A cross-modal effect of noise: the disappearance of the alarm reaction of a freshwater fish

Anthropogenic noise pollution is recognized as a major global stressor of animals. While many studies have assessed the unimodal impacts of noise pollution with a focus on intraspecific acoustic communication, little is known about noise pollution on the perception of visual and chemical information. The ‘distracted prey hypothesis’ posits that processing noise interferes with processing other information in the brain. Here, we found evidence for such a cross-modal effect of noise on the antipredator behaviour of a freshwater prey fish, the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas. In laboratory trials, exposure to noise from a motorboat caused the total absence of the classical fright reaction of minnows to conspecific alarm cues, whereas an ambient noise control had no such impact. In natural habitats, the impairment of such antipredator behaviour due to noise pollution could have major fitness consequences. We discuss how our findings translate to animal ecology and the need for future studies that target specific management decisions regarding noise pollution.     

Relative salience of syllable structure and syllable order in zebra finch song

There is a rich history of behavioral and neurobiological research focused on the ‘syntax’ of birdsong as a model for human language and complex auditory perception. Zebra finches are one of the most widely studied songbird species in this area of investigation. As they produce song syllables in a fixed sequence, it is reasonable to assume that adult zebra finches are also sensitive to the order of syllables within their song; however, results from electrophysiological and behavioral studies provide somewhat mixed evidence on exactly how sensitive zebra finches are to syllable order as compared, say, to syllable structure. Here, we investigate how well adult zebra finches can discriminate changes in syllable order relative to changes in syllable structure in their natural song motifs. In addition, we identify a possible role for experience in enhancing sensitivity to syllable order. We found that both male and female adult zebra finches are surprisingly poor at discriminating changes to the order of syllables within their species-specific song motifs, but are extraordinarily good at discriminating changes to syllable structure (i.e., reversals) in specific syllables. Direct experience or familiarity with a song, either using the bird’s own song (BOS) or the song of a flock mate as the test stimulus, improved both male and female zebra finches’ sensitivity to syllable order. However, even with experience, birds remained much more sensitive to structural changes in syllables. These results help to clarify some of the ambiguities from the literature on the discriminability of changes in syllable order in zebra finches, provide potential insight on the ethological significance of zebra finch song features, and suggest new avenues of investigation in using zebra finches as animal models for sequential sound processing.     

Learning Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Four Clinicians' Perspectives

This study examined the experiences of four clinicians learning emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT). Two group interviews, separated by 6 years, explored topics that included emotion, gender, model differences, personal practitioner impact, and the long-term influence of EFT training on clinical work. Emotion emerged as a major theme, with three subthemes at each phase. Phase 1 results indicated an increase in personal awareness of emotions, a positive impact on close personal relationships, and challenges for males in learning to elicit and use emotion. Phase 2 results, 6 years later, revealed that focusing on emotions remained salient and that EFT continues to influence the work of each clinician to varying degrees. Limitations, future research suggestions, and clinical implications are discussed.     

Practice and feedback effects on the confidence-accuracy relation in eyewitness memory

It has been claimed that the lack of a reliable confidence-accuracy relation in eyewitness memory stems from eyewitnesses' lack of knowledge concerning their relative expertise. Two studies tested this idea by contrasting the effects of practice alone with practice with feedback in three successive eyewitness tests. Experiment 1 tested recall for events, and Experiment 2 used recognition of faces as test materials. Both studies showed that practice alone did not increase the confidence-accuracy relation, but practice with feedback on relative performance produced robust increases in the confidence-accuracy relation. This suggests that lack of calibration is one factor that causes the reported lack of association between confidence and accuracy for eyewitness memory.     

Quiet Eye Training Improves Small Arms Maritime Marksmanship

Quiet eye training—teaching task-specific gaze control—has been consistently shown to optimize the acquisition of motor skills. The present study aimed to examine the potential benefits of a quiet eye training intervention in a simulated maritime marksmanship task that involved shooting fast approaching moving targets with a decommissioned general-purpose machine gun. Twenty participants were randomly assigned to a quiet eye trained (QET) or technical trained (TT) group and completed 2 baseline, 20 training, and 2 retention trials on the moving-target task. Compared to their TT counterparts, the QET group displayed more effective gaze control (longer quiet eye durations and greater target locking) and more accurate performance (smaller radial error of both the initial shot and average of all shots) at retention. These findings highlight the potential for quiet eye training to be used to support the training of marksmanship skills in military settings.     

Collaboration Technologies Improve Performance and Communication in Air Battle Management

Team communication is critical for Air Battle Management (ABM). In this study, two communication tools (text chat and electronic whiteboard) and two team resource aids (tabular and graphical displays) were introduced during simulated ABM to supplement radio communication. Results showed that combined chat and virtual whiteboard improved team performance, decreased number and duration of radio transmissions, but had mixed effects on workload. In addition, the graphical resource display improved team performance, decreased number and duration of radio transmissions, and reduced workload compared to the tabular display. These findings indicate that collaboration technologies introduced in this experiment may benefit military operations.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of negative and positive words: A divided field study

Research on the lateralisation of brain functions for emotion has yielded different results as a function of whether it is the experience, expression, or perceptual processing of emotion that is examined. Further, for the perception of emotion there appear to be differences between the processing of verbal and nonverbal stimuli. The present research examined the hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of verbal stimuli varying in emotional valence. Participants performed a lexical decision task for words varying in affective valence (but equated in terms of arousal) that were presented briefly to the right or left visual field. Participants were significantly faster at recognising positive words presented to the right visual field/left hemisphere. This pattern did not occur for negative words (and was reversed for high arousal negative words). These results suggest that the processing of verbal stimuli varying in emotional valence tends to parallel hemispheric asymmetry in the experience of emotion.     

Working memory load moderates late attentional bias in social anxiety

The vigilance–avoidance hypothesis suggests that socially anxious individuals attempt to detect signs that they are being evaluated (vigilance) and subsequently direct attention away from such stimuli (avoidance). Although extensive evidence supports vigilance, data concerning subsequent avoidance is equivocal. Drawing from models of attention, the current study hypothesised that working memory load moderates late attentional bias in social anxiety such that avoidance occurs if working memory load is low, and difficulty disengaging attention occurs if working memory load is high. Forty-one undergraduates (19 socially anxious; 22 non-anxious controls) completed a dot-probe task with emotional (happy and disgust) and neutral facial expressions and a concurrent n-back task. Results supported the hypothesis such that socially anxious subjects demonstrated avoidance of disgust faces when working memory load was absent, but had difficulty disengaging attention during high working memory load. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.