Influence of social conditions in song sharing in the adult canary

In songbirds, experience of social and environmental cues during a discrete period after birth may dramatically influence song learning. In the canary, the ability to learn new songs is assumed to persist throughout life. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether social context could guide changes in adult song. Three groups of canaries were kept in different social and temporal conditions. Results showed that the multiple hierarchical levels of the canary song structure were affected by social environment: songs of males housed together for 2 years were more similar than those of males that spent the same time in individual cages in regard to acoustic parameters, syllable repertoire and repertoire of sequences of two-syllable types. However, social housing did not result in the emergence of a group-specific vocal signature within songs. In conclusion, these results suggested that under the influence of social factors, a copying process could allow adult canaries to adjust, at least in part, their songs to those of other individuals.     

Valued Relations Aggregation with the Borda Method

The Borda method is a well-known method used to aggregate a profile of crisp binary relations into one weak order. We present a generalization of the Borda method, allowing it to aggregate a profile of valued relations. We give a characterization of the Borda method in this context and we show some links with the PROMETHEE method.     

Self‐affirmation,political value congruence,and support for refugees

This research tested the potential for self‐affirmation on left‐ and right‐wing political values to increase behavioral intentions to provide help and assistance to refugees. We present a pilot study defining left‐ and right‐wing values, and a main study in which participants completed either a self‐affirmation task, a group‐affirmation task, or participated in a control condition on values that were either congruent or incongruent with their own political views. Results show that left‐wing oriented participants showed more supportive intentions in the self‐affirmation condition compared to the group‐affirmation and control conditions, independent of values congruency. In contrast, right‐wing participants showed more supportive intentions in the self‐affirmation condition, but only when they affirmed on values that were congruent with their own political views.     

Toward the use of approach/avoidance tendencies as attitude measures: Individual- and group-level variability of the ingroup bias

Approach/avoidance paradigms could constitute an interesting alternative in measuring intergroup attitudes, notably if they overcome one criticism often addressed toward classic indirect tasks: Measuring attitudes beyond the influence of cultural knowledge. Using intergroup stimuli and a population likely to be exposed to a similar cultural knowledge, we observed two informative results regarding this issue: Approach/avoidance effects measured by the Visual Approach/Avoidance by the Self Task (VAAST) varied across participants (i.e., consistent with the variability of intergroup attitudes; Experiment 1) and both participants of dominant and non-dominant groups produced an ingroup bias (Experiment 2). A last experiment (Experiment 3) showed that compatibility scores in the VAAST predict trustworthiness ratings of the ingroup/outgroup. This experiment also investigated potential differences between the VAAST and the IAT. These results suggest that approach/avoidance tasks (notably the VAAST) could be relevant to assess personal attitudes when it comes to normatively sensitive topics.     

The Logical Style of Confucius’ Analects

Considered from a logical point of view, Confucius’ Analects contain many implicit forms of reasoning and argumentation. This is shown first by analyzing the phenomenon of parallelism: direct parallelism is often a way of hinting at a general assertion, whereas anti-parallelism hides dilemmas, generalizations and modal notions of “moral preference.” The Analects also have various types of conditionals, ranging from material implications, to modalized implications, and counterfactual conditionals, which are the germs of implicit reasoning, concluding with a moral recommendation. Analogies are particularly abundant and a presentation of three examples suggests that, beyond their explicative role, they also involve moral recommendations. The implicit logic of The Analects requires an active, albeit unconscious participation of the reader, which could be an important element in explaining the enduring influence of the text.     

Types of errors by referees and perception of injustice by soccer players: a preliminary study

This study investigated the effect of referees' errors on players' perceived injustice in soccer. The conditions investigated were Referee Decision, with three types: Correctly Called a foul vs Wrongly Called a foul vs Did not Call a foul and Repetition of the Situation, with two types: Isolated vs Repeated. Male soccer players at regional and departmental levels of practice (N = 95, M(age) = 23.2, SD = 5.1) were asked to rank six hypothetical situations according to the perceived injustice. Analysis indicated significant effects of Referee Decisions and Repetition of the Situation on the perception of injustice, but showed no differences between the types of error. However, age and years of soccer experience were associated with perception of injustice when the referee correctly called a foul.     

Is Liang Shuming 梁漱溟 Ultimately a Confucian or Buddhist?

Liang Shuming has been proclaimed the forerunner of Contemporary Neo-Confucianism. However, assessing Liang’s identity appears a much more complicated task. Taking a closer look at his copious writings on religion, this paper shows how Liang conceived the role of religion at the different steps of humanity’s quest. Applying this frame of understanding to twentieth century China, Liang saw a discrepancy between the task required in our present time and what the future was holding. Therefore, while he engaged the world in a certain way, he was still holding privately another belief. This “secret” of Liang reshuffles traditional boundaries between the secular and transcendence.     

Keeping the vermin out: Perceived disease threat and ideological orientations as predictors of exclusionary immigration attitudes

Integrating evolutionary and social representations theories, the current study examines the relationship between perceived disease threat and exclusionary immigration attitudes in the context of a potential avian influenza pandemic. This large‐scale disease provides a realistic context for investigating the link between disease threat and immigration attitudes. The main aim of this cross‐sectional study (N = 412) was to explore mechanisms through which perceived chronic and contextual disease threats operate on immigration attitudes. Structural equation models show that the relationship between chronic disease threat (germ aversion) and exclusionary immigration attitudes (assimilationist immigration criteria, health‐based immigration criteria and desire to reduce the proportion of foreigners) was mediated by ideological and normative beliefs (social dominance orientation, belief in a dangerous world), but not by contextual disease threat (appraisal of avian influenza pandemic threat). Contextual disease threat only predicted support for health‐based immigration criteria. The conditions under which real‐life disease threats influence intergroup attitudes are scrutinized. Convergence and dissimilarity of evolutionary and social representational approaches in accounting for the link between disease threat and immigration attitudes are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Involvement of Executive Functions in Children's Metamemory

This experiment examined how knowledge of memory strategies and of memory functioning improves during childhood and what variables are involved in this development. Three main aspects of metamemory were assessed based on the performance of a group of 100 children (aged 4, 6, 9 and 11 years) on a battery of executive tasks. At the same time, the influence of variables such as intelligence, vocabulary and parental education level was also investigated. Results of mediation analyses reveal that the relation between children's age and internal strategy knowledge was partially mediated by working memory skills but that executive functions did not mediate the impact of chronological age on children's knowledge of external strategies or of memory functioning. Additionally, verbal fluency predicted internal and external strategy knowledge. Implications for general learning theories in childhood are discussed.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.