Does Mealtime Communication Improve Happiness? Considering the Trait of Shyness1

Shared mealtimes have been found to be important daily rituals with positive effects on behavior and mental health, such as increasing subjective well-being. However, most previous studies have not considered possible barriers to these positive effects, specifically shyness. We investigated the relationships among shared mealtime quality, shyness, and subjective well-being, and the moderating role of shyness in the relationship between the other two variables by surveying a sample of college students (n = 305). Correlational analyses revealed that shared mealtime quality was negatively associated with shyness and positively associated with subjective well-being. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that shared mealtime quality was significantly associated with subjective well-being, as was the interaction between the friend factor of shared mealtime quality and shyness. Therefore, shared mealtime quality might help improve happiness, but shyness should be considered a possible barrier to this beneficial effect when meals are shared with friends.     

Sensory Processing Sensitivity Moderates the Relationships Between Life Skills and Depressive Tendencies in University Students1

University students often experience depressive symptoms, and strengthening of life skills may be beneficial for improving their mental health. Several studies have suggested that life skills effective in reducing depressive tendencies vary by individuals depending on differences in sensory processing sensitivity (SPS). SPS is a genetically determined trait characterized by sensitivity and reactivity to environmental stimuli. This study investigated the relationship between life skills and depressive tendencies based on individual differences in SPS. A total of 868 Japanese university students (mean age = 19.8 years, SD = 1.3 years) completed a questionnaire measuring levels of SPS—decision-making, interpersonal relationships, effective communication, and emotional coping skills—and depressive tendencies. Hierarchical multiple regression and simple slopes analyses indicated that interpersonal relationship skills were negatively correlated with depression regardless of SPS levels. Furthermore, decision-making skills were negatively correlated with depressive tendencies only in low-SPS students. Emotional coping skills were negatively correlated with depressive tendencies in high-SPS students. These results may help universities incorporate SPS levels when creating life-skills-based interventions for students.     

Cultural differences in the development of cognitive shifting: East-West comparison

Prior research has documented that Japanese children's performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sorting (DCCS) task can be influenced by their observation of another person completing the task, which is referred to as social transmission of disinhibition. The current study explored whether Canadian children would also show a social transmission of disinhibition and whether their performance would be comparable to that of Japanese children. In this study, 3- and 4-year-olds in Canada and Japan were given both the standard version and social version of the DCCS. Results indicated that Canadian children displayed the social transmission of disinhibition, but their effects were significantly weaker than those with Japanese children. On the other hand, performance on the standard DCCS was comparable between children in the two countries. We discuss the results in terms of cultural differences in the relationship between self and other.     

Asymmetrical drawing patterns on the temples by left-handers

Twenty-three Japanese genuine left-handers were selected by a Laterality Quotient scale and asked to draw the letter S on their own temples and foreheads. The way they drew on the temples showed an asymmetry that was the mirror reversal of that of right-handers, as found in a previous study. Left-handers drew a reversed letter S on their right temple much more often than on the left temple, whereas right-handers drew them in reverse more often on the left temple. They also drew it in reverse on the forehead irrespective of their handedness.     

Capuchin monkeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cebus apella</Emphasis>) use conspecifics’ emotional expressions to evaluate emotional valence of objects

Emotional expressions provide important clues to other individuals’ emotional states, as well as the environmental situations leading to such states. Although monkeys often modify their behavior in response to others’ expressions, it is unclear whether this reflects understanding of emotional meanings of expressions, or simpler, non-cognitive processes. The present study investigated whether a New World monkey species, tufted capuchin monkeys, recognize objects as elicitors of others’ expressions. Observer monkeys witnessed another individual (demonstrator) reacting either positively or negatively to the contents of one of two containers and were then allowed to choose one of the containers. The observer preferred the container that evoked positive expressions in the demonstrator and avoided the container that evoked negative expressions. Thus, the monkeys appropriately associated the emotional valence of others’ expressions with the container. This finding supports the view that the ability to represent others’ emotions is not limited to humans and apes.     

