Naive Observer Research Articles

Interpersonal consequences of paranoid ideation, negative symptoms and sleep problems in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals with psychosis

Paranoid ideation is a transdiagnostic construct that is associated with social impairment and often occurs in psychotic spectrum disorders. Little research has examined how paranoid ideation is related to social behaviors that underlie social impairment and may ultimately lead to social rejection. It is important to consider that negative symptoms and sleep problems also contribute to social impairment. No research has assessed the unique and combined influence of paranoid ideation, negative symptoms, and sleep problems on social impairment. Therefore, the current study examined how paranoid ideation, negative symptoms, and sleep problems contribute to poorer social skills and social rejection in a transdiagnostic sample of persons with psychosis and community members (N = 112). Assessments included diagnostic and symptom interviews, questionnaires, behavioral ratings of social skill and facial displays of affect, and naive observer reactions utilizing thin-slice methodology. Greater paranoid ideation, negative symptoms, and sleep problems were each related to poorer social skill and more negative reactions from observers. When considered in path analyses, negative symptoms were associated with observer reports of less willingness to interact with participants through poorer social skill. These findings demonstrate the symptom correlates of social rejection and how interpersonal behavior may contribute to social exclusion.

Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone.

Culture refers to behaviours that are socially learned and persist within a population over time. Increasing evidence suggests that animal culture can, like human culture, be cumulative: characterized by sequential innovations that build on previous ones1. However, human cumulative culture involves behaviours so complex that they lie beyond the capacity of any individual to independently discover during their lifetime1-3. To our knowledge, no study has so far demonstrated this phenomenon in an invertebrate. Here we show that bumblebees can learn from trained demonstrator bees to open a novel two-step puzzle box to obtain food rewards, even though they fail to do so independently. Experimenters were unable to train demonstrator bees to perform the unrewarded first step without providing a temporary reward linked to this action, which was removed during later stages of training. However, a third of naive observer bees learned to open the two-step box from these demonstrators, without ever being rewarded after the first step. This suggests that social learning might permit the acquisition of behaviours too complex to 're-innovate' through individual learning. Furthermore, naive bees failed to open the box despite extended exposure for up to 24 days. This finding challenges a common opinion in the field: that the capacity to socially learn behaviours that cannot be innovated through individual trial and error is unique to humans.

Parents of Children with Cleft Lip Exhibit Heightened Visual Attention to the Perioral Area.

Twenty participants (10 control adults, 10 parents of affected children) assessed 40 colored images of children's faces while their eye movements were tracked. Twenty-four control images and 16 repaired cleft lip images were displayed to observers. Nine bilateral facial aesthetic zones were considered as regions of interest. Percentage of time visually fixating within each region, and statistical differences in fixation duration percentage between the two participant groups and across the bilateral regions of interest were analyzed. While both groups of observers directed more visual attention to the nasal and oral regions of the cleft images than control images, parents of children with cleft lip spent significantly more time fixating on these areas (25% and 24% of the time, respectively) than did unaffected adults (14.6% and 19.3%; P < 0.001). These results demonstrate that parents of cleft lip children exhibit heightened attention to this type of facial difference relative to the naive observer. These findings highlight that observer profile can meaningfully influence the perception of a facial deformity. Awareness of this information may enhance communication between surgeon and parents of an affected child by providing added insight into parental perspective.

All Models Are Wrong, and Some Are Religious: Supernatural Explanations as Abstract and Useful Falsehoods about Complex Realities.

