Network Connectivity Dynamics,Cognitive Biases,and the Evolution of Cultural Diversity in Round-Robin Interactive Micro-Societies

The distribution of cultural variants in a population is shaped by both neutral evolutionary dynamics and by selection pressures. The temporal dynamics of social network connectivity, that is, the order in which individuals in a population interact with each other, has been largely unexplored. In this paper, we investigate how, in a fully connected social network, connectivity dynamics, alone and in interaction with different cognitive biases, affect the evolution of cultural variants. Using agent-based computer simulations, we manipulate population connectivity dynamics (early, mid, and late full-population connectivity); content bias, or a preference for high-quality variants; coordination bias, or whether agents tend to use self-produced variants (egocentric bias), or to switch to variants observed in others (allocentric bias); and memory size, or the number of items that agents can store in their memory. We show that connectivity dynamics affect the time-course of variant spread, with lower connectivity slowing down convergence of the population onto a single cultural variant. We also show that, compared to a neutral evolutionary model, content bias accelerates convergence and amplifies the effects of connectivity dynamics, while larger memory size and coordination bias, especially egocentric bias, slow down convergence. Furthermore, connectivity dynamics affect the frequency of high-quality variants (adaptiveness), with late connectivity populations showing bursts of rapid change in adaptiveness followed by periods of relatively slower change, and early connectivity populations following a single-peak evolutionary dynamic. We evaluate our simulations against existing data collected from previous experiments and show how our model reproduces the empirical patterns of convergence.     

Behavioral effects of testosterone in relation to social rank in the male rabbit

The role of gonadal androgens in favoring the adaptation to environmental pressure, including social organization, is well known. In the rabbit, testosterone administration increases marking behavior, and its level can be affected by agonistic interaction. In this experiment, we studied the effect of subcutaneous administration of testosterone propionate (TP) (3 mg/d for 6 days) in male rabbits belonging to the same social group (6 groups of 4 animals). In 2 additional groups (4 animals each), males were injected with almond oil. The animals were observed for 6 days in seminatural conditions, then treated with TP (or oil) and observed for another 6 days. The dominant/subordinate frequency ratio of behavioral patterns was used to rank the animals. The testosterone plasma concentration was correlated with agonistic behavior after the first period of social interaction. A significant increase of marking, digging, and defensive activity was observed after TP administration in all animals independent of rank, whereas this increase was not present in animals treated with oil. Agonistic and interactive behaviors increased significantly after TP treatment only in the first‐ranking animals. This indicates the influence of social rank in the modification of behaviors involving interactions among subjects Aggr. Behav. 29:269–278, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Social modulation of learning in rats