Flexible route selection by pigeons (Columba livia) on a computerized multi-goal navigation task with and without an "obstacle"

The ability to select efficient routes while reaching several locations, in situations addressed as the "traveling salesperson problem (TSP)", seems to play an important role in the lives of nonhuman species as well as humans. One of our previous studies with pigeons (Columba livia) used different variations of computerized navigation tasks to move a target to one or more goals, and showed that the birds consistently exhibited tendencies to visit the nearest goal first (Miyata & Fujita, 2010). Is this inflexible tendency consistent across all situations, or is it abandoned if it leads to a nonefficient strategy? The present study compared pigeons' route selection strategies in two-goal navigation tasks with and without having an L-shaped line as an obstacle barrier between the starting location of the target and the nearer goal. The pigeons frequently started by visiting the nearer goal in trials with no obstacles, whereas in trials having obstacles the birds often visited the farther goal first. For the detour trials with obstacles, the birds started from visiting the farther goal significantly more often than chance, even though disparity between the two traveling sequences was relatively small. The data demonstrated a case in which a tendency to visit the nearest goal was flexibly abandoned when the route required a detour behavior. Detailed analyses of the movement paths further suggest that the pigeons made decisions to choose a farther goal during the initial few steps, although a past history of reinforcement to avoid the barrier might have guided the birds' behavior.     

Reading words with jumbled characters in Japanese

Rayner, et al. (2006) was replicated with 36 Japanese undergraduates who read Japanese sentences in which characters were transposed in one word at the beginning, middle, or end. The same pattern of reading delays in relation to transposition location was found but in smaller magnitude. Transposition of characters at the beginning of words caused the largest delay in reading.     

Perceptual chunking in the self-produced songs of Bengalese finches (Lonchura striata var. domestica)

Like humans, songbirds, including Bengalese finches, have hierarchical structures in their vocalizations. When humans perceive a sentence, processing occurs in phrase units, not words. In this study, we investigated whether songbirds also perceive their songs by chunks (clusters of song notes) rather than single song notes. We trained male Bengalese finches to react to a short noise in a Go/NoGo task. We then superimposed the noise onto recordings of their own songs and examined whether the reaction time was affected by the location of the short noise, that is, whether the noise was placed between chunks or in the middle of a chunk. The subjects’ reaction times to the noise in the middle of a chunk were significantly longer than those to the noise placed between chunks. This result was not observed, however, when the songs were played in reverse. We thus concluded that Bengalese finches perceive their songs by chunks rather than single notes.     

Pigeons perceive the Ebbinghaus-Titchener circles as an assimilation illusion

A target circle surrounded by larger "inducer" circles looks smaller, and one surrounded by smaller circles looks larger than they really are. This is the Ebbinghaus-Titchener illusion, which remains one of the strongest and most robust of contrast illusions. Although there have been many studies on this illusion in humans, virtually none have addressed how nonhuman animals perceive the same figures. Here the authors show that the Ebbinghaus-Titchener figures also induce a strong illusion in pigeons but, surprisingly, in the other direction; that is, all five successfully trained pigeons judged the target circle surrounded by larger circles to be larger than it really is and vice versa. Further analyses proved that neither the gaps between target and inducer circles nor the cumulative weighted surface of these figural elements could account for the birds' responses. Pigeons are known to show similarities to humans on various cognitive and perceptual tasks including concept formation, short-term memory, and some visual illusions. Our results, taken together with pigeons' previously demonstrated failure at visual completion, provide strong evidence that pigeons may actually experience a visual world too different for us to imagine.     

Pigeons (Columba livia) plan future moves on computerized maze tasks

Planning, the internal process of formulating an organized method about one's future behavior, should be advantageous for non-human animals as well as for humans. However, little is known about this process in avian species. We examined planning processes in pigeons (Columba livia) using a computerized maze task. In Experiment 1, we found that the pigeons plan their next one step, and in some cases even correctly adjust their actions after change of goal locations, while performing on a plus-shaped maze. We also showed that the pigeons might even plan two steps on familiar, well-practiced mazes. In Experiment 2, we discovered that the subjects plan the direction they would go first before starting to solve a four-arm shuriken (a Japanese traditional throwing knife)-shaped maze. The birds also corrected their previously planned actions after change of goal locations. Our results from these experiments suggest that planning ahead is within the cognitive capacity of a "bird brain", and that it may be more widespread in the animal kingdom than has been presumed.