Beacon training in a water maze can facilitate and compete with subsequent room cue learning in rats

In Stage 1 of 4 experiments in which rats completed a water-maze blocking procedure, experimental groups were trained to use a predictive beacon (hanging above, connected to, or displaced from the platform) to find a submerged escape platform in the presence of predictive or irrelevant background cues and in the presence or absence of irrelevant landmarks. In Stage 2, a fixed beacon, landmarks, and background cues all predicted the platform location. A Room Test (landmarks and background cues only) showed that Stage 1 training with a fixed hanging beacon or the moving displaced beacon facilitated Stage 2 learning of predictive room cues for experimental relative to control subjects. In contrast, Stage 1 training with a moving pole beacon interfered with Stage 2 learning about predictive room cues relative to controls, whereas training with a fixed pole or moving hanging beacon had no effect. We conclude that multiple spatial learning processes influence locating an escape platform in the water maze.     

Adaptation and communicative design.

Two theoretical frameworks that examine the nature of adaptability and mutual influence in interaction, interpersonal deception theory and interaction adaptation theory, were used to derive hypotheses concerning patterns of interaction that occur across time in truthful and deceptive conversations. Two studies were conducted in which senders were either truthful or deceptive in their interactions with a partner who increased or decreased involvement during the latter half of the conversation. Results revealed that deceivers felt more anxious and were more concerned about self‐presentation than truthtellers prior to the interaction and displayed less initial involvement than truthtellers. Patterns of interaction were also moderated by deception. Deceivers increased involvement over time but also reciprocated increases or decreases in receiver involvement. However, deceivers were less responsive than truthtellers to changes in receiver behavior. Finally, partner involvement served as feedback to senders regarding their own performance.     

Developing the Good Physician: Spirituality affects the development of virtues and moral intuitions in medical students

The Project on the Good Physician is a national longitudinal study of moral and professional formation of American physicians over the course of medical training. The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes by which spirituality influences the development of three virtues (mindfulness, empathic compassion, and generosity) in medical students as mediated by the moral intuition to care/harm, as well as make predictions as to how this type of study could be generalizable to other populations. Study participants were 563 medical students recruited by the University of Chicago from 24 medical schools across the U.S. (54.7% male, 57% white) who completed measures assessing virtue formation 9 months apart. Path analysis of a cascade model showed that spirituality (but not religiousness) was directly and indirectly related to change in the virtue empathic compassion, and also indirectly related to change in the virtue generosity. Moreover, the moral intuition to care/harm partially mediated the association between spirituality and the virtues of empathic compassion and generosity (but not mindfulness).     

Egocentric and allocentric search: effects of platform distance and environmental cues

Three water maze experiments with rats examined egocentric vs. allocentric search as a function of platform distance and the predictiveness of the start trajectory and environmental cues. In Experiment 1, rats trained to a Near platform predicted both by landmarks and a fixed start trajectory showed approximately equal egocentric and allocentric search when tested from a novel start location. Rats trained to a Far platform and tested the same way predominantly showed allocentric search. In Experiment 2, rats trained to a Near platform predicted only by landmarks or background cues showed predominant egocentric search. In Experiment 3, rats trained to a Near or a Far platform with a fixed trajectory and no landmarks, showed predominant egocentric. Non-predictive landmarks reduced egocentric search in rats trained with a Far, but not with a Near platform. Overall, with increased goal distance, rats decrease dependence on an egocentric trajectory and increase attention to surrounding landmarks. These results add to the developing notion that animals use both egocentric and allocentric search balanced by environmental conditions, such as distance to the goal and the number of landmarks.     

The impact of violations on uncertainty and the consequences for attractiveness

This investigation aimed at extending past research on expectation violations by arguing that violations vary both in valance and in their influence on uncertainty and that the combination of valence and uncertainty states conjointly influences judgments of a violator's social attractiveness. In explaining the predicted variance in uncertainty following violations, a distinction is proposed between congruent violations (i.e., behaviors that are more intense instantiations of a previously displayed message) and incongruent violations (i.e., behaviors that are opposite in meaning from previously displayed messages). Five models for explaining violation effects are contrasted. Results (a) confirm that violations differ in their impact on uncertainty, (b) generally support the validity of the proposed distinction between congruent and incongruent violations, and show that the inclusion of uncertainty and valence in models of violation outcomes accounts for greater variance in social attraction than either one separately.     

Toward a further understanding of the intuitive personologist: Some preliminary evidence for the dialectical quality of subjective personality impressions

Despite significant advances over the past three decades in our understanding of the implicit personality theorist, some important questions remain, particularly as regards the nature of the underlying reasoning process by which subjectively meaningful personality impressions are formulated and expressed. The present article seeks to address this issue, with particular attention being given to the distinction between demonstrative and dialectical reasoning. Preliminary empirical evidence is offered to suggest that, at least under certain conditions, lay persons formulate and express subjective personality impressions on the basis of a reasoning process that is essentially dialectical in nature. Some major implications of this point of view for the study of the intuitive personologist are discussed. The limitations of the evidence presented, and the need for further research are also noted.