It is well known that emotions participate in the regulation of social behaviors and that the emotion displayed by a conspecific influences the behavior of other animals. In its simplest form, empathy can be characterized as the capacity to be affected by and/or share the emotional state of another. However, to date, relatively little is known about the mechanisms by which animals that are not in direct danger share emotions. In the present study, we used a model of between-subject transfer of fear to characterize the social interaction during which fear is transmitted, as well as the behavioral effects of socially transmitted fear. We found that (1) during social interaction with a recently fear-conditioned partner, observers and demonstrators exhibit social exploratory behaviors rather than aggressive behaviors; (2) learning and memory in a shock-motivated shuttle avoidance task are facilitated in rats that underwent a social interaction with a partner that had been fear conditioned; and (3) a brief social interaction with a recently fear-conditioned partner immediately before fear conditioning increases conditioned freezing measured on the next day. The observed effects were not due to a stress-induced increase in pain sensitivity or analgesia. Collectively, these data suggest that a brief social interaction with a cage mate that has undergone an aversive learning experience promotes aversive learning in an otherwise naïve animal. We argue that socially transferred fear is an adaptation that promotes defensive behavior to potentially dangerous situations in the environment.Human empathy can be defined as the ability to experience and share the thoughts and feelings of others (de Waal 2008). Obviously, this is a complex social phenomenon that, until recently, has received much attention from philosophers and psychologists rather than neuroscientists (Decety and Lamm 2006). However, in its simplest form, empathy can be characterized as the capacity to be affected by and/or share the emotional state of another (de Waal 2008). Tuning one''s emotional state to that of another increases the probability of similar behavior, which thereby allows rapid adaptation to environmental challenges (Hatfield et al. 1994). This social adaptation may be particularly important for emotions that signal a potential danger, such as fear. Although one can learn about potentially harmful stimuli by directly experiencing an aversive event, observation or interaction with a conspecific in danger and/or in pain may also provide information about threats in the environment. There is a vast literature on learning about direct danger (Maren 2001) as well as sharing emotions through observation (see, e.g., Church 1959; Langford et al. 2006; Olsson and Phelps 2007). However, relatively little is known about the mechanisms by which animals that are not in a direct danger share emotions.We have recently designed an experimental rat model of between-subject transfer of emotional information (Knapska et al. 2006). In this model, rats are housed in pairs and one member of the pair (the “demonstrator”) is removed and subjected to fear conditioning. After the fear-conditioning episode, the conditioned animal is allowed to interact with its naïve cage mate (the “observer”). We showed that the demonstrator''s fear is socially transferred to the observer, resulting in both rapid increase in exploratory behavior of the observer and a pattern of c-Fos activation in the observer''s amygdala that parallels that of the shocked demonstrators.These results suggest that the social interaction between the demonstrator and observer results in a transfer of information that promotes aversively motivated learning in the observer. However, the nature of the social interaction and how it comes to influence aversively motivated behavior is not known. Therefore, the present study aimed to characterize the behavior of both the demonstrators and observers during their social interaction and further characterize the nature of the influence of socially transmitted fear on aversively motivated learning and memory. We hypothesized that the social interaction between observers and demonstrators would result in a social transfer of fear that would promote learning and memory of both active defensive responses (avoidance) as well as defensive immobility (freezing). To test this hypothesis, we carried out five experiments that examined the nature of the social interaction between shocked demonstrators and observers (Experiment 1), the acquisition and retention of active avoidance (Experiment 2), and conditioned freezing (Experiment 3). Because it is not clear if social transfer effects can be observed among unfamiliar animals and to control for social buffering, we also compared the social transfer of fear in familiar and unfamiliar rats (Experiment 4). To control for the possible influence of different pain sensitivity thresholds in the observers paired with shocked demonstrators, we carried out pain tests (Experiment 5).     

Mother–child and father–child mutuality in two contexts: consequences for young children's peer relationships

This study examines the role that context plays in links between relative balance, or mutuality in parent–child interaction and children's social competence. Sixty‐three toddlers and their parents were observed in a laboratory play session and caregiving activity (i.e. eating snack). Mutuality was operationalised as the relative balance in (a) partners' compliance to initiations, and (b) partners' expression of positive emotion. Caregivers rated children's social competence with peers, and children's prosocial and aggressive behaviour with peers was observed in their childcare arrangement. Contextual differences were observed in the manifestation of parent–child mutuality, with both mother–child and father–child dyads displaying higher mutual compliance scores in the play context than in the caregiving context. Father–child dyads also displayed higher levels of shared positive emotion during play than during the caregiving context. There were no differences in a way that parent–child mutuality during play and caregiving was associated with children's social competence with peers. Overall, the results suggest that parent–child mutuality is a quality of parent–child interaction that has consistent links to children's peer competence regardless of the context in which it occurs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Division of labor as an emergent phenomenon of social coordination: The example of playing doubles-pong

In many daily situations, our behavior is coordinated with that of others. This study investigated this coordination in a doubles-pong task. In this task, two participants each controlled a paddle that could move laterally near the bottom of a shared computer screen. With their paddles, the players needed to block balls that moved down under an angle. In doing so, they needed to make sure that their paddles did not collide. A successful interception led to the ball bouncing back upwards. Importantly, all communication other than through vision of the shared screen was excluded. In the experiment, the initial position of the paddle of the right player was varied across trials. This allowed testing hypotheses regarding the use of a tacitly understood boundary to divide interception space. This boundary could be halfway the screen, or in the middle between the initial positions of the two paddles. These two hypotheses did not hold. As an alternative to planned division of labor, the behavioral patterns might emerge from continuous visual couplings of paddles and ball. This was tested with an action-based decision model that considered the rates of change of each player’s angle between the interception axis and the line connecting the ball and inner edge of the paddle. The model accounted for the observed patterns of behavior to a very large extent. This led to the conclusion that decisions of who would take the ball emerged from ongoing social coordination. Implications for social coordination in general are discussed.     

