Data suggesting that different brain circuits may underlie different forms of learning and memory are reviewed. Several current theories of learning and memory with respect to hippocampal and other brain circuit involvement are considered. (PCB)

This study examined the relationship between moderate-level prenatal alcohol exposure, prenatal stress, and postnatal response to a challenging event in 6-month-old rhesus monkeys. Forty-one rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) infants were exposed prenatally to moderate level alcohol, maternal stress, or both. Offspring plasma cortisol and…

This article outlines a strategy for studying early social relationships in relatively simple animal model systems. It describes some of the differences in approach between neuroscientists and human developmentalists in dealing with the same research problems. (BN)

Discusses ways in which Myron Hofer's work (1987), which draws on studies of rodents and primates, alters the traditional perspective on human attachment. Emphasizes the importance of the component of attachment that does not develop in explaining attachment in the first six months of life. (PCB)

Compared comprehension of novel communicative signs to assist 2.5- and 3-year-old humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans find hidden objects during a hiding-finding game. Found that children at both ages performed above chance with all signs. No ape performed above chance for any signs not known before the experiment despite three times as many…

Stable characteristics of female rhesus monkeys with offspring, in terms of Confident and Excitable scores, were significantly positively correlated with the respective scores of their female offspring but not their male offspring. Female parents' Excitable scores were significantly negatively correlated with males' Confident scores. How this…

Key components of human behavioral genetics and Sandra Scarr's work of the past two decades are critically reviewed based on scholarship in animal neuropsychology and clinical and educational psychology. Scarr's opinion that interventions to enhance intellectual development are ineffectual for children from abuse- and neglect-free backgrounds is…