Absolute pitch in boreal chickadees and humans: Exceptions that test a phylogenetic rule

This research examined generality of the phylogenetic rule that birds discriminate frequency ranges more accurately than mammals. Human absolute pitch chroma possessors accurately tracked transitions between frequency ranges. Independent tests showed that they used note naming (pitch chroma) to remap the tones into ranges; neither possessors nor nonpossessors were accurate at octave (pitch height) naming. Boreal chickadees discriminated frequency ranges less accurately than other birds; they tracked reward across several lower frequency ranges but failed at frequencies over 4000 Hz. The results revealed the error of describing species differences solely in terms of their discrimination of frequency ranges. Exceptions to the rule disappear when the rule is restated in terms of underlying mechanism: birds are superior to mammals in the ability to use absolute pitch height perception to discriminate pitches and ranges of pitches.     

Health Related Quality of Life and Social Support in Pediatric Patients with Pacemakers

Prior research evaluating health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among pediatric patients with internal cardiac devices has primarily focused on children with cardiac defibrillators, with scant attention devoted to pacemaker recipients. Social support has been conceptualized as a protective factor that partially accounts for differences in HRQOL. This study compares the HRQOL of children with pacemakers with that of healthy children, and examines associations between HRQOL and social support. Twenty-seven pediatric pacemaker recipients completed measures of HRQOL and social support. Their parents also completed measures of child HRQOL. High concordance was found for child and parent-proxy reports of child HRQOL. Children with pacemakers and their parents both reported relatively low child HRQOL when compared to published normative data for healthy children and parents of healthy children. Family and friends emerged as the sources of support positively associated with the greatest number of HRQOL domains. In conclusion, these findings suggest that pediatric pacemaker recipients experience lower levels of HRQOL compared to healthy peers, and that social support from those closest to the child is associated with their perceived HRQOL.     

Prevalence of and risk factors for suicide attempts versus suicide gestures: analysis of the National Comorbidity Survey

Definitions and classification schemes for suicide attempts vary widely among studies, introducing conceptual, methodological, and clinical problems. We tested the importance of the intent to die criterion by comparing self-injurers with intent to die, suicide attempters, and those who self-injured not to die but to communicate with others, suicide gesturers, using data from the National Comorbidity Survey (n = 5,877). Suicide attempters (prevalence = 2.7%) differed from suicide gesturers (prevalence = 1.9%) and were characterized by male gender, fewer years of education, residence in the southern and western United States; psychiatric diagnoses including depressive, impulsive, and aggressive symptoms; comorbidity; and history of multiple physical and sexual assaults. It is possible and useful to distinguish between self-injurers on the basis of intent to die.     

Hemispheric differences for the integration of stimulus levels and their contents: evidence from bilateral presentations

Several studies have demonstrated that hemispheric differences for the processing of hierarchical letter stimuli are more likely to occur when the letters at the levels are associated with conflicting responses. Typically, a single stimulus is presented, so that the conflict occurs between the global and the local levels of the same stimulus. Our hypothesis is that in this situation, conflict resolution requires integration of the letters and their respective levels and that the hemispheres differ in this integration process. According to this integration theory, the favorable effect of response conflict on hemispheric differences should vanish if other features, such as location, can also serve for conflict resolution. This prediction was tested in the present study by simultaneously presenting an individual hierarchical stimulus to each visual field. Conflicting letters either were arranged within one stimulus or were placed in different stimuli. In the latter case, a response conflict could also be resolved by integrating letters and locations. As was expected, there were no visual field effects in these conditions. On the other hand, visual field effects showed up when the conflicting letters were located within the same stimulus. These results support the idea that the hemispheres differ in their capacity for integrating level and form.     

Threat interpretation in anxious children and their mothers: comparison with nonclinical children and the effects of treatment

Interpretation biases towards threat play a prominent role in cognitive theories of anxiety, and have been identified amongst highly anxious adults and children. Little is known, however, about the development of these cognitive biases although family processes have been implicated. The current study investigated the nature of threat interpretation of anxious children and their mothers through (i) comparison of a clinic and non-clinic population, (ii) analysis of individual differences; and (iii) pre- and post-treatment comparisons. Participants were 27 children with a primary anxiety disorder and 33 children from a non-clinic population and their mothers. Children and mothers completed self-report measures of anxiety and indicated their most likely interpretation of ambiguous scenarios. Clinic and non-clinical groups differed significantly on measures of threat interpretation. Furthermore, mothers' and children's threat interpretation correlated significantly. Following treatment for child anxiety, both children and their mothers reported a reduction in threat interpretation.     

The existence and nature of racial bias in supervisory ratings

The purpose of this article is to facilitate a reconsideration of what the authors consider to be a mistaken belief among personnel psychologists--the belief that supervisory ratings of job performance are not biased on the basis of race. In this article, the authors reviewed the current literature, reexamined the data, and concluded that the research on which this mistaken belief is based clearly demonstrates that racial bias may indeed exist and is significant, both in statistical and practical terms.     

Enhancements and justice: problems in determining the requirements of justice in a genetically transformed society

There is a concern that genetic engineering will exacerbate existing social divisions and inequalities, especially if only the wealthy can afford genetic enhancements. Accordingly, many argue that justice requires the imposition of constraints on genetic engineering. However, it would be unwise to decide at this time what limits should be imposed in the future. Decision makers currently lack both the theoretical tools and the factual foundation for making sound judgments about the requirements of justice in a genetically transformed society. Moreover, focusing on the uncertain inequities of the future may result in failure to give priority to more pressing inequities of the present. Especially in a country that recently has enacted tax legislation that will widen existing wealth disparities, concern about the distant threat of a genetic aristocracy appears misplaced.     

Recommended housing conditions and test procedures can interact to obscure a significant experimental effect

Routine animal husbandry variables, such as group housing of mice and the order of testing of cagemates, are currently viewed to be essentially neutral with respect to the outcome of most, if not all, animal-based experiments, including those that utilize behavioral measurements. During the course of experiments that have utilized the elevated plus-maze to examine the ability of a bacterial challenge of mice to induce anxiety-like behavior, due to the activation of various cytokine pathways, we followed the recommendation of laboratory animal care staff to house the mice in pairs. When we tested the members of the pairs successively, it was found, for the first experimental set, that the behavior that reflects anxiety (time in closed arms) of the first-tested animal differed from that of the second-tested animal for both the experimental and the control animals and, critically, that these changes were in the opposite directions for the controls and the experimental animals, thus obscuring the effect of the experimental manipulation. A second, independent experimental set also obtained a significant effect for the order of testing effect in the bacterial-challenged group, but not in the saline control group, although a similar trend was evident in this group as well. These results indicate that special care should to be taken in implementing housing recommendations and that preliminary tests may be necessary to ensure that housing conditions do not interact with tests of the phenomenon under experimental investigation.