Opium of the people? National identification predicts well-being over time

Social group membership and its social-relational corollaries, for example, social contact, trust, and support, are prophylactic for health. Research has tended to focus on how direct social interactions between members of small-scale groups (i.e., a local sports team or community group) are conducive to positive health outcomes. The current study provides evidence from a longitudinal cross-cultural sample (N = 6,748; 18 countries/societies) that the prophylactic effect of group membership is not isolated to small-scale groups, and that members of groups do not have to directly interact, or in fact know of each other to benefit from membership. Our longitudinal analyses suggest that national identification (strength of association with the country/society of which one is a citizen) predicts lower anxiety and improved health; national identification was in fact almost as positively predictive of health status as anxiety was negatively predictive. The findings indicate that identification with large-scale groups, like small-scale groups, is palliative, and are discussed in terms of globalization and banal nationalism.     

Young adults' partner preferences and parents' in-law preferences across generations,genders, and nations

To examine cultural, gender, and parent–child differences in partner preferences, in eight countries undergraduates (n = 2,071) and their parents (n = 1,851) ranked the desirability of qualities in someone the student might marry. Despite sizable cultural differences—especially between Southeast Asian and Western countries—participants generally ranked kind/understanding (reflecting interpersonal communion) highest, and intelligent and healthy (reflecting mental/physical agency) among the top four. Students valued exciting, attractive partners more and healthy, religious partners less than parents did; comparisons with rankings by youth in 1984 (i.e., from the parents' generation) suggested cohort effects cannot explain most parent–child disagreements. As evolutionary psychology predicts, participants prioritized wives' attractiveness and homemaker skills and husbands' education and breadwinner skills; but as sociocultural theory predicts, variations across countries/decades in gendered spousal/in-law preferences mirrored socioeconomic gender differences. Collectively, the results suggest individuals consider their social roles/circumstances when envisioning their ideal spouse/in-law, which has implications for how humans’ partner-appraisal capabilities evolved.     

Akrasia and the Desire to Become Someone Else: Venturinha on Moral Matters

Philosophia - This paper discusses practical akrasia from the perspective of the sophisticated form of moral subjectivism that can be derived from Nuno Venturinha’s (2018) remarks on moral...     

A model to study orienting responses in zebrafish,and applications towards the emotion–cognition interaction

Animal Cognition - Orienting responses (ORs) are whole-organism reflexes that are elicited by innocuous stimuli, and which decrease in magnitude after stimulus repetition. ORs represent relatively...     

Neuromuscular-skeletal origins of predominant patterns of coordination in rhythmic two-joint arm movement

The authors tested for predominant patterns of coordination in the combination of rhythmic flexion-extension (FE) and supination- (SP) at the elbow-joint complex. Participants (N=10) spontaneously established in-phase (supination synchronized with flexion) and antiphase (pronation synchronized with flexion) patterns. In addition, the authors used a motorized robot arm to generate involuntary SP movements with different phase relations with respect to voluntary FE. The involuntarily induced in-phase pattern was accentuated and was more consistent than other patterns. The result provides evidence that the predominance of the in-phase pattern originates in the influence of neuromuscular-skeletal constraints rather than in a preference dictated by perceptual-cognitive factors implicated in voluntary control. Neuromuscular-skeletal constraints involved in the predominance of the in-phase and the antiphase patterns are discussed.     

The influence of prior choices on current choice

Three pigeons chose between random-interval (RI) and tandem, continuous-reinforcement, fixed-interval (crf-FI) reinforcement schedules by pecking either of two keys. As long as a pigeon pecked on the RI key, both keys remained available. If a pigeon pecked on the crf-FI key, then the RI key became unavailable and the crf-FI timer began to time out. With this procedure, once the RI key was initially pecked, the prospective value of both alternatives remained constant regardless of time spent pecking on the RI key without reinforcement (RI waiting time). Despite this constancy, the rate at which pigeons switched from the RI to the crf-FI decreased sharply as RI waiting time increased. That is, prior choices influenced current choice-an exercise effect. It is argued that such influence (independent of reinforcement contingencies) may serve as a sunk-cost commitment device in self-control situations. In a second experiment, extinction was programmed if RI waiting time exceeded a certain value. Rate of switching to the crf-FI first decreased and then increased as the extinction point approached, showing sensitivity to both prior choices and reinforcement contingencies. In a third experiment, crf-FI availability was limited to a brief window during the RI waiting time. When constrained in this way, switching occurred at a high rate regardless of when, during the RI waiting time, the crf-FI became available.     

