Psychology Commons^™

Cellular And Behavioral Interactions Of Gabapentin With Alcohol Dependence, Laura O'Dell

Selected Works Temporary Series

No abstract provided.

Enhanced Vulnerability To The Rewarding Effects Of Nicotine During The Adolescent Period Of Development, Laura O'Dell

Selected Works Temporary Series

No abstract provided.

Processing Of The Müller-Lyer Illusion By A Grey Parrot (Psittacus Erithacus), Irene M. Pepperberg, Jennifer Vicinay, Patrick Cavanagh

Sentience Collection

Alex, a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) who identifies the bigger or smaller of two objects by reporting its color or matter using a vocal English label and who states "none'' if they do not differ in size, was presented with two-dimensional Müller-Lyer figures (Brentano form) in which the central lines were of contrasting colors. His responses to ``What color bigger/smaller?'' demonstrated that he saw the standard length illusion in the Müller-Lyer figures in 32 of 50 tests where human observers would also see the illusion and reported the reverse direction only twice. He did not report the illusion when (a) …

How To Identify Dear Enemies: The Group Signature In The Complex Song Of The Skylark Alauda Arvensis, Elodie F. Briefer, Thierry Aubin, Katia Lehongre, Fanny Rybak

Ethology Collection

Song geographic variation and Neighbour–Stranger (N–S) discrimination have been intensively but separately studied in bird species, especially in those with small- to medium-sized repertoires. Here, we establish a link between the two phenomena by showing that dialect features are used for N–S recognition in a territorial species with a large repertoire, the skylark Alauda arvensis. In this species, during the breeding season, many pairs settle in stable and adjoining territories gathered in locations spaced by a few kilometres. In a first step, songs produced by males established in different locations were recorded, analyzed and compared to identify possible microgeographic variation …

Low Frequency Groans Indicate Larger And More Dominant Fallow Deer (Dama Dama) Males, Elisabetta Vannoni, Alan G. Mcelligott

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

Background: Models of honest advertisement predict that sexually selected calls should signal male quality. In most vertebrates, high quality males have larger body sizes that determine higher social status and in turn higher reproductive success. Previous research has emphasised the importance of vocal tract resonances or formant frequencies of calls as cues to body size in mammals. However, the role of the acoustic features of vocalisations as cues to other quality-related phenotypic characteristics of callers has rarely been investigated.

Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined whether the acoustic structure of fallow deer groans provides reliable information on the quality of the caller, …

Parent-Offspring Resource Allocation In Domestic Pigs, Anna Drake, David Fraser, Daniel M. Weary

Feeding Behavior Collection

Behavioural research on domestic pigs has included parent-offspring conflict, sibling competition, and the use of signals which influence resource allocation. In this paper, we review key sow-piglet behavioural studies and discuss their relevance to resource allocation theory. Sibling competition begins in the uterus and continues after birth, as piglets compete directly for access to the sow's teats. This competition is made more severe by a unique dentition, which newborn piglets use to lacerate the faces of siblings during teat disputes. Competition often leads to the death of some littermates, especially those of low birth weight. Piglets also compete indirectly for …

Espousing Interactions And Fielding Reactions: Addressing Laypeople's Beliefs About Genetic Determinism, David S. Moore

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Although biologists and philosophers of science generally agree that genes cannot determine the forms of biological and psychological traits, students, journalists, politicians, and other members of the general public nonetheless continue to embrace genetic determinism. This article identifies some of the concerns typically raised by individuals when they first encounter the systems perspective that biologists and philosophers of science now favor over genetic determinism, and uses arguments informed by that perspective to address those concerns. No definitive statements can yet be made about why genetic determinism has proven so resilient in the face of empirical evidence pointing up its deficiencies, …

Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Growing recognition of the central importance of fostering an in-depth understanding of natural selection has, surprisingly, failed to stimulate work on the development and rigorous evaluation of instruments that measure knowledge of it. We used three different methodological tools, the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), a modified version of Bishop and Anderson's (Bishop and Anderson [1990] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27: 415-427) open-response test that we call the Open Response Instrument (ORI), and an oral interview derived from both instruments, to measure biology majors' understanding of and alternative conceptions about natural selection. We explored how these instruments …

Cellular And Behavioral Interactions Of Gabapentin With Alcohol Dependence, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Crf1 Receptor Antagonists Attenuate Escalated Cocaine Self-Administration In Rats, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Enhanced Vulnerability To The Rewarding Effects Of Nicotine During The Adolescent Period Of Development, Laura O'Dell

Departmental Papers (Psych)

No abstract provided.

Dr. Maximillian Schmidt's 1884 Review Of The Growth Rates Of Asian Elephants, Robert H.I. Dale, Fred Yaniga

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Rarely is there a scientific article of such creativity, insight and importance that it is fascinating even 125 years after it was written. The following article by Max Schmidt, translated in English for the first time, as far as we know, is one of these. As in the original article, an illustration precedes the text.

