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Effect of birth order and perceived stress on social schemata.

This experiment used the Felt Figure Technique developed by Kuethe in an attempt to investigate the relationship between birth order and the use of specific social schemata. Seven object sets were used, three two-figure sets and four three-figure sets. The results indicated that for the two-figure sets, firstborn individuals placed the figures closer together than laterborn individuals. For the three-figure sets, firstborn individuals under stress placed the figures closer together. The three-figure sets were also ordered in terms of the number of human figures in the object set. The results suggest that there is a measurable relationship between birth order and social schemata used by an individual.

Birth Order

Behavioral methods to answer questions about sheep.

Animal behavior has been defined as the interaction of an animal with its environment. During this interaction the animal must make decisions, based on its evaluation of the environment and its needs, of whether or not the environment is adequate or appropriate for specific behaviors. The environment includes both physical and biotic components, so sheep adjust their behavior in response to such diverse characteristics as the thermal conditions of their environment, the flora present, or the characteristics of other sheep. Although an animal's subjective experiences may not lend themselves to direct evaluation, we may be able to address these questions indirectly by using behavior as an indicator of the animal's decisions. This paper reviews research on the use of space, maternal and neonatal recognition, sexual behavior, and aversiveness. The majority of methods involve preference or acceptance tests. Assumptions, which often affect how tests are conducted and results interpreted, should be made only after the alternatives are carefully considered.

Animals

Predictors of dominance in male Betta splendens.

The formation of dominance/subordinancy relations in pairs of male Siamese fighting fish was examined in six experiments. Dominant animals typically were those fish that built the largest nests and that attacked an image of a live, displaying male most intensely prior to combat. However, pretest performance on an operant task and reaction to an animal's own mirror image were not useful predictors of subsequent dominance. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that domesticated Bettas have a territorial social strategy that includes both nest-building and fighting behaviors.

Aggression

Eye gaze and dominance hierarchy in profoundly mentally retarded males.

Previous research on gaze aversion has suggested that avoiders are communicating subordinance in the social interaction. A study on aggression in profoundly mentally retarded persons provided the objective measure required to determine the relationship between duration of eye gaze and ranked position in a social group's dominance hierarchy. Results indicated that submissive individuals maintained significantly longer eye contact as contrasted with dominant individuals. Implications of the findings were discussed.

Adult

Defensive distance and immobility in young precocial birds (Gallus gallus).

The manifestation and duration of the tonic immobility reaction in 3-day-old chicks (Gallus gallus) was found to vary reliably as a function of the spatial proximity between the hand of the experimenter and the immobilized chick. The results of this experiment indicate that young birds are susceptible to immobility and that the maintenance of close spatial proximity is the condition necessary for the occurrence of the reaction in young precocial birds.

Animals

Delayed spontaneous alternation in Purkinje cell degeneration mutant mice.

Purkinje cell degeneration (pcd) mutant mice lose cerebellar Purkinje cells. It was found that pcd mice, contrary to normal mice, did not alternate spontaneously at any of 3 inter-trial intervals (15 s, 3 or 6 min). Deficits in spontaneous alternation are typical of animals with brain damage in areas important in spatial learning. Results are discussed in terms of a role for the cerebellum in spatially mediated behavior and behavioral inhibition.

Animals

Behavioral and biochemical effects of early postnatal cholinergic lesion in the hippocampus.

The effects of early postnatal (PD 8) intracerebroventricular injection of ethylcholine mustard aziridinium ion (AF64A) on development of open-field and cognitive behaviors and cholinergic markers in several brain areas were examined in the rat. The cholinotoxin was bilaterally administered in a dose range of 0.25 to 2.0 nmol. In the open-field tests, the cholinergic lesion caused a dose-dependent increase in activity at 20 days of age, while it resulted in lengthened latency to initiate exploration and decreased rearing activity at adulthood. Hole-board spatial learning was severely inhibited in adult age. The biochemical activity of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the hippocampus was markedly decreased in a dose-dependent manner, but was unchanged in the neocortex and striatum. Histochemical staining of AChE-positive fibers revealed a severe cholinergic denervation of the granular and pyramidal cell layers of the hippocampus. The results showed that a selective cholinergic deafferentation of the hippocampus at a critical stage of development leads to long-lasting abnormal open-field and spatial learning behaviors.

Acetylcholinesterase

Morris water task impairment and hypoactivity following cysteamine-induced reductions of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity.

The effects of cysteamine-induced reductions of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) on spatial learning, passive avoidance, and locomotor activity were examined in adult Sprague-Dawley rats. Cysteamine hydrochloride (100 mg/kg, s.c.) produced 54% and 50% reductions in SLI in cortex and hippocampus, respectively, and impaired escape latencies and spatial probe behavior in the Morris water task. Although cysteamine-treated rats displayed hypoactivity in the activity boxes, their swim speed in the Morris water task was unaffected. Cysteamine did not impair passive avoidance retention when administered immediately following training or prior to daily retention testing. These results suggest a role for somatostatin in spatially-mediated behaviors in rats.

Animals