Early development of gaze following into distant space in juvenile Greylag geese (Anser anser)

Visual co-orientation with another's gaze direction (gaze following) may provide important information about the location of food, social interactions or predators. Gaze following has been shown in a variety of mammals, but only in few bird species, and has not been tested in precocial birds at all. It has been suggested that gaze following is an anti-predator behaviour, and in Common ravens (Corvus corax) and rooks (C. frugilegus), it emerges shortly after fledging, at a time when young birds leave the predator-safe nest. However, if gaze following is adaptive, the developmental pattern should differ between altricial and precocial birds. Greylag geese (Anser anser) are highly social birds with a precocial development. Goslings move and feed independently within 24 h post-hatching, and they are highly vulnerable to aerial predators. We therefore predicted that greylag geese are capable of gaze following and that they develop this skill already pre-fledging. We experimentally tested 19 hand-raised greylag goslings for their ability to follow a conspecific's gaze when they were between 10 days and 6 weeks old. In line with our predictions, first responses were already detectable in 10-day-old goslings. Our results therefore not only demonstrate that greylag geese follow the gaze of conspecifics into distant space, but that they also develop this ability much earlier than altricial birds.     

Personality disorders and personality dimensions in anorexia nervosa

Information on the relationship between anorexia nervosa (AN) and personality disorders (PDs) and dimensions of temperament and character (measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory [TCI; Cloninger, Przybeck Svrakic, & Wetzel, 1994]) is limited. This study examines the predictive validity of the TCI for PD diagnoses assessed by the International Personality Disorder Examination-ICD-10 (IPDE-ICD-10; Loranger, Janca, & Sartorius, 1997) interviews of 46 women with DSM-IV-defined AN. Patients with a PD reported higher levels of harm-avoidance and lower levels of self-directedness than those without a PD. Scores on the TCI were predictive of the number of PD features present, particularly for those PDs in the anankastic, anxious, and dependent groups accounting for 40% to 51% of the variance. Cluster analysis based on scores on the TCI identified a subgroup of patients characterized by low levels of novelty seeking, self-directedness, and cooperativeness and high levels of harm avoidance. This cluster included the majority of those with avoidant, anxious, or dependent PDs. Assessment of particular personality dimensions was able to predict PDs in an anorexic sample. Since normal personality dimensions have greater validity than the categorical PDs, a consideration of normal temperament and character may assist in clinical decisionmaking and considerations concerning treatment.     

G.I. Gurdjieff: Some references to love

New developments in the Gurdjieff. teaching (the Work) have raised questions about the authentic line of the teaching. James Moore in his article “Moveable Feasts: The Gurdjieff Work”; (Religion Today 9 (2), 1994: 11–16) argues that, in terms of the dialectic between personal endeavour and supernal grace, Gurdjieff's teaching is based on making effort rather than receiving grace, working rather than being worked upon. The article looks at some references to love made by Gurdjieff and by some of his pupils. It suggests that, although absent from Work teaching in the Gurdjieff Society in London from the 1950s to the 1980s, grace was an element of Gurdjieff s teaching, and that new practices may serve to restore grace.     

Regional variation of cloze probabilities for sentence contexts

In 1980, Bloom and Fischler published a paper describing a set of sentence contexts (SCs) and their cloze probabilities (CPs). This material has subsequently been employed in numerous studies of linguistic processing. We sought to define the completion words and their CPs for Bloom and Fischler’s sentences in an inner-city British population in order to establish reliable norms for subsequent studies in the U.K. One hundred and fifty incomplete SCs were presented to 73 volunteers. The CPs for each of the words used to complete the SCs were computed. We then compared the CPs from our sample with those from Bloom and Fischler. There were significant differences between CPs from each sample in 14% of the SCs analyzed (p < .01). Our data suggest that studies employing SCs and CPs may require locally defined norms if the test population differs substantially from the original one. The consequences of employing SCs and CPs to study linguistic processing without normalization are discussed.     

Multilevel and Latent Variable Modeling with Composite Links and Exploded Likelihoods

Composite links and exploded likelihoods are powerful yet simple tools for specifying a wide range of latent variable models. Applications considered include survival or duration models, models for rankings, small area estimation with census information, models for ordinal responses, item response models with guessing, randomized response models, unfolding models, latent class models with random effects, multilevel latent class models, models with log-normal latent variables, and zero-inflated Poisson models with random effects. Some of the ideas are illustrated by estimating an unfolding model for attitudes to female work participation. We wish to thank The Research Council of Norway for a grant supporting our collaboration.     

