Organization of behavior in unfamiliar female rabbits

Under natural conditions, female European rabbits usually spend the whole of their life in their natal groups, establishing a network of stable relationships with their group-mates, particularly with other females. Indeed, female social interactions with groupmates are ultimately responsible for the dimension, structure, and cohesion of the group itself. Despite their importance in social organization, non-reproductive female behaviors are poorly known. This study aims to provide information on the nature and distribution of these behaviors in familiar and unfamiliar milieux. For this purpose, female rabbits unfamiliar with each other were experimentally grouped, housed in outdoor enclosures new to them, and observed as they gradually familiarized with their environment and group-mates. When females were unfamiliar with both environment and group-mates, they would often mark objects (but never conspecifics) and engage in agonistic activities, preceded by approach and olfactory investigation. Once females had become familiar with their environment and group-mates, they spent a lot of time eating and self-grooming. Marking frequency decreased, and agonistic behavior became rare and appeared no longer related to introductory behaviors, which under these conditions led to amiable interactions, such as lying side by side with group-mates or grooming them. Under both unfamiliar and familiar conditions, high-ranking females appeared more active and interactive than low-ranking ones.     

Main and interaction effects of metallic toxins on aggressive classroom behavior

The present study investigated possible relationships of metal levels and metal combinations to children's aggressive classroom behavior. Hair-metal concentrations of lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and aluminum were determined in 80 randomly selected elementary-age children. Each child was also rated by his classroom teacher on the acting-out subscale of the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist. Parents of subjects were interviewed to control for confounding variables that may affect behavioral development. Regression data indicated that the set of metals was significantly related to increased scores on the acting-out subscale (P < 0.07) with lead being the major contributor (P < 0.05), and the metal combinations were also significantly related to increased acting-out scores (P < 0.01) with the interaction of lead-cadmium being the major contributor (P < 0.001). A continuing reexamination of metal-poisoning concentrations is needed, because metal levels and metal combinations previously thought harmless may be associated with aggressive classroom behavior.     

A Psychometric Study of 150 Adult Delinquents

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that cooperative and competitive behavior strategies affect attitudes toward success, 147 male and female adults (age range 16 to 51 years) wrote stories in response to a modification of Horner's (1972) success cue and completed a personality trait list for their cue figure. Subjects were given one of four cues that varied sex of cue figure (Anne vs. John) and behavioral strategy (cooperative vs. competitive). Both measures yielded differences as a function of the strategy variable, with significantly more positive stories written in response to the cooperative strategy cue than to the competitive strategy cue (p < .001), and significant differences between the strategy cues on 26 of 40 personality traits. Although sex differences were predicted, no differences were found as a function of sex of subject or sex of cue figure.     

Evluation of the Homework Problem Checklist with Students with Behavior Disorders

In response to the call for educational reform, educators are beginning to review their programs and implement new instructional strategies such as homework programs to enhance the academic performance of students. Naturally, reliable and valid assessment instruments will be needed to identify students experiencing homework difficulties. The purpose of this study was to determine the inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of the Homework Problem Checklist (HPC) (Anesko, Schoiock, Ramirez, & Levine. 1987) for use with students with behavior disorders (BD). Fifty-one pairs of teachers and parents of students with BD completed the rating scale describing students' homework problems. The HPC demonstrated low to moderate levels of inter-rater reliability. Acceptable levels of internal consistency were reported for both teacher and parent ratings.     

Gene–environment interdependence

The modern understanding of genetic influences, of environmental effects, of mental disorder, and of heritabilities is noted. The practical utility of finding susceptibility genes with a very small effect is questioned. The empirical findings and implications of developmental perturbations, epigenetics, gene–environment correlations and interactions are then discussed. It is noted that the genes involved in gene–environment interactions may be concerned with susceptibility to all environments and not just adverse ones.     

Induced Rotational Motion With Nonabutting Inducing and Induced Stimuli: Implications Regarding Two Forms of Induced Motion

Induced motion is the illusory motion of a static stimulus in the opposite direction to a moving stimulus. Two types of induced motion have been distinguished: (a) when the moving stimulus is distant from the static stimulus and undergoes overall displacement, and (b) when the moving stimulus is pattern viewed within fixed boundaries that abut the static stimulus. Explanations of the 1st type of induced motion refer to mediating phenomena, such as vection, whereas the 2nd type is attributed to local processing by motion-sensitive neurons. The present research was directed to a display that elicited induced rotational motion with the characteristics of both types of induced motion: the moving stimulus lay within fixed boundaries, but the inducing and induced stimuli were distant from each other. The author investigated the properties that distinguished the two types of induced motion. In 3 experiments, induced motion persisted indefinitely, inter-ocular transfer of the aftereffect of induced motion was limited to about 20%, and the time-course of the aftereffect of induced motion could not be attributed to vection. Those results were consistent with fixed-boundary induced motion. However, they could not be explained by local processing. Instead, the results might reflect the detection of object motion within a complex flow-field that resulted from the observer's motion.     

