Using hippocampal‐dependent eyeblink conditioning to predict individual differences in spatial reorientation strategies in 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds

The hippocampus is a subcortical structure in the medial temporal lobe involved in cognitive functions such as spatial navigation and reorientation, episodic memory, and associative learning. While much is understood about the role of hippocampal function in learning and memory in adults, less is known about the relations between the hippocampus and the development of these cognitive skills in young children due to the limitations of using standard methods (e.g., MRI) to examine brain structure and function in developing populations. This study used hippocampal‐dependent trace eyeblink conditioning (EBC) as a feasible approach to examine individual differences in hippocampal functioning as they relate to spatial reorientation and episodic memory performance in young children. Three‐ to six‐year‐old children (N = 50) completed tasks that measured EBC, spatial reorientation, and episodic memory, as well as non‐hippocampal‐dependent processing speed abilities. Results revealed that when age was held constant, individual differences in EBC performance were significantly related to individual differences in performance on the spatial reorientation test, but not on the episodic memory or processing speed tests. When the relations between hippocampal‐dependent EBC and different reorientation strategies were explored, it was found that individual differences in hippocampal function predicted the use of geometric information for reorienting in space as opposed to a combined strategy that uses both geometric information and salient visual cues. The utilization of eyeblink conditioning to examine hippocampal function in young populations and its implications for understanding the dissociation between spatial reorientation and episodic memory development are discussed.     

A novel,short and easy-to-perform method to evaluate newborns’ social olfactory preferences

Animal Cognition - Humans’ early olfactory perception has been studied mainly within the framework of mother–offspring interactions and only a few studies have focused on...     

Load effects in attention: Comparing tasks and age groups

Attention is limited in terms of both capacity (i.e., amount of information attended) and selectivity (i.e., the degree to which non-attended information is nonetheless processed). One of the seminal theories in the field, load theory, predicts that these two aspects of attention interact in systematic ways. Specifically, load theory predicts that when the amount of information to attend is less than the available capacity, spare attention will naturally leak out to unattended items. While load theory has found a great deal of empirical support, the robustness of the findings has recently been called into question, in particular with respect to the extent to which the predictions are borne out across different tasks and populations. Here we report tests of perceptual load effects in two different tasks (change detection and enumeration) and in two populations (adults and 7- to 8-year-old children). Adults’ accuracies did not demonstrate the predicted interaction between the capacity and selection dimensions, whereas children’s performance, in addition to being overall worse than adults, did show the interaction. The overall lower accuracy of children was seen to be the result of a larger performance decrement in response to capacity demands, distracting information, and their interaction. Interestingly, while these results were seen at the level of the two tasks, there was no within-participants correlation across tasks. Overall, these results suggest that maturation-related changes attenuate the magnitude of distractor effects in attention, which in turn limits the evidence for interactions between capacity and selection in high-functioning populations.

     

When Do Motives to Sexually Please a Male Partner Benefit Women’s Own Sexual Agency?

Motivation to please a partner sexually, also known as sexual communal strength (SCS), has been positively associated with sexual and relationship functioning, particularly for partners. We used a critical sexuality studies approach to examine SCS as it relates to women’s own sexual agency. We also examined the potential moderating role of partner sexual coercion, defined as persistent pressure to attain sex. Specifically, we investigated whether frequency of partner sexual coercion moderates the effect of SCS on three different aspects of women’s sexual agency: sexual desire, sexual refusal assertiveness, and relational power. Participants were 172 U.S. women in dating relationships with men who responded to self-report measures. Results showed that SCS was positively related to women’s own sexual desire, regardless of how often women experienced partner sexual coercion. SCS and partner sexual coercion frequency were associated with sexual refusal assertiveness: The least assertive women reported both higher SCS and more frequent partner coercion. Sexual coercion frequency was negatively related to women’s relational power, regardless of their own SCS. These findings support educational and clinical interventions to reduce sexual coercion and suggest the concept of SCS be further refined to better account for the potential roles sexual coercion and heterosexual norms play more broadly.