Goal setting in acquisition of a volleyball skill late in motor learning

To examine the effects of different types of goal setting on motor skill acquisition during advanced stages of learning. 44 female volleyball players were tested in four experimental training groups with generic goals, specific long-term goals, specific short-term goals, and as a control group. This study's pretest, training, and retention test phases used performance of a volleyball dig/forearm pass oriented to a target. Analyses yielded no significant differences among groups, although performance increased from pre- to retention test.     

Accounting for sequential trial effects in the flanker task: Conflict adaptation or associative priming?

The conflict-control loop theory proposes that the detection of conflict in information processing triggers an increase in cognitive control, resulting in improved performance on the subsequent trial. This theory seems consistent with the robust finding that conflict susceptibility is reduced following correct trials associated with high conflict: the conflict adaptation effect. However, despite providing favorable conditions for eliciting and detecting conflict-triggered performance adjustments, none of the five experiments reported here provide unequivocal evidence of such adjustments. Instead, the results corroborate and extend earlier findings by demonstrating that the conflict adaptation effect, at least in the flanker task, is only present for a specific subset of trial sequences that is characterized by a response repetition. This pattern of results provides strong evidence that the conflict adaptation effect reflects associative stimulus-response priming instead of conflict-driven adaptations in cognitive control.     

Human bilateral deficit during a dynamic multi-joint leg press movement

Bilateral deficit has been used to describe the phenomenon of a reduction in performance during synchronous bilateral movements when compared to the sum of identical unilateral movements. The study of bilateral deficit in humans under isometric, and to a lesser extent, dynamic conditions has shown bilateral decreases in force and muscle activation, and delayed reaction time. Results are equivocal, however, and biomechanical analyses of dynamic conditions, i.e., movements, are lacking. Our purpose was to determine, through an analysis of kinematic, kinetic, and electromyographic (EMG) data, whether or not bilateral deficit was present during a dynamic multi-joint movement under conditions where the external load was relatively equal for unilateral and bilateral efforts. Five male participants performed repeated unilateral and bilateral maximal horizontal leg press jumps under 100% (1BW) and 200% (2BW) relative body weight loads. Significant bilateral deficits in resultant ground reaction impulse of 27.7% and 13.0% were present in 1BW and 2BW, respectively. Maximum joint power at the hip exhibited significant deficits in both 1BW and 2BW of 35.6% and 25.1%, respectively. In both 1BW and 2BW conditions, ankle (15.5% and 11.5%), knee (10.9% and 5.7%), and hip (38.5% and 30.4%) work was significantly affected. Statistically significant EMG bilateral deficits were found in every muscle in both conditions except for rectus femoris during the 2BW trials. Bilateral deficit values ranged from 9.1% to 20.9% for 1BW, while deficits between 6.1% and 20.7% were found in 2BW. These results indicate that during dynamic leg press, bilateral deficit does exist, but that individual muscle activation levels and joint kinetics are not equally affected.     

Multiple environmental contexts and communication in pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea)

There are multiple components to the concept of Umwelt experienced by an organism that may constrain the type and structure of communication signals as well as the usefulness of these signals. To illustrate the impact of these multiple environmental components, the authors used signals of the pygmy marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea), a small primate from the western Amazon. The authors summarize studies to show how the physical effects of the habitat; effects of other species, both predators and nonpredators; anthropogenic effects on the communication environment; within-group and between-groups influences other pygmy marmosets exert; and ontogeny influence the structure and usage of vocal signals. Communication within a species can be understood only in consideration of each of these contexts.