Ravens (Corvus corax) are indifferent to the gains of conspecific recipients or human partners in experimental tasks

Although cooperative behaviours are common in animals, the cognitive processes underpinning such behaviours are very likely to differ between species. In humans, other-regarding preferences have been proposed to sustain long-term cooperation between individuals. The extent to which such psychological capacities exist in other animals is still under investigation. Five hand-reared ravens were first tested in an experiment where they could provide food to a conspecific at no cost to themselves. We offered them two behavioural options that provided identical amounts of food to the actor and where one of the two options additionally delivered a reward to a recipient. Subsequently, we made the ravens play a no-cost cooperation game with an experimenter. The experimenter had the same options as the animals and matched the ravens’ choices, making the prosocial choice the more profitable option. In both conditions, ravens were indifferent to the effects of their choices and hence failed to help conspecifics and to cooperate with the experimenter. While our negative results should be interpreted with care, overall, our findings suggest that the ravens had no understanding of the consequences of their actions for a potential recipient. This study adds to several others that have used a similar set-up and have reported negative results on other-regarding preferences in animals.     

Effect of task presentation on students’ performances in introductory statistics courses

Research on academic learning indicates that many students experience major difficulties with introductory statistics and methodology courses. We hypothesized that students’ difficulties may depend in part on the fact that statistics tasks are commonly viewed as related to the threatening domain of math. In two field experiments which we carried out in the ecological context of introductory statistics courses, the representation of a statistics task administered to undergraduate students in Psychology (Study 1; n = 127) and Biology (Study 2; n = 166) was manipulated. In both studies we found that students who reported the least favorable prior attainments in math had their performance thwarted when the task was presented as related to the math domain, whereas no performance impairment was observed when the task was presented as related to the verbal/linguistic domain. Implications of the findings for the design and delivery of introductory statistics and research methodology courses are discussed.

Myth and reality: A response to Lynn on the determinants of Italy's North-South imbalances

In his article “In Italy, North-South differences in IQ predict differences in income, education, infant mortality, stature, and literacy,” Richard Lynn claims to have found the reason causing the divergence between the Northern and the Southern regions of Italy. This article identifies the four main hypotheses formulated in his paper and presents significant evidence against each one of them. We claim that the evidence presented by the author is not sufficient to say that the IQ of Southern Italians is lower than the one of Northern Italians; that his analysis does not prove that there is any causal link between what he defines as IQ and any of the variables mentioned; that there is no evidence that the alleged differences in IQ are persistent in time and, therefore, attributable to genetic factors.     

Female sexual offenders: Five Italian case studies

Women who sexually abuse children are rare and case histories are scarce; even less is known about sexually abusive mothers. Due to the number of cases in which women sexually abuse minors, more in-depth studies on this subject are needed. This article examines the clinical files of five women who are currently serving time in Italian prisons for the sexual abuse of children. Records of the abuse cases and other records were utilized. The cases involved varying degrees of participation in the abuse by the mothers, and ranged from active sexual engagement to allowing others to abuse their children. Female perpetrators are likely to be experiencing problems in many areas of their life, including relationship dysfunction and psychological impairment. In three cases women revealed an antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), while in two cases a borderline personality disorder (BPD) was diagnosed according with DSM-IV criteria. Possible motivations for women who molest their children are explored and discussed. The current review shows that most female sex offenders fall into several suggested typology models. Therefore, the existing typologies used to classify female child sex offenders may be insufficient, and more comprehensive exploration of this offender population is needed.     

Short-term limb immobilization affects motor performance

C. Ghez, J. Gordon, and M. R Ghilardi (1995; J. Gordon, M. R Ghilardi, & C. Ghez, 1995; R. L. Sainburg, M. R Ghilardi, H. Poizner, & C. Ghez, 1995) have found that proprio-ceptive deafferentation impairs feedforward and feedback mechanisms that control reaching movements. In the present study, the authors found immobilization-induced changes in limb kinematics, including joint motion, in 32 healthy participants who performed out-and-back movements before and after 0, 6, or 12 hr of immobilization of the left arm. Control participants did not undergo the arm immobilization procedure. Immobilization for 12 hr, but not 6 hr, caused trajectories with increased hand-path areas and altered interjoint coordination. The abnormalities were smaller in amplitude but similar in quality to those reported in deafferented patients (R. L. Sainburg et al.). In addition, movement onset point significantly drifted after immobilization. Thus, short-term limb disuse can affect interjoint coordination by acting on feedforward mechanisms. These behavioral alterations are potentially related to cortical plastic changes.     

Can a space-perception conflict be solved with three sense modalities?

A cross-modal conflict over location was resolved in an unexpected way. When vision and proprioception provide conflicting information, which modality should dominate is ambiguous. A visual-proprioceptive conflict was created with a prism and, to logically disambiguate the problem, auditory information was added that either agreed with vision (group 1), agreed with proprioception (group 2), or was absent (group 3). While a scarcity of research addresses the interaction of three modalities, I predicted error should be attributed to the modality in the minority. Instead, the opposite was found: adaptation consisted of a large change in arm proprioception and a small change affecting vision in group 2, and the reverse in group 1. Group 1 was not different than group 3. Findings suggested adaptation to separate two-way conflicts, possibly influenced by direction of attention, rather than a direct solution to a three-way modality problem.     

Is prism adaptation "for" growth?

The assumption that prism adaptation mechanisms evolved for developmental plasticity was questioned by analyzing natural transformations (magnification, rotation, displacement) of the arm and shoulder. Accommodating ordinary movement was found to be a closer match to prisms than transformations caused by growth. In addition, overlap between equations of movement and growth may point to a distal function of adaptation that is very general.     

Establishing an ethical climate in support of research integrity: Efforts and activities of the American Sociological Association

The article provides an overview of the recent efforts and activities of the American Sociological Association (ASA) to keep its Code of Ethics visible and relevant to its membership. The development process and challenges associated with the most recent revision of the ASA's code are reviewed, the current education and support activities are described, and other strategies for taking a proactive and leadership role in establishing an ethical climate are proposed. In conclusion, while the ASA has made significant progress in this area, it recognizes that a lot of work remains.