Abstract

Gratitude has been shown to be linked to many positive outcomes for individuals including psychological health and well-being, decreased physical stress, and reduced feelings of loneliness (O’Connell, O’Shea, & Gallagher 2016; Rash, Matsuba, & Prkachin, 2011; Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). On the other hand, increasing perceived organizational support (POS) and perceived supervisor support (PSS), has been shown to be effective in raising employees’ levels of job satisfaction, reducing employee turnover, and reducing employee absenteeism (Allen & McCarthy, 2016; Chan 2011; Chancellor, Layous, & Lyubomirsky, 2015; Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986; Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002). In the present study, we investigated the effects of supervisors’ expressed gratitude and various aspects of employees’ satisfaction. We hypothesized that employees whose supervisors express gratitude more frequently would report greater POS, PSS, affective organizational commitment (AOC), and job satisfaction, and that all four of these relationships would be stronger for older individuals. We used Amazon MTurk to recruit our participants. Participants (147 women, 131 men; M_age= 39.08) all lived in the United States and reported varying employment backgrounds, with 71.9% working for a for-profit company/business, 13.3% working for the local, state, or federal government, 10.4% working for a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, or charitable organization, and 4.7% reported being self-employed. We used five items from Meyer and Allen’s Affective Commitment Scale (Meyer & Allen, 1997; Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993) and one item from the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979) to assess AOC. The Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6; McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002) was used to measure participants’ feelings of gratitude, and theMichigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire-Job Satisfaction Subscale (MOAQ-JSS; Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins, & Klesh, 1979, 1983) was used to assess job satisfaction. To assess POS, we used the eight-item short form listed by Rhoades et al. (2001) from theSurvey of Perceived Organizational Support (SPOS; Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa., 1986, Eisenberger, Fasolo, & Davis-LaMastro 1990; Shore & Tetrick, 1991; Shore & Wayne, 1993), and an adapted form of those questions was used to evaluate PSS (i.e., the word “organization” was replaced with “supervisor” for four of the items). Using hierarchical regressions, we found that those who believed their direct boss expressed his or her gratitude reported greater POS (the model accounted for 40% of the variance, F(1, 275) = 192.10, p < .001), greater PSS (the model accounted for 61% of the variance, F(1, 274) = 564.95, p < .001), greater AOC (the model accounted for 38% of the variance, F(1, 271) = 171.25, p < .001), and greater job satisfaction (the model accounted for 26% of the variance, F(1, 274) = 95.22, p < .001). However, none of the variance was significantly accounted for by age in any of our regression models. Overall, we found that our hypotheses were supported, except we did not find the relationships to be age-dependent, and our results imply that supervisors who increase their expressed support could increase employees’ positive feelings about the workplace and their supervisors.

Abstract

Because of the increase in urban human populations and the decrease in forest areas, it is crucial that scientists focus efforts on investigating the influence of artificial light at night (ALAN) on urban wild animal populations. While behavioral and physiological changes in avian species in response to light pollution have been studied in the past, so far there has not been a study investigating ALAN-mediated nest site selection in our focal species. Here, we tested whether ALAN influenced where Northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) and brown thrashers (Toxostoma rufum) preferred to nest. This relationship was investigated by creating an illumination map of a college campus in Decatur, GA (33.7692° N, 84.2946° W) and testing the illumination levels at currently active and previously active nest sites, as well as the illumination at randomly selected control sites, areas where it was possible to build a nest but no nest was found. We found that these species do in fact preferentially nest in areas with low ALAN, suggesting that they may use this as a strategy to avoid the negative fitness and wellness effects of night time illumination.

            Keywords: urban ecology, avian nest selection, light pollution, ALAN

Abstract

The purpose of this review was to investigate the literature on cooperation in members of the family Corvidae, to examine where they excel and where they fall short. Cooperative behavior has been used in the past to investigate cognitive abilities, namely the ability to recognize kin, remembering who they’ve cooperated with in the past, reciprocity, tracking the reputation of others, understanding equity, and low temporal discounting. These abilities were discussed in the context of the literature mentioned in order to tie the research directly to the cognitive abilities of corvids. It was found that while members of this family excel at cooperating in different environments, they tend to have low inhibition control and do not attend to long-term consequences of defection. However, this lack of inhibition control may not suggest cognitive deficits, but simply the impulsive nature of animals in this family.           

  Keywords: Corvidae, cooperation, animal cognition, social behavior

Cooperation in the Family Corvidae

            Cooperation is a widely discussed and rigorously studied topic within the fields of animal behavior and behavioral ecology and was defined briefly by Stephens and Hauser (2004) as joint action for mutual benefit. However, authentic cooperation is difficult for scientists to pin down, as it is difficult to tell when animals truly understand the need to cooperate, as opposed to simply learning they need to complete a task with a conspecific. Because of this, reviews and studies have looked into the requirements for cooperation, particularly cognitive requirements, and have found a few common themes; for animals to cooperate, they need to possess the ability to remember who they’ve cooperated with in the past, engage in reciprocity, track the reputation of others, understand equity, and have low temporal discounting (Bear, Kagan, & Rand, 2017; Esteban, 2013; Stephens & Hauser, 2004). Because of these rigorous cognitive requirements, studying cooperation has often been used to understand the cognitive abilities of animal species, and cooperative behaviors have been shown in some of the most popular “smart” species such as elephants and dolphins (Kuczaj et. al, 2015; Plotkin et. al, 2011).

