Proactive behavior,but not inhibitory control,predicts repeated innovation by spotted hyenas tested with a multi-access box

Innovation is widely linked to cognitive ability, brain size, and adaptation to novel conditions. However, successful innovation appears to be influenced by both cognitive factors, such as inhibitory control, and non-cognitive behavioral traits. We used a multi-access box (MAB) paradigm to measure repeated innovation, the number of unique innovations learned across trials, by 10 captive spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). Spotted hyenas are highly innovative in captivity and also display striking variation in behavioral traits, making them good model organisms for examining the relationship between innovation and other behavioral traits. We measured persistence, motor diversity, motivation, activity, efficiency, inhibitory control, and neophobia demonstrated by hyenas while interacting with the MAB. We also independently assessed inhibitory control with a detour cylinder task. Most hyenas were able to solve the MAB at least once, but only four hyenas satisfied learning criteria for all four possible solutions. Interestingly, neither measure of inhibitory control predicted repeated innovation. Instead, repeated innovation was predicted by a proactive syndrome of behavioral traits that included high persistence, high motor diversity, high activity and low neophobia. Our results suggest that this proactive behavioral syndrome may be more important than inhibitory control for successful innovation with the MAB by members of this species.     

Working memory skills and educational attainment: evidence from national curriculum assessments at 7 and 14 years of age

The relationship between working memory skills and performance on national curriculum assessments in English, mathematics and science was explored in groups of children aged 7 and 14 years. At 7 years, children's levels of attainment in both English and mathematics were significantly associated with working memory scores, and in particular with performance on complex span tasks. At 14 years, strong links persisted between the complex working memory test scores and attainments levels in both mathematics and science, although ability in the English assessments showed no strong association with working memory skill. The results suggest that the intellectual operations required in the curriculum areas of mathematics and science are constrained by the general capacity of working memory across the childhood years. However, whereas success in the acquisition in literacy (tapped by the English assessments at the youngest age) was also linked with working memory capacity, achievements in the higher‐level skills of comprehension and analysis of English literature assessed at 14 years were independent of working memory capacity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Drinking is our modern way of bonding’: Young people’s beliefs about interventions to encourage moderate drinking

Efforts to discourage excessive alcohol use among young people can only be effective if the target audience is exposed to, attends to, and comprehends key messages. The aim of this study was to examine age and sex differences in drinking motives to better inform development of targeted interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm. Thirty individual interviews and 12 group interviews were conducted with English 13–25?year olds. Interviewees gave multiple motivations for drinking – especially those related to image and reputation, and played down the health implications of heavy drinking. Negative aspects of drinking – caring for drunk friends, being cared for when drunk and suffering through hangovers with friends – were considered to offer opportunities for closer interpersonal bonding than other social activities. Respondents distanced themselves from ‘problem’ drinkers, but disapproved of others’ problematic drinking or antisocial behaviour. Narrative messages demonstrating the social consequences of excessive consumption were preferred to single, static messages emphasising risk or harm. Interviewees noted that interventions must use an engaging tone or pitch: they considered many campaigns to be patronising or preaching. A lack of consensus between age and sex groups highlighted a need for multifaceted, multi-modal approaches that utilise mobile technologies and new media.     

Fear of hypoglycemia: relationship to physical and psychological symptoms in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Among diabetic patients, experience with hypoglycemia ranges from the unpleasant to the life threatening. The aversiveness of these episodes often results in fear. To examine the impact of hypoglycemia on fear, 69 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus completed the Behavior and Worry subscales of the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey along with measures of psychological symptoms, perceived stress, risk of future hypoglycemic episodes, and glycosylated hemoglobin. Behavior and Worry scores were positively related to psychological symptoms, perceived stress, and previous experiences with hypoglycemia. Fear was unrelated to glycosylated hemoglobin but was significantly higher for patients who had greater variability and lower mean daily blood glucose.     

