Search

The supplementary material includes futher details on methods so others can replicate the study

Across cultures, humans engage in a wide variety of rituals, ranging from ordinary gestures of greeting or dining to highly elaborated ceremonies like weddings and funerals. Rituals are argued to serve adaptive functions, facilitating group coordination and cooperation, laying the foundations for complex societies (Henrich, 2009; Jagiello et al., 2022; Wen et al., 2016; Whitehouse & Lanman, 2014). The study of rituals has drawn ample attention from anthropologists (Fischer, 2021); however, less research has examined the social-cognitive aspects of ritual, much less the developmental trajectory of ritual learning. The current research, therefore, aimed to investigate how children use social learning strategies to acquire ritualistic or instrumental actions when doing so is costly.

This component contains

Details of the 'game phase' and PowerPoint files

The current study examines children's experience and reactions to high and low inequality. Particularly, we are interested in how these factors impact children's altruistic donation behaviour, their resource division behaviour and their perceptions of fairness.

This study will explore the power of rituals in acquiring magical beliefs. Specifically, it will look at whether children are more likely to adopt and adhere to novel magical beliefs when the learning is paired with ritualistic actions rather than instrumental actions. Furthermore, we will look at whether engaging in ritualistic acts strengthens the children's bond with the belief such that they are more likely to defend the magical belief in the face of contradictory evidence.

Unlike other animals, humans take knowledge of how to engage with the world, improve and refine it, and pass it on to subsequent generations. This is known as cumulative culture and underpins our vast successes that span medical and scientific breakthroughs, technological advances, and novel solutions to both old and new challenges. At the heart of cumulative culture is our species-unique approach to learning from others. Unlike other animals, even our closest living animal cousins the great apes, we will copy everything we see shown to us. Even if those actions are obviously causally irrelevant (e.g., like waving a stick in the air before using it to pry open a box). This is known as over-imitation, a phenomenon that our group has been at the forefront of identifying and defining (e.g., Nielsen, 2006; Nielsen & Tomaselli, 2010). We have led the field in documenting how this behaviour is socially driven, underpinned by a desire to be like and to be liked by others. What we don’t know is how strong this drive is. Will children forsake a social-conventional way of doing things that leads to little personal gain, or will they try to maximise their material rewards and abandon actions that are established as normative? The aim of this project is to answer this question.

Unlike other animals, humans take knowledge of how to engage with the world, improve and refine it, and pass it on to subsequent generations. This is known as cumulative culture and underpins our vast successes that span medical and scientific breakthroughs, technological advances, and novel solutions to both old and new challenges. At the heart of cumulative culture is our species-unique approach to learning from others. Unlike other animals, even our closest living animal cousins the great apes, we will copy everything we see shown to us. Even if those actions are obviously causally irrelevant (e.g., like waving a stick in the air before using it to pry open a box). This is known as over-imitation, a phenomenon that our group has been at the forefront of identifying and defining (e.g., Nielsen, 2006; Nielsen & Tomaselli, 2010). We have led the field in documenting how this behaviour is socially driven, underpinned by a desire to be like and to be liked by others. What we don’t know is how strong this drive is. Will children forsake a social-conventional way of doing things that leads to little personal gain, or will they try to maximise their material rewards and abandon actions that are ritualised? The aim of this project is to answer this question.

This project is aimed at examining cultural variation in adults’ judgments of conformity in children. We will expand on previous cross-cultural research conducted to examine demographic and cultural influences on adults’ perceptions of conformity in children. We will collect data online from adults in five Western, industrialized populations (U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U.K.). Participants will see examples of children engaging in high versus low conformity behavior and we will ask them to provide behavioral judgments about competency, creativity, and obedience. Participants will also be asked questions about their educational aspirations, political attitudes, and views on various developmental values and traits. This research will provide novel insights into how adults reason about relations between conformity, competency, and creativity.

The disappearance of the video deficit in imitation: successful learning from people, screens, and social robots

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.

