Audience effects on food caching in grey squirrels (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sciurus carolinensis</Emphasis>): evidence for pilferage avoidance strategies

If food pilferage has been a reliable selection pressure on food caching animals, those animals should have evolved the ability to protect their caches from pilferers. Evidence that animals protect their caches would support the argument that pilferage has been an important adaptive challenge. We observed naturally caching Eastern grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) in order to determine whether they used any evasive tactics in order to deter conspecific and heterospecific pilferage. We found that grey squirrels used evasive tactics when they had a conspecific audience, but not when they had a heterospecific (corvid) audience. When other squirrels were present, grey squirrels spaced their caches farther apart and preferentially cached when oriented with their backs to other squirrels, but no such effect was found when birds were present. Our data provide the first evidence that caching mammals are sensitive to the risk of pilferage posed by an audience of conspecifics, and that they utilise evasive tactics that should help to minimise cache loss. We discuss our results in relation to recent theory of reciprocal pilferage and compare them to behaviours shown by caching birds.     

Relationships amongst body dissatisfaction, internalisation of the media body ideal and perceived pressure from media in adolescent girls and boys

Sociocultural factors that underpin gender differences in body dissatisfaction have not frequently been explored. We examined the relative contribution of internalization of media body ideals and perceived pressure to achieve this ideal in explaining body dissatisfaction in adolescent boys and girls. A sample of 819 boys and 791 girls completed measures of internalization of body ideals, perceived pressure, body mass index (BMI) and body dissatisfaction. As expected, girls showed higher body dissatisfaction, internalization and pressure than boys. Internalization, pressure and BMI contributed to the prediction of body dissatisfaction in boys and in girls although these variables explained less variance in body dissatisfaction in boys. In addition, for girls the strongest predictor of body dissatisfaction was internalization, whilst for boys the strongest predictor was pressure. Differences in extent of internalization and pressure may contribute to higher body dissatisfaction in girls than boys. These sociocultural factors may affect girls and boys differently.     

Diffusion of Innovation Theory: A Bridge for the Research‐Practice Gap in Counseling

This article presents a diffusion of innovation theory‐based framework for addressing the gap between research and practice in the counseling profession. The author describes the nature of the research‐practice gap and presents an overview of diffusion of innovation theory. On the basis of the application of several major postulates of diffusion of innovation theory to the research‐practice gap, several theory‐based research practices and questions are proposed.     

Stress Processes in Pregnancy and Preterm Birth

ABSTRACT— Preterm birth (PTB) is of epidemic proportions in the United States, particularly among African Americans. Its consequences range from risk of infant mortality to lifelong disease and disability. Stress is a contributor to preterm labor and delivery. This article summarizes research on stress as a risk factor for PTB. As is evident in considering the complex mechanisms, psychological science has much to contribute to addressing this important health issue.     

Face inversion disrupts the perception of vertical relations between features in the right human occipito‐temporal cortex

The impact of inversion on the extraction of relational and featural face information was investigated in two fMRI experiments. Unlike previous studies, the contribution of horizontal and vertical spatial relations were considered separately since they have been shown to be differentially vulnerable to face inversion (Goffaux & Rossion, 2007). Hence, inversion largely affects the perception of vertical relations (e.g. eye or mouth height) while the processing of features (e.g. eye shape and surface) and of horizontal relations (e.g. inter‐ocular distance) is affected to a far lesser extent. Participants viewed pairs of faces that differed either at the level of one local feature (i.e. the eyes) or of the spatial relations of this feature with adjacent features. Changes of spatial relations were divided into two conditions, depending on the vertical or horizontal axis of the modifications. These stimulus conditions were presented in separate blocks in the first (block) experiment while they were presented in a random order in the second event‐related (ER) experiment. Face‐preferring voxels located in the right‐lateralized middle fusiform gyrus (rMFG) largely decreased their activity with inversion. Inversion‐related decreases were more moderate in left‐lateralized middle fusiform gyrus (lMFG). ER experiment revealed that inversion affected rMFG and lMFG activity in distinct stimulus conditions. Whereas inversion affected lMFG processing only in featural condition, inversion selectively affected the processing of vertical relations in rMFG. Correlation analyses further indicated that the inversion effect (IE) observed in rMFG and right inferior occipital gyrus (rIOG) reliably predicted the large behavioural IE observed for the processing of vertical relations. In contrast, lMFG IE correlated with the weak behavioural IE observed for the processing of horizontal relations. Our findings suggest that face configuration is mostly encoded in rMFG, whereas more local aspects of face information, such as features and horizontal spatial relations drive lMFG processing. These findings corroborate the view that the vulnerability of face perception to inversion stems mainly from the disrupted processing of vertical face relations in the right‐lateralized network of face‐preferring regions (rMFG, rIOG).     

