Social class differences in N400 indicate differences in spontaneous trait inference

An emerging literature indicates that dispositional bias in causal attribution of social behavior is weaker for people with working-class (vs. middle-class) backgrounds. However, it is unknown whether this difference is also present in spontaneous forms of trait inference. In the current work, American undergraduates were asked to merely memorize many pairings of a target face and a trait-implying behavior. In a subsequent lexical judgment task, after each face was presented as a fixation, either an implied trait or its antonym was given as a target. As expected, participants with college-educated parents (middle class) showed a strong N400 event-related potential component to the antonym (vs. the implied trait), suggesting spontaneous trait inference during the memorization phase. In contrast, those with high-school-educated parents (working class) showed no such effect. It is important to note that the N400 spontaneous trait inference effect was associated with perceived significance of dispositions in accounting for social behaviors.     

Effects of an adapted physical education training package on special education teacher instruction

This study investigated the impact of an adapted physical education training package on functional motor skill instruction of three special education teachers who instructed secondary students with low‐incidence disabilities. The training package emphasized teachers' use of systematic prompting and specific reinforcement teaching strategies plus adapted physical education consultation. We used a multiple baseline design and collected data on the three teachers' use of systematic prompting and specific reinforcement plans during videotaped teaching trials. We also collected data on how teachers documented their instructional strategies, and we analyzed personal reflections that teachers wrote in the journals. Results indicated that with each of the three teachers, correctly implemented functional motor skill instructional performance improved after they completed the training package.     

Courtship learning in Drosophila melanogaster: Diverse plasticity of a reproductive behavior

Mechanisms for identifying appropriate mating partners are critical for species propagation. In many species, the male uses multiple sensory modalities to search for females and to subsequently determine if they are fit and receptive. Males can also use the information they acquire in this process to change their courtship behavior and reduce courtship of classes of targets that are inappropriate or unreceptive. In Drosophila, courtship plasticity, in the form of both nonassociative and associative learning, has been documented—the type of learning depending on the nature of the trainer. The conditions in which the male is presented with the training target can profoundly alter the cues that he finds salient and the longevity of the memory that he forms. With the exception of habituation and sensitization, these types of plasticity have an operant component in that the male must be courting to respond to the behavior-altering cues. Courtship plasticity is therefore a complex and rich range of behaviors rather than a single entity. Our understanding of these plastic behaviors has been enhanced by recent advances in our understanding of the circuitry underlying courtship itself and the identification of chemical cues that drive and modify the behavior. Courtship learning is providing a window into how animals can use a variety of sensory inputs to modulate a decision making process at many levels.When confronted with a potential mate, Drosophila melanogaster males perform a stereotyped courtship ritual. This behavior serves at least two obvious functions for the male. The first is to prime conspecific females for copulation. During courtship, the female is assessing the male''s suitability, and if the song he sings (Burnet et al. 1971; von Schilcher 1976a) and pheromones he emits (Grillet et al. 2006; Kurtovic et al. 2007) are correct for her species and of sufficient quality, her willingness to copulate is increased. She will slow her locomotion, present her abdomen to the male, and then spread her wings and genital plates to allow him to mount (Lasbleiz et al. 2006). A second function of courtship is that it allows a male to accumulate information about the target courtship object to assess its suitability and receptiveness. The male uses auditory, mechanosensory, visual, and chemosensory signals from the target to make this assessment (for review, see Villella and Hall 2008; Ejima and Griffith 2009).Since D. melanogaster males will avidly initiate courtship of a wide variety of inappropriate and/or unreceptive targets, including immature males, sexually immature virgin females, mated females, and heterospecific females, the information obtained during courtship is critical to deciding whether to increase the intensity of his effort or terminate pursuit of the target. In the last several years, courtship has become a favored model for those researchers interested in how the nervous system specifies “innate” behaviors. While it is true that a male does not have to be instructed to produce adequate courtship (Hall 1994; Clyne and Miesenbock 2008), this apparently stereotyped behavior is far from static: It can be modified in a dizzying number of ways by experience. In this paper, we will discuss how information gathered during courtship can allow males to learn about specific types of courtship objects and broadly modify future behavioral responses to a particular class of target.     

