Prevalence of smokeless tobacco consumption at a southwestern university

265 students attending a southwestern university were surveyed about their use of smokeless tobacco products. 27% of 84 male respondents indicated they consumed smokeless tobacco. The women did not report routine use of smokeless tobacco.     

Comprehension and production of body part labels in 2‐ to 3‐year‐old children

This study examined which body part labels children could (i) produce when the experimenter touched different locations on her own body, asking each time ‘What's this?’ and (ii) comprehend by touching the correct locations on their own bodies in response to the experimenter asking ‘Where's the [body‐part label]?’. Seventeen children aged between 26 and 41 months, tested in a repeated measures procedure, were presented with 50 different body part stimuli in 200 test trials per child. Overall, the children produced fewer body part labels than they could comprehend. The accuracy of children's responses depended on (i) the location or extent of each body part (facial and broad body features were better known; joints and features in or attached to broad body parts the least well known); (ii) the amount of sensory (but not motor) representation each body part has in the human cortex; and (iii) whether a body part was commonly named by caregivers. These results present a precise mapping of the body parts that young children are able to name and locate on their own bodies in response to body part names; they suggest several possible determinants of lexical‐semantic body knowledge and add to the understanding of how it develops in childhood.     

Incentive learning following reinforcer devaluation is not conditional upon the motivational state during re-exposure

Three experiments analysed the effect of re-exposure to the reinforcer following aversion conditioning on instrumental performance. In the first experiment, groups of hungry and thirsty rats were trained to press a lever for sucrose, which was then followed by a single injection of lithium chloride (LiCl). On the following day, half the animals in each motivational condition received re-exposure to the sucrose solution; the remaining animals were not re-exposed. In a subsequent extinction test animals that had received re-exposure to the sucrose pressed less than animals that were not re-exposed. Moreover, the effect of re-exposure to the sucrose solution was similar following training under hunger and thirst. In the remaining studies, animals were trained to lever-press for sucrose while either hungry or thirsty. They were then injected with LiCl and re-exposed to the sucrose while either hungry or thirsty, i.e. in the same or different motivational state employed during training, or they were not re-exposed. Lever pressing was then tested in extinction in the training motivational state. As in the first experiment, re-exposure to the reinforcer after aversion conditioning enhanced the magnitude of the reinforcer devaluation effect. More importantly, re-exposure to the sucrose produced a comparable effect on instrumental performance, whether re-exposure was given under the same or different motivational state to that employed during training. These results suggest that the instrumental reinforcer devaluation effect depends upon a process of incentive learning, but that this process is not conditional upon the current motivational state of the animal.     

Counselors’ Mandated Responsibility to Report Child Maltreatment: A Review of U.S. Laws

Although counselors in 44 states are mandatory reporters of child maltreatment, they may lack an understanding of their legally designated role. This article presents the results of a systematic review of child maltreatment reporting laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The authors apply relevant legislation to real‐life contexts for counselors.     

Would Mozambican Women Really “Tolerate” Their Husbands’ Extramarital Sexual Relationships as Socially Recommended?

In the Mozambican socio-cultural context, men’s extramarital sexual relationships are generally deemed acceptable, and women are “recommended” to forgive their husbands’ sexual infidelity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess to what extent Mozambican women would forgive their husbands in case of an extramarital sexual relationship. The material consisted of 24 vignettes—each of which contained the story of a husband who was having an extramarital sexual relationship—a question, and an 11-point response scale. Overall, 225 women indicated their willingness to forgive their husbands in case of sexual infidelity, as a function of three factors: the emotional intensity involved in the extramarital sexual relationship, the regret expressed by the husband, and the commitment involved in the relationship/marriage between the husband and his wife. ANOVA results showed that the willingness to forgive depends on the nature of the extramarital relationship and the attitude of the “cheater”: (a) in the case where the extramarital relationship was of a purely sexual type, without involving deep emotions, and when the husband expressed profound regret, the willingness to forgive was high; (b) in the opposite situation, i.e., when the extramarital relationship involved a high level of emotions, and the husband expressed no regret, the forgiveness was low. Older participants had relatively high rates of forgiveness compared to younger ones. These findings corroborate earlier studies showing that, for females, emotional infidelity was much more distressful than purely sexual infidelity, and corroborate studies showing that Mozambicans tend to forgive offenders when they express regret.