Left Syringeal Dominance in Testosterone-Treated Female Canaries

Male canaries (Serinus canaria) produce most of their song syllable types on the left side of the syrinx, the two-sided vocal organ. Female canaries treated with testosterone propionate begin to sing in a male fashion, a behavior seldom seen in untreated females. To learn whether syringeal dominance occurs in testosterone-treated female canaries, we deactivated either the right or the left side of the syrinx by severing the tracheosyringeal nerve on that side. Recordings of the birds’ songs were made before and after the nerve cut, and song analysis was based upon visual comparisons of sound spectrograms. Pre- and post-operative syllable types were identified by their frequency structures and repetition rates. Six of eight birds displayed clear left dominance as assessed by nerve cuts; therefore, we concluded that most, but not all, female canaries generate the majority of their syllable types with the left syrinx.     

Number Versus Contour Length in Infants' Discrimination of Small Visual Sets

This study examined infants' use of contour length in number discrimination tasks. We systematically varied number and contour length in a visual habituation experiment in order to separate these two variables. Sixteen 6- to 8-month-old infants were habituated to displays of either two or three black squares on a page. They were then tested with alternating displays of either a familiar number of squares with a novel contour length or a novel number of squares with a familiar contour length. Infants dishabituated to the display that changed in contour length, but not to the display that changed in number. We conclude that infants base their discriminations on contour length or some other continuous variable that correlates with it, rather than on number.     

Parent Care in the Context of Women's Multiple Roles

This article addresses the multiple roles held by women involved in parent care and the ways in which these roles affect the women's well-being. Research on women's roles (including that of caregiver) has been guided by two opposing perspectives, the scarcity hypothesis and the expansion hypothesis. Findings from our studies of role quality, role combinations, and role spillover have provided abundant evidence that the lives of these women cannot be easilycaptured by either the scarcity or the expansion hypothesis alone.     

The Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

The Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology     

RISK FACTORS FOR SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION IN DATING A Longitudinal Study of College Women

In this longitudinal study of college women, nine risk characteristics assessed prior to the start of college were examined in the effort to identify predictors of sexual victimization in college dating. A total of 100 women were followed for 32 months, with information about personal history, behaviors, and attitudes collected at Time 1 and information about subsequent sexual victimization collected at Time 2. Although four risk factors were significantly associated with victimization, a logistic regression analysis revealed that the best prediction model contained only two variables: Precollege sexual victimization in dating was positively correlated with college victimization, and sexual conservatism was negatively correlated with college victimization. Discussion focused on the needs for improved sex education for teenagers, prevention programs aimed at the precollege level, and increased research and clinical attention to the phenomenon of revictimization.     

Effects of syllable duration on stop-glide identification in syllable-initial and syllable-final position by humans and monkeys

Humans and monkeys were compared in their identification of phoneme boundaries along synthetic stop-glide continua in syllable-initial /ba/-/wa/ or syllable-final /bab/-/baw/ contrasts differing in overall syllable duration. For both contrasts, humans were first tested with a conventional written identification procedure. Here, similar phoneme boundaries emerged and shifted with increases in syllable duration toward longer transitions, as has previously been reported in the literature for syllable-initial data (Miller & Liberman, 1979). Humans and monkeys were then tested on these contrasts, using a go/no-go identification procedure specifically designed for monkeys. Here also, stop-glide boundaries emerged and shifted with increased syllable duration for both species, although monkey “boundaries” were at longer durations than humans’ in syllable-final position. The results indicate that there are both gross similarities and subtle differences between humans and monkeys with regard to the stop-glide context effect. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that general mammalian auditory mechanisms are responsible for this effect.     

Trajectories of Response to Treatments in Children with ADHD and Word Reading Difficulties

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - This study investigated patterns of response to intervention in children with co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and...     

A Daily Check-In/Check-Out Intervention for Students with Internalizing Concerns

Journal of Behavioral Education - This study investigated the impact of a self-management intervention, known as “Check-in/Check-out” (CICO) on academic engaged time and internalizing...     

The Effect of Employee Assistance Services on Reductions in Employee Absenteeism

Personal and work-related stressors experienced by employees can result in substantial costs to employers in the form of employee absenteeism. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) provide an important vehicle to assist employees with behavioral health issues, personal concerns, and work-related problems that impact employee absenteeism. This study tested the impact of EAPs on reducing employee absenteeism utilizing a well-matched control group and human resource timecard data. The study recruited employees from 20 areas of state government and used a prospective, quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching. EAP (n = 145) users were matched to non-EAP (n = 145) users on baseline demographic, psychosocial, and work-related characteristics that differentiate the groups. Hours of sick time recorded were provided by human resource offices. Differences in sick leave usage were tested using mixed model repeated measures. A steeper decline in sick leave usage for EAP than non-EAP employees was found, with estimates of 4.8 to 6.5% fewer hours lost per month to illness. Further analysis found that EAP services were most effective in helping clients move from moderate to low levels of sick leave rather than in reducing sick leave for those experiencing chronic absenteeism. Research on the effectiveness of EAPs rarely utilizes well-matched control groups and frequently relies on self-reported outcomes. Using an objective measure of work time lost, this study provides empirical evidence that users of EAP services tend to reduce their absenteeism at a faster pace than non-EAP users experiencing similar challenges to maintaining productivity.