Construct validity of the bem sex role inventory (BSRI): Does the BSRI distinguish between gender-schematic and gender-aschematic individuals?

Factor analyses were performed on the masculine, feminine, and neutral items of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) for gender-schematic and gender-aschematic individuals separately. The analyses revealed bipolar masculinity/femininity factors for the gender-schematic group and two unipolar “aschematicity” factors for the gender-aschematic group. The results support gender schema theory's claim that the two types of individuals respond differently to the items of the BSRI. Thus, the BSRI is a valid measure for distinguishing gender-schematic from gender-schematic individuals.     

Pilfering ravens, Corvus corax, adjust their behaviour to social context and identity of competitors

Like other corvids, food-storing ravens protect their caches from being pilfered by conspecifics by means of aggression and by re-caching. In the wild and in captivity, potential pilferers rarely approach caches until the storers have left the cache vicinity. When storers are experimentally prevented from leaving, pilferers first search at places other than the cache sites. These behaviours raise the possibility that ravens are capable of withholding intentions and providing false information to avoid provoking the storers' aggression for cache protection. Alternatively, birds may refrain from pilfering to avoid conflicts with dominants. Here we examined whether ravens adjust their pilfer tactics according to social context and type of competitors. We allowed birds that had witnessed a conspecific making caches to pilfer those caches either in private, together with the storer, or together with a conspecific bystander that had not created the caches (non-storer) but had seen them being made. Compared to in-private trials, ravens delayed approaching the caches only in the presence of storers. Furthermore, they quickly engaged in searching away from the caches when together with dominant storers but directly approached the caches when together with dominant non-storers. These findings demonstrate that ravens selectively alter their pilfer behaviour with those individuals that are likely to defend the caches (storers) and support the interpretation that they are deceptively manipulating the others' behaviour.This contribution is part of the special issue “Animal Logics” (Watanabe and Huber 2006).     

Who Are the People Reluctant to Participate in Research? Personality Correlates of Four Different Types of Nonresponse as Inferred from Self‐ and Observer Ratings

This article outlines a typology of nonresponse biases that may occur in research based on voluntary participation and presents empirical evidence on the relationships between nonresponse and personality traits. We describe four different types of nonresponse occurring at the recruitment stage, during data collection, and at the stage of recruitment for further research. Personality correlates of all types of nonresponse were investigated using data from an online survey e-mailed to owners of personal Web sites, and observer ratings on the targets' personality were obtained. After reviewing the target persons' Web sites, observers judged complete nonrespondents as less agreeable and less open to experience than respondents. Furthermore, higher extraversion, higher openness to experience, and higher narcissism differentiated volunteers for follow-up research from nonvolunteers in both self- and observer ratings. We found only weak evidence of personality correlates of careless and selective item nonresponse. Findings show that nonresponse biases may have significant implications for representativeness in surveys and personality test norms.     

Internistische Psychosomatik

Zusammenfassung Die psychische Komorbidität internistischer Patienten im Sinne einer ICD-Diagnose des Kapitels F beträgt mehr als 35%: Neurotische, besonders somatoforme, Schmerz-, affektive Störungen und Suchterkrankungen sind häufig. Die Liegedauer ist bei psychischer Komorbidität deutlich erhöht. Es benötigen 5% der internistischen Patienten ein psychosomatisches Konsil. Neue, komplexe Behandlungsstrategien, wie Transplantationen, Kardioverter-Defibrillatoren, Medikamentenpumpen, erfordern häufig spezifische psychosoziale Interventionen. Ältere Patienten haben Erkrankungen, die zunehmend chronifizieren und komplexer werden. Damit werden Lebensqualität und psychische Komorbidität zu zentralen Outcomevariablen der Volkskrankheiten. Das zweite große Aufgabenfeld internistischer Psychosomatik ist die Untersuchung und die Behandlung psychosomatischer Patienten im engeren Sinne (Essstörungen, Schmerz- und somatoforme Störungen), weil internistische Diagnostik und Therapie erforderlich oder die Motivation der Patienten primär somatisch ist. Organisationsmodelle reichen von Konsil-/Liaisondiensten bis zu integrierten psychosomatischen Abteilungen oder Fachabteilungen an Allgemeinkrankenhäusern. Aussichtsreiche Forschungsstrategien werden neben der Erforschung psychosomatischer Mechanismen in der Entwicklung pragmatischer Behandlungsprogramme, ihrer Überprüfung in klinischen Studien und der Versorgungsforschung gesehen. Darüber hinaus sollte eine Intensivierung nationaler und internationaler Forschungsnetze erfolgen, wenn immer möglich unter Beteiligung anderer Disziplinen, um auch im Bereich der Forschung konkurrenzfähig zu bleiben.Herrn Prof. Dr. Ernst Richard Petzold zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet.     

