Auditory perception of breaking and bouncing events: a case study in ecological acoustics

The mechanical events of bouncing and breaking are acoustically specified by single versus multiple damped quasi-periodic pulse patterns, with an initial noise burst in the case of breaking. Subjects show high accuracy in categorizing natural tokens of bouncing and breaking glass as well as tokens constructed by adjusting only the temporal patterns of components, leaving their spectral properties constant. Differences in average spectral frequency are, therefore, not necessary for perceiving this contrast, though differences in spectral consistency over successive pulses may be important. Initial noise corresponding to glass rupture appears unnecessary to categorize breaking and bouncing. The data indicate that higher order temporal properties of the acoustic signal provide information for the auditory perception of these events.     

Human interventions in a behavioural experiment for Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Animal Cognition - Experiments are widely used to investigate the behaviour and cognition of animals. While the automation of experiments to avoid potential experimenter bias is sometimes possible,...     

Implicit and explicit COVID-19-vaccine harmfulness/helpfulness associations predict vaccine beliefs,intentions, and behaviors

We investigated the role of implicit and explicit associations between harm and COVID-19 vaccines using a large sample (N = 4668) of online volunteers. The participants completed a brief implicit association test and explicit measures to evaluate the extent to which they associated COVID-19 vaccines with concepts of harmfulness or helpfulness. We examined the relationship between these harmfulness/helpfulness COVID-19 vaccine associations and vaccination status, intentions, beliefs, and behavior. We found that stronger implicit and explicit associations that COVID-19 vaccines are helpful relate to vaccination status and beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine. That is, stronger pro-helpful COVID-19 vaccine associations, both implicitly and explicitly, related to greater intentions to be vaccinated, more positive beliefs about the vaccine, and greater vaccine uptake.     

Recent research on the relative efficiency of speaker and listener instruction for children with autism spectrum disorder

The traditional recommendation for sequencing speaker and listener instruction has been to teach listener skills prior to teaching speaker skills. In a review of the research literature prior to 2011, Petursdottir and Carr (2011) concluded that research did not support this recommendation. We reviewed the most recent research on the efficiency of skill acquisition during speaker and listener instruction and found similar results to Petursdottir and Carr. Recommendations for future research and practice are provided.     

The Three Domains of Disgust Scale: factor structure, psychometric properties, and conceptual limitations

This investigation examined the measurement properties of the Three Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS). Principal components analysis in Study 1 (n = 206) revealed three factors of Pathogen, Sexual, and Moral Disgust that demonstrated excellent reliability, including test-retest over 12 weeks. Confirmatory factor analyses in Study 2 (n = 406) supported the three factors. Supportive evidence for the validity of the Pathogen and Sexual Disgust subscales was found in Study 1 and Study 2 with strong associations with disgust/contamination and weak associations with negative affect. However, the validity of the Moral Disgust subscale was limited. Study 3 (n = 200) showed that the TDDS subscales differentially related to personality traits. Study 4 (n = 47) provided evidence for the validity of the TDDS subscales in relation to multiple indices of disgust/contamination aversion in a select sample. Study 5 (n = 70) further highlighted limitations of the Moral Disgust subscale given the lack of a theoretically consistent association with moral attitudes. Lastly, Study 6 (n = 178) showed that responses on the Moral Disgust scale were more intense when anger was the response option compared with when disgust was the response option. The implications of these findings for the assessment of disgust are discussed.     

Unpacking cognitive reappraisal: goals, tactics, and outcomes

Studies of emotion regulation typically contrast two or more strategies (e.g., reappraisal vs. suppression) and ignore variation within each strategy. To address such variation, we focused on cognitive reappraisal and considered the effects of goals (i.e., what people are trying to achieve) and tactics (i.e., what people actually do) on outcomes (i.e., how affective responses change). To examine goals, we randomly assigned participants to either increase positive emotion or decrease negative emotion to a negative stimulus. To examine tactics, we categorized participants' reports of how they reappraised. To examine reappraisal outcomes, we measured experience and electrodermal responding. Findings indicated that (a) the goal of increasing positive emotion led to greater increases in positive affect and smaller decreases in skin conductance than the goal of decreasing negative emotion, and (b) use of the reality challenge tactic was associated with smaller increases in positive affect during reappraisal. These findings suggest that reappraisal can be implemented in the service of different emotion goals, using different tactics. Such differences are associated with different outcomes, and they should be considered in future research and applied attempts to maximize reappraisal success.     