Many cognitive and evolutionary theories of religion argue that supernatural explanations are byproducts of our cognitive adaptations. An influential argument states that our supernatural explanations result from a tendency to generate anthropomorphic explanations, and that this tendency is a byproduct of an error management strategy because agents tend to be associated with especially high fitness costs. We propose instead that anthropomorphic and other supernatural explanations result as features of a broader toolkit of well-designed cognitive adaptations, which are designed for explaining the abstract and causal structure of complex, unobservable, and uncertain phenomena that have substantial impacts on fitness. Specifically, we argue that (1) mental representations about the abstract vs. the supernatural are largely overlapping, if not identical, and (2) when the data-generating processes for scarce and ambiguous observations are complex and opaque, a naive observer can improve a bias-variance trade-off by starting with a simple, underspecified explanation that Western observers readily interpret as "supernatural." We then argue that (3) in many cases, knowledge specialists across cultures offer pragmatic services that involve apparently supernatural explanations, and their clients are frequently willing to pay them in a market for useful and effective services. We propose that at least some ethnographic descriptions of religion might actually reflect ordinary and adaptive responses to novel problems such as illnesses and natural disasters, where knowledge specialists possess and apply the best available explanations about phenomena that would otherwise be completely mysterious and unpredictable.

Random attention can explain apparent object choice behavior in free-walking blowflies.

Flies are often observed to approach dark objects. To a naive observer they seem to pay selective attention to one out of several objects although previous research identified as a possible underlying mechanism a reflex-like fixation behavior integrating responses to all objects. In a combination of behavioral experiments and computational modelling, we investigated the choice behavior of flies freely walking towards an arrangement of two objects placed at a variable distance from each other. The walking trajectories were oriented towards one of the objects much earlier than predicted by a simple reactive model. We show that object choice can be explained by a continuous control scheme in combination with a mechanism randomly responding to the position of each object according to a stochastic process. This may be viewed as a special form of an implicit attention-like mechanism, for which the model does not require an explicit decision mechanism or a memory for the drawn decision.

Anatomic Considerations of Perinasal Musculature for Improved Dental Show During Smile in Facial Synkinesis.

Introduction:There is an anatomic explanation for upper lip and midfacial tethering resulting in lack of motion in facial synkinesis.Objective:To measure the effect of perinasal chemodenervation on dental show in the synkinetic population and clarify the anatomic relationship of perinasal musculature.Methods:Literature search was performed on anatomy of the perinasal modiolus, and anatomic evaluation was performed through human anatomic specimen dissection. Photographic outcomes were observed in synkinetic patients receiving chemodenervation to smile antagonists with and without perinasal muscle injections and assessed through naive observer survey. Retrospective outcomes for all patients receiving perinasal chemodenervation was collected utilizing Facial Clinimetric Evaluation Scale, Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (FGS), Facial Disability Index (FDI), and the Synkinesis Assessment Questionnaire.Results:Anatomic dissections demonstrated muscular confluence spanning the nasal sidewall and upper lip tethering the soft tissue to bone. Thirty-four of 53 chemodenervation patients received perinasal Botox experiencing improvement in synkinetic symptoms of the upper lip, nose, and improved dental show as noted on paired t-test for FGS (p = 0.00096), and FDI social p = 0.015) also supported by naive observer surveys (p = 0.03).Conclusions:Human anatomic specimen dissections support a perinasal confluence of musculature with bony attachments that can be successfully treated with chemodenervation in facial synkinesis patients.

Relaying Aversive Ultrasonic Alarm Calls Depends on Previous Experience. Empathy, Social Buffering, or Panic?

Ultrasonic vocalizations are among the oldest evolutionarily forms of animal communication. In order to study the communication patterns in an aversive social situation, we used a behavioral model in which one animal, the observer, is witnessing as his cagemate, the demonstrator, is experiencing a series of mild electrical foot shocks. We studied the effect of the foot shock experience on the observer and the influence of a warning sound (emitted shortly before the shock) on USV communication. These experiments revealed that such a warning seems to increase the arousal level, which differentiates the responses depending on previous experience. This can be identified by the emission of characteristic, short 22 kHz calls of a duration below 100 ms. Two rats emitted calls that overlapped in time. Analysis of these overlaps revealed that in ‘warned’ pairs with a naive observer, 22 kHz calls were mixed with 50 kHz calls. This fact, combined with a high fraction of very high-pitched 50 kHz calls (over 75 kHz), suggests the presence of the phenomenon of social buffering. Pure 22 kHz overlaps were mostly found in ‘warned’ pairs with an experienced observer, suggesting a possible fear contagion with distress sharing. The results show the importance of dividing 22 kHz calls into long and short categories.

