Early social experience and responses to visual social stimuli in young monkeys

Juvenile stumptailed macaques (Macaca arctoides) were given preference tests in which they could approach an empty chamber, a mirror, a familiar conspecific, or an unfamiliar conspecific. Control subjects tended to withdraw from the mirror, and threatened the stranger more than did monkeys whose early social experience had occurred exclusively in darkness. Both groups explored the familiar stimulus animal most of all, but the group socialized in the dark showed most positive behavior when in the empty chamber. In a second study peer-reared infants responded more appropriately to slides of conspecifics than did infants reared with a mirror as the main source of social input. Infants reared only with a peer were also strongly attracted to a mirror, whereas infants reared only with mirrors preferred a film of an unfamiliar agemate. The results suggest that early visual social stimulation is important in the development of aggression and other social behaviors, and that novelty and complexity are important aspects of social stimuli that interact with effects of early experience. Study 2 was conducted while the first author was in receipt of a Postgraduate Research Studentship from the U.K. Science Research Council. The DTU tapes were analyzed using a computer program developed with the help of SRC grant B/RG 98910 to A. Chamove. This latter grant also supported the study from which the preference test data were taken.     

Variation in Social Facilitation of Eating Behavior in Puppies

Observations of the play behavior of same-sex, same-age dyads of preschool children were made during 10-minute play sessions. Each of the 48 children participated both with a familiar peer and with an unfamiliar peer. The hypothesis that both boys and girls would show more interaction with familiar peers than unfamiliar peers was supported for younger girls and older boys. Younger boys seemed little influenced by the familiarity of their play companion, while older girls showed more social interaction with unfamiliar peers. Results were compared with studies that used projective techniques, and it was suggested that the effects of peer familiarity may appear earlier in actual behavior than through these techniques.     

I like those glasses on you,but not in the mirror: Fluency,preference, and virtual mirrors

Consumers like the same accessories (eye glasses and earrings) more, and are more likely to recommend a purchase, when the accessories are displayed on a familiar other's regular image rather than mirror image. However, image format does not affect consumers' judgments when the other person is unfamiliar. These findings reflect differences in consumers' natural exposure history: we see others more often face-to-face than in the mirror, giving their regular image a fluency advantage; this advantage does not apply to unfamiliar others, whose image is disfluent in either presentation format. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.     

Predicting boys' social acceptance and aggression: the role of mother-child interactions and boys' beliefs about peers.

Seven- to 9-year-old boys (N = 177) and their mothers participated in this study in which the associations between boys' experiences with their mothers, their beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers, and their peer adjustment were examined across a 2-year period. Boys' negative behavior with mothers was associated with their having more negative beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers and with their being more aggressive and less well-liked. Beliefs about familiar peers predicted changes in boys' social acceptance, whereas negative beliefs about unfamiliar peers predicted changes in aggression. In addition, boys' beliefs about peers changed in response to their social experience. The implications of these findings for children's social development are discussed.     

Five-month-old girls' and boys' exploratory behaviors in the presence of familiar and unfamiliar toys.

The exploratory behaviors of 60 5-month-old girls and boys were observed as they played with three unfamiliar toys and one familiar toy of their own during a laboratory session. Infants were seated at a table on the lap of an assistant. Each toy was placed on the table and remained there for 2 min after the infant first touched it. Frequency and duration of visual fixation on the toy, hand contact with the toy, five categories of lateralization, and eight categories of handling behaviors were measured. On the whole, the exploratory behaviors of girls and boys were not markedly different. However, girls spent more time than boys did in simultaneous hand contact with and visual fixation on their own familiar toy, whereas boys made more frequent contact with the familiar toy without visual fixation. In addition, boys displayed, overall, more tapping behaviors, and girls, more pinching and object-displacement behaviors. Girls and boys did not differ in manual lateralization. Results are discussed in reference to infants' rate of development, motor activity level, and girls' and boys' reactions to novelty.     

