Behavioral Mimicry as a Strategy to Increase Drinking Behaviors in Older Adults

Purpose Individuals with dysphagia, particularly in the presence of dementia, are at high risk for decreased nutrition and hydration. Unfortunately, current treatment options are not without limitations and often ignore the crucial social aspects of mealtimes. The aim of this exploratory, proof-of-concept study was to examine whether the social phenomenon of nonconscious behavioral mimicry can increase drinking behaviors in healthy older adults. Method Forty-two older adults ( M age = 68.26 years, SD = 6.49) participated. Participants and a member of the research team posing as another participant (a confederate) took turns describing two series of pictures, while, unbeknownst to the participants, the confederate either frequently drank from a cup of water or touched the cup. The primary outcome measures (number of drinks per minute, number of cup touches per minute, percentage of time spent drinking, and percentage of time spent touching the cup) were coded and analyzed across both the confederate drinking and cup-touching conditions. Results Participants drank more frequently and spent more task time drinking during the confederate drinking condition as compared to the cup-touching condition. There was significant variability in drinking patterns across participants, with some only drinking when they were not engaged in the picture description task. Conclusions Behavioral mimicry may increase drinking behaviors in healthy older adults, although the effect may not be as robust among certain subsets of individuals. Clinically, mimicry may hold potential as a powerful, noninvasive supplemental mealtime strategy for increasing intake in those who are most at risk for malnutrition.

Utility of Vocal Synchrony Measure as an Indicator of Coregulation in Adult Attachment

We aimed to explore the concept of coregulation in adulthood based on the analyses of vocal cues in conversations. Moderators which potentially affect vocal coordination between romantic partners were also examined. Twenty- four heterosexual dating couples (Mage = 21.25; SD = 1.03) from Cornell University were recruited for the Study. Participants communicated with their romantic and stranger partner in a balanced order. Their conversations were recorded and vocal features were extracted. Granger-causality analyses yielded that close partner conversations were bidirectional, signifying that female participants’ previous F0 responses caused male participants’ subsequent F0 responses and vice versa. In the stranger partner conversations, however, only female participants’ previous F0 responses caused male participants’ subsequent F0 responses, implying that there was unidirectional association between stranger partners. In sum, findings suggested that coregulation process can be observed at the vocal level using synchronous speech patterns. Implications for attachment-in-the-making between romantic partners and the literature on behavioral mimicry were discussed.

The Co-development of Extraversion and Friendships: Bonding and Behavioral Mechanisms in Friendship Networks

Empirical evidence suggests that people select friends whose extraversion is similar to their own (selection effects). However, little is known about whether friends influence extraversion development (influence effects) and about the interaction mechanisms that underlie friendship selection and influence effects. We examined whether selection and influence effects explain similarity in extraversion between friends in two independent samples. Similarity in extraversion predicted a higher likelihood of friendship selection across four years in Sample 1 (n = 1,698; Mage = 22.72, SD = 2.99; 49% female) and across a period of 16 weeks in Sample 2 (n = 131; Mage = 21.34, SD = 3.95; 77% female). Friends’ extraversion predicted increases in young adults’ extraversion in both samples. In Sample 2, we examined the interaction mechanisms underlying these selection and influence effects by combining event-based experience-sampling network dynamics with diary data on friendship network and extraversion dynamics. Findings showed that (a) similarity in extraversion predicted positive interaction quality changes and (b) positive interaction quality predicted friendship selection (bonding mechanism). In the same sample, (I) friends’ extraversion predicted friends’ sociable behavior changes, (II) friends’ sociable behavior predicted young adults’ sociable behavior changes, and (III) young adults’ sociable behavior predicted extraversion changes (behavioral mimicry mechanism). These findings provide unique insight into interaction mechanisms underlying longitudinal links between friendships and extraversion.

Interacting fruit flies synchronize behavior

Social behaviors are ubiquitous and crucial to an animal’s survival and success. The behaviors an animal performs in a social setting are affected by internal factors, inputs from the environment, and interaction with others. To quantify social behaviors, we need to measure both the stochastic nature of behavior of isolated individuals and how these behaviors change as a function of the environment and features of social interaction. We probed the behavior of male and female fruit flies in a circular arena as individuals and within all possible pairings. By combining measurements of the animals’ position in the arena with an unsupervised analysis of their behaviors, we fully define the effects of position in the environment and the presence of a partner on locomotion, grooming, singing, and other behaviors that make up an animal’s repertoire. We find that geometric context tunes behavioral preference, pairs of animals synchronize their behavioral preferences across trials, and paired individuals display signatures of behavioral mimicry.