Sees Levenson and Crumpler's liberative model as idealistic, and critiques apparently anti-materialistic implications of the model. Maintains that Levenson and Crumpler's suggestion that the goal of adult development is to free the individual from environmental and biological influences is bad science but constitutes a valuable sermon. (BC)

Research guidelines are presented to encourage sound research on the menopausal transition. Included is a review of current literature covering three aspects of menopausal transition: age span, changes in menstrual bleeding during the transition, and other psychological and somatic changes during premenopausal stages. (IAH)

Results indicated significant genetic influence on eight Family Environment Scales that had been altered to obtain retrospective perceptions of family environment in childhood. The combined twin and adoption design was used with four groups of twins whose average age was 59 years. (RH)

Raw IQ scores do not demonstrate the bell curve created by normalized scores, even the bell-shaped distribution does not require large numbers of underlying genes. Family data support a major gene locus of IQ. The correlation between glutathione peroxidase and IQ should be investigated through molecular genetics. (SLD)

Brain size and cerebral glucose metabolic rate were determined for 10 individuals with mild mental retardation (MR), 7 individuals with Down syndrome (DS), and 10 matched controls. MR and DS groups both had brain volumes of about 80% compared to controls, with variance greatest within the MR group. (SLD)

Placing psychology in a biological and physical context, James J. Gibson performed prophetic work on visual motion, inspiring more recent studies on higher order aspects of motion encoding. Although not always fully acknowledged, Gibson's work is very important to the development of perceptual psychology. (SLD)

Explores the interplay between nature and nurture using antisocial behavior as the example, and discusses key genetic concepts and key environmental concepts. The final section considers the nature-nurture interaction in relation to passive, evocative, and active gene-environment correlations and calls for research into the effects of the…

Data from a previous adoption study using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised show that the genetic effect is reflected by psychometric "g" (general intelligence) to a greater degree than is the environmental effect. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that "g" largely reflects the genetic component…

This article expands on findings from a study that found grandfathers and grandfathers of children with autism were over represented in the field of engineering. It presents additional evidence that engineers are still over represented, even when one takes into account an over representation of professionals among fathers of children autism.…

Reviews the eight studies in this special section. Notes that the studies: (1) make a convincing case for stability across generations; (2) propose parenting practices as a mechanism that accounts for these stabilities; and (3) examine social interactional and biological variables as possible explanations for the effect of parenting practices.…

This paper explores findings from the fields of neuropsychology and art therapy as they relate to treating patients with dementia. It explains the biological, physical, and psychological manifestations of dementia, and current treatment modalities. Art therapy has been shown to be beneficial to patients with dementia. Unfortunately, it is the rare…

Relating storage of specific information to a particular neuromorphological change is difficult because behavioral performance factors are not readily disambiguated from underlying cognitive processes. This issue is addressed here by demonstrating robust reorganization of the hippocampal mossy fiber terminal field (MFTF) when adult rats learn the…

Initial progress has been made in the conceptualization and study of attachment stability over time, and substantial evidence has accumulated on the association between attachment classification and biopsychosocial functioning (including social-emotional competence, cognition, physical health and mental health). The literature supports the…

Schools are a central interface between evolution and culture. They are the contexts in which children learn the evolutionarily novel abilities and knowledge needed to function as adults in modern societies. Evolutionary educational psychology is the study of how an evolved bias in children's learning and motivational systems influences their…

Four studies investigated children's explanations for family resemblance and species-typical characteristics, under different conditions of biological parentage and rearing environment. Participating were 226 children between 3 and 11 years. Children Children were presented with a number of different tasks, some involving people and some domestic…