SOME LIKE IT HOT: CONSCIOUSNESS AND HIGHER-ORDER THOUGHTS

Philosophical Studies -     

Prior induced affect and sex differences in attraction

Male (N = 90) and female(N = 90) Ss were shown either 12 humorous or 12 serious TV commercials and were asked to rate each commercial on six 7-point personal feelings scales as well as on a 6-point evaluative (like-dislike) scale. The Ss were then shown the purported evaluative responses of a same-sex stranger which were .17, .50, or .83 similar to their own. Analysis of the personal feelings scales indicated expected differences (p < .001) in affect associated with the two sets of commercials. Females who viewed the serious commercials evidenced greater attraction toward the stranger than did females who saw the humorous commercials (p < .05). The similarity attraction function for males in the humorous condition had a greater slope and a lower y intercept than the similarity attraction function for males in the serious condition. A factor analysis of female affective responses to five socially relevant commercials in the serious set suggested the operation of two affective dimensions, one of which appeared to reflect feelings of social concern.     

Behavioral Indicators of Interpersonal Attraction1

The laboratory study of attraction is based almost exclusively on verbal measures of the dependent variable. Various findings suggest that the physical distance separating two individuals indicates the degree of attraction between them. In two experiments, attitude similarity between a subject and two stooges was manipulated. Females were more attracted to and sat more closely beside a similar than a dissimilar stranger (p < .01); males were more attracted to and sat directly across from a similar rather than a dissimilar stranger (p < .02).     

Might anything be plain good?

Philosophical Studies - G.E. Moore said that rightness was obviously a matter of maximising plain goodness. Peter Geach and Judith Thomson disagree. They have both argued that ‘good’ is...     

Evaluation of a conflict-resolution and problem-solving programme to enhance adolescents' self-concept

The effectiveness of an intervention programme, initially designed to enhance the self-concept and motivation of gifted underachieving girls, was evaluated for students identified as having a low self-concept and social relationship difficulties. Twenty male and female secondary-school students were randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. The programme, called ABLE (Attribution, Behaviour, Life skills Education), incorporates problem-solving, conflict resolution, and a multidimensional framework to investigate adolescents' self-concept formation. The adolescents in the study made significant improvements in the areas of general self-concept, physical appearance self-concept, and total self-concept. Teaching conflict-resolution and problem-solving skills had a beneficial influence on self-concept. The results are discussed in terms of the relevance of the programme and its application to school and counselling interventions.     

Where have all the (ape) gestures gone?

Comparative analysis of the gestural communication of our nearest animal relatives, the great apes, implies that humans should have the biological potential to produce and understand 60–70 gestures, by virtue of shared common descent. These gestures are used intentionally in apes to convey separate requests, rather than as referential items in syntactically structured signals. At present, no such legacy of shared gesture has been described in humans. We suggest that the fate of “ape gestures” in modern human communication is relevant to the debate regarding the evolution of language through a possible intermediate stage of gestural protolanguage.     

The effects of an escape extinction procedure using protective equipment on self‐injurious behavior

While escape extinction has shown to be successful in reducing escape maintained self‐injurious behavior, there is limited research on the use of escape extinction with protective equipment for escape maintained self‐injurious behavior. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of an escape extinction procedure paired with the application of protective equipment on the escape maintained self‐injurious behavior of an 8‐year‐old boy diagnosed with autism. Results suggested that escape extinction using protective equipment for safety is an effective approach to decrease head hitting. Rates of self‐injurious behavior during an 18‐month follow‐up were comparable to rates observed in the final intervention phase.     

Does social environment influence learning ability in a family-living lizard?

Early developmental environment can have profound effects on individual physiology, behaviour, and learning. In birds and mammals, social isolation during development is known to negatively affect learning ability; yet in other taxa, like reptiles, the effect of social isolation during development on learning ability is unknown. We investigated how social environment affects learning ability in the family-living tree skink (Egernia striolata). We hypothesized that early social environment shapes cognitive development in skinks and predicted that skinks raised in social isolation would have reduced learning ability compared to skinks raised socially. Offspring were separated at birth into two rearing treatments: (1) raised alone or (2) in a pair. After 1 year, we quantified spatial learning ability of skinks in these rearing treatments (N = 14 solitary, 14 social). We found no effect of rearing treatment on learning ability. The number of skinks to successfully learn the task, the number of trials taken to learn the task, the latency to perform the task, and the number of errors in each trial did not differ between isolated and socially reared skinks. Our results were unexpected, yet the facultative nature of this species’ social system may result in a reduced effect of social isolation on behaviour when compared to species with obligate sociality. Overall, our findings do not provide evidence that social environment affects development of spatial learning ability in this family-living lizard.