Includes additional information on apparatus dimensions, a breakdown of the analysis, and table of frequencies

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-pps-10.1177_1745691620959834 for Does Neonatal Imitation Exist? Insights From a Meta-Analysis of 336 Effect Sizes by Jacqueline Davis, Jonathan Redshaw, Thomas Suddendorf, Mark Nielsen, Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini, Janine Oostenbroek and Virginia Slaughter in Perspectives on Psychological Science

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-pps-10.1177_1745691620959834 for Does Neonatal Imitation Exist? Insights From a Meta-Analysis of 336 Effect Sizes by Jacqueline Davis, Jonathan Redshaw, Thomas Suddendorf, Mark Nielsen, Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini, Janine Oostenbroek and Virginia Slaughter in Perspectives on Psychological Science

A meta-analysis examining how linguistic cues (i.e., language, accent, dialect) influence children's social preferences

Supplemental material for Behavioral Investments in the Short Term Fail to Produce a Sunk Cost Effect by Jeremy S. Nash, Kana Imuta and Mark Nielsen in Psychological Reports

Text S1. Analysis of residual spatial dependence. Text S2. Model specification. Table S1. Number of individuals with two or more STH infections. Table S2. Number of individuals with mono- and co-infections. Table S3. Summary of parameters of semivariograms for prevalence of mono- and co-infections. Table S4. Summary of parameters of semivariograms for prevalence of infection intensity classes. Table S5. Summary of validation statistics for models used in study. Figure S1. Semivariograms of prevalence of co-infection models. Figure S2. Semivariograms of prevalence of infection intensity classes model. Figure S3. Map of observed prevalence of mono- and co-infections in Luzon. Figure S4. Map of observed prevalence of mono- and co-infections in the Visayas. Figure S5. Map of observed prevalence of mono- and co-infections in Mindanao. Figure S6. Map of observed infection intensity classes of A. lumbricoides in Mindanao. Figure S7. Map of observed infection intensity classes of T. trichiura in Mindanao. Figure S8. Maps of standard deviation of predicted prevalence of A. lumbricoides mono-, T. trichiura mono-, and co-infection. Figure S9. Maps of standard deviation of predicted prevalence of infection intensity classes of A. lumbricoides. Figure S10. Maps of standard deviation of predicted prevalence of infection intensity classes of T. trichiura. Figure S11. Maps showing number of individuals with A. lumbricoides monoinfection. Figure S12. Maps showing number of individuals with T. trichiura monoinfection. Figure S13. Maps showing number of individuals with co-infections. Figure S14. Map showing number of individuals with light intensity class of A. lumbricoides. Figure S15. Map showing number of individuals with moderate/high intensity classes of A. lumbricoides. Figure S16. Map showing number of individuals with light intensity class of T. trichiura. Figure S17. Map showing number of individuals with moderate/high intensity classes of T. trichiura. (DOCX 4419 kb)

Rituals are able to transform ordinary objects into extraordinary objects. And while rituals typically do not cause physical changes, they may imbue objects with a particular specialness - a simple gold band may become a wedding ring, while an ordinary dessert may become a birthday cake. To treat such objects as if they were ordinary then becomes inappropriate. How does this transformation take place in the minds of observers, and how do we recognize it when we see it? Here, we suggest that two under-examined elements of ritual need deeper consideration within the context of ritual cognition. We propose a fully integrated operational definition in which these two critical ritual elements - causal opacity and goal demotion - are included. In a pre-registered experiment one-hundred and one adults, in a 2 x 2 mixed-within participants design observed actions performed upon profane objects. These actions were either ordinary (causally transparent and goal apparent) or ritualized (causally opaque and goal demoted), and were described as a blessing, a curse, or were not described at all. Contrary to established findings and pre-registered predictions, we found that ritualized actions alone are not enough to influence perceptions of, and attributions towards objects, and that positive goal information (blessings) are more behaviorally persuasive than negative information. However, we found that participants recalled ritualized action in greater detail and with more specificity than ordinary actions. In effect, we demonstrate that causal opacity and goal information interact to allow us to recognize a ritual as a ritual.

Acknowledging the goal of reduced aircraft weight, there is a need to improve on conservative design techniques used in industry. Minimisation of laminate in-plane elastic energy is used as an appropriate in-plane performance marker to assess the weight saving potential of new design techniques. MATLAB optimisations using a genetic algorithm were used to find the optimal laminate variables for minimum in-plane elastic energy and/or damage tolerance for all possible loadings.The use of non-standard angles was able to offer equivalent, if not better in-plane performance than standard angles, and are shown to be useful to improve the ease of manufacture. Any standard angle laminate stiffness was shown to be able to be matched by a range of two non-standard angle ply designs. This non-uniqueness of designs was explored.Balancing of plus and minus plies about the principal loading axes instead of themanufacturing axes was shown to offer considerable potential for weight saving as the stiffness is better aligned to the load.Designing directly for an uncertain design load showed little benefit over the 10% ply percentage rule in maintaining in-plane performance. This showed the current rule may do a sufficient job to allow robustness in laminate performance. This technique is seen useful for non-standard angle design that lacks an equivalent 10% rule.Current use of conservative damage tolerance strain limits for design has revealed the need for more accurate prediction of damage propagation. Damage tolerance modelling was carried out using fracture mechanics for a multi-axial loading considering the full 2D strain energy and improving on current uni-axial models. The non-conservativeness of the model was evidenced to be from assumptions of zero post-buckled stiffness. Preliminary work on conservative multi-axial damage tolerance design, independent of thickness, is yet to be confirmed by experiments.

