The role of vision in maternal attachment: Giving 2-year-olds a photograph of their mother during separation.

After being separated from their mothers, 48 Ss (20–30 mo old) were given either an unrecognizable or a sharply focused photograph of their mother to carry with them in an unfamiliar playroom. A female escort either correctly identified the photograph for the Ss, mislabeled it as a picture of a stranger, or gave it no verbal label. Ss with a clear photograph played, explored, and remained in the playroom longer than those presented with a blurred image. They also held, looked at, and spontaneously named the picture more. The verbal labels exerted no effects on separation behaviors or on responses directed toward the photographs. Results indicate that visual perception alone can suffice to provide Ss as young as 20 mo with some of the functional properties of their mother. (71 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grandmothers' responsibility in raising two-year olds facilitates their grandchildren's adaptive behavior: A preliminary intrafamilial investigation of mothers' and maternal grandmothers' effects.

To investigate the extent to which the presence of their maternal grandmother might facilitate independent and adaptive responding, 2-year-old children were observed in a novel environment. Although the two-year-olds' extent of exploration and amount of time spent in a playroom were significantly greater when their mother was present than when an unfamiliar person was present, the grandmother's functional characteristics were on an intermediate level between those of the mother and those of the unfamiliar person. However, the more responsibilities that grandmothers reported customarily assuming for their grandchildren, the more similarly the children in the playroom reacted to their mothers and grandmothers. Extended involvement by a sensitive grandmother may enhance her grandchild's relationship with her. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The presence of security blankets or mothers (or both) affects distress during pediatric examinations.

Because of parental interference, some pediatricians prefer examining children without parents nearby. Can inanimate, noninterfering attachment agents placate children during medical evaluations? Accompanied through random assignment by their mother, blanket, mother plus blanket, or no supportive agent, 64 blanket-attached or blanket-nonattached 3-year-olds underwent 4 routine medical procedures. Behavioral and physiological measures showed that mothers and blankets (for children attached to them) equally mitigated distress compared with no supportive agents. However, simultaneously presenting attachment agents did not produce additive soothing effects. For comforting blanket-attached children during moderately upsetting medical procedures, blankets can function as appropriate maternal substitutes. Distress evidenced by children with no attachment agent demonstrates the undesirability of conducting medical examinations without supportive agents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Utilizing expectancies in alcoholism treatment.

35 veterans who participated in an assertion training program as part of their treatment for alcoholism completed the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ; [S. A. Brown et al; see PA, Vol 65:1217]) and self-evaluations of social competence. The participants were rated on social interaction skills by an independent observer during their initial and final training sessions. Analyses indicated significant relations between the Social and Physical Pleasure scale of the AEQ and improvement in Ss' social competence. Findings provide modest support for the utility of incorporating alcohol expectancies in treatment allocation decisions and suggest that targeting certain expectancies may optimize treatment effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal punitiveness as affected by situational stress: An experimental analogue of child abuse.

To test hypothesized variables involved in punishment and child abuse, 2 techniques were used to increase child-dependent and child-independent situational demands placed on mothers in a controlled laboratory situation while they monitored their children's performances. 10 23–29 yr old mothers and their 4–8 yr old children participated in concurrent tasks. Whether these stressors were directly related to their children's behaviors or independent of them, heightened stress resulted in increases in punitiveness toward the children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental discipline as affected by the sex of the parent, the sex of the child, and the child's apparent responsiveness to discipline.

40 parents (mean age 31 yrs) were made to believe they were teaching their children (mean age 55.7 mo) a task by selecting rewarding and punishing consequences for the children's successes and errors. The children actually had been separated from their parents, and their "responding" was electromechanically controlled. Initially, responses were 50% successful on the trials, independent of their parents' disciplinary strategies. Next, successes were manipulated to be contingent on parents' selection of high, and later low, levels of punishment following errors. Finally, no successful responses were given regardless of parents' administration of discipline. The children's simulated responding was found to exert functional control over the intensities of punishments that their parents administered. Furthermore, parents' and children's gender and the children's apparent responsiveness to the parents' disciplinary strategies combined to determine the manner in which punishers and rewards were given by the parents. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rewarding and punishing by mothers: The influence of progressive changes in the quality of their sons' apparent behavior.

30 mothers (Ms [24–45 yrs old]), separated from their sons (4–7.5 yrs old), were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions in which the proportion of their children's correct to incorrect responses on a learning task appeared to vary systematically. The boys' (Bs) performances either progressively improved, declined, or remained stable over 90 trials. Signals from the researchers defined successes and errors for which Ms respectively presented or removed up to 9 candies. Systematic trends in Bs' simulated responses exerted differential control over Ms' patterns of reward and punishment. When performances improved, the magnitude of reward increased while the intensity of punishment did not change. In the stable-response condition, patterns of both reward and punishment remained unchanged over trials. When Bs' performances appeared to decline, the magnitudes of both reward and punishment increased. At times, Ms chose neither to reward nor to punish; on these rare occasions, errors were more often overlooked than were successes. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grandmothers' and mothers' disciplining in three-generational families: The role of social responsibility in rewarding and punishing grandchildren.

To compare disciplinary reactions within families spanning 3 generations, 24 maternal grandmothers (aged 43–69 yrs) and 24 mothers (aged 25–44 yrs) independently chose rewarding and punishing consequences for their 4–8 yr old childrens' correct and incorrect responses. The childrens' behaviors were experimentally controlled so that the proportion of correct responses continually appeared to decrease. As the quality of responding worsened from 80 to 50% successes, mothers and grandmothers increased both reward and punitive intensities. When successes subsequently decreased to 20%, mothers continued increasing the intensities of rewards and punishments but grandmothers, instead, leveled off. Results extend earlier findings with mothers and their sons to mother–daughter and grandmother–grandchild disciplinary interactions. Grandmothers' and mothers' disciplining was more similar than different, but the differences that were found tended to favor the stereotype that grandmothers are more giving, less punitive, and more forgiving than are mothers. The intensities of both reward and punishment by the grandmothers were related to the level of personal responsibility that they assumed for their grandchildren. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synchronous colon primaries have the same prognosis as solitary colon cancers

The production of recombinant baculoviruses usually employs cotransfection of insect tissue-culture cells with viral and transfer-plasmid DNAs. The preparation and storage of viral and plasmid DNAs suitable for optimal transfection of insect cells are discussed. Electroporation, calcium-phosphate, and lipofection transfection techniques are presented with a discussion of their relative advantages. The rates of recombinant virus formation are compared using viral infection/plasmid transfection protocols versus cotransfection of cells with transfer-plasmid and viral DNAs.