Relationship of internal-external locus of control,self-concept,and masculinity-femininity to fear of success in Black freshmen and senior college women

The concepts of locus of control, self-concept, masculinity-femininity, and their relationship to fear of success in Black college women were explored. Scores were obtained from stories written in response to six verbal cues designed to assess fear-of-success imagery. Tabulations ranging from zero (denoting absence of fear) to six (denoting most fear) were correlated with Gurin's I-E Scale, the Modified Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale, and the Modified Gough Masculinity-Femininity Scale. There was no significant mean difference between freshmen and seniors on fear of success. However, an analysis of variance revealed that externals showed significantly more fear-of-success imagery than internals. Significant inverse correlations were located between the measure of self-concept and certain cues eliciting fear of success. Femininity was not shown to be related to any of the fear-of-success measures.     

Applying principles of development to help at-risk preschoolers develop numeracy

In a yoked control design, multicultural Head Start 4-year-olds played numerous games involving either numeracy or the oddity principle and insertions into series. Children showed better mastery of oddity and insertions after playing games directed at those two concepts. Numeracy scores on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (D. McCarthy, 1972) were equivalent for children who played numeracy games and children who played oddity and insertion games. These results are consistent with other research indicating that the understanding of oddity relations and that of insertions are key transitional thinking abilities that support numeracy at the preschool-kindergarten interface.     

Grade, pubertal status, and gender-related variations in conflictual issues among adolescents

The purpose of this study was to describe adolescent perceptions of conflictual family issues, and to ascertain if the intensity of these issues is associated with adolescent grade in school, pubertal status, and gender. The sample was comprised of 279 junior high and senior high school students. Each participant completed a self-report measure of pubertal status, a demographic questionnaire, and the Issues Checklist. Principal factor analysis with varimax rotation of the Issues Checklist resulted in the retention of four factors accounting for 71.59% of the variance. Stepwise regression analyses were conducted for each emergent factor with grade in school, pubertal status, and gender serving as predictors. The results of these analyses indicated that the intensity of School Issues and Household Behavior Issues is greater among seventh and ninth graders than among eleventh graders. Self-Responsibility Issues were perceived as being most intense among transpubertal adolescents. Finally, boys perceived more intense conflict over Persistent Issues and Concerns than did girls.     

In search of the neurobiological underpinnings of the differential outcomes effect

Correlating unique rewards with to-be-remembered events (the Differential Outcomes Procedure [DOP]) enhances learning and memory performance in a range of species. Recently, we have demonstrated that the DOP can be used to reduce or eliminate the learning and memory impairments associated with animal models of amnesia and dementia. This powerful phenomenon, the Differential Outcomes Effect (DOE), has led to the question: How does such a simple manipulation exert such dramatic influence on learning and memory performance? A revised two-process account of the DOE states that using the DOP results in the activation of reward expectancies through Pavlovian mechanisms. The use of unique reward expectancies alters the nature of cognitive processing used to solve discrimination tasks. The change in cognitive processing is represented by utilization of a different memory system than that commonly used to acquire and remenber information when a Nondifferential Outcomes Procedure (NOP) is used. Using neurochemical manipulations, it has been demonstrated that different, potentially independent, brain systems modulate memory performance when subjects are trained with a NOP versus a DOP. This memory-based DOP/NOP distinction resembles other dissociative memory theories in which two psychological processes are purportedly served by distinct neurobiological mechanisms. In addition, such results have important ramifications for the treatment of memory disorders because they demonstrate that stimulus and behavioral manipulations, like drugs, can influence neurotransmitter functioning.     

Translational Rodent Models of Korsakoff Syndrome Reveal the Critical Neuroanatomical Substrates of Memory Dysfunction and Recovery

Investigation of the amnesic disorder Korsakoff Syndrome (KS) has been vital in elucidating the critical brain regions involved in learning and memory. Although the thalamus and mammillary bodies are the primary sites of neuropathology in KS, functional deactivation of the hippocampus and certain cortical regions also contributes to the chronic cognitive dysfunction reported in KS. The rodent pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency (PTD) model has been used to study the extent of hippocampal and cortical neuroadaptations in KS. In the PTD model, the hippocampus, frontal and retrosplenial cortical regions display loss of cholinergic innervation, decreases in behaviorally stimulated acetylcholine release and reductions in neurotrophins. While PTD treatment results in significant impairment in measures of spatial learning and memory, other cognitive processes are left intact and may be recruited to improve cognitive outcome. In addition, behavioral recovery can be stimulated in the PTD model by increasing acetylcholine levels in the medial septum, hippocampus and frontal cortex, but not in the retrosplenial cortex. These data indicate that although the hippocampus and frontal cortex are involved in the pathogenesis of KS, these regions retain neuroplasticity and may be critical targets for improving cognitive outcome in KS.     

News Coverage of Intimate Partner Violence: Impact on Prosocial Responses

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive and widespread problem in the United States, yet the issue is not well understood among the general public. Media portrayals of IPV have a significant influence on public perceptions, including public support for IPV victims and willingness to engage in helping behaviors. In the current study, we tested a path model examining the influence of contextual information about the victim and perpetrator described in a news article on feelings of sympathy for the victim of the described IPV incident, affective perspective taking, and prosocial responses that include: (a) support for public health initiatives to help victims of IPV, (b) preferences for prosocial information seeking, and (c) behavioral intentions toward engaging in protective actions to help victims of IPV. The model demonstrated acceptable fit and provided support for all 6 hypotheses. Results showed that sympathy does not have a direct impact on individuals' prosocial responses to help victims of IPV, but instead has an indirect effect through affective perspective taking. Implications for framing IPV in ways that promote a prosocial, public health–oriented response are discussed.     

Adaptability in organisms and artifacts: A multi level perspective on adaptive processes

Adaptability to changing circumstances is a key feature of living creatures. Understanding such adaptive processes is central to developing successful autonomous artifacts. In this paper two perspectives are brought to bear on the issue of adaptability. The first is a short term perspective which looks at adaptability in terms of the interactions between the agent and the environment. The second perspective involves a hierarchical evolutionary model which seeks to identify higher-order forms of adaptability based on the concept of adaptive meta-constructs.Task orientated and agent-centered models of adaptive processes in artifacts are considered from these two perspectives. The former is represented by the fitness function approach found in evolutionary learning, and the latter in terms of the concepts of empowerment and homeokinesis found in models derived from the self-organizing systems approach. A meta-construct approach to adaptability based on the identification of higher level meta-metrics is also outlined.