The Effects of Oral Narrative Intervention on the Personal Narratives of Children with ASD and Severe Language Disorder

A multiple baseline with probe across participants design was used to investigate the effects of an oral narrative intervention on early developing personal narratives of four children aged 6 and 7 with autism spectrum disorder and severe language disorder. The individual intervention targeted the narrative macrostructure elements of where, who with, what happened and feelings. Intervention involved the use of individual photographs to support each narrative, macrostructure icons, participants telling the entire narrative each session, and modeling. Using variations of the intervention, an intervention and maintenance effect using untaught narratives was demonstrated for three participants, and some evidence for generalization across settings, people, and stimuli was demonstrated for one participant. Social validity measures indicated that an objective naive observer rated post-intervention narratives as better. Areas for future research include implementing intervention to better provide for generalization of skills, delivering intervention to small groups, and classroom teachers implementing the intervention.

Learning to find food: evidence for embryonic sensitization and juvenile social learning in a salamander

For many species, learning is an essential mechanism for dealing with the environment correctly and efficiently. Animals that quickly learn important information, and learn at a young age, can gain a competitive advantage in exploiting resources. Moreover, animals that learn indirectly through social observations can avoid the fitness costs of directly learning about potential dangers. Here we tested such learning capabilities in ringed salamanders, Ambystoma annulatum , a species where adults are primarily solitary and do not provide parental care. Adults lay eggs in ponds where embryos have the opportunity to learn from chemical cues in their environment before hatching, whereupon the high density of larvae provides an opportunity to learn from social information. In this study, we found that these salamanders can learn an attraction to novel food stimuli as embryos and that naive observer larvae can learn from conspecifics that show attraction to stimuli. Embryonic exposure to a novel food stimulus (shrimp odour) caused attraction to that stimulus posthatching, and this response appeared to be generalized to another potential prey stimulus (mussel odour) but not to a novel plant stimulus. In a test of social learning, only observers that were paired with models corralled near a novel food stimulus were subsequently attracted to the stimulus. This study is the first to report embryonic learning of food or social learning by salamanders, providing more evidence for generalized learning by embryos and social learning by species lacking more complex social behaviours.

Effect of demonstrator reliability and recency of last demonstration on acquisition of a socially transmitted food preference.

In the social transmission of food preference paradigm, naive observer rats acquire safety information about novel food sources in the environment through social interaction with a demonstrator rat that has recently eaten said food. Research into the behavioural mechanisms governing this form of learning has found that observers show increased reliance on socially acquired information when the state of the environment makes personal examination of their surroundings risky. We aimed to (1) determine whether reliance on social information would decrease if previous reliance on social learning was unsuccessful, and (2) whether reliance on the specific demonstrator that had transmitted poor information would similarly decrease. By inducing illness in observers following consumption of a socially demonstrated food, we created an environmental situation in which reliance on socially acquired information was maladaptive. We found that under these conditions, observers showed no change in their reliance on a specific demonstrator or socially learned information in general. Our experiment also unexpectedly produced results showing that recent demonstrators were more influential in later transmissions than demonstrators that had been learned from less recently. Notably, this effect only emerged when the observer simultaneously interacted with both demonstrators, indicating that demonstrators must be in direct competition for this effect to manifest.