Cattle discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics by using only head visual cues

Faces have features characteristic of the identity, age and sex of an individual. In the context of social communication and social recognition in various animal species, facial information is relevant for discriminating between familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Here, we present two experiments aimed at testing the ability of cattle (Bos taurus) to visually discriminate between heads (including face views) of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics represented as 2D images. In the first experiment, we observed the spontaneous behaviour of heifers when images of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics were simultaneously presented. Our results show that heifers were more attracted towards the image of a familiar conspecific (i.e., it was chosen first, explored more, and given more attention) than towards the image of an unfamiliar one. In the second experiment, the ability to discriminate between images of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics was tested using a food-rewarded instrumental conditioning procedure. Eight out of the nine heifers succeeded in discriminating between images of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics and in generalizing on the first trial to a new pair of images of familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics, suggesting a categorization process of familiar versus unfamiliar conspecifics in cattle. Results of the first experiment and the observation of ear postures during the learning process, which was used as an index of the emotional state, provided information on picture processing in cattle and lead us to conclude that images of conspecifics were treated as representations of real individuals.     

Perceptual asymmetries are preserved in memory for highly familiar faces of self and friend

We investigated the effect of familiarity on people's perception of facial likeness by asking participants to choose which of two mirror-symmetric chimeric images (made from the left or right half of a photograph of a face) looked more like an original image. In separate trials the participants made this judgment for their own face and for the face of a close friend; half of them matched to a true image of the original and half matched to a mirror image of the original. In the case of matching to a friend's face presented in the familiar orientation, over 80% of participants chose the left-left composite to be a better likeness to the original, whereas only 62% showed the same left-side bias when matching to a mirror image. The difference is significant, and the result contrasts markedly with a second experiment where participants who were unfamiliar with the faces showed comparable left-side biases when matching to true or mirror reversed images. The result suggests that perceptual asymmetries are retained in our long-term memory for highly familiar faces. While matching to images of self also showed an effect of familiarity, the data in this condition show less evidence of perceptual asymmetry and are discussed in relation to recent research on the representation of one's own face.     

Hits and false positives in face matching: a familiarity-based dissociation

In recognition memory for unfamiliar faces, performance for target-present items (hits) does not correlate with performance for target-absent items (false positives), a result which runs counter to the more usual mirror effect. In this paper we examinesubjects' performance on fac e matching, a nd demonstrate no relationship-between performance on matching items and performance on nonmatching items. This absence of a mirror effect occurs for multidistractor, 1-in-10 matching tasks (Experiment 1) and for simple paired-item tasks (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3 we demonstrate that matching familiar faces produces a strong mirror effect. However, inverting the familiar faces causes the association to disappear once more (Experiment 4). We argue thatfamiliar and unfamiliar faces are represented in qualitatively different ways.     

Auditory basis of maternal attachment in ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos) under simulated naturalistic imprinting conditions

The presence of broodmates during the imprinting process results in peer imprinting that interrupts a visually mediated maternal attachment. We sought to determine the conditions in which group-trained mallard ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos) acquire a maternal attachment. At 48 hr of age, ducklings were allowed to follow a vocal, stuffed mallard hen individually or in groups of 4. Individual ducklings showed a preference for the silent, familiar mallard over an unfamiliar pintail. Ducklings trained in groups did not show a preference. When the mallard maternal call was present during testing, group-trained ducklings overwhelmingly responded to it regardless of whether it came from the familiar mallard or an unfamiliar pintail. Training ducklings in groups, which simulates the natural social context of imprinting, results in peer imprinting. Thus, early in development the young become visually imprinted to each other, and the maternal call mediates attachment to the mother.     

