Self-control and tool use in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Self-control is defined as forgoing immediate gratification to obtain a greater reward. Tool use may relate to self-control because both behaviors may require foresight and deliberate control over one's actions. The authors assessed 20 capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) for the ability to delay gratification in a tool task. Subjects were given rod-shaped food items that could either be consumed immediately or be carried to an apparatus and used to extract a more preferred food. The authors found that some monkeys were able to exhibit self-control. Monkeys with relatively more tool use experience demonstrated the greatest levels of self-control. These results indicate that capuchins are capable of delaying gratification when a higher quality reinforcer is present and that tool experience can influence levels of self-control in this task.     

‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside’: opportunity structures for four un/underemployed young people living in English coastal towns

Long-term unemployed young people are a ‘social concern’ in many countries. The focus for research is usually cities, but may also include rural areas. The qualitative study described in this paper focuses instead on four young people living in coastal towns in South East England. The study suggests that their experiences in education and employment markets are shaped, negatively, by their particular location and the ongoing opportunity structures. The paper outlines their views and discusses the three main themes that emerged from the analysis: opportunity structures, supported resilience and the impact of living in a coastal town. Implications for targeted youth guidance are considered, alongside a consideration of the reflexive role of the researcher in such work.     

Structural analysis of tool-use by tufted capuchins (Cebus apella) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Using Matsuzawa’s hierarchical system of classification, I compared tool-use patterns of tufted capuchins (Cebus apella) to those of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). The results indicated that wild C. apella exhibit fewer and less complex tool-use patterns than do captive C. apella and wild and captive P. troglodytes. Although most patterns of tool-use observed among P. troglodytes occur in captive C. apella, there are some notable exceptions, including tool-use in communicative contexts and the use ¶of three-tool combinations. I conclude that C. apella are unique among monkeys in their demonstrated propensities for higher-order combinatorial behavior and are likely capable of using symbolic combinations, although not at the level of complexity that has been demonstrated in ¶P. troglodytes.     

Maintenance of grip-induced muscle tension: a behavioral marker of schizophrenia.

A grip-induced muscle tension maintenance task distinguished between schizophrenic patients, regardless of medication or hospitalization status, and both normals and controls with affective (unipolar and bipolar) disorders. Unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients also showed a grip deficit. Coupling the grip task with a visual discrimination task that divided attention through instruction or reinforcement contingency, increased grip error times for all groups. No group differences appeared on the discrimination task, regardless of difficulty level, and the tone used to provide corrective feedback was not implicated in the grip deficit. The results suggest that the grip task is tapping, in a systematic and reliable manner, a motor-control abnormality that may be useful as a behavioral marker of schizophrenia.     

Auditory--visual cross-modal perception of communicative stimuli in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Research on cross-modal performance in nonhuman primates is limited to a small number of sensory modalities and testing methods. To broaden the scope of this research, the authors tested capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) for a seldom-studied cross-modal capacity in nonhuman primates, auditory-visual recognition. Monkeys were simultaneously played 2 video recordings of a face producing different vocalizations and a sound recording of 1 of the vocalizations. Stimulus sets varied from naturally occurring conspecific vocalizations to experimentally controlled human speech stimuli. The authors found that monkeys preferred to view face recordings that matched presented vocal stimuli. Their preference did not differ significantly across stimulus species or other stimulus features. However, the reliability of the latter set of results may have been limited by sample size. From these results, the authors concluded that capuchin monkeys exhibit auditory-visual cross-modal perception of conspecific vocalizations.     

Career guidance and therapeutic counselling: sharing ‘what works’ in practice with young people

Many young people in the UK and across the world, where austerity measures are biting deep, find themselves at a time of crisis and uncertainty in their lives. The assumptions previously held of clear and straightforward career paths are being challenged and ‘career’ has come to mean more than simply ‘work’ or ‘employment’. This has implications for career practice, where career advisers are engaging with a range of complex issues in their guidance interactions with clients. This article draws on research undertaken with therapeutic counsellors into ‘what works’ when counselling young people. It offers career practitioners the opportunity to reflect on four key emerging themes and to consider how the discipline of therapeutic counselling might inform guidance practice.     

