Video tracking in the extreme: Video analysis for nocturnal underwater animal movement

Computer analysis of video footage is one option for recording locomotor behavior for a range of neurophysiological and behavioral studies. This technique is reasonably well established and accepted, but its use for some behavioral analyses remains a challenge. For example, filming through water can lead to reflection, and filming nocturnal activity can reduce resolution and clarity of filmed images. The aim of this study was to develop a noninvasive method for recording nocturnal activity in aquatic decapods and test the accuracy of analysis by video tracking software. We selected crayfish, Cherax destructor, because they are often active at night, they live underwater, and data on their locomotion is important for answering biological and physiological questions such as how they explore and navigate. We constructed recording arenas and filmed animals in infrared light. Wethen compared human observer data and software-acquired values. In this article, we outline important apparatus and software issues to obtain reliable computer tracking.     

Use of the extreme groups approach: a critical reexamination and new recommendations

Analysis of continuous variables sometimes proceeds by selecting individuals on the basis of extreme scores of a sample distribution and submitting only those extreme scores to further analysis. This sampling method is known as the extreme groups approach (EGA). EGA is often used to achieve greater statistical power in subsequent hypothesis tests. However, there are several largely unrecognized costs associated with EGA that must be considered. The authors illustrate the effects EGA can have on power, standardized effect size, reliability, model specification, and the interpretability of results. Finally, the authors discuss alternative procedures, as well as possible legitimate uses of EGA. The authors urge researchers, editors, reviewers, and consumers to carefully assess the extent to which EGA is an appropriate tool in their own research and in that of others.     

Tracking planets and moons: mechanisms of object tracking revealed with a new paradigm

People can attend to and track multiple moving objects over time. Cognitive theories of this ability emphasize location information and differ on the importance of motion information. Results from several experiments have shown that increasing object speed impairs performance, although speed was confounded with other properties such as proximity of objects to one another. Here, we introduce a new paradigm to study multiple object tracking in which object speed and object proximity were manipulated independently. Like the motion of a planet and moon, each target-distractor pair rotated about both a common local point as well as the center of the screen. Tracking performance was strongly affected by object speed even when proximity was controlled. Additional results suggest that two different mechanisms are used in object tracking--one sensitive to speed and proximity and the other sensitive to the number of distractors. These observations support models of object tracking that include information about object motion and reject models that use location alone.     

Pushing dualism to an extreme: On the philosophical impetus of a new materialism

This article discusses the way in which a group of contemporary cultural theorists in whose work we see a “new materialism” (a term coined by Braidotti and DeLanda) at work constitutes a philosophy of difference by traversing the dualisms that form the backbone of modernist thought. Continuing the ideas of Lyotard and Deleuze they have set themselves to a rewriting of all possible forms of emancipation that are to be found. This rewriting exercise involves a movement in thought that, in the words of Bergson, can be termed “pushing dualism to an extreme.” By this movement, Deleuze has stated, “difference is pushed to the limit,” that is, using Colebrook’s words, “difference is shown differing.” The article addresses the ways in which modernity’s dualisms (structured by a negative relation between terms) are traversed, and how a new conceptualization, and ontology, of difference (structured by an affirmative relation) comes to be constituted along the way. New materialism leaves behind all prioritizations (implicitly) involved in modern dualist thinking since a difference structured by affirmation does not work with predetermined relations (e.g., between mind and body) nor does it involve a (counter-)hierarchy between terms. The article makes explicit the methodology of the current-day rise of non-dualist thought, both in terms of its non-classificatory mode of (Deleuzian) thinking and in terms of the theory of the time of thought thus effectuated (Lyotard’s notion of ‘rewriting modernity’ is not a post-modernism). Throughout the article we will engage with an example in order to demonstrate the ontology that is being practiced following this methodology: How does a new (feminist) materialism traverse the sexual dualisms that structure modernist (feminist) thinking? This example also shows how a feminist post-modernism (found in the canonical work of Butler) has remained dualist, and what makes new materialism “new.” Freed from a dualist methodology, the modernist emancipatory project comes to full fruition in new materialism.     

Esprit de corps: the possibility for the best care a hospital can provide

What is best for the hospitalized patient? How do we increase the prospects that a patient will receive the best care a hospital can provide, and how is this accomplished? It has been argued that what is best for the patient is to be in the care of highly functioning collaborative teams, teams with certain unique qualities, teams that have esprit de corps. But how do we get there? In furtherance of this discussion, the author, in a Quintilian-like spirit, deliberates about "necessity" and "possibility" in what is best for the hospitalized patient and the challenges these teams must navigate: responsibility, accountability, team relationships, leadership, moral distress, dissent, and personal and professional risk.     

