Dyadic Interactions Research Articles

Urban sensory conditions alter rival interactions and mate choice in urban and forest túngara frogs

Abstract Sexual communication often takes place in networks with multiple competing signalers being simultaneously assessed by mate choosers. Altered sensory conditions, such as noise and light pollution, can affect communication by altering signal production and perception. While evidence of sensory pollution affecting sexual signaling is widespread, few studies assess impacts on sexual signaling during rival interactions as well as mate choice, let alone whether urban and non-urban populations have diverged in their response. Here, we investigate the effects of urban sensory conditions on sexual communication in urban and forest túngara frogs (Engystomops pustulosus). We recorded dyadic vocal rival interactions and assessed mate choice with and without noise and light pollution in the lab. We show that urban sensory conditions can directly impact the intensity of rival interactions, differences between rivals and mate choice, though changes were often in opposite directions for frogs of urban and forest origins. Moreover, we demonstrate that urban-induced changes in rival interactions can also indirectly affect how females choose between potential mates. Our study reveals origin-dependent direct and indirect effects of noise and light pollution, and suggests local adaptation of sexual communication in urban populations.

Maternal childhood trauma, caregiving behavior, and child cognitive development in the context of drug addiction.

Exposure to childhood trauma confers intergenerational risk on child development. However, the mechanism linking a mother's childhood trauma with her child's cognitive development remains poorly understood. This study recruited 71 mother-child dyads affected by substance use disorder from local, community-based, outpatient substance use treatment programs. Maternal exposure to childhood trauma, caregiving behavior, and child cognitive development were assessed in each mother-child dyad. These were measured through a comprehensive biopsychosocial interview, an observed dyadic interaction coded using the Coding Interactive Behavior system, and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Screening Test, respectively. We hypothesized that compromised caregiving behavior would mediate a negative relationship between maternal childhood trauma and child cognitive development. Analyses did not support this hypothesis. Specifically, maternal childhood trauma was not significantly associated with child cognitive development nor the four dimensions of maternal caregiving behavior. However, caregiving behavior (specifically maternal sensitivity and limit setting) was associated with child cognitive development, when controlling for maternal childhood trauma and child age. The lack of associations observed suggests that protective factors may buffer the intergenerational impact of childhood trauma. Furthermore, the relationship between quality of caregiving and child cognitive development highlights the importance of interventions which foster sensitive caregiving behaviors that may bolster child cognitive development in the context of maternal substance use disorder and maternal childhood trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Modelling and monitoring multi-relational networks with ordinal information

Network relationships can be widely seen among entities in various fields such as social networks, supply networks and Internet of Things (IoT). Sometimes abnormal events such as cyber-attacks occur to cause an abrupt increase or decrease in the traffic of networks. Many anomaly detection methods have been developed to identify such abnormal events in networks. In recent years, statistical process control (SPC) has attracted more and more attention in network anomaly detection. However, many of the existing statistical models regard the interaction between two nodes in unweighted directed networks as a binary variable, i.e. presence and absence of contacts, which fails to reflect the intensity level of interactions. This article proposes a new model to describe the dyadic interactions with several ordinal levels and introduces special quantities to incorporate the ordinal information into the model. The model can be expressed in a matrix form to enable easy parameter estimation and derivation of a quadratic monitoring statistic. Numerous simulation studies show that the proposed methods detect anomalies in multi-relational networks more quickly than existing monitoring methods. A case study exhibits the implementation and superiority of the proposed method.

Fatherhood in the context of preterm birth: A narrative review of contemporary research evidence

AbstractLong focused on maternal roles in infancy, research is now exploring fathers' contributions to child development. Current public policy emphasizes early prevention and intervention for child and parent well‐being, especially for at‐risk infants such as those born prematurely. A literature review was conducted following the approach of a narrative review, to examine fatherhood in the context of preterm birth, highlighting the stress and emotional vulnerability experienced by fathers of preterm infants. Promoting early paternal presence and involvement in infant care helps fathers cope with this emotionally challenging experience. Despite limited data on premature fatherhood, fathers are active partners in dyadic interactions and play a significant role in their infant's neonatal intensive care unit journey and family dynamics. The discussion underscores the importance of father‐focused interventions and the paternal contribution to child development, framed within the authors' proposed integrative and developmental model of the family triad.

