Lack of effect of specific sodium hunger on learned aversions to sodium and sucrose

Frumkin (1975) reported that sodium-deficient rats fail to learn taste aversions to NaCl. However, those rats were sodium-deficient at the time of testing as well as at the time of training; any learned aversion could have been masked by a strong sodium hunger. Rats were made temporarily sodium-hungry by injections of Formalin or aldosterone. They were then poisoned after drinking both an NaCl and a sucrose solution. Several days later they were tested for learned aversions. Rats trained under the influence of aldosterone did not differ from controls. Rats trained under the influence of Formalin acquired slightly weaker aversions to both NaCl and sucrose. Thus there is no evidence that sodium deficiency alters the associability of NaCl with poison.     

Relations between sociocultural pressures and weight control behavior among early adolescent boys

Guided by the biopsychosocial model, we examined (a) the prevalence of weight control behaviors (WCBs; i.e., trying to stay the same weight, lose weight, gain weight, or do nothing about weight) among early adolescent boys by race/ethnicity and grade level, and (b) how the boys’ perceptions of sociocultural pressures (from parents, peers, and media) to lose weight, gain weight, exercise, and diet predicted their WCBs while accounting for body composition and grade level. Early adolescent boys ( n = 508) in middle schools completed survey measures of WCB and sociocultural pressures and objective assessment of body mass index as body composition. Multinomial logistic regressions revealed that sixth graders were more likely than seventh and eighth graders to be trying to lose weight. Moreover, greater pressure to gain weight and lower pressure to exercise predicted a greater likelihood of trying to gain weight. The significant roles of grade levels and different sociocultural pressures in predicting WCBs suggest that health professionals and school staff should consider these factors when intervening with early adolescent boys.     

Reading, ‘Righting’, and Arithmetic for the Cerebral Palsied Child: A Therapeutic Approach for the Classroom Teacher

U.S. legislation requires teachers to provide programs for children with CNS deficits, when many teachers are ill‐prepared for the special circumstances under which these children learn. This article seeks to help teachers working with children with cerebral palsy.     

Assessment of progressively delayed prompts on guided skill learning in rats

We examined the controlling factors that allow a prompted skill to become autonomous in a discrete-trials implementation of Touchette’s (1971) progressively delayed prompting procedure, but our subjects were rats rather than children with disabilities. Our prompted skill was a left-right lever-press sequence guided by two panel lights. We manipulated (a) the effectiveness of the guiding lights prompt and (b) the presence or absence of a progressively delayed prompt in four groups of rats. The less effective prompt yielded greater autonomy than the more effective prompt. The ability of the progressively delayed prompt procedure to produce behavioral autonomy depended upon characteristics of the obtained delay (trial duration) rather than on the pending prompt. Sequence accuracy was reliably higher in unprompted trials than in prompted trials, and this difference was maintained in the 2 groups that received no prompts but yielded equivalent trial durations. Overall sequence accuracy decreased systematically as trial duration increased. Shorter trials and their greater accuracy were correlated with higher overall reinforcement rates for faster responding. Waiting for delayed prompts (even if no actual prompt was provided) was associated with lower overall reinforcement rate by decreasing accuracy and by lengthening trials. These findings extend results from previous studies regarding the controlling factors in delayed prompting procedures applied to children with disabilities.     

Exploring Relational and Individualistic Counseling Preferences of Culturally Diverse College Students

This exploratory study examined the influence of gender and ethnicity on college student preferences for individualistic vs. relational‐focused counseling approaches. Overall, the results did not demonstrate significant differences across gender and ethnicity. However, there was a small tendency for women and African American participants to rate the counselor conducting the relational‐focused counseling approach more positively than did men and White participants, respectively.     

Children's eyewitness memory for a repeated event

OBJECTIVE: This study examined a significant issue for chronic sexual abuse investigations: Children's eyewitness testimony about repeated events. The few previous studies focused on preschoolers and none used the present methodology of presenting repeated events differing slightly in their details, as would happen in chronic abuse. METHOD: One group of 6- to 7-year-olds played individually with an experimenter on one occasion; the other group experienced three such events, with some details remaining the same and others changing. In a phased interview, children were questioned about the initial event. RESULTS: For details which stayed the same, the children who experienced three events had more accurate memories. They had poorer memories than the single-event group for details which were changed in the later events; however, this was due to interference errors, with errors of omission and commission being lower than in the single-event group. Children conveyed clearly that inappropriate touching did not occur. CONCLUSIONS: Children who experience repeated events have increased recall for repeated details but confuse the timing of details which change across events. The findings support previous suggestions that (a) it is unrealistic to expect children to be able to report repeated events without some confusion about timing of details and (b) children are resistant to misleading questions about abuse.     

‘Sticks and stones': masculinities and conflict spaces

Drawing upon a post-structural ethnography of boys’ constructions of gendered and sexual identities in one South African high school, this paper empirically seeks to theorise how 20 Grade 8 boys, identified as The Jokers, The Achievers, The Outcasts and The Average Ou's, simultaneously seek out spaces in male peer culture to cultivate, police and challenge hegemonic notions of masculinity. The paper illustrates the construction and positioning of masculinities across spaces of conflict, more particularly, the personal and social resources reproduced by boys in the pursuit of ‘desirable’ masculinities across experiences of interpersonal conflict, punishment, friendship and play. Given the nature of these identity struggles in school boy peer culture, this paper highlights the need for fostering and maintaining peer conversational spaces where boys and girls are challenged to actively deconstruct prevailing gendered identities and work towards more expansive definitions of self.     

Exploring clinician adoption of a novel evidence request feature in an electronic medical record system

Objective: The research evaluated strategies for facilitating physician adoption of an evidence-based medicine literature request feature recently integrated into an existing electronic medical record (EMR) system.Methods: This prospective study explored use of the service by 137 primary care physicians by using service usage statistics and focus group and survey components. The frequency of physicians'' requests for literature via the EMR during a 10-month period was examined to explore the impact of several enhanced communication strategies launched mid-way through the observation period. A focus group and a 25-item survey explored physicians'' experiences with the service.Results: There was no detectable difference in the proportion of physicians utilizing the service after implementation of the customized communication strategies (11% in each time period, P=1.0, McNemar''s test). Forty-eight physicians (35%) responded to the survey. Respondents who had used the service (n=19) indicated that information provided through the service was highly relevant to clinical practice (mean rating 4.6, scale 1 “not relevant”–5 “highly relevant”), and most (n=15) reported sharing the information with colleagues.Conclusion: The enhanced communication strategies, though well received, did not significantly affect use of the service. However, physicians noted the relevance and utility of librarian-summarized evidence from the literature, highlighting the potential benefits of providing expert librarian services in clinical workflow.

Highlights

• The communication strategies implemented during the study did not induce a noticeable increase in questions from physicians through the electronic medical record system.
• Surveyed physicians were generally satisfied with the evidence-based medicine literature request service and noted several resulting changes in clinical practice associated with librarian-provided evidence.
• Survey respondents viewed the monthly “evidence alert” newsletter, one of the communication strategies, as particularly effective, and it has become an integrated facet of the service.

Implications

• Librarians may contribute significantly to effective patient care by providing evidence to support the clinical decision-making process.
• The study''s findings emphasize the complexity of facilitating the adoption of services providing evidence for clinical practice.