When seeing is knowing: the role of visual cues in the dissociation between children's rule knowledge and rule use

The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task requires children to switch from sorting cards based on shape or color to sorting based on the other dimension. Typically, 3-year-olds perseverate, whereas 4-year-olds flexibly sort by different dimensions. Zelazo and colleagues (1996, Cognitive Development, 11, 37-63) asked children questions about the postswitch rules and found an apparent dissociation between rule knowledge and rule use, namely that 3-year-olds demonstrate accurate knowledge of the postswitch rules despite sorting cards incorrectly. Here, we show that children's success with these questions is grounded in their use of available visual cues; children who fail sorting use the target cards to correctly answer questions, and when the cards are unavailable they guess. This suggests that there might not be a dissociation between children's rule knowledge and rule use in the DCCS.     

What ‘biological racial realism’ should mean

A curious ambiguity has arisen in the race debate in recent years. That ambiguity is what is actually meant by ??biological racial realism??. Some philosophers mean that ??race is a natural kind in biology??, while others mean that ??race is a real biological kind??. However, there is no agreement about what a natural kind or a real biological kind should be in the race debate. In this article, I will argue that the best interpretation of ??biological racial realism?? is one that interprets ??biological racial realism?? as ??race is a genuine kind in biology??, where a genuine kind is a valid kind in a well-ordered scientific research program. I begin by reviewing previous interpretations of ??biological racial realism?? in the race debate. Second, I introduce the idea of a genuine kind and compare it to various notions of natural and real biological kinds used in the race debate. Third, I present and defend an argument for my view. Fourth, I provide a few interesting consequences of my view for the race debate. Last, I provide a summary of the article.     

Not too little, but not too much: The perceived desirability of responses to personality items

Paradigms typically employed to investigate socially desirable responding in personality assessment implicitly assume linear relationships exist between trait level and desirability but recent research has called this assumption into question. In this study, participants rated the desirability of a hypothetical applicant to one of four jobs on the basis of which five-point Likert-type scale option he/she selected when responding to personality items. Results generally indicated that the most extreme option, on the desirable side of the response scale, was rated as most desirable, but perceived desirability asymptotes with the penultimate option. The middle (neutral) option, however, was consistently regarded as being much less desirable. The occupational context also significantly moderated the patterns of desirability ratings for many items.     

Kv4.2 knockout mice have hippocampal-dependent learning and memory deficits

Kv4.2 channels contribute to the transient, outward K(+) current (A-type current) in hippocampal dendrites, and modulation of this current substantially alters dendritic excitability. Using Kv4.2 knockout (KO) mice, we examined the role of Kv4.2 in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory. We found that Kv4.2 KO mice showed a deficit in the learning phase of the Morris water maze (MWM) and significant impairment in the probe trial compared with wild type (WT). Kv4.2 KO mice also demonstrated a specific deficit in contextual learning in the fear-conditioning test, without impairment in the conditioned stimulus or new context condition. Kv4.2 KO mice had normal activity, anxiety levels, and prepulse inhibition compared with WT mice. A compensatory increase in tonic inhibition has been previously described in hippocampal slice recordings from Kv4.2 KO mice. In an attempt to decipher whether increased tonic inhibition contributed to the learning and memory deficits in Kv4.2 KO mice, we administered picrotoxin to block GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)R), and thereby tonic inhibition. This manipulation had no effect on behavior in the WT or KO mice. Furthermore, total protein levels of the α5 or δ GABA(A)R subunits, which contribute to tonic inhibition, were unchanged in hippocampus. Overall, our findings add to the growing body of evidence, suggesting an important role for Kv4.2 channels in hippocampal-dependent learning and memory.     

Psychometric properties of Yelland and Tiggemann's Drive for Muscularity Scale

The purpose of the current study was to examine the dimensionality and validity of Yelland and Tiggemann's Drive for Muscularity Scale (YT-DMS). Participants were college students (305 women, M(AGE)=20.15 years, SD=4.00; 356 men, M(AGE)=20.24 years, SD=3.85) who completed the YT-DMS, the Drive for Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire, the Drive for Leanness Scale, the Drive for Thinness Scale, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Results indicated the YT-DMS had a stable unidimensional factor structure in both genders, and the pattern of relationships generally supported the measure's criterion and construct validity. These results reveal the YT-DMS has promise, but helps identify possible areas for improvement, such as a greater focus on sampling the content domain associated with the drive for muscularity.     

Heterosexuality and home: Intimacies of space and spaces of touch

This paper uses the notion of touch to understand further the production of heterosexual bodies and home spaces. Specifically, it argues that the everyday geographies of heterosexual touch are an important constituent of homemaking. Considering the ordinary acts of heterosexual touch and home encourages a more nuanced reading of the mutually constitutive relationship between bodies and space. It challenges normative notions about the naturalness and normality of heterosexuality. Drawing on data from joint semi-structured interviews, solicited diaries and self-directed photography with 14 women in heterosexual relationships who live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, I offer an in-depth, critical and nuanced analysis of sexualised touch. Building on suggestions that touch is more than simply cutaneous contact, I show that heterosexual bodies touch and feel bodies, spaces and objects in a variety of ways.     

Institutional Productivity Ratings Based on Publications in Nine Literacy Journals: 1992–2005

This study extended the work of three previous studies that compared the scholarly productivity of faculty members in universities as represented in nine literacy journals. The top 25 universities were identified and this study shows that several institutions have remained consistent through the years as those that produce the largest amount of scholarship. As in previous studies, the University of Georgia ranked first by a substantial margin. This ranking was adjusted according to faculty size, resulting in a reordering of institutions—the University of Georgia remained first. The top 22 universities publishing in two leading literacy research journals—Reading Research Quarterly and Journal of Literacy Research—were also identified. This study also indicates an increase in scholarly work by multiple authors from collaborating institutions, including those from public schools.     

Autonomy in Action: Linking the Act of Looking to Memory Formation in Infancy via Dynamic Neural Fields

Looking is a fundamental exploratory behavior by which infants acquire knowledge about the world. In theories of infant habituation, however, looking as an exploratory behavior has been deemphasized relative to the reliable nature with which looking indexes active cognitive processing. We present a new theory that connects looking to the dynamics of memory formation and formally implement this theory in a Dynamic Neural Field model that learns autonomously as it actively looks and looks away from a stimulus. We situate this model in a habituation task and illustrate the mechanisms by which looking, encoding, working memory formation, and long‐term memory formation give rise to habituation across multiple stimulus and task contexts. We also illustrate how the act of looking and the temporal dynamics of learning affect each other. Finally, we test a new hypothesis about the sources of developmental differences in looking.