Selective associations in one-day-old rats: Taste–toxicosis and texture–shock aversion learning.

Three experiments investigated cue-consequence specificity and long-delay learning in 187 1-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats and determined whether selective associations are accompanied by long-delay learning early in life. Ss learned aversions to a novel taste paired with Li-induced distress and to a tactile stimulus paired with brief electric shocks. However, aversions did not develop when taste was paired with shock or when the tactile stimulus was paired with Li treatment. The aversions occurred only when Li treatment immediately followed taste exposure and when shock was concurrent with exposure to the tactile stimulus. Findings indicate that selective associations in aversion learning are mediated by innate mechanisms that govern conditioning in the absence of extensive ontogenetic experience and show that selective associations are not sufficient for the occurrence of long-delay learning. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and sex as factors influencing remission duration in African Burkitt's lymphoma

The frequency of Burkitt's lymphoma peaks in children six to nine years of age and is twice as high in males as in females. To determine if age or sex had any relationship to outcome of therapy, the authors examined the experience of 387 patients treated for Burkitt's lymphoma at the Burkitt Tumor Project, Accra, Ghana, between 1966 and 1978. No age or sex relationship could be demonstrated with overall survival. However, among children without central nervous system disease who achieved an initial remission, the relapse rates were higher for those diagnosed initially in the age interval 6-9 years than for those diagnosed at younger or older ages. This pattern was seen for each stage of the disease as well as overall. Sex did not influence relapse rate. The relationship of these findings to the Epstein-Barr virus and malaria, both suspected factors in the etiology of this disease, is discussed, but neither appears to explain our results.     

Separation protest in infants in home and laboratory.

Observations of 12-18 mo old children in their homes showed that they played less, cried more, and remained near the exit longer when left alone with a stranger than when left alone with either parent. Children tested in the laboratory exhibited greater distress than children tested at home when left with the stranger. No differences between being left with mother or father were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incidental learning, noun imagery-concreteness and direction of associations in paired-associate learning.

Examined the effect of imagery-concreteness pairs in incidental learning. In Exp. I with 96 undergraduates, intentional learning was superior to incidental learning. Recall of concrete-concrete noun pairs was significantly better than recall of all other pairs, while concrete-abstract and abstract-concrete nouns did not differ from each other but did differ from abstract-abstract recall. In Exp. II with 64 Ss, instructions to use imagery during the orientation task resulted in similar performance for incidental and intentional learning Ss. Concreteness yielded a greater effect on the stimulus side than on the response side of pairs, particularly for stimulus-response recall. Associative directionality had no reliable effects in either experiment. Results are discussed in terms of A. Paivio's conceptual peg hypothesis and 2-process theory of verbal and imaginal memory. (French summary) (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pharmacokinetics of a Transdermal Nicotine Patch Compared to Nicotine Gum

A new transdermal nicotine delivery system (TBS-NCT)was investigated in laboratory and clinical studies with healthy cigarette smokers. Plasma nicotine concentration time profiles were characterized during and after 24-hr application of three doses of TBS-NCT and during and after a 6-hr regimen of nicotine polacrilex gum. Pharmacokinetic analysis revealed dose-related plasma concentrations for transdermal treatments, bracketing the concentrations obtained from nicotine gum. The TBS-NCT system was also well tolerated during a subsequent 4-week open trial and demonstrated a 40% success rate for smoking cessation during the course of the trial. Overall, the TBS-NCT system appears suitable for once-daily application as an aid in smoking cessation treatments.     

