Smoking cessation with behaviour therapy or acupuncture—A controlled study

Five hundred and fifty-eight cigarette smokers (mean 31 cigarettes/day) were randomized in four groups: Acupuncture, Behaviour Therapy, Placebo Medication and Waiting-list Control. The life-table analysis of smoking cessation showed, at a 12-month follow-up, no difference between Acupuncture, Behaviour Therapy and Placebo. Differences appeared only in an analysis of the abstinent subjects at each data point. Behaviour Therapy and Acupuncture accounted for significantly more abstinent subjects than Placebo at the end of the 2-week therapeutic phase. However at 9 and 12 months Acupuncture had a statistically-significant greater number of abstinent subjects than Behaviour Therapy, but there was no difference between Acupuncture and Placebo. The percentage decrease in smoking from baseline appeared significantly greater at 12 months in the first three groups than in the Control conditions. However, as in most smoking-cessation studies, the overall effect was small and non-specific. The results reflect the importance of maintenance programmes and of the prevention of addiction.     

Variations of tool and task characteristics reveal that tool-use postures are anticipated

The authors examined anticipation in tool use, focusing on tool length and tool-use posture. Adults (9 women and 9 men in each experiment) held a rod (length 0.4-0.8 m), with the tip upward; walked toward a cube; chose a place to stop; and displaced the cube with the rod's tip. In 2 experiments, rod length, mass, and mass distribution, and the size of the cube were manipulated. Chosen distance depended on rod length and cube size. Because effects of cube size on distance resulted only from postural changes related to required control, distance anticipated displacement posture. A postural synergy comprising legs and trunk provided a stable platform for the displacement. An arm synergy was less extended for small cubes, longer rods, and handle-weighted rods. Selected distance anticipated those postures.     

Religion and motion pictures' effects on reversing suicidal intentions: two case studies

Case studies of two veterans contemplating suicide are described. Their suicidal intentions subsided as a result of a rekindling of their Christian faith. Although their Christian beliefs were awakened following their attendance at a motion picture, they both attributed the remission of their suicidal intentions to the practices of their Christian faith in their lives. Despite the favorable outcome, these findings are not generalizable to other cases.     

Geometrics and dynamics of a rod determine how it is used for reaching

Displacing an object with a hand-held rod provided a simple paradigm for studying tool use. The authors asked how reaching was affected by manipulations of rod properties. Adults held a rod (length =.10 to 1.5 m), with its tip in the air; walked toward an object on a table; chose a place to stop; and displaced the object with the rod's tip. In 3 experiments (Ns = 9, 22, and 17 participants), the authors manipulated rod length, mass, and mass distribution to determine whether and how geometric and dynamic properties affected the chosen distance and the posture. Both the chosen stopping distance and the postures were well accommodated to rod characteristics. Postural adaptations took place only in the arm, which was organized as a synergy. Predictably, rod length explained most of the variance, but small and reliable differences in both distance and posture depended on mass and mass distribution. The chosen distance anticipated not only rod length but also the upcoming posture needed to control the rod.     

Bold and bright: shy and supple? The effect of habitat type on personality–cognition covariance in the Aegean wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii)

Animal Cognition - Animals exhibit considerable and consistent among-individual variation in cognitive abilities, even within a population. Recent studies have attempted to address this variation...     

Adaptive memory: Is the animacy effect on memory due to emotional arousal?

Animate entities are often better remembered than inanimate ones. The proximal mechanisms underlying this animacy effect on recall are unclear. In two experiments, we tested whether the animacy effect is due to emotional arousal. Experiment 1 revealed that translations of the animate words used in the pioneering study of Nairne et al. (Psychological science, 24, 2099–2105, 2013) were perceived as being more arousing than translations of the inanimate words, suggesting that animacy might have been confounded with arousal in previous studies. In Experiment 2, new word lists were created in which the animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal (amongst several other dimensions), and participants were required to reproduce the animate and inanimate words in a free recall task. There was a tendency towards better memory for arousing items, but robust animacy effects were obtained even though animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal. Thus, while arousal may contribute to the animacy effect when it is not carefully controlled for, it cannot explain the memory advantage of animate items.     

