Spatial and feature-based memory representation in free-flying homing pigeons

The memory-based recognition of a goal is a capacity well demonstrated in birds, and understanding this ability often involves determining the relative importance of spatial and feature information in representing the properties of a goal. However, surprisingly little avian research has examined goal recognition in a field setting. Here, we demonstrate that homing pigeons can be successfully trained outdoors to fly to and land on a goal platform located in an array of other platforms at a distance on the order of 100 m. They can do so under conditions when the properties of the goal are stable in time as well as when the properties of the goal periodically change; the latter condition indicating that homing pigeons can rapidly adapt their memory representations to take into account changing environmental conditions. When probed for preferential use of either spatial (location) or feature-based (color) information, the pigeons demonstrated an indifferent capacity to use both independent of task demands. The homing pigeon memory systems that support goal recognition appear to be opportunistic with respect to the information exploited, using spatial and feature information equally to guide their behavior. Therefore, and despite strong natural and artificial selection for navigational ability, spatial information is no more important than feature cues in representing a goal location for homing pigeons flying outdoors.     

Do pastoral counselors have a duty to report clergy sexual abuse done by their clergy clients?

What does a pastoral counselor do when a clergy client reveals that he or she has been sleeping with a parishioner? Does the counselor have an ecclesiastical duty to report this offense to a church official; or does the pledge of confidentiality trump any disclosure? Some ecclesiastical bodies require their clergy to bring knowledge of these offenses to church authorities. Does this requirement apply to pastoral counselors? The authors have been confronted with these questions in their ministry of pastoral counseling and have struggled with producing a faithful, professional response. Along the way they have not received clear direction from judicatories or professional organizations. This article is the authors' attempt to answer the questions raised above as well as to challenge professional and ecclesiastical bodies to confront more forthrightly the dilemmas these situations cause for pastoral counselors who seek to protect the welfare of the Church as well as protect the pledge to maintain confidentiality.     

Intuition,Foundationalism and Explanation – a Response to Mounce

Wittgenstein's scant remarks on the roots of language in instinctive behaviour have been both difficult to interpret and controversial, not least because they may seem to incline towards forms of explanation that elsewhere he eschewed. Nevertheless, they are of importance in philosophy, not least because they bear upon age‐old questions of foundationalism and concept‐formation. In a recent Discussion Note in this journal (Mounce, Philosophical Investigations, 2016, 39: 385–390), H. O. Mounce is not only attracted by but also champions such explanation – though he finds Wittgenstein's own “explanations” inadequate in important respects, as evidenced in his misguided criticisms of Moore in On Certainty and in his behaviouristic remarks on the roots of the “cause and effect” language‐game. In this response, I try to identify the philosophical roots of this attraction and the points at which Mounce's account departs from the elucidatory and non‐explanatory path established by Wittgenstein.     

EXPERIENCE AND THE WATER-LEVEL TASK REVISITED:

Abstract— A recently published study (Hecht & Proffitt, 1995) reported that adults in Munich, Germany, whose occupations involved considerable experience with liquids in containers, were less accurate on Piaget's water-level task than were comparable adults in other occupations. The present study attempted to replicate that experiment with a North American sample, but using lighter controls. The resulting data and conclusions contrast with those of the original study and indicate instead, that individuals in occupations that provide much experience with liquids in containers (bartenders, waiters and waitresses) are, in fact, more accurate on two versions of the water level task than individuals of equivalent gender, age, and education in control occupations (salespeople, clerical worker). The data are discussed in terms of both the impact and the limit s of experience on spatial-task performance.