Induction and activity-dependent reversal of persistent LTP and LTD in lateral perforant path synapses in vivo

The reversibility of long-term potentiation (LTP) and heterosynaptic long-term depression (LTD) lasting weeks was examined in the lateral perforant path of freely moving adult Sprague-Dawley rats. LTP lasting weeks was rapidly reversed within minutes by high-frequency heterosynaptic stimulation of the medial perforant path, in an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-dependent manner. LTP reversal also occurred, albeit more slowly and to a lesser extent, when animals were given 1-3 weeks of overnight exposure to an enriched environment (EE). LTD likewise was reversed upon repeated EE exposure. A covert similarity between the degrees of LTP and LTD reversal was revealed when the small potentiation effect of EE treatment by itself on lateral path responses was taken into account. Despite its ability to reverse previously acquired synaptic plasticity, two weeks of EE treatment had no effect on animals' retention of the platform location in a spatial watermaze task, although it did facilitate new learning. These data are in agreement with the hypothesis that hippocampal synapses retain the capacity for rapid synaptic change even when otherwise relatively stable plasticity has previously been induced. Slow reversal of such plasticity did not correlate with a loss of memory retention, possibly because either slow changes permit reorganization of representations such that both old and new information can be accommodated, or else the new information is synaptically represented in orthogonal fashion to the old information.     

Belief in the Controllability of Weight and Attributions to Prejudice Among Heavyweight Women

The perceived controllability of weight is a central feature of prejudice against heavyweight people, but its role in the experience of prejudice is not well established. Heavyweight women (N=66, mean age = 38 years) were exposed to information about cardiovascular health or the uncontrollability of weight and then wrote a persuasive health-related essay. All participants received a negative evaluation on the essay quality from a male evaluator whom they believed could see them or not. Belief in the uncontrollability of weight led to more attributions for the feedback to the evaluator's prejudice but only when the participants thought that they were visible. The results are discussed in terms of the stigma of overweight.     

Contingency management of exercise by chronic schizophrenics

Research on the control and maintenance of exercise by chronic schizophrenics has been relatively neglected, despite widespread knowledge of the adverse consequences of sedentary living. The present study evaluated the effects of simple contingency-management procedures designed to encourage exercising by two psychotic residents living in a sheltered group home. For both subjects, the ABAB experimental analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of the intervention. Improved levels of exercise were maintained at follow-up and the contingency-management system was implemented as a regular part of the group home's rehabilitation program for all residents.     

Preference for leisure items over edible items in individuals with dementia: A replication

We replicated previous research in which adults with dementia tended to show a preference for leisure items over edible items when presented in the same array. Additionally, we conducted engagement analyses with the highest, middle, and lowest preference leisure items to determine whether relative preference corresponded to engagement in the natural environment. The most highly preferred stimulus for 6 out of 7 participants was a leisure item, and for each of those six the top 3 preferred stimuli were leisure stimuli. For 4 participants, the most preferred stimulus also produced the longest duration of engagement. We discuss the issues we encountered when conducting preference assessments with adults with intact vocal verbal repertoires, and suggest potential explanations for the displacement of edibles by leisure stimuli in older adults with dementia.     

A matching advantage for dynamic human faces

In a series of three experiments, we used a sequential matching task to explore the impact of non-rigid facial motion on the perception of human faces. Dynamic prime images, in the form of short video sequences, facilitated matching responses relative to a single static prime image. This advantage was observed whenever the prime and target showed the same face but an identity match was required across expression (experiment 1) or view (experiment 2). No facilitation was observed for identical dynamic prime sequences when the matching dimension was shifted from identity to expression (experiment 3). We suggest that the observed dynamic advantage, the first reported for non-degraded facial images, arises because the matching task places more emphasis on visual working memory than typical face recognition tasks. More specifically, we believe that representational mechanisms optimised for the processing of motion and/or change-over-time are established and maintained in working memory and that such 'dynamic representations' (Freyd, 1987 Psychological Review 94 427-438) capitalise on the increased information content of the dynamic primes to enhance performance.