            There is another group of animals that have recently come into the spotlight on the cognitive stage; the Corvidae family. This group includes crows, jays, ravens, magpies, rooks, and more, and has been studied extensively in recent years to analyze their cognitive abilities, with shocking results. Most studies have found that members of this family are incredible problem solvers with a powerful memory and the ability to make and use tools (Clatyon et. al, 2007; Gould-Beierle, 2000; Hofmann et. al, 2016; St Clair et. al, 2016). However, cooperation across the entire family to assess cognitive abilities has yet to be examined. This review seeks to fill that gap in the literature and use cooperation to assess the cognitive abilities of members of the family Corvidae.

CORVIDAE SOCIAL STRUCTURE

            Corvids are known to exist in flocks and have very complex social structures. For instance, Braun et. al (2012) found that common ravens (Corvus corax) maintain strong social bonds both in captivity and in the wild, and that in the wild, subgroups of two to five individuals are shown to exhibit allo-preening and combined play behaviors. Another study investigated the social intelligence hypothesis in various bird species and found that corvids ranked high in their sociality, and even compared their social complexity to that of primates (Emery et. al, 2007). Because corvids live in these highly complex social environments with related and non-related individuals, it seems likely that cooperation would occur. Thus, the next topic of discussion is naturally when and how corvids cooperate, and when and how they fail to do so.

SUPPORT FOR COOPERATION

Cooperation in the lab

Cooperation tasks, such as the rope-pull task (Plotkin et. al, 2011), and game theory models of cooperation, such as the prisoner’s dilemma (Clements & Stephens, 1995), are commonly used to observe and assess cooperative behavior in a laboratory setting. Many studies have been done using these assays in corvids. For instance, Clements and Stephens (1995) found that when modeling a mutualism environment, wherein mutual cooperation pays best, blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) readily cooperated with a partner for a food reward. The results of this study displayed that in a highly applicable model of cooperation, the jays were able to understand that in terms of immediate benefit, cooperation would offer the most rewards.

However, corvids are shown in other studies to go above and beyond simple reward assessments. A study done by Wascher and Bugnyar (2013) found that in two species of corvids (common ravens and carrion crows (Corvus corone)), individuals will not cooperate in situations when they are not receiving equal rewards, or when they recognize that their partner is receiving the same reward but not putting forth as much effort. While this study displays a lack of cooperation, it shows that ravens and crows can understand how much their partner is working, as well as the equity of the rewards they are receiving. This sensitivity to inequity is one of the cognitive requirements of cognition mentioned before, as well as the ability to track the reputation of others (which includes understanding how hard they work).

Lastly, Fraser and Bugnyar (2012) conducted a study looking at reciprocity and agonistic support (defined as a third party intervening in an ongoing conflict to attack one of the conflict participants, thus supporting the other) in common ravens. The researchers found that ravens will engage in long-term reciprocation of agonistic support and were more likely to support relatives and those who preened them. Interestingly, the ravens were not shown to engage in short-term reciprocation, which goes against the common trend in the literature that corvids attend to short-term rewards and reciprocity. The results of this study suggest that ravens check many of the cognitive requirement boxes, including the ability to remember who they’ve cooperated with in the past, the ability to engage in reciprocity, the ability to track the reputation of others, the ability to understand equity, and the ability to limit temporal discounting.

Cooperation in the wild

            While studies conducted in the lab are beneficial because of the high amounts of control a researcher can have over confounding variables, this unnatural environment can also lead to inaccurate understandings of an animal’s true abilities. Thus, it is incredibly beneficial for scientists to also look at behavior in the wild, especially when analyzing cooperation.

            One common cooperative behavior seen in a lot of corvid species is cooperative breeding, wherein individuals will band together to take care of the young of the group, whether they are directly related or not. Baglione et. al (2003) found this behavior in carrion crows, namely in that non-reproducing offspring and immigrant males aid breeding pairs in raising their young. Bosque and Molina (2002) found that cayenne jays (Cyanocorax cayanus) exhibit not only cooperative breeding, but also cooperative nest defending behaviors. Cooperative breeding is a simple yet incredibly common behavior, especially in New World corvids, which contain the most common corvid species such as jays, rooks, ravens, and crows. This behavior allows us to look at kin selection, one of the simplest bases of cooperation, which postulates that individuals care for those related to them in order to increase their direct and indirect fitness. While kin selection may be very basic, it does require various cognitive abilities, including the ability to recognize your kin.

