Concentrations of sex hormones in umbilical-cord blood: their relation to sex and birth order of infants.

In 3 groups of human newborns, 5 sex hormones were assayed from samples of umbilical-cord blood, and concentrations were analyzed by the sex and birth order of the infants. The 5 hormones assayed were testosterone, androstenedione, estrone, estradiol, and progesterone. Concentrations of testosterone were significantly greater in males than females. The other 4 hormones did not differ significantly by sex. In both sexes, firstborns had significantly more progesterone and estrogens, with progesterone showing the largest birth-order effects. Among male infants, firstborns had higher concentrations of testosterone. The higher concentrations of progesterone in firstborns of both sexes, and of testosterone in firstborn boys, were found not to be due to length of labor, birth weight, or maternal age. However, they were a function of temporal spacing of childbirths. Later borns who were closely spaced in relation to their next-older siblings had lower concentrations of hormones. The effect of temporal separation was greater on male than female infants for each of the 5 hormones studied. The results are discussed in terms of the possible effects of hormone "depletion" on the psychological development of closely spaced later borns.     

Rorschach variables and their relationship to WISC-R IQ among children referred

Eighty-eight children ages six to seventeen referred for psychological evaluation had been administered the Rorschach test (Exner system) and the WISC-R, among other tests, for diagnostic purposes. The data were analyzed in order to determine relationships between Rorschach variables and WISC-R IQ levels. Significant relationships were found between groups for the variables FM + m and ep, after which prediction formulas were developed for estimates and use of verbal terminology associated with IQ levels.     

Worldviews and their relation to science

Worldviews are not only about whether God exists or whether the world has a purpose. They can contain a lot more, or they can differ in excluding the existence of God and/or a purpose for the world. In this article we define worldviews as answering a variety of worldview questions, which we list. Once this is recognized, it becomes clear that scientific worldviews are also a species of worldviews that should not be dismissed categorically. We then distinguish between the project of constructing a scientific worldview and asking whether science itself has any worldview content. We argue that science, even when it is characterized quite minimally, does have worldview content. This has some important implications for science education, which we draw.     

Margarita glasses and high heels: How attention to shape,age, and vocabulary impacts children's recognition of typical and atypical exemplars

Children's ability to recognize object shape is foundational for successful early word learning. However, the prototypical shape of objects may not be easily accessible—take margarita glasses, for instance. The current study examined 304 U.S. children 17- to 42-month-old (152 females) from 2017 to 2020, asking how shape, age, and vocabulary abilities predict recognition of everyday objects. Children's ability to recognize objects increases with age and vocabulary, replicating prior work. Moreover, performance was partially moderated by object's typicality and shape features, and children's own attention to shape (shape bias) may mediate the effect, especially with prototypically shaped objects. The current study highlights how both child-specific variables and context features interact to shape language abilities, underscoring the emergent and multi-causal nature of word learning.     

The relation between exposure to sophisticated and complex language and early-adolescent English-only and language minority learners' vocabulary

This study investigated the relation between teachers’ (N = 22) use of sophisticated and complex language in urban middle‐school classrooms and their students’ (mean age at pretest = 11.51 years; N = 782; 568 language minority and 247 English only) vocabulary knowledge. Using videotaped classroom observations, teachers’ speech was transcribed and coded for their total amount of talk, vocabulary usage, and syntactic complexity. Students’ vocabulary skills were assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Results showed variation in students’ vocabulary skills and teachers’ language use. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques revealed that after controlling for classroom and school composition and students’ beginning‐of‐the‐year scores, students’ end‐of‐the‐year vocabulary skills were positively related to teachers’ use of sophisticated vocabulary and complex syntax, but not teachers’ total amount of talk.     

Behavioral expression of learned fear in rats is appropriate to their age at training,not their age at testing

Recent research has shown that learned fear emerges in a response-specific sequence. For example, an odor conditioned stimulus (CS) previously paired with shock elicits behavioral expressions of fear like avoidance at a younger age than it elicits other behavioral expressions of fear like potentiation of the startle response (Richardson, Paxinos, & Lee, 2000). In the present study, the question of whether learned fear is expressed in a manner appropriate to the animal’s age at training or its age at testing was explored in three experiments, all using a within-subjects design. The results suggest that learned fear is expressed in a manner appropriate to the rat’s age at training, not its age at testing. The Discussion section focuses on the implications of these findings for (1) the developmental analysis of memory and (2) the idea that an aversive CS elicits a central state of fear.     

Comparisons of the IQ and vocabulary scores on Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised

The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised were administered to 51 preschool, kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. Although 2 of 4 Pearson correlations between these two instruments were statistically significant, they may not be of practical significance.     

The development of word retrieval abilities in the second year and its relation to early vocabulary growth

The present research investigated the development of word retrieval abilities late in the second year when most children display a marked increase in word production. When asked what was hidden in a given box, children with still quite limited productive vocabularies were reliably less likely to produce the labels of the hidden objects than were children with larger productive vocabularies even though (1) all children could name those objects and (2) all children did well when asked to find those same hidden objects. Additionally, the provision of pictorial cues facilitated word retrieval, especially in the early stage of lexical development. Naming errors during a naturalistic book-reading session peaked in children whose productive vocabularies had recently begun to expand, further suggesting that word retrieval processes undergo significant changes at this time.     

性别、年龄、民族、学习成绩与智商的相关研究

智力通常也叫智慧,也叫智能,它是人认识客观事物并运用知识解决实际问题的能力.经过本研究所得出的结果,可以知道,智力与性别、年龄、民族的相关都不显著;而在对学习成绩的影响方面,智力与语文、数学、物理及总分的相关较高些,且具有显著性,而与英语、历史、化学的相关要低些,且不具有显著性.     

Choice of helpers,types of problems and sex of helpers of college students

A study was conducted to determine what sort of problems beset college students and whether they select different helpers for different problems. A two page questionnaire listing 20 common problems, and 18 different helpers was administered to 80 male and 155 female students at Kuwait University. It was found that males and females differed significantly on six problems (family, self-confidence, behavior, death, work and grades). Different helpers were selected for different types of problems, and for 18 of the 20 problems, males and females chose a same-sex helper. The results are explained within the context of the Arab culture and the implications for counseling are discussed.Paper presented at the meeting of the Fourteenth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Helsinki, Finland, July 1–5, 1990.     

Implicit writing beliefs and their relation to writing quality

Writers have beliefs that may influence engagement during writing and consequently effect writing quality. Students completed a writing beliefs inventory that identified transmissional and transactional beliefs. Transmissional beliefs reflect limited cognitive and affective engagement during writing whereas transactional beliefs reflect higher engagement. Relations between writing beliefs and writing quality were examined with a different group of students. ANOVA results indicated that students with low transactional beliefs scored low on organization and overall writing quality and students with high transactional beliefs scored high on idea-content development, organization, voice, sentence fluency, conventions, and overall writing quality. Results indicate that individuals hold implicit writing beliefs that can be measured and that relate in stable and predictable ways to writing quality.     

水生植物的生态类型及其对水环境的适应

本文介绍了水生植物的主要生态类型,包括挺水植物、沉水植物、浮叶植物和漂浮植物,概述了各类型的生态特点、分布及代表植物,并对水生植物在形态、结构、生长、繁殖等方面对水环境的适应进行了综述。