Habituation in the Aristotelian tradition claims that we develop our moral virtues through repeated and guided practice in moral actions. His theory provides important insights for moral education and as a result many contemporary philosophers have debated how to properly interpret his writing. This thesis will explore Aristotelian habituation and the competing interpretations surrounding it, namely the cognitivist and mechanical views. It will then criticize the mechanical view and argue that the intrinsic valuation of virtuous actions evidences a cognitivist interpretation of habituation in the Aristotelian tradition.

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have atypical sensory processing and behaviors including sensory sensitivity and low registration of sensory stimuli as well as sensory seeking and avoiding behaviors. Additionally, many individuals with ASD have clinically distressing levels of anxiety. Previous research suggests that there is a link between abnormal sensory processing, anxiety, and ASD. The purpose of this study was to experimentally observe auditory sensory processing using pupillometry methods, between ASD, control, and high-anxious control groups. While a difference in tonic pupil size was observed, there were no reactivity or habituation differences between the groups. There were no significant correlations between the pupillometry measures and behavioral measures of emotional distress and anxiety. These results do not indicate a relationship between anxiety and unimodal auditory response in ASD. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The objective of the first chapter of this thesis was to determine whether fungicide seed coatings constitute an effective strategy for increasing seedling recruitment in restoration scenarios in the Intermountain West. We tested a mixture of four fungicides that address potential fungal pathogens to bluebunch wheatgrass, a dominant bunchgrass that is commonly used in restoration. Across two sites and three years, we found that the fungicide seed coating increased emergence in five of the six sites and years, with an average increase of 59.1% over the control. There was a strong interaction (P < 0.001) between the effects of fungicide treatment, the year and the site on emergence. This interaction was likely related to the effects of the hydrothermal microsite environment on disease severity. Further research is necessary to fully understand the conditions under which fungicide seed coatings are most likely to be effective. The objectives the second chapter of this thesis were to 1) estimate the effects of golden eagle nest proximity to explosive disturbances on reproductive success given other relevant habitat variables (e.g. indices of topography and vegetation), and 2) determine the relative importance of nest proximity to explosive disturbances as a predictor of golden eagle reproductive success compared to other relevant habitat variables. Reproductive success data were collected from nesting territories within and surrounding land controlled and managed by the US Department of Defense. We fit the reproductive survey data using generalized linear mixed-effects models comprised of unique, hypothesis-based sets of habitat variables. We compared the models using AICc-based model selection processes. Given the best approximating model, we found no evidence that the likelihood of reproductive success was affected by nest proximity to explosive disturbances (P = 0.460). We further found nest proximity to explosive disturbances consistently ranked in the bottom 50% of relative variable importance. These results may indicate golden eagle tolerance or habituation to explosive military tests and trainings. Although the two chapters of this thesis are disjointed, they are loosely unified by the ecological importance of disturbance, invasive species, and restoration within the Great Basin ecoregion.

Polar bears spend the majority of their lives on the sea ice, where they gain access to seals and mates. In western Hudson Bay, the sea ice melts for three to four months in the summer, and polar bears there are forced onto land. These bears live on their fat reserves for the duration of the iceless period, until temperatures get colder in the fall and freeze up begins. The aggregation of polar bears near Churchill, Manitoba during the ice free period has led to a thriving tourist industry, with a large influx of tourists visiting Churchill in the fall in a six to eight week period, yet little is known about the impacts of this industry on the biology of the bears. This study investigated the effect of tourist vehicles and human presence on the behavior of polar bears over the fall of 2003 and 2004. Overall time budgets were estimated for bears, and the behavior of males and females was compared. Females spent significantly less time lying and more time in locomotion than males. Time budgets were also estimated for bears in the presence and absence of tourist vehicles. Bears spent less time lying and more time in a sit/stand position in the presence of vehicles. Air temperature had no significant effect on the time budgets of polar bears. Tundra vehicle approaches were manipulated to determine effects on polar bear behavior, and to investigate any variables that significantly affected response, including habituation. A response was defined as any sudden whole body movement or change in position or behavior at the time of approach. A total of 25% of all bears responded to the experimental vehicle approach. For bears that responded to approach, the average distance at response was 43 m. The average speed of the vehicle was 0.66 ± 0.02 m/s (range 0.23 to 1.15 m/s). Approach variables that significantly influenced the likelihood of response of a bear to an approaching vehicle included angle of approach and vehicle speed. Direct approaches, in which the bear was in the path of the moving vehicle, had a higher probability of eliciting a response than indirect approaches, in which the vehicle stayed to one side of the bear at all times. Higher speeds of the vehicle increased the probability of a response by a bear. Behaviors of the bear that significantly predicted a response were shifting of the body and smacking of the lips. A playback study was conducted to determine the effects of human induced sound on polar bears. There was no significant effect of human sound on polar bears. Results presented here provide the first experimental evidence of variables in the tourist industry that affect polar bear behavior, and the first evidence of behavioral cues predicting a response to vehicle approach.

