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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Deepening Our Understanding Of Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin Sep 2019

Deepening Our Understanding Of Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Lori Marino, PhD

Our Response is centered on five major themes: (1) our presentation of human mythologies about sheep; (2) the relevance of cognitive complexity (“intelligence”) as a dimension underlying the way people perceive and treat sheep; (3) whether our review is too anthropocentric or anthropomorphic; (4) animal welfare versus animal rights (abolitionism); and (5) whether knowledge and education are enough to change human attitudes and behavior.


Intelligence, Complexity, And Individuality In Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin Sep 2019

Intelligence, Complexity, And Individuality In Sheep, Lori Marino, Debra Merskin

Lori Marino, PhD

Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are among the earliest animals domesticated for human use. They are consumed worldwide as mutton, hogget, and lamb, kept as wool and milk producers, and used extensively in scientific research. The popular stereotype is that sheep are docile, passive, unintelligent, and timid, but a review of the research on their behavior, affect, cognition, and personality reveals that they are complex, individualistic, and social.


Animal Welfare And Individual Characteristics: A Conversation Against Speciesism, Marc Bekoff, Lori Gruen Sep 2016

Animal Welfare And Individual Characteristics: A Conversation Against Speciesism, Marc Bekoff, Lori Gruen

Marc Bekoff, PhD

It seems impossible for a human being not to have some point of view concerning nonhuman animal (hereafter animal) welfare. Many people make decisions about how humans are permitted to treat animals using speciesist criteria, basing their decisions on an individual's species membership rather than on that animal's individual characteristics. Although speciesism provides a convenient way for making difficult decisions about who should be used in different types of research, we argue that such decisions should rely on an analysis of individual characteristics and should not be based merely on species membership. We do not argue that the concept of …


Trait Impulsivity Predicts D-Kefs Tower Test Performance In University Students, Michael Lyvers, Vanessa Basch, Helen Duff, Mark Edwards Jul 2015

Trait Impulsivity Predicts D-Kefs Tower Test Performance In University Students, Michael Lyvers, Vanessa Basch, Helen Duff, Mark Edwards

Mark Edwards

The present study examined a widely used self-report index of trait impulsiveness in relation to performance on a well-known neuropsychological executive function test in 70 university undergraduate students (50 women, 20 men) aged 18 to 24 years old. Participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), after which they performed the Tower Test of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Hierarchical linear regression showed that after controlling for gender, current alcohol consumption, age at onset of weekly alcohol use, and FrSBe scores, BIS-11 significantly predicted Tower Test Achievement scores, b¼_.44, p


Trait Impulsivity Predicts D-Kefs Tower Test Performance In University Students, Michael Lyvers, Vanessa Basch, Helen Duff, Mark Edwards Jul 2015

Trait Impulsivity Predicts D-Kefs Tower Test Performance In University Students, Michael Lyvers, Vanessa Basch, Helen Duff, Mark Edwards

Mike Lyvers

The present study examined a widely used self-report index of trait impulsiveness in relation to performance on a well-known neuropsychological executive function test in 70 university undergraduate students (50 women, 20 men) aged 18 to 24 years old. Participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale (FrSBe), after which they performed the Tower Test of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Hierarchical linear regression showed that after controlling for gender, current alcohol consumption, age at onset of weekly alcohol use, and FrSBe scores, BIS-11 significantly predicted Tower Test Achievement scores, b¼_.44, p


Pantomime In Great Apes: Evidence And Implications, Ann E. Russon, Kristin Andrews Apr 2015

Pantomime In Great Apes: Evidence And Implications, Ann E. Russon, Kristin Andrews

Kristin Andrews, PhD

We recently demonstrated, by mining observational data, that forest-living orangutans can communicate using gestures that qualify as Pantomime. Pantomimes, like other iconic gestures, physically resemble their referents. More elaborately, pantomimes involve enacting their referents. Holding thumb and finger together at the lips and blowing between them to mean balloon is one example. Here we sketch evidence of pantomime in other great apes, methodological concerns, and sophisticated cognitive capabilities that great ape pantomimes suggest.


