The Umwelt and its relevance to animal communication: Introduction to special issue.

This introduction applies J. von Uexküll's (1934/1957) concept of the Umwelt to the study of animal communication, particularly as it pertains to studies presented at a recent workshop on animal communication in the context of the environment. The environment is conceived broadly in the articles that follow, including the many physical and social environments in which an animal may find itself. The Umwelt concept is briefly expanded here to include also the personal microenvironment of the signaler in which the signal is embedded into the suite of concurrent nonsignaling behaviors of the individual. Other animals may even infer aspects of the signaler's own immediate Umwelt by noticing accompanying attentional cues such as the direction of eye gaze. In this way, part of the Umwelt can be accessible to companions, facilitating the communication process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revisiting the Umwelt: Environments of animal communication.

This special issue of the Journal of Comparative Psychology, based on the presentations of students and faculty at the symposium at the University of California, Davis entitled "Communication: The Animal in the Context of Its Environment," reexamines the concept of the Umwelt, or self-world, through the study of communication. We explore the constraints and opportunities for communication generated by four general contexts: (a) the physical environment, (b) the individual's own production and perceptual mechanisms, (c) the biotic environment of conspecifics, and (d) the biotic environments of other species. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude manipulation in restricted environments: I. Conceptual structure and response to propaganda.

According to a recently formulated structural theory, nonoptimal levels of environmental stimulation result in behavioral simplification. Such simplification is characterized by a reduced ability to organize and integrate new information, with the result that this information is evaluated and acted upon in an all-or-none fashion. It is predicted that nonoptimal environments will have a stronger effect upon concrete (conceptually simple) than upon abstract (conceptually complex) individuals. In this study, a 2-sided propaganda passage was presented to Ss at the end of 24 hr. of sensory deprivation. Attitude change was found in the concrete, but not in the abstract Ss, and in the deprived, but not in the control group. These data supported the hypotheses derived from structural theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Loudness change in response to dynamic acoustic intensity.

Three experiments investigate psychological, methodological, and domain-specific characteristics of loudness change in response to sounds that continuously increase in intensity (up-ramps), relative to sounds that decrease (down-ramps). Timbre (vowel, violin), layer (monotone, chord), and duration (1.8 s, 3.6 s) were manipulated in Experiment 1. Participants judged global loudness change between pairs of spectrally identical up-ramps and down-ramps. It was hypothesized that loudness change is overestimated in up-ramps, relative to down-ramps, using simple speech and musical stimuli. The hypothesis was supported and the proportion of up-ramp overestimation increased with stimulus duration. Experiment 2 investigated recency and a bias for end-levels by presenting paired dynamic stimuli with equivalent end-levels and steady-state controls. Experiment 3 used single stimulus presentations, removing artifacts associated with paired stimuli. Perceptual overestimation of loudness change is influenced by (1) intensity region of the dynamic stimulus; (2) differences in stimulus end-level; (3) order in which paired items are presented; and (4) duration of each item. When methodological artifacts are controlled, overestimation of loudness change in response to up-ramps remains. The relative influence of cognitive and sensory mechanisms is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human navigation in nested environments.

Navigation in humans and many other animals relies on spatial representations of their environments. Three experiments examined how humans maintain sense of orientation between nested environments. Subjects can acquire new spatial representations easily without integrating them into their existing spatial knowledge system. While navigating between nested environments, subjects seemed to constantly switch between the currently processed environment by reorienting to approaching environments and losing track of old environments at given spatial regions. These results suggest that spatial updating in naturalistic, nested environments does not occur for all environments at the same time. Implications for the hierarchical theory of spatial representations and the path integration theory of navigation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improving accuracy in detecting acoustic onsets.

In current cognitive psychology, naming latencies are commonly measured by electronic voice keys that detect when sound exceeds a certain amplitude threshold. However, recent research (e.g., K. Rastle & M. H. Davis, 2002) has shown that these devices are particularly inaccurate in precisely detecting acoustic onsets. In this article, the authors discuss the various problems and solutions that have been put forward with respect to this issue and show that classical voice keys may trigger several tens of milliseconds later than acoustic onset. The authors argue that a solution to this problem may come from voice keys that use a combination of analogue and digital noise (nonspeech sound) detection. It is shown that the acoustic onsets detected by such a device are only a few milliseconds delayed and correlate highly (up to .99) with reaction time values obtained by visual waveform inspection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proximal versus distal cues to smoke: The effects of environments on smokers' cue-reactivity.