Children's narrative memory for accidents and their post‐traumatic distress

This study examines how the quality of children's memory for a traumatic event is related to trauma‐related distress and adjustment. Four to 7 weeks after an accident requiring hospitalisation, 80 children aged 7–16 were asked to provide a narrative memory of the event. Age and the quality of the memory report based on its lexical and cohesive structure accounted for a significant and sizable proportion of the variability in the children's intrusive symptoms about the event after considering trauma severity and the child's language ability and gender. There was no significant relationship between memory quality and event specific avoidant symptoms. Children who were troubled by intrusive symptoms at 4 to 7 weeks continue to seek personal control and mastery by cognitively making sense of their experiences. The study's implications for understanding the process of children's adaptation to such events and for the development of chronic problematic adjustment are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interaction of neuromuscular, spatial and visual constraints on hand-foot coordination dynamics

In the present study, we investigated the contributions of motor and perceptual processes to directional constraints as observed during hand-foot coordination. Participants performed cyclical flexion-extension movements of the right hand and foot under two coordination modes: in-phase (isodirectional) and antiphase (non-isodirectional). Those tasks were performed either with full vision or no vision of the limbs. Depending on the position of the forearm (prone or supine), the coordination patterns were performed with similar and dissimilar neuro-muscular coupling with respect to their phylogenetic origin as antigravity muscles. Results showed that the antiphase pattern was more difficult to maintain than the in-phase pattern and that neuro-muscular coupling significantly influenced the coordination dynamics. Moreover, the effect of vision differed as a function of both neuro-muscular coupling and coordination mode. Under dissimilar neuro-muscular coupling, the presence of visual feedback stabilized the in-phase pattern and destabilized the antiphase pattern. In contrast, visual feedback did not influence pattern stability during conditions of similar neuro-muscular coupling. These results shed light on the complex interactions between motor and perceptual (visual) constraints during the production of hand-foot coordination patterns.     

Reflections on intersections between cognitive and social psychology: A personal exploration

I appreciate the opportunity offered by the editor to reflect on the relationship between cognitive and social psychology. This topic has interested me my entire professional life, because I was admitted to graduate school to study social psychology and then eventually migrated to cognitive psychology. The organization of this paper is as follows: I first relate my (somewhat puzzling) personal experiences that led me to wonder about relations between cognitive and social psychology. I suggest that, for many topics, the placement of a topic of study in one field or the other is arbitrary. Next I selectively review some common historical influences on the development of both fields, ones that have made them similar. Both grew from common seeds, which include Gestalt psychology as it became applied to a wider array of topics, experimental psychologists becoming interested in attitude change during and after World War II, and Bartlett's famous book on Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Next I review some research from my lab that picked up themes from Bartlett's work and that, in some aspects, combines cognitive and social approaches. I also discuss the issue of memory conformity or the social contagion of memory, and conclude with thoughts about how social and cognitive psychologists might collaborate on an exciting new arena, creating empirical studies of collective memory. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationship of mother–child interaction and the child's development of symbolic play

The extent to which the mother–child interactive relationship either promotes or limits a child's ability to see options or choices in the environment was investigated. It was predicted that this quality of interaction provided primarily by the mother would relate to the child's cognitive development as reflected in his or her level of symbolic play. The level and frequency of symbolic and nonsymbolic play in 30 children, ages 12 to 47 months, were coded and mothers' options‐promoting and options‐limiting behaviors were identified. Children, across this range of ages, whose mothers created an options‐promoting social context were observed engaging in more symbolic play. Nonsymbolic play, however, was not found to be significantly influenced by the mother's interactive style. A child's symbolic play marks a dynamic developmental achievement for the child, and appears to be related to the social context created by the mother's interactive style. ©2003 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Coupling of breathing and movement during manual wheelchair propulsion

The hypothesis of this study was that stable coordination patterns may be found both within and between physiological subsystems. Many studies have been conducted on both monofrequency and multifrequency coordination, with a focus on both the frequency and phase relations among the limbs. In the present study, locomotor-respiratory coupling was observed in the maintenance of small-integer frequency ratios (2:1, 3:1, and 4:1) and in the consistent placement of the inspiratory phase just after the onset of the movement cycle during wheelchair propulsion. Level of experience and various motor and respiratory parameters were manipulated. Coupling was observed across levels of experience. Increases in movement frequency were accompanied by a shift to larger-integer ratios, suggesting that a single modeling strategy (e.g., the Farey tree; D. L. González & O. Piro, 1985) may be used for coordination both within the motor subsystem and between it and other physiological subsystems.     

