Floral guidance of learning a preference for symmetry by bumblebees

This study examines the mechanism underlying one way in which bumblebees are known to develop a preference for symmetric patterns: through prior non-differential reinforcement on simple patterns (black discs and white discs). In three experiments, bees were given a choice among symmetric and asymmetric black-and-white non-rewarding patterns presented at the ends of corridors in a radial maze. Experimental groups had prior rewarded non-discrimination training on white patterns and black patterns, while control groups had no pre-test experience outside the colony. No preference for symmetry was obtained for any of the control groups. Prior training with circular patterns highlighting a horizontal axis of symmetry led to a specific subsequent preference for horizontal over vertical symmetry, while training with a vertical axis abolished this effect. Circles highlighting both axes created a general avoidance of asymmetry in favour of symmetric patterns with vertical, horizontal or both axes of symmetry. Training with plain circles, but not with deformed circles, led to a preference for symmetry: there was no evidence that the preference emerged just by virtue of having attention drawn away from irrelevant pattern differences. Our results point to a preference for symmetry developing gradually through first learning to extract an axis of symmetry from simple patterns and subsequently recognizing that axis in new patterns. They highlight the importance of continued learning through non-differential reinforcement by skilled foragers. Floral guides can function not only to guide pollinators to the source of reward but also to highlight an axis of symmetry for use in subsequent floral encounters.     

Squaring the round: An unusual progressive graphomotor impairment with post‐mortem findings

Investigations of neurodegenerative disorders may reveal functional relationships in the cognitive system. C.S. was a 63‐year‐old right‐handed man with post‐mortem confirmed Pick's disease with a range of progressive impairments including non‐fluent aphasia, speech, limb, oculomotor, and buccofacial apraxia, but mostly intact intelligence, perception, orientation, memory, semantics, and phonology. During progression, agrammatism in writing with impairments in syntactic comprehension emerged in parallel with an unusual graphomotor deficit in drawing and writing, with an increasing deterioration of graphic short‐term memory. We investigated C.S.'s graphomotor deficit longitudinally using tests of writing and drawing on letters, words, and sentences and drawing to command and copying. We also tested C.S.'s short‐term graphemic buffer experimentally. Analysis showed deficits on selective aspects of graphomotor implementation of writing and drawing, mainly affecting the production of circles and curves, but not short straight lines in drawing and writing, and graphomotor short‐term memory, which paralleled impairments of written syntax and syntactic comprehension. We believe this to be the first detailed analysis of such an unusual progressive impairment in graphomotor production, which may be related to problems with agrammatic agraphia and impairments affecting shared components of cognition reflecting damage to shared neural networks. Alternatively, they may simply reflect the effects of coincidental damage to separate mechanisms responsible for aspects of writing, drawing, and syntactic processing. Longitudinal investigations of emerging deficits in progressive conditions like C.S.'s provides an opportunity to examine the progressive emergence of symptoms in an individual with multiple progressive impairments as they appear and examine putative relationships between them.     

Parental Apologies,Empathy, Shame,Guilt, and Attachment: A Path Analysis

The authors investigated the complex relationships of parental attitudes toward apologies, empathy, shame, guilt, and the parent's attachment orientation. Survey responses were obtained from 327 parents. A path analysis of the developed model demonstrated a close model fit (root‐mean‐square error of approximation = .07; comparative fit index = .93; incremental fit index = .94; χ² = 30.71, p < .001), supporting previous research on apologies as beneficial to relationships. A parent's proclivity toward apologies, positively influenced by empathy and guilt and negatively influenced by shame‐withdraw behaviors, produced a more secure parent–child attachment.     

