Sight or smell: which senses do scavenging raptors use to find food?

Animal Cognition - Raptors are usually considered to be mainly visually dependent, and the use of other sensory modalities has rarely been studied in these birds. Here, we investigated...     

Interpretation and Intention: The Debate between Hypothetical and Actual Intentionalism

Regarded for decades as a fallacy, intentionalist interpretation is beginning to attract a following among philosophers of art. Intentionalism is the doctrine that the actual intentions of artists are relevant to the interpretation of the artworks they create – just as actual intentions are relevant to the interpretation of the everyday words and deeds of other people. Although there are several forms of actual intentionalism, I defend the form known as modest actual intentionalism, which holds that the correct interpretation of an artwork is compatible with the author's actual intention, which itself must be supported by the artwork. Looking at literary works specifically, I consider criticisms of actual intentionalism – for example, the contention that such a stance substitutes paraphrase for a reading of the text. In particular, I argue against hypothetical intentionalism, which maintains that the correct interpretation of an artwork is constrained by the best hypotheses of the artist's intentions. As I show, the methodology of this position is in fact designed to track the author's actual intentions, and furthermore, hypothetical intentionalism does not accurately depict existing interpretive practices.     

Intentional behaviour in dog-human communication: an experimental analysis of “showing” behaviour in the dog

Despite earlier scepticism there is now evidence for simple forms of intentional and functionally referential communication in many animal species. Here we investigate whether dogs engage in functional referential communication with their owners. “Showing” is defined as a communicative action consisting of both a directional component related to an external target and an attention-getting component that directs the attention of the perceiver to the informer or sender. In our experimental situation dogs witness the hiding of a piece of food (or a favourite toy) which they cannot get access to. We asked whether dogs would engage in “showing” in the presence of their owner. To control for the motivational effects of both the owner and the food on the dogs’ behaviour, control observations were also staged where only the food (or the toy) or the owner was present. Dogs’ gazing frequency at both the food (toy) and the owner was greater when only one of these was present. In other words, dogs looked more frequently at their owner when the food (toy) was present, and they looked more at the location of the food (toy) when the owner was present. When both the food (toy) and the owner were present a new behaviour, “gaze alternation”, emerged which was defined as changing the direction of the gaze from the location of the food (toy) to looking at the owner (or vice versa) within 2 s. Vocalisations that occurred in this phase were always associated with gazing at the owner or the location of the food. This behaviour, which was specific to this situation, has also been described in chimpanzees, a gorilla and humans, and has often been interpreted as a form of functionally referential communication. Based on our observations we argue that dogs might be able to engage in functionally referential communication with their owner, and their behaviour could be described as a form of “showing”. The contribution of domestication and individual learning to the well-developed communicative skills in dogs is discussed and will be the subject of further studies. Received: 3 April 2000 / Accepted after revision: 2 September 2000     

Community-based Peer Groups: an Intervention Programme for Teenage Mothers

This paper assesses the use of community-based peer groups as an intervention strategy to provide teenage mothers with an opportunity to share common experiences, receive social support and identify links between personal and social problems. The method utilized in a recent community project on teenage pregnancy is outlined. Over a period of 8 weeks a group of 10 teenage mothers met weekly to share their experiences of pregnancy and motherhood. The facilitators used various games and audio-visual aids to build rapport and to enhance willingness to discuss sensitive topics. The final session comprised a 1-day training workshop to enable the participants to act as co-facilitators for similar groups in the future. The evaluation indicated that the participants felt empowered by the opportunity to discuss common experiences and to have their perceptions affirmed by their peers. The potential value of this programme within the broader mental health context of South Africa is briefly discussed, and also the possibility of adding a consciousness-raising element to such groups.     

Feedback in Couple and Family Therapy: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) is recommended as a psychotherapy procedure to serve as clinical feedback in order to improve client treatment outcomes. ROM can work as a warning signal to the therapist if the client shows signs of no change or deterioration. This study has investigated whether any difference in outcome could be detected between those clients in couple and family therapy who used the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC) feedback system (ROM condition) versus those who were offered treatment without the use of STIC (“treatment as usual” or TAU condition). A sample of 328 adults seeking couple and family therapy in Norway was randomly assigned to ROM versus TAU conditions. Outcome measures were The Outcome Questionnaire–45 and The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale. The results demonstrated no significant differences in outcomes between the ROM and TAU. Possible explanations of this result related to design and implementation issues are discussed.