            Outside of kin selection, wild corvid species have also displayed other cooperative behaviors. One study, conducted by Fraser and Bugnyar (2011), found that ravens will reconcile after fights with valuable partners, namely those who the individual will interact with in the future and who they share a valuable relationship with. Before this study, reconciliation had not been shown in avian species, but once again, corvids prove their abilities to understand their relationships with others outside of pair bonds, and how these relationships can help them in the future.

LIMITATIONS OF COOPERATION

            While corvids clearly display several cooperative behaviors that require vast cognitive abilities, some studies show that they often can fall short when it comes to working with others. There is one main shortcoming shown by the research: a lack of patience.

Lack of patience

            As mentioned before, except for a few studies like Fraser and Bugnyar’s (2012), which looked at reciprocity and agonistic support, most of the literature shows a lack of attention to long-term consequences and rewards in the corvid family. For instance, Clements and Stephens (1995) showed that while jays choose to cooperate in a mutualism environment, they do not choose to cooperate when placed in a prisoner’s dilemma environment, wherein the benefits of mutual cooperation are not much better than the benefits of mutual defection. This suggests that they attended more to the short-term rewards than the long-term consequences of defecting, and thus struggle with high temporal discounting. Other studies have shown this lack of cooperation in the absence of immediate benefit (Seed et. al, 2008; Stevens & Stephens, 2004).

Impulsive nature

            However, this lack of attentiveness to long-term consequences could be more related to impulsivity in the Corvidae family than to shortcomings in cognitive abilities. Previous research on corvids’ abilities to delay gratification shows that they struggle with this concept. For instance, Wascher et. al (2012) showed that crows are impulsive in their choice of rewards, even when they know a larger reward will come to them if they wait. So, for corvids to suddenly abandon their impulsive nature in order to cooperate would be abnormal, suggesting that this impulsivity is simply a barrier to cooperation that members of the family must overcome, regardless of their cognitive abilities.

CONCLUSION

            All in all, past research has shown that corvids possess many of the cognitive requirements for cooperation, including conspecific recognition, reciprocity, and an understanding of equity (Baglione et. al, 2003; Bosque & Molina, 2002; Clements & Stephens, 1995; Fraser & Bugnyar, 2012; Fraser & Bugnyar, 2011; Wascher & Bugnyar, 2013), and these findings exist both in lab settings and in the wild. However, they also showed a lack of inhibition control and high levels of temporal discounting in many corvid species (Clements & Stephens, 1995; Seed et. al, 2008; Stevens & Stephens, 2004). Despite these shortcomings, corvids show incredible levels of cooperation, suggesting high cognitive abilities, which falls in line with previous research done on their cognitive abilities outside of cooperation (Clatyon et. al, 2007; Gould-Beierle, 2000; Hofmann et. al, 2016; St Clair et. al, 2016). This review suggests many possible avenues of research, including looking into other examples of cooperation in corvids to expand the wealth of literature, or comparing the cognitive abilities of corvids and other non-human animals (or even humans themselves).

References

Baglione, V., Canestrari, D., Marcos, J.M., & Ekman, J. (2003). Kin selection in cooperative alliances of carrion crows. Science, 300(5627), 1947-1949. doi: 10.1126/science.1082429

Bear, A., Kagan, A., & Rand, D. G. (2017). Co-evolution of cooperation and cognition: the impact of imperfect deliberation and context-sensitive intuition. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 284(1851). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.2326

Bosque, C., & Molina, C. (2002). Communal breeding and nest defense behavior of the cayenne jay (Cyanocorax cayanus). Journal of Field Ornithology, 73(4), 360-362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1648/0273-8570-73.4.360

Braun, A., Walsdorff, T., Fraser, O., & Bugnyar, T. (2012). Socialized sub-groups in a temporary stable raven flock? Journal of Ornithology, 153, 97–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10336-011-0810-2

Clayton, N.S., & Emery, N.J. (2007). Social cognition by food-caching corvids. The western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362(1480), 507–522. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1992

Clements, K.C., & Stephens, D.W. (1995). Testing models of non-kin cooperation: mutualism and the prisoner’s dilemma. Animal Behavior, 50, 527-535. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1995.0267

Emery, N. J., Seed, A. M., von Bayern, A. M. P., & Clayton, N. S. (2007). Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362, 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.1991

Fraser, O.N., & Bugnyar, T. (2012). Reciprocity of agonistic support in ravens. Animal Behaviour, 83, 171–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.10.023

Fraser, O. N., & Bugnyar, T. (2011). Ravens reconcile after aggressive conflicts with valuable partners. PLoS ONE, 6(3), 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018118

Freidin, E. (2013). A critical review of the hypothesis that cognitive requirements constraint animal reciprocity. Revista Argentina de Ciencias Del Comportamiento, 74(2). Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.7ee1526acf1b47c98df6e309cb393fc9&site=eds-live&scope=site

Gould-Beierle, K. (2000). A comparison of four corvid species in a working and reference memory task using a radial maze. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114(4), 347–356. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.114.4.347

