Effects of trophic poisoning with methylmercury on the appetitive elements of the agonistic sequence in fighting-fish (Betta splendens)

The aggressive display in Betta splendens is particularly prominent, and vital to its adaptation to the environment. Methylmercury is an organic variation of Hg that presents particularly pronounced neuro-behavioral effects. The present experiments aim to test the effect of acute and chronic poisoning with methylmercury on the display in Bettas. The animals were poisoned by trophic means in both experiments (16 ug/kg in acute poisoning; 16 ug/kg/day for chronic poisoning), and tested in agonistic pairs. The total frequency of the display was recorded, analyzing the topography of the agonistic response. The methylmercury seems to present a dose- and detoxification-dependent effect on these responses, with a more pronounced effect on motivity in acute poisoning and on emotionality in the chronic poisoning. It is possible that this effect could be mediated by alteration in the mono-amino-oxidase systems.     

A Critical Analysis of the Social Advocacy Movement in Counseling

The authors present (a) an overview of the recent literature on social advocacy, (b) results of a deconstructive analysis of the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of this movement, (c) a critical analysis of its role and function in the profession, and (d) a call to the profession. The deconstructive analysis revealed 2 major driving forces and 5 related trends; the critical analysis revealed 9 key areas of consideration. Implications and recommendations are presented.     

Bad Drives Psychological Reactions, but Good Propels Behavior: Responses to Honesty and Deception

ABSTRACT— Research across disciplines suggests that bad is stronger than good and that individuals punish deception more than they reward honesty. However, methodological issues in previous research limit the latter conclusion. Three experiments resolved these issues and consistently found the opposite pattern: Individuals rewarded honesty more frequently and intensely than they punished deception. Experiment 2 extended these counterintuitive findings by revealing a divergence between evaluation and behavior: Evaluative reactions to deception were stronger than those to honesty, but behavioral intentions in response to honesty were stronger than those in response to deception. In addition, individuals wanted to avoid deceivers more than they wanted to approach honest actors. Experiment 3 found that punishment, but not reward, frequencies were sensitive to costs. Moderated-mediation tests revealed the role of different psychological mechanisms: Negative affect drove punishments, whereas perceived trustworthiness drove rewards. Overall, bad appears to be stronger than good in influencing psychological reactions, but good seems to be stronger than bad in influencing behavior.     

Speech errors reflect the phonotactic constraints in recently spoken syllables, but not in recently heard syllables

Adults rapidly learn phonotactic constraints from brief production or perception experience. Three experiments asked whether this learning is modality-specific, occurring separately in production and perception, or whether perception transfers to production. Participant pairs took turns repeating syllables in which particular consonants were restricted to particular syllable positions. Speakers’ errors reflected learning of the constraints present in the sequences they produced, regardless of whether their partner produced syllables with the same constraints, or opposing constraints. Although partial transfer could be induced (Experiment 3), simply hearing and encoding syllables produced by others did not affect speech production to the extent that error patterns were altered. Learning of new phonotactic constraints was predominantly restricted to the modality in which those constraints were experienced.     

Culture-fair prediction of academic achievement

A theoretically based, culture-fair test of new learning ability is predictive of academic achievement. A sample of 633 adults, 121 of minority status, drawn from urban private universities, colleges, and community colleges were given information as to the meanings of previously unknown words, sayings, similarities, and analogies. They were also tested for their existing knowledge of vocabulary, opposites, and analogies with a brief version of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). New learning ability proved to be culture-fair, reliable, and predictive of grades and of the brief version of the SAT.     

PTSD SYMPTOMS AND SELF-RATED RECOVERY AMONG ADULT SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS: THE EFFECTS OF TRAUMATIC LIFE EVENTS AND PSYCHOSOCIAL VARIABLES

