Predation is a major source of mortality, resulting in strong selection on strategies to avoid being captured. Individuals have access to multiple sources of information on predation risk: they can detect danger directly themselves, and they can attend to behavioural cues or warning signals produced by others. Rapid responses are vital when hunted by aerial predators in particular, as split-second decisions can mean the difference between life and death. I studied New Holland honeyeaters, Phylidonyris novaehollandiae, as a model system to examine how alarm calls encode information about danger and to understand how this information is used by receivers. In Chapter 2, observational data showed that these honeyeaters produce multi-element, aerial alarm calls in response to flying threats. Male honeyeaters had more opportunities to detect threats than did females and showed a greater propensity to alarm call when presented with gliding model predators. In Chapter 3, a combination of observational data and model presentations demonstrated that aerial alarm calls encode urgency in both the number of elements, with more dangerous threats receiving more elements, and the acoustic structure of the first element. Playback presentations of alarm calls and video recordings to measure responses revealed that honeyeaters made extremely fast decisions about fleeing to cover based on the acoustic structure of the first alarm element, while the number of elements determined for how long they hid. These two chapters demonstrate that receivers have rapid access to detailed information about the type and degree of danger from conspecific alarm calls. In Chapter 4, I investigated how birds integrate personal information about danger with social information from alarm calls. Perched birds were faster to detect model predators than feeding birds, suggesting that they have greater access to personal information. Consistent with this, perched birds were less likely to flee to cover in response to alarm playbacks than foraging birds. Birds also fled less in response to less urgent social information, such as playbacks of more distant alarm calls, and less relevant social information, in the form of calls from another species with overlapping but not identical threats. In Chapter 5, I tested how honeyeaters value social information about danger derived from single versus multiple sources, both within and across species. Birds paid attention to the number of independent signallers when assessing information from both conspecifics and heterospecifics, responding more strongly to playbacks of alarm calls from two sources than a single source, but they also moderated their responses according to signal relevance. Together, these results show that birds make flexible decisions about danger by integrating information from multiple sources and assessing its quality, allowing them to mitigate the costs of fleeing to false, or irrelevant, alarms while taking advantage of the multitude of information provided by the prey community's neighbourhood watch.

I investigated the role of extra-pair paternity on use of public information and the interaction between public information and personal information for patch fidelity decisions. It is unknown if songbirds use public information about the number of conspecific fledglings for patch fidelity decisions when extra-pair paternity is uncommon. I tested if probability of patch fidelity was associated with (1) number of fledglings in adjacent territories (public information), and (2) number of fledglings raised with a social mate (personal information). I used logistic regression to predict probability of patch fidelity of males and females based on the 2 uncorrelated predictor variables (Spearman’s rank correlation, S = 21895.28, n = 50, P = 0.723, r = –0.051). I monitored patch fidelity of 107 territories, counted the number of fledglings in each territory, and assessed parentage of 102 young from 36 nests for white-eyed vireos (Vireo griseus) from 2008–2010 in a 100 ha patch of woodland in central Texas, USA. I excluded the social male as the father of 3 of the 102 young and did not exclude any of the social females as the mother with parentage analysis using 6 microsatellite loci. The number of fledglings in adjacent territories was not a good predictor of probability of patch fidelity for males (beta 1 = 0.166, df = 35, P = 0.247, Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.054) or females (beta 1 = 0.121, df = 17, P = 0.670, Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.016). The number of fledglings raised with a social mate was also not a good predictor of probability of patch fidelity for males (beta 1 = –0.296, df = 43, P = 0.360, Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.029), whereas it was a good predictor for females (beta 1 = 1.281, df = 21, P = 0.048, Nagelkerke’s R2 = 0.409). The dominant ecological concepts for explaining site fidelity in songbirds, win-stay lose-switch (based on personal reproductive success with a social mate) and public information, did not predict probability of patch fidelity well for male white-eyed vireos. The win-stay lose-switch model, but not public information was a good predictor of probability of patch fidelity for females. My results suggest that use of public information may depend on frequency of extra-pair paternity. Males may primarily use other information for patch fidelity decisions beyond reproductive success of conspecifics for patch fidelity decisions in some circumstances. My results support the need to ensure high levels of nesting success for females to return and maintain populations in areas managed for breeding songbirds for conservation efforts to be successful.

