Situational information contributes to object categorization and inference

Three experiments demonstrated that situational information contributes to the categorization of functional object categories, as well as to inferences about these categories. When an object was presented in the context of setting and event information, categorization was more accurate than when the object was presented in isolation. Inferences about the object similarly became more accurate as the amount of situational information present during categorization increased. The benefits of situational information were higher when both setting and event information were available than when only setting information was available. These findings indicate that situational information about settings and events is stored with functional object categories in memory. Categorization and inference become increasingly accurate as the information available during categorization matches situational information stored with the category.     

Sexual and aggressive play fighting of sibling Richardson’s ground squirrels

Play fighting in many species of squirrels can involve sexual play and aggressive play, both of which can lead to wrestling which appears superficially similar. Such convergence can make scoring of the relative frequencies of these two types of play difficult and can lead to the mistaken conclusion that they grade into one another. In this study, both staged laboratory encounters between sibling pairs and spontaneous encounters between siblings in free‐living litters of Richardson’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) were videotaped. Frame‐by‐frame analyses using the Eshkol‐Wachman Movement Notation were employed to record the correlated movements of attack and defense by the partners and to reveal the body areas targeted during each play bout. Whereas sexual play was organized around access to the rump, aggressive play was organized around the shoulders. Although in most cases the defender’s tactics blocked access to the respective target, when contact did occur, it involved mounting in sexual play and nosing or biting in aggressive play. Eighty‐six percent of play fights could be unambiguously categorized as either sexual or aggressive play. Of these, the majority (?80%) involved sexual play. The sex of the participants did not affect the frequency of aggressive play, but in sexual play, males initiated more attacks than females. Once initiated, each form of play fighting remained distinct—if a bout began as sexual play, it would end as sexual play. Furthermore, a counterattack following sexual play was significantly more likely to be sexual than aggressive, and vice versa for counterattacks following aggressive play. Therefore, all the evidence suggested that the two forms of play fighting were not intermixed in Richardson’s ground squirrels. Aggr. Behav. 27:323–337, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A current approach to anticipation in sport / Un enfoque actual de la anticipación en el deporte

The classical cognitive concept of anticipation and timing (for example, reaction time) somewhat limits the study of sports actions under spatio-temporal pressure. The presence, duration and evolution of the information of the opponents, spatio-temporal pressure, the evolution of the athlete’s response movements or the degree of representativeness are some of the issues facilitating research into an anticipation that is better adjusted to the specific circumstances of interception tasks. This article proposes that temporalization of response actions is based on the balance between the spatio-temporal demands of the task, the athlete’s action capabilities and the evolution of the reliability of the available variables. In order to obtain good performance in these actions under pressure, individual perceptual differences and possible interactions with other information sources must also be considered.     

Die Diskussion zwischen José Gaos und Luis Villoro über den Begriff der Lebenswelt—Kritische Auswertung einer entscheidenden Episode der Rezeptionsgeschichte von Husserls Phänomenologie in Spanien und Mexiko

Husserl Studies - Die vorliegende Arbeit thematisiert eine sowohl im deutschen als auch im spanischen und englischen Sprachraum weitgehend unbekannte philosophische Kontroverse zweier...     

Structural analysis of the facets and domains of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and the NEO PI-R

Aluja, Kuhlman, and Zuckerman (2010) developed an instrument for American and Spanish populations (Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire [ZKA-PQ]) that includes 4 facets for each 5 basic traits of Zuckerman's psychobiological personality model. This new instrument is intended to improve the previous measure based on the same personality model, the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), by including the narrower traits (facets) defining the factors. This article explores the convergent and discriminant validity of the new instrument relative to the NEO PI-R in a sample from the Spanish general population. A series of exploratory factor analyses comparing both instruments was conducted. Results showed good convergent and discriminant validity between both instruments, although the ZKA-PQ had a slightly better structure than the NEO PI-R. The results support the validity of the ZKA-PQ factor domains and the facets composing them. The new instrument might be useful in both applied and research settings.