Using State Space Grids to Quantify and Examine Dynamics of Dyadic Conversation

ABSTRACT This paper illustrates how to implement state space grid analysis for analyzing the back-and-forth multi-turn dynamics that manifest in dyadic conversations. In doing so, we contribute to a dynamic dyadic systems perspective that seeks to advance theories about individual and relational antecedents and outcomes of interpersonal communication through the articulation and study of dyadic interaction dynamics. We first review state space grid terminology, data requirements, visualizations, and quantifications, and how the use of state space grid analysis maps to conversation-related research questions. We then illustrate the application of state space grids to the examination of dyadic support conversations; specifically, we demonstrate how this method can be used to derive parameters that operationalize the use of or movement in the state space and to examine between-dyad differences in movement through the state space. Empirically, we found that conversation behavior flexibility was related to characteristics of the dyadic relationship but not to support receiver outcomes, and that our operationalizations of conversation attractors were related to neither relational characteristics nor support receiver outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical, methodological, and practical issues that researchers can consider when using state space grids in the analysis of conversation dynamics.

The social skills of autistic boys in preschool: the contributions of their dyadic and triadic interactions with their parents.

The interactions of typically developing (TD) children within the family context are associated with their social skills in preschool, and the question guiding this study, which focused on boys, was whether the same would be true for autistic children. A specific focus was on the importance of the boys' engagement in triadic, mother-father-child interactions over and above their engagement in dyadic, parent-child interactions. The boys' social skills were assessed concurrently with their family interactions and one year later. Seventy-five autistic preschooler boys (Age in months: M = 49.45, SD = 11.03) and both of their parents were recruited through treatment centers and social media. The boys' dyadic engagement was assessed from observations of their interactions with their mothers and fathers (separately), and their triadic engagement from an observation of mother-father-child interactions. The boys' social skills in preschool were assessed using a Q-sort completed by observers and teachers and by the Social Responsiveness Questionnaire (SRS) completed by teachers. Controlling for the severity of the boys' symptoms and IQ, their dyadic engagement was associated with the concurrent observer Q-sort and teacher-reported SRS measures, and their triadic engagement did not explain additional variance in these measures. Predicting over one year, dyadic engagement was associated again with the observer Q-sort and teacher SRS measures, while the boys' triadic engagement accounted for additional variance in these measures as well as the teacher Q-sort. Finally, boys' dyadic engagement predicted gains in social skills on the observer Q-sort, and their triadic engagement was predictive of gains in the observer and teacher Q-sort. The engagement that autistic preschool-age boys displayed in the context of their dyadic and triadic interactions with their parents appears to be transferred to the preschool setting, and triadic interactions are of particular significance.

Beyond The Screen

This study examined communication between friends across generations in the most popular TV shows from the 1990s to 2022. The five highest grossing American TV shows and sitcoms were chosen and coded for friends’ self-disclosure, expression of empathy, perspective/advice, critique, appreciation, and complimenting. Demographic characteristics of the characters were also recorded. The results showed a significant increase in self-disclosure from the 1990s to late-2000s, but not for early-2000s; as well as an increase in male characters’ expressing empathy. Female characters increased in giving perspective in late-2000s and complimenting their friends in early- and late-2000s. However, female dyadic interactions remained to be the least frequent.

Emotions of perpetrators and victim-survivors: multi-layered violence against Chinese women during the Asia-Pacific War

ABSTRACT This essay uses a microhistory of Chinese comfort women during the Asia-Pacific War to illuminate the gendered dynamics of violence and the contrasting emotions experienced by both sexually abused women and their Japanese perpetrators, forming a perpetrator-victim dyad. The essay employs the concept of intersectional emotions within a micro-historical framework to demonstrate that this violence against Chinese women, marked by racialization, constitutes one of the many facets of wartime violence. This violence manifests in two contrasting emotional responses that characterize the dyadic interactions against the backdrop of widespread violence during the Asia-Pacific War. This analysis is highly relevant in contexts of power-saturated sites defined by multi-layered violence that is racial, gendered, and imperial. By investigating the dichotomy of emotive dimensions of violence, this essay contributes to a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay among emotions, violence, gender, race, and imperialism. This examination reveals insights into the emotional framework governing the dynamics of violence and challenges the prevailing assumption of uniformity in studies of violence against victim-survivors.

A history of susceptibility to parasites and divergence in solitary, gregarious and agonistic behaviors of embiopterans.