Maritime Traffic Management: A Need For Central Coordination?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius Jan 2014

Maritime Traffic Management: A Need For Central Coordination?, Fulko Van Westrenen, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

Traffic management is not formally organised in the maritime domain. Ships are autonomous and find their own way. Traffic is organised through rules, regulations, and “good seamanship”; it is a distributed system. In areas of high traffic-density support is proved by vessel traffic service (VTS) to promote traffic safety and fluency. VTS does not take control. This organisational structure has proven itself in situations with sufficient resources. When resources become insufficient (e.g. not enough sailing space), the traffic needs an organising mechanism. In this article, the authors argue that the most promising way to do this is by organising centralised …


Hemispheric Processes In The Perception Of Art, A Literature Review, Megan Levy Jan 2014

Hemispheric Processes In The Perception Of Art, A Literature Review, Megan Levy

Megan Levy

A literature review on Jeffrey Coney’s and Christine Bruce’s “Hemispheric Processes in the Perception of Art” (Journal of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics, Empirical Studies of the Arts, Vol. 22(2) 181-200, 2004) presenting the results of their exploratory study on lateral asymmetry in the aesthetic evaluation of European art. This literature review proposes that Lateralization Theory, and specifically hemispheric preferences in art, are vast fields full of mystery and surprises, which require continuous research work within a deep understanding of the historical context. Coney’s and Bruce’s study is an example of interesting hard work which invites curiosity and replication, …


Dot Polarity In Dynamic Glass Patterns, Dawn Vreven, Timothy Petersik, Jim Dannemiller, Jamie Schrauth Feb 2013

Dot Polarity In Dynamic Glass Patterns, Dawn Vreven, Timothy Petersik, Jim Dannemiller, Jamie Schrauth

Dawn L Vreven

Each frame of a Glass pattern consists of a random placement of dots and a spatially shifted copy of this pattern. Thus, each dot has a partner, forming dot-pair dipoles. When shown in succession, motion is perceived along the axis of the spatial shift. The perception of motion in dynamic Glass patterns is believed to be a two-stage process: first, local orientation detectors respond to the orientation signal in the dot-pair dipole; and second, global detectors integrate local orientation signals. We examined the ability to detect rotation in dynamic Glass patterns whose dipoles contained a) the same polarity, b) opposite …


Integration Of Speed Signals In The Direction Of Motion, Dawn Vreven, Preeti Verghese Feb 2013

Integration Of Speed Signals In The Direction Of Motion, Dawn Vreven, Preeti Verghese

Dawn L Vreven

Speed discrimination tasks were used to examine the spatial and temporal characteristics of the integration mechanism involved when signals are extended in the direction of motion. We varied the aspect ratio of a signal patch whose speed differed from the background, while holding the area of the signal patch constant, so that the signal patch could be either extended in the direction of motion or extended orthogonal to the direction of motion. Speed discrimination thresholds decreased dramatically as the signal patch was extended in the direction of motion. The spatial and temporal integration regions were larger than would be expected …


Detecting Structure In Glass Patterns: An Interocular Transfer Study, Dawn Vreven, Jarrod Berge Dec 2012

Detecting Structure In Glass Patterns: An Interocular Transfer Study, Dawn Vreven, Jarrod Berge

Dawn L Vreven

Glass patterns are visual stimuli used here to study how local orientation signals are spatially integrated into global pattern perception. We measured a form aftereffect from adaptation to both static and dynamic Glass patterns and calculated the amount of interocular transfer to determine the binocularity of the detectors responsible for the perception of global structure. Both static and dynamic adaptation produced significant form aftereffects and showed a very high degree of interocular transfer, suggesting that Glass-pattern perception involves cortical processing beyond primary visual cortex. Surprisingly, dynamic adaptation produced significantly greater interocular transfer than static adaptation. Our results suggest a functional …


Ambivalence And The Decision Tree, Kirby Farrell Aug 2012

Ambivalence And The Decision Tree, Kirby Farrell

kirby farrell

We are insolubly ambivalent creatures. Traditionally cultures have managed ambivalence by focusing on character and morality in motives. Freudian psychology recognized that cognitive conflict is insoluble and stressed equilibrium and grace in adaptation. Today technology's binary structure is complicating and sometimes superseding the traditional trope of character by organizing cognition around the trope of the decision tree.


Improving Awareness Of Vulnerabilities To Ethical Challenges: A Family Systems Approach, Cecile Brennan, Jennifer Eulberg, Paula Britton Dec 2010

Improving Awareness Of Vulnerabilities To Ethical Challenges: A Family Systems Approach, Cecile Brennan, Jennifer Eulberg, Paula Britton

Cecile Brennan

Current ethical decision-making models focus principally on cognitive factors and less on the emotional aspects of ethical challenges. This practice reflects a reliance on knowledge-driven, modernist approaches that emphasize objectivity and the primacy of rational thinking. Newer postmodern and constructivist approaches emphasize the need to consider the counselor holistically, as a thinking/feeling being who brings into the present moment the accumulated weight of the past. In order to bridge the gap between a cognitive, modernist approach and a feeling, experience-based postmodern approach, the authors outline an instructional approach that uses family systems theory to assist counselors in becoming conscious about …