What animals do not do or fail to find: A novel observational approach for studying cognition in the wild

To understand how our brain evolved and what it is for, we are in urgent need of knowledge about the cognitive skills of a large variety of animal species and individuals, and their relationships to rapidly disappearing social and ecological conditions. But how do we obtain this knowledge? Studying cognition in the wild is a challenge. Field researchers (and their study subjects) face many factors that can easily interfere with their variables of interest. Although field studies of cognition present unique challenges, they are still invaluable for understanding the evolutionary drivers of cognition. In this review, I discuss the advantages and urgency of field‐based studies on animal cognition and introduce a novel observational approach for field research that is guided by three questions: (a) what do animals fail to find?, (b) what do they not do?, and (c) what do they only do when certain conditions are met? My goal is to provide guidance to future field researchers examining primate cognition.     

Why accept submission? Rethinking asymmetrical ideology and power

People not always do what they say that they do, nor do they always say what they really do, an opaqueness that seems to be a necessary condition for the production and reproduction of their mutual relations in society. This lesson about the discrepancy between people’s words and their deeds, between verbally expressing social norms for the well-being of everybody while simultaneously striving for individual or group interests, was already taught by Malinowski (Argonauts of the western Pacific: an account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. Routledge, London, 1922). He may have learned it himself during his own lengthy fieldwork in New Guinea, but it may also have been an anthropological operationalization of the dictum of Freud, with whom Malinowski was struggling intellectually (at least from his side), that people are not always conscious of the motives of their own words and behavior. It also happens, however, that politicians, business, and church people alike consciously create stories or myths in which they hide their own personal our group intentions. These stories or myths are not only works of art of the human mind, but when they are successfully told within the context of, or directly concern power relationships, the narrator may be attributed mana. At least, this is what many Polynesians would do. In this paper, I will give several ethnographic examples from Polynesia, where I have been working for the last 28 years, in order to defend my theoretical stance concerning asymmetrical ideology and power.     

Cognition in insects

A traditional view of cognition is that it involves an internal process that represents, tracks or predicts an external process. This is not a general characteristic of all complex neural processing or feedback control, but rather implies specific forms of processing giving rise to specific behavioural capabilities. In this paper, I will review the evidence for such capabilities in insect navigation and learning. Do insects know where they are, or do they only know what to do? Do they learn what stimuli mean, or do they only learn how to behave?     

Cognition in insects

A traditional view of cognition is that it involves an internal process that represents, tracks or predicts an external process. This is not a general characteristic of all complex neural processing or feedback control, but rather implies specific forms of processing giving rise to specific behavioural capabilities. In this paper, I will review the evidence for such capabilities in insect navigation and learning. Do insects know where they are, or do they only know what to do? Do they learn what stimuli mean, or do they only learn how to behave?     

Are We all Natural Dualists? A Cognitive Developmental Approach*

The article takes to task the well-established anthropological claim that non-Western peoples are free from the traps of dualistic thinking. Although Vezo informants in Madagascar produce statements that could be used to support such a claim, experimental procedures that target their inferential reasoning reveal that they systematically differentiate between mind and body, between the biological processes that determine the organism and the social processes that shape personhood. This suggests that there is a significant discrepancy between people's explicit linguistic statements and their implicit theoretical knowledge. Moreover, developmental data show that such implicit theoretical presuppositions are essential to the production and transmission of cultural knowledge. Thus, Vezo children, who do not as yet differentiate between the biological mechanism of birth and the social mechanism of nurture, are still unable to grasp a salient aspect of Vezo culture, namely the causally integrated set of ideas that guide the way adults classify the social world. These findings have significant theoretical and methodological implications for the constitution of anthropological knowledge.     

The Anthropology of Personal Identity: Intellectual Property Rights Issues in Papua New Guinea,West Papua and Australia

This paper discusses large‐scale genealogical work at three projects in Papua New Guinea, West Papua and Australia and considers three questions: in what respects is genealogy intellectual property (IP) and, if so, who owns it; what were the regimes of permissions that permitted the collection of genealogical knowledge in each of the three cases; and what duty of care do collectors/curators of genealogical knowledge have in respect of preservation and safeguarding against improper use? It is argued that a new form of ‘emergent’ knowledge arises in which intellectual property rights (IPR) are unclear. What is more certain is that anthropologists owe a ‘cultural heritage duty of care’ towards genealogical information. The key criterion is that anthropologists must be in a position, and allowed by those who employ them, to guarantee ‘unbroken oversight’ of genealogical materials regardless of what media they are on or how they are stored.     

DNA sequencing: present limitations and prospects for the future

As the human genome program gets under way, we examine the progress made since the first human genome meeting in Santa Cruz in 1985. The lessons of the last 5 years demonstrate that progress has been much slower than anticipated. The new technology being developed in 1985 was fluorescent sequencing and multiplexing. These techniques are now established, but they still have to produce a substantial sequence to rival those determined by conventional technology. Inspection of the EMBL and GenBank databases shows few large sequences have been determined and that there is a large discrepancy between what is theoretically possible and what has been achieved so far.     

