The Observer XT: A tool for the integration and synchronization of multimodal signals

The Observer was originally developed as a manual event recorder for the collection, management, analysis, and presentation of observational data in animals. Because of the flexibility of later versions, it became clear that The Observer was suitable for almost any study involving collection of observational data in both animals and humans. Furthermore, the most recent version of The Observer (The Observer XT) allows the integration and synchronization of multimodal signals from various sources, such as observational, video, tracking, and physiological data. This article describes how The Observer XT was used to integrate and synchronize video, observational, tracking, and physiological data from an experiment carried out in 2001 at the Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences of Wageningen University and Research Centre. The integration and synchronization of these multimodal signals in The Observer XT allows the user to draw a more complete picture of the phenomena under study.     

The impact of music on learning and consolidation of novel words

Music can be a powerful mnemonic device, as shown by a body of literature demonstrating that listening to text sung to a familiar melody results in better memory for the words compared to conditions where they are spoken. Furthermore, patients with a range of memory impairments appear to be able to form new declarative memories when they are encoded in the form of lyrics in a song, while unable to remember similar materials after hearing them in the spoken modality. Whether music facilitates the acquisition of completely new information, such as new vocabulary, remains unknown. Here we report three experiments in which adult participants learned novel words in the spoken or sung modality. While we found no benefit of musical presentation on free recall or recognition memory of novel words, novel words learned in the sung modality were more strongly integrated in the mental lexicon compared to words learned in the spoken modality. This advantage for the sung words was only present when the training melody was familiar. The impact of musical presentation on learning therefore appears to extend beyond episodic memory and can be reflected in the emergence and properties of new lexical representations.     

Cheating on college examinations

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of contexts on cheating attitudes and behavior among Brazilian undergraduates. Participants were 77 Previous Choice Engineering and 70 Late Choice Engineering students. Previous Choice students enter the desired field chosen by examination, whereas Late Choice students' grades during the two first college years give them preference to choose the field. Their self-reported attitudes and behaviors were compared with those of 82 chemistry undergraduates from two universities (UNI-C and USP-C). The Late Choice students reported significant negative opinion about cheating, whereas Previous Choice students, especially women, reported significant favorable opinion. Furthermore, Previous Choice students reported colleagues more frequently gave them answers on examinations than Late Choice students. The two university groups in chemistry had intermediate scores. Deterrents of cheating strongly embedded in the student culture were found among Late Choice engineering undergraduates which may be explained by social learning theory.     

How stable is happiness? Using the STARTS model to estimate the stability of life satisfaction

A common interpretation of existing subjective well-being research is that long-term levels of well-being are almost completely stable. However, few studies have estimated stability and change using appropriate statistical models that can precisely address this question. The STARTS model (Kenny & Zautra, 2001) was used to analyze life satisfaction data from two nationally representative panel studies. Results show that 34-38% of the variance in observed scores is trait variance that does not change. An additional 29-34% can be accounted for by an autoregressive trait that is only moderately stable over time. Thus, although life satisfaction is moderately stable over long periods of time, there is also an appreciable degree of instability that might depend on contextual circumstances.     

Unintentional Injury Risk in Children with Externalizing Behavior Disorders at Summer Camp

Children with externalizing behavior disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) have greatly increased risk of unintentional injury, but it is unclear what mechanisms are responsible for that increased risk. This study followed 22 children participating in a summer camp for children with ADHD. Injury incidents were recorded daily and a set of primary symptoms of behavioral disorders were recorded at 15-min intervals over the course of the 6-week summer camp experience (roughly 300 h of observing each child). We predicted symptoms of ODD and CD would be more strongly related to injury incidence than symptoms of ADHD. Results from univariate Poisson regression models confirmed our prediction. Symptoms of ODD and CD—violations and intentional aggression in particular—were related to injury incidence but symptoms of ADHD were not. This finding is consistent with a growing body of evidence that oppositional, noncompliant, and aggressive behavior patterns might be primarily responsible for increased risk for injury among children with externalizing behavior disorders. Thanks to Sylvie Mrug, Peter Winslett, and the other staff members of the STP camp for their cooperation.     

Age and culture modulate object processing and object—scene binding in the ventral visual area

Behavioral differences in the visual processing of objects and backgrounds as a function of cultural group are well documented. Recent neuroimaging evidence also points to cultural differences in neural activation patterns. Compared with East Asians, Westerners’ visual processing is more object focused, and they activate neural structures that reflect this bias for objects. In a recent adaptation study, East Asian older adults showed an absence of an object-processing area but normal adaptation for background areas. In the present study, 75 young and old adults (half East Asian and half Western) were tested in an fMR-adaptation study to examine differences in object and background processing as well as object—background binding. We found equivalent background processing in the parahippocampal gyrus in all four groups, diminished binding processes in the hippocampus in elderly East Asians and Westerners, and diminished object processing in elderly versus young adults in the lateral occipital complex. Moreover, elderly East Asians showed significantly less adaptation response in the object areas than did elderly Westerners. These findings demonstrate the malleability of perceptual processes as a result of differences in cohort-specific experiences or in cultural exposure over time.     

Relational insecurity heightens sensitivity to limbal rings in partnered women

Limbal rings augment perceived facial health and attractiveness. We thus expected sensitivity to their presence would depend on motives to seek alternative relationship partners among those feeling insecure about a current pairbond. Despite partnered women's relative insensitivity to good gene cues, partnered women feeling relationally dissatisfied might heighten acuity toward limbal rings. We primed single and partnered women with secure or insecure attachment before evaluating the health of male and female faces with and without limbal rings. Insecurity‐primed partnered women demonstrated greater perceptual acuity toward limbal rings than security‐primed partnered women; this sensitivity was reduced in single women. Findings contribute to literature implicating limbal rings as a health cue, demonstrating how dissatisfaction of mating goals modulates preferences for facial features.     

The Logical Style of Confucius’ Analects

Considered from a logical point of view, Confucius’ Analects contain many implicit forms of reasoning and argumentation. This is shown first by analyzing the phenomenon of parallelism: direct parallelism is often a way of hinting at a general assertion, whereas anti-parallelism hides dilemmas, generalizations and modal notions of “moral preference.” The Analects also have various types of conditionals, ranging from material implications, to modalized implications, and counterfactual conditionals, which are the germs of implicit reasoning, concluding with a moral recommendation. Analogies are particularly abundant and a presentation of three examples suggests that, beyond their explicative role, they also involve moral recommendations. The implicit logic of The Analects requires an active, albeit unconscious participation of the reader, which could be an important element in explaining the enduring influence of the text.