Recent studies on the social life and vocal production, usage and comprehension of nonhuman primates have brought new insights into the evolutionary mechanisms of cognition and communication as well as the emergence of language. A key point in the current literature concerns the flexibility of vocal production. In contrast to humans, some birds and some cetaceans, vocal flexibility is thought to be very restricted in nonhuman primates, which creates a startling phylogenetic gap. At the same time, research has shown that a number of African forest guenons' alarm calls appear to have language-like properties. With the hypothesis that looking at the vocal repertoire more broadly, especially the social calls, was likely to reveal other complex communicative abilities, I studied in detail the social life and vocal behaviour of a guenon species, Diana monkeys. First, the comparison of its social system with the system of another closely related species, Campbell's monkeys, stressed in both species the reduced number of physical interactions, although females maintained preferential relationships that were not biased towards kin. Second, the study of Diana females' vocal repertoire is restricted but flexible. Females emit social calls with a combinatorial structure, the use of which is affected by external events. Third, focusing on a highly frequent and highly social call revealed flexibility in the identity advertisement (divergence – convergence) which accommodates to the context. Fourth, to explore the nature of nonhuman primates' comprehension skills, I performed playback experiments of De Brazza monkey social calls to three species of Old World monkeys; Campbell's monkeys, black-and-white colobus monkeys and red-capped mangabeys. Altogether, the three species were able to discriminate hetero-specific voices of individuals they knew from individuals they had never met. Overall, my results have revealed a considerable degree of flexibility in the vocal communication of nonhuman primates, a finding that is consistent with the hypothesis of a continuous evolutionary transition from animal vocal behaviour to human language.

The question addressed is the relationship between intellectual understanding of social processes and behaviour: Does intellectual understanding of social psychological principles change social behaviour? Gergen (1973) raised this question and answered in the affirmative. He posited an "enlightenment effect" as a result of sophistication as to psychological principles. The first study reported here subjects were exposed to an enlightenment effect experimental manipulation. Volunteers who demonstrated understanding of Milgram's (1963) behavioural study of obedience were subsequently asked to participate in an experiment that in fact embodied the same principles as Milgram's. The subjects, though they understood the reasons for the teachers' behaviour in Milgram's study, nonetheless behaved in a strikingly similar fashion, coercing a supposedly distressed person (actually a confederate) to continue an upsetting task for the sake of a scientific understanding. Subject's demonstrated scant ability to bring their prior intellectual grasp of the dynamics of obedience and compliance to bear on their current situation or to even consider that it might be appropriate to do so. Two more studies explored the reasons for this failure of an enlightenment effect. In the second study observers watched a video-taped simulation of the first study. Observers in one condition believed that they were watching a tape of real events as they had occurred to the people involved. Observers in the other condition were told that they were watching actors role-play a hypothetical situation. This manipulation produced differential arousal and significant difference in observers' ability to comprehend that the ^subjects in the first study were engaging in behaviours parallel to those of. the teachers. A third study investigated the hypothesis that cognitive attention is captured by situational meanings that are made salient. This study brings together two lines of reasoning. Taylor & Fiske's (1975; 1978) focus-of-attention effect and the. frame-of-reference work of Eiser (1971), Alexander (1970) and Schutz (1970). Observers were again placed in one of two conditions. In one observers were sensitized to the possibility of multiple meanings in a situation and given what Goffman (1972) has called the dramaturgical standpoint. From this perspective they read about and viewed the video-tape of the; first experiment. Observers in the other condition were given a perspective and task that directed their attention to minute behavioural details of the same. The hypothesis was that observers in the multiple perspective condition would be able to take into account many- more levels of meaning and therefore be able to view the, first experiment from the point of view of the investigator. The dependent variable was the ability to surmise the experimental hypothesis of the first experiment. It was hypothesized that subjects in the other condition would have their attention so riveted on details of the experiment that they would not be able to easily re-orient to the more global analysis required. Both of these hypotheses were corroborated. The conclusion from these studies is that an enlightenment effect is a cognitive accomplishment whose achievement depends upon a frame of reference that is defined by the question "what's going on here". Whether or not individuals will bring their intellectual understanding to bear on their behaviour depends on the perceived salience, and availability, of that understanding at the time of the behaviour. Many situational aspects conspire to make an enlightenment effect a difficult task. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study is to provide a qualitative, detailed description of individual and social behavior in a free-living population of thirteen-lined ground squirrels. Behavioral differences in relation to various periods of the annual cycle are also evaluated.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第22318号 / 医博第4559号 / 新制||医||1041(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 渡邉 大, 教授 林 康紀, 教授 伊佐 正 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Oxytocin (OXT), a neuropeptide synthesized in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, functions to increase the precedence of social stimuli and promote the development of a wide range of social behaviors. However, whether OXT has a predicting role in social reward has yet to be examined. In this study, we developed a genetically encoded, scalable OXT sensor named OXTR-iTango2 and applied this technique to define the role of OXT in learned social behaviors. OXTR-iTango2 enables the combination of light- and ligand- dependent gene expression both in vitro and in vivo neural systems. In order to study the predictive role of OXT during expected socially rewarding experiences, we first conditioned animals to a social environment, and then selectively labeled OXT-sensitive ventral tegmental area dopamine (VTA-DA) neurons when animals encountered a conditioned stimulus that stood to predict a familiar social reward. Recurrent exposure to the same social stimulus normally lowered the degree of social interaction, but this reduced interaction was not observed when OXT-sensitive DA neurons were optogenetically inhibited. Thus, our findings support the notion that OXT plays a role beyond promoting social interactions, leading for a new proposed hypothesis that OXT mediation also leads to active avoidance of mundane social interactions. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

