Oceans of stimuli: an individual-based model to assess the role of olfactory cues and local enhancement in seabirds’ foraging behaviour

Animal Cognition - Oceans are extremely dynamic environments, which poses challenges for top-predators such as seabirds to find food resources. Yet, seabirds evolved sensorial abilities (olfactory...     

Male callers to an Australian perinatal depression and anxiety help line—Understanding issues and concerns

There is increasing recognition of the issues facing men in the perinatal period. Vulnerability factors and issues in the partner relationship contribute to mental health risk and can impact the quality of the father–infant relationship. Yet, there is limited understanding of fathers’ help-seeking when they or their partner are experiencing mental health issues in the context of caring for a new baby. The present study examines fathers’ contacts with the Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) National Helpline. The study reviewed contacts from fathers and their identified needs for assistance, relationship issues, and support needs; 70% of male callers (N = 129) reported concerns about the mother's mental health, and 57% were concerned about relationship breakdown. Significant numbers of men raised issues about their own mental health (43%) and many were concerned about the impact of maternal mental state on the relationship with the infant. When compared to community data, there were elevated rates of concerns about depression and anxiety. Men also described difficulties with the fathering role and with regulating their own feelings of guilt and frustration. These findings highlight the needs of men for support when a mother experiences perinatal problems and also the risk for distress in fathers.     

走出伊甸园(一)

本文的作者是美国纽约州立大学名誉教授保罗·库尔茨(Paul·Kurtz)。这篇文章是库尔茨教授的代表作《禁果-人文主义的道德规范》 (Forbidden Fruit:The Ethics of Humanism,Prometheus Books,1988)一书的序言。该序言有三部分:认知善与恶;没有上帝的道德规范;耶稣、摩西、穆罕默德与苏格拉底。本刊将分三次连载,译文略有删节。库尔茨教授长期致力研究人文主义的伦理学。 1980年,他发起组建美国世俗人文主义委员会(Council for Secular Humanism,简称CSH)。该委员会的理事来自社会科学、自然科学、新闻出版等各界专家学者,其中包括多位诺贝尔奖获得者。库尔茨教授被选为该委员会主席,并兼任《自由探索》(Free Inquiry)的主编。     

走出伊甸园(三)

本文的作者是美国纽约州立大学名誉教授保罗·库尔茨(Paul·Kurtz)。这篇文章是库尔茨教授的代表作《禁果-人文主义的道德规范》(Forbidden Fruit:The Ethics of Humanism,Prometheus Books,1988)一书的序言。该序言包括三个部分:一、认知善与恶;二、没有上帝的道德规范; 三、耶稣、摩西、穆罕默德与苏格拉底。本期继续上期,刊出第三部分。     

Gender differences in interpersonal complementarity within roommate dyads

Complementarity theory proposes specific hypotheses regarding interpersonal styles that will result in successful relationships. The present study sought to extend previous research on gender differences in complementarity through the examination of same-sex peer dyads and the use of informant reports of interpersonal style. One hundred twenty participants (30 male and 30 female roommate dyads) completed interpersonal circumplex ratings of their roommates and a relationship cohesion measure. Examinations of complementarity indicate that women reported significantly more complementarity than men within their roommate dyads. However, for men and women, the closer the dyad was to perfect complementarity in terms of dominance, the more cohesive the relationship. Results are discussed in relation to gender differences in social development.     

Why do the effects of delaying reinforcement in animals and delaying feedback in humans differ? A working-memory analysis

Animal research has shown that reinforcement is substantially less effective when it is delayed, but in studies of human motor learning delays in providing feedback typically have much less effect. One possible explanation is that in human research participants know the response to be learned and can thus focus on it during the delay; that is not the case in experiments on animals. We tested this hypothesis using a task in which participants had minimal information on what movement was correct and found that, as in animal experiments, participants learned only when feedback was immediate. A second experiment confirmed that the effects of the delay depended on how many responses had to be held in working memory: the greater the memory load, the poorer the learning. The results point to the importance of activity during a delay on learning; implications for the teaching of motor skills are discussed.     

Quantity versus uncertainty: When winning one prize is better than winning two

We predicted that a state of uncertainty would prolong a positive mood, but that people would not anticipate this when making affective forecasts. In Study 1, participants learned that they had won one prize (certain condition), two prizes (two-gift condition), or one of two prizes (uncertain condition). People in the uncertain condition were in a positive mood longer than people in the other two conditions. In Study 2, forecaster participants underestimated the benefits of uncertainty and overestimated the benefits of quantity (getting two gifts instead of one). Under some circumstances, and contrary to people’s predictions, uncertainty can prolong positive mood, and winning one prize under a state of uncertainty can bring more short-term pleasure than winning two prizes.     

Psychometric evaluation of the Coach Orientation Questionnaire with a Spanish sample of handball coaches

The purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire to investigate volleyball coaches' orientations toward the coaching process. The study was preceded by four developmental stages in order to improve user understanding, validate the content, and refine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Participants for the reliability and validity study were 334 Spanish volleyball team coaches, 86.5% men and 13.2% women. The following 6 factors emerged from the exploratory factor analysis: team-work orientation, technological orientation, innovative orientation, dialogue orientation, directive orientation, and social climate orientation. Statistical results indicated that the instrument produced reliable and valid scores in all the obtained factors (a> .70), showing that this questionnaire is a useful tool to examine coaches' orientations towards coaching.