Intracerebroventricular injection of anti-prolactin serum suppresses excessive grooming of pituitary homografted rats

Rats with endogenous hyperprolactinaemia, as induced by pituitary homografts under the kidney capsule, displayed increased grooming behavior as compared to that of sham-operated animals. Twelve days after surgery, intracerebroventricular injection of anti-prolactin serum (dilution 1:100, 1 microliter) suppressed the excessive grooming of homografted rats. These observations suggest that prolactin from a peripheral source may reach the central nervous system to affect brain mechanisms involved in grooming behavior.     

Worry and obsessional symptoms: a correlational analysis.

Several studies have suggested that worry and obsessional symptoms are systematically associated. In the present study, the relationship between worry and obsessional symptoms was confirmed. Measures included a worry content measure, a worry visual analogue scale, a modification of the everyday checking behaviours scale, and the MOCI. Worry was found to be more consistently associated with checking and doubting, than washing and slowness. It is suggested that worry and obsessional symptoms both occur in response to stress. In addition, it is suggested that worry and checking are functionally similar, and Generalised Anxiety Disorder may represent a 'cognitive' variant of obsessional checking.     

Brand character as a function of brand loyalty

This study investigated the relationship between self-image, brand image, and brand loyalty by asking whether people use products to enhance self-image. Subjects described themselves on an adjective checklist, then listed product brands to which they consider themselves loyal or not loyal. One month later, using the same adjective checklist, subjects described the type of person who would buy a particular brand to which they are loyal and a brand to which they are not loyal for both gender and non-gender related products. Significant differences between the two groups and a high correlation between self and product user ratings, were found.     

Symptom patterns in late luteal-phase dysphoric disorder

The symptom patterns of 180 women with prospectively confirmed late luteal-phase dysphoric disorder (LLPDD) were examined using a careful application of factor and cluster analytic techniques. Factor analysis of premenstrual change scores on 33 common premenstrual syndrome symptoms yielded four orthogonal factors that were consistent across two sets of menstrual cycle data. These were a negative affect dimension with concomitant behavioral changes, physical symptoms, agitation, and positive arousal. Cluster analysis of factor scores grouped patients into one of five symptom patterns, the most common of which is a general distress cluster, characterized by symptoms across all dimensions. The LLPDD symptom groups identified are remarkably consistent with those of earlier studies using both normative and clinic samples, and consideration of symptom pattern differences in future research may greatly increase our understanding of this disorder.     

University Student Attitudes Toward Arabs: Intervention Implications

This study assessed the attitudes of college students toward Arabs. Attitudes were significantly more negative in situations involving an Arab individual than in identical situations involving a neutrally identified person.     

Metacognition in psychophysical judgment: An unfolding view of comparative judgments of mental workload

An experiment is reported in which it was found that when subjects were required to indicate which of two visual extents was more difficult to categorize as “long” or “short,” they executed these categorizations and then measured the distance of the representation of each stimulus from the long-short category boundary; the stimulus nearer the boundary was judged to be the more difficult. When they were requested to indicate which was easier to categorize, they selected the alternative that was farther. Coombs’s theory of data (1952, 1964) and his unfolding theory of preferential choice (1950, 1964) provided the conceptualization of metacognition in this psychophysical task context. Strong support for the probabilisitic version of unfolding theory was obtained from the observed selective effects of laterality on the levels of stochastic transitivity attained for various classes of triples and the reliably longer times for comparisons with bilateral pairs than with unilateral pairs. The semantic congruity effects obtained, together with the changes in the form of the relationship between probability and response time as a function of practice, can be best accounted for by an evidence accrual theory in which the distances from the active reference point are measured and compared with a criterion on each evidence accrual. No support is provided for the view that propositionally based semantic “ease”- “difficulty” codes serve as the basis for these metacognitive comparative judgments of ease and difficulty.     

Family,peer, and neighborhood influences on academic achievement among African-American adolescents: One-year prospective effects

Using a 1-year prospective design, this study examined the influence of family status variables (family income, parental education, family structure), parenting variables (maternal support and restrictive control), peer support, and neighborhood risk on the school performance of 120 African American junior high school students. In addition to main effects of these variables, neighborhood risk was examined as a moderator of the effects of parenting and peer support. Family status variables were not predictive of adolescent school performance as indexed by self-reported grade point average. Maternal support at Time 1 was prospectively related to adolescent grades at Time 2. Neighborhood risk was related to lower grades, while peer support predicted better grades in the prospective analyses. Neighborhood risk also moderated the effects of maternal restrictive control and peer support on adolescent grades in prospective analyses. These findings highlight the importance of an ecological approach to the problem of academic underachievement within the African American community.