Prey behaviour across antipredator adaptation types: how does growth trajectory influence learning of predators?

Despite the fact that the ability of animals to avoid being consumed by predators is influenced by their behaviour, morphology and life history, very few studies have attempted to integrate prey responses across these adaptation types. Here, our goal was to address the link between life-history traits (size and growth trajectory) of tadpoles and behavioural responses to predators. Specifically, we wanted to determine whether information learned about predators was influenced by prey growth trajectory before and after learning. We manipulated the size/growth trajectory of tadpoles by raising them under different temperatures. Tadpoles raised on a slow-growth trajectory (under cold conditions) and taught to recognize a salamander subsequently showed stronger responses after 2 weeks than tadpoles that were raised on a fast-growth trajectory (under warm conditions). When we account for the effect of size (r ² = 0.22) on the responses of prey to predator cues, we find that the growth trajectory pre-learning but not post-learning influences the learned responses of the tadpoles. The differences in responses to predators may reflect differential memory associated with the predator. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has attempted to link life-history traits (size and growth rate) with learning of predators. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of antipredator responses of prey animals, we call for additional integrative studies that examine prey anti-predator responses across adaptation types.     

Prem Baby Triple P a new parenting intervention for parents of infants born very preterm: acceptability and barriers

Over 10% of preterm infants develop major disabilities, 50% develop behavioural problems and 40% need special education ( [Huddy et al., 2001] and [0185] ). Prem Baby Triple P is a new variant of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) adapted specifically for parents of very preterm infants. The aim of this study is to assess the acceptability of Prem Baby Triple P to parents of infants born preterm and to test whether parental attributions and parental perception of infant health/developmental status are barriers to intervention acceptability. One hundred and twenty-three parents of preterm infants participated, 83 parents of very preterm infants and 40 parents of preterm infants. In addition, 32 parents of term infants participated as a comparison group. The acceptability of Prem Baby Triple P was moderately high and did not differ significantly across the three groups. Parental attributions were not found to be barriers to intervention acceptability and parental perceptions that their infant is less healthy/developmentally delayed facilitated Prem Baby Triple P acceptance in parents of infants born very preterm. This suggests that the planned Prem Baby Triple P content is acceptable to parents of infants born very preterm and sensitised to medical and developmental issues. These findings, as social validation data, will contribute towards the further development of Prem Baby Triple P and a future randomised controlled trial.     

Ecumenical alethic pluralism

Ecumenical Alethic Pluralism (EAP) is a novel kind of alethic pluralism. It is ecumenical in that it widens the scope of alethic pluralism by allowing for a normatively deflated truth property alongside a variety of normatively robust truth properties. We establish EAP by showing how Wright’s Inflationary Arguments fail in the domain of taste, once a relativist treatment of the metaphysics and epistemology of that domain is endorsed. EAP is highly significant to current debates on the nature of truth insofar as it involves a reconfiguration of the dialectic between deflationists and pluralists.     

Gender-related processes and drug use: self-expression with parents, peer group selection, and achievement motivation

This investigation examined gender differences in communication with parents, peer group selection, and academic motivation as related to drug use among adolescents (290 girls, 237 boys; age range = 12-19 years). For girls, increased self-expression with parents was associated with greater academic motivation, more academically motivated friends, fewer drug-using friends, and less overall drug use. For boys, self-expression was positively related to academic motivation. For both boys and girls, having drug-using friends predicted increased drug use, while having academically motivated friends predicted decreased drug use. For girls only, age and academic motivation predicted drug use as well. These findings indicate that peer group selection and academic motivation may mediate the relationship between drug use and parent-adolescent communication for girls only.     

Early-life and parental predation risk shape fear acquisition in adult minnows

Animal Cognition - Exposure to predation risk can induce a fearful baseline state, as well as fear reactions toward novel situations (i.e., neophobia). Some research indicates that risk exposure...     

The Spatial Musical Association of Response Codes does not depend on a normal visual experience: A study with early blind individuals

Converging evidence suggests that the perception of auditory pitch exhibits a characteristic spatial organization. This pitch–space association can be demonstrated experimentally by the Spatial Musical Association of Response Codes (SMARC) effect. This is characterized by faster response times when a low-positioned key is pressed in response to a low-pitched tone, and a high-positioned key is pressed in response to a high-pitched tone. To investigate whether the development of this pitch–space association is mediated by normal visual experience, we tested a group of early blind individuals on a task that required them to discriminate the timbre of different instrument sounds with varying pitch. Results revealed a comparable pattern in the SMARC effect in both blind participants and sighted controls, suggesting that the lack of prior visual experience does not prevent the development of an association between pitch height and vertical space.     

Decisional Procrastination: Assessing Characterological and Contextual Variables around Indecision

University students (n = 75; M age = 21.4 years old) and community adults (n = 55: M age = 36.6 years old) completed self-reported measures of decisional procrastination (indecision), character (life satisfaction, meaningful life, and need for cognition), context (place attachment, sense of community, and psychological home) and “cross-over” factors relating character and context (self-identity with possessions, people/thing orientation, and clutter), to provide an ecological understanding of persons who claim indecision. Controlling for social desirability tendencies, indecision was negatively related to all character but none of the context variables. Indecision also was related to both person and thing orientation and clutter. Multiple regression analysis indicated that only need for cognition significantly predicted (negatively) indecision among character, context, and cross-over variable sets. Subjective well-being also predicted indecision with low need for cognition among cross-over variables. Taken together, decisional procrastinators reported too much clutter (stuff), interfering with a positive quality of life and related to character over context and cross-over, ecological variables.     

Re‐examination of Oostenbroek et al. (2016): evidence for neonatal imitation of tongue protrusion

The meaning, mechanism, and function of imitation in early infancy have been actively discussed since Meltzoff and Moore's (1977) report of facial and manual imitation by human neonates. Oostenbroek et al. (2016) claim to challenge the existence of early imitation and to counter all interpretations so far offered. Such claims, if true, would have implications for theories of social‐cognitive development. Here we identify 11 flaws in Oostenbroek et al.'s experimental design that biased the results toward null effects. We requested and obtained the authors’ raw data. Contrary to the authors’ conclusions, new analyses reveal significant tongue‐protrusion imitation at all four ages tested (1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks old). We explain how the authors missed this pattern and offer five recommendations for designing future experiments. Infant imitation raises fundamental issues about action representation, social learning, and brain–behavior relations. The debate about the origins and development of imitation reflects its importance to theories of developmental science.     

Prophecy,Ethical Constraints,and Unjust Silence

Cathleen Kaveny's Prophecy Without Contempt seeks to reorient the conversation among religious ethicists and political theorists about religion in public life. Rather than focus on religious speech in general, Kaveny distinguishes deliberation and indictment as forms of discourse, and she subjects indictment to ethical evaluation. She aims to constrain the public exercise of inordinate indictment, while encouraging prophetic indictment that meets the demands of justice. While the book is a much‐needed corrective, Kaveny's focus on the powerful rhetoric of prophetic indictment omits the harms that can come to the body politic from unjust silence. Such silence deserves more moral attention.