Prior research has demonstrated that self-blame is predictive of more posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and poorer recovery ( Frazier, 2003 ; Koss, Figueredo, & Prince, 2002 ), and perceived control over recovery is associated with less distress ( Frazier, 2003 ) in adult sexual assault (ASA) survivors. A structural equation model was tested to examine the role of traumatic events, self-blame, perceived control over recovery, and coping strategies on PTSD symptoms and self-rated recovery in women ASA survivors. Adaptive coping partially mediated the effects of other traumas, self-blame, and perceived control over recovery on PTSD symptoms and showed a small positive association with increased PTSD symptoms. As hypothesized, maladaptive coping partially mediated the effects of other traumas, self-blame, and perceived control over recovery on both PTSD symptoms and self-rated recovery; greater maladaptive coping was associated with increased PTSD symptoms and lower self-rated recovery. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Effects of working memory capacity on mental set due to domain knowledge

The present set of studies examines how working memory capacity (WMC) relates to performance on a Remote Associates Task (RAT), originally designed by Mednick as a quantifiable creative problem solving assessment. The source of fixation was manipulated across two sets of RAT items. One set was neutral with no specific fixation embedded in them, while the second set was baseball-misleading, designed so that prior knowledge of baseball would lead to an incorrect solution attempt. WMC scores were positively related to performance on RAT items in all conditions, except one. High baseball knowledge participants' WMC scores did not relate to performance on the baseball-misleading RAT. While in general WMC may lead to better RAT performance, these results suggest that when there is a candidate solution strongly activated by prior knowledge, WMC may actually lead to too much focus on the incorrect solution and exacerbate mental sets.     

Big brown dog or brown big dog? An electrophysiological study of semantic constraints on prenominal adjective order

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read and made acceptability judgments about sentences containing three types of adjective sequences: (1) normal sequences--e.g., Jennifer rode a huge gray elephant; (2) reversed sequences that violate grammatical-semantic constraints on linear order--e.g., *Jennifer rode a gray huge elephant; and (3) contradictory sequences that violate lexical-semantic constraints on compositionality--e.g., *Jennifer rode a small huge elephant. Relative to the control condition, the second adjective elicited a reduced N400 and an enhanced P600 in both the reversal condition and the contradiction condition. We present several alternative accounts of these two effects, but favor an interpretation which treats them as reflecting semantic and syntactic aspects of a temporary reanalysis of the adjective order construction. Furthermore, relative to the control condition, the final noun elicited a robust N400 in the contradiction condition but not in the reversal condition. We suggest that this effect indexes the full registration of the lexical-semantic incompatibility of the two adjectives in the contradiction condition. Finally, we discuss how all of these findings fit into the broader context of recent ERP studies that have reported atypical N400s and robust P600s in response to certain types of semantic anomalies.     

Elementary, my dear Wason: The role of problem representation in the THOG task

The present study was concerned with Wason's THOG problem, a hypothetico-deductive reasoning task for which performance over the past 20 years has typically been very poor (<20% correct). We examined the hypothesis that incorporating a quasi-visual context into the problem statement would make both the binary, symmetric tree structure and solution principle of the THOG task clearer and thus facilitate performance. A version of O'Brien et al.'s (Q J Exp Psychol 42A:329–351) Blackboard THOG problem, that specifies each branch of the tree by describing a specific location for each possible color-shape combination, was used to test this hypothesis. Substantial facilitation was both observed (68% correct) and replicated (73% correct), and it was also shown that it is necessary to provide a representation of both sides of the tree to obtain this level of facilitation. The implications of these results for human deductive reasoning are considered. Received: 1 November 2000 / Accepted: 4 May 2001     

Smoking in College Women: The Role of Thinness Pressures, Media Exposure, and Critical Consciousness

There are strong social pressures for U.S. females, particularly those of European heritage, to achieve and maintain an extremely low body weight. These pressures are reflected in a variety of media sources, including advertising. We argue that valuing thinness, exposure to thinness-depicting media, and lacking skepticism about tobacco advertisements have adverse effects on young women's decisions about smoking, particularly smoking for weight control. We tested these hypotheses in a study of 188 female undergraduates, both never-smokers and daily smokers. Believing that smoking controls weight, exposure to thinness-depicting media, and low levels of skepticism about tobacco advertising were associated with being a smoker. Among smokers, believing that smoking controls weight, internalizing thinness pressures, and low levels of feminist consciousness were associated with smoking for weight control. Results are discussed with the aim of encouraging public health anti-smoking campaigns targeted at women, and smoking cessation programs that are responsive to the needs of weight-concerned female smokers.