Synchrony and Physiological Arousal Increase Cohesion and Cooperation in Large Naturalistic Groups

Separate research streams have identified synchrony and arousal as two factors that might contribute to the effects of human rituals on social cohesion and cooperation. But no research has manipulated these variables in the field to investigate their causal – and potentially interactive – effects on prosocial behaviour. Across four experimental sessions involving large samples of strangers, we manipulated the synchronous and physiologically arousing affordances of a group marching task within a sports stadium. We observed participants’ subsequent movement, grouping, and cooperation via a camera hidden in the stadium’s roof. Synchrony and arousal both showed main effects, predicting larger groups, tighter clustering, and more cooperative behaviour in a free-rider dilemma. However, synchrony and arousal interacted on measures of clustering and cooperation: such that synchrony only encouraged closer clustering — and encouraged greater cooperation—when paired with physiological arousal. The research has implications for understanding the nature and co-occurrence of synchrony and physiological arousal in rituals around the world. It also represents the first use of real-time spatial tracking as a precise and naturalistic method of simulating collective rituals

Identification of neural networks that contribute to motion sickness through principal components analysis of fos labeling induced by galvanic vestibular stimulation

Motion sickness is a complex condition that includes both overt signs (e.g., vomiting) and more covert symptoms (e.g., anxiety and foreboding). The neural pathways that mediate these signs and symptoms are yet to identified. This study mapped the distribution of c-fos protein (Fos)-like immunoreactivity elicited during a galvanic vestibular stimulation paradigm that is known to induce motion sickness in felines. A principal components analysis was used to identify networks of neurons activated during this stimulus paradigm from functional correlations between Fos labeling in different nuclei. This analysis identified five principal components (neural networks) that accounted for greater than 95% of the variance in Fos labeling. Two of the components were correlated with the severity of motion sickness symptoms, and likely participated in generating the overt signs of the condition. One of these networks included neurons in locus coeruleus, medial, inferior and lateral vestibular nuclei, lateral nucleus tractus solitarius, medial parabrachial nucleus and periaqueductal gray. The second included neurons in the superior vestibular nucleus, precerebellar nuclei, periaqueductal gray, and parabrachial nuclei, with weaker associations of raphe nuclei. Three additional components (networks) were also identified that were not correlated with the severity of motion sickness symptoms. These networks likely mediated the covert aspects of motion sickness, such as affective components. The identification of five statistically independent component networks associated with the development of motion sickness provides an opportunity to consider, in network activation dimensions, the complex progression of signs and symptoms that are precipitated in provocative environments. Similar methodology can be used to parse the neural networks that mediate other complex responses to environmental stimuli. © 2014 Balaban et al

The Things You Do:Internal Models of Others' Expected Behaviour Guide Action Observation

Predictions allow humans to manage uncertainties within social interactions. Here, we investigate how explicit and implicit person models-how different people behave in different situations-shape these predictions. In a novel action identification task, participants judged whether actors interacted with or withdrew from objects. In two experiments, we manipulated, unbeknownst to participants, the two actors action likelihoods across situations, such that one actor typically interacted with one object and withdrew from the other, while the other actor showed the opposite behaviour. In Experiment 2, participants additionally received explicit information about the two individuals that either matched or mismatched their actual behaviours. The data revealed direct but dissociable effects of both kinds of person information on action identification. Implicit action likelihoods affected response times, speeding up the identification of typical relative to atypical actions, irrespective of the explicit knowledge about the individual's behaviour. Explicit person knowledge, in contrast, affected error rates, causing participants to respond according to expectations instead of observed behaviour, even when they were aware that the explicit information might not be valid. Together, the data show that internal models of others' behaviour are routinely re-activated during action observation. They provide first evidence of a person-specific social anticipation system, which predicts forthcoming actions from both explicit information and an individuals' prior behaviour in a situation. These data link action observation to recent models of predictive coding in the non-social domain where similar dissociations between implicit effects on stimulus identification and explicit behavioural wagers have been reported

Emergence of polarized opinions from free association networks

We developed a method that can identify polarized public opinions by finding modules in a network of statistically related free word associations. Associations to the cue “migrant” were collected from two independent and comprehensive samples in Hungary (N1 = 505, N2 = 505). The co-occurrence-based relations of the free word associations reflected emotional similarity, and the modules of the association network were validated with well-established measures. The positive pole of the associations was gathered around the concept of “Refugees” who need help, whereas the negative pole associated asylum seekers with “Violence”. The results were relatively consistent in the two independent samples. We demonstrated that analyzing the modular organization of association networks can be a tool for identifying the most important dimensions of public opinion about a relevant social issue without using predefined constructs

A forma abreviada da escala posições frente ao diagnóstico de enfermagem: desenvolvimento e avaliação psicométrica

The Positions on Nursing Diagnosis (PND) is a scale that uses the semantic differential technique to measure nurses' attitudes towards the nursing diagnosis concept. The aim of this study was to develop a shortened form of the Spanish version of this scale and evaluate its psychometric properties and efficiency. A double theoretical-empirical approach was used to obtain a short form of the PND, the PND-7-SV, which would be equivalent to the original. Using a cross-sectional survey design, the reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability), construct (exploratory factor analysis, known-groups technique and discriminant validity) and criterion-related validity (concurrent validity), sensitivity to change and efficiency of the PND-7-SV were assessed in a sample of 476 Spanish nursing students. The results endorsed the utility of the PND-7-SV to measure attitudes toward nursing diagnosis in an equivalent manner to the complete form of the scale and in a shorter time.El Position on Nursing Diagnosis (PND) es una escala que utiliza la técnica del diferencial semántico para medir las actitudes hacia el concepto diagnóstico enfermero. El estudio objetivó desarrollar una forma abreviada de la versión española de esta escala, evaluar sus propiedades psicométricas y eficiencia. Se utilizó un doble enfoque empírico-teórico para obtener una forma reducida del PND, el PND-7-SV, que fuera equivalente a la original. Mediante un diseño transversal a través de encuesta, se evaluó la fiabilidad (consistencia interna y fiabilidad test-retest), validez de constructo (análisis factorial exploratorio, técnica de grupos conocidos y validez discriminante) y de criterio (validez concurrente), sensibilidad al cambio y eficiencia del PND-7-SV en una muestra de 476 estudiantes de enfermería españoles. Los resultados avalaron la utilidad del PND-7-SV para medir las actitudes hacia el diagnóstico enfermero de manera equivalente a la forma completa de la escala y en un tiempo más reducido

The relative salience of facial features when differentiating faces based on an interference paradigm

Research on face recognition and social judgment usually addresses the manipulation of facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). Using a procedure based on a Stroop-like task, Montepare and Opeyo (J Nonverbal Behav 26(1):43-59, 2002) established a hierarchy of the relative salience of cues based on facial attributes when differentiating faces. Using the same perceptual interference task, we established a hierarchy of facial features. Twenty-three participants (13 men and 10 women) volunteered for the experiment to compare pairs of frontal faces. The participants had to judge if the eyes, nose, mouth and chin in the pair of images were the same or different. The factors manipulated were the target-distractive factor (4 face components 9 3 distractive factors), interference (absent vs. present) and correct answer (the same vs. different). The analysis of reaction times and errors showed that the eyes and mouth were processed before the chin and nose, thus highlighting the critical importance of the eyes and mouth, as shown by previous research