Stochastic analysis was applied to observations of spontaneous behavior in the carnivorous mollusc Melibe leonina. Six behaviors were denned that could be easily recognized on inspection and it was found that transitions between each of these behaviors could be fully described by a first-order random process without memory of past behavioral choices. The behaviors are organized by frequency of ...

Continuous uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact is known to facilitate newborn transition to extrauterine life, the ability to actively find the nipple and establishment of effective breastfeeding but is not promoted consistently in practice. The Newborn Feeding Ability Questionnaire (NFAQ) was developed to measure midwives' knowledge and practice in supporting the first breastfeed. The NFAQ was ...

Parental feeding practices reflecting coercive control are related to children's later eating behaviors, but the mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly understood. This study examined the relationships between recalled childhood experiences of parental pressure to eat and restriction and current food preoccupation, dieting, and emotional eating in a racially diverse sample of college...

In many research studies, animals assigned to different treatments are housed adjacently or together in a group. One critique of these designs has been the potential role of behavioral facilitation and synchronization between animals on different treatments in mixed treatment groups (heterogeneous groups). To evaluate this, we compared the synchrony of feeding behavior between dairy cows housed...

Breastfeeding has immense public health value for mothers, babies, and society. But there is an undesirably large gap between the number of new mothers who undertake and persist in breastfeeding compared to what would be a preferred level of accomplishment. This gap is a reflection of the many obstacles, both physical and psychological, that confront new mothers. Previous research has illuminat...

The transfer of maternal contaminants to offspring during oogenesis and gestation is documented in many animals, and in mammals, contaminants may pass from mother to offspring during lactation. Although other non-mammalian vertebrates provide parental care in the form of nutritive secretions for offspring to feed from, the potential for toxicant transfer during non-mammalian parental care is ra...

Food deprivation produces analgesia. This response is reversed i.e. pain sensitivity is lowered, when the food deprived rats are fed. In the present study the effect of chronic pain on the motivation to get food, in food deprived rats, was observed. In ten rats the effect of formalin and morphine plus formalin on the motivation to get food was studied. Injection of formalin significantly (P < 0...

Previous research suggests that boys are at a greater likelihood of exhibiting externalizing behaviors throughout their childhood than girls. In addition, previous research suggests that children who are born into impoverished conditions are more likely to exhibit externalizing behaviors than their peers who are born into higher socio-economic conditions. The purpose of this study was to invest...

The present report advocates an adaptive, ecological approach to the study of learning in infants. Concepts of developmental niche and ontogenetic adaptation are applied to early mammalian development. Within this conceptual framework, it is asserted that learning cannot be fully understood separately from a behaving body; that learning is a dimension of behavior and physiology. The role of lea...