As human populations increase and city borders grow, many animals have to modify their foraging behaviours to exploit evolutionarily novel urban food sources that could aid their survival. Neophobia, the fear of novelty, can lead to missed opportunities in these cases. Novelty is therefore expected to elicit different responses in urban and rural populations, a difference that has been frequently studied, but with mixed results. The main objective of my thesis was to study the novelty response of wild black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in ecologically relevant conditions while controlling for individual characteristics and potential differences in foraging group size. I predicted that urban black-capped chickadees would be more likely to initially contact novelty than rural chickadees, and that subordinates and juveniles would be more likely to first contact novelty than dominants and adults, respectively. I ran replicated experiments using three novelty types (object, colour, or food) on six sites, during which I registered feeder choice of 71 tagged individuals. I found that urban chickadees showed less neophobia than their rural counterparts, the latter initially contacting the familiar feeder before approaching the novel feeder, while the former were equally likely to contact any feeder. There was no significant effect of an individual’s dominance, age or sex on its first choice of feeder, nor was there an effect of novelty type. Overall, my results suggest that urban chickadees exhibit less neophobia than their rural counterparts, because they have generally learned to tolerate novelty in their habitat and/or they have adapted to live in an environment that rewards low neophobia.

This research investigated the relationship between group size and the process of trust, cohesion, and commitment formation in joint-task groups. Specifically, the theory proposes that groups with greater six members will produce lower trust, cohesion, and commitment than those smaller than six members. Theory was developed linking group size to these processes through the mechanism of anticipated mutual perception, the amount an individual considers what others are thinking about them. Two experimental studies test the impact of anticipated mutual perception on interpersonal influence and trust, cohesion, and commitment. Study 1 tested the impact of being able to see a partner and closeness to a partner on a partner's level of influence over participants. Participants were more influenced by partners they could see than by partner's who were separated from the participant by place or time. Status differences also affected influence, even when partners were absent, having left information for use by participants. Study 2 investigated how group size affected participant reports of interpersonal trust, cohesion, and commitment to other group members. Results suggest that members of larger groups had lower commitment to other group members, and that groups larger than six members were negatively associated with levels of trust reported by group members. Further, measures used to isolate aspects of anticipated mutual perception were shown to affect the development of interpersonal trust, cohesion, and commitment, in support of the theory. Group cohesion was found to vary with expectations of competence. These expectations significantly predicted measures of shared awareness capturing aspects of anticipated mutual perception, possibly offsetting negative effects of increasing group size. Study 2 also found evidence that group members prefer to work with groups made up of 4-6 members, consistent with the theory. This research has implications for the ways in which organizations structure group work. This research suggests that the size of the group as well as the characteristics of individuals and their interaction partners may affect how people form cohesive relationships. Trust is an important aspect of groups that promotes cooperation, commitment, and collective identity formation. Further, this research supports a growing literature on the ways that micro-interaction promotes commitment to organizations by promoting or detracting from attributions of positive sentiment to smaller, nested groups within those organizations.

<p>The purpose of this study is to get an understanding of how teachers in electricity and electronics use teamwork in school. The study was carried out in two upper secondary schools in the middle of Sweden. The method I use is qualitative interviews. The analysis method I selected is an ad hoc method. Teachers regard the use of teamwork in school today as valuable because society and several occupations today demand co-operation and teamwork. Teachers see the advantages when pupils can exchange ideas with each other and get other opinions. Other aspects to why teachers choose teamwork in school is that poor pupils can get support from others. A problem teachers discover is that good students can be prevented to move forward at a higher pace as result of the teamwork. The importance of group size for teamwork and other positive effects due to the presence of others is also discussed.</p> / <p>Syftet med undersökningen är få en insikt i hur ellärare på gymnasiet jobbar med grupparbete i skolan. Metoden som undersökningen bygger på är kvalitativa intervjuer som gjordes på två olika gymnasieskolor i Mellansverige. Valet av analys metod blev den vanliga ad hoc. Resultatet visar att lärarna ser vikten av grupparbeten och samarbetsträning i skolan idag beroende på att det krävs samarbete inom flera yrkesområden och verksamhetsfält ute i samhället. Lärarna ser också behovet att elever får byta idéer och får andra elevers åsikter i undervisningen. Andra aspekter som lärarna tar upp är att svaga elever får stöttning i grupparbetet, men också att starka elever ibland ser grupparbetet som ett hinder för att gå snabbare fram. Gruppstorlekens betydelse för grupparbetet och de positiva effekter som kan uppstå vid enbart social närvaro mellan personer belyses.</p>

The purpose of this study is to get an understanding of how teachers in electricity and electronics use teamwork in school. The study was carried out in two upper secondary schools in the middle of Sweden. The method I use is qualitative interviews. The analysis method I selected is an ad hoc method. Teachers regard the use of teamwork in school today as valuable because society and several occupations today demand co-operation and teamwork. Teachers see the advantages when pupils can exchange ideas with each other and get other opinions. Other aspects to why teachers choose teamwork in school is that poor pupils can get support from others. A problem teachers discover is that good students can be prevented to move forward at a higher pace as result of the teamwork. The importance of group size for teamwork and other positive effects due to the presence of others is also discussed. / Syftet med undersökningen är få en insikt i hur ellärare på gymnasiet jobbar med grupparbete i skolan. Metoden som undersökningen bygger på är kvalitativa intervjuer som gjordes på två olika gymnasieskolor i Mellansverige. Valet av analys metod blev den vanliga ad hoc. Resultatet visar att lärarna ser vikten av grupparbeten och samarbetsträning i skolan idag beroende på att det krävs samarbete inom flera yrkesområden och verksamhetsfält ute i samhället. Lärarna ser också behovet att elever får byta idéer och får andra elevers åsikter i undervisningen. Andra aspekter som lärarna tar upp är att svaga elever får stöttning i grupparbetet, men också att starka elever ibland ser grupparbetet som ett hinder för att gå snabbare fram. Gruppstorlekens betydelse för grupparbetet och de positiva effekter som kan uppstå vid enbart social närvaro mellan personer belyses.