Mate copying in Drosophila melanogaster males

To assess potential mates' quality individuals can observe sexually interacting conspecifics. Such social information use is called mate copying and occurs when observer individuals witnessing sexual interactions of conspecifics later show a mating preference for mates that were seen mating. Most studies have focused on female mate copying, as females are usually the choosy sex. However, much less is known about the existence of male mate copying, probably because of the usual strong asymmetry in sex roles. Mate copying has been documented in female Drosophila melanogaster, and here we report on experimental evidence for mate copying in males of this species in which females can actively reject males and prevent copulation. As mate choice implies high costs for males we assumed that they perform mate copying as well. We created two artificial female phenotypes by randomly dusting females with green or pink powders, and virgin naive observer males were given the opportunity to see a demonstrator male choosing between a pink and a green demonstrator female. Immediately afterwards, observer males were given the choice between two new females, one of each colour. To circumvent the difficulty of determining actual male mate preference, we used two complementary indices of male mate choice, both of which provided evidence for male mate copying. Informed observer males showed a bias towards females of the colour they saw being chosen during demonstrations, while uninformed males chose randomly between pink and green females. This suggests that male fruit flies can also perform mate copying. Although significant, our results in males were less clear-cut than in females in previous studies. However, like females, D. melanogaster males can mate copy based on a single observation. The importance and generality of such mate copying abilities in nature, and their potential impact on the evolution of Drosophila and probably other invertebrates, need further exploration.

From Exploration to Instruction: Children Learn From Exploration and Tailor Their Demonstrations to Observers' Goals and Competence.

This study investigated whether children learn from exploration and act as effective informants by providing informative demonstrations tailored to observers' goals and competence. Children (4.0-6.9years, N=98) explored a causally ambiguous toy to discover its causal structure and then demonstrated the toy to a naive observer. Children provided more costly and informative evidence when the observer wanted to learn about the toy than observe its effects (Experiment 1) and when the observer was ordinary than exceptionally intelligent (Experiment 2). Relative to the evidence they generated during exploration, children produced fewer, less costly actions when the observer wanted or needed less evidence. Children understand the difference between acting-to-learn and acting-to-inform; after learning from exploration, they consider others' goals and competence to provide "uninstructed instruction".

Consistency of Coloration Pattern and Applicability of Photo Identification Method as a Tool to Identify Individuals of the Kaiser’s Mountain Newt, &lt;i&gt;Neurergus kaiseri&lt;/i&gt;

In this study, we investigated the use of the dorsal coloration pattern of larval, post-metamorphic and adult Neurergus kaiseri in order to develop a non-invasive photo-identification method to identify individuals of this species. Development of color pattern of larval and post-metamorphic newts until to reach to a pattern constancy was studied by consecutive photography during one year. In all transparent larval newts, we observed that random distributed pigment cells gradually accumulate along dorsal line and midbody lateral line during the first half of the larval period, and following localization in early post metamorphosis remains unchanged thereafter. Also, in a separate experiment we evaluated accuracy (% matching) and efficiency (time required for each matching) of visual judgments (true recognition or matching and false recognition or miss-matching) by naive observers when they recognized 150 individual’s adult newts based on their pattern coloration in colored photographs. In all visual judgments of photographic identification trials based on true and false recognitions in naive observer using different dorsal parts the success rate averaged 99.9 ± 0.3. The mean success rate in false recognition was 99.9% ranging from 99.7 to 100%. Assessment of accuracy of photo-identification method by true recognition yielded 100% success rate.

