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Biomedical subjects

C C Peterson

Publications and source records attributed to C C Peterson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Preschoolers' understanding of lies and innocent and negligent mistakes.

It has often been proposed that young children are not capable of distinguishing mistakes from lies and that they do not discriminate between the reactions that are generated by innocent and negligent mistakes. In our investigation, children aged 3 to 5 years were asked to choose whether a perpetrator had made a mistake or had lied about a food's contact with contaminants and were required to indicate whether this choice would produce a neutral or a negative reaction in the facial expression of a bystander. In this context, many children distinguished mistakes from lies and displayed an incipient ability to discriminate between lies and negligent mistakes that often generate negative reactions and innocent mistakes that do not.

Child Development↗
PubMed1997

Metabolic rates.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

The ticking of the social clock: adults' beliefs about the timing of transition events.

In two studies, beliefs about descriptive and prescriptive age norms for adult developmental transitions were examined in a sample of 214 Australian university students aged seventeen to fifty years. The results of Study 1 revealed a belief by the vast majority that descriptive age norms still exist for both family transitions (marriage, parenthood, grandparenthood) and career transitions (leaving school, retirement). While these results were in keeping with those of Neugarten et al.'s original study of age norms in the United States, the actual "best" normative ages recommended by this sample of contemporary Australian adults differed in every case from the U.S. age norms of three decades ago. Matching contemporary demographic trends, the present Australian young-adult sample advocated later ages for marriage and grandparenthood, a younger norm for leaving school, and a broader normative age range for retiring from work. Study 2 tested Neugarten's hypothesis that age norms today lack some of the prescriptive overtones implicit in original "social clock" concept. The results supported this suggestion. In fact, only a minority of contemporary Australian adults believed that there were prescriptive upper age boundaries for first marriage or university study. Furthermore, their prescriptive lower age limits for every transition except retirement fell at or below the onset of adulthood itself (18 years), in keeping with biological constraints on procreation and maturational constraints on social and cognitive development. The mean ranges of acceptability prescribed by this Australian sample for each key adult transition were likewise very wide, stretching from an average of twenty-four years (for motherhood) to forty-nine years (for a man's first marriage). This result also contrasts sharply with the ranges of no more than five years prescribed for the same transitions by the vast majority of Neugarten et al.'s sample three decade ago. The probable consequences for self-esteem, mental health and life planning of this heightened variability and reduced prescriptiveness in the timing of life events for contemporary men and women were discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Deafness, conversation and theory of mind.

The child's developing theory of the mind as an interconnected network of beliefs, desires and feelings that govern behaviour provides a cornerstone for social and intellectual life. Recent research has suggested that autistic children have difficulty acquiring such a theory. Although it is speculated that a specific neurological deficit may be responsible for autistic children's difficulties on false belief tasks devised to test a theory of mind, these may also be due to a lack of exposure to conversation about mental states. In this study we explored the development of a theory of mind in a group of 26 signing, prelingually-deaf Australian children of normal intelligence, aged 8-13 years. Results revealed that 65% of these deaf children failed a simple test of false belief which normal preschoolers, mentally retarded children, and other handicapped groups--apart from children with autism--routinely pass at a mental age of 4-5 years. No significant difference emerged between deaf children's performance and that of autistic children tested on the same task in previous research. We discuss the results in terms of a conversational account of the development of a theory of mind in deaf children, and the extent to which this account is applicable to children with autism.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Sustained metabolic scope.

Sustained metabolic rates (SusMR) are time-averaged metabolic rates that are measured in free-ranging animals maintaining constant body mass over periods long enough that metabolism is fueled by food intake rather than by transient depletion of energy reserves. Many authors have suggested that SusMR of various wild animal species are only a few times resting (basal or standard) metabolic rates (RMR). We test this conclusion by analyzing all 37 species (humans, 31 other endothermic vertebrates, and 5 ectothermic vertebrates) for which SusMR and RMR had both been measured. For all species, the ratio of SusMR to RMR, which we term sustained metabolic scope, is less than 7; most values fall between 1.5 and 5. Some of these values, such as those for Tour de France cyclists and breeding birds, are surely close to sustainable metabolic ceilings for the species studied. That is, metabolic rates higher than 7 times RMR apparently cannot be sustained indefinitely. These observations pose several questions: whether the proximate physiological causes of metabolic ceilings reside in the digestive tract's ability to process food or in each tissue's metabolic capacity; whether ceiling values are independent of the mode of energy expenditure; whether ceilings are set by single limiting physiological capacities or by coadjusted clusters of capacities (symmorphosis); what the ultimate evolutionary causes of metabolic ceilings are; and how metabolic ceilings may limit animals' reproductive effort, foraging behavior, and geographic distribution.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Husbands' and wives' perceptions of marital fairness across the family life cycle.

Marital fairness, or the subjective balance between two spouses' gains and losses, was evaluated by a cross-sectional sample of 134 married Australian men and women representing five phases in the family life cycle: preparental, childbearing, the full house, launching, and the empty nest. Husbands' perceptions of their own marital equity described a U-shaped curve across these phases, with significantly more men feeling equitably treated both initially and after children's departure than during any of the three phases with children in the home. Wives' perceptions, by contrast, showed little variation with life cycle phase. Overall, a slight majority (52 percent) of husbands and wives perceived their marriages as equitable. Both sexes were inclined to agree, however, that whenever deviations from strict marital equity arose during family life, these were most likely to overbenefit husbands and to underbenefit wives. Results are discussed in relation to 1) equity theory, 2) marital satisfaction research, and 3) Bernard's model of the intrinsic sexual inequality of marriage as an institution [1].