Validation of a Tibetan translation of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist 25 and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire

This study sought to translate and validate the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL) and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) in a Tibetan population. Translated questionnaires were administered to 57 Tibetan survivors of torture/human rights abuses living in the United States and receiving services in a torture treatment program. Participants were evaluated to determine if they met criteria for major depressive episode, generalized anxiety disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Coefficient alpha for the HSCL Anxiety subscale (.89), Depression subscale (.92), and the HTQ (.89) were high. Diagnostic accuracy using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis generated good classification accuracy for anxiety (.89), depression (.92), and PTSD (.83). However, although sensitivity and specificity for HSCL subscales were quite high, the HTQ generated low sensitivity (.33), partly because of a low rate of PTSD. Results support the reliability and validity of the HSCL but suggest further study of the HTQ with this population is required.     

Using a Two-Tier Test to Examine Taiwanese Graduate Students’ Misunderstanding of Responsible Conduct of Research

The present study investigates Taiwanese graduate students’ general understanding and misunderstanding of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). A total of 580 graduate students responded to the self-developed Responsible Conduct of Research Reasoning Test. The results reveal that, first, students did not have sufficient knowledge to reason why a particular instance of research (mis)conduct was doable or not. Second, the statistical results show that female students, students majoring in the humanities or the social sciences, doctoral-level students, and students with RCR-related training outperformed others. In addition, the misbehaviors that students judged relatively uncritically comprise the following nine categories: (a) seeing authorship as a property or power, (b) misinterpreting research coauthors’ responsibilities, (c) inaccurately conducting the informed-consent process, (d) fabricating and falsifying research data, (e) misinterpreting the correct citation of research sources, (f) holding vague concepts of self-plagiarism, (g) misinterpreting the Taiwan Copyright Act, (h) accepting duplicate-publication practices, and (i) accepting piecemeal publication practices. The present study discusses participative students’ major misunderstandings of actual RCR-related practices. The study also presents further implications and suggestions based on the findings.     

Efficacy of and preference for reinforcement and response cost in token economies

Researchers have shown that both differential reinforcement and response cost within token economies are similarly effective for changing the behavior of individuals in a group context (e.g., Donaldson, DeLeon, Fisher, & Kahng, 2014; Iwata & Bailey, 1974). In addition, these researchers have empirically evaluated preference for these procedures. However, few previous studies have evaluated the individual effects of these procedures both in group contexts and in the absence of peers. Therefore, we replicated and extended previous research by determining the individual effects and preferences of differential reinforcement and response cost under both group and individualized conditions. Results demonstrated that the procedures were equally effective for increasing on‐task behavior during group and individual instruction for most children, and preference varied across participants. In addition, results were consistent across participants who experienced the procedures in group and individualized settings.     

Psychometric properties of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q) in seven countries

Objectives

In the sport context, the coach-athlete relationship has been viewed and studied as a universal phenomenon. It is thus important to assess the universality of the psychometric scale that is used to measure the quality of coach-athlete relationships. The present study examined the cultural equivalence or measurement invariance of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (11-item, athlete version CART-Q).

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Methods

A total of 1363 athletes from Belgium (N = 200), Britain (N = 382), China (N = 200), Greece (N = 115), Spain (N = 120), Sweden (N = 169), and United States of America (N = 177) completed the CART-Q.

Results

Multi-group mean and covariance structure (MACS) analyses supported the factorial validity of the CART-Q in a three-first-order factor model across the seven countries. An examination of the latent mean differences of the CART-Q revealed some variation in terms of the intensity that athletes perceive in the quality of the relationship with their coach across the different countries.

Conclusions

Overall, these results supply additional evidence of the psychometric properties of the CART-Q and highlight that it is a sound instrument that can be applied cross-culturally.     

Nonverbal signals speak up: Association between perceptual nonverbal dominance and emotional intelligence

Emotional communication uses verbal and nonverbal means. In case of conflicting signals, nonverbal information is assumed to have a stronger impact. It is unclear, however, whether perceptual nonverbal dominance varies between individuals and whether it is linked to emotional intelligence. Using audiovisual stimulus material comprising verbal and nonverbal emotional cues that were varied independently, perceptual nonverbal dominance profiles and their relations to emotional intelligence were examined. Nonverbal dominance was found in every participant, ranging from 55 to 100%. Moreover, emotional intelligence, particularly the ability to understand emotions, correlated positively with nonverbal dominance. Furthermore, higher overall emotional intelligence as well as a higher ability to understand emotions were linked to smaller reaction time differences between emotionally incongruent and congruent stimuli. The association between perceptual nonverbal dominance and emotional intelligence, and more specifically the ability to understand emotions, might reflect an adaptive process driven by the experience of higher authenticity in nonverbal cues.