Hofmann, M.M., Cheke, L.G., & Clayton, N.S. (2016). Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) solve multiple-string problems by the spatial relation of string and reward. Animal Cognition, 19(6), 1103–1114. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=mnh&AN=27470204&site=eds-live&scope=site

Kuczaj, S.A., II, Winship, K.A., & Eskelinen, H.C. (2015). Can bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) cooperate when solving a novel task? Animal Cognition, 18(2), 543–550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0822-4

Plotkin, J.M., Lair, R., Suphachoksahakun, W., & de Waal, F.B.M. (2011). Elephants know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task. PNAS, 108(12), 5116-5121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1101765108

Seed, A. M., Clayton, N. S., & Emery, N. J. (2008). Cooperative problem solving in rooks (Corvus frugilegus). Proceedings: Biological Sciences, 275(1641), 1421-1429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0111

Stephens, J.R., & Hauser, M.D. (2004). Why be nice? Psychological constraints on the evolution of cooperation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(2), 60-65. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.12.003

St Clair, J.J.H., Klump, B.C., Wal, J.E.M., Sugasawa, S., & Rutz, C. (2016). Strong between-site variation in New Caledonian crows’ use of hook-tool-making materials. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 118(2), 226–232. https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12757

Stevens, J. R., & Stephens, D. W. (2004). The economic basis of cooperation: tradeoffs between selfishness and generosity. Behavioral Ecology, 15(2), 255-261. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh006

Wascher, C. A. F., & Bugnyar, T. (2013). Behavioral responses to inequity in reward distribution and working effort in crows and ravens. PLoS ONE, 8(2), 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056885

Wascher, C.A.F., Dufour, V., & Bugnyar, T. (2012). Carrion crows cannot overcome a delay of gratification in a quantitative exchange task. Frontiers in Comparative Psychology, 3(118), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00118

Male Bean Beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus) Show a Preference for Virgin Females

McKeon, E. J., Dyer, Z., Umana, J., and Levin, I. I.

Agnes Scott College

Abstract

The male bias for choosing virgin mates has been shown in many different invertebrate species, and has many consequences for male fitness. The current study sought to explore male mate choice in Callosobruchus macalatus and to provide more evidence for the virgin mate bias. We hypothesized that male bean beetles prefer virgin mates, and we predicted that if we presented virgin male simultaneously with the choice between a virgin and a non-virgin female to mate with, the male would chose the virgin female. Our results supported a significant bias for virgin females in open field mate trials, X²_{(1, N = 20)} = 19.80, p < 0.0001, and showed an 8:1 bias for virgin:mated females. These findings also provide many options for future research in the field.

Discussion

Our hypothesis that male bean beetles prefer virgin mates was highly supported (p < .0001), and we found that there was no influence of female size on male choice latency (p = .607). Another group of researchers in our lab investigating the effects of female and male size on mate choice and copulation success found no significant effects of female size on male choice. Therefore, we can reasonably assume that mate choice in bean beetles is at least strongly influenced by female mating status, and is in line with previous studies investigating this bias in other animal species (Baruffaldi & Costa, 2014; Burris & Dam, 2015; McNamara, Jones, & Elgar, 2004).

Our study did have a few weaknesses, including our small sample size (N=20) and the lack of knowledge about the actual mechanism(s) males use to identify female mating status, although McNamara, Jones, and Elgar (2004) suggest olfaction plays a key role in this process in a similar species, the Hide Beetle (Dermestes maculatus). However, the latter weakness is in itself a strength in that it identifies a possible avenue of research in the area of male mate choice. 

Our findings also support the idea that male mate choice is a crucial aspect in increasing paternity and lowering sperm competition in polygamous species, as seen in other past studies (Archer & Elgar, 1999; Gromko & Pyle, 1978). This bias for virgin females makes sense in this context, as males who mate with virgin females are not faced with automatic sperm competition as males who mate with virgin females do. Virgin females are also often younger, which possibly could be related to an increase in fecundity. Conversely, if a male encounters an older virgin, she likely either has valuable characteristics that have allowed her to maintain this virginity into her old age, or she might live in an area with a low concentration of competing males, which could also decrease the chances of sperm competition. Either way, having a bias for virgin females is a effective, and evidently common, method males can use to assure paternity and direct fitness. Further research could be done to see if this bias exists in other species, such as avians or mammals.