Smokers are highly reactive to smoking-related cues that are directly linked, or most proximal, to actual smoking behavior (e.g., lit cigarettes). However, over the course of smoking, proximal cues may not be the only stimuli to become strongly associated with smoking. Distal cues, such as the environments in which smoking occurs (e.g., bar) might also gain associative properties and come to evoke robust reactivity from smokers. To test this, a pilot study was first conducted to develop standard pictorial stimuli of smoking and nonsmoking environments, all of which were completely devoid of proximal smoking cues. A comparison set of smoking and nonsmoking proximal cues was then created. Using the 12 total pictorial cues developed, 62 adult smokers participated in a cue-reactivity study during which they viewed and rated pictorial smoking and nonsmoking environment and proximal cues. Results demonstrate that, similar to proximal cues, environments associated with smoking can alone function as stimuli capable of evoking strong subjective reactivity from smokers. This work supports a broader conceptualization of drug-related cues in cue-based research and treatment development that includes proximal and distal cues as distinct categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Auditory communication, meteorology and the Umwelt.

Animal communication is affected by a multitude of environmental factors including meteorological conditions, ground reflection, turbulence, and vegetative attenuation. Evolutionary and behavioral adaptations by animals to these challenges include elephant use of infrasound optimized for long-distance propagation. These adaptations in turn influence the perceptual sphere, or Umwelt, of calling animals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The production of communication signals at the air-water and water-substrate boundaries.

The 2 interfaces of the aquatic environment, the boundary between air-water and water-substrate, have distinctive physical characteristics that facilitate the production of communication signals. Recent evidence suggests that animals living on or near these boundaries use the interface to generate signals in 2 ways: (1) by producing a signal that propagates along the interface or (2) by producing a signal at the interface that is transmitted and detected within 1 of the component media. By examining the diversity of behaviors used to produce signals at these boundaries, the authors illustrate how human perception of these environments may cause researchers to incorrectly assume the environmental context of signal-generating behaviors and overlook modalities of communication pertinent to the animal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Members' reactions to apparent group approval of a counternorm communication.

"In a study of the use of one-way communications to change group-anchored attitudes, members of a college group listened to a recorded speech contrary to their norms. An audience that was heard to applaud the main points in the speech was described for some Ss (the members' applause Ss) as composed of members of the college group; for others (the outside applause Ss) it was composed of anonymous outsiders… . The members' applause Ss exhibited more immediate opinion change in the direction advocated by the speech than did the other Ss. The members' applause Ss also showed a greater tendency to misinterpret the speaker's point of view, judging it to be more similar to the college norms than did the outsider's applause Ss." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assimilation and contrast effects in reactions to communication and attitude change.

"The relationship between the attitude of the recipient and the position advocated in a communication was studied under conditions where a communicator not known to subject presents a point of view on a controversial issue which differs from that of subject by varying amounts." The topic discussed was prohibition of alcohol. The Ss came from a dry state where this was a lively issue. It was suggested that "the relative distance between subject's own attitude and communication along with subject's latitudes of acceptance and rejection for various stands on the issue may provide a basis for predicting reactions to communication and susceptibility to change." 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal trust as a factor in communication.

A written questionnaire given to individuals in a large government research laboratory, inquired about attitudes about changes in a research program, attitudes of trust toward each other, reports as to whether they had discussed the new program, and estimates of each other's attitudes about the program. The data support the hypothesis that "a communicator, B, who lacks trust in the recipient of his communication, A, tends to be motivated to conceal his own attitudes about an issue, X, in communicating with A. The accuracy of A's perceptions is impaired accordingly." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in mother-infant face-to-face communication: Birth to 3 months.

This study documented the growth of the earliest form of face-to-face communication in 16 mother-infant dyads, videotaped weekly during a naturalistic face-to-face interaction, between 1 and 14 weeks, in 2 conditions: with the infant in the mother's arms and with the infant semi-reclined on a sofa. Results showed a curvilinear development of early face-to-face communication, with a significant increase occurring between Week 4 and Week 9 depending on the dyad. After 2 months, trajectories diverged into 2 groups: 1 whose duration of face-to-face communication continued to increase and 1 whose duration peaked and then began to decrease. After the 1st month, the duration of face-to-face communication was significantly longer when the infant was on the sofa rather than in the mother's arms. In the latter condition, during the 3rd month, girls spent a significantly longer time than boys in face-to-face communication. These findings suggest that context (infant being held vs. not being held) interacts with the infant's age and sex in affecting mother-infant communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive similarity and interpersonal communication in industry.