Konzeptualisierung in inkrementell-integrativer Sprachverarbeitung

Conceptualization in incremental-integrative\hb language processing Summary. Language is a versatile instrument in co-operatively solving a construction task. In order to understand instructions given during such a task, objects have to be identified and the type of action to be performed has to be determined. The experiments presented show that the way in which objects and actions are conceptualized depends on the linguistic and the non-linguistic, visually available context. Both kinds of information are processed incrementally in an integrative way. The impact of relevant factors, such as the specificity of verbs and object namings, object properties such as color, size, location and the dynamically determined class to which the object belongs was studied. Conclusions for models of language understanding and language production are drawn and requirements for a grammatical formalism suitable for incremental and integrative processing are formulated. Zusammenfassung. Sprache ist ein wichtiges Instrument bei der kooperativen Lösung einer Konstruktionsaufgabe. Zum Verstehen von Handlungsanweisungen im Rahmen dieser Aufgabe müssen Objekte identifiziert und die Art der Handlung erkannt werden. Es werden empirische Untersuchungen vorgestellt, die zeigen, daß die Konzeptualisierung der Objekte und Handlungen vom sprachlichen und nichtsprachlichen, visuell verfügbaren Kontext abhängt. Beide Arten von Kontextinformation werden inkrementell und integrativ verarbeitet. Dazu wurde der Einfluß einzelner Faktoren wie die Spezifität von Verben und Objektbezeichnungen, Objekteigenschaften wie Farbe, Größe und Position sowie die dynamisch zugewiesene Objektklasse und die Wortstellung der benutzten Sprache untersucht. Es werden Folgerungen für die Modellierung von beiden Richtungen der Sprachverarbeitung, Rezeption und Produktion, gezogen und Anforderungen an einen Grammatikformalismus zur inkrementell-integrativen Satzverarbeitung dargestellt.     

Ein Situierter Künstlicher Kommunikator für Konstruktionsaufgaben

A Situated Artificial Communicator for Assembly Tasks Summary. In this article we describe a Situated Artificial Communicator for assembly tasks. The main components of the system we are developing are a speech understanding module and a two-arm-robot module. The robot system can be instructed using spontaneous speech. The speech understanding module is based on Combinatory Categorial Grammar, which makes incremental and interactive speech understanding possible. The robot module is provided with multiple sensors and it masters complex assembly operations like peg-in-hole or screwing a nut into a bolt. The architecture and the underlying cognitive principles enable interactive processing that depends on the actual situation and allows the system to take advantage of redundant items of information. Due to these principles our Situated Artificial Communicator is highly robust. Zusammenfassung. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir einen Situierten Künstlichen Kommunikator vor, im vorliegenden Fall ein Robotersystem für Konstruktionsaufgaben. Das Robotersystem kann durch spontansprachliche Anweisungen gesteuert werden. Die Hauptkomponenten des Systems sind eine Sprachverstehenskomponente und eine Zwei-Arm-Roboterkomponente. Die Sprachverstehenskomponente basiert auf der Combinatory Categorial Grammar und ermöglicht eine inkrementelle und interaktive Sprachverarbeitung. Die Roboterkomponente verfügt über eine Vielzahl von Sensoren und beherrscht Montageoperationen wie Stecken und Schrauben. Durch die gewählte Architektur und die zugrundegelegten kognitiven Verarbeitungsprinzipien können Teilkomponenten des Systems der aktuellen Situation entsprechend interagieren und Informationsredundanz nutzen. Das System erhält dadurch eine hohe Robustheit.     

„Ist eine Allgemeine Psychotherapie notwendig, sinnvoll und machbar”?

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Development of spatial memory and spatial orientation in preschoolers and primary school children

The present study addresses the question of what kind of information children use when orientating in new environments, if given proximal and distal landmarks, and how spatial memory develops in the investigated age groups. Ten 5-year-old, ten 7-year-old and ten 10-year-old children were presented with the ‘Kiel Locomotor Maze’, containing features of the Radial Arm Maze and the Morris Water Maze, in order to assess spatial memory and orientation. Children had to learn to approach baited locations only. Task difficulty was equated with respect to the children's age. Training was given until the children reached criterion. During testing, the maze configuration and response requirements were systematically altered, including response rotation, cue rotation, cue deletion and response rotation with cue deletion in order to assess the spatial strategies used by the children. During training and testing, working-memory errors (WM), reference-memory errors (RM) and working-reference memory errors (WR) were recorded. As expected, no difference between age groups appeared during training, thus confirming comparable task difficulty across age groups. During testing, age groups differed significantly with regard to the orientation strategy used. The 5-year-olds were bound to a cue strategy, orientating towards local, proximal cues. The 10-year-olds mastered all tasks, thus displaying a place strategy, being able to use distal cues for orientation, and were even able to do so after being rotated 180°. The 7-year-olds proved to be at an age of transition: five of them were bound to a cue strategy, five children were able to adopt a place strategy. The differences in the orientation strategies used by children of different age groups was reflected by the sum of errors they made, also by RM. WM were found to be rare, especially in older children. We conclude that preschoolers use a cue strategy, that the development of place strategies occurs during primary school age and seems to be complete by the age of 10 years.     

Constructions of classical models by means of Kripke models (survey)

It is demonstrated how Kripke models for intuitionistic predicate logic can be applied in order to prove classical theorems. As examples proofs of the independence of the axiom of constructibility, of the omitting types theorem and of Shelah's ultrapower theorem are sketched.