References

Šešlija, D., Marečko, I., & Tucić, N. (2008). Sexual selection and senescence: do seed beetle males ( Acanthoscelides obtectus, Bruchidae, Coleoptera) shape the longevity of their mates? Journal of Zoological Systematics & Evolutionary Research, 46(4), 323–330. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0469.2008.00469.x

Baruffaldi, L., & Costa, F. G. (2014). Male reproductive decision is constrained by sex pheromones produced by females. Behaviour, 151(4), 465–477. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-00003136

Gromko, M. H., & Pyle, D. W., (1978). Sperm Competition, Male Fitness, and Repeated Mating by Female Drosophila melanogaster. Evolution, 32(3), 588. https://doi.org/10.2307/2407724

Martinossi‐Allibert, I., Savković, U., Đorđević, M., Arnqvist, G., Stojković, B., & Berger, D. (2018). The consequences of sexual selection in well‐adapted and maladapted populations of bean beetles. Evolution, 72(3), 518-530. https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13412

Sakurai, G., & Kasuya, E. (2008). Different female mating rates in different populations do not reflect the benefits the females gain from polyandry in the adzuki bean beetle. Journal of Ethology, 26(1), 93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-007-0036-1

Johnstone, R. A., Reynolds, J. D., & Deutsch, J. C. (1995). Mutual mate choice and sex differences in choosiness. Evolution, 50(4), 1382-1391. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1996.tb03912.x

Archer, M. S., & Elgar, M. A. (1999). Female preference for multiple partners: sperm competition in the hide beetle, Dermestes maculatus (DeGeer). Animal Behavior, 58(3), 669-675. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1999.1172

Bonduriansky, R. (2001). The evolution of male mate choice in insects: a synthesis of ideas and evidence. Biological Reviews, 76(3), 305-339. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11569787

Burris, Z. P., & Dam, H. G. (2015). Female mating status affects mating and male mate-choice in the copepod genus Acartia. Journal of Plankton Research, 37(1), 183–196. https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbu090

Crudington, H. S., & Siva-Jothy, M. T. (2000). Genital damage, kicking and early death. Nature, 407, 855–856. https://doi.org/10.1038/35038154

Johnstone, R. A., Reynolds, J. D. and Deutsch, J. C. (1996). Mutual Mate Choice And Sex Differences In Choosiness. Evolution, 50, 1382-1391. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1996.tb03912.x

McNamara, K. B., Jones, T. M., & Elgar, M. A. (2004). Female Reproductive Status and Mate Choice in the Hide Beetle, Dermestes maculatus. Journal of Insect Behavior, 17(3), 337–352. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOIR.0000031535.00373.b1

My report reflected a few clear themes; I’d be best suited to a career in biology, I’m incredibly investigative, and most of my top career fits involved research in some way or another. While the interest in biology didn’t surprise me, nor did the “Investigative” theme, as those were in-line with a career in veterinary medicine, what did surprise me was the tendency for research to pop up multiple times in my results in various forms. I had never thought of myself as someone who could go into research. While I had participated in research in the past, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I doubted that I could make a career out of it. However, as my work in Dr. Hughes’ Positive Psychology Laboratory went on over the semester, and I worked more and more on learning how research is conducted and reported, along with learning about the numerous, fascinating studies conducted on animal behavior during my animal behavior class, I became enamoured with the prospect, especially after realizing that I could go into both research and academia, which had been a long-time goal of mine. My good fit in academia was further highlighted by my SIIR by my “Social” theme, which emphasizes “take a helping or altruistic approach involving teaching, developing, or caring for others” (SIIR, 11). Specifically, hearing the phrasing of the theme is what strengthened in me a desire to go into academia and teach others, to cultivate within them a passion for learning that I’ve found since being in college.

Directly after receiving this report, I started to reassess my career goals. While I was incredibly drawn to a career in veterinary medicine, I realized that what drew me to the field was my passion for animals and animal behavior, as well as helping animals through medicine, enrichment, and conservation. However, I realized that as a DVM, I would be focusing on animals on a case to case basis, almost all on the individual level. The issue for me was that I wanted to make an impact on the world of animal behavior, and I wanted to discover things that could help whole species, whole ecosystems, as opposed to a single patient. While I may never make a big splash in the animal behavior field, I knew that I had a much better chance of doing so with a PhD in Animal Behavior or a related field. 

So, after this deliberation, I decided that I wanted to pursue this degree, and eventually move into academia in a position where I could also do research. After making that decision, I was able to more directly apply the things presented in my class to my career path. Specifically, there were five themes that I took to heart during class; deciding a career path, importance of research, applying to graduate programs, interview skills, and writing a personal statement.

Deciding a Career Path

According to Appleby (2006), there are at least 124 possible career paths for a psychology major, including things like child psychologist, developmental psychologist, and college/university professor. The latter is what interested me in particular, so I decided to investigate this field further. In Wegenek (2012)’s article, I found that many of the suggested characteristics and possible benefits of working in academia lined up with me personally, especially “enjoying an intellectually stimulating environment, having colleagues who share your enthusiasm for your area of study, [and] being able to share your love for psychology with students” (7). While Terre & Stoddart (2000) did not mention animal behavior in their list of “cutting-edge” specialties for graduate study in psychology, this did not deter me from still wanting to go into the field. 

Importance of Research

Shah, Savage, Ortiz, & Lai (2018) wrote about the man valuable skills undergraduate students can gain from doing research, and I have found a lot of the claims made in the article to be true. Undergraduate research experiences can provide you with research experience, opportunities for recommendations from your supervisors, and the chance to expand your interests. Lai, Margol, and Landoll (2010) also bring up many tips for getting the most out of a research experience, including knowing what questions to ask during an interview, clearly laying out your role in the lab, and learning about what opportunities are available to you.

