Macaques’ (Macaca mulatta) use of numerical cues in maze trials

We tested the ability of number-trained rhesus monkeys to use Arabic numeral cues to discriminate between different series of maze trials and anticipate the final trial in each series. The monkeys prior experience with numerals also allowed us to investigate spontaneous transfer between series. A total of four monkeys were tested in two experiments. In both experiments, the monkeys were trained on a computerized task consisting of three reinforced maze trials followed by one nonreinforced trial. The goal of the maze was an Arabic numeral 3, which corresponded to the number of reinforced maze trials in the series. In experiment 1 (n=2), the monkeys were given probe trials of the numerals 2 and 4 and in experiment 2 (n=2), they were given probe trials of the numerals 2–8. The monkeys receiving the probe trials 2 and 4 showed some generalization to the new numerals and developed a pattern of performing more slowly on the nonreinforced trial than the reinforced trial before it for most series, indicating the use of the changing numeral cues to anticipate the nonreinforced trial. The monkeys receiving probe trials of the numerals 2–8 did not predict precisely when the nonreinforced trial would occur in each series, but they did incorporate the changing numerals into their strategy for performing the task. This study provides the first evidence that number-trained monkeys can use Arabic numerals to perform a task involving sequential presentations.     

Essentialism in the absence of language? Evidence from rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

We explored whether rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) share one important feature of human essentialist reasoning: the capacity to track category membership across radical featural transformations. Specifically, we examined whether monkeys – like children ( Keil, 1989 ) – expect a transformed object to have the internal properties of its original category. In two experiments, monkeys watched as an experimenter visually transformed a familiar fruit (e.g. apple) into a new kind of fruit (e.g. coconut) either by placing a fruit exterior over the original, or by removing an exterior shell and revealing the inside kind of fruit. The experimenter then pretended to place an inside piece of the transformed fruit into a box which the monkey was allowed to search. Results indicated that monkeys searched the box longer when they found a piece of fruit inconsistent with the inside kind, suggesting that the monkeys expected that the inside of the transformed fruit would taste like the innermost kind they saw. These results suggest that monkeys may share at least one aspect of psychological essentialism: They maintain category‐specific expectations about an object’s internal properties even when that object’s external properties change. These results therefore suggest that some essentialist expectations may emerge in the absence of language, and thus raise the possibility that such tendencies may emerge earlier in human development than has previously been considered.     

Does Quality of Work Life Affect Men and Women’s Retirement Planning Differently?

Population ageing in most western countries involves an increase in public expenditures and the risk of labour shortage. One way to meet these challenges is to retain older workers in the labour market by improving their work life. This article assesses whether quality of work life measures differ in importance for male and female workers in their retirement planning. This study applies samples of workers and retirees born in 1940 and 1945 drawn from Danish panel surveys in 1997 and 2002 and merged with longitudinal register data. Results suggest that male and female workers’ retirement plans are affected differently by various aspects of the job. Indeed, job demands lower planned retirement age, while increases in earnings, work hour satisfaction, and the opportunity to use skills on the job increase this age for men and women. Nevertheless, the impact of earnings is largest for men, and only male workers attach importance to job control and job security. These gender differences suggest, first, that men are more influenced than women by the quality of job dimensions in their retirement planning and, second, that an employer-initiated effort directed towards retaining older workers at the workplace will not necessarily be as effective for female as for male workers.

