Critics of educational admissions tests assert that tests measure nothing more than socioeconomic status (SES) and that their apparent validity in predicting academic performance is an artifact of SES. The authors examined multiple large data sets containing data on admissions and related tests, SES, and grades showing that (a) SES is related to test scores (r = .42 among the population of SAT takers), (b) test scores are predictive of academic performance, and (c) statistically controlling for SES reduces the estimated test?grade correlation from r = .47 to r = .44. Thus, the vast majority of the test?academic performance relationship was independent of SES: The authors concluded that the test?grade relationship is not an artifact of common influences of SES on both test scores and grades.

Antidepressant drugs produce therapeutic actions and many of their side effects via blockade of the plasma membrane transporters for serotonin (SERT/SLC6A2), norepinephrine (NET/SLC6A1) and dopamine (DAT/SLC6A3). Many antidepressants block several ofthese transporters; some are more selective. Mouse gene knockouts of these transporters provide interesting models for possible effects of chronic antidepressant treatments. To examine the role of monoamine transporters in models of depression DAT, NET and SERT KO mice and wildtype littermates were studied in the forced swim test (FST), the tail suspension test (TST) and for sucrose consumption. In order to dissociate general activity from the potential antidepressant effects three types of behavior were assessed in the FST: immobility, climbing and swimming. In confirmation of previous reports, both DAT KO and NET KO mice exhibited less immobility than wildtype littermates while SERT KO mice did not. Effects of DAT deletion were not simply due to hyperactivity as decreased immobility was observed in DAT +/- mice that were not hyperactive as well as in DAT -/- mice that displayed profound hyperactivity. Climbing was increased, while swimming was almost eliminated in DAT -/-mice, while a modest but similar effect was seen in NET KO mice, which showed a modest decrease in locomotor activity. Combined increases in climbing and decreases in immobility are characteristic of forced swim test results in antidepressant animal models, while selective effects on swimming are associated with the effects of stimulant drugs. Therefore, an effect on climbing is thought to more specifically reflect antidepressant effects, as has been observed in several other proposed animal models of reduced depressive phenotypes. A similar profile was observed in the TST, where DAT, NET and SERT knockouts were all found to reduce immobility, but much greater effects were observed in DAT KO mice. However, to further determine whether these effects of DAT KO in animal models of depression may be due to the confounding effects of hyperactivity, mice were also assessed in a sucrose consumption test. Sucrose consumption was increased in DAT KO mice consistent with reduced anhedonia, and inconsistent with competitive hyperactivity; no increases were observed in SERT KO or NET KO mice. In summary, the effects of DAT knockout in animal models of depression are larger than those produced by NET or SERT KO, and unlikely to be simply the result of the confounding effects of locomotor hyperactivity; thus, these data support reevaluation of the role that DAT expression could play in depression and the potential antidepressant effects of DAT blockade.

This study follows in the tradition of Cullen, Hardison, and Sackett (2004) by testing the generalizability of stereotype threat theory findings from laboratory to applied settings. Like Cullen et al., the authors developed models of the pattern of relationships between Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) math scores and English grades that would be expected for math-identified and non-math-identified men and women if stereotype threat were operating to suppress the scores of math-identified women during SAT test administration. The study builds on Cullen et al. by creating an alternative measure of "identification" with the math domain that is premised on high school students' intention to major in math or a math-related discipline during college. Results using this alternative measure of identification were not supportive of predictions arising from stereotype threat theory, reinforcing Cullen et al.'s call for caution in generalizing stereotype threat theory lab findings to real-world testing environments.Stereotype threat is the pressure that people can feel when they are at risk of confirming, or being seen to confirm, a negative stereotype about their group. Stereotype threat theory asserts that when the stereotype is salient, this pressure can impair performance in a domain to which the stereotype applies. A boundary condition for the effect is proposed: Stereotype threat will only affect performance in a domain that is relevant to an individual's self-definition, one with which it can be said that the individual is "identified" (Steele

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