Search results for "PSYCHOLOGY"
showing 10 items of 22810 documents
Biological films adhering to the oral soft tissues: Structure, composition, and potential impact on taste perception
2018
The role of free-flowing saliva in taste perception is increasingly recognized, but saliva is also present in the mouth as films intimately associated to soft or hard tissues. On mucosal surfaces, particularly on the tongue, the structure and composition of such films (including its microbial constitutive part) may play a particular role in the sense of taste due to their proximity with the taste anatomical structures. This review compiles the current knowledge on the structure of biological films adhering to oral mucosae and on their biochemical and microbiological composition, before presenting possible implications for taste perception. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The understanding of the ro…
Parasitism and queen presence interactively shape worker behaviour and fertility in an ant host
2019
Parasites with complex life cycles regularly alter host traits in their own interest. In social hosts, phenotypic alterations induced by parasites can also affect uninfected group members. The tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis uses Temnothorax nylanderi ants as intermediate hosts, reducing host activity and behavioural repertoire, but increasing life span. Uninfected nestmates are less active and less aggressive and suffer from higher mortality. Next to parasites, the social environment, such as the queen, influences worker behaviour, reproduction and longevity. Here, we studied how tapeworm parasitism interacts with the queen to affect the behaviour and reproductive potential of ant workers. We …
Null models for animal social network analysis and data collected via focal sampling: Pre‐network or node network permutation?
2020
In social networks analysis, two different approaches have predominated in creating null models for hypothesis testing, namely pre‐network and node network permutation approaches. Although the pre‐network permutation approach appears more advantageous, its use has mainly been restricted to data on associations and sampling methods such as ‘group follows’. The pre‐network permutation approach has recently been adapted to data on interactions and the focal sampling method, but its performance in different scenarios has not been thoroughly explored. Here, we assessed the performance of the pre‐network and node network permutation approach in several simulated scenarios based on proneness to fa…
The effect of maze complexity on maze-solving time in a desert ant
2019
One neglected aspect of research on foraging behavior is that of the effect of obstacles that increase habitat complexity on foraging efficiency. Here, we explored how long it takes individually foraging desert ant workers (Cataglyphis niger) to reach a food reward in a maze, and examined whether maze complexity affects maze-solving time (the time elapsed till the first worker reached the food reward). The test mazes differed in their complexity level, or the relative number of correct paths leading to the food reward, vs. wrong paths leading to dead-ends. Maze-solving time steeply increased with maze complexity, but was unaffected by colony size, despite the positive correlation between co…
The flourishing diversity of models in theoretical morphology: from current practices to future macroevolutionary and bioenvironmental challenges.
2008
17 pages; International audience; For decades, theoretical morphological studies of different groups of organisms have been successfully pursued in biological, paleontological, and computational contexts, often with distinct modeling approaches and research questions. A regular influx of new perspectives and varied expertise has contributed to the emergence of a veritable multidisciplinary outlook for theoretical morphology. The broadening of this discipline is reflected in a substantial increase in the number of models, leading to a bewildering diversity that has yet to be scrutinized. In this work, we tackle this issue in a synthetic fashion, with a quantitativemeta-analysis that allows a…
Characterization of Legal Psychology through psychology journals included in Criminology & Penology and Law categories of Web of Science
2017
The objective of this work is to learn about the most relevant aspects that characterize contemporary Legal Psychology throughout the study of journals included in the WoS between the years 2009 and 2014 related with the area of Psychology. The number of selected publications is 16, mainly from the USA and Great Britain. The results show an increase in the number of works and authors, a greater collaboration and a growth in medium productors. It exists a major presence of men in editorial boards and as authors, outstanding the figures of T. Ward in 2009 and A. Vrij in 2014. According to the analysis of key words the most relevant themes during these years have been Crime, Conduct, Woman and…
Communication in social insects and how it is shaped by individual experience
2019
Communication is the foundation of all social systems, and learning is perhaps the most important cognitive tool. But how do these two critical faculties interact? With social insects being some of the best learners of the invertebrate world, and indisputably the most communicative, we examine the role of learning and experience in social insect communication. Learning plays a major role for both senders and receivers. A sender's experience can modulate what information is available for communication, whether communication is effective and whether individuals are motivated to communicate. Signalling about a resource is often modulated relative to the value of that resource and relative to t…
Oxidation in wine: Does expertise influence the perception?
2019
International audience; Wines can develop off-odours that depreciate their quality. Among them, oxidation is one of the most prevalent. The main objective of this work was to study the perception of wine oxidation through the categorization of oxidized wines perceived as not-faulty/faulty depending on the expertise of participants. For this purpose, one white wine and one red wine were spiked with three volatile oxidation compounds (acetaldehyde, phenylacetaldehyde and methional) in order to recreate twelve levels of oxidation in a controlled way. Samples were submitted to orthonasal tasting for being categorized by wine experts and novices and coupled to a free description task. Results de…
Sperm depletion, male mating behaviour and reproductive ‘time-out' in Gammarus pulex (Crustacea, Amphipoda).
2009
6 pages; International audience; In Gammarus pulex, male–male competition is generally intense because the operational sex ratio (OSR) is strongly biased towards males; however, studies have shown possible fluctuation in this intrasexual competition, which could be caused by sperm depletion, a phenomenon recently found in gammarids. Sperm depletion may also affect male mating behaviour. We therefore tested the influence of sperm depletion on the OSR in G. pulex. Two sets of experiments were conducted: first, to find out the number of sperm in the testis before and after mating events (sperm depletion), and second, to test the implications of sperm depletion for the mating behaviour of male …
Multidimensionality in parasite-induced phenotypic alterations: ultimate versus proximate aspects.
2012
SummaryIn most cases, parasites alter more than one dimension in their host phenotype. Although multidimensionality in parasite-induced phenotypic alterations (PIPAs) seems to be the rule, it has started to be addressed only recently. Here, we critically review some of the problems associated with the definition, quantification and interpretation of multidimensionality in PIPAs. In particular, we confront ultimate and proximate accounts, and evaluate their own limitations. We end up by introducing several suggestions for the development of future research, including some practical guidelines for the quantitative analysis of multidimensionality in PIPAs.