However, Grover (2006) emphasizes research as a necessary part of graduate school applications, and urges readers to get involved, as research experience can mean the difference between acceptance to and rejection from grad programs. After learning about the importance of research experience both in class and from this article, I made sure to include enough time to be involved in at least one research lab per semester, and to make it my goal to get as much experience as possible before I started grad school applications. Currently, I’m a part of Dr. Hughes’ Positive Psychology Laboratory, I’ve joined Dr. Perdue’s Cognitive Neuroscience and Animal Behavior (CNAB) Lab for my capstone in the Spring, and I’m considering applying to more research labs should I not get an internship with Zoo Atlanta. I also want to participate in a Summer REU if possible, something I wasn’t going to do before in favor of getting some classes out of the way during the summer.

Applying to Graduate Programs

Once I realized I no longer wanted to pursue a DVM, I was tasked with learning all about applying to graduate schools. According to Norcross (2011), acceptance rates for graduate schools have been up from 2008. Escoto (2011) also provides a few graduate school admissions tips, including getting a jumpstart on planning, taking required classes early, and diversifying the schools I plan on applying to (public vs. private, east coast vs. west coast, etc.). Judson and Orchowski (2010) laid out some specific tips for the next generation of young psychologists, and many of them were the same. However, one particular item they highlighted was the fact that it is ok to take a break between finishing your undergraduate degree and applying for grad school. While I don’t personally plan on taking a break, it is nice to know that the option is there should I need it.

Interview Skills

I was able to learn a lot about internship skills and how to improve my impression on interviewers this semester thanks to both the mock interviews held by the Office of Internship and Career Development, but also the handouts they provided to our class. “A Student Guide to Informational Interviews – 2018-2019”, “A Student Guide to Acing the Interview – 2018-2019”, and Longnecker (2016) all brought up very similar points that I took to heart when preparing for both the mock interviews and other interviews I completed during my application to various capstone placements. These points included being enthusiastic, grateful, reducing filler language, and putting a positive spin on things when you can.

Writing a Personal Statement

Lastly, the theme that I struggled the most with, but that I feel like I also improved upon the most during the semester, was the effective writing of a personal statement. I’ve never been particularly good at bragging about myself, but the material we learned in class really helped me write a compelling, excellent self-portrait. The “Preparing​ ​to​ ​Write​ ​a​ ​Personal​ ​Statement​ ​or​ ​Application​ ​Essay” handout from the Center for Writing and Speaking brought up mentioning exciting courses, volunteer experiences, and creating a timeline of events in your life. Both Bottoms and Nysse (1999) and Sleigh’s (2009) articles outlined the importance of revision and peer review, which I took to heart. I’ve never been the type of person to share drafts with others for review, but I sent my personal statement to family members, friends, and family friends in academia to see if they had any tips for me. I feel like this really helped refine my personal statement and my understanding of the need for peer review.

All in all, this course has been incredibly helpful to me in redefining and understanding my new career goals, as well as all the new requirements that come with that goal. I know for sure that I will use my new acquired skills in areas like interviews, personal statements, and graduate school applications, and I look forward to putting these skills to the test up to and during the time I start to apply to graduate school for real.

Most of the constructive feedback I received was about the speed of my speech, my use of filler words, and ideas on ways to make my resume more focused. In reference to the last point, specifically, the interviewers said that because I have such a varied background (psychology, music, biology, chemistry, leadership, community service), I should make sure to figure out ways to apply all of my experience to the job at hand so it seems like I’m well-rounded instead of indecisive.

 My experience with race has been a complicated one because of repeated shifts in my racial and geographical environments during my early childhood.  For the first four years of my life my family, consisting of my mother, father, and myself, was economically middle-class, living in an almost entirely White town in rural Texas.  This negated my need to investigate how my skin color differed from others. 

However, at the age of four, my parents divorced and I was raised by a single mother who moved us often from town to town.  Four years later, in second grade, we moved to urban Austin and I was placed in a diverse school with no racial majority in place.  I remember realizing at this time that others were different, but because of the lack of any racial majority, and due to the privilege of my skin preventing me from experiencing any race-based discrimination, I simply noted the difference and lived my life without critically examining that difference.

My first notable understanding of race, specifically Whiteness, as “my race” and “others” as opposed to uncategorized differences in race came in third grade when my mother moved us to her suburban hometown, an area that was predominantly upper-middle class and White.  I bring up this difference in class along with race because it affected my identity within this community greatly.  My mother was still poor, but she indicated to the school district that I lived in my grandparents’ house located inside the district.  I was instructed by my mother to keep our real address and financial status as a secret.

The school district had a program that allowed a select group of students from the city to attend the schools within my district.  Most of these students were Black identified, living in low-income neighborhoods like I did.  Because of this, I was torn between two groups I aligned myself with.  Whether reflecting on my race or my class, I felt out of place.  I was White, but poor, so I didn’t feel like I fit in with my White peers, as I viewed Whiteness as inherently tied to wealth.  Conversely, I was poor, but because I was White and because I could not outwardly express this identity, I also didn’t consider myself a part of this group, as I viewed Blackness as inherently tied to poverty.

