scholarly journals Social learning in a high-risk environment: incomplete disregard for the ‘minnow that cried pike’ results in culturally transmitted neophobia

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1812) ◽  
pp. 20150934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam L. Crane ◽  
Anthony G. E. Mathiron ◽  
Maud C. O. Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Risk Models ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Predator Cue

Many prey species rely on conspecifics to gather information about unknown predation threats, but little is known about the role of varying environmental conditions on the efficacy of social learning. We examined predator-naive minnows that had the opportunity to learn about predators from experienced models that were raised in either a low- or high-risk environment. There were striking differences in behaviour among models; high-risk models showed a weaker response to the predator cue and became neophobic in response to the control cue (a novel odour, NO). Observers that were previously paired with low-risk models acquired a strong antipredator response only to the predator cue. However, observers that interacted with high-risk models, displayed a much weaker response to the predator odour and a weak neophobic response to the NO. This is the first study reporting such different outcomes of social learning under different environmental conditions, and suggests high-risk environments promote the cultural transmission of neophobia more so than social learning. If such a transfer can be considered similar to secondary traumatization in humans, culturally transmitted neophobia in minnows may provide a good model system for understanding more about the social ecology of fear disorders.

scholarly journals Experimental studies illuminate the cultural transmission of percussive technologies in Homo and Pan

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1682) ◽  
pp. 20140359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Whiten
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Cognitive Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Special Power ◽  
Social Learning Processes

The complexity of Stone Age tool-making is assumed to have relied upon cultural transmission, but direct evidence is lacking. This paper reviews evidence bearing on this question provided through five related empirical perspectives. Controlled experimental studies offer special power in identifying and dissecting social learning into its diverse component forms, such as imitation and emulation. The first approach focuses on experimental studies that have discriminated social learning processes in nut-cracking by chimpanzees. Second come experiments that have identified and dissected the processes of cultural transmission involved in a variety of other force-based forms of chimpanzee tool use. A third perspective is provided by field studies that have revealed a range of forms of forceful, targeted tool use by chimpanzees, that set percussion in its broader cognitive context. Fourth are experimental studies of the development of flint knapping to make functional sharp flakes by bonobos, implicating and defining the social learning and innovation involved. Finally, new and substantial experiments compare what different social learning processes, from observational learning to teaching, afford good quality human flake and biface manufacture. Together these complementary approaches begin to delineate the social learning processes necessary to percussive technologies within the Pan – Homo clade.

scholarly journals Evidence of genotypic adaptation to the exposure to volcanic risk at the dopamine receptor DRD4 locus

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Faurie ◽  
Clement Mettling ◽  
Mohamed Ali Bchir ◽  
Danang Sri Hadmoko ◽  
Carine Heitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Dopamine Receptor ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Active Volcano ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Receptor Locus ◽  
Negative Frequency Dependent Selection

Abstract Humans have colonized and adapted to extremely diverse environments, and the genetic basis of some such adaptations, for example to high altitude, is understood. In some cases, local or regional variation in selection pressure could also cause behavioural adaptations. Numerous genes influence behaviour, such as alleles at the dopamine receptor locus D4 (DRD4), which are associated with attitude toward risk in experimental settings. We demonstrate genetic differentiation for this gene, but not for five unlinked microsatellite loci, between high- and low risk environments around Mount Merapi, an active volcano in Java, Indonesia. Using a behavioural experiment, we further show that people inhabiting the high risk environment are significantly more risk averse. We provide evidence of a genetic basis for this difference, showing that heterozygotes at the DRD4 locus are more risk averse than either homozygotes. In the high risk environment, allele frequencies are equilibrated, generating a high frequency of heterozygotes. Thus it appears that overdominance (i.e. selective advantage of heterozygotes) generates negative frequency dependent selection, favouring the rarer allele at this locus. Our results therefore provide evidence for adaptation to a marginal habitat through the selection of a neurocognitive trait with a genetic basis.

