Base-compositional biases and the bat problem. I. DNA-hybridization melting curves based on AT- and GC-enriched tracers

We explored the interordinal relationships of mammals using DNA-DNA hybridization, with particular reference to the much-debated problem of whether the megabats and microbats are more closely related to each other than the megabats are to primates. To try to improve resolution when taxa are distantly related and the melting points of hybrids are low and difficult to distinguish, we increased the GC content of DNA by a fractionation method that used the same melting-point apparatus used in the hybridization studies. When we used GC-rich DNA as the tracer to make hybrids, the melting point of the self-hybrid shifted to a higher temperature as expected, but the behaviour of heterologous hybrids varied with the taxa being compared. When the melting point of the heterologous hybrid also shifted to a higher temperature so that the two compared taxa maintained the same or proportional distance, we called this 'following behaviour', because the heterologous hybrid made with GC-rich tracer 'followed' the GC-rich self-hybrid to higher temperatures. We also commonly saw anomalous behaviour, where the melting point of the heterologous hybrid shifted to a lower temperature when compared with an AT-rich hybrid. In these anomalous cases, the distance measured between the taxa increased markedly as a result of GC-enrichment, indicating that an underestimate of distance may have resulted from AT bias in DNA. This inference was supported by the finding that it was rare to observe a decrease in measured distance between taxa using GC-rich DNA, but very common to find an increase as would be expected from the generally higher AT contents of eutherian DNAs. Moreover, the most extreme cases, where distances changed most using GC-rich DNA, were usually those involving comparisons between taxa known to have the most extreme AT-biases among mammals, such as the megabats and rhinolophoid (including megadermatid) microbats. Our results show consistent underestimates of measured differences between eutherian taxa with extreme AT-biases.     

Base-compositional biases and the bat problem. III. The questions of microchiropteran monophyly

Using single-copy DNA hybridization, we carried out a whole genome study of 16 bats (from ten families) and five outgroups (two primates and one each dermopteran, scandentian, and marsupial). Three of the bat species represented as many families of Rhinolophoidea, and these always associated with the two representatives of Pteropodidae. All other microchiropterans, however, formed a monophyletic unit displaying interrelationships largely in accord with current opinion. Thus noctilionoids comprised one clade, while vespertilionids, emballonurids, and molossids comprised three others, successively more closely related in that sequence. The unexpected position of rhinolophoids may be due either to the high AT bias they share with pteropodids, or it may be phylogenetically authentic. Reanalysis of the data with varying combinations of the five outgroups does not indicate a rooting problem, and the inclusion of many bat lineages divided at varying levels similarly discounts long branch attraction as an explanation for the pteropodid-rhinolophoid association. If rhinolophoids are indeed specially related to pteropodids, many synapomorphies of Microchiroptera are called into question, not least the unitary evolution of echolocation (although this feature may simply have been lost in pteropodids). Further, a rhinolophoid-pteropodid relationship--if true--has serious implications for the classification of bats. Finally, among the outgroups, an apparent sister-group relation of Dermoptera and Primates suggests that flying lemurs do not represent the ancestors of some or all bats; yet, insofar as gliding of the type implemented in dermopterans is an appropriate model for the evolution of powered mammalian flying, the position of Cynocephalus in our tree indirectly strengthens the argument that true flight could have evolved more than once among bats.     

Group correspondence biases and the provision of public goods.

Two experiments examined whether trait inferences and cooperative decisions in a social dilemma are influenced by biased perceptions of the group's past success or failure in resolving the dilemma. In each experiment, Ss joined a group that had previously either succeeded or failed to provide a step-level public good. Ss were informed of (1) the number of members who had contributed to the good, and (2) the investment quota, defined as the number of contributors needed for the good to be provided. The number of group members who had contributed was held constant, and the past success or failure of the group was determined by varying the severity of the quota. Ss in both experiments displayed the correspondence bias, judging successful groups as more cooperative and competent than unsuccessful ones. Moreover, past group success tended to engender cooperation in subsequent public goods problems, particularly those featuring severe or unknown quotas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the relative independence of thinking biases and cognitive ability.

In 7 different studies, the authors observed that a large number of thinking biases are uncorrelated with cognitive ability. These thinking biases include some of the most classic and well-studied biases in the heuristics and biases literature, including the conjunction effect, framing effects, anchoring effects, outcome bias, base-rate neglect, "less is more" effects, affect biases, omission bias, myside bias, sunk-cost effect, and certainty effects that violate the axioms of expected utility theory. In a further experiment, the authors nonetheless showed that cognitive ability does correlate with the tendency to avoid some rational thinking biases, specifically the tendency to display denominator neglect, probability matching rather than maximizing, belief bias, and matching bias on the 4-card selection task. The authors present a framework for predicting when cognitive ability will and will not correlate with a rational thinking tendency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The problem of inference from curves based on group data.

The use of curves based on averaged data to infer the nature of individual curves or functional relationships is hazardous only when interpretations of the group data, or inferences derived from them, are unwarranted and violate accepted principles of statistical inference. The problems involved in and the procedures appropriate to each of 3 mathematical functions are discussed: Class A, Functions unmodified by averaging; Class B, Functions for which averaging complicates the interpretation of parameters but leaves form unchanged; and Class C, Functions modified in form by averaging. The form of a group mean curve may provide a way to test exact hypotheses about individual curves, although the form of the latter is not determined by the form of the group mean curve. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, self-esteem, and the absence of self-protective attributional biases.

