scholarly journals Methods for measuring mammalian personalities: In which animals and how accurately can we quantify it?

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Barbora Žampachová ◽  
Eva Landová ◽  
Daniel Frynta
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Personality Testing ◽  
Confounding Factors ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Statistical Tool ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personality Studies

Abstract The study of personality, and individual differences in behaviour has experienced a steady rise in popularity in the past years. In this review and meta-analysis, we aim to introduce the concept of personality and related phenomena. A behavioural trait should meet two basic conditions to be considered a personality trait – it should be consistent (1) in time and (2) across contexts. In mammals, the two most common orders in personality studies are primates and rodents. We therefore introduce different approaches to personality testing in these two orders. Primate personality studies are based on psychology studies and often rely on the observer’s ratings. Rodent personality studies originate in the studies of physiology and use an experimental approach. We present a more detailed overview of methodological issues of repeatability as a statistical tool for measuring consistency across time. The classic methods of computing repeatability do not consider habituation and other trends which may become confounding factors and lead to underestimation of repeatability. We also discuss consistency across contexts and different understandings of the context definition. We illustrate the variability of personality studies in mammals with a meta-analysis of repeatability estimates. We found that repeatability of behaviour depends on the methodology of behavioural testing and statistical analyses used, but also the number of test repetitions and differences between the focal behaviours. Repeatability decreased with more repetitions and the tests of aggressiveness and exploratory behaviour yielded lower repeatability estimates than the tests of activity.

scholarly journals Individual differences affect honest signalling in a songbird

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1775) ◽  
pp. 20132496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell ◽  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Honest Signalling ◽  
Signalling System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Residual Variation ◽  
Aggressive Behaviours

Research in the past decade has established the existence of consistent individual differences or ‘personality’ in animals and their important role in many aspects of animal behaviour. At the same time, research on honest signalling of aggression has revealed that while some of the putative aggression signals are reliable, they are only imperfectly so. This study asks whether a significant portion of the variance in the aggression-signal regression may be explained by individual differences in signalling strategies. Using the well-studied aggressive signalling system of song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia ), we carried out repeated assays to measure both aggressive behaviours and aggressive signalling of territorial males. Through these assays, we found that aggressive behaviours and aggressive signalling were both highly repeatable, and moreover that aggressive behaviours in 2009–2010 predicted whether the birds would attack a taxidermic mount over a year later. Most significantly, we found that residual variation in signalling behaviours, after controlling for aggressive behaviour, was individually consistent, suggesting there may be a second personality trait determining the level of aggressive signalling. We term this potential personality trait ‘communicativeness’ and discuss these results in the context of honest signalling theories and recent findings reporting prevalence of ‘under-signalling’.

The Ego Could Be Depleted, Providing Initial Exertion Is Depleting

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhua Dang ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Xiaoping Liu ◽  
Lihua Mao
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Ego Depletion ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depletion Effect

Abstract. The ego depletion effect has been examined by over 300 independent studies during the past two decades. Despite its pervasive influence, recently this effect has been severely challenged and asserted to be a fake. Based on an up-to-date meta-analysis that examined the effectiveness of each frequently used depleting task, we preregistered the current experiment with the aim to examine whether there would be an ego depletion effect when the Stroop task is used as the depleting task. The results demonstrated a significant ego depletion effect. The current research highlights the importance of the depleting task’s effectiveness. That is to say, the “ego” could be “depleted,” but only when initial exertion is “depleting.”

scholarly journals Characterizing Bilingual Effects on Cognition: The Search for Meaningful Individual Differences

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Kristina C. Backer ◽  
Heather Bortfeld
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
The Past ◽  
General Movement ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

A debate over the past decade has focused on the so-called bilingual advantage—the idea that bilingual and multilingual individuals have enhanced domain-general executive functions, relative to monolinguals, due to competition-induced monitoring of both processing and representation from the task-irrelevant language(s). In this commentary, we consider a recent study by Pot, Keijzer, and de Bot (2018), which focused on the relationship between individual differences in language usage and performance on an executive function task among multilingual older adults. We discuss their approach and findings in light of a more general movement towards embracing complexity in this domain of research, including individuals’ sociocultural context and position in the lifespan. The field increasingly considers interactions between bilingualism/multilingualism and cognition, employing measures of language use well beyond the early dichotomous perspectives on language background. Moreover, new measures of bilingualism and analytical approaches are helping researchers interrogate the complexities of specific processing issues. Indeed, our review of the bilingualism/multilingualism literature confirms the increased appreciation researchers have for the range of factors—beyond whether someone speaks one, two, or more languages—that impact specific cognitive processes. Here, we highlight some of the most salient of these, and incorporate suggestions for a way forward that likewise encompasses neural perspectives on the topic.