Neural functional organization of hallucinations in schizophrenia: Multisensory dissolution of pathological emergence in consciousness

Although complex hallucinations are extremely vivid, painful symptoms in schizophrenia, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of multisensory integration in such a phenomenon. We investigated the neural basis of these altered states of consciousness in a patient with schizophrenia, by combining state of the art neuroscientific exploratory methods like functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, cortical thickness analysis, electrical source reconstruction and trans-cranial magnetic stimulation. The results shed light on the functional architecture of the hallucinatory processes, in which unimodal information from different modalities is strongly functionally connected to higher-order integrative areas.     

The development of the Game Engagement Questionnaire: A measure of engagement in video game-playing

Deep engagement in video game-playing has the potential to be to be one important determinant of the impact of playing violent video games, but there are currently no reliable measures of this subjective experience. To fill this gap, the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ) was developed using both classical and Rasch analyses. In Study 1 Rasch analyses provide support for the reliability and functionality of the GEQ scores. Rasch analyses also demonstrate that the GEQ has adequate separation, fit, rating scale functioning, and dimensionality, suggesting that one’s tendency to become engaged in video game-playing is a quantifiable construct. In Study 2, behavioral and questionnaire data supported the reliability and validity of the GEQ for predicting engagement in violent video games. The GEQ provides a psychometrically strong measure of levels of engagement specifically elicited while playing video games, and thus shows promise for future research examining risk and protective factors for negative game impact.     

Do aggression and rule‐breaking have different interpersonal correlates? A study of antisocial behavior subtypes,negative affect,and hostile perceptions of others

There is mounting evidence that physical aggression and nonaggressive, rule‐breaking delinquency constitute two separable though correlated subtypes of antisocial behavior. Even so, it remains unclear whether these behavioral subtypes have meaningfully different interpersonal correlates, particularly as they are subsumed within the same broad domain of antisocial behavior. To evaluate this, we examined whether hostile perceptions of others (assessed via exposure to a series of neutral unknown faces) were linked to level and type of antisocial behavior aggression vs. rule‐breaking, and moreover, whether this association persisted even when also considering the common association with negative affect (as manipulated via written recollection of one's best and worst life experiences). Analyses revealed that aggression, but not rule‐breaking, was uniquely tied to hostile perceptions of others. Furthermore, this association persisted over and above the common association of both hostile perceptions and aggression with negative affect (at both trait and state levels). Such results provide additional support for clinically meaningful differences between the behavioral subtypes of aggression and nonaggressive rule‐breaking and for the independent role of hostile perceptions in aggressive behavior. Aggr. Behav. 35:453–461, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Relationships between digit ratio (2D:4D) and sex-typed play behavior in pre-school children

Juvenile play shows sex differences in animals and humans. Animal studies and a recent study in humans suggest that testosterone exposure during early development plays a key role. Here we report on the relationship between children’s sex-typed play behavior and digit ratio (2D:4D), a putative negative correlate of prenatal testosterone. 2D:4D and sex-typed play behavior as assessed by parents were negatively correlated in a sample of 83 pre-school boys but not in a sample of 93 girls. This finding lends some support to the ideas that early testosterone has a masculinising effect upon sex-typed play behavior in humans and that 2D:4D is a valuable tool for studying effects of early testosterone on human behavior.     

Establishing stimulus control of vocal stereotypy displayed by young children with Autism

We examined the vocal stereotypy of three boys who were diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Results of functional analyses indicated that each participant's vocal stereotypy was maintained by non‐social consequences. For two participants, verbal reprimands were provided contingent on vocal stereotypy in the presence of a red card (RC). For the third participant, after verbal reprimands alone did not decrease vocal stereotypy, toys were withdrawn contingent on vocal stereotypy in the presence of the RC. For all three participants, vocal stereotypy was permitted without programmed consequences the presence of a green card (GC). The results showed that vocal stereotypy decreased in the presence of the RC for all three participants; however, vocal stereotypy came under inhibitory control of the RC for only one of the three participants. The potential utility of using punishment to develop stimulus control of automatically reinforced problem behavior in academic settings is briefly discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.