Dr. Schmidt addressed a topic of considerable interest in recent times (for example, Sukumar, 2003, Appendix 2): The growth curves of elephants. He combined data on multiple elephants from several sources to generate a table of shoulder heights from birth to the age of 34 …

Tribute: In Memoriam, Jeheskel "Hezy" Shoshani, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The elephant community has lost one of its great ambassadors, Dr. Jeheskel "Hezy" Shoshani, at the age of 65. A wave of condolences and testimonials from colleagues and friends around the world followed his death on May 21, 2008.

History: The Birth Of "America" In 1882, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This article concerns a New York Times story about the birth of the female Asian elephant calf, named America, at the winter headquarters of the "Greatest Show on Earth" in Bridgeport, Connecticut on February 2, 1882. Phineas T. Barnum, one of the owners of the show, and one prone to self-aggrandizing bluster, claimed that America was the second elephant ever born in captivity. America was born only to months before the arrival in New York of the most famous circus elephant of all time, Jumbo, on Easter Sunday, 1882, and only two years before the origin of a small wagon …

Calf Development: Most Births At Night, Robert H.I. Dale

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

For many years, field researchers studying both African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian (Elephas maximas) elephants have indicated that they have observed relatively few births in situ, suggesting that most elephant dams give birth at night. For example, according to Cynthia Moss, "Possibly the majority of births occur at night and perhaps those that do take place in the daytime happen in secluded places" (1988, p. 151). Others, for example, Clive Spinage, have referred to "the old beliefs that the cows retreated to 'calving grounds' or that birth took place at night." (Spinage, 1994, p. 90). Although …

Psycho-Social Effects Of A Brain-Training Program Among Healthy Older Adults, Desma Hurley, M. Jean Turner, William C. Bailey

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Grounded in cognitive neuroscience and social exchange theory, this research evaluated the relationship between changes in cognitive functioning and two psycho-social dimensions of life among healthy adults over the age of 70 (N=12). Specific psycho-social dimensions examined were social interaction and depression. Six females and six males participated in the study. All were white, college-educated individuals residing in a life-care residential retirement community. The participants used the Posit Science® Brain Fitness Program™, an auditory-based computer training program that improves memory and speed of processing, for forty hours over an eight-week period. Pre- and post-tests related to social interaction and depressive …

Genome-Wide Identification Of Qtl For Age At Puberty In Gilts Using A Large Intercross F2 Population Between White Duroc And Erhualian, Guangcheng Yang, Jun Ren, Shijun Li, Huirong Mao, Yuanmei Guo, Zhengzhi Zou, Dongren Ren, Junwu Ma, Lusheng Huang

Psychology Faculty Publications

Puberty is a fundamental development process experienced by all reproductively competent adults, yet the specific factors regulating age at puberty remain elusive in pigs. In this study, we performed a genome scan to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting age at puberty in gilts using a White Duroc × Erhualian intercross. A total of 183 microsatellites covering 19 porcine chromosomes were genotyped in 454 F₂ gilts and their parents and grandparents in the White Duroc × Erhualian intercross. A linear regression method was used to map QTL for age at puberty via QTLexpress. One 1% genome-wise significant QTL and …

Heritable And Experiential Effects On Boldness In A Tropical Poeciliid, Culum Brown, Fiona Burgess, Victoria Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

Consistent differences in human behaviour are often explained with reference to personality traits. Recent evidence suggests that similar traits are widespread across the entire animal kingdom and that they may have substantial fitness consequences. One of the major components of personality is the shyness–boldness continuum. Little is known about the relative contributions of genes and the environment in the development of boldness in wild animal populations. Here, we bred wild-caught fish (Brachyraphis episcopi) collected from regions of highand low-predation pressure, reared their offspring in the laboratory under varying conditions and tested boldness utilising an open-field paradigm. First-generation laboratory-reared fish showed …

Correlation Between Boldness And Body Mass In Natural Populations Of The Poeciliid Brachyrhaphis Episcopi, C. Brown, F. Jones, V. Braithwaite

Sentience Collection

The boldness of individual Brachyrhaphis episcopi, collected from regions of high and low predation, was investigated using two independent assays: (1) the time to emerge from cover and (2) the propensity to leave shoal mates and investigate a novel object. A strong correlation between the two assays was revealed such that fish that emerged from shelter sooner were also more likely to approach a novel object. This is indicative of a boldness personality axis acting across both behavioural contexts. Fish from high-predation areas were bolder than those from low-predation areas and males were bolder than females. A significant correlation between …

Animal Mind: Science, Philosophy, And Ethics, Bernard E. Rollin

Sentience Collection

Although 20th-century empiricists were agnostic about animal mind and consciousness, this was not the case for their historical ancestors – John Locke, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and, of course, Charles Darwin and George John Romanes. Given the dominance of the Darwinian paradigm of evolutionary continuity, one would not expect belief in animal mind to disappear. That it did demonstrates that standard accounts of how scientific hypotheses are overturned – i.e., by empirical disconfirmation or by exposure of logical flaws – is inadequate. In fact, it can be demonstrated that belief in animal mind disappeared as a result …