Reply to Nadler: Spinoza and the metaphysics of suicide

Steven Nadler has argued that Spinoza can, should, and does allow for the possibility of suicide committed as a free and rational action. Given that the conatus is a striving for perfection, Nadler argues, there are cases in which reason guides a person to end her life based on the principle of preferring the lesser evil. If so, Spinoza’s disparaging statements about suicide are intended to apply only to some cases, whereas in others (such as the case of Seneca) he would grant that suicide is dictated by reason. Here, I object to Nadler’s interpretation by showing that it conflicts with Spinoza’s metaphysical psychology. Even given Nadler’s interpretation of the conatus doctrine, the possibility that reason could guide a person to commit suicide is incompatible with the conatus of the mind. Spinoza holds that the mind cannot contain an adequate idea ‘that excludes the existence of our body’ (E3p10). Yet, as I argue, in order for reason to guide a person voluntarily to end her life, she would need to have an adequate idea representing her death – an idea that excludes the existence of her body. For this reason, Spinoza's system rules out the possibility of rational suicide.     

What Is Enactment What Is Dissociation

The current discussion offers an alternative to the dissociative self-state model of enactment and dissociation, emphasizing implicit memory processes in bodily comportment and style of relating with others. By embedding the occurrence of enactments within the ongoing flow of nonlinear dyadic process, the focus shifts to the subtle back-and-forth between patient and analyst that leads to the emergence of new relational (i.e., procedural) skills within a therapeutic relationship that is self-organizing at more inclusive levels. Enactment is thus seen as an emergent property of the dyad.     

Psychology out of the laboratory: the challenge of violent extremism

The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of how sacred values and notions of self and group identity lead people to act in terms of principles rather than prospects when the two come into conflict. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to better understand how sacred causes and moral imperatives diffuse through a population and motivate some (usually small) segment of it to commit violent actions. The challenge to psychology is to adopt an interdisciplinary focus drawing on a range of research methods and to become bolder in its choices of study populations if it is to be relevant to real-world problems.     

Twelfth-grade student work intensity linked to later educational attainment and substance use: new longitudinal evidence

Long hours of paid employment during high school have been linked to a variety of problem behaviors, but questions remain about whether and to what extent work intensity makes any causal contribution. This study addresses those questions by focusing on how 12th-grade work intensity is associated with substance use and educational attainment in the years following high school. It uses 2 nationally representative longitudinal data sets from the Monitoring the Future project, spanning a total of 3 decades. One data set tracks 8th graders for 8 years (modal ages 14-22) and provides extensive controls for possible prior causes; the second, larger data set tracks 12th graders for up to 12 years (to modal ages 29-30) and permits assessment of possible short-term and longer term consequences. Findings based on propensity score matching and multivariate regression analyses are highly consistent across the 2 sets of data. All findings show that more fundamental prior problems, including low academic performance and aspirations, make substantial contributions to substance use and long-term academic attainment (selection effects), but the findings also suggest that high work intensity during high school has long-term costs in terms of college completion and perhaps cigarette use.     

C57 mice increase wheel-running behavior following stress: preliminary findings

Exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety in both humans and animals. To date, there are few, if any studies that examine the effect of stress on self-selected exercise using an animal model. This study examined the effect of acute stress on wheel-running distance in mice. Forty 8-week-old, male C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to one of three groups: no stress + wheel-running experience, stress + wheel-running experience, or stress with no wheel-running experience. Stressed mice were exposed to foot shock in a brightly lit environment. Following treatment, wheel-running distances were observed for three hours. Stress significantly increased voluntary wheel-running in mice with wheel-running experience as compared to nonstressed controls and stressed mice with no wheel-running experience. These results suggest that mice familiar with wheel-running may self-select this exercise as a modality for the mitigation of accumulated anxiety.     

Forming first impressions: The role of gender and normative accuracy in personality perception

Gender is associated with interpersonal sensitivity across different domains, with females, on average, demonstrating higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity than males. What underlies these gender differences in the accuracy of first impressions of personality remains unclear. Across two large video studies and a large round-robin design, perceivers’ gender was related to the accuracy of general personality trait impressions. Specifically, female perceivers achieved higher levels of accuracy, but only with respect to normative accuracy or perceiving what others are like in general. There were no significant gender differences in terms of distinctive accuracy or perceiving how others are different from the average person. Discussion considers how these findings relate to previously established gender differences in other domains of interpersonal sensitivity.