Quantity discrimination in angelfish (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pterophyllum scalare</Emphasis>) is maintained after a 30-s retention interval in the large but not in the small number range

The ability to discriminate between sets that differ in the number of elements can be useful in different contexts and may have survival and fitness consequences. As such, numerical/quantity discrimination has been demonstrated in a diversity of animal species. In the laboratory, this ability has been analyzed, for example, using binary choice tests. Furthermore, when the different number of items first presented to the subjects are subsequently obscured, i.e., are not visible at the moment of making a choice, the task requires memory for the size of the sets. In previous work, angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) have been found to be able to discriminate shoals differing in the number of shoal members both in the small (less than 4) and the large (4 or more) number range, and they were able to perform well even when a short memory retention interval (2–15 s) was imposed. In the current study, we increased the retention interval to 30 s during which the shoals to choose between were obscured, and investigated whether angelfish could show preference for the larger shoal they saw before this interval. Subjects were faced with a discrimination between numerically small shoals (≤4 fish) and also between numerically large (≥4 fish) shoals of conspecifics. We found angelfish not to be able to remember the location of larger versus smaller shoals in the small number range, but to exhibit significant memory for the larger shoal in the large number range as long as the ratio between these shoals was at least 2:1. These results, together with prior findings, suggest the existence of two separate quantity estimation systems, the object file system for small number of items that does not work with the longer retention interval and the analogue magnitude system for larger number of items that does.     

Is a local sample internationally representative? Reproducibility of four cognitive tests in family dogs across testing sites and breeds

A fundamental precept of the scientific method is reproducibility of methods and results, and there is growing concern over the failure to reproduce significant results. Family dogs have become a favoured species in comparative cognition research, but they may be subject to cognitive differences arising from genetic (breeding lines) or cultural differences (e.g. preferred training methods). Such variation is of concern as it affects the validity and generalisability of experimental results. Despite its importance, this problem has not been specifically addressed to date. Therefore, we aimed to test the influence of three factors on reproducibility: testing site (proximal environment), breed and sex (phenotype). The same experimenter tested cognitive performance by more than 200 dogs in four experiments. Additionally, dogs’ performance was tested in an obedience task administered by the owner. Breed of dog and testing site were found to influence the level of performance only mildly, and only in a means-end experiment and the obedience task. Our findings demonstrate that by applying the same test protocols on sufficiently large samples, the reported phenomena in these cognitive tests can be reproduced, but slight differences in performance levels can occur between different samples. Accordingly, we recommend the utilisation of well-described protocols supported by video examples of the whole experimental procedure. Findings should focus on the main outcome variables of the experiments, rather than speculating about the general importance of small or secondary performance outcomes which are more susceptible to random or local noise.     

Event-Related Potential Correlates of Attention to Mediated Message Processing

The aim of this article is to find neural correlates of attention allocated to processing mediated messages. Event-related potentials (ERPs) for auditory distractors were recorded while subjects were engaged in watching a movie telling a short story (audio-video condition) or listening to a radio program describing the same events (audio condition). The amplitudes of the N1 and P3a components for distractors were larger in the audio than in the audio-video condition. The results indicate a stronger orienting response to auditory distractors when listening to the radio than when listening to and watching television. It confirmed predictions of the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP), which assumes that the less complex the encoded message, the more attentional resources are left for additional tasks. The largest amplitude of the P3a was observed during the first stage of encoding the message compared to the next stages. P3a amplitude to repeated auditory distractors seems to be a strong indicator of habituation. Results are discussed in the context of LC4MP and perceptual load theory of attention.     

The Set of Fear Inducing Pictures (SFIP): Development and validation in fearful and nonfearful individuals

Emotionally charged pictorial materials are frequently used in phobia research, but no existing standardized picture database is dedicated to the study of different phobias. The present work describes the results of two independent studies through which we sought to develop and validate this type of database—a Set of Fear Inducing Pictures (SFIP). In Study 1, 270 fear-relevant and 130 neutral stimuli were rated for fear, arousal, and valence by four groups of participants; small-animal (N = 34), blood/injection (N = 26), social-fearful (N = 35), and nonfearful participants (N = 22). The results from Study 1 were employed to develop the final version of the SFIP, which includes fear-relevant images of social exposure (N = 40), blood/injection (N = 80), spiders/bugs (N = 80), and angry faces (N = 30), as well as 726 neutral photographs. In Study 2, we aimed to validate the SFIP in a sample of spider, blood/injection, social-fearful, and control individuals (N = 66). The fear-relevant images were rated as being more unpleasant and led to greater fear and arousal in fearful than in nonfearful individuals. The fear images differentiated between the three fear groups in the expected directions. Overall, the present findings provide evidence for the high validity of the SFIP and confirm that the set may be successfully used in phobia research.     

