Problem-solving strategies on a partial reinforcement task: Effects of socioeconomic status and cognitive level

Differences in performance between lower- and middle-class children on partial reinforcement tasks have often been attributed to motivational differences between the groups. An alternate hypothesis suggests that different environmental experiences have resulted in differences in familiarity with problem-solving tasks. Both of these hypotheses have generated research; neither has received clear-cut support. A third hypothesis is that there is a developmental lag in the lower class so that equating the two groups on chronological age confounds the social class by cognitive-level interaction. In the present study, children were matched on cognitive abilities (preoperational, transitional, and concrete operational) and administered a partial reinforcement task. The main hypotheses that social-class differences would not be found but that cognitive level differences in success on the task and in problem-solving strategies would be found were supported. Implications were made concerning a developmental learning model that includes both qualitative and quantitative changes in abilities.     

Development of relational learning: Effects of instruction and delay of transfer

Preschool children were trained on a color relevant oddity problem by one of three methods: increased salience of the oddity relationship, instruction on the solution rule, or a combination of increased salience and rule instruction. The youngest Ss solved the training problem when the solution rule was provided but not under the salience procedure. The two older groups solved in all conditions and errors decreased with age. The generality of the solution was determined by performance on a form relevant transfer task. The youngest Ss made fewer errors on the transfer problem following rule instruction training than following training in the combined procedure. The intermediate age group made fewer errors when the transfer task was administered one week after training than one minute after training. The transfer problem was easily solved by the oldest Ss and performance was independent of training procedure and amount of delay. These results were interpreted as reflecting developmental differences in relational concept learning.     

Cleaning the plate: food left by overweight and normal weight persons.

The amount of food left on trays after a clinner meal in a university cafeteria was measured for 146 persons. Half of the subjects were overweight and half were normal weight. Overweight women left significantly less food on their trays than did women of normal weight. Among men, the overweight also left less food but the difference did not reach significance. These findings suggest that food left over must be measured in estimating food intake from food choice, that behavior therapy injunctions to leave food on the plate are justified, and that obesity may be, at least in part, a result of learned patterns of behavior.     

Vocational development in early childhood: An examination of young children's expressions of vocational aspirations

Vocational aspirations were investigated in a sample of 282 children between the ages of 3 and 6. Age comparisons suggested that one aspect of vocational development in early childhood involves mastery of the task of projecting oneself into the future and conceiving of oneself as one day achieving adult status. Race comparisons indicated that urban blacks were less mature than urban whites in terms of mastery of the vocational projective task seen as characteristic of this developmental period. No significant sex differences were found in rate of development. However, there were indications that the pattern of vocational projection differs for males and females and that females undergo occupational foreclosure earlier than their male peers. Implications for vocational development theories are discussed.     

Does experienced pain affects local brain volumes? Insights from a clinical acute pain model

Background/Objective:To study pain-brain morphometry associations as a function of post-surgery stages (anesthesia, pain and analgesia) in an acute pain model. Method:Impacted mandible third molar were extracted. Before surgery, an anatomical T1 scan was obtained. Regional brain volumen and subcortical nuclei shapes were obtained. Statistical analyses were done using multiple regression, being pain scores the predictors and voxel volumes, subcortical nuclei volumes and subcortical nuclei shapes, the outcomes. Results:Pain was significantly larger at pain than at anesthesia and analgesia stages, and was higher during anesthesia than during analgesia. Pain intensity was related to grey matter in several cortical (Insula, Mid Frontal and Temporal Gyruses, Precuneus, Anterior Cingulate), and subcortical nuclei (Hippocampus, Thalamus, Putamen, Amygdala), depending of the post-surgical stage. A larger number of brain areas showed significance at pain that at anesthesia and analgesia stages. Conclusions:The relationships of regional brain volumes and subcortical nuclei shapes with pain scores seemed to be unsteady, as they changed with the patient's actual pain stage.