Flexible cue use in food-caching birds

An animal’s memory may be limited in capacity, which may result in competition among available memory cues. If such competition exists, natural selection may favor prioritization of different memory cues based on cue reliability and on associated differences in the environment and life history. Food-caching birds store numerous food items and appear to rely on memory to retrieve caches. Previous studies suggested that caching species should always prioritize spatial cues over non-spatial cues when both are available, because non-spatial cues may be unreliable in a changing environment; however, it remains unclear whether non-spatial cues should always be ignored when spatial cues are available. We tested whether mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli), a food-caching species, prioritize memory for spatial cues over color cues when relocating previously found food in an associative learning task. In training trials, birds were exposed to food in a feeder where both spatial location and color were associated. During subsequent unrewarded test trials, color was dissociated from spatial location. Chickadees showed a significant pattern of inspecting feeders associated with correct color first, prior to visiting correct spatial locations. Our findings argue against the hypothesis that the memory of spatial cues should always take priority over any non-spatial cues, including color cues, in food-caching species, because in our experiment mountain chickadees chose color over spatial cues. Our results thus suggest that caching species may be more flexible in cue use than previously thought, possibly dependent upon the environment and complexity of available cues.     

遗传、环境和青少年的吸烟饮酒行为：芬兰双生子研究的回溯与前瞻

本文介绍的两个“芬兰双生子（Finn Twin）”研究是对10个出生组的青少年双生子及其家庭的长期跟踪研究。本文概述了这两个项目对遗传与环境的关联和互动对吸烟饮酒行为影响的研究。这些研究的结果提示个体差异对吸烟饮酒行为的长期变动的影响受到兄弟姐妹互动、同伴互动以及父母教养方式的调节。环境对吸烟饮酒的影响主要表现在学校、居住社区与家庭环境的差异上。环境与遗传影响的程度和持久度有城乡差异。遗传的影响受居住社区的制约。多阶段模型的分析揭示了遗传与环境的互动对这些行为的演变（从试吸试饮到发展到滥用）的动态的影响,遗传似乎对吸烟饮酒的共同轨迹更有影响。这些结果对今后本项目对这约1万对芬兰成年双生子的分子遗传学研究提供了有益的线索     

Prospective Relations Between Organized Activity Participation and Psychopathology During Adolescence

This longitudinal study examined psychopathology as a predictor and outcome of organized activity involvement during high school among 198 adolescents who varied in risk for psychopathology as a function of their mother's depression history. Higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in eighth grade significantly predicted lower levels of involvement in academic clubs during high school, over and above risk and SES. Tobacco use prior to high school predicted lower levels of involvement overall and in academic clubs and performance arts. Controlling for psychopathology prior to high school, higher levels of activity involvement were associated with lower levels of externalizing symptoms, less tobacco use, and fewer diagnoses of behavior disorders and substance abuse in 12th grade. The positive association between risk and adolescent psychopathology was not buffered by adolescent activity involvement. Overall, these findings suggest that involvement in organized activities may contribute to lower levels of externalizing psychopathology during high school even when controlling for prior psychopathology.     

病理性使用互联网的界定与测量

病理性使用互联网（Pathological Internet Use,PIU）是人在互联网使用过程中出现的一种新型心理疾病。很多研究者认为互联网使用过度或不当是病理性使用互联网的主要原因。该文对病理性使用互联网已有研究的概念的界定与测量问题进行了分析与整合,讨论了在中国社会文化背景下如何界定与测量病理性使用互联网。     

The Social Contextual Approach and Rural Adolescent Substance Use: Implications for Prevention in Rural Settings

Adolescents in rural areas use substances at rates comparable to urban adolescents; understanding causes of rural adolescent substance use is critical if prevention efforts are to succeed. The present review has three primary goals: (1) to define rural, (2) to evaluate the empirical evidence regarding correlates and causes of rural adolescent substance use from a social contextual framework (L. V. Scaramella, R. D. Conger, R. Spoth, & R. L. Simons, in press), and (3) to discuss the malleability of theoretically based risk or protective factors in rural settings. The review concludes with a discussion of the difficulties and challenges of implementing prevention programs in rural areas.     