Vi er i gang med en gennemgribende omstilling af det danske energisystem. Drivkræfterne bag omstillingen er både et ønske om at blive fri af fossile brændsler, og at stoppe de globale klimaforandringer, men samtidig også en målsætning om at sikre en høj forsyningssikkerheder, samt billig energi til borgere og virksomheder. Landdistriktskommunerne spiller en hovedrolle i omstillingen af energisystemet, da det er i landdistrikterne hovedparten af VE-ressourcerne findes, ligesom det også er her ressourcerne som kan danne grundlag for den biobasserede økonomi, findes. Samtidig er mange landdistriktskommuner udfordret pga. faldende befolkningstal, ændring i den demografiske sammensætning af borgere og færre arbejdspladser. En udvikling man finder i mange i landdistrikter verden over. Denne grønne omstilling rummer her en muligheden for at bidrage til at vende denne udvikling. Formålet med dette speciale har været at analysere mulighederne for etableringen af biogasanlæg på Nordfalster, samt at analysere, hvordan en sådan etablering kan understøtte den lokale udvikling i Guldborgsund Kommune. Specialet anvender en systematisk backcasting metodik i sin opbygning og planlægningstilgang. Specialet anbefaler et anlægskoncept, hvor biogas i roekampagnen afsættes til Nordic Sugar fra et biogasanlæg i Nørre Alslev via en biogasledning, og at biogassen resten af året anvendes til produktion af kraftvarme til Guldborgsund forsyning. Valget af dette anlægskoncept sker på baggrund af en kortlægning af det eksisterende energisystem, samt en kortlægning af biomassepotentialet i Guldborgsund Kommune. Ligesom det også træffes på baggrund af en vurdering af markedspotentialer for afsætning af biogas til transport, kraftvarme, opgraderet gas til naturgasnettet og proces. Specialet konkluderer at det vil kunne lade sig gøre at etablere et biogasanlæg på Nordfalster, som vil have en rentabel driftsøkonomi, der vil skabe merværdi for Nordic Sugar og de lokale landmænd, samt reducerer udledning af drivhusgasser, samt skabe mulighed for en reduktion i udvaskning kvælstof til lokale vandmiljøer.

We describe the subsistence exploitation of an entire turtle fauna in Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador. We collected first-hand accounts and witnessed a number of capture techniques used by rural Afroecuadorian and Chachi inhabitants of the Cayapas-Santiago river basin. The diversity of techniques indicated a practical knowledge of the ecology of the species. Chelydra acutirostris, Kinosternon leucostomum, Rhinoclemmys annulata, melanosterna, and R. nasuta were captured and eaten. Poziando involved cleaning pools in a stream bed during the relatively dry season by removing live plants, organic detritus, and then seining with baskets; we observed R. melanosterna and K. leucostomum captured in this way. Pitfall traps baited with fruit were used to catch R. melanosterna during forays on land. Basket traps ("canasto tortuguero") with a wooden slat funnel across the opening are floated with balsa lashed to the sides. Banana or Xanthosoma leaf bait in the basket traps caught R. melanosterna, R. nasuta, and K. leucostomum. Marshy areas were probed for R. melanosterna and K. leucostomum. Direct capture by hand was also common. Turtles were relished as food items; all turtles captured were consumed, usually in soup or stew. Use of turtles for food in the region was pervasive, perhaps because fish and game populations were depleted. Describimos la cacería de subsistencia de la fauna de tortugas en la provincia de Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Hemos recogido testimonios de primera mano y fuimos testigos de una serie de técnicas de captura utilizadas por los habitantes rurales afroecuatorianos y chachis de la cuenca de los ríos Cayapas-Santiago. La diversidad de técnicas indica un conocimiento práctico de la ecología de las especies. Chelydra acutirostris, Kinosternon leucostomum, Rhinoclemmys annulata, R. melanosterna y R. nasuta fueron capturadas y utilizadas como alimento. El método de "pozeo" consiste en limpiar las pozas o quebradas durante la estación de menos lluvia; en el proceso se remueven las plantas vivas y detritus orgánicos y las tortugas se cazan con la ayuda de canastas, y observamos que R. melanosterna y K. leucostomum fueron capturadas de esta manera. Las trampas de caída, cebadas con frutas, se utilizaron para capturar R. melanosterna durante incursiones a tierra firme. El "canasto tortuguero" es un cesto de fibra vegetal que tiene la parte interna en forma de embudo, construido con listones de madera (generalmente chonta) y en su exterior se atan dos trozos de madera de balsa para darle flotabilidad. Los canastos fueron cebados con plátanos u hojas de malanga (Xanthosoma) para atrapar especies de Rhinoclemmys y K. leucostomum. En las zonas pantanosas, se usó la técnica de tanteo o pisoteo para colectar R. melanosterna y K. leucostomum. La captura directa o a mano también es un método común de caza. Las tortugas fueron preparadas como alimento principalmente en sopas o guisos. El uso de las tortugas en la alimentación se ha generalizado en la región, posiblemente porque ha disminuido la cacería de animales grandes.