Moving memories: Behavioral synchrony and memory for self and others

Establishing and maintaining connections with others is central to a fulfilling social life. In this respect, behavioral coordination provides one avenue by which interpersonal linkages can be formed. Drawing from the dynamical systems approach, the present research explored whether temporary interpersonal connections founded on coordinated behavior influence memory for self and others. To do so, we measured participants’ incidental recall of self and other-relevant information after a period of either in-phase or anti-phase interpersonal coordination. While participants in the less stable anti-phase condition demonstrated the typical memory advantage for self-related compared to other-related information, this effect was eliminated when participant and confederate movements displayed in-phase coordination. These results are discussed with respect to the interplay between the systems that support interpersonal synchrony and basic social-cognitive processing.     

Interactive coordination of currently depressed inpatient mothers and their infants during the postpartum period

In healthy mother–infant dyads, interactions are characterized by a pattern of matching and mismatching interactive states with quick reparation of mismatches into matches. In contrast, dyads in which mothers have postpartum depression show impaired mother–infant interaction patterns over the first few months of the infant's life. The majority of studies that have examined such interaction patterns have drawn on community samples rather than on depressed inpatient samples of mothers who were in a state of current depression at the time of assessment. To date, no study has investigated specific microanalytic patterns of interactive coordination between depressed German mothers and their infants using the Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face paradigm (FFSF). The primary goal of this study was to evaluate specific patterns of dyadic coordination and the capacity for repairing states of miscoordination in an inpatient sample of postpartum currently depressed mothers and their infants as compared with a healthy control group. A sample of 28 depressed inpatient German mothers and their infants (age range = 1–8 months, M age = 4.06 months) and 34 healthy dyads (range = 1–8 months, M age = 3.89 months) were videotaped while engaging in the FFSF. A focus was placed on the play and reunion episodes. Compared with healthy dyads, dyads with depressed mothers showed less coordination of positive matched states and longer latencies when repairing interactive mismatching states into positive matched states. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Adaptation and implementation of the German social–emotional learning programme Papilio in Finland: A pilot study

This study investigated the cross-national adaptation and implementation of Papilio, a German social–emotional learning programme, in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres. Papilio is a developmentally focused, scientifically based intervention programme focused on preventing behavioural problems and fostering social–emotional competence in children aged 3–7. The aim of this study was to investigate and evaluate the cross-national adaptation and cross-cultural adaptation and implementation of Papilio in the Finnish ECEC context. Results from qualitative interviews with one Finnish Papilio trainer, 11 early childhood education (ECE) teachers, two ECE special education teachers and two nursery nurses are supplemented with teachers' and nursery nurses' (N = 75) questionnaire data. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed that cultural adaptations were necessary on four levels: accommodation of materials, adaptation of the contents of the materials, structure and delivery. The materials and training contents were culturally adapted, whereas the delivery of the intervention was adapted according to Finnish ECEC practices. The structural adaptation included discarding timeout, due to opposition by some educators. The educators were committed to implementing the programme as instructed and resolving the practical difficulties they encountered. Their motivation to implement Papilio increased as they observed improvements in the children's social–emotional competence during intervention.     

Rule prescriptions for initial male-female interaction

This study concerns aspects of initial interaction between male-female student peers and aimed to uncover the social rules which prescribe how such interactions should be conducted. The study demonstrated that the respondents' (n=50) common stock of knowledge contains a set of precise rules for initial male-female interaction that are organized according to the actor's interest in the situation. In addition the study demonstrated that the rules held by participants prescribe actions that are consonant with patterns of male and female behavior observed in previous social psychology studies of social interaction.     

Individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning: A multidimensional view

The relationship between individual differences in anxiety and executive functioning was investigated in a sample of young adults. Verbal and spatial working memory, resistance to interference, negative priming, and task‐switching measures were used to assess three executive functioning dimensions: updating, inhibition, and shifting. An additional index of basic psychomotor speed was added to this cognitive battery. According to the multidimensional interaction model of anxiety proposed by Endler (1997), state (cognitive–worry and autonomic–emotional) and trait (related to social evaluation, physical danger, ambiguous situations, and daily routines) anxiety were assessed in this evaluation context. Results indicated that shifting and inhibition (negative priming) efficiency were negatively related to state (cognitive–worry) and trait (related to social evaluation) anxiety. However, there was a relative advantage of subjects higher in social evaluation apprehensions in their memory updating performance. The results are consistent with several predictions of the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), and are relevant for research regarding the interaction of situational, personality, and cognitive functioning dimensions.     

Panoramic search: the interaction of memory and vision in search through a familiar scene

How do observers search through familiar scenes? A novel panoramic search method is used to study the interaction of memory and vision in natural search behavior. In panoramic search, observers see part of an unchanging scene larger than their current field of view. A target object can be visible, present in the display but hidden from view, or absent. Visual search efficiency does not change after hundreds of trials through an unchanging scene (Experiment 1). Memory search, in contrast, begins inefficiently but becomes efficient with practice. Given a choice between vision and memory, observers choose vision (Experiments 2 and 3). However, if forced to use their memory on some trials, they learn to use memory on all trials, even when reliable visual information remains available (Experiment 4). The results suggest that observers make a pragmatic choice between vision and memory, with a strong bias toward visual search even for memorized stimuli.     

Dynamic search and working memory in social recall

What are the mechanisms underlying search in social memory (e.g., remembering the people one knows)? Do the search mechanisms involve dynamic local-to-global transitions similar to semantic search, and are these transitions governed by the general control of attention, associated with working memory span? To find out, we asked participants to recall individuals from their personal social networks and measured each participant's working memory capacity. Additionally, participants provided social-category and contact-frequency information about the recalled individuals as well as information about the social proximity among the recalled individuals. On the basis of these data, we tested various computational models of memory search regarding their ability to account for the patterns in which participants recalled from social memory. Although recall patterns showed clustering based on social categories, models assuming dynamic transitions between representations cued by social proximity and frequency information predicted participants' recall patterns best-no additional explanatory power was gained from social-category information. Moreover, individual differences in the time between transitions were positively correlated with differences in working memory capacity. These results highlight the role of social proximity in structuring social memory and elucidate the role of working memory for maintaining search criteria during search within that structure.     

Temporal stability of rhythmic tapping “on” and “off the beat”: A developmental study

This study, following a dynamic pattern approach, examines age-related differences in the stability of unimanual rhythmic perception-action patterns. Thirty-six children, aged 7, 9, and 11 years, attempted to synchronize their finger tapping to the beats of an auditory metronome, either “on the beat” (i.e., in-phase coordination), or “off the beat” (i.e., antiphase coordination). The temporal stability of these perception- action patterns was measured by the variability of the relative phase between taps and auditory events and by the critical frequency, that is, the frequency at which a loss of stability was observed when the metronome frequency was increased. Age-related differences in stability were found for both relative phase variability and critical frequency. These findings suggest that the relative phase dynamics underlying perception-action coordination patterns change with age in the direction of an increased temporal stability. Received: 29 June 1998 / Accepted: 15 December 1998     

Impulsivity,communication, and marital satisfaction in newlywed couples

The authors used a vulnerability–stress–adaptation framework to examine how and why impulsivity affects communication and marital satisfaction in a sample of 100 newlywed couples. We specifically examined the links between impulsivity and perceptions of conflict communication patterns and their associations with marital satisfaction. Using an actor–partner interdependence framework, the results demonstrated that impulsivity was negatively associated with one's own and partner's marital satisfaction. Impulsivity was also negatively associated with constructive communication and positively associated with destructive communication. Furthermore, mediation analyses showed that communication patterns mediated the impulsivity–satisfaction link. Taken together, these findings suggest that impulsivity is likely to lead to lower marital satisfaction, partly through its effect on communication between partners.