Computer speech-based remediation for reading disabilities: the size of spelling-to-sound unit in a transparent orthography

This study was designed to assess the effects of four reading-training procedures for children with reading disabilities (RD) in a transparent orthography, with the aim of examining the effects of different spelling-to-sound units in computer speech-based reading. We selected a sample of 83 Spanish children aged between 7 years 1 month and 10 years 6 months (M = 105.2, SD = 7.8) whose pseudoword reading performance was below the 25th percentile and IQ > 90. The participants were randomly assigned to five groups: (a) the whole-word training group (WW) (n = 17), (b) the syllable training group (S)(n = 16), (c) the onset-rime training group (OR) (n = 17), (d) the phoneme training group (P) (n = 15), and (e) the untrained control group (n = 18). Children were pre- and post-tested in word recognition, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and orthographic and phonological tasks. The results indicate that experimental groups who participated in the phoneme and syllable conditions improved their word recognition in comparison with the control group. In addition, dyslexics who participated in the phoneme, syllable, and onset-rime conditions made a greater number of requests during computer-based word reading under conditions that required extensive phonological computation (low frequency words and long words). Reading time, however, was greater for long words in the phoneme group during computer-based reading. These results suggest the importance of training phonological processes in improving word decoding in children with dyslexia who learn in a consistent orthography.     

Anisotropic tracking: evidence for automatic synergy formation in a bimanual task

Investigation of interlimb synergy has become synonymous with the study of coordination dynamics and is largely confined to periodic movement. Based on a computational approach this paper demonstrates a method of investigating the formation of a novel synergy in the context of stochastic, spatially asymmetric movements. Nine right-handed participants performed a two degrees of freedom (2D) "etch-a-sketch" tracking task where the right hand controlled the horizontal position of the response cursor on the display while the left hand controlled the vertical position. In a pre-practice 2D tracking task, measures of phase lag between the irregularly moving target and the response showed that participants controlled left and right hands independently, performance of the right hand being slightly superior to the left. Participants then undertook 4 h 16 min distributed practice of a one degree of freedom etch-a-sketch task where the target was constrained to move irregularly in only the 45 degrees direction on the display. To track such a target accurately participants had to make in-phase coupled stochastic movements of the hands. In a post-practice 2D task, measures of phase lag showed anisotropic improvement in performance, the amount of improvement depending on the direction of motion on the display. Improvement was greatest in the practised 45 degrees and least in the orthogonal 135 degrees direction. Best and worst performances were no longer in the directions associated with right and left hands independently, but in directions requiring coupled movements of the two hands. These data support the proposal that the nervous system can establish a model of novel coupling between the hands and thereby form a task-dependent bimanual synergy for controlling the stochastic coupled movements as an entity.     

Mapping visual attention with change blindness: new directions for a new method

Change blindness provides a new technique for mapping visual attention with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Change blindness can occur when a brief full-field blank interferes with the detection of changes in a scene that occur during the blank. This interference can be overcome by attending to the location of a change. Because changes are detected at attended locations, but not at unattended locations, detection accuracy provides an indirect measure of the distribution of visual attention. The likelihood of detecting a new element in a scene provides a measure of the occurrence of attention at that element’s location. Potential new directions, advantages, and problems with this method are considered.     

Skull asymmetry and handedness in adults: a possibility of their association with lateral head turning in infancy

During the first two to three months after delivery infants when placed in the supine position commonly turn their heads laterally. This posture has been linked to the intrauterine orientation of the fetus. Skulls of adults were expected to bear a mark of this predominant head position in the form of occipital flattening. A blind examination of computerized axial tomography (CT) scans of 35 normal subjects assessed for handedness (20 right- and 15 mixed-handers) confirmed this prediction for the latter group only. Mixed-handers showed a slight, but reliable flattening of the right occiput. Also, there was a small but significant inverse association between the size of the petrous ridge and handedness. Examining subtle variations in skull shape of adults may provide a glimpse into some aspects of pre- and early postnatal development.     

Coping with rising food costs in a closed economy: feeding behavior and nocturnal hypothermia in pigeons.

The pigeon's response to increasing fixed-ratio schedules in a 24-hr closed economy is marked by changes in feeding behavior during the daily light phase and by changes in body temperature during the dark phase. The time course of these responses to increasing behavioral cost of obtaining food is very different. Feeding is most affected immediately, within the first day of exposure to moderate fixed ratios. The number of times the pigeons produce the food hopper each day decreases, and the rate at which they eat from the food hopper (grams per minute) when it is available increases, as the fixed ratio is raised. Body temperature is affected later, falling to progressively lower resting levels during the dark phase as body weight drops at the higher fixed ratios when food intake is reduced. The changes in feeding and in body temperature that occur as the fixed-ratio schedule increases seem to reduce daily energy expenditures, within the constraints imposed by the experiment. The ascending and descending limbs of the bitonic function obtained when total daily operant responding is plotted as a function of fixed-ratio schedule in the closed economy is possibly related to the occurrence of thermoregulatory strategies for energy conservation. The energetic analysis of performances in the closed economy requires consideration of a variety of energetic strategies available to the species being studied.     