<p>The ability to monitor, learn from, and respond to social information is essential for many highly social animals, including humans. Deficits to this capacity are associated with numerous psychopathologies, including autism spectrum disorders, social anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia. To understand the neural mechanisms supporting social information seeking behavior requires understanding this behavior in its natural context, and presenting animals with species-appropriate stimuli that will elicit the behavior in the laboratory. In this dissertation, I describe a novel behavioral paradigm I developed for investigating social information seeking behavior in rhesus macaques in a laboratory setting, with the use of naturalistic videos of freely-behaving conspecifics as stimuli. I recorded neural activity in the orbitofrontal and lateral prefrontal cortex of monkeys as they engaged in this task, and found evidence for a rich but sparse representation of natural behaviors in both areas, particularly in the orbitofrontal cortex. This sparse encoding of conspecifics' behaviors represents the raw material for social information foraging decisions.</p> / Dissertation

This research investigates how communal and exchange brand relationship norms determine consumers’ tendencies in processing brand information in morality or competence terms, respectively. Study 1 tests the hypothesized relationships between relationship norms and morality/competence social cognition. The results show that exchange norm-oriented consumers evaluate a brand mainly based on its competence attributes, whereas communal norm-oriented individuals place additional focus on the brand’s moral conduct. As an extension of Study 1, Study 2 examines the effectiveness of morality-framed and competence-framed advertising messages in relation to the relationship norms salient at brand exposure. The findings reveal that exchange norm-oriented individuals demonstrate more favorable attitudes towards the competence-framed message, whereas communal norm-oriented individuals show more positive attitudes towards the morality-framed message. Finally, Study 3 investigates how the norms dominant in the relationships with a brand influence consumers’ attitude change in response to morality- and competence-based negative information on the brand. The results show that exchange norm-oriented individuals are more susceptible to immoral brand information, and communal norm-oriented individuals are equally affected by both types of negative brand information. This research suggests that the different emphasis on morality and competence information in communal and exchange brand relationships not only influences how consumers form their initial impressions of a brand and evaluations of advertisements but also how they interpret negative brand information as brand relationships unfold. / text

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

The present study examined social information processing in a sample of teenagers with various comorbid neurodevelopmental disabilities and typically developing controls. Crick and Dodge’s (1996) model of social information processing was used as the theoretical framework for the current study. Specifically, emotion recognition of self and others, attribution biases, and outcome expectations were measured in adolescents with and without a neurodevelopmental disability. Performance on these social measures was compared to caregiver ratings of social skills, and was also compared across diagnostic groups. 52 adolescents with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and/or learning disability participated in the current study, as well as 51 typically developing control participants. Analyses showed that individuals with any neurodevelopmental disability were less accurate at recognizing sadness in others and at identifying their own feelings and emotions. An interaction between participant group and sex was found, such that females with a neurodevelopmental disability were most likely to report feeling badly after acting aggressively and reported that acting aggressively would be difficult, but that they believed aggression would result in a successful social outcome. Males with a neurodevelopmental disability believed the opposite, that acting aggressively would be socially unsuccessful, but that they would feel good about themselves and that acting aggressively would be easy. Additionally, caregiver ratings of social skills were positively related to participants’ abilities to identify their own feelings, and negatively related to participants’ ratings of the ease of aggressive social encounters. Interestingly, although diagnostic group differences were predicted on these measures, few were found. This research has implications for clinical and educational work with individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities. First, individuals with any neurodevelopmental disability appeared to have similar social impairments, suggesting that deficits may be related to the presence of any diagnosis, rather than one in particular. Analysis of the steps of social information processing in this population is useful for teachers and clinicians when trying to plan social skills interventions.

Many animals including marine mammals and several seabird species dive in large groups, but the impacts that social interactions can have on diving behaviour are poorly understood. There are several potential benefits to social diving, such as access to social information or reduced predation risk. In this body of research I explore the use of social information by groups of diving animals by studying the behaviour of European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) diving in “foraging rafts” in the Isles of Scilly. Using GPS tracking I establish where shags regularly forage in relation to bathymetry and areas where foraging rafts frequently formed. Using these data I show that the foraging ranges of different colonies overlap and that foraging ranges of individual shags are often predictable. This suggests that social information will be of less value while searching for foraging patches. However, using observational studies to further explore the conditions and areas in which foraging rafts formed, I show that advantages such as anti-predation or hydrodynamic benefits are unlikely to be the main drivers of rafting behaviour in the Scillies. I therefore suggest that access to social information from conspecifics at a foraging patch may be one of the main benefits diving in groups. Using a dynamic programming model I show that individuals diving in a group benefit from using social information, even when unable to assess conspecific foraging success. Finally I use video analysis to extract the positions and diving behaviour of individuals within a foraging raft and compare this to simulated data of collective motion and diving behaviour. The results of these studies indicate that an individual being able to utilise dives of conspecifics to inform their own diving decisions may be one of the main advantages of social diving.