Visual nesting of stimuli affects rhesus monkeys’ (Macaca mulatta) quantity judgments in a bisection task

Nonhuman animals are highly proficient at judging relative quantities presented in a variety of formats, including visual, auditory, and even cross-modal formats. Performance typically is constrained by the ratio between sets, as would be expected under Weber’s law and as is described in the approximate number system (ANS) hypothesis. In most cases, tests are designed to avoid any perceptual confusion for animals regarding the stimulus sets, but despite this, animals show some of the perceptual biases that humans show based on organization of stimuli. Here, we demonstrate an additional perceptual bias that emerges from the illusion of nested sets. When arrays of circles were presented on a computer screen and were to be classified as larger than or smaller than an established central value, rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) underestimated quantities when circles were nested within each other. This matched a previous report with adult humans (Chesney & Gelman, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 24:1104–1113, 2012), indicating that macaques, like humans, show the pattern of biased perception predicted by ANS estimation. Although some macaques overcame this perceptual bias, demonstrating that they could come to view nested stimuli as individual elements to be included in the estimates of quantity used for classifying arrays, the majority of the monkeys showed the bias of underestimating nested arrays throughout the experiment.     

Visual kin recognition in nonhuman primates: (Pan troglodytes and Macaca mulatta): inbreeding avoidance or male distinctiveness?

Faces provide important information about identity, age, and even kinship. A previous study in chimpanzees reported greater similarity between the faces of mothers and sons compared with mothers and daughters, or unrelated individuals. This was interpreted as an inbreeding avoidance mechanism where females, the dispersing gender, should avoid mating with any male that resembles their mother. Alternatively, male faces may be more distinctive than female faces, biasing attention toward males. To test these hypotheses, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys matched conspecifics' faces of unfamiliar mothers and fathers with their sons and daughters. Results showed no evidence of male distinctiveness, rather a cross-gender effect was found: chimpanzees were better matching moms with sons and fathers with daughters. Rhesus monkeys, however, showed an overwhelming bias toward male-distinctiveness. They were faster to learn male faces, performed better on father-offspring and parent-son trials, and were best matching fathers with sons. This suggests that for the rhesus monkey, inbreeding avoidance involves something other than facial phenotypic matching but that among chimpanzees, the visual recognition of facial similarities may play an important role.     

Strong Attachment to Heroes: How Does It Occur and Affect People’s Self-Efficacy and Ultimately Quality of Life?

In spite of increasing evidence on the influence of heroes on the lives of ordinary people, there has been no formal study on the subject in relation to people’s attachment to a hero (or hero attachment). The current study proposed a consumer model to examine how a hero makes a positive impact on people’s lives in terms of their hero attachment, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction. Using observations from a survey, we examined both the direct and indirect effects that the contribution of a hero in people’s fundamental A-R-C (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) need fulfillment has on self-efficacy and ultimately on life satisfaction. We found that the impact of a hero in fulfilling the A-R-C needs has a direct, differential effect on self-efficacy and life satisfaction. More importantly, we found that the fulfillment of A-R-C needs by a hero significantly influences hero attachment, which in turn positively affects life satisfaction through self-efficacy. As the first empirical study on hero attachment in relation to people’s self-efficacy and life satisfaction, the study yields significant theoretical contributions and practical implications for practitioners and policy makers in the areas of public health, education, and quality of life.     

Does Guiji Mean Egoism?: Yang Zhu’s Conception of Self

Mencius portrayed Yang Zhu as an egoist. But the seeming consensus of scholars is that Yang Zhu was not an egoist. Despite that, however, a passage in the Lüshi chunqiu, a third century BCE text, appears to confirm Mencius’s characterization. It says that Yang Zhu valued self (guiji). In this paper, I examine the meaning of guiji. Specifically, I investigate on the term ji to reveal the meaning of guiji and elaborate on its possible implications. Ultimately, I show that with Yang Zhu’s possible conception of self, guiji does not necessarily mean egoism.     

Persuasion by Way of Example: Does Including Gratuity Guidelines on Customers' Checks Affect Restaurant Tipping Behavior?

This study examined the role of gratuity guidelines on tipping behavior in restaurants. When diners were finished with their meals, they were given checks that either did or did not include calculated examples informing them what various percentages of their bill would amount to. Results indicated that parties who received the gratuity examples left significantly higher tips than did those receiving no examples. These results and their implications are discussed.     

The push of social pain: Does rejection’s sting motivate subsequent social reconnection?