A social cichlid fish failed to pass the mark test

Since the pioneering work in chimpanzees, mirror self-recognition (MSR), the ability to recognise oneself in a mirror, has been reported in great apes, Asian elephants, dolphins, and some social birds using the mark test, in which animals that possess MSR touch an imperceptible mark on their own bodies only when a mirror is present. However, giant pandas, which are solitary, failed to pass the mark test, suggesting that MSR evolved solely in highly social animals. In contrast to the increasing evidence of MSR in mammals and birds, little is known about MSR in fish. A Tanganyikan cichlid, Neolamprologus pulcher, is a good candidate for study because these fish live in highly social groups and recognise conspecifics about as rapidly as primates. We examined their responses to a mirror image and tested whether N. pulcher could pass the mark test. When the mirror was first exposed, they stayed in front of the mirror and exhibited aggressive behaviour towards the mirror image. These social behaviours suggested that the focal fish perceived the mirror image as an unfamiliar conspecific. The social responses decreased over the following days, as has generally been the case in animals with MSR. After mark injection, we found no increase in scraping behaviour or prolonged observation of the marked side. These results show a lack of contingency checking and mark-directed behaviours, meaning that N. pulcher failed to pass the mark test and did not recognise their self-image in the mirror.     

Organization of behavior in unfamiliar female rabbits

Under natural conditions, female European rabbits usually spend the whole of their life in their natal groups, establishing a network of stable relationships with their group-mates, particularly with other females. Indeed, female social interactions with groupmates are ultimately responsible for the dimension, structure, and cohesion of the group itself. Despite their importance in social organization, non-reproductive female behaviors are poorly known. This study aims to provide information on the nature and distribution of these behaviors in familiar and unfamiliar milieux. For this purpose, female rabbits unfamiliar with each other were experimentally grouped, housed in outdoor enclosures new to them, and observed as they gradually familiarized with their environment and group-mates. When females were unfamiliar with both environment and group-mates, they would often mark objects (but never conspecifics) and engage in agonistic activities, preceded by approach and olfactory investigation. Once females had become familiar with their environment and group-mates, they spent a lot of time eating and self-grooming. Marking frequency decreased, and agonistic behavior became rare and appeared no longer related to introductory behaviors, which under these conditions led to amiable interactions, such as lying side by side with group-mates or grooming them. Under both unfamiliar and familiar conditions, high-ranking females appeared more active and interactive than low-ranking ones.     

Intrafemale agonistic interactions in the domestic rabbit (oryctolagus cuniculus L.)

Agonistic interactions between adult domestic rabbit females were observed. Females were housed in groups of four in outdoor enclosures measuring 4 × 4 m. Agonistic patterns included aggression (AG), flight (FL), and submission (SB). Observations focused on 1) initial interactions between unfamiliar females, concomitant with the formation and establishment of a social structure (Phase 1); and 2) interactions between familiar females organized in a stable social structure (Phase 2). AG was frequent between unfamiliar females and appeared related to the acquisition of social dominance. When social organization was settled, there was a dramatic reduction in the number and frequency of aggressive behaviors. Similarly, FL was more frequent when females were unfamiliar, but it did not appear to be merely a response to AG. The decreased frequency of both AG and FL in Phase 2 was paralleled by an increased frequency of SB with respect to FL. Under stable social conditions, subordinate females frequently signalled submission to dominant counterparts. In contrast, the latter did not signal their social status with any consistent behavioral pattern. It follows that SB was not necessarily induced as the appropriate response to aggression given by dominant females. Thus, SB appeared relevant in social communication especially in structured groups, where it conveyed information on the actor's subordination and possibly inhibited the receiver's aggression. A further possibility is that it has an autonomous rather than secondary role in the maintenance of stable dominance/subordination relationships.     

Patterns of social preference across different social contexts in golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia)

We investigated the role of mutual and circumstantial factors in maintaining exclusive social relationships in a New World primate. Four breeding pairs of golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia rosalia) were allowed to interact with their mate or an unfamiliar, opposite-sex adult in each of 4 different social contexts: in view of the mate, out of the mate's view, with only the mate present, and with only the unfamiliar animal present. Males and females were in proximity to, approached, and sniffed their mates significantly more often than they did unfamiliar tamarins. These behaviors suggest a preference for the familiar mate. However, when mates were absent, tamarins demonstrated significantly higher levels of approach and sniffs toward unfamiliar animals. These patterns of behavior indicate that circumstantial factors, such as social context, may regulate social interactions between paired tamarins and unfamiliar, opposite-sex conspecifics.     