Research purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent to which supervisors are universally perceived as abusive across those they supervise. I propose social learning theory and social information processing theory as theoretical bases for understanding collective impression formation among subordinates reporting to the same supervisor. The study, therefore builds on a growing body of abusive supervision literature by analysing intraclass correlations between subordinates' and their co-workers' perceptions of the same supervisor. Research motivation: Studies that examine whether or not subordinates of the same supervisor have similar perceptions of abuse are in short supply. Therefore, this study examines the possibility of objective impression formation with regards to abusive supervision so as to answer the question: Do subordinates and their co-workers mutually perceive the extent to which a supervisor's behaviour is abusive? Research design, approach and method: This study follows a cross-sectional approach to investigate the extent to which subordinates of the same workgroup mutually perceive their supervisor's behaviour as abusive. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit full-time employed Master's of Business Administration (MBA) students from six respected universities in the United States (US). Purposive sampling was further aided by snowball sampling where each subordinate was asked to get two of their own co-workers involved in the study. A total of 1,029 surveys were distributed and 693 completed surveys were returned. The final sample consisted of 210 sets of surveys where responses were received from the focal subordinate and two of his or her co-workers. An intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis was conducted to determine the strength of intra-group agreement regarding abusive supervision perceptions. Main findings: The results indicate that there is agreement between subordinates' and their co-workers' perceptions of abusive supervision as no significant differences were found between these two groups' assessments of the same supervisor's behaviour. The null hypothesis was accepted. A non-hypothesized finding is that dyadic tenure appears to influence the extent to which supervisory abuse is observed. That is, subordinates and their co-workers may view the same supervisor in the same light, the longer the duration of the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Limitations: The results should be interpreted, bearing in mind that there is limited literature available on abusive supervision at the group level. Furthermore, the results should be considered with caution as the perceptions of abusive supervision were only examined at one point in time, the use of snowball sampling method may be associated with the possibility of sampling bias, and that dyadic tenure was measured with a categorical response (i.e., not treated as a continuous variable). Finally, the results may not be generalisable to the South African context. Future research: It is suggested that future studies should investigate abusive supervision as a group-level phenomenon as few such studies currently exist. Additionally, future studies should examine the extent to which social learning and social information processing approaches contribute to the establishment of mutual perceptions about supervisory abuse. Researchers may also investigate the occurrence of abusive supervision at the group level through the lens of an alternative theoretical framework such as social identity theory. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Social information affects the movement decisions of animals and is often an essential factor in habitat selection. Social information should be especially relevant to long-distance migrating birds that navigate over long distances through unfamiliar habitats to find resources to survive. This information likely varies in both availability and importance at the different spatial scales relevant to migrating birds. Using the common yellowthroat as a case study, I tested whether cues might be available in the songs of locally breeding birds at the continental, within-site, and within-territory scales. At the continental scale, I described the geographic variation in song among genetic groups and subspecies, which may provide useful information for migrants navigating across the continent. I found differences in song structure including the duration of silences between notes, number of notes, and bandwidths which might provide cues. Additionally, bandwidth was related to habitat density. At the within-site scale, I tested whether there is a relationship between song, habitat structure, habitat quality, bird size, and bird quality. I found no evidence that song variation is an available source of information about habitat type or quality to migrants exploring habitat variation at the within-site scale. At the same scale, I tested whether migrating common yellowthroats use the presence of song to find habitat by broadcasting song recordings in suitable and unsuitable habitat patches, but did not lure any migrants. However, when I compared the distance between local singing males and the capture locations of migrant common yellowthroat in a passive mist-netting array to the distances expected by chance, I found that migrants were further away from singing local males than expected, perhaps to avoid costly aggressive interactions. At the within-territory scale, I tested whether a singer's location is predictive of microhabitat structure or food abundance, and whether song rate or duration is predictive of a local male's activities. I found that the location of a singing bird may provide migrants with information about the location of food and structurally denser habitat. Song variation may also predict the likelihood of attack should a migrant intrude in the local male's territory.