Animal Minds, Cognitive Ethology, And Ethics, Colin Allen, Marc Bekoff

Sentience Collection

Our goal in this paper is to provide enough of an account of the origins of cognitive ethology and the controversy surrounding it to help ethicists to gauge for themselves how to balance skepticism and credulity about animal minds when communicating with scientists. We believe that ethicists’ arguments would benefit from better understanding of the historical roots of ongoing controversies. It is not appropriate to treat some widely reported results in animal cognition as if their interpretations are a matter of scientific consensus. It is especially important to understand why loose references to ‘‘cognitive ethology’’ by philosophers can signal ignorance …

Physiological Constraints On Contest Behaviour, Mark Briffa, Lynne U. Sneddon

Sentience Collection

1. Contests may involve injurious fighting, other types of direct physical aggression and communication. They occur over ownership access to mates and other resources that may increase an individual’s attractiveness and its chance of survival. Traits that enhance resource holding potential may be the result of sexual selection, natural selection or a combination of both.
2. Agonistic behaviours are expected to be demanding to perform and costly in terms of changes in physiological state. The ability to meet the physiological costs may determine contest outcomes and constrain the intensity of agonistic activities.
3. The energetic costs have been investigated in a broad range …

Brainstem Cholinergic Modulation Of Muscle Tone In Infant Rats, Andrew J. Gall, Amy Poremba, Mark S. Blumberg

Faculty Publications

In week-old rats, lesions of the dorsolateral pontine tegmentum (DLPT) and nucleus pontis oralis (PnO) have opposing effects on nuchal muscle tone. Specifically, pups with DLPT lesions exhibit prolonged bouts of nuchal muscle atonia (indicative of sleep) and pups with PnO lesions exhibit prolonged bouts of high nuchal muscle tone (indicative of wakefulness). Here we test the hypothesis that nuchal muscle tone is modulated, at least in part, by cholinergically mediated interactions between these two regions. First, in unanesthetized pups, we found that chemical infusion of the cholinergic agonist carbachol (22 mM, 0.1 µL) within the DLPT produced high muscle …

Zoo Research, Amanda Shyne

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Electromagnetic Differences In The Brain During Memory Retrieval, Warren Scott Merrifield

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The primary objectives for this experiment were to analyze the neuroanatomical correlates of autobiographical, episodic and semantic memory, use a different paradigm to promote episodic memory retrieval, and employ a different analysis technique to understand retrieval processes. Autobiographical and episodic memories are personal memories from the past. Autobiographical is more general (e.g. a street name of a house growing up) and episodic is more specific to time (e.g. 13th birthday party that took place on a street). For autobiographical and episodic memory retrieval operations, there is no general consensus as to the localization of function, but bilateral activation of the …

Similarities Between Etiological Models Of Eating Disorder Symptomatology And Muscle Dysmorphia Symptomatology, Jennifer Jonda

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) has recently been conceptualized as the male form of Eating Disorders (ED), although it is not currently classified as an ED. The current study compares etiological models of MD symptomatology (based on Grieve's [2007] conceptual model of MD) and ED symptomatology (based on Stice's [1994] conceptual model of Bulimia Nervosa). In both models, it was hypothesized that sociocultural influences on appearance (SIA) would predict body dissatisfaction (BD), and that this relationship would be mediated by self-esteem (SE) and perfectionism (P); that BD would predict negative affect (NA); and that NA would predict MD and ED symptomatology. Two-hundred-forty-seven …

The Public Perception Of Enrichment For Captive Animals, Elizabeth Marie Webb

All Master's Theses

The effects of providing participants with educational information on enrichment as measured by the looking time at and ratings of zoo photographs were examined. One hundred and seventeen participants viewed photographs of zoo exhibits, 10 from each of the following categories: artificial exhibit with artificial enrichment, artificial exhibit with naturalistic enrichment, naturalistic exhibit with naturalistic enrichment, and naturalistic exhibit with artificial enrichment. Participants rated the photographs on exhibit aesthetic appeal, perceived animal happiness, and effectiveness of the enrichment. Pre- and posttest ratings of the importance of zoo roles were also collected. Results showed support for the hypothesis that participants provided …

Video Game Addiction: Truth Or Fiction, Lyles Thibodeaux-Harmony

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Phobias: The Evolutionary Trend, Grant Brown

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Divisions Within The Posterior Parietal Cortex Help Touch Meet Vision, Catherine L. Reed

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The parietal cortex is divided into two major functional regions: the anterior parietal cortex that includes primary somatosensory cortex, and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) that includes the rest of the parietal lobe. The PPC contains multiple representations of space. In Dijkerman and de Haan’s (see record 2007-13802-022) model, higher spatial representations are separate from PPC functions. This model should be developed further so that the functions of the somatosensory system are integrated with specific functions within the PPC and higher spatial representations. Through this further specification of the model, one can make better predictions regarding functional interactions between somatosensory …