Learning of magnetic compass directions in pigeons

A proof of magnetic compass learning by pigeons under laboratory conditions has been attempted for decades, but all experiments have failed so far. The aim of the present study was to test whether pigeons can learn magnetic compass directions in an operant chamber if magnetic cues are presented as true spatial cues. Experimental sessions were carried out in the local geomagnetic field and in magnetic fields with matched total intensity and inclination, but different directions generated with Helmholtz-coils. Birds demonstrated successful learning with a performance level comparable to that in learning studies with magnetic anomalies. In addition, we compared the data from magnetic learning in the laboratory with performance from homing experiments in the field. The birds that were more successful in the learning experiment had vanishing bearings farther away from the home direction than the group mean at unfamiliar, but not at familiar sites. This might suggest that better learners explore unknown locations in a different way. Our findings represent the first evidence for operant magnetic compass learning in pigeons and also provide a link between behavioural data from the field and the laboratory.     

The information content of panoramic images II: view-based navigation in nonrectangular experimental arenas

Two recent studies testing navigation of rats in swimming pools have posed problems for any account of the use of purely geometric properties of space in navigation (M. Graham, M. A. Good, A. McGregor, & J. M. Pearce, 2006; J. M. Pearce, M. A. Good, P. M. Jones, & A. McGregor, 2004). The authors simulated 1 experiment from each study in a virtual reality environment to test whether experimental results could be explained by view-based navigation. The authors recorded a reference image at the target location and then determined global panoramic image differences between this image and images taken at regularly spaced locations throughout the arena. A formal model, in which an agent attempts to minimize image differences between the reference image and current views, generated trajectories that could be compared with the search performance of rats. For both experiments, this model mimics many aspects of rat behavior. View-based navigation provides a sufficient and parsimonious explanation for a range of navigational behaviors of rats under these experimental conditions.     

Was ist seit BGHSt 45, 164 geschehen? Ein Überblick über die neuere Rechtsprechung des Bundesgerichtshofs zur Beurteilung der Glaubhaftigkeit von Zeugenaussagen

Zusammenfassung  Der 1. Strafsenat des Bundesgerichtshofs hat in seinem Urteil vom 30. Juli 1999 (BGHSt 45, 164) die wissenschaftlichen Anforderungen beschrieben, die an eine aussagepsychologische Begutachtung (Glaubhaftigkeitsgutachten) zu stellen sind, und die Richter verpflichtet, zukünftig darauf zu achten, dass diese Mindeststandards bei der Erstattung von Gutachten eingehalten werden. Ausgehend von dieser Entscheidung stellt der Beitrag die seitherige Entwicklung der Rechtsprechung zur Glaubhaftigkeitsbeurteilung von Zeugenaussagen dar. Er geht dabei über die an das Gutachten zu stellenden Anforderungen hinaus und befasst sich auch damit, wann ein solches Gutachten erforderlich, von wem es zu erstatten und in welcher Weise es vom Richter in den Entscheidungsgründen darzustellen ist. Zudem schildert er, welchen Einfluss die Anerkennung der hypothesengeleiteten, kriterienorientierten Aussageanalyse auf die Beweiswürdigung durch den Tatrichter und deren überprüfung durch das Revisionsgericht hat.

Kriminologische Verlaufsforschung zu Jugendkriminalität

This paper presents a short overview of the developmental research of antisocial behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. We first discuss offending patterns based on official and self-reported data and their limitations and problems. Secondly, we discuss the idea of the ubiquity of juvenile delinquency and the frequent occurrence of desistance in the transition to adulthood. The cessation of criminal activities is also found by so called ?chronic juvenile offenders“. We than discuss two important developmental theories of crime: the taxonomic theory of Moffitt and the age-graded informal social control theory of Sampson and Laub. Based on the qualitative desistance study of serious young offenders, Stelly and Thomas not only demonstrate the different pathways out of crime, the results also demonstrate the limitation of the available theories.     