Mechanism of action of biological antioxidants.

More and more diseases have been proposed to have a radical or oxidant involvement. Although in most cases we do not know if this involvement is a cause or a result of the disease process, it is still valuable to learn about those compounds or enzymes that might block, inhibit, or prevent radical-initiated reactions. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to understand which compounds can function as antioxidants, where they are located in the body, and what their mechanism of action might be. As we increase our knowledge in these areas, we will have a better opportunity to propose interventions that might suppress or even reverse some of the ravages of oxidant-based diseases in humans.     

The case for studying tadpole autecology,with comments on strategies to study other small,fast-moving animals in nature

Two of the most fundamental questions in tadpole biology, also applicable to most small, under-studied organisms are: (1) ‘Why are they built the way they are?’ and (2) ‘Why do they live where they do?’ Regrettably, despite significant progress in most aspects of tadpole biology, the answers to these questions are not much better now than they were in the last century. We propose that an autecological approach, that is the careful observation of individuals and how they interact with the environment, is a potential path towards a fuller understanding of tadpole ecomorphology and evolution. We also discuss why more attention should be given to studying atypical tadpoles from atypical environments, such as torrential streams, water-filled cavities of terrestrial plants and wet rock surfaces neighbouring streams. Granted, tadpoles are rare in these settings, but in those unusual habitats the physical environments can be well described and characterized. In contrast, the more common ponds where tadpoles are found are typically too structurally complex to be easily delineated. This makes it difficult to know exactly what individual tadpoles are doing and what environmental parameters they are responding to. Our overall thesis is that to understand tadpoles we must see exactly what they are doing, where they are doing it, and how they are doing it. This takes work, but we suggest it is feasible and could greatly advance our understanding of how anuran larvae have evolved. The same strategies for studying tadpoles that we encourage here can be applied to the study of many other small and fast-moving animals.     

Freshwater Fisheries Research: Introduction

It seems fortunate and appropriate that freshwater fisheries research should at this time be the subject of a symposium organized by the Association of Applied Biologists for this is a field where the line between pure and applied research cannot yet be drawn. Any research, whether it be undertaken solely with the object of advancing knowledge or in order to try to solve some immediately practical problem, is bound to ascertain and elucidate new facts and to produce results for which some practical application can almost immediately be seen. This, of course, arises because the study of freshwater fisheries is still comparatively new even in countries where they are vastly more important than they are here; we are all concerned with fundamental biology and cannot yet decide what is pure and what is applied research.     

Introduction: Who's at the bottom? Examining claims about racial hierarchy

Why do claims about racial hierarchy matter? The question whether some groups are worse off than others is highly pertinent at a time when there is growing recognition of multiple forms of racisms and racial oppression. It is widely accepted that racial hierarchies are still with us today, and this concept is peppered throughout writings on “race” and racisms, but, what, exactly, are racial hierarchies, how do racial hierarchies continue to matter, and in what ways do they operate? This special issue, which focuses on the USA and Britain, also addresses the following questions: Does the concept of racial hierarchy aid us in illuminating racial inequalities and the differential experiences of groups in Western multi-ethnic societies such as the USA and Britain? What sorts of criteria are used in arguments about the place of groups along racial hierarchies? What are the political implications of claims made about racial hierarchies?     

Companion-Animal Caregiver Knowledge,Attitudes, and Beliefs Regarding End-of-Life Care

Although awareness of end-of-life care is growing within the veterinary field and there appears to be consumer demand for these services, it is unclear exactly what caregivers know about end-of-life options for their companion animals. Are companion-animal caregivers aware of the range of options for their nonhuman animals? What do they value most highly for their nonhuman animals at the end of life? Answers to these and other related questions about caregiver perceptions are important because what they know about end-of-life care and how they approach decision-making for their companion animals will shape the kind of care an animal receives. This article presents the results of a large survey exploring companion-animal caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about end-of-life care, including in-home euthanasia, hospice and palliative care, financial commitment to end-of-life care, insurance usage, and level of comfort in providing care (e.g., subcutaneous fluids) in the home.     

WHAT SHOULD RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS UNDERSTAND TO UNDERSTAND THEY ARE PARTICIPANTS IN RESEARCH?

To give valid informed consent to participate in clinical research, potential participants should understand the risks, potential benefits, procedures, and alternatives. Potential participants also should understand that they are being invited to participate in research. Yet it is unclear what potential participants need to understand to satisfy this particular requirement. As a result, it is unclear what additional information investigators should disclose about the research; and it is also unclear when failures of understanding in this respect undermine the validity of potential participants' informed consent. An analysis of individuals' interests suggests that potential participants need to understand three additional facts to understand that they are being invited to participate in research: 1) research contribution : those who enroll in the study will be contributing to a project designed to gather generalizable knowledge to benefit others in the future; 2) research relationship : the investigators will rely on participants' efforts to gather the generalizable knowledge to benefit others; and 3) research impact : the extent to which participating in the study will alter what participants do and what happens to them.     

