Reciprocity of support in coatis (Nasua nasua)

Primate sociality has received much attention and its complexity has been viewed as a driving force for the evolution of cognitive abilities. Improved analytic techniques have allowed primate researchers to reveal intricate social networks based on the exchange of cooperative acts and services. Although nonprimates are known to show similar behavior (e.g., cooperative hunting, food sharing, coalitions) there seems a consensus that social life is less complex than in primates. Here the authors present the first group-level analysis of reciprocity of social interactions in a social carnivore, the ring-tailed coati (Nasua nasua). The authors found that support in aggressive conflicts is a common feature in coatis and that this behavior is reciprocally exchanged in a manner seemingly as complex as in primates. Given that reciprocity correlations persisted after controlling for the effect of spatial association and subunit membership, some level of scorekeeping may be involved. Further studies will be needed to confirm our findings and understand the mechanisms underlying such reciprocity, but our results contribute to the body of work that has begun to challenge primate supremacy in social complexity and cognition.     

Achievement and social goals, persistence-effort, and intentions of sport practice in physical education students

The present study examined the relationship between achievement and social goals, and explored how both types of goals can affect secondary school students' persistence/effort in Physical Education classes, as well as their intention to participate in sport activities after finishing secondary school. A sample of 350 students (aged 15-17) from two high schools in Asturias participated in the study. Multiple regression analysis showed: a) persistence/effort in physical education classes was better explained by social responsibility goals, followed by mastery-approach goals and mastery-avoidance goals; b) achievement goals are the only predictors of young people's intention of practicing sport in the future. Differences were found in these results according to gender and course. These findings help us better understand the processes involved in Physical Education. Finally, implications to improve classes and to achieve young people's more active and higher level of implication in sports are discussed.     

The Impact of Multiple Dimensions of Ethnic Identity on Discrimination and Adolescents' Self-Estees

The rejection-identification model is investigated with multiple dimensions of ethnic identity in a sample of Mexican American youth. It is hypothesized that more perceived discrimination will be associated with higher ethnic identity in general, but that the multiple dimensions of ethnic identity will be associated differentially with discrimination. Higher perceived discrimination will be associated with more ethnic exploration and less ethnic affirmation. Self-report questionnaires were completed by middle school students of Mexican descent ( N= 881). Based on structural equation modeling, the data were found to fit the rejection-identification model ( p < .05). Higher discrimination was associated with lower ethnic affirmation ( p < .05) and lower ethnic exploration ( p < .05). Post hoc analyses indicated a significant interaction between discrimination and ethnic affirmation ( p < .01) such that youth with high ethnic affirmation who experienced high discrimination still reported high self-esteem. The findings are discussed in the context of understanding methods of coping with prejudice and discrimination that will enhance the mental well-being of minority youth.     

Effects of Coworker Race and Task Demand on Task‐Related Outcomes as Mediated by Evoked Affect1

Using a 2 × 2 (Coworker Race × Task Demand) design and data from 180 White women who worked in dyads with a male confederate, the present study examined the effects of coworker race (White vs. Black) and task demand (low vs. high cognitive demand) on evoked affect, task attention, task performance, task satisfaction, and the desire to work alone (as opposed to with a coworker). As expected, results showed that coworker race and task demand evoked differing levels of affect, which, in turn, influenced several other outcomes. These findings have important implications for promoting racial diversity in organizations.     

A threshold for the protective effect of over-reinforced passive avoidance against scopolamine-induced amnesia.

Acetylcholine-receptor blockers produce amnesia of aversively motivated behaviors. However, when animals are submitted to relatively high intensities of footshock (over-reinforcement), anticholinergic treatment does not induce memory impairments. The aim of this work was to determine whether the antiamnesic effect produced by increasing the magnitude of the negative reinforcer is gradually established or if a threshold should be reached to obtain such an effect. Wistar rats were trained in passive avoidance using 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 or 3.0 mA; 5 min after training they were given one systemic injection of scopolamine (8 mg/kg). An amnesic state was produced in the groups that were trained with the lower intensities (2.5-2.7 mA); with the three higher intensities near-perfect retention was evident. These results suggest that acetylcholine is critically involved in memory consolidation, and that by increasing the magnitude of the negative reinforcer, a threshold is reached where cholinergic activity of the nervous system is not necessary for the development of the consolidation process.     

Training of conversational skills with institutionalized elderly: a preliminary study

16 residents in a Residential Care Home for elderly people volunteered and were trained in a social skills program aimed at increasing conversational skills. Subjects were assigned randomly to three groups, one experimental and two control groups (placebo and waiting list). The techniques used in the experimental group were behavior rehearsal, feedback, modeling, discriminative reinforcement, verbal instructions, and homework. Relative to control groups, experimental subjects showed significant increases in conversational skills, such as receiving information, speaking-up, and giving information. They also showed a significant decrease in their scores on Zung's Self-rating Scale of Depression compared with the two control groups. They showed an increase in assertive responses and a decrease in aggressive and inhibited responses. These changes remained when follow-up was made 3 mo. later, suggesting the potential utility of this training program with elderly persons residing in old people's homes.     

The missing explanation of the false‐belief advantage in bilingual children: a longitudinal study

Bilingual preschoolers often perform better than monolingual children on false‐belief understanding. It has been hypothesized that this is due to their enhanced executive function skills, although this relationship has rarely been tested or supported. The current longitudinal study tested whether metalinguistic awareness was responsible for this advantage. Further, we examined the contributions of both executive functioning and language ability to false‐belief understanding by including multiple measures of both. Seventy‐eight children (n = 40 Spanish‐English bilingual; age M = 49.29, SD = 7.38 and, n = 38 English monolingual; age M = 47.75, SD = 6.86) were tested. A year later the children were tested again (n = 22 bilingual, n = 25 monolingual). The results indicated that language and executive function (inhibitory control) at time 1 were related to false belief in monolinguals at time 2. In contrast, bilinguals' metalinguistic performance at time 1 was the sole predictor of false belief at time 2. The different linguistic and cognitive profiles of monolinguals and bilinguals may create different pathways for their development of false‐belief understanding. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/vILn2gKjFxw     

Sorting out categories: Incremental learning of category structure

Two experiments examine how inferences might promote unsupervised and incremental category learning. Many categories have members related through overall similarity (e.g., a family resemblance structure) rather than by a defining feature. However, when people are asked to sort category members in a category construction task, they often do so by partitioning on a single feature. Starting from an earlier result showing that pairwise inferences increase family resemblance sorting (Lassaline & Murphy, 1996), we examine how these inferences lead to learning the family resemblance structure. Results show that the category structure is learned incrementally. The pairwise inferences influence participants’ weightings of feature pairs that were specifically asked about, which in turn affects their sorting. The sorting then allows further learning of the categorical structure. Thus, the inferences do not directly lead learners to the family resemblance structure, but they do provide a foundation to build on as the participants make additional judgments.