Perceptions of maternal and paternal solicitude by birth children and adoptees: Relevance for maternal bonding theory

This study emanated from the long-standing question of whether a maternal bonding process similar to other mammalian species occurs in humans. The perceptions of adult adoptees and a matched sample of non-adoptees about their parents' behaviours towards them were compared on an original Parental Solicitude Scale. As hypothesized, birth children perceived their mothers as the more solicitous parent, but ratings of adoptive mothers showed a unilateral decline. Further, the differential ratings for birth and adoptive mothers occurred mostly for the factors labelled benignity vs abuse and tolerance vs control, rather than caretaking vs neglect, which was congruent to reported effects in prior studies of lack of mother-infant contact during the sensitive period for bonding. An alternative explanation of the data was also tested but not substantiated.     

Can a shuttlebox computer analog be used to condition human avoidance behavior?

Freedman (1990) introduced a computer analog of the shuttlebox paradigm and presented results to show that this analog could be used for studying human avoidance conditioning. In the present study, a first experimental phase was conducted to test how the fact that the tone was considered aversive in the instructions and the intensity of this tone affect avoidance behavior. In a transfer-of-control test phase, it was tested as to whether the warning stimulus presented as a cue to the aversive stimulus had acquired either aversive or informative quality. An effect of instructions was observed for both levels of the auditive stimulus, and a stimulus effect was found for those groups that were given the instructions that described the tone as aversive. In the case of subjects who in the first phase achieved a certain learning criterion, it was recorded how often they in the second phase selected a condition in which the warning signal of the first phase was not presented. No transfer of control was observed. Thus, no positive evidence was found indicating that Freedman’s computer analog could be used for studying human avoidance conditioning.     

Recall and articulation of English and Chinese words by Chinese-English bilinguals

Three groups of subjects were tested to investigate the effect of language on the relationship between recall span and articulation rate. Native English-speaking monolinguals and native Chinese-speaking monolinguals recalled only English or Chinese words, respectively. Chinese-English bilinguals recalled both English and Chinese words. Articulation rates for English and Chinese monolinguals and Chinese-English bilinguals in each language were also obtained. When recall span was regressed on articulation rate, the slopes for Chinese and English words were significantly different for the Chinese-English bilinguals. This difference was not due to language proficiency but to phonological differences between English and Chinese.     

Motor functions of the basal ganglia

Summary A study of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease can provide an indication of the motor functions of the basal ganglia. Basal-ganglia diseases affect voluntary movement and can cause involuntary movement. Deficits are often manifested during the coordination of fine multi-joint movements (e. g., handwriting). The disturbances of motor control (e.g. akinesia, bradykinesia) caused by basal-ganglia disorders are illustrated. Data suggest that the basal ganglia play an important role in the automatic execution of serially ordered complex movements.     

When men become “women”: Gender antagonism and the changing sexual geography of work in Newfoundland

In the traditional Newfoundland maritime division of labor, men worked at sea on boats and women worked on the land in their households. Patterns of gender identity, work, and gender relations were characterized by an ethos of complementarity. Present declines in the fishery make it impossible to earn a living at sea and men have become landbound. The resulting infringement by unemployed men into the spaces and prerogatives traditionally allotted to women has come to generate a gender antagonism that permeates, if not dominates, contemporary gender relations in a southwest coast Newfoundland fishing community. Ethnographic analysis incorporates data collected during two periods of anthropological fieldwork: 1977–1978 and 1989–1990. Comparative assessment of economic, psychological, and cultural constructionist theories of gender relations inform the qualitative analysis of ethnographic data.The original period (1977–1978) of anthropological fieldwork was funded by a grant from the United States National Institute of Child and Maternal Health, which was administered through the Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The second period (1989–1990) of fieldwork was funded by grants from Memorial University of Newfoundland's Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Canadian Embassy's Canadian Studies Program, and the University of South Dakota's General Research Fund.     

Haptic classification of common objects: Knowledge-driven exploration

In Experiment 1, haptically available object properties that would be diagnostic for constrained common object classification at the basic and subordinate levels were elicited in a questionnaire. The results are considered in terms of the nature of the haptically derived representations of common objects. Initial data are also presented regarding knowledge of the natural co-occurrence of properties in haptic object perception. In Experiment 2, the hand movements executed during haptic classification of manipulable common objects were examined. Manual exploration consisted of a two-stage sequence, an initial generalized "grasp-and -lift" routine, followed by a series of more specialized hand-movement patterns strongly driven by knowledge of the property diagnosticity for the specific object (obtained in Experiment 1). The current results may guide computational models of human haptic object classification and the development of perceptual systems for robots equipped with sensate dextrous hands, capable of intelligent exploration, recognition, and manipulation of concrete objects.     

The effects of temporal modulation and spatial location on the perceived spatial frequency of visual patterns

The perceived spatial frequency of a visual pattern can increase when a pattern drifts or is presented at a peripheral visual field location, as compared with a foveally viewed, stationary pattern. We confirmed previously reported effects of motion on foveally viewed patterns and of location on stationary patterns and extended this analysis to the effect of motion on peripherally viewed patterns and the effect of location on drifting patterns. Most central to our investigation was the combined effect of temporal modulation and spatial location on perceived spatial frequency. The group data, as well as the individual sets of data for most observers, are consistent with the mathematical concept of separability for the effects of temporal modulation and spatial location on perceived spatial frequency. Two qualitative psychophysical models suggest explanations for the effects. Both models assume that the receptive-field sizes of a set of underlying psychophysical mechanisms monotonically change as a function of temporal modulation or visual field location, whereas the perceptual labels attached to a set of channels remain invariant. These models predict that drifting or peripheral viewing of a pattern will cause a shift in the perceived spatial frequency of the pattern to a higher apparent spatial frequency.     

Effects of a forced institutional relocation on the mortality and morbidity of nursing home residents

Residents of a county nursing home underwent a forced, mass relocation. Gerontologists advised on preparation of staff and residents. No increase in residents' mortality or morbidity was found after the relocation. The highest death rate was in the anticipatory period, the year prior to the move.