It was the purpose of this study to make application of Carl H. Rogers' non-directive method of psychotherapy in the treatment of juvenile delinquents. The study was set up in an effort to determine the value of such a treatment procedure as one method of treating this type of individual. The hypothesis to be tested was that non-directive psychotherapy would improve the personal and social adjustment of institutionalized delinquents. Supporting this general assumption the following three corollaries were assumed: (1) that improved personal adjustment would be reflected in adjustment inventories, (2) that improved social behavior would be reflected in social behavior rating scales, and (3) that the therapeutic objectives of interviews with each subject. The general hypothesis is supported to the extent that the results support each of the corollaries. In proceding toward an experimental test of the hypotheses, testing devices were selected for the purpose of detecting and measuring imporvement that may occur in the individual during the counseling process. The means used and described in the study for this purpose are (1) expressions of the subjects, (2) the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, (3) the California Test of Personality, (4) the Haggerty-Olson-Wickman Behavior Rating Schedules. Statements made by each subject were presumed to be indicative of better adjustment when they were presumed to be indicative of better adjustment when they were of such a nature as to imply that the therapeutic objectives had been attained. The three other measuring instruments were administered to the eleven experimental subjects before, and after the counseling interviews. A comparison of the pre-test and end-test scores, was presumed to indicate the improved adjustment of the subject while the interviewing was in progress. Any improvement that might be measured by this procedure, however, may be thought of as having occurred, not only from the influence of non-directive counseling, but possibly from other sources.

Recent literature has suggested a link between verbal working memory and language impairment (LI) in children. There is limited research, however, about the link between verbal working memory and social behaviors in children with LI. This study was designed to explore the relationship between social behaviors (measured by the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale; Hart & Robinson, 1996) and verbal working memory abilities (measured by a 3-, 4-, and 5-syllable nonword repetition task) in children with LI. Thirty-six children (18 with LI and 18 typically developing) aged 7 to 11 years participated in the study. Children with LI were rated by teachers as having significantly higher levels of reticence and lower levels of likeability and prosocial behaviors compared to typically developing peers. Children with LI also scored significantly lower on the nonword repetition task at the 3- and 4-syllable levels. Regression analyses revealed that nonword repetition scores were significant predictors of reticence and prosocial behaviors when examining all children as a group, accounting for 22% and 42% of the variance, respectively. As nonword repetition performance increased, reticence ratings decreased and prosocial behavior ratings increased. Nonword repetition did not significantly predict ratings on reticence or prosocial behaviors when examining language groups separately. Nonword repetition was not a significant predictor of likeability for children in this study. These findings indicate a relationship between nonword repetition performance and social behaviors in children with and without LI.

The actor-observer effect suggests that actors attribute to the situation while observers attribute to the actor's disposition. This effect has come under scrutiny because of an alternative perspective that accounts for anomalous finding. This alternative, called the contextual perspective, suggests that actors and observers foreground different aspects of the context because of a relationship with the context, and has roots in Gestalt psychology and phenomenology. I manipulated a researcher's prompt and the presence of a distressed confederate as the context for attributions, and hypothesized that actors and observers would differ on attributions to choice, situation, and disposition because of presence of a distressed confederate. Actors were presented with either a distressed or non-distressed confederate and either a prompt to leave, a prompt to stay, or no prompt. For example, some actors experienced a distressed confederate and were asked to leave while others experienced a non-distressed confederate and were asked to stay. Actors then made a decision to either stay and help the confederate or leave. Observers watched one of ten videos, each of one actor condition in which the actor either stayed or left (five actor conditions by 2 options of stay or leave). Actors' and observers' choice, situational, and dispositional attributions were analyzed using factorial MANOVAs. Actors and observers foregrounded the distressed confederate when making attributions to choice, situation, and disposition. Furthermore, observers' attributions to choice were also influenced by the actor's behavior. These findings support the contextual perspective since context does influence actors' and observers' attributions.

<p>Calves raised in automated milk feeder (AMF) systems benefit from social interaction and having access to large amounts of milk, which they can consume in multiple small meals. Additionally, these systems record longitudinal feeding behavior measurements on each calf. However, if group size, composition, and disease detection are not optimal, the health and performance of calves can be compromised. The analysis of AMF data can provide information that may allow for improved disease detection and group management to maximize health and welfare of pre-weaned dairy calves. A proper understanding of the data generated by AMF and its context are essential to derive meaningful information about health status and group dynamics of dairy calves. Because the goal is that farmers can use this information to support decisions, six years of historical data from a commercial dairy farm were first collected, described, and stored in a research data ecosystem and then used to evaluate feeding and social behavior of calves. The first chapter evaluates the effect of environmental and biological factors on the feeding behavior of 9,737 calves. The results showed that reductions in milk consumption and drinking speed preceded the detection of bovine respiratory disease using farm protocols. In addition to health status, temperature humidity index, birth weight, and parity of the dam also influenced milk consumption and drinking speed. Therefore, including data on the traits of the individuals and the conditions of their environment can improve predictive models for sickness detection and performance assessment. The second chapter evaluates the use of AMF records and social network analysis. Interactions that occur at the autofeeder from 254 calves in five groups were used to rank individual animals and assess the groups’ stability. Enrollment order was associated with dominance rating, based on feeder displacements. Birth weight, however, had no influence on dominance rating. Social network analysis showed that although displacements are not constant over time, calves did not displace every other calf in their group, indicating some selectivity. This study demonstrates the possibility of using longitudinal data from precision technology to assess group dynamics.</p>

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