For a given nonnegative n × n matrix A consider the following quantity as long as the denominator is positive. It is simply the ratio between the smallest and the largest entries of Am. We call s(Am) the inverse spread of Am which is interpreted as a measure of the maximum variation among the entries of Am in the multiplicative and reciprocal sense. Smaller s(Am) means a larger variation for Am. Clearly 0 = s(Am) = 1 for all m = 1, 2, . . . We study the asymptotic behavior of s(Am), that is, the behavior of s(Am) as m ? 8. The study arises from evolutionary biology.

This thesis addresses one of the oldest and most fundamental of ethical problems: “How ought we live?” This thesis also investigates a solution to the problem, however, the solution does not prescribe how we ought to live within our milieu other than through offering contemporary examples. Rather, the aim is to develop a solution that is irreducible to any single historical milieu. The research method used is a Deleuzian rhizomatic (or horizontal) approach, which involves the renovation and creation of concepts that aim to solve the problem in an expanding network of connections. The rhizome contains no conclusion (or end point), only the concepts it contains. Various thinkers from diverse traditions in philosophy have been fused together in order to understand and solve the problem. The solution amounts to a philosophical concept (or sense) of what it means to live an ethical life. This concept of ethics involves the diagnostic identification of trivial (or harmful) interests being pursued at the sacrifice of other interests of greater value. After an ethical deficit has been identified, a change in priorities is needed. This concept involves the ongoing transformation of our values in ethically richer (or better, just, etc.) directions. An ethical life is understood as the ongoing pursuit of important interests, if not the most important among important interests, in absence of any fixed values and interests to rely upon. The philosophical solution is expressed in multiple ways, such as diagnostic trans-evaluation, problem-solving, the pursuit of value in a world without fixed values, emergency medicine, etc. Our philosophical concept of ethics is also extended and developed in relation to sociology (or history), deconstruction and tragedy. Each extension adds to the concept, taking ethics into new and different directions. Taken together, the four main components of this thesis (the macro-sociological, the philosophical, the deconstructive and the tragic) construct a wider ethical concept (or rhizome) populated by a network of diverse concepts linked by the problem.

This paper presents a case study and analysis of changes in the organizational structure of the Open Learning Agency (OLA) of British Columbia in 1992. Under the aegis of the Ministry of Advanced Education, Technology and Training, the Agency carries a five-fold mandate - in collaboration with universities, institutions, boards of school trustees and other agencies concerned with education, OLA is to: provide an educational credit bank for students; coordinate the development of open learning education; use open learning methods to provide educational programs and services; carry out research related to open learning education; and operate one or more broadcasting undertakings devoted primarily to the field of educational broadcasting. The central question of the paper is: How will OLA restructure to achieve its mandate and strategic direction? In particular, the paper examines the Agency's structure prior to reorganization, the internal and external forces acting upon it as seen through the eyes of its executive members and the key issues facing the organization, including the reasons which precipitated a review of the organizational structure in 1991. The structure prior to reorganization is analyzed and classified as an example of Mintzberg's (1989) innovative configuration. The paper also predicts an innovative configuration for the Agency's reorganized structure based upon Mintzberg's contingency and life cycle hypotheses. The reorganized structure (which came into effect May 1, 1992) is subsequently analyzed and agrees with the prediction. The method of investigation included interviews with executive members conducted approximately three months prior and three months after the reorganization, archival research and personal observation by the writer, an employee of the Agency. Mintzberg's (1983, 1989) conceptual framework of structural configurations provided a basis for analysis of the case study data. The paper concludes that the innovative configuration is an appropriate form for the organization in view of its mandate and strategic direction but notes that it is also a difficult configuration to sustain, subject to pressures for increasing bureaucratization and susceptible to internal and external politicization. The paper recommends that the Agency do its best to maintain the configuration by educating staff about its nature and resist pressures which might shape it into a more conventional, professional form. The paper further finds Mintzberg's framework descriptive and helpful in providing limited, broad understanding of the Agency, its issues and choices for change; however, factors which can have significant impact such as political pressure, personal idiosyncrasies of leaders and centralization of office sites make any detailed prescriptions for organizational change somewhat elusive.

