Effects of maze geometry and experience on exploratory behavior in the rat

Rats were exposed twice in a rotated sequence to a series of six mazes, consisting of hexagonal alleys, balanced for different alley length and structural complexity. Locomotor activity increased with alley length and decreased with structural complexity of the mazes. Locomotion became less stereotyped with increased experience, showing an increasing number of turns, less constant velocity, loss of the initial preference for outward leading alleys and weakening of the forward tendency at reentry from side alleys into hexagonal alleys. In contrast to these qualitative changes of locomotion, the amount of activity remained almost unchanged throughout the experiment. The results suggest that these increases in locomotion complexity depend upon complex interactions between experience and stimulus content of the mazes.     

Adolescents earlier diagnosed as dyslexic show major IQ declines on the WISC-III

Adolescents (n=43) previously diagnosed as dyslexic/reading disabled had markedly lower IQ scores on the newly standardized Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) than on the earlier administered WISC-R. The declines for Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs were 10, 12, and 11 points, respectively, which were twice as great as in a subset of the standardization sample given both versions of the WISC. The adolescents did not show a significant decline in standard scores from the Wide Range Achievement Test (Level I to Level II). However, only two subjects had current reading and spelling standard scores above the 25th percentile. The impact of lower WISC-III IQs on guidelines for classification of students as learning disabled is discussed.     

Psychosocial correlates of child abuse potential in multiply disadvantaged adolescent mothers

OBJECTIVE: This study had two aims: First to examine psychosocial correlates of child maltreatment risk, and second to assess the validity of the CAP Inventory (Milner, 1986) with multiply disadvantaged teenage mothers. METHOD: Participants were 75 adolescent mothers who were wards of the Illinois child protection system. Mothers (aged 14-18) and infants participated in home-based psychosocial assessment of personal and parenting functioning. Group comparisons examined differences for mothers with elevated versus normal versus invalid CAP scores due to faking good. RESULTS: Findings indicated that abuse risk groups differed on emotional distress, social support satisfaction, reading achievement, and years of education, but not on parenting beliefs or quality of child stimulation. Differences favored the normal over the elevated risk group in all significant comparisons, whereas mothers with elevated faking good differed from normals only in lower reading achievement. Multiple regression analysis highlighted emotional distress, support dissatisfaction, and low achievement as significant predictors of greater abuse risk. CONCLUSIONS: Despite sharing multiple disadvantages, adolescent wards are a heterogeneous group who show different levels of psychosocial functioning corresponding to levels of child maltreatment risk. The findings provide support for the concurrent validity and clinical applicability of the CAP Inventory with disadvantaged teenage mothers.     

Innovative moments and narrative change in career counselling: a case study

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This case study of an undecided university student has two aims: to assess the effect of life design career counselling on...     

On the Number of Cycles in Randomly Selected Permutations

In this article we derive the distribution, mean and variance of the number of cycles in a randomly selected permutation of the first n integers.