It was because of this cognitive dissonance and a negative experience with a Black classmate that I began to regress and hold covert resentment towards racial “others” Black people.  I wondered why “all of them” were poor, although I only made this association because this was the only experience I had with Black people.  I avoided playing with them because I perceived them as rude and brutish, generalizing my one negative experience with a Black student to the entire race.  Outwardly, I never said anything about their race, but one could tell I had a negative attitude towards them based on my actions.  When expressing my thoughts on race to my mother, she would often change the subject, and later told me it was because she thought I was too young to have the “race talk”.

Reflecting on my experiences with race up to this point in my life, direct links to Helms’ (1992) idea of ‘White racial identity development’ can be seen.  Contact, the first phase of this development, can be clearly seen in my early grade school years, as I had no definitions of or interest in investigating my race and others’ race.  However, when I moved to a White, upper-class town, I appear to have entered the disintegration phase, exemplified by the internal conflict I experienced between my White identity and my low-income identity.  This conflict led me to reintegration, which I experienced in the form of viewing all Black people as poor, rude, and not worthy of my time and attention, while still outwardly pretending to not be racist and to have a color-blind attitude.

The next phase in the White racial identity development is pseudo-independence, which didn’t come about for me until high school when we had mandatory seminars on racism, sexism, classism, and other ‘-isms’ in my freshman year.  It was at this point that we were taught in a very cold, clinical way to not engage in overt racism, without deeply investigating the roots of our prejudice and the history of racial discrimination.  This is something I recognized in Peggy McIntosh’s essay in Race Class & Gender An Anthology, wherein she describes her schooling not teaching her at all about her White privilege, and that she was taught to acknowledge the racism of her people in the past but to view current racial identity as morally neutral (Anderson & Collins, 2016).  The “-isms” seminars taught us about the history of race relations in the United States, about slavery, manifest destiny, segregation, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and other historical incidents of racism, but had the general attitude of “well, thank goodness racism is over now!”, which was bizarre considering the fact that the seminars were set up to combat current racial discrimination issues.

I did not start to deeply investigate my personal identity as a racial being, questioning what exactly entails being White, and confronting my own biases until my senior year of high school, when I decided to take a course on the history of feminism, which included investigations of race and class along with gender, almost like a simplified version of the course I am in now.  This phase is referred to as immersion/emersion and is where I would currently place myself in due to my persistent racial guilt and reluctance to insert myself into discussions of the experiential nature of race, all characteristics of the final phase, autonomy.  That is my next step in my experience and understanding of race, which I hope to at least begin working towards over the course of the semester and afterwards, a never-ending journey that will go on only if I continue to put conscious effort into it.

References

Anderson, M. L., & Collins, P. H. (2016). Race, class & gender an anthology (9^th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.

Helms, J. E. (1992). A race is a nice thing to have: A guide to being a White person or understanding the White persons in your life. Topeka, KS: Content Communications.

Background

In recent years, scientists have begun to investigate the effects of hippocampal abnormalities on behavior, even though this structure has historically been implicated solely in the conversion of short-term memories to long-term memories (Opitz, 2014). Many of these studies have been inconclusive about the affective change in neo-h lesioned animals when studied as infants, juveniles, and adults in response to various stimuli (videos, socially aversive objects, etc.), but trends have been shown (Bliss-Moreau et. al, 2010; Bliss-Moreau et. al, 2011A; Bliss-Moreau et. al, 2011B).

However, one study was able to fine significant effects of hippocampal lesions on emotional regulation. In the study, neonatal hippocampal lesions were shown to increase anxiety behaviors in rhesus monkeys during the human intruder task (Raper et. al, 2017). Thus, more research should be done to investigate these effects. This kind of research is important because it can help understand the effects of damage to/an underdeveloped hippocampus in terms of emotional reactivity and psychological disorders

Hypothesis

Rhesus macaques with neonatal hippocampal lesions will experience altered emotional reactivity in response to social fear stimuli.

Specific Aims

This hypothesis leads me to make the following predictions; Neo-H monkeys will be more emotionally reactive than control monkeys in response to social fear stimuli, Neo-H monkeys and controls will not differ significantly in their fear responses to innate and learned fear stimuli, and Neo-H monkeys will respond to fear with self-directed behavior and stereotypies, whereas control monkeys will respond with anxiety behaviors.

Subjects. Subjects will be pulled from a group of rhesus macaques at Yerkes National Primate Research Center who were administered either a sham operation at two weeks of age (control), or a hippocampal lesion using bilateral ibotenic acid injections at two weeks of age (Neo-H). The subjects are now adults (five years of age or older).

There are eight control monkeys (four male, four female) and eight Neo-H monkeys (five male, three female). Each monkey will go through six trials of the object responsiveness task.