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The purpose of this study was to create an understanding of how group leaders manage their worktime and what conditions the group leader needs to conduct their work assignments. The research design was a single case study that was performed on a larger corporation´s central warehouse. The data collection consisted of semi structured interviews with six group leaders. Furthermore, an inventory of the worktime was made in which the group leaders themselves estimated their worktime during a month of work. The results showed that the group leaders experienced a lack of time but that the conditions were good for leadership. Progress was promoted and the space of action was big. The time inventory showed that the group leaders’ average work were made of 52 hours. The study discusses the job description, which was too wide and should be focused more towards the group. The conclusion was that the group leaders worked reactively, more assignments should be focused towards the group. The job description needed to be better defined and the groups were too big and there were time constraints which affected the work.

Crowding of grow-finish pigs reduces growth and is considered a welfare issue. Most crowding studies have been limited to smaller group sizes than are currently being considered in the swine industry. It has been hypothesized that pigs in large groups require less space to maintain growth and welfare. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of group size and space allowance on the performance, health and welfare of grow-finish pigs. The study consisted of eight blocks, each with four experimental units in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of group size (18 vs. 108 pigs/pen) and space allowance (0.52 vs. 0.78 m2/pig). Health assessments were conducted daily; production data were collected weekly; injury scores, behaviour and salivary cortisol data were collected bi-weekly; and carcass and adrenal gland data were collected at slaughter. Gains were lower for crowded pigs, but the effects were limited to the final week of the study. Pigs in crowded groups had a lower feed efficiency, which followed a trend similar to that of gains over time. In the crowded groups, pigs spent less time at the feeder, but no other variables differed among space allowances. Gains were lower for pigs housed in large groups, but the effects were limited to the initial two weeks of the study. Pigs in large groups had a lower feed efficiency and more lameness and leg sores. Other health measures did not differ between the group sizes. Lying behaviour of pigs in large groups indicated that they were able to utilize free space more efficiently than pigs housed in small groups. Analysis of feeding patterns suggests that pigs housed in large crowded groups were able to manoeuvre around their environment more easily than those in small crowded groups, yet performance of pigs in large groups was similarly affected by space restriction as pigs in small groups. Interactions of group size and space allowance indicated that pigs in large crowded groups were more susceptible to lameness. There was no indication that pigs in large groups required less space, or could perform as well at reduced space allowances, than pigs in small groups.

Crowding of grow-finish pigs reduces growth and is considered a welfare issue. Most crowding studies have been limited to smaller group sizes than are currently being considered in the swine industry. It has been hypothesized that pigs in large groups require less space to maintain growth and welfare. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of group size and space allowance on the performance, health and welfare of grow-finish pigs. The study consisted of eight blocks, each with four experimental units in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of group size (18 vs. 108 pigs/pen) and space allowance (0.52 vs. 0.78 m2/pig). Health assessments were conducted daily; production data were collected weekly; injury scores, behaviour and salivary cortisol data were collected bi-weekly; and carcass and adrenal gland data were collected at slaughter. Gains were lower for crowded pigs, but the effects were limited to the final week of the study. Pigs in crowded groups had a lower feed efficiency, which followed a trend similar to that of gains over time. In the crowded groups, pigs spent less time at the feeder, but no other variables differed among space allowances. Gains were lower for pigs housed in large groups, but the effects were limited to the initial two weeks of the study. Pigs in large groups had a lower feed efficiency and more lameness and leg sores. Other health measures did not differ between the group sizes. Lying behaviour of pigs in large groups indicated that they were able to utilize free space more efficiently than pigs housed in small groups. Analysis of feeding patterns suggests that pigs housed in large crowded groups were able to manoeuvre around their environment more easily than those in small crowded groups, yet performance of pigs in large groups was similarly affected by space restriction as pigs in small groups. Interactions of group size and space allowance indicated that pigs in large crowded groups were more susceptible to lameness. There was no indication that pigs in large groups required less space, or could perform as well at reduced space allowances, than pigs in small groups.

Folivores do not exhibit a direct relationship between group size and daily path length and are consequently believed to experience little feeding competition. However, previous studies lacked sufficient control for ecological variation and did not account for the underlying hierarchical structure inherent in closely related taxa (phylogeny). The present analysis examined daily path length and relative ranging cost in 37 primate species, including 18 folivores, while controlling for ecological variation and phylogeny. Group size effects on group spread, changes in activity budget, and infant to female ratios were similarly investigated as these have been found to indicate feeding competition in folivorous primates. Although relative ranging cost was a not a significant predictor of folivore group size, large groups traveled significantly farther per day, increased group spread per individual, and had lower infant to female ratios than small groups. Large groups spent more time feeding and less time resting than small groups; however, these trends were not significant. A strong phylogenetic signal was detected among species’ mean values for average group size (λ = 0.827). Because primate group size and behavior represent the combination of adapting to present-day environments and phylogenetic inertia, future comparative analyses of feeding competition should account for both current ecological conditions and the phylogenetic signals inherent in the taxa being compared. As suggested by the current study, folivorous primates may utilize a number of foraging strategies, other than increasing daily path length, to alleviate feeding competition. To better assess feeding competition, future research should include alternative correlates of feeding competition such as increased group spread, changes in activity budgets, and decreased female fecundity. The information gained from such research may improve our current interpretations of the ‘folivore paradox’ and redefine the competitive regime of leaf eating primates. / text

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