Enhanced old–new recognition and source memory for faces of cooperators and defectors in a social-dilemma game

A popular assumption in evolutionary psychology is that the human mind comprises specialized cognitive modules for social exchange, including a module that serves to enhance memory for faces of cheaters. In the present study, participants played a trust game with computerized opponents, who either defected or cooperated. In a control condition, no interaction took place. In a surprise memory test, old–new recognition for faces and source memory for the associated cooperative or non-cooperative behavior were assessed. A multinomial model was used to measure old–new discrimination, source memory, and guessing biases separately. Inconsistent with the assumption of a memory mechanism that focuses exclusively on cheating, the present study showed enhanced old–new discrimination and source memory for both cooperators and defectors. Rarity of the behavior strategies within the experiment modulated source memory, but only when the differences in base rates were extreme. The findings can be attributed to a mechanism that focuses on exchange-relevant information and flexibly adapts to take into account the relative significance of this information in the encoding context, which may be more beneficial than focusing exclusively on cheaters.     

Geometries and Dynamics of a Rod Determine How It Is Used for Reaching

Displacing an object with a hand-held rod provided a simple paradigm for studying tool use. The authors asked how reaching was affected by manipulations of rod properties. Adults held a rod (length = .10 to 1.5 m), with its tip in the air; walked toward an object on a table; chose a place to stop; and displaced the object with the rod's tip. In 3 experiments (Ns = 9, 22, and 17 participants), the authors manipulated rod length, mass, and mass distribution to determine whether and how geometric and dynamic properties affected the chosen distance and the posture. Both the chosen stopping distance and the postures were well accommodated to rod characteristics. Postural adaptations took place only in the arm, which was organized as a synergy. Predictably, rod length explained most of the variance, but small and reliable differences in both distance and posture depended on mass and mass distribution. The chosen distance anticipated not only rod length but also the upcoming posture needed to control the rod.     

Grand Unified Theories of the Brain Need Better Understanding of Behavior: The Two-Tiered Emergence of Function

Abstract

Over the last few decades, neuroscience and various associated disciples have expanded enormously in terms of output, tools, methods, concepts, and large-scale projects. In spite of these developments, the principles underlying brain function and behavior are yet only partially understood. We claim that brain functioning requires the elucidation of the rules associated with all possible task realizations, rather than targeting the activity underlying a specific realization. A first step in that direction was taken by approaches focusing on dynamical structures underlying task performances, as exemplified by coordination dynamics. Its theoretical foundation owes much to Haken’s synergetics, which provides a formalism through which the degrees of freedom associated with high-dimensional systems may be effectively reduced to one or a few functional variables in the vicinity of phase transitions. The recent theoretical development of structured flows on manifolds (SFM) allows the employment to a potentially broader range of applications. Here we expand the SFM framework and propose that the emergent two-tiered fast–slow dynamics may be a basic mathematical organization underlying the architecture of brain and behavior dynamics. Finally, along a few examples, we illustrate how this framework allows for the incorporation of notions cardinal to ecological psychology.     

The implicit cognition of reciprocal exchange: automatic retrieval of positive and negative experiences with partners in a prisoner's dilemma game

Models of reciprocity imply that cheater detection is an important prerequisite for successful social exchange. Considering the fundamental role of memory in reciprocal exchange, these theories lead to the prediction that memory for cheaters should be preferentially enhanced. Here, we examine whether information of a partner's previous behaviour in an interaction is automatically retrieved when encountering the face of a partner who previously cheated or cooperated. In two studies, participants played a sequential prisoner's dilemma game with cheaters and cooperative partners. Alternating with the game blocks, participants were asked to classify the smiling or angry facial expressions of cooperators and cheaters. Both experiments revealed congruence effects, reflecting faster identification of the smiles of cooperators (Experiments 1 and 2) and faster identification of the angry facial expressions of cheaters (Experiment 2). Our study provides evidence for the automatic retrieval of the partner's behaviour in the game, regardless of whether partners cheated or cooperated, and thus provides further evidence against the cheater detection hypothesis.