Two species of Haploembia Ramburi (Oligotomidae: Embioptera), nonnative detritivores found in the western USA, display solitary tendencies, not typical for webspinners that usually share silk galleries. Reports from the 1960s based on native populations in Italy highlighted the impact of a gregarine that depressed male sterility and female survivorship in Haploembia solieri (Rambur). Sympatric asexual Haploembia tarsalis (Ross) lives a normal lifespan when parasitized, albeit suffering from reduced fecundity. Our goal is to characterize behavioral repertoires as individuals interact and to develop methods for future investigations focused on the impact of the little-known parasite. We quantified individual responses to conspecifics or other species in 10-min dyadic interactions and, in a 3-day trial, determined whether they aggregated when given dispersed resources. Replicated groups of four adult female H. solieri or H. tarsalis settled away from each other over the 3-day trials. In 10-min bouts of same or different species pairs, focal insects bolted back, retreated and attempted to escape when they encountered one another, especially when the opponent was H. tarsalis. Males courted conspecific females, but were dramatically repelled by H. tarsalis. Serving as a positive control, Oligotoma nigra (Hagen) (Oligotomidae) adult females paired with conspecifics displayed typical webspinner behaviors by sitting together, sharing silk. Haploembia solieri males did not respond negatively to O. nigra, not known to be parasitized by the gregarine, but did so when paired with H. tarsalis. Results align with the prediction that susceptibility to parasitism may have led to antisocial behaviors observed in two Haploembia species.

Associations between dyadic coping, marital satisfaction, and prenatal depression symptoms among couples with gestational diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT Aims/Background Coping with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) presents significant challenges for pregnant women and their partners, which may result in elevated prenatal depression symptoms. However, research has predominantly centred on pregnant women with GDM, with little involvement of their partners. To understand their dyadic interactions, it is imperative to involve GDM couples in the study. This study aims to examine the interplay between dyadic coping and prenatal depression symptoms among GDM couples and to explore the possible mediating role of marital satisfaction. Design/Method A cross-sectional study was conducted in Guangzhou, China. A total of 400 couples completed the Dyadic Coping Inventory, Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and sociodemographic data sheet. The actor-partner interdependence mediation model was utilised for dyadic data analysis. Results Overall, 13.0% of pregnant women with GDM and 8.3% of partners experienced elevated prenatal depression symptoms. Dyadic coping was directly or indirectly related to their own and partners’ prenatal depression symptoms in GDM couples, with marital satisfaction acting as a mediator. Specifically, positive dyadic coping was associated with lower prenatal depression symptoms, while negative dyadic coping exhibited an opposite relationship. Conclusion The prevalence of elevated prenatal depression symptoms was high in GDM couples. It is important to view pregnant women with GDM and their partners as a dyad of a transactional system in prenatal clinical care. Couple-centred interventions targeting to enhance positive dyadic coping and mitigate negative dyadic coping might be beneficial to prevent and alleviate prenatal depression symptoms.

Neural Encoding of Bodies for Primate Social Perception.

Primates, as social beings, have evolved complex brain mechanisms to navigate intricate social environments. This review explores the neural bases of body perception in both human and nonhuman primates, emphasizing the processing of social signals conveyed by body postures, movements, and interactions. Early studies identified selective neural responses to body stimuli in macaques, particularly within and ventral to the superior temporal sulcus (STS). These regions, known as body patches, represent visual features that are present in bodies but do not appear to be semantic body detectors. They provide information about posture and viewpoint of the body. Recent research using dynamic stimuli has expanded the understanding of the body-selective network, highlighting its complexity and the interplay between static and dynamic processing. In humans, body-selective areas such as the extrastriate body area (EBA) and fusiform body area (FBA) have been implicated in the perception of bodies and their interactions. Moreover, studies on social interactions reveal that regions in the human STS are also tuned to the perception of dyadic interactions, suggesting a specialized social lateral pathway. Computational work developed models of body recognition and social interaction, providing insights into the underlying neural mechanisms. Despite advances, significant gaps remain in understanding the neural mechanisms of body perception and social interaction. Overall, this review underscores the importance of integrating findings across species to comprehensively understand the neural foundations of body perception and the interaction between computational modeling and neural recording.

Early Caregiver Predictability Shapes Neural Indices of Statistical Learning Later in Infancy.