Statistical inference: learning in artificial neural networks

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are widely used to model low-level neural activities and high-level cognitive functions. In this article, we review the applications of statistical inference for learning in ANNs. Statistical inference provides an objective way to derive learning algorithms both for training and for evaluation of the performance of trained ANNs. Solutions to the over-fitting problem by model-selection methods, based on either conventional statistical approaches or on a Bayesian approach, are discussed. The use of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms for ANNs are reviewed. Training a multilayer ANN by supervised learning is equivalent to nonlinear regression. The ensemble methods, bagging and arching, described here, can be applied to combine ANNs to form a new predictor with improved performance. Unsupervised learning algorithms that are derived either by the Hebbian law for bottom-up self-organization, or by global objective functions for top-down self-organization are also discussed.     

The interaction between baseline trait anxiety and trauma exposure as predictor of post-trauma symptoms of anxiety and insomnia

In this study a prospective design was used to investigate the interaction between baseline trait anxiety and exposure to traumatic situations on post-trauma symptoms of anxiety and insomnia in a sample of Swedish peacekeeping soldiers serving in Kosovo. The result showed that pre-trauma trait anxiety interacted with exposure to traumatic situations predicting a higher post-trauma distress. Further, baseline trait anxiety and baseline symptoms of anxiety and insomnia predicted post-trauma symptoms of anxiety and insomnia. The results support a diathesis stress model in which high trait anxiety interacts with trauma exposure in the elicitation of anxiety-related distress but the study needs to be replicated before further conclusions can be drawn.     

Social life factors affecting suicide in Japanese men and women

To clarify the social life factors affecting suicide mortality in Japanese men and women, the relationship between a wide variety of social and demographic indicators and age-adjusted suicide mortality was assessed in 46 prefectures in Japan by stepwise multiple-regression analysis after classification of the indicators by factor analysis. The findings indicated that rural residence was the major factor for male mortality in both 1970 and 1975; over the interval between these years, a serious economic crisis (the oil crisis) took place, and the mortality significantly increased. In addition, in 1970 (a time of high economic growth), home help for the elderly (a possible indicator of social isolation in old people), depopulation by social mobility, and urban residence were positively associated with male mortality. In women, on the other hand, both the 5-year increase in suicide mortality and the effects of the social life factors were less significant. The unique position of Japan in comparison with Western countries regarding social risk factors for suicide is discussed in the light of these findings.     

Sequential effects in face-attractiveness judgment

A number of studies have shown that current-trial responses are biased toward the response of the preceding trial in perceptual decisionmaking tasks (the sequential effect-Holland and Lockhead, 1968 Perception & Psychophysics 3 409-414). The sequential effect has been widely observed in evaluation of the physical properties of stimuli as well as more complex properties. However, it is unclear whether subjective decisions (e.g., attractiveness judgments) are also susceptible to the sequential effect. Here, we examined whether the sequential effect would occur in face-attractiveness judgments. Forty-eight pictures of male and female faces were presented successively. Participants rated the attractiveness of each face on a 7-point scale. The results showed that the attractiveness rating of a given face assimilated toward the rating of the preceding trial. In a separate experiment, we provided the average attractiveness rating by others for each trial as feedback. The feedback weakened the sequential effect. These findings suggest that attractiveness judgment is also biased toward the preceding judgment, and hence the sequential effect can be extended into the domain of subjective decisionmaking.     

On the Impossibility of Amalgamating Evidence

It is argued in this paper that amalgamating confirmation from various sources is relevantly different from social-choice contexts, and that proving an impossibility theorem for aggregating confirmation measures directs attention to irrelevant issues.