Operant control and call usage learning in African elephants

Elephants exhibit remarkable vocal plasticity, and case studies reveal that individuals of African savannah ( Loxodonta africana ) and Asian ( Elephas maximus ) elephants are capable of vocal production learning. Surprisingly, however, little is known about contextual learning (usage and comprehension learning) in elephant communication. Usage learning can be demonstrated by training animals to vocalize in an arbitrary (cue-triggered) context. Here we show that adult African savannah elephants ( n = 13) can vocalize in response to verbal cues, reliably producing social call types such as the low-frequency rumble, trumpets and snorts as well as atypical sounds using various mechanisms, thus displaying compound vocal control. We further show that rumbles emitted upon trainer cues differ significantly in structure from rumbles triggered by social contexts of the same individuals ( n = 6). Every form of social learning increases the complexity of a communication system. In elephants, we only poorly understand their vocal learning abilities and the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Among other research, this calls for controlled learning experiments in which the prerequisite is operant/volitional control of vocalizations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’.

The Zoom Effect: Exploring the Impact of Video Calling on Appearance Dissatisfaction and Interest in Aesthetic Treatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background The popularity of videoconferencing platforms has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there have been concerns regarding the potential for video calls to promote appearance dissatisfaction, as individuals are exposed to their reflection on camera for extended periods. Objectives The current study characterized current video usage behaviors and their relationship with appearance dissatisfaction and interest in aesthetic procedures in the general population. Methods An online survey was completed by 335 adults currently living in Australia. Multiple aspects of video usage were assessed, including engagement in ‘video manipulation’ techniques to enhance appearance and the focus of visual attention while on video calls (ie, on self or others). The Dysmorphic Concern Questionnaire was administered to determine if video use behaviors were associated with greater body image disturbance. Results Over 1/3 of participants had identified new appearance concerns while on video. Dysmorphic concern was associated with self-focused attention, greater engagement in video manipulation behaviors, and increasing appearance concerns due to their time on video calls. Individuals who identified new video-based appearance concerns reported greater interest in obtaining future beauty treatments (eg, waxing) and aesthetic procedures (eg, non-surgical procedures such as anti-wrinkle injections). Conclusions This is one of first empirical studies to report the potential consequences of video call usage for increasing appearance dissatisfaction and dysmorphic concern, and to demonstrate a link between the use of video calls and interest in cosmetic procedures.

The ‘Zoom Effect’: Exploring the impact of video-calling on appearance dissatisfaction and interest in cosmetic treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

The popularity of videoconferencing platforms has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there have been concerns regarding the potential for video-calls to promote appearance dissatisfaction, as individuals are exposed to their reflection on camera for extended periods. The current study characterised current video-usage behaviours and their relationship with appearance dissatisfaction and interest in beauty procedures in the general population. An online survey was completed by 379 adults currently living in Australia. Multiple aspects of video usage were assessed, including engagement in ‘video-manipulation’ techniques to enhance appearance and the focus of visual attention while on video-calls (i.e. on self or others). The Dysmorphic Concern Questionnaire was administered to determine if video-use behaviours were associated with greater body image disturbance. Over one-third of participants had identified new appearance concerns while on video. Dysmorphic concern was associated with self-focused attention, video manipulation behaviours and increasing appearance concerns. Individuals who identified new video-based appearance concerns reported greater interest in obtaining future beauty and cosmetic procedures. This is the first study to report the potential risks of video-call usage on body image and appearance dissatisfaction. Further research is needed to understand how best to mitigate these risks, as COVID-19 accelerates a virtual age of communication.

CALL research in the primary school setting – problems, possibilities, and potential

This paper looks at Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the primary school setting and the problems, possibilities, and potential associated with this context. CALL normalisation is a key feature of successful CALL usage. This paper looks at CALL normalisation in the primary school context through three different lenses: Leakey’s (2011) 3P’s, Bax’s (2003) CALL normalisation, and Chambers and Bax’s (2006) CALL normalisation. The paper provides an overview of the use of a CALL resource for primary school students over a period of three years, with students ranging in age from seven to 12, both boys and girls with a number of different teachers across two different schools. It finishes up with some reflections and tips for others looking to work in this particular area.

