 years 9 months with nonsecure attachment to the mother. Attachment appeared sensitive to early neuromotor impairments, and self-esteem to the developmental level at the time of the evaluation.     

A Machine Learning Approach to Identifying the Thought Markers of Suicidal Subjects: A Prospective Multicenter Trial

Death by suicide demonstrates profound personal suffering and societal failure. While basic sciences provide the opportunity to understand biological markers related to suicide, computer science provides opportunities to understand suicide thought markers. In this novel prospective, multimodal, multicenter, mixed demographic study, we used machine learning to measure and fuse two classes of suicidal thought markers: verbal and nonverbal. Machine learning algorithms were used with the subjects’ words and vocal characteristics to classify 379 subjects recruited from two academic medical centers and a rural community hospital into one of three groups: suicidal, mentally ill but not suicidal, or controls. By combining linguistic and acoustic characteristics, subjects could be classified into one of the three groups with up to 85% accuracy. The results provide insight into how advanced technology can be used for suicide assessment and prevention.     

Mouthing and grasping in neonates: Evidence for the early detection of what hard or soft substances afford for action

Newborns and 2- and 3-month-old infants were presented for 3 min with a rigid or an elastic object either introduced into their mouths for mouthing or into their right hands for grasping. Each object was connected to an air pressure transducer allowing polygraphic recording of the positive pressure variations applied by the infant to the object. Results indicate that, from birth, infants haptically discriminate between the rigidity and elasticity of objects by generating different rates and patterns of responses. Furthermore, the differential haptic responding by the infant does not manifest itself in an analogous manner for the oral or the manual modality of response but is reversed relative to the two objects' properties. During the first 3 months, a developmental trend is observed wherein the infant's oral response rates and patterns begin to align themselves with her/his manual responding to either one of the two objects. Relative to a similar output of positive pressures generated orally or manually, these observations show that from birth the infant's response is both object-dependent (hard vs. soft substance) and modality-dependent (oral vs. manual condition). These results are interpreted as suggesting that early mouthing and grasping are not merely controlled by reflexive (automatic) mechanisms but rather are guided by what objects afford for functional actions.     

Ground reaction force adaptations during cross-slope walking and running

Though transversely inclined (cross-sloped) surfaces are prevalent, our understanding of the biomechanical adaptations required for cross-slope locomotion is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine ground reaction forces (GRF) in cross-sloped and level walking and running. Nine young adult males walked and ran barefoot along an inclinable walkway in both level (0°) and cross-slope (10°) configurations. The magnitude and time of occurrence of selected features of the GRF were extracted from the force plate data. GRF data were collected in level walking and running (LW and LR), inclined walking and running up-slope (IWU and IRU), and down-slope (IWD and IRD), respectively. The GRF data were then analyzed using repeated measures MANOVA. In the anteroposterior direction, the timing of the peak force values differed across conditions during walking (p=.041), while the magnitude of forces were modified across conditions for running (p=.047). Most significant differences were observed in the mediolateral direction, where generally force values were up to 390% and 530% (p<.001) larger during the cross-slope conditions compared to level for walking and running, respectively. The maximum force peak during running occurred earlier at IRU compared to the other conditions (p≤.031). For the normal axis a significant difference was observed in the first maximum force peak during walking (p=.049). The findings of this study showed that compared to level surfaces, functional adaptations are required to maintain forward progression and dynamic stability in stance during cross-slope walking and running.     

Carbon dioxide narcosis modifies the patch leaving decision of foraging parasitoids

Gleaning information is a way for foragers to adjust their behavior in order to maximize their fitness. Information decreases the uncertainty about the environment and could help foragers to accurately estimate environmental characteristics. In a patchy resource, information sampled during previous patch visits is efficient only if it is retained in the memory and retrieved upon arrival in a new patch. In this study, we tested whether the braconid Asobara tabida, a parasitoid of Drosophila larvae, retains information gleaned on patch quality in the memory and adjusts its foraging behavior accordingly. Females were anesthetized with CO₂ after leaving a first patch containing a different number of hosts and were allowed to visit a second patch containing only kairomones. CO₂ is known to erase unconsolidated information from the memory. We show that in the absence of a short CO₂ narcosis, females responded according to their previous experience, whereas anesthetized females did not. The anesthetized females stayed a given time in the second patch irrespective of what they encountered before. CO₂ narcosis had no effect on the residence time of the non-experienced females in a patch containing hosts or only kairomones in comparison with the non-anesthetized females that had a previous foraging experience. We conclude that CO₂ narcosis erases the effect of the previous patch quality, perhaps due to a memory disruption. Direct information processing is likely to be involved in parasitoid decision making through retention of the information on the previous patch quality into a CO₂ sensitive memory.