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The speech commonly addressed to infants (infant-directed speech or IDS) is believed to have multiple functions, including communication of emotion and highlighting linguistic aspects of speech. However, these two functions are most often studied separately so that the influence of emotional prosody (the changes in intonation and vocal quality that relate to emotion) on linguistic processing in infants has rarely been addressed. Given that language learning during infancy occurs in the context of natural infant-caretaker exchanges that most certainly include emotion communication and co-regulation, it is important to integrate the concepts of emotional communication and linguistic communication in studying language learning. This study examined the influence of both positive (happy) and negative (sad) face+voice contexts on word recognition in 11-to-13-month-old infants. It was hypothesized that infants would learn and subsequently recognize words when they were delivered in a happy context, but will experience more difficulty in learning and/or recognition of the same words when delivered in a sad context. The general pattern of results confirmed these predictions in that after habituating to sentences containing a specific target nonsense word, infants in the Happy Condition recovered their attention to the same sentences with a novel target word. In contrast, infants in the Sad Condition showed no significant recovery to a change in target words. These results contribute to our understanding of how emotional tone can facilitate and/or attenuate attention in older infants as they engage in language learning with their caretakers. / Ph. D.

All forms of exercise equipment require a period of habituation in which individuals adapt to the novel movement required in operating the device and reach a point of physiological stability. During this adaptation period, physiological variables which indicate cardiopulmonary demand typically will change. In general, such changes are expected with devices that require complex movements. The influence of this habituation on physical performance is vital for establishing research methodology in which precise control of power output is necessary. The StairMaster® corporation has recently introduced the CrossRobics™ 2650UE (2650UE), an ergometer which simulates the kayak stroke pattern. In contrast to bicycle and arm crank ergometers, with which the user follows a set motion, the 2650UE allows the user to adopt a variety of movement patterns. To determine responses during habituation to the 2650UE, 14 female and 12 male subjects (18-32 years of age) were monitored during their first four exercise trials. Each session was 10 min long at a constant load of 0.36 watts/kg ± 0.02SD and 0.55 watt/kg ±0.02SD for female and male subjects, respectively. Significant differences (p<O.OOI) were found for V02, -.vO₂, -.vE, HR and RPE across the four trials, with decreases of 6.3% to 9.5% from the mean values in trial 1 to trial 2. Post hoc analysis indicates that a minimum of two 10 min practice trials are required for measures of oxygen consumption to stabilize, whereas one 10 min practice trial is required for measures of-.v E, HP and RPE to stabilize. / Master of Science

By using auditory distraction as a tool, the main focus of the present thesis is to investigate the role of memory systems in human adaptation processes towards changes in the built environment. Report I and Report II focus on the question of whether memory for regularities in the auditory environment is used to form predictions and expectations of future sound events, and if violations of these expectations capture attention. Collectively the results indicate that once a stable neural model of the sound environment is created, violations of the formed expectations can capture attention. Furthermore, the magnitude of attentional capture is a function of the pitch difference between the expected tone and the presented tone. The second part of the thesis is concerned with, (a) the nature (i.e. the specificity) of the neural model formed in an auditory environment and, (b) whether complex cognition in terms of working memory capacity modulates habituation rate. The results in Report III show that the disruptive effect of the deviation effect diminishes with the number of exposures over time, and also as a function of working memory capacity. The aim of Report IV was to investigate the nature (and specificity) of the neural model formed in an auditory environment. If the neural model is fashioned around a specific stimulus then an observable increase of response latency should occur in conjunction with the deviant change. The results in Experiment 1 in Report IV, however, show that the habituation rate remained the same throughout the experiment. To further test the specificity of the neural model the modalityof the deviant event was switched (from auditory to visual and vice versa) in Experiment 3 in Report IV. The collective findings indicate that the formed neural model may be of a more general nature than previously suggested. The aim of Experiment 2 in Report IV was to investigate what properties of the sound environment underpin habituation rate, more specifically if predictability of a deviant trial facilitates the habituation process. The finding that the habituation rate was similar whether there was a fixed temporal interval between the deviant trials or a random interval suggests that the amount of occurrences (i.e. number of deviant trials) determines habituation rate, not the predictability of a deviant trial. / Denna avhandling undersöker vilken roll minnessystem har i anpassningen till förändringar i den byggda miljön. Delrapport I och Delrapport II fokuserar på frågan om regelbundenheter i den auditiva miljön används för att skapa förväntningar och prediktioner gällande framtida händelser, och vidare, om avvikelser från dessa förväntningar fångar uppmärksamheten. Sammantaget tyder resultaten på att uppmärksamheten fångas om nämnda förväntningar inte infrias. Vidare visar resultaten att magnituden av den fångade uppmärksamheten är en funktion av skillnaden mellan den förväntade tonen och den presenterade tonen. Den andra delen av avhandlingen undersöker (a) karaktären (dvs. specificiteten) av den neurala modellen och (b) om komplex kognition i termer av arbetsminneskapacitet påverkar habituation. Resultaten i Delrapport III visar att den störande effekten av den avvikande tonen minskar dels med antalet exponeringar och dels som en funktion av arbetsminneskapacitet. Syftet med Delrapport IV var att undersöka hur specifik den skapade neurala modellen är. Resultaten i Experiment 1 i Delrapport IV visar att habituationstakten förblev densamma under hela experimentet även om den avvikande tonen byttes ut under experimentets gång. Detta tillsammans med resultaten i Experiment 3 i Delrapport IV, där habituation kunde påvisas även om modaliteten av den avvikande händelsen byttes från auditiv till visuell och vice versa, indikerar att den neurala modellen är av en mer allmän karaktär än vad man tidigare trott. Syftet med Experiment 2 i Delrapport IV var att undersöka vilka egenskaper i ljudmiljön som påverkar habituationstakten. Upptäckten att takten var likvärdig oavsett om det fanns ett fast eller ett slumpmässigt intervall mellan de avvikande tonerna tyder på att det är mängden förekomster (dvs. antalet avvikande toner), snarare än predicerbarhet, som avgör habituationstakten.