Predictors of Individual Differences in Emerging Adult Theory of Mind

Little is known about what factors are associated with emerging adult theory of mind (ToM). We predicted that childhood fantasy play (CFP), need for cognition (NfC), and fiction reading would be positive predictors due to their deliberative, perspective-taking nature while engagement with media and technology would be a negative predictor due to increased interpersonal distance. The best-fit mixed logit model ( N = 369) showed that CFP, texting frequency, and NfC were significant positive predictors while smartphone usage and preference for task switching were significant negative predictors. Email and phone call usage were contributing nonsignificant negative predictors. Our study extends previous findings regarding NfC and highlights the importance of CFP engagement for ToM beyond immediate childhood. Future research should investigate how subtly different media (e.g., texting vs. smartphone use) have differential predictive relationships with social cognition. Data and code are available at doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CBD9J.

Flexible usage and social function in primate vocalizations

Vocalizations are a pervasive feature of nonhuman primate social life, yet we know surprisingly little about their function. We review studies supporting the hypothesis that many primate vocalizations function to facilitate social interactions by reducing uncertainty about the signaler’s intentions and likely behavior. Such interactions help to establish and maintain the social bonds that increase reproductive success. Compared with humans, songbirds, and a few other mammals, primates have small vocal repertoires that show little acoustic modification during development. However, their ability to modify call usage is extensive and tuned to variation in the social context, including the historical relationship between caller and listener and the caller’s assessment of how a listener is likely to respond. We suggest parallels between the decision to vocalize and neurophysiological studies of other, nonvocal social decisions between interacting monkeys. The selective factors driving the early stages of language evolution may have come from the need to make decisions about when and how to call within the context of social challenges.

Real Time Call Monitoring System Using Spark Streaming and Network Intrusion Detection Using Distributed WekaSpark

With the increase of calls in industries it is very difficult to identify the calls made in a huge organization. The study and developing analytics out of the call history generated in terms of real time or the information stored helps in the improvement of the quality of calls in terms of network failure analysis, analysing call usage pattern from minimal to maximum to increase server efficiency, analyse user level pattern. The capability to process, analyse and evaluate real time data in a system is a challenging task, the test of building up an adaptable, shortcoming tolerant and flexible observing framework that Can deal with information continuously and at a huge scale is nontrivial. We exhibit a novel framework for real time processing and batch processing by using spark streaming and spark, also an ensemble model is used with distributed weka-spark for intrusion detection.

Call Usage Learning by a Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) in a Categorical Matching Task

The ability to modify the structure and context of vocalizations through learning plays a key role in the social interactions of many species. The investigation of categorical matching, an aspect of contextual vocal learning, is the first step toward determining how contextual learning plays a role in the use, comprehension, and categorization of sounds in the wild. To this end, we conducted a study at the Vancouver Aquarium to test the ability of a juvenile female beluga, Qila, to respond to playbacks of two types of in-air beluga calls with vocalizations that matched the category of call played (a scream, which is a vocalization type shaped over time with reinforcement and not part of this species'natural repertoire, and a pulse-train, a natural call category). We first tested Qila with random sequences of the same version of the two vocalizations with which she had been trained. Her overall success in matching all playback stimuli was above chance but not statistically so (66%). She had more difficulty matching screams (54% success) than pulse trains (80% success). We next played random sequences of six novel pulse-trains and seven novel screams, which Qila had not been trained with. She responded correctly to the set of novel stimuli of both call types in 64% of the trials, a success rate that did not differ statistically from chance. Again, she had more difficulty matching screams (55% success), relative to pulse trains (74% success). These results indicate that Qila successfully matched only pulse trains, the class that is part of this species’ natural repertoire. Her poor performance on matching screams might be partly explained by a difficulty to perceive categorically a signal that lacks a function in the natural repertoire of belugas.