Cooperation or dolphin ‘tug-of-war’? Comment on Kuczaj et al. and Eskelinen et al.

Two recent papers by Kuczaj et al. (Anim Cognit 18:543–550, 2015) and Eskelinen et al. (Anim Cognit 19:789–797, 2016) claim to have demonstrated that (i) bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) cooperated to solve a novel task and (ii) vocal signals were important for coordinating these cooperative efforts. Although it is likely that bottlenose dolphins may share communicative signals in order to achieve a common goal, we suggest that this has not been demonstrated in the aforementioned studies. Here, we discuss the two main problems that preclude any definitive conclusions being drawn on cooperative task success and vocal communication from these studies. The first lies in the experimental design. The ‘cooperative task’, involving an apparatus that requires two dolphins to pull in opposite directions in order to achieve a food reward, is not conducive to cooperation, but could instead reflect a competitive ‘tug-of-war’. It is therefore of questionable use in distinguishing competitive from cooperative interactions. Second, the suggestion that the occurrence of burst-pulsed signals in this task was indicative of cooperation is disputable, as (i) this study could not determine which dolphins were actually producing the signals and (ii) this sound type is more commonly associated with aggressive signalling in dolphins. We commend the authors for investigating this exciting and topical area in animal communication and cognition, but the question of whether dolphins cooperate and communicate to solve a cooperative task remains as yet unanswered.     

Resisting self-compassion: Why are some people opposed to being kind to themselves?

Although self-compassion is associated with positive emotions, resilience, and well-being, some people resist recommendations to treat themselves with kindness and compassion. This study investigated how people’s personal values and evaluations of self-compassionate behaviors relate to their level of self-compassion. After completing measures of trait self-compassion and values, participants rated how they would view themselves after behaving in a self-compassionate and self-critical way. Overall, participants associated self-compassion with positive attributes that connote emotional well-being, yet only those who were low in trait self-compassion associated self-compassionate responding with negative attributes that involve low motivation, self-indulgence, low conscientiousness, and poor performance. Participants’ endorsement of basic values was not meaningfully related to their evaluations of self-compassionate vs. self-critical behaviors or to self-compassion scores. We propose that self-compassion might operate as an instrumental value insofar as those high vs. low in self-compassion differ in their beliefs about whether self-compassion affects performance-related outcomes positively or negatively.     

A Short-term Psychodynamic Supportive Psychotherapy for Adolescents with Depressive Disorders: A New Approach

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in both adolescents and adults. In this article, we introduce Short-term Psychodynamic Supportive Psychotherapy (SPSP) for adolescents, a relatively new form of psychodynamic therapy for depression that has been studied in a range of randomized controlled trials with adult patients. SPSP emphasizes the relational aetiology and significance of depression and is characterized by a supportive attitude which focuses more on working in the here-and-now relational patterns rather than interpreting transference manifestations. The supportive attitude of the therapist is advocated to engage the adolescent in the therapeutic relationship and to foster his or her innate developmental capacities by attending to previously unaddressed developmental needs. The developmental perspective’s interest in defense styles and stagnation resulting from problems in past and current relationships opens up opportunities for acquiring insight and change. The focus on relational functioning makes it a promising approach for adolescents because they can implement any positive change immediately in their actual environment, immersed as they are in many new and varied relationships.     

Examining the role of working memory resources in following spoken instructions

This study investigated the involvement of working memory (WM) in following spoken instructions using concurrent tasks designed to disrupt components of the Baddeley and Hitch WM model [Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 8, pp. 47–89). New York, NY: Academic Press]. In each of three experiments, participants were presented with sequences of instructions to be either verbally repeated or physically performed using relevant objects. Backward counting, articulatory suppression, and eye closure during instruction encoding all disrupted recall, and also impaired recall of the linkage between movements and objects. Recall of actions was more accurate when they were physically enacted than repeated verbally, an advantage that was not affected by concurrent tasks. These findings indicate that aspects of the recall of spoken instructions including the binding of constituent movements to objects draw on multiple WM resources. The benefits of physical enactment of the instructed sequence do not appear to depend on the components of WM investigated in these studies.     

Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus in Parkinson’s Disease: A Meta-Analysis of Mood Effects

Neuropsychology Review - This meta-analysis examines mood changes after bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Deep brain...     

School Connectedness and STEM Orientation in Adolescent Girls: The Role of Perceived Gender Discrimination and Implicit Gender-Science Stereotypes

Sex Roles - Girls and women continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and this underrepresentation has been partly attributed to gendered...     

It Takes More Than a Good Camera: Which Factors Contribute to Differences Between Face-to-Face Interviews and Videoconference Interviews Regarding Performance Ratings and Interviewee Perceptions?

Due to technological progress, videoconference interviews have become more and more common in personnel selection. Nevertheless, even in recent studies, interviewees received lower performance ratings in videoconference interviews than in face-to-face (FTF) interviews and interviewees held more negative perceptions of these interviews. However, the reasons for these differences are unclear. Therefore, we conducted an experiment with 114 participants to compare FTF and videoconference interviews regarding interview performance and fairness perceptions and we investigated the role of social presence, eye contact, and impression management for these differences. As in other studies, ratings of interviewees’ performance were lower in the videoconference interview. Differences in perceived social presence, perceived eye contact, and impression management contributed to these effects. Furthermore, live ratings of interviewees’ performance were higher than ratings based on recordings. Additionally, videoconference interviews induced more privacy concerns but were perceived as more flexible. Organizations should take the present results into account and should not use both types of interviews in the same selection stage.