The first generation of women psychologists and the psychology of women.

At the end of the 19th century, psychology was among the most hospitable of the sciences in admitting women to its ranks. Among this so-called first generation of women psychologists were a number of individuals who aggressively challenged the prevailing stereotypes concerning the psychological characteristics of women and men. Further, many of these women actively promoted equal educational and professional opportunities for women.

"A coarse and clumsy tool": Helen Thompson Wooley and the Cincinnati Vocation Bureau.

From 1911 to 1921, Helen Thompson Wooley served as director of the Vocation Bureau of the Cincinnati Public Schools. In this position she designed and supervised a massive longitudinal study comparing the development of adolescents who remained in school with those who left school to go to work. Although the original goals of this study were not accomplished, the achievements of the Vocation Bureau brought national recognition to the city and to Helen Wooley. The accomplishments of the bureau reflected Wooley's view of the role of experimental psychology in contributing to the scientific understanding of adolescents and to educational and social reforms.

The effects of morphine and scopolamine on auditory discrimination in squirrel monkeys.

In squirrel monkeys trained to discriminate between two tones, morphine consistently increased the percent of response failures during tone periods; however, it had no consistent effect on the percent correct responses. In contrast, scopolamine decreased percent correct responses as well as increasing percent response failures in two monkeys not required to respond to produce the tone periods. In the two monkeys required to initiate tone periods by responding, high doses of scopolamine reduced the number of tones presented.

Effects of ketocyclazocine alone and in combination with naloxone on schedule-controlled responding in squirrel monkeys.

A multiple, fixed interval 5 minutes, fixed ratio 30, schedule of food presentation (Mult FI FR) was used to evaluate the effects of ketocyclazocine, a kappa-receptor agonist, in four squirrel monkeys. Two monkeys were initially trained with 1-minute time-out (TO) periods between the components of the multiple schedule and two monkeys were initially trained without these TO periods. Ketocyclazocine dose-response functions were determined for each monkey under their original training conditions and then the conditions were reversed and dose-response functions were re-determined under the new conditions. Ketocyclazocine consistently decreased rates of responding during the FR component of the multiple schedule under both TO and no TO conditions. Under the FI component, ketocyclazocine's effects differed dependent upon dose, conditioning history, and the presence or absence of TO periods. Intermediate doses of ketocyclazocine (0.01-0.056 mg/kg) increased FI rates of responding under the no TO condition in monkeys originally trained under this condition; however, ketocyclazocine did not increase FI rates of responding under the no TO condition in monkeys originally trained under the TO condition. Under the TO condition, intermediate doses of ketocyclazocine did not increase FI rates of responding. High doses of ketocyclazocine (0.1 and 0.17 mg/kg) decreased FI rates of responding in all monkeys under both the TO and no TO conditions Naloxone, in doses up to those which decreased responding when given alone, failed to antagonize completely the rate decreasing effects of ketocyclazocine.

Effects of neonatal lead exposure on memory in rats.

Five groups of rats exposed to varying doses of lead by gastric intubation from Day 3 to Day 30 of life were tested to determine whether lead affects memory. A variable intertrial interval spatial alternation task was used to examine memory; it permits generation of a complete retention curve within subjects in a single session. Because of lead's putative effects on the cholinergic neuronal system, the cholinergic drugs controls to the drugs and to compare drug effects with lead effects. Orderly memory functions were obtained in all animals; however lead-exposed groups did not differ in performance from controls. Scoopolamine decreased alternation accuracy but its effects did not differ across the neonatal dose groups.

Cholinergic drug effects on visual discriminations: a signal detection analysis.

Signal detection analysis was used to examine the effects of scopolamine, amphetamine, and physostigmine on a brightness discrimination task. Four groups of rats were exposed to different reinforcement contingencies for correct responses in the presence of S+ stimuli and correct response failures in the presence of S- stimuli. Under non-drug conditions, orderly signal detection data were obtained with the group design. Contrary to a disinhibition hypothesis of cholinergic effects, scopolamine disrupted stimulus sensitivity and not response bias, but only when the discrimination was difficult. Drugs did not affect sensitivity of an earlier, simpler discrimination. The drug effects on response tendency for this simple discrimination task were difficult to interpret.