Effects of experienced disgust on habituation during repeated exposure to threat-relevant stimuli in blood-injection-injury phobia

Despite growing evidence implicating disgust in the etiology of blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, the relevance of disgust for exposure-based treatment of BII phobia remains largely unknown. Individuals with BII phobia were randomly assigned to a disgust (view vomit videos) or neutral activation (view waterfall videos) condition. They were then exposed to 14 videotaped blood draws, during which fear and disgust levels were repeatedly assessed. Participants then engaged in a behavioral avoidance test (BAT) consisting of exposure to threat-relevant stimuli. Examination of outcome comparing the identical first and last blood-draw clips revealed that fear and disgust toward blood draws was significantly reduced in both groups. Disgust levels were also found to be more intense for the video stimuli relative to fear levels whereas the opposite was true for BAT stimuli. Contrary to predictions, the disgust induction did not enhance reductions in negative responses to the target video or reduce behavioral avoidance. Growth curve analyses did show that individuals with BII phobia exposed to the disgust induction showed greater initial fear levels during repeated exposure than those in the neutral condition. However, this effect was not consistently observed across different analytic approaches. Changes in fear during exposure were also found to be independent of changes in disgust but not vice versa, and greater initial fear levels during repeated exposure to threat was associated with fear and disgust levels during the BAT. The implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of disgust in etiology and treatment of BII phobia are discussed.     

Developing procedural flexibility: Are novices prepared to learn from comparing procedures?

Background. A key learning outcome in problem‐solving domains is the development of procedural flexibility, where learners know multiple procedures and use them appropriately to solve a range of problems (e.g., Verschaffel, Luwel, Torbeyns, & Van Dooren, 2009 ). However, students often fail to become flexible problem solvers in mathematics. To support flexibility, teaching standards in many countries recommend that students be exposed to multiple procedures early in instruction and be encouraged to compare them. Aims. We experimentally evaluated this recommended instructional practice for supporting procedural flexibility during a classroom lesson, relative to two alternative conditions. The alternatives reflected the common instructional practice of delayed exposure to multiple procedures, either with or without comparison of procedures. Sample. Grade 8 students from two public schools (N= 198) were randomly assigned to condition. Students had not received prior instruction on multi‐step equation solving, which was the topic of our lessons. Method. Students learned about multi‐step equation solving under one of three conditions in math class for about 3 hr. They also completed a pre‐test, post‐test, and 1‐month‐retention test on their procedural knowledge, procedural flexibility, and conceptual knowledge of equation solving. Results. Novices who compared procedures immediately were more flexible problem solvers than those who did not, even on a 1‐month retention test. Although condition had limited direct impact on conceptual and procedural knowledge, greater flexibility was associated with greater knowledge of both types. Conclusions. Comparing procedures can support flexibility in novices and early introduction to multiple procedures may be one important reason.     

Corvid caching: Insights from a cognitive model

Caching and recovery of food by corvids is well-studied, but some ambiguous results remain. To help clarify these, we built a computational cognitive model. It is inspired by similar models built for humans, and it assumes that memory strength depends on frequency and recency of use. We compared our model's behavior to that of real birds in previously published experiments. Our model successfully replicated the outcomes of two experiments on recovery behavior and two experiments on cache site choice. Our "virtual birds" reproduced declines in recovery accuracy across sessions, revisits to previously emptied cache sites, a lack of correlation between caching and recovery order, and a preference for caching in safe locations. The model also produced two new explanations. First, that Clark's nutcrackers may become less accurate as recovery progresses not because of differential memory for different cache sites, as was once assumed, but because of chance effects. And second, that Western scrub jays may choose their cache sites not on the basis of negative recovery experiences only, as was previously thought, but on the basis of positive recovery experiences instead. Alternatively, both "punishment" and "reward" may be playing a role. We conclude with a set of new insights, a testable prediction, and directions for future work.     

Anxiety,Immigration, and the Search for Information

In this article, we use the issue of immigration to explore the role of anxiety in responses to political appeals. According to previous literature, anxiety motivates citizens to learn and pay more attention to news coverage. Literature in psychology demonstrates that anxiety is associated with a tendency to pay closer attention to threatening information. We predict that anxious citizens will seek more information but that they will seek out and be attracted to threatening information. In an experiment, we induce anxiety about immigration and then subjects have the opportunity to search for additional information in a website designed to mimic online news sources. The website has both immigration and nonimmigration stories, and the immigration stories are split between threatening coverage and nonthreatening coverage. We find that anxious subjects exhibit biased information processing; they read, remember, and agree with threatening information.