Acoustic behavior associated with cooperative task success in bottlenose dolphins (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tursiops truncatus</Emphasis>)

Although many species have proven capable of cooperating to achieve common goals, the role of communication in cooperation has received relatively little attention. Analysis of communication between partners is vital in determining whether actions are truly cooperative rather than serendipitous or learned via trial and error (Chalmeau and Gallo in Behav Process 35:101–111, 1996a. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(95)00049-6, Primates 37:39–47, 1996b. doi: 10.1007/BF02382918). Wild cetaceans often produce sounds during cooperative foraging, playing, and mating, but the role of these sounds in cooperative events is largely unknown. Here, we investigated acoustic communication between two male bottlenose dolphins while they cooperatively opened a container (Kuczaj et al. in Anim Cogn 18:543–550, 2015b. doi: 10.1007/s10071-014-0822-4). Analyses of whistles, burst pulses, and bi-phonations that occurred during four contexts (i.e., no container, no animals interacting with container, one animal interacting with container, and two animals interacting with container) revealed that overall sound production rate significantly increased during container interactions. Sound production rates were also significantly higher during cooperative successes than solo successes, suggesting that the coordination of efforts rather than the apparatus itself was responsible for the phonation increase. The most common sound type during cooperative successes was burst pulse signals, similar to past recordings of cooperative events in bottlenose dolphins (Bastian in Animal sonar systems. Laboratoire de Physiologie Acoustique, Jouy-en Josas, pp 803–873, 1967; Connor and Smolker 1996).     

Motivating the academic mind: High-level construal of academic goals enhances goal meaningfulness,motivation, and self-concordance

How one thinks about or conceptualizes a goal has important consequences for the motivational features of goal pursuit. Two experiments tested the hypothesis, inspired by work on meaning in life, action identification theory, and expectancy-value theory, that high-level construal of an academic goal should enhance motivation to pursue that goal. In each experiment, we manipulated high-level versus low-level construal of an academic goal and assessed several variables related to the goal: the perceived meaningfulness of the goal, motivation to pursue the goal, and goal self-concordance. Supporting the hypothesis, individuals who thought about their academic goal in a high-level manner viewed their goal as more meaningful, reported being more motivated to pursue the goal, and reported the goal to be more self-concordant. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

#SocialMediaWellness: Exploring a research agenda and conceptualization for healthy social media consumption

The crossroads of scholar and marketer concerns related to healthy social media usage is where this study extends the burgeoning literature on consumer well-being in the digital area by exploring the topic of social media wellness, made more salient during the pandemic era. Consumers spend increasing amounts of time on social media despite experiencing numerous negative repercussions. Various disciplines have contributed to the examination of this topic; however, scant research has been conducted within the consumer research or marketing disciplines. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on the need for social media wellness by (1) highlighting issues related to social media consumption, (2) introducing a conceptual definition of social media wellness, (3) exploring consumers' perceptions and experiences of social media usage through topic analysis, and (4) providing a research agenda for scholars to pursue. Following an exploratory observation of common topics surrounding social media wellness, specific hashtags and their corresponding posts were gathered from Twitter and then examined using the topic modeling method Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Implications and future research are discussed accordingly.     

A discipline-mediated model of excessively punitive parenting

This study developed and compared several mediated and direct-effects models proposed to link well-established correlates of physical child abuse to excessively punitive parenting in a population-based sample of 206 families recruited from high-risk areas of a medium-sized metropolitan area. Parents were classified as exhibiting excessively punitive parenting based on home observations and parent reports of the use of physical punishment strategies other than spanking. We hypothesized that the levels of child coerciveness, parent irritability, and family stress would be mediated by disruptions in parent discipline in predicting excessively punitive parenting toward the child. Structural equation methodology was employed to test the hypothesized and alternative models. Results consistently supported the powerful mediational role of discipline in the hypothesized model over alternative models that posited separate, direct effects of child coerciveness, parent irritability, and parent stress on excessively punitive parenting behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the need for further examination of parenting behavior, as well as parents' perceptions of and affective reactions to parent-child interactions in the occurrence of physical abuse. Aggr. Behav. 23:259–280, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Treating paternal alcoholism with learning sobriety together: effects on adolescents versus preadolescents.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether Learning Sobriety Together, a treatment for substance abuse that combines behavioral couples therapy and individual counseling, had comparable secondary benefits on the internalizing and externalizing behaviors of adolescent versus preadolescent siblings living in homes with their alcoholic fathers (N = 131) and their non-substance-abusing mothers. During a 17-month assessment period, the association between parents' functioning (i.e., fathers' drinking as determined by percentage of days abstinent and parents' dyadic adjustment) and children's adjustment (as rated by mothers, fathers, and children's teachers) was stronger for preadolescents than for their adolescent siblings, particularly in terms of children's externalizing behaviors. Interventions that reduce paternal drinking and improve couple functioning may serve as an important preventative intervention for preadolescents in these homes, whereas adolescents may need more intensive interventions to address internalizing and externalizing symptoms.     

