FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN MOTHERS OF INFANT

This study explored the association between interpersonal factors and depressive symptoms in first-time mothers over the first two years of parenthood. An interpersonal style characterized by dependency, recollections of rejection in childhood, and current relationship characteristics was assessed in a nonclinical sample of 133 women. The final model explained 52% of the variance in depressive symptoms at 24 months. Controlling for initial symptom levels, interpersonal variables explained 24% of the outcome variance. The findings suggest that two interpersonal attributes, peer rejection in childhood and a dependent interpersonal style, are particularly important to our understanding of depressive symptomatology.     

BEHAVIORAL MOMENTUM IN THE TREATMENT OF NONCOMPLIANCE

Behavioral momentum refers to the tendency for behavior to persist following a change in environmental conditions. The greater the rate of reinforcement, the greater the behavioral momentum. The intervention for noncompliance consisted of issuing a sequence of commands with which the subject was very likely to comply (i.e., high-probability commands) immediately prior to issuing a low-probability command. In each of five experiments, the high-probability command sequence resulted in a “momentum” of compliant responding that persisted when a low-probability request was issued. Results showed the antecedent high-probability command sequence increased compliance and decreased compliance latency and task duration. “Momentum-like” effects were shown to be distinct from experimenter attention and to depend on the contiguity between the high-probability command sequence and the low-probability command.     

Developing probability limits for longitudinal physiological data

The objective of this study was to determine what amount of change in heart electrophysiology is necessary to yield a significant difference between a baseline condition and an experimental treatment condition. In a single-subject longitudinal design, a modification of at test was applied to baseline data, and the performance levels for both .05 and .01 probability levels were obtained. It was concluded that it is both ethically sound and physiologically safe to permit a subject in this type of experiment to physiologically respond at levels that would reach both the .05 and the .01 levels of significance.     

Functional activity in the brain of socially deprivated rats produced by an active avoidance test after razobazam (Hoe 175) treatment: a 2-deoxyglucose study

The 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiographic method was used to map metabolic activity in the brain of socially deprivated rats during an active avoidance test. The method investigated the effects of razobazam during this learning test. The animals were socially deprivated for 5 weeks. On the first experimental day the animals were trained to avoid a footshock by jumping onto a platform. During training and testing, the total number of avoidance responses was scored. On the second day during one 2-DG session of 40 min, razobazam increased the avoidance score by 18% as compared to controls. Autoradiographs were analyzed using a two-dimensional densitometric method. The analysis of the brain structures showed a 22% reduction of optical density in the nucleus habenularis lateralis, a 25% increase in the caudal part of the nucleus accumbens, and a 13% increase in the frontal cortex in rats treated with razobazam, but no change in the amygdala. These results provide a preliminary concept to explain how the new compound razobazam produced a better learning performance in socially deprivated rats.     

The Development of the Toddler Behavior Screening Inventory

The purpose of the present study was to develop the Toddler Behavior Screening Inventory (TBSI) for rapidly assessing maternal reports of toddler behavior problems. The TBSI is a 40-item measure intended for use by pediatricians, psychologists, and other child-care professionals. A group of mothers (n = 312) rated the initial 93-item TBSI in terms of behavior frequency and parental perception of the behavior as problematic. Following item elimination, 40 items were retained due to being both frequent and problematic at all toddler age levels. Data were obtained with a new sample of mothers (n = 581) and showed the TBSI to possess good reliability and validity.     

The effect of phonemic processing on the retention of graphemic representations for words and nonwords

The three experiments reported in this study were each conducted in two phases. The first phase of Experiment 1 involved a same-different comparison task requiring “same” responses for both mixed-case (e.g., MAIN main) and pure-case (e.g., near near) pairs. This was followed by Phase 2, a surprise recognition test in which a graphemic effect on word retention was indicated by the superior recognition accuracy obtained for pure-case compared with mixed-case pairs. The first phases of Experiments 2 and 3 involved pronounceability and imageability judgment tasks, respectively. Graphemic retention was assessed by contrasting recognition accuracy for letter strings presented, during Phase 2, in their original Phase 1 case, with letter strings presented, during Phase 2, in. a graphemically dissimilar new case. The experiments provided evidence that there was minimal retention of the graphemic representations from which the phonemic representations of words are generated and, further, that the locus of this effect is probably postlexical. Nonwords were recognized more accurately than words in all three experiments. The latter result was attributed to differences between nonwords and words in both graphemic retention and semantic distinctiveness.     