Electronic mail,a new written‐language register: A study with French‐speaking adolescents

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which the linguistic forms used by adolescents in electronic mail (e‐mail) differ from those used in standard written language. The study was conducted in French, a language with a deep orthography that has strict, addressee‐dependent rules for using second person personal pronouns (unfamiliar and familiar forms). Data were collected from 80 adolescents ages 12 to 15 in a natural situation where they had to introduce themselves by e‐mail to two addressees (peer/teacher). Participants were divided into two groups (skilled/unskilled in computer‐mediated communication). Their emails contained a large number of orthographic deviations (the most frequent being neographic forms). Participants skilled in computer‐mediated communication (CMC) deviated more than unskilled ones did. The number of orthographic deviations was not linked to the participants' standard writing ability. The personal‐pronoun data clearly showed that adolescents used the familiar form of ‘you’ (tu) to address the peer and the unfamiliar form (vous) to address the teacher. We conclude that, for adolescents, e‐mail constitutes a distinct written‐language register. Nevertheless, the e‐mail register seems to follow the pragmatic rules of standard spoken and written interaction.     

Preschoolers' inhibition in their home: relation to temperament

Researchers assessed 58 preschoolers' reactions to an unfamiliar person and unfamiliar objects in their familiar home environment. Children participated in a 30-min procedure designed to elicit behavioral inhibition, including (a) a free-play period with a stranger present, (b) a structured interaction with the stranger, and (c) uncertainty-eliciting tasks. Behaviors representing the child's reactions toward the mother, stranger, and novel objects were coded. Mothers completed a temperament scale. Preschoolers exhibited behaviors indicative of inhibition toward unfamiliar social and nonsocial stimuli; behaviors remained stable across increasingly intrusive episodes. The approach/withdrawal component of temperament was related to behavioral inhibition. Individual differences in mood did not appear to be related to differences in inhibition. Parent reported temperament was related to researcher-observed behaviors.     

Effects of prior agonistic experience on risk assessment and approach behavior evoked by familiar or unfamiliar conspecific odors

Risk assessment and appetitive behaviors in response to familiar and unfamiliar conspecific odors were measured in mice rendered dominant or subordinate by a series of resident-intruder encounters. Subordinate mice showed elevated levels of risk assessment in response to the odors of both familiar dominant and unfamiliar males. These behaviors were almost totally absent among dominant males exposed to familiar subordinate or unfamiliar male odors. Subordinate mice showed a marginally significant elevation in latencies to approach familiar, but not unfamiliar, dominant odors. Dominant and subordinate mice spent comparable amounts of time in the cage area containing familiar antagonist odors, however, and the durations of subordinates were mildly elevated, rather than decreased, when unfamiliar conspecific odors were present. There were no group differences in any of the appetitive behaviors. These findings suggest that apparent preferences for conspecific odors may arise from quantitatively and/or qualitatively differing emotional states. The inclusion of risk assessment measures is suggested to be a useful adjunct for studies of olfactory preference/rejection. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Reformulating infant and toddler social competence with peers

Efforts to identify children at risk for social and academic difficulties at an early age have begun to apply conceptualizations of social competence with peers from childhood to infancy and toddlerhood. These attempts have had limited success, in part because social behaviors studied in later childhood such as negative or aggressive acts may not capture relevant dimensions of social competence with peers during the infant and toddler years. The present study conducted an exploratory factor analysis to begin developing a conceptualization of social competence with peers that is appropriate for use with infants and toddlers, and that captures individual differences capable of predicting later social functioning. Results indicate three dimensions of infant and toddler social competence with peers: peer sociability, active peer refusal, and passive peer avoidance. Negative and aggressive behaviors loaded on each of the three factors rather than emerging as a unique dimension of social competence. Each factor demonstrated both convergent and predictive validity, indicating that early identification of social skills remains a reasonable goal for practitioners and researchers alike. Finally, antecedents within children, families, and out-of-home child care environments helped to explain individual variability in each of these three factors of social competence with peers.     