Psychiatric disorders and the use of mental health services among children involved in bullying

This study had two aims: to evaluate the relationship between bullying and psychiatric disorders and to study the probability of using mental health services among children involved in bully/victim problems. The data consisted of interviews with 423 parents and 420 children. Diagnostic measures were based on the Isle of Wight Interview. Children involved in bullying as bullies, bully‐victims, and victims were compared with other children. Children involved in bully/victim problems were more prone to have psychiatric disorders than noninvolved children. The probability of being disturbed was highest among male bullies, followed by male bully‐victims and female victims (9.5‐fold, 7.9‐fold, and 4.3‐fold, respectively) compared with noninvolved same‐sex children. The most common diagnoses among children involved in bully/victim problems were attention deficit disorder, oppositional/conduct disorder, and depression. Furthermore, children involved in bully/victim problems were more likely to have used mental health services at some time during their lives and also during the previous 3 months. Special attention should be paid to children’s mental health when dealing with bullying problems at school. Referral pathways to mental health services and factors affecting the referral processes among children should be further studied. Aggr. Behav. 27:102–110, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Relevance and argumentation: How bald can you get

This paper is concerned with vagueness in language, its relation to logico-philosophical questions on the one hand, and to so-called syncategorematic terms and their linguistic use on the other hand. It attempts to show that it is not language itself which is vague but rather the way we use it.     

Sober adolescence–Predictor of psychosocial maladjustment in young adulthood?

We have explored how age at first intoxication with alcohol relates to mental health, social integration and adjustment to the adult role. The data stem from a longitudinal representative study of 2000 Norwegians. The sample was assessed at ages 19–22, 21–24 and 25–28. Among females, only early intoxication was related to young adult symptoms of poor mental health. A U-shaped association between intoxication debut and psychological problems was revealed among males, implying that both early and late beginners had more such problems than those who had followed the mainstream. These associations persisted without change over time. However, males who remained abstainers in adulthood were psychologically healthy, but they showed indications of a delayed entry into the adult role. Male late beginners were also somewhat reluctant to adopt adult role-behaviors. Thus, getting drunk for the first time in mid-adolescence seems to be an ingredient in the normal developmental process in young males.     

Mobilizing positive reinforcement in communities to reduce youth access to tobacco

A community intervention to mobilize positive reinforcement for not selling tobacco to young people was evaluated. The intervention had five components: (a) mobilization of community support, (b) merchant education, (c) changing consequences to clerks for selling or not selling to those under 18, (d) publicity about clerks’ refusals to sell, and (e) feedback to store owners or managers about the extent of their sales to adolescents. A multiple baseline design experiment was conducted, in which two small Oregon communities received the intervention, while two others continued in baseline. Outlets’ willingness to sell was assessed repeatedly by teenage volunteers. The intervention significantly reduced the proportion of stores willing to sell. Mobilizing socia and material reinforcement for stores not selling tobacco to young people is a viable means of reducing such sales. It may be especially valuable in communities where laws against sales to minors go unenforced. This paper supported in part by the National Cancer Institute Grant CA38273.     

Whorf and Wittgenstein. Language, world view and argumentation

Whorf and Wittgenstein are perhaps the most famous names in linguistics and philosophy associated with the assumption that language plays a decisive role in shaping our view of reality. After a critical discussion of Whorf's linguistic relativity principle I conclude that it is not language as a system, but the use of language according to the rules of language games which connects language thought and world view, especially if some particular usage becomes the commonly accepted norm. This traditional norm also enters argumentative discourse in the form of background assumptions occuring in the premises of arguments. Thus, traditional points of view and prevailing ideologies in a society, even if challenged in discussions, can become reinforced and stabilized. This is illustrated with a critical analysis of the role and function of tautological utterances in argumentative discourse, which only apparently are compelling means of argumentation.