Previous research has demonstrated a relation between depression and attributional style. In the present study we evaluated the extent to which self-esteem may be an important determinant of attributional style. Subjects completed measures of self-esteem, depression, and anxiety and responded to the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Maximum R–2 analyses revealed that for significant one-variable and multivariable regression models, self-esteem accounted for the variation in attributional style on the majority of outcome measures. Depression and anxiety added little beyond the contribution of self-esteem. These findings were consistent for both positive and negative events. In addition, self-esteem accounted for variation in attributional evenhandedness. Results are discussed in terms of the role of self-esteem maintenance in attributional style. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response biases and the relation between negative life events and psychological symptoms.

Investigated whether reporting biases can account for the correlation between negative life events and subclinical psychological symptoms. 73 undergraduates each brought a close friend to the experiment. Ss completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and a college student life events schedule. Friends were asked to report about life events experienced by the Ss. Findings did not support an S reporting bias associated with social desirability, depression, or symptoms. For one of the life events scales, depression was significantly associated with a higher rate of agreement between Ss and friends as to which negative events occurred to Ss. There were significant correlations between symptom and depression measures and life events measures that were free of S-reporting biases (Ss' negative life events reported by both Ss and their significant others, as well as Ss' negative life events as reported by significant others alone). Data suggest that response biases may not be able to account for the relation between negative events and psychological symptoms. It is contended, however, that the hypothesis that negative life events play a significant role in symptom development remains plausible. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Jefferson and Adams on the mind-body problem.

Amidst the voluminous correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams are several letters pertaining to the material basis of mental life. These reveal in a most suggestive way the substantial differences between them. Well informed on prevailing scientific and philosophical perspectives, Jefferson and Adams used the issue to express their positions on the nature and limits of knowledge, the relative authority of scientific methods and speculations, and the larger question of human perfectibility. At the same time, their exchanges illuminate the prevailing and divergent perspectives on human psychology adopted by major leaders of thought in the New World. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constructive biases in social judgment: Experiments on the self-verification of question contents.

Merely thinking about a proposition can increase its subjective truth, even when it is initially denied. Propositions may trigger inferences that depend not on evidence for truth but only on the semantic match with relevant knowledge. In a series of experiments, participants were presented with questions implying positive or negative judgments of discussants in a videotaped talk show. Subsequent ratings were biased toward the question contents, even when the judges themselves initially denied the questions. However, this constructive bias is subject to epistemic constraints. Judgments were biased only when knowledge about the target's role (active agent vs. passive recipient role) was matched by the semantic-linguistic implications of propositions (including action verbs vs. state verbs) . (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeing the forest and seeing the trees in psychology.

Comments on the article by R. J. Sternberg and E. L. Grigorenko (see record 2001-10045-001), which described an approach to psychology ("unified psychology") that is a multiparadigmatic, multidisciplinary, and integrated study of psychological phenomena through converging operations. According to the present author, the article by Sternberg and Grigorenko deserves appraciation on several fronts: (1) the article's elegant clarity; (2) the present author's uneasiness at the dilemma the Sternberg and Grigorenko article creates, and (3) the present author's proposal to take Sternberg and Grigorenko's article as a call, not a discipline. The call to open specialty doors must be issued, but the call itself should not be another specialty (e.g., unified psychology). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cortico-related zones of the rabbit claustrum-study of the claustrocortical connections based on the retrograde axonal transport of fluorescent tracers

The claustrocortical connections in the rabbit were assessed for the first time by the method of axonal retrograde transport of two fluorescent tracers (Fast Blue and Diamidino Yellow). The material consisted of 23 adult New Zealand rabbits. Projection zones of spindle-like form, connected with the precentral, postcentral, temporal and occipital cortices have been delineated. They are organized topographically both in the anteroposterior and ventrodorsal direction. The precentral (motor) projection zone is localized in the anterodorsal part of the claustrum. It may be divided into two separate parts that project to the medial and lateral part of the precentral cortex. The large postcentral (somatosensory) zone occupies mainly the central part, whereas the temporal (auditory) and occipital (visual) zones are situated in the posteroventral part of the claustrum. The overlap of various claustral projection zones is differentiated, the largest being that of the somatosensory zones. In comparison to the results of study of claustral projection zones performed on other species, presumably on the rat and cat, its seems plausible to conclude that the extension of claustral projection zones and degree of their overlap in the rabbit represent an intermediate character.     

基于约束满足的板坯设计模型与求解方法

针对客户订单的重量需求为固定值、客户订单分配过程中有最小重量限制的板坯设计问题,建立了以最小化板坯数量为目标的约束满足模型.通过三划分问题的多项式归结,证明了该问题是强NP难的;针对问题的特殊性质,给出了变量选择策略和值选择策略;提出了基于约束满足技术的求解算法,并证明了算法的收敛性;通过数据实验对算法的有效性进行了验证.     

Attributional biases about the origins of attitudes: Externality, emotionality and rationality.

Pilot work and 3 studies investigated the ways people explain the origins of attitudes. Study 1 examined the use of 3 dimensions (externality, rationality, emotionality) to explain the origin of people's own, in-group, and out-group attitudes. Attributions for own attitudes were the least externally and emotionally based and the most rationally based. By comparison with the out-group, less externality, less emotionality, and more rationality also were attributed to in-group attitudes. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effects of intergroup threat on attributions for in- and out-group attitude positions. Under high threat, more externality and emotionality but less rationality were attributed to out-group attitudes than under low threat. Intergroup differentiation mediated the difference between out-group attributions under high and low threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)