Die in dieser Arbeit vorgestellten Arbeiten zielten darauf ab, verschiedene Formen des Lernens und der Verhaltensanpassung in Tieren zu testen. Hierbei wurder der Großteil dieser Arbeit an einer natürlich vorkommenden klonalen Fischart, der Amazonas-Molly Poecilia formosa, durchgeführt. Diese gesellige, ausschließlich weibliche Art erzeugt durch ungeschlechtliche Fortpflanzung genetisch identische Nachkommen. Mit dem Aufkommen von immer detaillierteren Ansätzen zur Unterscheidung von Verhaltensunterschieden sind solche klonalen Arten in der Ethologie von entscheidender Bedeutung, da sie als perfektes natürliches Modell dienen, um individuelle Verhaltensunterschiede und deren Entwicklung zu testen. Da genetische Variationen als Störfaktor weitgehend ausgeschlossen werden können, kann die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Unterschiede zwischen Individuen aufgrund ihrer Vorerfahrungen gelenkt werden. In den ersten drei Kapiteln der hier vorgestellten Arbeit wurden die individuellen Erfahrungen durch operante Konditionierung oder durch das Aussetzen der Tiere gegenüber neuen oder bekannten Situationen verändert. Das jeweilige Verhalten wurde sowohl alleine, als auch im sozialen Kontext untersucht. Auf diese Weise wurde die Auswirkung des sozialen Kontexts sowie der physischen Umgebung auf Verhaltensaspekte wie Schwimmgeschwindigkeit und Sprungwahrscheinlichkeit ermittelt. Kleinere Verhaltensunterschiede wurden dann im folgenden Kapitel durch den Vergleich von manuellen Ansätzen und automatischen Quantifizierungsinstrumenten bewertet und evaluiert. Schließlich wurde ein methodischer Ansatz augearbeitet, bei dem die Leistungsfähigkeit künstlicher intelligenz in Form von neuronalen Netze genutzt wurde, um Individuen in komplizierten, natürlichen Szenen während Räuber-Beute-Interaktionen zu verfolgen. / The work presented in this thesis set out to test various forms of learning and behavior adaptation. The bulk of this work was done using a naturally occurring clonal fish species, the Amazon molly Poecilia formosa. This sociable, all female species produces genetically identical offspring through asexual reproduction. With the advent of increasingly detailed approaches to discriminate behavioral differences, such clonal species are vital in ethology as they serve as a perfect natural model to test for individual behavioral differences and the development of such. Since genetical variation can largely be excluded as a confounding factor, attention can be drawn towards the differences among individuals due to their prior experience. In the first three chapters of the work presented here, the individual information and experience was altered by applying operant conditioning or by exposing the animals to novel or well-known situations. This was done both individually and in a group setting. By doing so, the effect of the social context, as well as the physical surroundings on behavioral aspects such as swimming speed and jumping probability was determined. Minute behavioral differences were then evaluated in the following chapter by comparing manual approaches and automated quantification tools. Lastly, a methodological approach was taken in which the power of artifical neural networks was harnessed to track individuals in convoluted natural scenes during predator-prey interactions.