Separating sustained from transient aspects of cognitive control during thought suppression

Cognitive theories of how people regulate their thoughts have suggested the involvement of two control processes that occur over different time courses. These cognitive accounts parallel recent neural models of executive control, which suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) mediates sustained changes in the allocation of control processes, whereas the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) relays a transient need for additional control. Combining these cognitive and neural models of control, we used recently developed analysis techniques to distinguish transient from sustained changes in brain activation while subjects attempted to suppress an unwanted thought. Results were consistent with both models: Dorsolateral PFC demonstrated sustained increases in activation during attempts at thought suppression, whereas bilateral ACC demonstrated transient increases associated with occurrences of unwanted thoughts. These data support proposals regarding the different contributions made by the PFC and ACC to executive control and provide initial neuroimaging support for dual-process models of how individuals regulate their thoughts.     

An evaluation of the types of attention that maintain problem behavior

Although previous research indicates that certain types of attention (i.e., statements related to behavior, tickles) may be differentially reinforcing, only one or two forms of attention are typically provided contingent on problem behavior during the attention condition in experimental functional analyses. In the present investigation, various forms of attention were provided contingent on problem behavior to identify the influence of each form of attention. Results indicated that the attention forms affected problem behavior differently; these outcomes are discussed in terms of their implications for assessment and treatment.     

A comparison of linear and mixture models for discriminant analysis under nonnormality

Methods for discriminant analysis were compared with respect to classification accuracy under nonnormality through Monte Carlo simulation. The methods compared were linear discriminant analyses based both on raw scores and on ranks; linear logistic discrimination; and mixture discriminant analysis. Linear discriminant analysis and linear logistic discrimination were suboptimal in a number of scenarios with skewed predictors. Linear discriminant analysis based on ranks yielded the highest rates of classification accuracy in only a limited number of situations and did not produce a practically important advantage over competing methods. Mixture discriminant analysis, with a relatively small number of components in each group, attained relatively high rates of classification accuracy and was most useful for conditions in which skewed predictors had relatively small values of kurtosis.     

Toward a three-dimensional conceptualization of performance anxiety: Rationale and initial measurement development

ObjectivesAn integrated three-dimensional model of performance anxiety was constructed to offer an alternative conceptualization that may contribute to understanding of the complex anxiety–performance relationship. In particular, the adaptive potential (producing positive effects) of anxiety was acknowledged explicitly by including a regulatory dimension. This model is characterized by five subcomponents, with worry and self-focused attention representing cognitive anxiety, autonomous hyperactivity and somatic tension representing physiological anxiety, and perceived control representing the regulatory dimension of anxiety. The overview of the conceptual framework and the underlying rationale are presented.DesignAs a necessary first step towards model testing, an initial measure was developed and the factorial validity of the model was investigated.MethodConfirmatory factor analysis was used in two independent samples (N = 286, 327) in a wide context of sports performance.ResultsA 25-item measure of performance anxiety was established. Findings of CFA revealed support for a three-dimensional first-order model.ConclusionsAlthough the present model of performance anxiety was best presented as a three-dimensional first-order structure, the integrity of the conceptual framework is considered intact as such a factor structure distinctly reflects the three major processes (i.e., cognitive, physiological and regulatory) that are proposed to be activated in the anxiety dynamics from a broad cognitive perspective.