Object Responsiveness Task. Each monkey will be placed in a modified lab care cage with which they are familiar. The front of the cage will have open bars and access to a metal platform where the objects and food items will be placed. A sliding black cover will be placed over the bars and lifted by machine when the trial starts. There will be four sections of each trial, and each trial will last 2 minutes; section one is a baseline where there is no object on the platform, section two is the neutral object (similar in appearance to the fear object) with a grape placed in front of it, section three is a grape alone, and section four is the fear object with a grape placed in front of it. A grape is used because of its status as a highly desired food object.

Social fear stimuli. The first pair of social fear objects is a Mr. Potato Head with all parts attached (fear) or a Mr. Potato Head with only feet attached for stability (neutral). The second pair of social fear objects is a little girl doll (fear) or an Amish doll (neutral).

Innate fear stimuli. The first pair of innate fear stimuli is a rubber snake (fear) or a coiled-up hose (neutral). The second pair of innate fear stimuli is a rubber spider (fear) or a dog toy with ribbons attached (neutral).

Conditioned fear stimuli. The first pair of conditioned fear stimuli is a pair for leather handing gloves (fear) or a pair of latex gloves (neutral. The second pair of conditioned fear stimuli is a capture net (fear) or a mop (neutral).

We will measure the latency to take the grape in each trial, the time spent manipulating the objects, and the behavioral responses of the monkeys.

Figure 1. Food retrieval latency in response to videos. Data columns predict the average time to retrieve food per video type; error bars represent the standard errors of the means. Note that the figure uses raw data for the ease of interpretation, although log transformed data were analyzed.

Figure (From Bliss-Moreau, Bauman, & Amaral, 2011)

References

Bliss-Moreau E, Bauman MD, & Amaral DG (2011) Neonatal amygdala lesions result in globally blunted affect in adult rhesus macaques. Behavioral Neuroscience, 125(6), 848-858. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0025757

Bliss-Moreau E, Toscano JE, Bauman MD, Mason WA, & Amaral DG (2011) Neonatal amygdala lesions alter responsiveness to objects in juvenile macaques. Neuroscience, 178, 123-32. 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2010.12.038

Bliss-Moreau E, Toscano JE, Bauman MD, Mason WA, & Amaral DG (2010) Neonatal amygdala or hippocampus lesions influence responsiveness to objects. Developmental Psychobiology, 52, 487-503. 10.1002/dev.20451

Opitz B (2014) Memory function and the hippocampus. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience, 34, 51-59. doi.10.1159/000356422

Raper J, Wilson M, Sanchez M, Payne C, & Bachevalier J (2017) Increased anxiety-like behaviors, but blunted cortisol stress response after neonatal hippocampal lesions in monkeys. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 76, 57-66. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.11.011

Erika McDonnell and Emma McKeon

Spring 2018

Abstract

One particular area of visual attention that is often studied by psychologists is precedence, specifically global precedence. Global precedence describes a person’s attentiveness to global features (the whole) of a stimulus as opposed to local features (the details) (May, Gutierrez, & Harsin, 1995). Emotional priming has proven to be a valuable factor in a person’s global precedence, with one study by Baumann and Kuhl (2005) finding that positive affect increases cognitive flexibility when participants were exposed to positive words. This study investigated the effects of emotional primers, specifically positive and negative images, on a person’s global precedence, as measured by the Navon task. We hypothesized that emotional priming would have an effect on global precedence, and specifically predicted that the positive primers would encourage focus on global features while negative primers would encourage focus on local features. Participants were be randomly divided into groups and were either negatively or positively primed through exposure to image slides. Immediately thereafter, participants completed the Navon task online. We conducted a two-way ANOVA, and while none of our results were significant, they did contain a trend of sad-primed participants responding faster to global target figures and happy-primed participants responding faster to local target figures.

Keywords: attention, global precedence, local precedence, visual processing, emotional priming

Limitations and Future Research

It should be noted that because this was a pilot study, we had a small sample size of only 20 participants. This was likely very limiting for our results and, considering trending results, a larger sample size might yield significant findings. We also did not account for external factors in our study, such as naps and participants’ mood. Furthermore, the priming session was only 45 seconds which is significantly less that previous studies on this topic.

In the future, we would like to employ more intensive priming sessions that involve group discussions regarding more emotionally salient subjects and a longer duration. Furthermore, in an effort to control for participants’ mood and activities such as napping, it would be beneficial to provide questionnaires regarding mood and emotion for participants both before and after the study. Lastly, exploring more nuanced emotions such as frustration and gratitude might inform the field of attention processing more, as humans are undoubtedly complex beings.

References

Baumann, N., & Kuhl, J. (2005). Positive affect and flexibility: Overcoming the precedence of global over local processing of visual information. Motivation and Emotion, 29, 123-134. doi: 10.1007/s11031-005-7957-1

May, J. G., Gutierrez, C., Harsin, C. A. (1995). The time-course of global precedence and consistency effects. International Journal of Neuroscience, 80, 237-245. doi: 10.3109/00207459508986102