Towards an ethical use of animals

Published version reproduced with the permission of the publisher.[FIRST PARAGRAPH] Over 20 years ago, the Society published its first guidance on the use of animals in psychology, in the form of a working party report. That working party grew into the Society’s Standing Advisory Committee on Standards for Psychological Research and Teaching Involving Animals (SACSPRATIA), which in due course produced expanded guidelines on the use of animals in psychological research (BPS Scientific Affairs Board, 1985). These guidelines were worked out in collaboration with the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS), who also published them (see Boakes, 1986). Ever since they have served as standing advice to the members of both Societies and to everyone submitting papers concerning animals to either Society’s journals

The limits imposed by culture: Are symmetry preferences evidence of a recent reproductive strategy or a common primate inheritance?

© Cambridge University Press 2000. Published version reproduced with the permission of the publisher.Women's preference for symmetrical men need not have evolved as part of a good gene sexual selection (GGSS) reproductive strategy employed during recent human evolutionary history. It may be a remnant of the reproductive strategy of a perhaps promiscuous species which existed prior to the divergence of the human line from that of the bonobo and chimp

Prospects for an evolutionary economic psychology: buying and consumption as a test case

Until a few generations ago, humans made their living by foraging, like other animals. We have therefore inherited genes that allowed our ancestors to thrive as hunters and gatherers. Thriving in a modern economy requires very different behaviours but we cope because the human brain evolved to be flexible with the ability to form cooperative networks with other humans and to maintain the shared body of information, expertise and values which we call "culture". We argue that human economic behaviour is influenced by both the genes and the culture that we "inherit" and that both are a result of a Darwinian evolutionary process. An evolutionary approach is therefore likely to be of value in developing theories of economic behaviour. We then use this approach to analyse in broad terms how people that are born with the brains of foragers living in a small-scale society become consumers in a modern society and where this behaviour is likely to lead our species

First steps out of debt: Attitudes and social identity as predictors of contact by debtors with creditors

ArticleQuestionnaire research was carried out to identify factors that may encourage problem debtors to take the first steps towards getting out of debt. Consumers with debt problems were identified with the aid of creditor organisations and the Courts service for England and Wales. Responses were also sought from non-debtors from the same consumer groups as the debtors. Response rates from debtors were very low, but results confirmed the existence of a group of chronically poor consumers with widespread and long-lasting debt and also confirmed the demographic differences between this group of debtors and non-debtors found in previous research. These debtors showed marked attitudinal differences from non-debtors, with reduced optimism and financial self-esteem, and a less internal economic locus of control. They also showed a distinct social identity, identifying with fellow debtors and feeling stigmatised both generally and personally. Within the debtor group, engagement with creditors was higher in people reporting lower debt levels, but seeking advice was more frequent in those reporting higher debts. Engagement was associated with a stronger attitude of financial self-efficacy and with a perception of the debtor identity as more permeable. Neither demographic nor psychological factors significantly predicted which debtors would seek advice.Her Majesty’s Court Service for England and Wale

Behavioural responses of Eastern grey squirrels, Sciurus carolinensis, to cues of risk while foraging

Lisa Leaver University of Exeter Psychology Washington Singer Exeter Devon EX4 4QG UKArticleCopyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Previous studies have shown that Eastern grey squirrels modify their behaviour while foraging to offset risks of social and predatory costs, but none have simultaneously compared whether such modifications are performed at a cost to foraging. The present study directly compares how grey squirrels respond to cues of these risks while foraging. We simulated social risk and predatory risk using acoustic playbacks of stimuli that grey squirrels might be exposed to at a foraging patch: calls of conspecifics, heterospecifics (competitor and non-competitor) and predators. We found that grey squirrels responded to predator, heterospecific competitor and conspecific playbacks by altering their foraging and vigilance behaviours. Foraging was most disrupted by increased vigilance when we played calls of predators. Squirrels' response to calls of heterospecific competitors did not differ from their response to conspecific calls, and they resumed foraging more quickly after both compared to predator calls: whereas they showed little response to calls of non-competitor heterospecifics and a white noise control. We conclude that squirrels respond differentially to calls made by conspecifics, heterospecific competitors and predators, with the most pronounced response being to calls of predators. We suggest that squirrels may view conspecific and corvid vocalisations as cues of potential conflict while foraging, necessitating increased vigilance.Exeter Graduate Fellow scholarshi

A stimulus-location effect in contingency-governed, but not rule-based, discrimination learning

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from APA via the DOI in this recordWe tested pigeons' acquisition of a conditional discrimination task between coloured grating stimuli that included choosing one of two response keys, which either appeared as white keys to the left and right of the discriminative stimulus, or were replicas of the stimulus. Pigeons failed to acquire the discrimination when the response keys were white disks but succeeded when directly responding to a replica of the stimulus. These results highlight how conditioning processes shape learning in pigeons: the results can be accounted for by supposing that, when pigeons were allowed to respond directly towards the stimulus, learning was guided by classical conditioning; responding to white keys demanded instrumental learning, which impaired task acquisition for pigeons. In contrast, humans completing the same paradigm showed no differential learning success depending on whether figure or position indicated the correct key. However, only participants who could state the underlying discrimination rule acquired the task, which implies that human performance in this situation relied on the deduction and application of task rules instead of associative processes

Task-Switching in Pigeons: Associative Learning or Executive Control?

