Targets of attack and defense in play-fighting of the Djungarian hamster Phodopus campbelli: Links to fighting and sex

Analysis of the body targets attacked and defended during play-fighting by juvenile Djungarian hamsters Phodopus campbelli revealed that about 70% of all attacks were directed at the mouth. If successfully contacted, the mouth was briefly licked and nuzzled. The remaining playful attacks were gentle bites directed at the rump, and to a lesser extent, the top of the head. During serious fighting the top of the head and the rump are targets of attack, whereas the mouth is not. Licking and nuzzling the mouth was found to be a behavior performed by adult males at the beginning of sexual encounters. Therefore, play-fighting in juvenile hamsters cannot be thought of merely as a form of “mock fighting” since the principal target is seemingly sexual, not agonistic. The data also show that of the sexual body targets contacted, adult females are more likely to defend the mouth. In this way it is suggested that targets attacked and defended during juvenile play-fighting are derived from adult contexts in which such targets are defended. This hypothesis accounts for the prevalence of agonistic targets in the play-fighting of many species, and may provide a rationale for classifying those amicable targets that are competed for during play-fighting.     

Age-Specific Effects of Lexical–Semantic Networks on Word Production

The lexical–semantic organization of the mental lexicon is bound to change across the lifespan. Nevertheless, the effects of lexical–semantic factors on word processing are usually based on studies enrolling young adult cohorts. The current study aims to investigate to what extent age-specific semantic organization predicts performance in referential word production over the lifespan, from school-age children to older adults. In Study 1, we conducted a free semantic association task with participants from six age-groups (ranging from 10 to 80 years old) to compute measures that capture age-specific properties of the mental lexicon across the lifespan. These measures relate to lifespan changes in the Available Richness of the mental lexicon and in the lexical–semantic Network Prototypicality of concrete words. In Study 2, we used the collected data to predict performance in a picture-naming task on a new group of participants within the same age-groups as for Study 1. The results show that age-specific semantic Available Richness and Network Prototypicality affect word production speed while the semantic variables collected only in young adults do not. A richer and more prototypical semantic network across subjects from a given age-group is associated with faster word production speed. The current results indicate that age-specific semantic organization is crucial to predict lexical–semantic behaviors across the lifespan. Similarly, these results also provide cues to the understanding of the lexical–semantic properties of the mental lexicon and to lexical selection in referential tasks.     

Art, dreams and active imagination: a post-Jungian approach to transference and the image

The term active imagination is sometimes applied rather uncritically to describe all forms of creative activity that take place in depth psychology. Whilst there are many forms of expression that evoke or are evoked by active imagination, they cannot automatically be classed as active imagination. In this article investigation of visualized mental imagery, dreams and art reveals three distinct forms of image-based psychological activity. Integrated and mediated within the transference and countertransference dynamic, it is proposed that the engagement in active imagination reflects and is influenced by the transference. Distinctions between sign and symbol, simple and big dreams as well as diagrammatic and embodied imagery clarify the differences. Examples from clinical practice demonstrate each mode in action within the analytic frame.     

Nonparametric IRT: Testing the bi-isotonicity of isotonic probabilistic models (ISOP)

Nonparametric tests for testing the validity of polytomous ISOP-models (unidimensional ordinal probabilistic polytomous IRT-models) are presented. Since the ISOP-model is a very general nonparametric unidimensional rating scale model the test statistics apply to a great multitude of latent trait models. A test for the comonotonicity of item sets of two or more items is suggested. Procedures for testing the comonotonicity of two item sets and for item selection are developed. The tests are based on Goodman-Kruskal's gamma index of ordinal association and are generalizations thereof. It is an essential advantage of polytomous ISOP-models within probabilistic IRT-models that the tests of validity of the model can be performed before and without the model being fitted to the data. The new test statistics have the further advantage that no prior order of items or subjects needs to be known.     

Bidirectional semantic associations between social power and weight

Two experiments were conducted to examine bidirectional semantic associations between power and weight using a priming paradigm. Bidirectionality in the relationship between power and weight was demonstrated, utilising tasks that were identical except that the orders in which the stimuli were presented were reversed. In Experiment 1, an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a priming stimulus, and a scale that appeared in equilibrium with a pair of power words was used as a target stimulus. In Experiment 2, a scale with a pair of words that appeared in equilibrium was used as a priming stimulus, and an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a target stimulus. We identified interaction effects between power and weight in both experiments. Associations between power and weight provide evidence for both conceptual metaphor views and evolutionary theory. The bidirectionality of metaphorical effects is in line with the strong version of metaphoric structuring. Both language and experiential correlations play important roles in the development of the mapping between power and weight.     