Social preference experiments in animals: strengthening the case for human preferences

Guala appears to take social preferences for granted in his discussion of reciprocity experiments. While he does not overtly claim that social preferences are only by-products that arise in testing environments, he does assert that whatever they are--and how they evolved--they have little value in the real world. Experiments on animals suggest that social preferences may be unique to humans, supporting the idea that they might play a prominent role in our world.     

On the possibility of the reemergence of a dysgenic trend with respect to intelligence in American fertility differentials

This paper examines the relationship between IQ and fertility in a sample of men and women aged 25–34 as of the late 1970s. This sample is of unusual interest for two reasons: (1) it is a national probability sample, representative of the non-institutional civilian population of the U.S. as a whole, and (2) it is for a post-World War II cohort. Most previous studies of the IQ/fertility relationship have employed nationally unrepresentative samples of cohorts born in the pre-war period, 1910–1940. The bias, in both time and place, of the samples used in these studies has not been adequately grasped by those who cite them as evidence of a eugenic trend with respect to intelligence.The major finding of these previous studies was that the IQ/fertility relationship is slightly positive, contrary to expectations though confirmatory of the so-called Eugenic Hypothesis. My working hypothesis is that this finding is special to the cohort chosen for study, i.e., one whose child-bearing took place during a period of rising birth rates (cohorts born between 1910 and 1940 were largely responsible for the baby boom after World War II). That is, in periods of rising birth rates, persons with higher intelligence tend to have fertility equal to, if not exceeding, that of the population as a whole. In periods of falling birth rates, the opposite is the case, according to my thesis.This thesis is generally supported by the data set described above. Fertility differentials to date within the post-World War II cohort, which entered its reproductive years during a period of falling birth rates, show a negative relationship between intelligence and fertility. The relationship is less negative for white men than for white women and for white women than for black women (black men are omitted from this study due to deficiencies in the data). The stated intentions of this cohort with respect to future fertility, if realized, will moderate the degree of this relationship, particularly for whites, but not change its sign.     

Delta and spindle components in the integrated EEG during nocturnal sleep for infants with developmental disabilities

The delta and spindle components in the integrated EEG for 121 infants with developmental disabilities (from 4 mo. to 6 yr. of age: M=1.79, SD=0.14; 57 girls and 64 boys) were studied throughout nocturnal sleep. In 80 (66.1%, Group A) of 121 subjects, periodic changes of delta and spindle rhythm powers were noted in measurements of EEG made during sleep. In 28 (23.1%, Group B), delta but not spindle rhythm powers were found, and in the remaining 13 subjects (10.7%, Group C) neither delta nor spindle rhythm powers were found throughout measurements of EEG made during sleep. The Tsumori-Inage Questionnaire for Infants was administered to the parents to estimate subjects' behavioral developmental level as Developmental Quotients. Significantly lower mean Developmental Quotients were found for Groups B and C than Group A. These findings suggested that the presence or absence of delta and spindle rhythm powers in EEG measurements made during nocturnal sleep could be taken as an index of the severity of developmental disorders in infants with developmental disabilities.     

A little bit transparent with one another: Constructing vulnerability in the evangelical discourse of women preachers

Using four categories of Brown’s shame resilience theory (SRT), this paper analyses two similar online videos by prominent American evangelical female preachers: Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore. As each unpacks her survivor’s story of childhood sexual abuse, SRT (and its components of vulnerability, critical awareness, reaching out and speaking shame) can provide a matrix for interpreting the narrative in which each preacher frames her self-disclosure.     

Discrepancy in internalized values of workers in extreme situations: Consequences for soldiers and risk for the organization

IntroductionIn the present paper, we address the double-edged role of values among Army personnel and how they can be used in information warfare. We suggest that value discrepancy may impact the agent's trust and consequently, affect behaviour and ultimately destabilize the organization.ObjectivesBased on cognitive dissonance theory and the meaning maintenance model, we hypothesized that exposing trained soldiers to information which confronts their core values and involves both their peers and their institution could promote an overwhelming reaction that could finally alter their trust in the organization.MethodTo examine the proposed model, interviews were conducted with 38 active-duty soldiers that permits to stress the importance of values for their personal life. To complete the interviews, a staged observation was led with the second set of participants (n = 21). Its goal was to evaluate the soldiers’ reaction to a message aiming at their values.ResultsQualitative and quantitative analysis of the Interviews confirmed both the importance of the said values and stressed the ambivalence toward their institution. The results of the staged observation suggested that a low credibility source of information aiming at their central values could lead to a direct emotional reaction, that could potentially lead to a decrease in institutional trust, and therefore ultimately in the organisation performance.ConclusionThe discussion focuses on the consequences of this mechanism, the fundamental necessity for the organization of taking this process into account. Finally, we suggest ways to cope with this risk which can alter strategy deployment and goal achievement.