     

Surrogacy and the Construction of the Maternal-Foetal Relationship: The Feminist Dilemma Examined

The feminist movement remains fundamentally divided over the issue of surrogacy. Within the confines of this article it is argued that the inadequacy of positions on both sides of the debate rests upon their common tendency to deal with the ethical consequences of surrogacy for isolated agents, without sufficient concern for the broader social implications for all pregnant women in society. In order to clarify the issues involved, feminist theorists must consider the implications of surrogacy in a broader social spectrum. Such an analysis will illustrate that the two-person dichotomous model of the maternal-foetal relationship proposed by the surrogacy arrangement has hugely prejudicial effects on the treatment received by non-contract mothers when they interact with agents of certain social institutions whose prior contact with surrogate mothers has made them more susceptible to conceiving the maternal-foetal relationship as fundamentally disconnected. In a climate of increased medical surveillance and intervention in the non-clinical context of pregnancy, the dangers of adopting this dichotomous model are palpable. Given the oppressive physical and psychological effect that this would have upon the liberty of the majority of pregnant women in society, this article argues that the feminist movement must abandon any promotion of the abstracted model of the mother-foetus relationship that is implicit in its arguments in favour of surrogacy.     

Family functioning and psychopathology among adolescents with severe emotional disturbances

Family psychosocial functioning and its relation to psychopathology among adolescents with severe emotional disturbances (SED) was assessed. Subjects were 353 adolescents with SED, ages 12–18, and their parents. During a semistructured interview, adolescents were administered Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES-III), Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Child Version (DISC-C), and the Self-Derogation Scale. Parents were administered FACES-IIII and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) in a phone interview. Results indicated that on the FACES-IIII cohesion dimension, both parents and adolescents perceived their family relations as more disengaged and less connected than did normative families (p < .001). In contrast, only parent FACES-IIII adaptability scores were significantly more extreme than a normative sample (p < .01). Additionally, both parent and adolescent cohesion scores were significantly correlated with adolescent psyehopathology measures: DISC-C conduct disorder (p < .01), depression (p < .05), alcohol/marijuana (p < .01), and CBCL externalizing symptoms (p < .01). These relationships did not deviate from linearity. We gratefully acknowledge Eric C. Brown, Sue Greer, and Sharon P. Lardieri for assistance in data management of this project. Preparation of this article was supported by grant H133B90004-01 from the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research and the National Institute of Mental Health.     

Is age kinder to the initially more able?: differential ageing of a verbal ability in the Healthy Old People in Edinburgh study

Studies that examine whether there is differential age-related decline in intelligence test scores according to initial cognitive status, social class and education are reviewed. We tested the differential ageing hypothesis which states that decline in ability scores over time will be lower in those with superior mental ability, more education and higher social class at the time of original testing. 387 healthy old people were tested at baseline and followed up 4 years later. The National Adult Reading Test (NART) was administered on both occasions. NART-estimated IQ fell by a mean of 2.1 points over 4 years (p<0.001). Subjects in higher social class categories had higher NART scores overall (p<0.001), and had smaller NART decrements over 4 years. Ex-professional and -secretarial groups fell by a mean of 1.4 points in this period, versus 3.2 points for skilled manual, semi-skilled and unskilled groups. In addition, those who fell more in NART were older (p=0.001), were less educated (p<0.001), and had lower NART (p<0.001) scores at baseline. In summary, those with higher baseline ability, in higher social class groups, with more education and who are younger are relatively protected from decline in this verbal ability with age. Possible mechanisms of differential decline in this verbal intelligence with age are discussed.     

Automated problem solving for the behavioral sciences

In view of the obvious advantages of computers for the behavioral sciences, the question is raised as to how to make more effective use of computing capabilities. One idea is to require that fledgling behavioral scientists receive brief training in flowcharting and algorithm generation rather than a full course in computing skills. Such training would be an important adjunct for those who would go on for further instruction, especially in view of current deficiencies in many computer courses. One recurrent deficiency lies in the lack of specific guidelines for conceptualizing problems for computer implementation. Such guidelines are developed here, along with other suggestions designed to attenuate the difficulty in conceptualization.     

A programmable multiple-tone generator

A simple tone generator that allows software control of auditory stimuli is described. The circuit provides for the simultaneous generation, timing, and amplification of three different tones. Its low cost, ease of construction, and versatility make it an attractive alternative to conventional auditory stimulus hardware.