Verläufe bei sexuellen Tötungen

This article summarizes main results of studies on forensic psychiatric court reports on 166 men who had been persecuted between 1963 and 1991 for a sexual offence leading to the death of the victim. Comparing perpetrators with a single victim and those with multiple victims we found similar results as in two previous studies with smaller samples: Multiple sexual homicide perpetrators showed more often sexual sadism and other paraphilias, as well as antisocial, schizoid and sadistic personality disorders. Follow-up data from the federal criminal records could be obtained for 139 offenders. Ninety perpetrators had been released after a mean detention of 12.2 years, whereas the 49 offenders who were still in prison or forensic psychiatric hospitals had been detained for a mean period of 20.6 years. The non-released offenders showed more often paraphilias as well as antisocial and sadistic personality disorders than the released perpetrators. Paraphilias and antisocial personality traits are empirically well proven risk factors for criminal recidivism with sexual reoffences. In addition, the non-released sexual homicide perpetrators had higher scores in all applied risk assessment instruments (PCL-R, HCR-20, SVR-20, Static-99). Among the released offenders only 1.1% (n=1) reoffended with a completed homicide and 2.2% (n=2) with attempted homicide. The recidivism rates with sexual and other violent reoffences in this sample of sexual homicide perpetrators were similar to those in a large meta-analysis on recidivism in sexual offenders by Hanson and Morton-Bourgon (4). Since well established risk factors had apparently been “used-up” for the decisions about release or non-release, in the follow-up data about the released offenders only age at the sexual homicide and age at the time of release were found as risk factors for recidivism with any violent (sexual or non-sexual) reoffence, i.e. the younger the offender at the time of the homicide and the younger at the time of release, the more likely is the risk of violent reoffending.     

Worship and the Eucharist in Luther Studies

Abstract : In German as well as in international ecumenical discussions Luther's liturgical decision to delete most of the eucharistic prayer and emphasize the words of institution has been regarded as a problematic move. On the other hand, prominent Lutheran theologians continue to argue that this move is theologically sound, and that the ecumenical characterization of the Lord's Supper as the Eucharist is problematic because it stresses the human activity. This paper steers a middle course between these extremes, arguing that Luther's texts also show new possibilities for conceiving the sacrament in terms of thanksgiving and active response.     

Why dieters fail: Testing the goal conflict model of eating

A new theory of eating regulation is presented to account for the over-responsiveness of restrained eaters to external food-relevant cues. According to this theory, the food intake of restrained eaters is characterized by a conflict between two chronically accessible incentives or goals: eating enjoyment and weight control. Their difficulty in weight control is due to their behavioral sensitivity to eating enjoyment and its incompatibility with the eating control goal. Accordingly, exposure to food-relevant stimuli primes the goal of eating enjoyment in restrained (but not unrestrained) eaters, resulting in an inhibition of weight control thoughts. Three studies are reported that support these assumptions. Study 1 demonstrates a substantial relation between Eating Restraint and measures of ambivalence towards eating. Studies 2 and 3 show that priming eating enjoyment decreases the accessibility of eating control concepts. The results are discussed in the context of current research on the psychology of obesity and restrained eating.     

Scham und Berührung

The problem

Are there correlations between shame and touch in healthy persons?

Methods

Data from a questionnaire survey with the Skin Satisfaction Questionnaire (HautZuf) with 140 healthy persons were validated with TAS 26, HADS and the Adult Attachment Scale.

Results

There are significant correlations in the scale shame with all other scales of the used questionnaires TAS-26, AAS and HADS. There was a negative correlation between the scale ?physical closeness“ and ?confidence“ of the AAS, but all other scales correlated positively with the shame scale.

Conclusions

More emotions of shame seem to be present with anxiety, depression and disturbances in the sense of an alexithymia concept. Also high feelings of shame correlated with decreased confidence in the personal environment and greater intolerance for personal nearness. The significant correlations between shame affects and self-touch or touch by partner point to important factors in self-perception also for the psychotherapeutic context.     

Encoding the goal of an object-directed but uncompleted reaching action in 6- and 9-month-old infants

Infants start to interpret completed human actions as goal-directed in the second half of the first year of life. In a series of three studies, the understanding of a goal-directed but uncompleted action was investigated in 6- and 9-month-old infants using a preferential looking paradigm. Infants saw the video of an actor's reaching movement towards one of two objects. This reaching movement was only presented until the hand passed the midpoint between the starting position and the position of the target object. Subsequently, two final states of the reaching movement were presented simultaneously. In the plausible final state, the hand grasped the object to which the reaching movement was geared; in the implausible final state, the hand grasped the other object. In Studies 1 and 3, infants watched the actor from an allocentric perspective, and in Studies 2 and 3 from an egocentric perspective. Results indicate a discrimination of the two final states if the scene was presented from an allocentric perspective: both 6- and 9-month-olds looked longer at the implausible final state. This was not the case if infants saw the action from an egocentric perspective. The presented findings show that using this paradigm, 6-month-olds are already able to infer the goal of an uncompleted action without seeing the achievement of the goal itself. However, they encoded the goal of the reaching action only when it was presented from an allocentric perspective but not from an egocentric perspective.