Effects of Human-Likeness on Robot Use in High-Risk Environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1049-1053
Author(s):  
Nathan L. Tenhundfeld ◽  
Hannah M. Barr ◽  
Emily O’Hear ◽  
Andrew Atchley ◽  
Jenna E. Cotter
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Human Likeness ◽  
High Risk Environments

Previous research has shown that the design of robots can impact the level of trust, liking, and empathy that a user feels towards a robot. Additionally, this empathy can have direct impacts on users’ interactions with the system. Existing research has looked at how empathy can influence user willingness to, for example, put the robot in harm’s way or to destroy the robot. However, these studies have been inherently reliant upon narrative driven manipulations, which may result in experimental demands which could have influenced the results. As such, we provide a human-likeness manipulation in order to evaluate the impacts of design which may evoke empathy, on use of robots in high-risk environments. Results indicate no significant difference in robot use between conditions. These results are in conflict with previous research. More research is needed to understand when users are/are not willing to use a robot in a high-risk environment.

Walking on Thin Ice: How and Why Frontline Officers Cope With Managerialism, Accountability, and Risk in Probation Services

2020 ◽  
pp. 009539972097089
Author(s):  
Mathias Sabbe ◽  
Nathalie Schiffino ◽  
Stéphane Moyson
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
General Public ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Probation Officers ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Political Backlash ◽  
High Risk Environments

Probation officers (POs) operate in a high-risk environment. They are vulnerable to mediatic and political backlash and are confronted with managerial innovations that can conflict with their values. A thematic analysis of 29 interviews with Belgian POs reveals that classical coping mechanisms caused by time shortages, such as rationing and prioritization, are amplified by managerialism. POs also break rules which present limited meaningfulness and routinize offender control to alleviate pressure from accountabilities to both managers and the general public. The study demonstrates that managerialism and accountabilities to the managers, the public, and the politicians model coping mechanisms in high-risk environments.

scholarly journals Understanding Risk Environments in Permanent Supportive Housing for Formerly Homeless Adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (13) ◽  
pp. 2011-2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin F. Henwood ◽  
John Lahey ◽  
Taylor Harris ◽  
Harmony Rhoades ◽  
Suzanne L. Wenzel
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Supportive Housing ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Permanent Supportive Housing ◽  
Policy Environments ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Formerly Homeless ◽  
Reduce Risk

In this study, we used ethnographic methods and a risk environment framework to consider how contextual factors produce or reduce risk for substance use with a sample of 27 adults who recently moved into permanent supportive housing (PSH). Most apparent was how the social and physical environments interacted, because most participants focused on how having an apartment had dramatically changed their lives and how they interact with others. Specific themes that emerged that also involved economic and policy environments included the following: isolation versus social engagement; becoming one’s own caseworker; and engaging in identity work. This study underscores the scarcity yet importance of research that examines the multiple types of environment in which PSH is situated, and suggests that a better understanding of how these environments interact to produce or reduce risk is needed to develop optimal interventions and support services.

scholarly journals Adaptation and Cognition of High-Risk Environment Teams in an Input-Mediator-Outcome Framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-167
Author(s):  
Veronika Klára Takács ◽  
Márta Juhász
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Team Cognition ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Team Adaptation ◽  
Outcome Framework ◽  
High Risk Environments

The aim of this article is to introduce a conceptual, integrative model of the adaptation of teams in high risk environments. The model is a combination of previous theoretical frameworks of adaptation and task execution, with the aim of providing a comprehensive model for understanding team adaptation specific to high risk environments. We give equal importance to adaptation as an input, a mediator, and an outcome by putting it in an Input-Mediator-Outcome model, although we further wish to emphasize the relevance of team cognition in team adaptation. In addition, we aim to highlight that, depending on the trigger and the already existing characteristics of the team, adaptation might either follow an algorithm-based or a knowledge-based pattern.

How Does an Audit or a Forensic Perspective Influence Auditors’ Fraud-Risk Assessment and Subsequent Risk Response?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Chui ◽  
Mary B Curtis ◽  
Byron J Pike
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Fraud Detection ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Risk Response ◽  
Fraud Risk ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Potential Improvement ◽  
Fraud Risk Assessments ◽  
Subsequent Risk

This study examines whether priming auditors with a forensic perspective improves their fraud-risk assessments and subsequent audit-plan responses. We contribute to the literature by investigating a potential improvement in fraud detection that encourages auditors to take a forensic specialist’s perspective, while retaining the audit tenets of efficiently identifying and responding to risk. We prime auditors with a forensic perspective and compare their fraud performance to unprimed auditors in both low- and high-risk contexts, finding primed auditors assess fraud-risk significantly higher in all fraud-risk environments. In a high-risk environment, primed auditors propose a more appropriate audit-plan response. Relevant to fraud detection, these audit-plan modifications were consistent with those determined by a panel of audit and forensic experts. They exhibit a sensitivity in the low-risk environment, whereby their risk response is similar with that of the unprimed auditors. Finally, we find perspective-taking affects risk response through its influence on risk assessment.