Cholinergic system in the toad's (Bufo bufo L.) visual system

The brain structures mediating the prey-catching behavior of the toad have been described in earlier studies but none of these studies has identified the transmitter systems in the optic tectum responsible for this behavior. Behavioral tests with different test compounds provide evidence that the cells responsible for the orienting, jumping, and snapping behaviors associated with feeding in toads are normally inhibited by cholinergic synapses.     

Age differences in the temporal locus of memory organization in children's recall

Age differences in when (i.e., at input or output) children organize information for recall were investigated in terms of a model specifying that information organized at input is more resistant to forgetting over time than information not organized at input. In Experiment 1, recall of items from categorically related and unrelated lists was assessed either immediately or after a 4-min delay. For 9-year-olds, the effect of delay was comparable for the related and unrelated lists, indicative of spontaneous organization at time of output. In contrast, 13-year-olds showed a significantly smaller delay effect with related than with unrelated lists, indicative of spontaneous organization at time of input. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that, for 9-year-olds, high levels of clustering in and of themselves do not eliminate effects of delayed testing characteristic of output organization, and that when 9-year-olds are biased to organize information at input, delay effects are reduced only when measures are taken to ensure that all the category labels are retrieved.     

Interaction between catecholaminergic and opioid systems in an active avoidance task

Male NMRI mice were given intravenous injections of the noradrenergic neurotoxin DSP4 or the vehicle 24 to 72 h prior behavioral testing. Animals were given 2 days of training on a one-way active avoidance task. Naloxone was given in one of three doses prior to training on Day 1 and Day 2 or prior to training on Day 1 only (saline was given prior to training on Day 2). There was a dose-dependent impairment of acquisition by naloxone in the vehicle-pretreated groups; 10 mg/kg naloxone produced a significant impairment of acquisition. Naloxone also modulated retention (Day 2) performance of the active avoidance task. For vehicle-pretreated mice, 1 mg/kg naloxone facilitated and 10 mg/kg naloxone-impaired performance on Day 2. DSP4 alone produced an impairment of acquisition of this task but had no effect on retention; Day 2 scores were slightly higher in the DSP4-pretreated group than in the vehicle-pretreated group. Naloxone produced somewhat different effects in DSP4-pretreated animals than in vehicle-pretreated animals. Naloxone (1 mg/kg) ameliorated the DSP4-induced impairment of acquisition; 10 mg/kg naloxone did not significantly alter the acquisition performance of this group. For the DSP4-pretreated mice that received naloxone before training on both days, the dose-response characteristics for retention scores were similar to those of vehicle-pretreated mice; 1 mg/kg naloxone was the facilitatory dose. However, for DSP4-treated mice that received naloxone before training on Day 1 only, there was a shift to the right in the effective facilitatory dose of naloxone. For these animals, 10 mg/kg naloxone but not 1 mg/kg naloxone significantly enhanced retention performance. We discuss these results in the context of a possible state-dependent modulation by naloxone in the DSP4-treated animals.     

Correlation between trait hostility and faster reading times for sentences describing angry reactions to ambiguous situations

The hypothesis that trait anger is associated with an increased tendency to interpret ambiguous situations as anger-provoking was investigated in a reading time study. A total of 48 healthy volunteers read a series of short narrative passages and were asked to adopt the perspective of the main character, identified at the start of each passage. Reading times for key sentences, which described the main characters' angry or nonangry reactions to ambiguous anger-provoking situations, were recorded. Trait anger and impulsivity were negatively correlated with reading time for sentences describing both types of reaction, but anger was also correlated with relatively faster processing of sentences describing angry reactions. This study suggests that those with angrier dispositions are more likely to anticipate angry reactions from others.