Axonemes are ancient organelles that mediate motility of cilia and flagella in animals, plants, and protists. The long evolutionary conservation of axoneme architecture, a cylinder of nine doublet microtubules surrounding a central pair of singlet microtubules, suggests all motile axonemes may share common assembly mechanisms. Consistent with this, α- and β-tubulins utilized in motile axonemes fall among the most conserved tubulin sequences [1, 2], and the β-tubulins contain a sequence motif at the same position in the carboxyl terminus [3]. Axoneme doublet microtubules are initiated from the corresponding triplet microtubules of the basal body [4], but the large macromolecular “central apparatus” that includes the central pair microtubules and associated structures [5] is a specialization unique to motile axonemes. In Drosophila spermatogenesis, basal bodies and axonemes utilize the same α-tubulin but different β-tubulins [6–13]. β1 is utilized for the centriole/basal body, and β2 is utilized for the motile sperm tail axoneme. β2 contains the motile axoneme-specific sequence motif, but β1 does not [3]. Here, we show that the “axoneme motif” specifies the central pair. β1 can provide partial function for axoneme assembly but cannot make the central microtubules [14]. Introducing the axoneme motif into the β1 carboxyl terminus, a two amino acid change, conferred upon β1 the ability to assemble 9 + 2 axonemes. This finding explains the conservation of the axoneme-specific sequence motif through 1.5 billion years of evolution.

Welded wire mesh has been used in the past as soil reinforcement in the construction of reinforced soil embankments. Involved in the design of these embankments is the external and internal stability. The internal stability has two failure mechanisms; tension failure and pullout failure of the welded wire mesh. This paper presents the results of laboratory tests on different sizes of welded wire mats embedded in different types of soils. These tests were performed on mats that are much larger than in previous tests. These tests measured the pullout resistance as a function of the number of embedded wires, the diameter of the wire, and the overburden pressure. This data is plotted to allow design of reinforced soil embankments in various types of soils and to compare the results with theoretical relationships.

Funder: Cambridge Commonwealth, European and International Trust; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003343, Funder: Gates Cambridge Trust; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005370, Funder: School of the Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000705, Funder: Clare College, University of Cambridge; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001625, Funder: Smuts Memorial Fund, University of Cambridge; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000710, Preferences for pink and blue were tested in children aged 4-11 years in three small-scale societies: Shipibo villages in the Peruvian Amazon, kastom villages in the highlands of Tanna Island, Vanuatu, and BaYaka foragers in the northern Republic of Congo; and compared to children from an Australian global city (total N = 232). No sex differences were found in preference for pink in any of the three societies not influenced by global culture (ds - 0.31-0.23), in contrast to a female preference for pink in the global city (d = 1.24). Results suggest that the pairing of female and pink is a cultural phenomenon and is not driven by an essential preference for pink in girls.

Preferences for pink and blue were tested in children aged 4–11 years in three small-scale societies: Shipibo villages in the Peruvian Amazon, kastom villages in the highlands of Tanna Island, Vanuatu, and BaYaka foragers in the northern Republic of Congo; and compared to children from an Australian global city (total N = 232). No sex differences were found in preference for pink in any of the three societies not influenced by global culture (ds − 0.31–0.23), in contrast to a female preference for pink in the global city (d = 1.24). Results suggest that the pairing of female and pink is a cultural phenomenon and is not driven by an essential preference for pink in girls.

International audience; Ceramics are quintessential indicators of human culture and its evolution across generations of social learners. Cultural transmission and evolution theory frequently emphasizes apprentices' need for accurate imitation (high-fidelity copying) of their mentors' actions. However, the ensuing prediction of standardized fashioning patterns within communities of practice has not been directly addressed in handicraft traditions such as pottery throwing. To fill this gap, we analysed variation in vessel morphogenesis amongst and within traditional potters from culturally different workshops producing for the same market. We demonstrate that, for each vessel type studied, individual potters reliably followed distinctive routes through morphological space towards a much-less-variable common final shape. Our results indicate that mastering the pottery handicraft does not result from accurately reproducing a particular model behaviour specific to the community's cultural tradition. We provide evidence that, at the level of the elementary clay-deforming gestures, individual learning rather than simple imitation is required for the acquisition of a complex motor skill such as throwing pottery.