Studies of a Child. I

The authors examined the relationship between newborn neurobehavioral profiles and the characteristics of early mother-infant interaction in Nagasaki, Japan. The authors administered the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS; T. B. Brazelton &; J. K. Nugent, 1995) in the newborn period and the Nursing Child Assessment Teaching Scale at 1 month (NCATS; G. Sumner &; A. Spietz, 1994). They administered the Perceived Stress Scale (S. Cohen, T. Kamarck, &; R. Mermelstein, 1983) as an index of maternal stress experienced over the past month. Lower irritability, higher stability in skin coloration, and lower tremulousness in the neonatal period were correlated with higher levels of maternal nurturing behaviors at 1 month. Birth weight and 2 NBAS range-of-state items (peak of excitement, irritability) predicted 31% of the variance in NCATS caregiver subscale score. The NBAS autonomic stability items (tremulousness, startles, lability of skin color) predicted 31% of the variance in the NCATS child subscale score. Perceived stress and maternal sociodemographic variables (education, income, age, parity) were not associated with child, caregiver, and total scores on the NCATS. The results suggested that lack of autonomic stability in Japanese neonates might serve as an early indicator of infant frailty, negative behavioral cues, and decreased maternal responsiveness.     

Remote effects of aversive contingencies: Disruption of appetitive behavior by adjacent avoidance sessions

Disruption of ongoing appetitive behavior before and after daily avoidance sessions was examined. After baselines of appetitive responding were established under a fixed-interval 180-s schedule of food presentation, 4 rats were exposed to 40-min sessions of the appetitive schedule just prior to 100-min sessions of electric shock postponement, while another 4 rats received the 40-min appetitive sessions just following daily sessions of shock postponement. In all 8 subjects, fixed-interval response rates decreased relative to baseline levels, the effect being somewhat more pronounced when the avoidance sessions immediately followed. The disruption of fixed-interval responding was only partially reversed when avoidance sessions were discontinued. During the initial exposure to the avoidance sessions, patterns of responding under the fixed-interval schedule were differentially sensitive to disruption, with high baseline response rates generally more disturbed than low rates. These disruptions were not systematically related to changes in reinforcement frequency, which remained fairly high and invariant across all conditions of the experiment; they were also not systematically related to the response rates or to the shock rates of the adjacent avoidance sessions. The results, while qualitatively resembling patterns of conditioned suppression as typically studied, occurred on a greatly expanded time scale. As disruption of behavior extending over time, the present data suggest that some forms of conditioned suppression are perhaps best viewed within a larger temporal context.     

Mother-child relationships of children with ADHD: the role of maternal depressive symptoms and depression-related distortions

We investigated the DepressionDistortion hypothesis by examining the effects of maternal depressive symptoms on cross-informant discrepancies in reports of child behavior problems and several measures of parent–child relationship. The sample included ninety-six 6 to 10-year-old children diagnosed with ADHD-Combined Type, and their mothers, who provided baseline data before participating in a randomized clinical trial. Measures incorporated child characteristics, self-reports of maternal depressive symptoms, parenting practices, and laboratory mother–child interactions. Elevations in maternal depressive symptoms were associated with maternal reports of negative parenting style but not with observed laboratory interactions. Mothers' levels of depressive symptoms predicted negative biases in their reports of their child's ADHD symptoms, general behavior problems, and their own negative parenting style. Whereas levels of depressive symptoms did not predict observed parenting behaviors, maternal distortions did predict problematic parent–child interactions. Exploratory analyses showed a marginally significant mediation effect of the relationship between maternal depressive symptomatology and reports of negative parenting by depressive distortions. We discuss implications of linkages between depressive symptoms in mothers, depression-related distortions, and mother–child relationships for research and intervention in developmental psychopathology.     

Teacher-student interactions in fifth grade classrooms: Relations with children's peer behavior

This study investigates the extent to which teacher-student interactions in fifth grade classrooms are associated with peer behavior in fifth grade, accounting for prior peer functioning. Participants included 894 fifth grade students from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. The quality of teacher-student interactions (emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support) was assessed through classroom observations in fifth grade; peer behavior was assessed via teacher report (prosocial behavior, aggression, relational aggression, and asocial behavior) in fourth and fifth grades and classroom observations (sociable/cooperative peer behavior) in third and fifth grades. Multiple regression analyses revealed that children in fifth grade classrooms with higher quality organization interactions had more positive observed interactions with their peers and lower teacher ratings of aggression and relational aggression. In addition, emotional support interactions were related to higher teacher ratings of prosocial behavior. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.