Spectrum of AIDS-associated malignant disorders

BACKGROUND: To clarify which types of cancer result from AIDS, we compared the cancer experiences of people with AIDS with those of the general population by matching population-based cancer and AIDS registries in the USA and Puerto Rico. METHODS: We used a probabilistic matching algorithm to compare names, birth dates, and, where available, social-security numbers of 98,336 people with AIDS and 1,125,098 people with cancer aged less than 70 years. We defined AIDS-related cancers as those with both significantly raised incidence post-AIDS and increasing prevalence from 5 years pre-AIDS to 2 years post-AIDS. FINDINGS: Among people with AIDS, we found 7028 cases of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), 1793 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), and 712 other cases of histologically defined cancer. Incidence rates among people with AIDS were increased 310-fold for KS, 113-fold for NHL, and 1.9-fold (95% CI 1.5-2.3) for other cancers. Of 38 malignant disorders other than KS and NHL, only angiosarcoma (36.7-fold), Hodgkin's disease (7.6-fold), multiple myeloma (4.5-fold), brain cancer (3.5-fold), and seminoma (2.9-fold) were raised and increasing significantly (p<0.02) from the pre-AIDS to the post-AIDS period. INTERPRETATION: Interpretation is complicated by screening and shared risk factors, such as sexual behaviour and cigarette smoking. However, our data indicate that AIDS leads to a significantly increased risk of Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, brain cancer, and seminoma. Immunological failure to control herpes or other viral infections may contribute to these malignant diseases.     

Moral reasoning, classroom behavior, and sociometric status among elementary school children.

Relations among moral reasoning, classroom behavior, and sociometric status were investigated in a sample of 133 2nd and 3rd graders. It was hypothesized that hedonistic and needs-oriented moral reasoning, 2 forms of L. Kohlberg's (1984) Stage 2 moral reasoning, would be differentially related to teachers' ratings of classroom behavior and to sociometric status. Among boys, hedonistic moral reasoning was associated with the lack of social competencies, acting-out behavior, and low social preference. In addition to influencing sociometric status indirectly through social behavior, moral reasoning was found to explain variance in sociometric status not accounted for by either acting out or social competencies. Results support N. Eisenberg's (1986) claim that hedonistic and needs-oriented reasoning are qualitatively distinct. Although both forms of reasoning characterize Kohlberg's Stage 2, it is hedonistic reasoning, not needs-oriented reasoning, that appears to be associated with poor social behavior and, in turn, low sociometric status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The sociocultural relevance of sex research: Challenges for the 1990s and beyond.

This article discusses 6 factors influencing research on sex and reproductive health: (1) the selection of grouping variables on the basis of race; (2) conceptual frameworks to examine sexual risk taking; (3) use of recreational rather than procreation-based models of sex; (4) research designed to control rather than to understand sexual behaviors; (5) use of a dominant, male perspective; and (6) the focus on women to minimize sexual risk taking. The effect of these factors on what is understood about sociocultural, ethnic, gender, and other issues that have yet to be examined is presented, with the ultimate goal of maximizing sexual health for diverse populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnic minorities and tenure.

Presents 10 steps to help colleagues enter or retain tenure-track positions, suggesting that, in order to succeed, the commitment to achieve tenure must be made as soon as one becomes a faculty member. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can one assess whether missing data are missing at random in medical studies?

For handling missing data, newer methods such as those based on multiple imputation are generally more accurate than older ones and entail weaker assumptions. Yet most do assume that data are missing at random (MAR). The issue of assessing whether the MAR assumption holds to begin with has been largely ignored. In fact, no way to directly test MAR is available. We propose an alternate assumption, MAR+, that can be tested. MAR+ always implies MAR, so inability to reject MAR+ bodes well for MAR. In contrast, MAR implies MAR+ not universally, but under certain conditions that are often plausible; thus, rejection of MAR+ can raise suspicions about MAR. Our approach is applicable mainly to studies that are not longitudinal. We present five illustrative medical examples, in most of which it turns out that MAR+ fails. There are limits to the ability of sophisticated statistical methods to correct for missing data. Efforts to try to prevent missing data in the first place should therefore receive more attention in medical studies than they have heretofore attracted. If MAR+ is found to fail for a study whose data have already been gathered, extra caution may need to be exercised in the interpretation of the results.