Children and adults commonly produce more generic noun phrases (e.g., birds fly) about animals than artifacts. This may reflect differences in participants' generic knowledge about specific animals/artifacts (e.g., dogs/chairs), or it may reflect a more general distinction. To test this, the current experiments asked adults and preschoolers to…

Extinction of fear requires learning that anticipated aversive events no longer occur. Animal models reveal that sustained phosphorylation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) in hippocampal CA1 neurons plays an important role in this process. However, the key signals triggering and regulating the activity of Erk are not known. By…

Researchers have recently reintroduced the own-body in the center of the social interaction theory. From the discovery of the mirror neurons in the ventral premotor cortex of the monkey's brain, a human "embodied" model of interindividual relationship based on simulation processes has been advanced, according to which we tend to embody…

Previous research has shown that Lewis rats make more impulsive choices than Fischer 344 rats. Such strain-related differences in choice are important as they may provide an avenue for exploring genetic and neurochemical contributions to impulsive choice. The present systematic replication was designed to determine if these findings could be…

Defeat and entrapment are psychological constructs that have played a central role in evolutionary accounts of depression. These concepts have since been implicated in theoretical accounts of anxiety disorders and suicidality. The current article reports on a systematic review of the existing research investigating the links among defeat,…

The current experiment examined whether adjusting-amount and adjusting-delay procedures provide equivalent measures of discounting. Pigeons' discounting on the two procedures was compared using a within-subject yoking technique in which the indifference point (number of pellets or time until reinforcement) obtained with one procedure determined…

The acquisition of lever pressing by rats and the occurrence of unreinforced presses at a location different from that of the reinforced response were studied using different delays of reinforcement. An experimental chamber containing seven identical adjoining levers was used. Only presses on the central (operative) lever produced food pellets.…

Those advocating for effective management of the use of coastal areas and ecosystems have long aspired for an approach to governance that includes information systems with the capability to predict the end results of various courses of action, monitor the impacts of decisions and compare results with those predicted by computer models in order to…

Food-allergy awareness and management have only lately come to the forefront in early childhood settings, although advocacy organizations have been working on the issue for more than a decade. A national poll (C.S. Mott Children's Hospital 2009) asked parents with children in early education settings if they were aware of what their program does…

Limited resources have led to a lack of comprehensive state outreach strategies that are geared for non-English speaking constituencies. The investigators worked with Southeast Asian communities in Rhode Island to determine perceptions and levels of trust with various health authorities providing health messaging about fish-consumption practices.…

Many young children have a natural attraction to and curiosity about animals. They like to observe, touch, talk to, and ask questions about them. Teachers and parents both can use this broad interest to facilitate children's development and learning in a variety of domains. Research shows that children across ages find emotional comfort in their…

Electrophysiological work in nonhuman primates has established the existence of multiple types of signals in the temporal lobe that contribute to recognition memory, including information regarding a stimulus's relative novelty, familiarity, and recency of occurrence. We used high-density event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether young…

Introduction: This article explores the scientific ideas and alternative conceptions that pre-service teachers have regarding animal classification and spiders in particular. Method: The study involved 40 pre-service teachers of elementary education in Spain and the data was collected by means of questionnaires, descriptions and drawings. The…

"Non-native organisms are a major threat to biodiversity". This statement is often made by biologists, but general conclusions cannot be drawn easily because of contradictory evidence. To introduce pupils aged 11-14 years to this topic, we employed an educational program dealing with non-native animals in Central Europe. The pupils took…

This study aims at highlighting young children's reasoning about human interventions within a forest ecosystem. Our focus is particularly set on whether preschoolers are able to come up with any basic ecological interpretations of human actions upon forest plants or animals and how. Conducting individual, semi-structured interviews with 70…