OF MARTYRS AND ROBOTS: PROPAGANDA AND GROUP IDENTITY

1 R O F M A R T Y R S A N D R O B O T S P R O P A G A N D A A N D G R O U P I D E N T I T Y M E G A N H Y S K A A concern with propaganda has animated American liberal discourse in a new way since the run-up to the 2016 election. On virtually any day since at least July 2016, a naive observer set in front of a bank of screens streaming center-left national news coverage might quickly glean the following: that ‘‘propaganda’’ had something to do with illegitimate attempts to influence an electorate, and that standing accused of this illegitimate conduct were both foreign actors (Russia) and domestic ones (broadcasting bodies like Fox and Sinclair, websites like Breitbart, the Drudge Report, Gateway Pundit, and Infowars). Perhaps less obvious is what this observer would conclude concerning why this messaging was supposed to be illegitimate. In some cases, the messaging in question was made possible by breaking the law; illegitimacy here would seem easy to place. Russian interference and misinformation campaigns, for instance, involved the clearly illegal hacking of Democratic National Convention servers. Another of this campaign’s elements, the purchase of targeted ads on Facebook, inhabited murkier legal terrain, though the fallout has seen Facebook investigated by the Federal Trade Commission and served a criminal search warrant by the 2 H Y S K A Y Mueller probe on the strength of suspected elections law violations . Generally though, our observer would surely conclude that an attempt to influence does not need to violate a law to count as propaganda. When the messaging in question is false, and known by its purveyors to be so, this is of course also su≈cient to ground its illegitimacy. But from here, the reasons for regarding some messaging as illegitimate become murky. Many are likely to feel about the illegitimacy distinctive of propaganda as Justice Potter Stewart did about pornography: we don’t have a definition ready at hand but we ‘‘know it when we see it.’’ Those cases of propaganda that we take as paradigmatic tend to work via conspicuous mechanisms: explicit assertion; exaggeration of negative or positive traits in the subject of visual depiction; emotionally evocative slogans. Nazi posters caricature Jews and proclaim that ‘‘Der ist Schuld am Kriege!’’ (The war is his fault). Contemporary pro-natalist campaigns in Italy depict a white, plausibly ethnically Italian woman, one hand on abdomen, one holding an hourglass, and declare, ‘‘La bellezza non ha età, la fertilità sì’’ (Beauty has no age, fertility does). Reconstruction-era ads from the former Confederate states of the United States depict black freedmen indolently consuming the fruits of white laborers’ toil; as sexually aggressing against white women; or as succumbing to lynching at the hands of a Klansman in vaguely GrecoRoman dress. A theory of propaganda necessarily proceeds from examples, both contemporary and historical, whose status as propaganda is agreed upon, and aims to say what these examples have in common . The theory of propaganda embodied by contemporary liberal discourse, working from examples like those listed above, has the following underlying form. First, and most often implicitly, it asserts a norm for the deliberation of political agents; standardly, that agents should be rational, should be independent minded, should be educated and curious, should perhaps take as a premise that others in their political community are entitled to a certain sort of respect. Second, it describes the way that propaganda undermines this state: say, by misinformation, by incitement to cowardice , or by application of strategic pressure to the loaded mousetrap of self-serving bias. O F M A R T Y R S A N D R O B O T S 3 R En route to considering whether something like this account is correct, we might start by considering one fact that any account of propaganda must reflect. This is that propaganda’s mission of belief change has only instrumental value to its wielder. Political belief is simply a more directly manipulable antecedent of political (in)action, which...

Lisibilité et qualité des sites Internet français sur l’épilepsie

The Internet is now the single largest source of health information and is used by many patients who are affected by epilepsy and their families. MethodsTo assess the quality of information provided by French website on the different forms of epilepsy and their treatment, we used search engines (French pages from Bing, Google and Yahoo) to look for information using the French equivalent of three keywords epilepsy (Épilepsie); epilepsy treatment (Épilepsie traitement) and seizure (Convulsions). The websites were evaluated for content quality by using an adaptation of the validated DISCERN rating instrument. Each website was evaluated by three investigators (a naive observer, a pediatric neurologist and a neurologist). ResultsMost of the information on epilepsy and its treatment were from community websites. We found six French websites which were scored higher than half of the maximal value of our scoring system (≥27.5/55): www.passeportsante.net; fr.wikipedia.org; www.fondation-epilepsie.fr; www.epilepsie-france.fr; www.doctissimo.fr; www.caducee.net. ConclusionThis study provides a list of French websites that have been evaluated for the quality of their information. We did not observe any correlation between the quality of the information and priority on search engine listings. Websites sponsored by patients associations and by institutions should update their content more frequently or work on their search engine indexation to appear higher on search engine listings.