Caregivers play an outsized role in shaping early life experiences and development, but we often lack mechanistic insight into how exactly caregiver behavior scaffolds the neurodevelopment of specific learning processes. Here, we capitalized on the fact that caregivers differ in how predictable their behavior is to ask if infants' early environmental input shapes their brains' later ability to learn about predictable information. As part of an ongoing longitudinal study in South Africa, we recorded naturalistic, dyadic interactions between 103 (46 females and 57 males) infants and their primary caregivers at 3-6 months of age, from which we calculated the predictability of caregivers' behavior, following caregiver vocalization and overall. When the same infants were 6-12-months-old they participated in an auditory statistical learning task during EEG. We found evidence of learning-related change in infants' neural responses to predictable information during the statistical learning task. The magnitude of statistical learning-related change in infants' EEG responses was associated with the predictability of their caregiver's vocalizations several months earlier, such that infants with more predictable caregiver vocalization patterns showed more evidence of statistical learning later in the first year of life. These results suggest that early experiences with caregiver predictability influence learning, providing support for the hypothesis that the neurodevelopment of core learning and memory systems is closely tied to infants' experiences during key developmental windows.

Digital screener of socio-motor agency balancing motor autonomy and motor control.

Dyadic social interactions evoke complex dynamics between two agents that, while exchanging unequal levels of body autonomy and motor control, may find a fine balance to synergize, take turns, and gradually build social rapport. To study the evolution of such complex interactions, we currently rely exclusively on subjective pencil and paper means. Here, we complement this approach with objective biometrics of socio-motor behaviors conducive to socio-motor agency. Using a common clinical test as the backdrop of our study to probe social interactions between a child and a clinician, we demonstrate new ways to streamline the detection of social readiness potential in both typically developing and autistic children by uncovering a handful of tasks that enable quantification of levels of motor autonomy and levels of motor control. Using these biometrics of autonomy and control, we further highlight differences between males and females and uncover a new data type amenable to generalizing our results to any social setting. The new methods convert continuous dyadic bodily biorhythmic activity into spike trains and demonstrate that in the context of dyadic behavioral analyses, they are well characterized by a continuous Gamma process that can classify individual levels of our thus defined socio-motor agency during a dyadic exchange. Finally, we apply signal detection processing tools in a machine learning approach to show the validity of the streamlined version of the digitized ADOS test. We offer a new framework that combines stochastic analyses, non-linear dynamics, and information theory to streamline and facilitate scaling the screening and tracking of social interactions with applications to autism.

Sources and processes of social influence on health-related choices: A systematic review based on a social-interdependent choice paradigm

BackgroundMost choices in healthcare are not made in social isolation. However, current econometric models treat patients' preferences as the sole determinants of their choices.Through the lens of sociology and medical sociology theories, this paper presents a systematic literature review of identifiable social influences on patients’ choices, serving as a first step in developing a social-interdependent choice paradigm. MethodsFollowing the PRISMA guideline and using nine databases, we identified the individual agents or groups involved in health-related choices, the functional content through which social relationships influence patients, and the choice constructs affected by these processes. From 9036 screened articles, we selected 208 to develop an analytical framework connecting social relationships with choice constructs. ResultsSocial influences predominantly come from family, friends, specialized physicians, and general practitioners. We decomposed the functional content of social relationships into functions and contents. Dyadic interactions and expert knowledge were prominent functions, followed by social control. Prescriptive and informational contents were prevalent, followed by instrumental and emotional ones. Expert knowledge and social norms aligned with prescriptive and informational signals, while dyadic interactions provide emotional and instrumental signals. Reference points for social norms included friends, coworkers, and patients. Social relationships primarily impact which alternatives are evaluated, followed by alternative evaluation strategies and goal selection. Distinctions between medical domains and dimensions emerged, highlighting how the medical area conditions the social influence process. ConclusionThis systematic review presents a comprehensive framework that elucidates the social influence process in healthcare patient decision-making. By detailing the functional content of social relationships into functions and contents and linking these components to the elements of the choice process, we created a structured approach to understanding how social relationships impact patient choices. This will facilitate the systematic integration of social relationships into econometric models of patient choice.

The complexity of opportunities to respond used by mothers and fathers of children with Down syndrome: A preliminary investigation.

Caregiver-child interactions are commonly used to examine children's language learning environment. However, few studies consider interaction configurations beyond dyadic interactions or explore the conceptual complexity of caregiver talk. Thus, we examined if the complexity of a caregiver's opportunities to respond (OTR) varied when sampled across three interaction configurations. Our study included twelve preschool-aged children with Down syndrome and both of their biological parents. Our preliminary findings suggest no differences in mothers' and fathers' frequency of OTRs across complexity levels during dyadic interactions. However, caregivers produced fewer OTRs across complexity levels during family choice than dyadic interactions.