Physical pain motivates the healing of somatic injuries, yet it remains unknown whether social pain serves a similarly reparative function toward social injuries. Given the substantial overlap between physical and social pain, we predicted that social pain would mediate the effect of rejection on greater motivation for social reconnection and affiliative behavior toward rejecters. In Study 1, the effect of rejection on an increased need to belong was mediated by reports of more intense social pain. In Study 2, three neural signatures of social pain (i.e., activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left and right anterior insula during social rejection), each predicted greater behavioral proximity to rejecters. Our findings reify the overlap between social and physical pain. Furthermore, these results are some of the first to demonstrate the reparative nature of social pain and lend insight into how this process may be harnessed to promote postrejection reconnection.     

Nebbiosi’s Third: A Discussion of Gianni Nebbiosi’s “The Smell of Paper”

Gianni Nebbiosi’s clinical paper is discussed as music to the hammer of the commentator’s ear. Three overlapping points are presented. The first centers on Nebbiosi’s tone of voice with his analysand Teresa. The second point is about music and psychoanalysis. The final point is about Nebbiosi’s free association to Beethoven’s Third Symphony.     

It’s Not You,It’s Your (Old) Vagina: Osphena’s Articulation of Sexual Dysfunction

Released to an American market in 2013 the pharmaceutical drug Osphena was heralded as an innovative, hormone-free therapeutic option to cure two dysfunctions associated with menopausal women’s bodies: vaginal atrophy and dyspareunia. Yet a critical examination of the drug, its advertising, and associated discourses presents an opportunity to explore not only the medicalization of aging but also direct-to-consumer advertising’s role in perpetuating ideologies concerned with normalcy, normal bodies, normal sex, and normal gender performance. This project undertakes a critical feminist analysis of Osphena’s advertising campaign and the public’s response, incorporating Foucaultian theory and a bioethical perspective, and ultimately re-contextualizing them within medical discourses that highlight the pharmaceutical benefits associated with widespread adoption of the “deficiency” perspective that the drug perpetuates. I claim that the Osphena campaign is a clear contemporary illustration that the age-old rhetoric of women’s bodies as requiring medical intervention to resist aging is far from passé, and suggest that images and rhetoric of empowerment would be more readily accepted without relying upon dated and clichéd depictions of female sexuality.     

Does Traditional Stereotyping of Career as Male Affect College Women’s,but Not College Men’s,Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Ultimately Their Career Adaptability?

Sex Roles - In South Korea, strong beliefs about traditional gender roles in accordance with Confucian and patriarchic atmosphere still strongly influence daily life and the career development...     

Beyond Death’s (and Conception’s) Door: The Unsettling Limitations of Incarnate Existence

The psychological effects of contemplating one’s death have received much empirical attention, but the impact of thinking about one’s conception—the other temporal endpoint of physical existence—has not. Across three experiments, reflecting on conception or death (vs. a neutral topic) led to increased framing of sexual reproduction as miraculous and sacred, intensified belief in discarnate immortality, and a greater desire to experience a discarnate state that offered no direct assurance of literal immortality. Thinking about death uniquely evoked greater anxiety as well as greater desire for an experience that offered assurance of literal immortality, congruent with the tenets of terror management theory. Nevertheless, the parallel effects evoked by reflecting on conception and death also suggest that both amplify the aversive salience of the limitations inherent to physical existence, such that people respond by seeking experiences and adjusting attitudes/beliefs to divert attention from the physical body.     

Recruiting (Dis)Advantage: Men’s Versus Women’s Evaluations of Gender-Based Targeted Recruitment

Sex Roles - Organizations use targeted recruitment to attract applicants with specific demographic characteristics to diversify the workforce. Research reports mixed findings regarding the extent...     