Spread of Social Information and Dynamics of Social Transmission within Drosophila Groups

Understanding how behavioral diversity arises and is maintained is central to evolutionary biology. Genetically based inheritance has been a predominant research focus of the last century; however, nongenetic inheritance, such as social transmission, has become a topic of increasing interest [1]. How social information impacts behavior depends on the balance between information gathered directly through personal experience versus that gleaned through social interactions and on the diffusion of this information within groups [2, 3]. We investigate how female Drosophila melanogaster use social information under seminatural conditions and whether this information can spread and be maintained within a group, a prerequisite for establishing behavioral transmission [4]. We show that oviposition site choice is heavily influenced by previous social interactions. Naive observer flies develop a preference for the same egg-laying medium as experienced demonstrator flies conditioned to avoid one of two equally rewarding media. Surprisingly, oviposition site preference was socially transmitted from demonstrators to observers even when they interacted in a cage with only unflavored, pure agar medium, and even when the observer flies had previous personal experience with both rewarding media. Our findings shed light on the diffusion process of social information within groups, on its maintenance, and ultimately, on the roots of behavioral local adaptation.

Individual and social learning processes involved in the acquisition and generalization of tool use in macaques

Macaques can efficiently use several tools, but their capacity to discriminate the relevant physical features of a tool and the social factors contributing to their acquisition are still poorly explored. In a series of studies, we investigated macaques' ability to generalize the use of a stick as a tool to new objects having different physical features (study 1), or to new contexts, requiring them to adapt the previously learned motor strategy (study 2). We then assessed whether the observation of a skilled model might facilitate tool-use learning by naive observer monkeys (study 3). Results of study 1 and study 2 showed that monkeys trained to use a tool generalize this ability to tools of different shape and length, and learn to adapt their motor strategy to a new task. Study 3 demonstrated that observing a skilled model increases the observers' manipulations of a stick, thus facilitating the individual discovery of the relevant properties of this object as a tool. These findings support the view that in macaques, the motor system can be modified through tool use and that it has a limited capacity to adjust the learnt motor skills to a new context. Social factors, although important to facilitate the interaction with tools, are not crucial for tool-use learning.

Threshold of Visual Perception of Facial Asymmetry in a Facial Paralysis Model

To determine the degree of facial asymmetry required to trigger conscious perception in the observer in a simulated model of facial paralysis. A model of unilateral facial paralysis was created using the face of a participant without facial paralysis. Digital morphing software was used to create progressive asymmetry of the brow, oral commissure, and combined brow and oral commissure based on the typical sequelae seen in facial paralysis. Volunteers naive to the goals of the study repeatedly were shown a series of photographs of faces without facial paralysis, with the manipulated image interspersed within the series. At least 3 mm of facial asymmetry of the oral commissure, brow, or both was required before participants detected the asymmetry. With longer display intervals, participants tended to detect a smaller degree of asymmetry. To our knowledge, this is the first study directed at determining the amount of facial asymmetry required to trigger conscious perception of patients' facial paralysis in the naive observer. The pilot data and the discussion herein provide insight into the processes of visual perception of facial asymmetry and may be useful to surgeons for patient counseling and in setting surgical goals.

Threshold of Visual Perception of Facial Asymmetry in a Facial Paralysis Model

To determine the degree of facial asymmetry required to trigger conscious perception in the observer in a simulated model of facial paralysis. A model of unilateral facial paralysis was created using the face of a participant without facial paralysis. Digital morphing software was used to create progressive asymmetry of the brow, oral commissure, and combined brow and oral commissure based on the typical sequelae seen in facial paralysis. Volunteers naive to the goals of the study repeatedly were shown a series of photographs of faces without facial paralysis, with the manipulated image interspersed within the series. At least 3 mm of facial asymmetry of the oral commissure, brow, or both was required before participants detected the asymmetry. With longer display intervals, participants tended to detect a smaller degree of asymmetry. To our knowledge, this is the first study directed at determining the amount of facial asymmetry required to trigger conscious perception of patients' facial paralysis in the naive observer. The pilot data and the discussion herein provide insight into the processes of visual perception of facial asymmetry and may be useful to surgeons for patient counseling and in setting surgical goals.

A beginner's reflection on public mental health partnerships (after a few sips of feminism)

In the busy reality of everyday work many notions of key concern are taken for granted. This article provides a critical reflection on commonly used and often uncontested terms and practices such as mental health, public mental health and partnerships in public health. This is achieved by taking the stand of a naive observer, while implicitly referring to notions of difference and engendered power relations as elaborated within feminist studies.