Does cognitive similarity affect the process of interpersonal communication? "One hundred and fifty-five Ss responded to 12 triads of jobs and 12 triads of people. The Ss were asked to state 'Which job (person) is more different from the other two?' and 'Why' The responses of subordinates and supervisors to these triads were compared by two judges. If the responses were judged to be similar the index of categoric similarity of the pair was high. The same Ss were asked to rate five jobs and six people on specially constructed semantic differentials. Similarity of the 'semantic profiles' obtained indicated high syndetic similarity between a boss and a subordinate. Successive intervals scales on perceived communication effectiveness and liking within the boss-subordinate pair were constructed. Correlational analysis and analyses of variance showed an association between categoric similarity based on people and syndetic similarity based on jobs and communication effectiveness and liking within the pair. This is considered evidence supporting the hypothesis that cognitive similarity is a significant variable in interpersonal communication and liking." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Haptic interfaces for virtual environments: Perceived instability and force constancy in haptic sensing of virtual surfaces.

Haptic interfaces are becoming more commonplace in virtual environment and teleoperation systems. There is a growing need to not only continue to improve hardware platforms and rendering algorithms, but evaluate human performance with haptic interfaces. This review summarizes two recent studies inspired by perception problems in using haptic interfaces to interact with virtual environments. The first study evaluated perceived quality of virtual haptic textures and discovered several types of perceived instability and their sources. We found that the buzzing type of perceived instability was most likely due to the mechanical resonance of the haptic interface hardware, and the aliveness type of perceived instability due to our inability to sense the slight movements of our hands in free space. The second study focused on the motor strategy employed during interaction with a virtual surface via a force-feedback haptic interface. We found that users tended to maintain a constant penetration force into a virtual surface when interacting with the surface. This can result in a reversal in perceived relative surface heights if the taller surface is rendered with a lower stiffness, thereby resulting in an erroneous perception of the virtual environment being rendered. For both studies, possible solutions to improving human perception of virtual and remote objects via hardware and/or software are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encoding specificity in interpersonal communication.

The article reports two experiments that assess the adequacy of some people's encodings as cues for other people's semantic retrieval. The central finding is of encoding specificity. That is, encodings dedicated to some discriminative purpose are less effective for discriminations that are either more precise or more general than the intended one. The theoretical focus of the article regards parallels between episodic memory and interpersonal communication. An effective communication is one that transfers well from the initial encoding context to the discriminative context in which the message is received. An effective memory encoding is one that transfers well from the study context to the retrieval environment. Thus transfer-appropriate processing benefits both sorts of task relative to transfer-inappropriate processing, and the characteristics that determine the appropriateness of processing are importantly similar in memory and communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To see or not to see: Effects of exercising in mirrored environments on sedentary women's feeling states and self-efficacy.

Effects of a mirrored exercise environment and body image concerns on changes in exercise-induced feeling states and self-efficacy were examined among 58 sedentary women (mean age=20.7 years). Participants performed a 20-min bout of exercise in front of either a mirrored or a nonmirrored wall. Feeling states and self-efficacy were measured pre- and post-exercise. Multilevel linear modeling indicated that regardless of their level of body image concern, women in the mirrored condition felt worse after exercising than women in the unmirrored condition. There were no effects of the environment or body image on self-efficacy. Results are consistent with predictions of objective self-awareness theory and have implications for promoting exercise among sedentary women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology of isolated and confined environments: Understanding human behavior in Antarctica.

Psychosocial adaptation to isolated and confined environments exhibits 4 distinct characteristics. First, it is seasonal: Variations in mood are associated with the altered diurnal cycle and psychological segmentation of the mission. Second, it is situational: Concurrent measures of personality, interpersonal needs, and coping styles are better predictors of mood and performance than are predeployment measures. Third, it is social: Members of expeditions with low social coherence report significantly more depression, anxiety, and anger than individuals belonging to expeditions with high social coherence. Fourth, it is salutogenic: Depressed mood is inversely associated with the severity of the physical environment of the station, and the winter-over experience is associated with reduced subsequent rates of hospital admissions, suggesting positive benefits for individuals seeking challenging experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)