Structure and content of affective associations with health behaviours: Is the behaviour ‘good OR bad’ or ‘good AND bad’

Objective: The feelings and emotions individuals associate with health-related behaviours influence engagement in those behaviours. However, the structure and the content of these affective associations have not been examined. The studies reported here examined competing hypotheses about the structure (unidimensional or bidimensional) and content (generalised affect or specific emotions) of affective associations with two health-related behaviours: physical activity and fruit/vegetable consumption.

Design: For each behaviour, participants (fruit and vegetable consumption n = 149; physical activity n = 199) completed an assessment of the association of 40 positive and 51 negative affect concepts with the behaviour.

Main outcome measures: Ratings of affective associations with each behaviour.

Results: Confirmatory factor analyses comparing unidimensional and bidimensional affect structure models showed that the structure of individuals’ affective associations was bidimensional for both behaviours – positive and negative affective associations were shown to be separate and distinct constructs. Exploratory factor analyses supported a model of affective associations as generalised affect for both behaviours.

Conclusion: Affective associations with both physical activity and with fruit/vegetable consumption consist of separate positive and negative dimensions of generalised affect. These findings lead to recommendations for research and intervention development based on the implications for how affective associations might operate to influence behavioural decision-making.     

Examining associations between self-conscious emotions and implicit and reflective processes among adolescent girls and boys

ObjectiveExamine the association between self-conscious emotions and adolescents’ implicit attitudes (i.e., automatic evaluations or “gut reactions”) towards sport.DesignIn this cross-sectional design, 162 adolescents completed self-report questionnaires and a single category implicit association task. Study protocols transitioned from in-person to online at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.MeasuresSelf-conscious emotions (i.e., fitness-related shame and pride) were assessed using the BSE-FIT (Castonguay et al., 2016), and sport enjoyment (i.e., reflective attitudes) was assessed using four items from Scanlan and colleagues measure of adolescents’ sport experiences (Scanlan et al., 1993). The Single-Category Implicit Association Task using images was used to measure their implicit attitudes towards sport (Karpinski & Steinman, 2006).ResultsBased on a structural equation model accounting for age and gender, higher levels of fitness pride related to higher sport enjoyment and higher levels of fitness shame related to less favourable implicit attitudes towards sport.ConclusionOverall, results might reflect differences in when self-conscious emotions are most relevant, whereby pride is more relevant when reflecting on experiences in sport, however fitness shame is related to implicit attitudes elicited from the sport context. Interventions that target affective judgments of the self may be useful to incorporate into strategies to reduce sport drop out in adolescents.     

Workplace mobbing and bystanders' helping behaviour towards victims: The role of gender,perceived responsibility and anticipated stigma by association

We examined victims' perceived responsibility and bystanders' anticipated risk of being victimized themselves when others associate them with the victim (stigma by association, SBA) as possible antecedents of bystanders' helping behaviour towards a victim of workplace mobbing, and explored the effects of gender. Guided by the attribution model of social conduct (Weiner, 2006), a 2 × 2 vignette experiment was conducted. Participants were Dutch regional government employees (N = 161). Path analyses generally supported the hypotheses, but showed different results for women and men. In the strong (Vs. weak) responsibility condition, women reported less sympathy and more anger and men only more anger, which resulted in lower helping intention. Additionally, for men the results showed an unexpected direct positive effect of responsibility on helping intention. Furthermore, in the strong SBA condition, women and men reported more fear and men, unexpectedly, more anger. Consequently, helping intention decreased. The findings on gender are discussed in the context of social role theory, gender and emotion. Our findings suggest that to prevent and tackle mobbing, organizations and professionals should be aware of the attributional and emotional processes and gender differences in bystanders' helping behaviour.     

If I imagine it,then it happened: The Implicit Truth Value of imaginary representations

Imagination sometimes leads people to behave, feel, and think as though imagined events were real even when they know they were not. In this paper, we suggest that some understanding of these phenomena can be achieved by differentiating between Implicit Truth Value (ITV), a spontaneous truth evaluation, and Explicit Truth Value (ETV), a self-reported truth judgment. In three experiments, we measure ITV using the autobiographical Implicit Association Test (Sartori, Agosta, Zogmaister, Ferrara, & Castiello, 2008), which has been used to assess which of two autobiographical events is true. Our findings demonstrate that imagining an event, like experiencing an event, increases its ITV, even when people explicitly acknowledge the imagined event as false (Experiments 1a and 1b). Furthermore, we show that imagined representations generated from a first-person perspective have higher ITV than imagined representations generated from a third-person perspective (Experiment 2). Our findings suggest that implicit and explicit measures of truth differ in their sensitivity to properties underlying truth judgment. We discuss the contribution of characterizing events according to both ITV and ETV to the understanding of various psychological phenomena, such as lying and self-deception.