scholarly journals The socially mediated recovery of a fearful fish paired with periodically replaced calm models

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1888) ◽  
pp. 20180739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam L. Crane ◽  
Kevin R. Bairos-Novak ◽  
Laurel H. Sacco ◽  
Maud C. O. Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Secondary Trauma ◽  
Pimephales Promelas ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Periodic Replacement

Social learning is an important mechanism for acquiring knowledge about environmental risk. However, little work has explored the learning of safety and how such learning outcomes are shaped by the social environment. Here, we exposed minnows, Pimephales promelas , to a high-risk environment to induce behavioural responses associated with fear (e.g. neophobia). We then used the presence of calm conspecific models (low-risk individuals) to weaken these responses. When observers (individuals from the high-risk environment) and models were paired consistently in a one-on-one setting, the observers showed no recovery (i.e. no weakening of the fear responses), and instead the models indirectly acquired those responses (i.e. a socially transmitted state of fear). However, observers paired with models that were periodically replaced with new calm models showed a significant recovery, and each new model showed diminished socially transmitted fear. We argue that our understanding of predation-related fear and social information transfer can prove fruitful in understanding problems with fear and stress across animal taxa, including among humans who experience post-traumatic stress and secondary trauma. Our findings indicate that the periodic replacement of models can promote fear recovery in observers and reduce socially transmitted fear in models.

scholarly journals Dissociable effects of surprising rewards on learning and memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Rouhani ◽  
K. A. Norman ◽  
Y. Niv
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Learning Rate ◽  
Low Risk ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
Error Magnitude ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

The extent to which rewards deviate from learned expectations is tracked by a signal known as a “reward prediction error”, but it is unclear how this signal interacts with episodic memory. Here, we investigated whether learning in a high-risk environment, with frequent large prediction errors, gives rise to higher fidelity memory traces than learning in a low-risk environment. In Experiment 1, we showed that higher magnitude prediction errors, positive or negative, improved recognition memory for trial-unique items. Participants also increased their learning rate after large prediction errors. In addition, there was an overall higher learning rate in the low-risk environment. Although unsigned prediction errors enhanced memory and increased learning rate, we did not find a relationship between learning rate and memory, suggesting that these two effects were due to separate underlying mechanisms. In Experiment 2, we replicated these results with a longer task that posed stronger memory demands and allowed for more learning. We also showed improved source and sequence memory for high-risk items. In Experiment 3, we controlled for the difficulty of learning in the two risk environments, again replicating the previous results. Moreover, equating the range of prediction errors in the two risk environments revealed that learning in a high-risk context enhanced episodic memory above and beyond the effect of prediction errors to individual items. In summary, our results across three studies showed that (absolute) prediction error magnitude boosted both episodic memory and incremental learning, but the two effects were not correlated, suggesting distinct underlying systems.

A realist philosophical understanding of entrepreneurial risk-taking

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alasdair Marshall ◽  
Udechukwu Ojiako
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Risk Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ecological View ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to utilise Vilfredo Pareto ' s Machiavellian-realist social theory to provide a distinctive realist philosophical understanding of entrepreneurial risk-taking. By doing so, this paper seeks to stimulate debate and encourage future empirical testing that has the potential to present a richer understanding of entrepreneurial risk-taking. Design/methodology/approach – To establish that a realist perspective can help theorise entrepreneurship, the authors look through a modern day risk and uncertainty optic at the hidden mechanisms within the social world where enterprises operate. Looking from this unique standpoint, where the long established social theory is reinvigorated by contemporary risk philosophy within a shared realist paradigm, human nature equips entrepreneurs with certain “animal spirits” to muddle blindly and instinctually through their risk environments. Findings – The paper argues that this combined perspective unlocks a much richer understanding of entrepreneurial risk-taking, in particular, by capturing more of its behavioural reality and despite our strong emphasis on the inaccessibility and hiddenness of the risk environment to the entrepreneur, by exploring the entrepreneur-risk environment fit in ecological terms. Originality/value – The paper’s unique blend of the classical Italian social theory with the contemporary risk theory offers a novel ecological view of the entrepreneur’s blind (mal) adaptation to their risk environment.

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