Inhibition and axial deviation of limb regeneration in the newt by means of a digit implanted into the amputated limb

This research was designed to follow up the observation of Thornton and Kraemer ('51) that regressed, denervated limbs of Ambystoma larvae will not regenerate upon reinnervation if all digits on the limbs were not completely resorbed. The object of this experiment was to determine whether the presence of an apical structure, protruding past the amputation surface, would affect the regenerative process. Both forearms of adult newts were amputated midway between the elbow and the wrist. One limb served as a normal regeneration control, and in the other limb the third digit from the removed hand was implanted in place of the removed radius, so that the three distal phalangeal segments protruded past the plane of amputation. Blastema formation in the experimental limbs was delayed by several weeks as compared with control limbs. Approximately one third of the experimental limbs did not regenerate. The regenerates that did form were strongly deviated (45-90 degrees) radially from the longitudinal axis of the limb. Experimental analysis showed that the delay in regeneration is due largely to the projecting part of the digit. The radial deviation of the regenerates is not due to the digital implant, but rather to the removal of the radius. Trauma alone does not account for this phenomenon.     

Effect of interview information in altering valid impressions.

Presents the results of a study extending some of the variables of impression formation to a simulated employment interview setting. Life insurance agency managers evaluated 8 hypothetical job applicants 9 different times based on 9 different sets of information varying in favorability. 3 treatment conditions appear to have affected interviewers' evaluations: (a) valid test results (14%), (b) favorability of subjective personal history (12%), and (c) a combination of different types and amounts of information (11%). A primacy effect was found for unfavorable but not favorable information; unfavorable information had a recency effect when presented with favorable. Thus, the effect of subjective interview information in altering valid impressions is dependent on the amount, kind, and order in which it is presented. (30 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's and adults' recognition of spontaneous and posed emotional expressions in young children.

Investigated the degree to which 4–5 yr olds (n?=?48) can enact expressions of emotion recognizable by peers and adults; the study also examined whether accuracy of recognition was a function of age and whether the expression was posed or spontaneous. Adults (n?=?103) were much more accurate than children in recognizing neutral states, slightly more accurate in recognizing happiness and anger, and equally accurate in recognizing sadness. Children's spontaneous displays of happiness were more recognizable than posed displays, but for other emotions there was no difference between the recognizability of posed and spontaneous expressions. Children were highly accurate in identifying the facial expressions of happiness, sadness, and anger displayed by their peers. Sex and ethnicity of the child whose emotion was displayed interacted to influence only adults' recognizability of anger. Results are discussed in terms of the social learning and cognitive developmental factors influencing (a) adults' and children's decoding (recognition) of emotional expressions in young children and (b) encoding (posing) of emotional expressions by young children. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crash injury prediction model

Automobile crash injury was analyzed using data from the Crash Performance Injury Report (CPIR) for crashes which occurred since 1 January 1970 involving 1969 or newer cars, vans and pickup trucks. An injury prediction model was developed using delta V, vehicle weight, occupant age, seating position, crash configuration, and restraint usage to predict expected AIS. Expected AIS was then used to estimate the probability of death and severe injury. The model estimates were found to approximate the observed probability of death and severe injury from the National Crash Severity Study (NCSS) data file.     

The management of Stress Management: A decade of the journal.

It has been more than four years since the last of my infrequent editorials in the International Journal of Stress Management (IJSM) and nearly a decade since my first (Carlson, 1998b). I am writing to you at this time first to inform you of a change in editorship, then to summarize a few high points of the past 10 years of IJSM as they relate to its management and future. My focus will be on matters dear to journal editors and useful to submitters and subscribers concerning submissions, content, and editorial activity, since such issues determine journal policy and direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching high school students to use heuristics while reading historical texts.

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of different types of instruction and texts on high schools students' learning of (a) history content and (b) a set of heuristics that historians use to think critically about texts. Participants for the study were 128 male and 118 female students, ages 16 and 17 years, from 2 high schools in the western United States. Eight history classrooms were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 interventions: (a) traditional textbooks and content instruction, (b) traditional textbooks and heuristic instruction, (c) multiple texts and content instruction, or (d) multiple texts and heuristic instruction. The heuristic instruction explicitly taught sourcing, corroboration, and contextualization. Students were administered pretests on their content knowledge and their use of heuristics. After an intervention of 3 weeks, students were readministered the content knowledge and heuristics posttests. A mixed-model analysis of covariance indicated that across all conditions, students who read multiple texts scored higher on history content and used sourcing and corroboration more often than students who read traditional textbook material. Findings highlight the importance of reading multiple texts to deepen content knowledge and facilitate the use of heuristics that historians typically use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do our methods lead to insomniacs' madness?: Daytime testing after laboratory and home-based polysomnographic studies

Complaints of daytime dysfunction are common among chronic insomniacs, but laboratory comparisons of insomniacs and age-matched and gender-matched normal controls have generally failed to document these complaints. However, a few studies, which allowed subjects to sleep in their homes on the nights before daytime testing, have shown some relative diurnal deficits among insomniacs. The current study compared the effects of nocturnal laboratory and home polysomnogram (PSG) studies on subsequent daytime test results among older insomniacs and normal sleepers. Insomniacs (n = 32) and normal sleepers (n = 32) were randomly assigned to first undergo three nights of nocturnal PSG monitoring either in the sleep laboratory (16 insomniacs, 16 normal sleepers) or in their homes (16 insomniacs, 16 normal sleepers). Following the third night of PSG monitoring, subjects spent 1 day in the sleep laboratory, where they completed a four-trial multiple sleep latency test along with four trials of a computer-administered performance test battery. Results showed that insomniacs, as a group, were slightly, albeit consistently, sleepier than were normal sleepers following nights of home sleep monitoring, but a reverse of this trend was found among subjects who underwent nocturnal laboratory PSG before daytime testing. Furthermore, normal sleepers showed faster reaction times on a signal detection task than did insomniacs within the subgroup who underwent home PSGs prior to such testing. However, within the subgroup that underwent nocturnal laboratory PSGs, insomniacs' signal detection reaction times were significantly faster than those shown by normal sleepers. Results provide some support for the speculation that the nocturnal PSG monitoring site, used as a precursor to daytime testing, may systematically affect daytime comparisons between insomniacs and matched controls. Moreover, these results suggest that the use of home-based nocturnal PSG monitoring prior to daytime testing may provide an enhanced understanding of insomniacs' diurnal complaints.