Discrimination of functionally appropriate and inappropriate throwing tools by captive tufted capuchins (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cebus apella</Emphasis>)

A tool-throwing task was used to test whether capuchin monkeys understand the difference between functionally appropriate and functionally inappropriate tools. A group of monkeys was trained to obtain a sticky treat from a container outside their enclosure using a projectile attached to one end of an anchored line. Subsequently, these monkeys were given choice tests between functional and nonfunctional versions of tools used in training. A different feature of the tool was varied between alternatives in each choice test. The monkeys chose to use functional tools significantly more often than nonfunctional tools in early exposures to each choice test. A second experiment tested whether these subjects, as well as a second group of minimally trained participants, could distinguish between functional and nonfunctional tools that appeared different from those used in training. A new set of design features was varied between tools in these choice tests. All participants continued to choose functional tools significantly more often than nonfunctional tools, regardless of their tool-throwing experience or the novel appearance of the tools. These results suggest that capuchin monkeys, like chimpanzees studied in similar experiments, are sensitive to a variety of functionally relevant tool features.     

Lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) manufacture and use tools

Lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) in captive social groups spontaneously manufactured and used tools to extract syrup from an apparatus that was designed to accommodate probing behavior. An attempt to replicate these findings with mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) was unsuccessful. This report is the first to describe spontaneous manufacture of tools in any group of Old World monkeys and provides evidence of greater continuity among primates for the expression of complex cognitive abilities. These data are consistent with hypotheses that lion-tailed macaques have extensive propensities for advanced sensorimotor skills and that omnivorous, extractive foraging is associated with the manufacture and use of tools. I present a proximate model that integrates sensorimotor and social factors to account for diverse expression of tool-related behavior.     

Token-mediated tool-use by a tufted capuchin monkey (Cebus apella)

This research examined token-mediated tool-use in a tufted capuchin monkey (Cebus apella). We conducted five experiments. In experiment 1 we examined the use of plastic color-coded chips to request food, and in experiments 2–5 we examined the use of color-coded chips to request tools. Our subject learned to use chips to request tools following the same general pattern seen in great apes performing analogous tasks, that is, initial discrimination followed by an understanding of the relationship among tokens, tools, and their functions. Our findings are consistent with the view that parallel representational processes underlie the tool-related behavior of capuchins and great apes. Received: 11 March 1998 / Accepted after revision: 19 August 1998     

Differential diagnosis of steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome with psychosis: Practical and ethical issues

The present case illustrates practical and ethical issues that can be encountered by clinical psychologists providing consultation services in medical settings. The neuropsychological consultation service was asked to evaluate a 22-year-old male with psychosis, steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome, and a family history of schizophrenia. MRI revealedmarked cortical atrophy. Clinical findings were consistent with (1) steroid inducedapparent atrophy, which has been shown to be reversible with withdrawal of steroids; (2) uremia secondary to steroid withdrawal; (3) cortical atrophy, found in some schizophrenics; or (4) an atypical, diffuse degenerative disorder. Clinical interview and psychological testing revealed significant thought disorder, prominent delusions, somatic hallucinations, and mood disturbance. Deterioration in social and academic functioning was also present. Except for impaired attention and concentration, neuropsychological evaluation showed no clear evidence of brain-based dysfunction. Further, neuropsychological results effectively ruled out a degenerative process and were not consistent with a steroid effects profile. A conclusive differential diagnosis of steroid induced psychosis versus severe psychopathology would require withdrawal from steroids and antipsychotics. In addition to the practical and ethical issues of withholding antipsychotics, steroid withdrawal would require either dialysis or renal transplant surgery. Decision making regarding dialysis dependency and the possibility of postsurgical psychosis secondary to true psychopathology were salient issues to both the patient and the treatment team.