Parental supportive and intrusive directives during dyadic interactions in relation to concurrent skills of preterm and full-term toddlers at age 2 years

Parental supportive and intrusive directives during dyadic interactions in relation to concurrent skills of preterm and full-term toddlers at age 2 years

Unraveling the Experience of Affection Across Marital and Friendship Interactions

AbstractFeelings of affection (i.e., fondness and intense positive regard) are a hallmark of close relationships. Existing studies have often examined affection as a trait or behavior, but rarely as an emotional experience in social interactions. In two dyadic observational interaction studies (total N = 314 individuals), 49 US-based married couples (age range: 21–65) and 108 friendship dyads (age range: 15–26) engaged in two naturalistic 10-min conversations about (a) a topic of disagreement (conflict conversation) and (b) something they enjoyed doing together (pleasant conversation) and reported on their subjective emotional experiences (e.g., affection, using an emotion checklist following each conversation) and relationship satisfaction. Conversation transcripts were analyzed using natural language analysis. Results showed that experiences of affection were most strongly associated with experiences of compassion, amusement, and excitement, as well as with less anger, and were unrelated to most other negative emotions. Natural language analysis further showed that greater positive (but not negative) emotional tone was associated with greater affection (especially among friends in the pleasant conversations). Levels of affection were consistently higher in pleasant versus conflict conversations and similar across marital versus friendship interactions. Finally, experiences of affection were associated with greater relationship satisfaction for friends across conversations and for spouses (women) in the pleasant conversation. These findings contribute to our understanding of affection as a foundational emotional experience in close relationships and highlight avenues for future research.

Dyadic Isolation in Social Interactions: The Role of Depressive Symptoms

Dyadic isolation is the tendency of some individuals to be involved in pairwise interactions rather than in larger group interactions. This article investigates the interpersonal processes associated with the dyadic isolation of individuals with depressive symptoms. We hypothesize that such individuals tend to initiate more and stay longer in dyadic interactions compared to group interactions (dyadic preference hypothesis) and that individuals—irrespective of their own level of depressive symptoms—tend to join and stay longer in interactions when interaction partners have lower levels of depressive symptoms (depression avoidance hypothesis). We analyze two data sets (N = 123) of face-to-face interaction events (N = 86,915) collected with proximity badges at a social event. Hypotheses are tested using a relational event model (DyNAM-i) specifically tailored for modeling group interactions. In line with the dyadic preference hypotheses, individuals with higher levels of depressive symptoms are found to be more likely to join and stay in dyadic interactions. Post hoc analyses reveal that this result only applies to female participants. We find limited support for the depression avoidance hypotheses.

A model of dyadic merging interactions explains human drivers' behavior from control inputs to decisions.

Safe and socially acceptable interactions with human-driven vehicles are a major challenge in automated driving. A good understanding of the underlying principles of such traffic interactions could help address this challenge. Particularly, accurate driver models could be used to inform automated vehicles in interactions. These interactions entail complex dynamic joint behaviors composed of individual driver contributions in terms of high-level decisions, safety margins, and low-level control inputs. Existing driver models typically focus on one of these aspects, limiting our understanding of the underlying principles of traffic interactions. Here, we present a Communication-Enabled Interaction model based on risk perception, that does not assume humans are rational and explicitly accounts for communication between drivers. Our model can explain and reproduce observed human interactions in a simplified merging scenario on all three levels. Thereby improving our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of human traffic interactions and posing a step towards interaction-aware automated driving.

Perceptual sensitivity to changes in interpersonal distance when observing social interactions: The effects of dyad arrangement and orientation.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in how we perceive dyadic interactions between people. It has been proposed that pairs of individuals shown upright and face-to-face recruit a form of configural processing, similar to that engaged by upright faces. This processing is thought to aid the detection and interpretation of social interactions. Dyadic arrangements shown back-to-back or upside-down are not thought to engage configural dyad processing. One of the key advantages conveyed by configural face processing is greater sensitivity to the spatial relationships between facial features when faces are viewed upright, than when viewed upside-down. If upright dyads arranged face-to-face engage similar configural processing that is not engaged by non-facing or inverted dyads, participants should therefore exhibit disproportionate sensitivity to the spatial relations between the constituent actors under these conditions. In four well-powered experiments, we find no evidence for this prediction: Participants exhibited similar levels of sensitivity to changes in interpersonal distance regardless of whether dyads were shown upright or inverted, face-to-face, or back-to-back. In contrast, we observe clear evidence that upright presentation affords greater sensitivity to interfeature spatial relationships (interocular distance) when viewing faces. These results suggest that any configural processing engaged by upright facing dyads likely differs qualitatively from that engaged by upright faces.