Thirty-seven kindergarten children were interviewed regarding their contact with, knowledge of, and beliefs about animals. Results provided support to the study's major hypothesis which states that young children's beliefs about animals would be egocentric and subjective. (Author/MP)

Shows that the genre of animal tales is rich and varied, affording any reader who has even the slightest interest in animals much reading pleasure and enlightenment. (RL)

Describes the role of mushroom bodies--cup-shaped structures perched atop the brain of an insect--in learning. Mushroom bodies may help fruit flies in learning meaningful odors, cockroaches in spatial learning, and honeybees both in locating pollen and nectar and in navigating back to the colony. (PVD)

Although animals have been historically associated with promoting physical and mental health benefits for humans, only recently has there been support for such claims in the literature. This article is a preliminary attempt to bring together scientific studies and anecdotal reports that provide evidence of the benefits of using animals in…

Reviews 33 tradebooks which focus on the natural world and its inhabitants. Organizes books by taxonomic class and age level. (MG)

Teachers can use animals in the classroom to stimulate observation skills and creative thinking. Several learning activities featuring animals are described, and tips are given on selection and care. A reproducible sheet for recording observations is included. (IAH)

Discusses animals as pets in the classroom, including choosing a pet, classroom animal guidelines, and classroom strategies. (MKR)

The association between violence to children and violence to animals remains largely unacknowledged in the child abuse/ neglect arena. Several reasons justifying further exploration of the link are discussed, along with suggestions for enhancing our awareness, knowledge, and services. (Author)

Children were asked whether each of two animals shared a biological property with a target animal. When kinship relations were specified for the animals, children judged that dissimilar-looking kin shared more biological properties than similar-looking but unrelated members of the same species. (BC)

Compared the abilities of 3 mother-reared and 3 human-raised (enculturated) chimpanzees and 16 human toddlers to imitatively learn novel actions on objects. Found that mother-reared chimpanzees were poorer imitators than both enculturated chimpanzees and human children, who did not differ from one another in imitative learning. On time delay…

Rats obtained food pellets on a variable-interval schedule of reinforcement by nose poking a lighted key. After training to establish baseline performance (with the mean variable interval set at either 60, 120, or 240 s), the rats were given free access to food during the hour just before their daily session. This satiation operation reduced the…

The influence of body parts on 4-month-olds' categorization of cats and dogs was examined using a visual preference procedure. Infants were familiarized with pictures of exemplars from one of two categories, cat or dog. In test, looking time to an out-of-category exemplar was compared to looking time to a novel within-category exemplar with one…

Objective: To investigate relationships among family risk factors, childhood firesetting and animal cruelty, and adolescent delinquency. Method: In 1990, mothers and children participating in a 10-year prospective study provided information about family risk factors and childhood problem behavior. Subsequent interviews with 86% of the sample in…

Research has demonstrated that rats' rates of operant behavior maintained by 1% sucrose reinforcement in the first half of an experimental session are heightened when food-pellet reinforcers, rather than 1% sucrose, will be available in the second half. Experiment 1 showed that rats that had been displaying this positive induction effect acquired…

Forward blocking is one of the best-documented phenomena in Pavlovian animal conditioning. According to contemporary associative learning theories, forward blocking arises directly from the hardwired basic learning rules that govern the acquisition or expression of associations. Contrary to this view, here the authors demonstrate that blocking in…