I feel who I see: Visual body identity affects visual-tactile integration in peripersonal space

Recent studies have shown the importance of integrating multisensory information in the body representation for constituting self-consciousness. However, one idea that has received only scant attention is that our body representation is also constituted by knowledge of bodily visual characteristics (i.e. 'what I look like'). Here in two experiments we used a full body crossmodal congruency task in which visual distractors were presented on a photograph of the participant, another person, who was either familiar or unfamiliar, or an object. Results revealed that during the 'self-condition' CCEs were enhanced compared to the 'other condition'. The CCE was similar for unfamiliar and familiar others. CCEs for the object condition were significantly smaller. The results show that presentation of an irrelevant image of a body affects multimodal processing and that the effect is enhanced when that image is of the self. The results hold intriguing implications for body representation in social situations.     

Unfamiliar Untrained Observers’ Ratings of Adolescent Safety Behaviors Within Social Interactions with Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Adolescents experiencing social anxiety often engage in safety behaviors―covert avoidance strategies for managing distress (e.g., avoiding eye contact)―that factor into the development and maintenance of their concerns. Prior work supports the psychometric properties of the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE), a self-report survey of safety behaviors. Yet, we need complementary methods for assessing these behaviors within contexts where adolescents often experience concerns, namely, interactions with unfamiliar peers. Recent work indicates that, based on short, direct social interactions with adolescents, individuals posing as unfamiliar peers (i.e., peer confederates) and without assessment training can capably report about adolescent social anxiety. We built on prior work by testing whether we could gather valid SAFE reports from unfamiliar untrained observers (UUOs), who observed adolescents within archived recordings of these short social interactions. A mixed clinical/community sample of 105 adolescents self-reported on their functioning and participated in a series of social interaction tasks with peer confederates, who also provided social anxiety reports about the adolescent. Based on video recordings of these tasks, trained independent observers rated adolescents’ observed social skills, and an additional set of UUOs completed SAFE reports of these same adolescents. Unfamiliar untrained observers’ SAFE reports (a) related to adolescents’ SAFE self-reports, (b) distinguished adolescents on clinically elevated social anxiety concerns, (c) related to trained independent observers’ ratings of adolescent social skills within interactions with peer confederates, and (d) related to adolescents’ self-reported arousal within these same interactions. Our findings support use of unfamiliar observers’ perspectives to understand socially anxious adolescents’ interpersonal functioning.     

Temperamental surgency and emotion regulation as predictors of childhood social competence

The primary aims of the current study were to longitudinally examine the direct relationship between children's temperamental surgency and social behaviors as well as the moderating role of children's emotion regulation. A total of 90 4.5-year-old children participated in a laboratory visit where children's temperamental surgency was rated by experimenters and children's emotion regulation abilities were assessed. The summer before entry into first grade, children's social behaviors with unfamiliar peers were observed in the laboratory and mothers completed a questionnaire about children's social behaviors. Supporting our hypotheses, results revealed that children high in temperamental surgency developed more negative peer behaviors, whereas children low in temperamental surgency were more likely to develop behavioral wariness with peers. Emotion regulatory behaviors were found to moderate the relation between temperamental surgency and aggression, where high-surgent children who showed high levels of social support seeking were less likely to be rated by their mothers as high in aggression. Furthermore, results revealed that low-surgent children who showed high levels of distraction/self-soothing were more likely to show behavioral wariness around unfamiliar peers, whereas high-surgent children who used more distraction/self-soothing behaviors were rated by their mothers as lower in social competence.