scholarly journals Does Neonatal Imitation Exist? Insights From a Meta-Analysis of 336 Effect Sizes

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162095983
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Davis ◽  
Jonathan Redshaw ◽  
Thomas Suddendorf ◽  
Mark Nielsen ◽  
Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Positive Result ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Significant Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Substantial Heterogeneity

Neonatal imitation is a cornerstone in many theoretical accounts of human development and social behavior, yet its existence has been debated for the past 40 years. To examine possible explanations for the inconsistent findings in this body of research, we conducted a multilevel meta-analysis synthesizing 336 effect sizes from 33 independent samples of human newborns, reported in 26 articles. The meta-analysis found significant evidence for neonatal imitation ( d = 0.68, 95% CI = [0.39, 0.96], p < .001) but substantial heterogeneity between study estimates. This heterogeneity was not explained by any of 13 methodological moderators identified by previous reviews, but it was associated with researcher affiliation, test of moderators ( QM) (15) = 57.09, p < .001. There are at least two possible explanations for these results: (a) Neonatal imitation exists and its detection varies as a function of uncaptured methodological factors common to a limited set of studies, and (2) neonatal imitation does not exist and the overall positive result is an artifact of high researcher degrees of freedom.

scholarly journals 165 A Review of The Current Literature on LMWH Administered at Different Times in Relation to MOS (Major Orthopaedic Surgery): Assessment of The Safety and Efficacy of The Different Proposed Strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
G Placella ◽  
V Pace ◽  
P Antinolfi ◽  
V Salini
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Just In Time ◽  
Medical Complications ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cochrane Database ◽  
Major Orthopedic Surgery ◽  
Major Orthopaedic Surgery ◽  
The One

Abstract Nowadays venous VTE represents an important perioperative and postoperative complication in patients undergoing elective Major Orthopedic Surgery (MOS). There are significant discrepancies between clinical practice, international recommendations, and published guidelines. Although thromboembolic events may be less common these days than in the past, they can still lead to serious medical complications. Therefore, most patients undergoing MOS procedures are provided with one of the thromboprophylactic treatments. The optimum timing of LMWH administrations remains debated. Customized structured electronic searches in PubMed and Cochrane database. Meta-Analysis, Randomized Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews on different strategies of the use of LMWH for MOS. Studies on prophylactic regimens showed that subcutaneous LMWH plays a key role in the management of thromboprophylaxis in MOS. However, some controversies still stand. Among those most relevant, it remains unclear whether to start thromboprophylaxis before or after MOS to better balance the risks of clotting and bleeding. With regards to different times of LMWH administration, there is no convincing evidence that starting prophylaxis 12 hours preoperatively is associated with lower risks of VTE compared to prophylaxis started 12 to 24 hours postoperatively. Furthermore, it seems that the most safe and efficient LMWH regimen is the one called “Just-in-time” (LMWH started 6 hours post-op).

Effectiveness of Single-surface ART Restorations in the Permanent Dentition: A Meta-analysis

2004 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Frencken ◽  
M.A. van ’t Hof ◽  
W.E. van Amerongen ◽  
C.J. Holmgren
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Permanent Teeth ◽  
Atraumatic Restorative Treatment ◽  
Restorative Treatment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Maximum Period ◽  
Amalgam Restorations ◽  
Late Group

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of studies reporting on various aspects of the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) approach. Five randomized clinical trials in which ART restorations with glass ionomers were compared with amalgam restorations in permanent teeth for a maximum period of 3 yrs constituted the database. This meta-analysis divided the publications into ‘early’ (1987–1992) and ‘late’ (1995-) studies on the basis of improvements in the approach. The analysis showed that, in the ‘early’ studies, single-surface amalgam restorations survived statistically significantly longer than comparable ART restorations after 1, 2, and 3 yrs. This trend did not continue into the late group of studies; no statistically significant difference between the 2 types of restorations was found. Based on the available data, it appears that there is no difference in survival results between single-surface ART restorations and amalgam restorations in permanent teeth over the first 3 yrs.

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