Not using the obvious: desert ants, Melophorus bagoti, learn local vectors but not beacons in an arena

Many ant species travel large distances to find food, sometimes covering distances that are up to one million times their body length. Even when these foraging trips follow convoluted paths, the ants usually find their way back to their nest with precision (Wehner et al. in J Exp Biol 199:129–140, 1996). Ants have been shown to use both compass cues in the sky (pattern of polarised light) and landmarks on Earth to return to their nest. We present two experiments conducted on a solitary foraging ant: Melophorus bagoti in their natural habitat in the central Australian desert. Ants were trained and tested in situ. We tested foragers’ ability to exit a circular arena which provided an undifferentiated panorama. Artificial visual landmarks were located near a small exit. On tests in which path integration information was not available, foragers did not use artificial landmarks as beacons. Instead, they oriented in the learned exit direction, whether or not it pointed to the nest. We suggest that M. bagoti foragers learned a context-specific local vector when cued by the context of the circular arena. Our findings present the first evidence that M. bagoti foragers learn context-specific compass directions to chart their initial path home.     

Chief executive leadership style,consensus decision making,and top management team effectiveness

Using data from 79 high technology firms in the US and Ireland this study concludes that leadership style has both direct and indirect relationships with consensus decision making and with the reported effectiveness of top management teams. It focuses on what effective leaders do rather than the individual traits they possess and distinguishes between four styles of leadership: authoritarian (characterized by the use of instruction and non-contingent reprimand), transactional (influence via exchange of valued rewards for services/behaviours), transformational (inspiring followers to do more than originally expected), and laissez faire (avoiding decision making and supervisory responsibility). The transformational style of leadership was significantly and positively related, and the laissez faire style was significantly negatively related to reported team     

The use of a wearable camera improves autobiographical memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease

Despite the marked impairment of recent episodic memories in Alzheimer's disease, there have been few attempts to rehabilitate these deficits. We used a novel external memory aid to promote recall of episodic memories in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. SenseCam, a small wearable camera, recorded significant events in the lives of six Alzheimer's disease patients. Every two days for two weeks each patient's memory for an event was assessed, followed by a structured review of the SenseCam images. Longer-term recall was tested one and three months later. A written diary control condition followed the same procedure. Across 40 events the SenseCam review method resulted in significantly more details of an event being recalled over two weeks than the written diary method in five out of the six patients. At three months post event, four out of five patients (one had dropped out) recalled significantly more details of events in the SenseCam condition while the other patient showed no significant difference. Viewing SenseCam images of personally experienced events may significantly improve autobiographical memory in patients with even moderate Alzheimer's disease.     

Escape from the Island: Grammaticality and (Reduced) Acceptability of wh-island Violations in Danish

In the syntax literature, it is commonly assumed that a constraint on linguistic competence blocks extraction of wh-expressions (e.g. what or which book) from embedded questions, referred to as wh-islands. Furthermore, it is assumed that there is an argument/adjunct asymmetry in extraction from wh-islands. We report results from two acceptability judgment experiments on long and short wh-movement and wh-extraction from wh-islands in Danish. The results revealed four main findings: (1) No adjunct/argument asymmetry in extraction from wh-islands. (2) Long adjunct wh-movement is less acceptable than long argument wh-movement, and this difference is attributable to matrix verb compatibility and factivity, not D-linking. (3) Long movement reduces acceptability, but is more acceptable than island violations. (4) Training effects reveal that island violations, though degraded, are grammatical in Danish. Since the standard assumptions cannot account for the range of results, we argue in favor of a processing account referring to locality (processing domains) and working memory.     

Psychoanalytic Identity: Charles Rycroft and the British Freudian Tradition

This paper explores Rycroft's views on narcissistic barriers to the formation of analytic identity, together with the analyst's relation to (or ablation of) his forbears. It sketches Rycroft's relation to his training analysts, Ella Sharpe and Sylvia Payne and the British Freudian tradition, delineating a line of descent running from Hanns Sachs, through Sharpe and Payne to Rycroft. Rycroft defined himself in creative dialogue with Freud and his own contemporaries within the British Freudian tradition.     

Validation of a 28‐item version of the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation in an Irish context: the SCORE‐28

This article describes the development, in an Irish context, of a three‐factor, twenty‐eight‐item version of the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (SCORE) questionnaire for assessing progress in family therapy. The forty‐ item version of the SCORE was administered to over 700 Irish participants including non‐clinical adolescents and young adults, families attending family therapy, and parents of young people with physical and intellectual disabilities and cystic fibrosis. For validation purposes, data were also collected using brief measures of family and personal adjustment. A twenty‐eight‐item version of the SCORE (the SCORE‐28) containing three factor scales that assess family strengths, difficulties and communication was identified through exploratory principal components analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the factor structure of the SCORE‐28 was stable. The SCORE‐28 and its three factor scales were shown to have excellent internal consistency reliability, satisfactory test‐retest reliability and construct validity. The SCORE‐28 scales correlated highly with the General Functioning Scale of the Family Assessment Device, and moderately with the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale, the Kansas Marital and Parenting Satisfaction Scales, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Mental Health Inventory – 5, and the total problems scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Correlational analyses also showed that the SCORE‐28 scales were not strongly associated with demographic characteristics or social desirability response set. The SCORE‐28 may routinely be administered to literate family members aged over 12 years before and after family therapy to evaluate therapy outcome.     

Assessing analytic applicants using an adapted version of the Australian schema for candidate competence

The author proposes an approach to the assessment of analytic applicants that is based on a schema relating to candidate competence. The protocol relies on the central notion that knowing what competencies we would be expecting of well‐functioning analysts leaves us well placed to know what capacities, and more importantly what potential capacities, we would be looking for in our aspiring applicants. The author is concerned that the traditional interview methods used have been rather individualistic, lacking in comprehensiveness and therefore not easy to teach. He makes a case for the described protocol having distinct advantages as an assessment tool over the traditional one, in that that it has clear, consistent, and comprehensive criteria, as well as a workable methodology. The author notes, as a particular advantage, the protocol's flexibility in being able to move fluidly from functioning as an instrument for selection, to an instrument for candidate evaluation. This allows, in situations of doubt, for particular competencies in a candidate to be further evaluated and tracked in an ongoing way whilst ‘in the field’.     

Sport Psychology Consulting Effectiveness: The Sport Psychology Consultant's Perspective

The aim of this study was to examine sport psychology consultants’ (SPCs) perceptions of the influence of SPC characteristics on consultant effectiveness, while determining the conditions necessary for establishing an effective consulting relationship. Thirteen accredited SPCs participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis identified three characteristics of SPC effectiveness: (a) build a connection with the athlete to create positive change, (b) build a professional consulting relationship with athlete, and (c) consulting relationship meets athletes’ needs. Two aspects emerged as essential for an effective consulting relationship: (a) athlete is an active participant, and (b) SPC awareness of client boundaries of confidentiality.     

Melancholia and the Violent Regulation of Gender Variance: Reply to Commentaries

In this reply to James Herzog and Gayle Salamon, the “in”/“out” boundary of gender and the psychotherapeutic address of gender is considered. Particular emphasis is paid to the ways in which gender is constituted through aggressive and often violent forms of social regulation. Matters of social justice are considered as psychoanalysts and mental health workers take up normative violence in the form of policy speech. Clinical dilemmas with respect to gender melancholia, trauma, and shame are also considered.