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Psychological Association via the DOI in this record.Human performance in task-switching paradigms is seen as a hallmark of executive-control processes: switching between tasks induces switch costs (such that performance when changing from Task A to Task B is worse than on trials where the task repeats), which is generally attributed to executive control suppressing one task-set and activating the other. However, even in cases where task-sets are not employed, as well as in computational modelling of task switching, switch costs can still be found. This observation has led to the hypothesis that associative-learning processes might be responsible for all or part of the switch cost in task-switching paradigms. To test which cognitive processes contribute to the presence of task-switch costs, pigeons performed two different tasks on the same set of stimuli in rapid alternation. The pigeons showed no sign of switch costs, even though performance on trial N was influenced by trial N-1, showing that they were sensitive to sequential effects. Using Pearce's (1987) model for stimulus generalisation, we conclude that they learned the task associatively - in particular, a form of Pavlovian-conditioned approach was involved - and that this was responsible for the lack of any detectable switch costs. Pearce's model also allows us to make interferences about the common occurrence of switch costs in the absence of task-sets in human participants and in computational models, in that they are likely due to instrumental learning and the establishment of an equivalence between cues signalling the same task

How practice makes perfect: the role of persistence, flexibility and learning in problem solving efficiency

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.To fully understand how problem solving ability provides adaptive advantages for animals, we should understand the mechanisms that support this ability. Recent studies have highlighted several behavioural traits including persistence, behavioural variety and behavioural/cognitive flexibility that contribute to problem solving success. However, any increment in these traits will increase time and energy costs in natural conditions, so they are not necessarily advantageous. To examine how behavioural traits vary during learning to solve a problem efficiently, we gave grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) a problem solving task that required squirrels to obtain out-of-reach but visible hazelnuts by making a lever drop in the laboratory. We recorded persistence, measured as attempt rate, flexibility, measured as the rate of switching between tactics, and behavioural selectivity, measured as the proportion of effective behaviours, in relation to problem solving efficiency on a trial-by-trial basis. Persistence and behavioural selectivity were found to be directly associated with problem solving efficiency. These two factors also mediated the effects of flexibility and increased experience. We also found two routes that led to more efficient problem solving across learning trials: increasing persistence or increasing behavioural selectivity. Flexibility was independent from learning. Flexibility could increase problem solving efficiency, but it also has a time cost; furthermore it seemed to involve a trade-off with behavioural selectivity, with high flexibility being associated with a higher frequency of some disadvantageous ineffective behaviours. These results suggest that flexibility is an independent cognitive process or behavioural trait that may not always bring advantages to animals

The psychology of scams: Provoking and committing errors of judgement

According to the Office of Fair Trading (2006), 3.2 million adults in the UK fall victim to mass marketed scams every year, and collectively lose £3.5 billion. Victims of scams are often labelled as 'greedy' or 'gullible' and elicit the reaction, 'How on earth could anyone fall for that?' However, such labels are unhelpful and superficial generalisations that presume all of us are perfectly rational consumers, ignoring the fact that all of us are vulnerable to a persuasive approach at one time or another. Clearly, responding to a scam is an error of judgement – so our research sought to identify the main categories of decision error that typify victim responses, and to understand the psychology of persuasion employed by scammers to try to provoke such errors.UK Office of Fair Tradin

Reevaluation of patterns of mussel (Mytilus edulis) selection by European Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus)

© National Research Council of Canada 2002. Published version reproduced with the permission of the publisher.European Oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) were highly selective towards mussels between 35 and 50 mm in length, and fewer than 5% of mussels taken were below 35 mm or above 50 mm. The oystercatchers selected ventrally thin-shelled mussels, especially if the length was more than 35 mm, regardless of whether they opened the right or left valve of the mussel. The oystercatchers also took mussels that had few barnacles on the ventral surface. Although brown-shelled mussels were rare in the population, oystercatchers showed a strong preference for them. Generally, oystercatchers consumed ventrally flat mussels, especially in the smaller length classes, particularly the most preferred size class, 30–45 mm. Ventral shell thickness and colour had independent effects on mussel selection. The other two variables, number of barnacles and shape of the ventral surface (flat or curved), apparently had no influence on selection on their own, only by way of their association with colour or thickness