The role of stimulus predictability in the allocation of attentional resources: an eye-tracking study

By allocating less attention to predictable events we are able to focus on novel, unpredictable and unexpected events that require more extensive processing. This strategy should result in improved performance by optimizing the use of brain’s limited resources. Participants’ task was to look at two types of stimuli presented simultaneously at the opposite sides of a computer screen: “static” stimuli, i.e. emotionally neutral photographs; and “dynamic” stimuli, i.e. video clips presenting a moving dot. The dot moved along a predictable, semi-predictable or random trajectory. This was followed by a memory test of the static stimuli. Participants spent more time looking at the dynamic stimuli when its trajectory was less predictable. Additionally, participants who readily adjusted their dwell time allocation to the dot trajectory performed better in the memory test, as demonstrated by a positive correlation between memory test sensitivity and the rate of eye movement patterns adjustment to stimulus predictability. This suggests that people adjust gaze duration to stimulus predictability and that doing so optimizes attentional resource allocation and improves performance. However, study design did not allow to distinguish between spatial and temporal predictability, so it is impossible to estimate the impact of each type of predictability specifically.     

The Real Guide to Fake Barns: A Catalogue of Gifts for Your Epistemic Enemies

Perhaps the concept of knowledge, prior to its being fashioned and molded by certain philosophical traditions, never offered any stable negative verdict in the original fake barn case.     

Estimating the effect of emotional intelligence in wellbeing among priests

Background/Objective: Emotional intelligence is a variable which has been the subject of significantly increased research in recent years. Relationships have been shown with both physical and psychological problems. The aim of this study is to analyse the direct and indirect effect that emotional intelligence exerts over the manifestation of physical and psychological clinical symptomatology and to severe disorders such as burnout syndrome in a professional group in which social function is fundamental. Method: So that, 881 Latin-American catholic priests (M_age = 45.89; SD_age = 11.58) were evaluated using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-22 and the General Health Questionnaire-28. Results: Using path analysis, emotional intelligence, especially Attention and Emotional Clarity, shows a high effect on psychological and somatic issues. Conclusions: Thus, both specific disorders and general well-being are related to emotional intelligence. Providing effective emotional intelligence training sessions seems to be able to reduce possible physical and emotional disorders.     

Conceptualizing suffering and pain

Background

This article aims to contribute to a better conceptualization of pain and suffering by providing non-essential and non-naturalistic definitions of both phenomena. Contributions of classical evidence-based medicine, the humanistic turn in medicine, as well as the phenomenology and narrative theories of suffering and pain, together with certain conceptions of the person beyond them (the mind-body dichotomy, Cassel’s idea of persons as “intact beings”) are critically discussed with such purpose.

Methods

A philosophical methodology is used, based on the review of existent literature on the topic and the argumentation in favor of what are found as better definitions of suffering and pain.

Results

Pain can be described in neurological terms but cognitive awareness, interpretation, behavioral dispositions, as well as cultural and educational factors have a decisive influence on pain perception. Suffering is proposed to be defined as an unpleasant or even anguishing experience, severely affecting a person at a psychophysical and existential level. Pain and suffering are considered unpleasant. However, the provided definitions neither include the idea that pain and suffering can attack and even destroy the self nor the idea that they can constructively expand the self; both perspectives can b e equally useful for managing pain and suffering, but they are not defining features of the same. Including the existential dimension in the definition of suffering highlights the relevance of suffering in life and its effect on one’s own attachment to the world (including personal management, or the cultural and social influences which shape it). An understanding of pain and suffering life experiences is proposed, meaning that they are considered aspects of a person’s life, and the self is the ever-changing sum of these (and other) experiences.

Conclusions

The provided definitions will be useful to the identification of pain and suffering, to the discussion of how to relieve them, and to a better understanding of how they are expressed and experienced. They lay the groundwork for further research in all these areas, with the twofold aim of a) avoiding epistemological mistakes and moral injustices, and b) highlighting the limitations of medicine in the treatment of suffering and pain.

     

The contribution of facial regions to judgements of happiness and trustworthiness from dynamic expressions

What expressive facial features and processing mechanisms make a person look trustworthy, relative to happy? Participants judged the un/happiness or un/trustworthiness of people with dynamic expressions in which the eyes and/or the mouth unfolded from neutral to happy or vice versa. Faces with an unfolding smile looked more trustworthy and happier than faces with a neutral mouth, regardless of the eye expression. Unfolding happy eyes increased both trustworthiness and happiness only in the presence of a congruent unfolding smiling mouth. Nevertheless, the contribution of the mouth was greater for happiness than for trustworthiness; and the mouth was especially visually salient for expressions favouring happiness more than trustworthiness. We conclude that the categorisation of facial happiness is more automatically driven by the visual saliency of a single feature, that is, the smiling mouth, while perception of trustworthiness is more strategic, with the eyes being necessarily incorporated into a configural face representation.