The virtues of ignorance

Although ignorance and uncertainty are usually unwelcome feelings, they have unintuitive advantages for both human and non-human animals, which we review here. We begin with the perils of too much information: expertise and knowledge can come with illusions (and delusions) of knowing. We then describe how withholding information can counteract these perils: providing people with less information enables them to judge more precisely what they know and do not know, which in turn enhances long-term memory. Data are presented from a new experiment that illustrates how knowing what we do not know can result in helpful choices and enhanced learning. We conclude by showing that ignorance can be a virtue, as long as it is recognized and rectified.     

Ubiquitin-dependent sorting of integral membrane proteins for degradation in lysosomes

The pathways that deliver newly synthesized proteins that reside in lysosomes are well understood on comparison with our knowledge of how integral membrane proteins are sorted and delivered to the lysosome for degradation. Many membrane proteins are sorted to lysosomes following ubiquitination, which provides a sorting signal that can operate for sorting at the TGN (trans-Golgi network), at the plasma membrane or at the endosome for delivery into lumenal vesicles. Candidate multicomponent machines that can potentially move ubiquitinated integral membrane cargo proteins have been identified, but much work is still required to ascertain which of these candidates directly recognize ubiquitinated cargo and what they do with cargo after recognition. In the case of the machinery required for sorting into the lumenal vesicles of endosomes, other functions have also been determined including a link between sorting and movement of endosomes along microtubules.     

The tedious task of finding homologous noncoding RNA genes

User-driven in silico RNA homology search is still a nontrivial task. In part, this is the consequence of a limited precision of the computational tools in spite of recent exciting progress in this area, and to a certain extent, computational costs are still problematic in practice. An important, and as we argue here, dominating issue is the dependence on good curated (secondary) structural alignments of the RNAs. These are often hard to obtain, not so much because of an inherent limitation in the available data, but because they require substantial manual curation, an effort that is rarely acknowledged. Here, we qualitatively describe a realistic scenario for what a “regular user” (i.e., a nonexpert in a particular RNA family) can do in practice, and what kind of results are likely to be achieved. Despite the indisputable advances in computational RNA biology, the conclusion is discouraging: BLAST still works better or equally good as other methods unless extensive expert knowledge on the RNA family is included. However, when good curated data are available the recent development yields further improvements in finding remote homologs. Homology search beyond the reach of BLAST hence is not at all a routine task.     

Doin' what comes natur'lly

Behavior affects evolution in many ways. Organisms are adapted for what they do, but they also do what they are adapted for.     

Small artery structure and function in hypertension

It has been known for some considerable time that sustained hypertension changes the circulatory architecture both in the heart and blood vessels. The histopathological alterations are of considerable interest because once they have developed they appear to carry an adverse prognostic risk. In the heart it is apparent that there is hypertrophy. This extends also to the large- and medium-sized blood vessels but at the level of the smaller arteries that contribute to vascular resistance, this is not the case: it is clear that the physiological response to higher pressures is a change in the positional conformation of the pre-existing tissue constituents and as a result of this the lumen is narrowed. This brief review looks at our knowledge in this area and attempts to clarify our understanding of how hypertension brings these about and what happens when these homeostatic mechanisms break down. From a therapeutic perspective it appears imperative to control blood pressure in an attempt to reverse or prevent such alterations to cardiovascular structure. Our knowledge is fast expanding in this field and it is only to be anticipated that as detection methodology improves everyday practice will alter as we profile our patients in terms of structural alterations in the ventricle and blood vessels.     

Fairness Norms and Theory of Mind in an Ultimatum Game: Judgments,Offers, and Decisions in School-Aged Children

The sensitivity to fairness undergoes relevant changes across development. Whether such changes depend on primary inequity aversion or on sensitivity to a social norm of fairness is still debated. Using a modified version of the Ultimatum Game that creates informational asymmetries between Proposer and Responder, a previous study showed that both perceptions of fairness and fair behavior depend upon normative expectations, i.e., beliefs about what others expect one should do in a specific situation. Individuals tend to comply with the norm when risking sanctions, but disregard the norm when violations are undetectable. Using the same methodology with children aged 8–10 years, the present study shows that children''s beliefs and behaviors differ from what is observed in adults. Playing as Proposers, children show a self-serving bias only when there is a clear informational asymmetry. Playing as Responders, they show a remarkable discrepancy between their normative judgment about fair procedures (a coin toss to determine the offer) and their behavior (rejection of an unfair offer derived from the coin toss), supporting the existence of an outcome bias effect. Finally, our results reveal no influence of theory of mind on children''s decision-making behavior.