Does “Making a Difference” Still Make a Difference?: A Textbook Author’s Reflections

Drawing on my experiences with teaching Psychology of Women and writing three editions of a textbook across two decades starting in 1990, I reflect on the core feminist call to make the personal political. By tracing the chronology and interplay of my textbook writing with my teaching, research, and editing, I speculate about an apparent disconnection between my experiences and research with students (who embrace the feminist call to make a difference) and the textbook market to veer toward less women-centeredness and activism in the pursuit of gender studies. I make my case that the activist goal of making a difference continues to make a difference in individual women’s lives, in women’s relationships, and in a social justice agenda.     

Tests of inferential reasoning by exclusion in Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana)

We examined inferential reasoning by exclusion in the Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) using two-way object-choice procedures. While other social scatter-hoarding corvids appear capable of engaging in inferential reasoning, it remains unclear if the relatively less social nutcracker is able to do so. In an initial experiment, food was hidden in one of two opaque containers. All of the birds immediately selected the baited container when shown only the empty container during testing. We subsequently examined the nutcrackers in two follow-up experiments using a task that may have been less likely to be solved by associative processes. The birds were trained that two distinctive objects were always found hidden in opaque containers that were always positioned at the same two locations. During testing, one of the two objects was found in a transparent “trash bin” and was unavailable. The birds were required to infer that if one of the objects was in the “trash,” then the other object should still be available in its hidden location. Five out of six birds were unable to make this inference, suggesting that associative mechanisms likely accounted for our earlier results. However, one bird consistently chose the object that was not seen in the “trash,” demonstrating that nutcrackers may have the ability to use inferential reasoning by exclusion to solve inference tasks. The role of scatter hoarding and social organization is discussed as factors in the ability of corvid birds to reason.     

Merton’s “True Self”: A Resource for Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Priests

The toxic impact of clergy sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence can be complex and enduring. For some, a particularly painful consequence is noteworthy change in one’s personal identity or sense of self. Survivors frequently experience unrelenting grief over the loss of the “self” that was experienced as “real” prior to the onset of abuse. Memories of days and times when this self was “alive” are often accompanied by strong feelings of affection and joy. Despair over the loss of this identity contrasts sharply with the indifference or hostility felt for the self with which they have been burdened as a consequence of sexual abuse by clergy in childhood. Many struggle with the unbearable conviction that they are fated to live “in the skin” of an identity that is not an authentic expression of the person they were meant to be. This article suggests that the writings of Thomas Merton (1915–1968) may offer a hopeful resource for survivors of clergy sexual abuse and for those working in support of survivors’ recovery. Merton has been described as “the most influential Catholic author of the twentieth century” ). His writings touch the “deeper woundedness of spirit and psyche” (Kilcourse, Cross Curr, 49:87–96, 1999, p. 90) and his elegant examination of the true self lies “at the center of his teaching on the Christian life” (Conn, Pastor Psychol, 46:323–332, 1998, p. 327). For Merton, the true self is indestructible and, because it is “rooted in God” (Merton, The inner experience: Notes on contemplation, Harper Collins, New York, 2003, p. 2), always open to discovery, growth, and transformation. This framework may be especially useful for individuals whose personal identity, as a consequence of sexual abuse in childhood by clergy, is experienced as forever poisoned and beyond redemption.     

On the validity of Raven’s matrices test: Does spatial ability contribute to performance?

The paper reports on an investigation of the convergent and discriminant validity of Raven’s matrices in considering reasoning and spatial abilities. Raven’s advanced progressive matrices (APM) and four scales representing reasoning, visualization, mental rotation and closure were applied to a sample of N = 280 university students. The data were investigated by means of structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated convergent validity of APM with respect to reasoning. In contrast, in investigating discriminant validity substantial correlations of moderate size between APM and the scales representing spatial abilities were observed. However, the investigation of the structure of the prediction of APM revealed that the scales representing spatial abilities did not improve the prediction based on the reasoning scale alone at the latent level. Consequently, it is suggested that Raven’s matrices show good convergent validity and slightly impaired discriminant validity.