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Light-harvesting pigment-proteins of photosystem I in maize. Subunit composition and biogenesis.

Three different pigment-binding proteins of the light-harvesting complex (LHC I) of maize photosystem I (PS I) have been isolated. Absorption and fluorescence excitation spectral analyses showed that each pigment-protein can transfer absorbed energy from its carotenoid and/or chlorophyll b components to chlorophyll alpha. Their apoproteins with apparent sizes of 24 (LHC Ia), 21 (LHC Ib), and 17 (LHC Ic) kDa have been purified to homogeneity. Differences in their pigment and amino acid compositions and in their reactions with antibodies demonstrate that the two smaller pigment-proteins are not proteolytically derived from the largest one. LHC Ib's apoprotein is particularly enriched in cysteine residues. None of the three apoproteins cross-reacted with antibodies raised against the major light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein of photosystem II (LHC IIb) or against the PS I core complex (CC I) subunits. Studies of the biogenesis of PS I during greening of etiolated plants showed that all of the CC I subunits accumulated to a detectable level prior to the appearance of the 17-kDa subunit of LHC I, the accumulation of which preceded those of the 24- and 21-kDa subunits of LHC I. In addition, subunit VI of CC I is shown to be differentially expressed in mesophyll and bundle sheath cells; a slightly larger form of it accumulates in mesophyll than in bundle sheath thylakoids during plastid development.

Apoproteins↗
PubMed1989

Positive justice reasoning in deaf and hearing children before and after exposure to cognitive conflict.

The development of positive justice reasoning in profoundly deaf, signing Australian 7- to 12-year-olds and hearing children was compared. Reactions to cognitive conflict were also assessed. The performance of those deaf children whose signed English skills were adequate to give detailed justifications for reward allocation was examined separately. The deaf children were delayed relative to hearing children in number and liquid conservation, but equally mature in justice reasoning. Spontaneous conflicts with signing peers over sharing possessions conceivably could be responsible for the fluently signing deaf children's development of positive justice reasoning on pace with their normally-hearing counterparts. Experimentally-induced conflict resulted in progress for the hearing but not the deaf children. Results are discussed in relation to factors that promote deaf children's tolerance for ambiguity (Brice, 1985) and impede their resolution of cognitive conflict (Liben, 1978).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Older men's and women's relationships with adult kin: how equitable are they?

Recent research has shown that satisfying casual relationships and short-term intimacies among young adults tend to be characterized by mutual perceptions of global equity or a proportional subjective balance between each partner's overall inputs and gains. The present study extended the measurement of global equity perceptions to sixty-two elderly men's and women's relationships with their frequently-contacted spouses, adult children, and aged parents. A comparison group of forty younger adults likewise rated the equity of their marriages and relationships with elderly parents and grandparents. Results showed that the majority of both generations' involvements with all categories of immediate adult kin were seen as globally equitable. In addition, most departures from strict equity involved respondents feeling subjectively overbenefited rather than underbenefited. Theories of kinship exchange in longstanding and elderly relationships were considered. The possibilities either of subjective biases in longstanding intimates' perceptions and/or of a link between social disengagement and underbenefit during old age enabled reconciliation of the present findings with theoretical predictions.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1988

Age, sex, and contact with elderly adults as predictors of knowledge about psychological aging.

Using an instrument developed in the United States to assess students' knowledge of mental health in old age, the present study tested 179 Australian undergraduates who varied in age, sex, and the frequency of their contact with aged people at home, at work, and in the neighborhood. As predicted, women scored higher than men and scores rose with age and with contact when age was partialed out. Unexpectedly, Australian students averaged two more items correct than the American students for whom the test was developed. Implications for teaching are considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Purification and characterization of a light-harvesting chlorophyll-a/b-protein of photosystem I of Lemna gibba.

The photosystem I (PSI) complex of Lemna gibba, isolated by deriphat/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of thylakoids solubilized in glycosidic surfactants, has been fractionated into its two chlorophyll-protein complexes: a core component (CCI) and a light-harvesting component (LHCI), using either non-denaturing gel electrophoresis or ion-exchange chromatography/sucrose gradient centrifugation. Both methods yielded an LHCI component that contained only one apoprotein of approximately 20 kDa. All the chlorophyll b and lutein of the PSI complex is associated with this LHCI preparation. The chlorophyll a/b ratio of this chlorophyll-protein is 2.5, and lutein is essentially the only carotenoid present. While the purified LHCI from Lemna cross-reacts with antibodies raised against spinach LHCPIb of Lam et al. [FEBS Lett. 168, 10-14 (1984)], no cross-reactivity occurred between it and the major light-harvesting chlorophyll-a/b-protein of PSII, LHCII beta. This and a comparison of the amino acid and pigment compositions of the apoproteins of the LHCI and LHCII beta chlorophyll-proteins indicate that these are two distinct but similar chlorophyll-proteins.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1983

Developmental changes in ideas about lying.

Videotaped stories depicting deliberate lies and unintentionally untrue statements were presented to 200 subjects evenly divided into the following age groups: 5, 8, 9, and 11 years and adult. Definitions of lying were seen to change gradually over this age range. Adults were more lenient than children in their moral evaluations of all the statements. All age groups rated a guess that did no harm as better than one that caused trouble, and they all judged selfishly motivated lies to be worse than both unintended falsehoods and "jocose" lies that aimed to please the listener. 11-year-olds tended to justify the prohibition against lying in terms of trust and fairness, whereas younger children cited authority's punitive sanctions.

Adolescent↗