32151 research outputs found
Sort by
Peek a boo! Information seeking about food and functionality in capuchin monkeys
Get PDFFunding: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Agreement No. 639072).The ability to be aware of your own knowledge state (metacognition) can be investigated by examining an individual’s information-seeking behaviour. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) perform strategic searches for food and tools. However, although capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) seek information about food, whether they search for functional information is unknown. Further, if information seeking indicates awareness of what knowledge is missing, rather than an uncertainty response, search patterns should reflect the missing information. We presented 12 capuchin monkeys with two novel information seeking tasks; Experiments 1 and 2 investigated their food search, Experiment 3 investigated their search for functionality. In both tasks information could be sought from two locations; looking below a barrier provided information about food, looking above a barrier provided information about food in Experiments 1 and 2 or cup functionality (open or sealed) in Experiment 3. Monkeys were trained to select the target cup with all information visible. Then we occluded the cups and presented the monkeys with different configurations of missing information requiring looks above, below, or both to locate the target cup. When searching for both food and functional information the monkeys’ searching was selective; it was more likely under occluded conditions. However, search location was not significantly affected by different configurations of missing information, suggesting they were not tailoring their information seeking. This supports previous findings that capuchins perform information-seeking to fill knowledge gaps. However, we found no evidence that searching was sensitive to the information was required. We conclude that capuchin monkeys show selective but not strategic information seeking.Peer reviewe
Having others in mind
No full textThe ability to coordinate effectively is fundamental to human society. This thesis explored a key contributing factor to coordination: the tendency to have the presence, actions, needs, expectations, and other mental states of other social agents in mind. This can occur at different levels of awareness and may involve adjusting one’s behavior and mental states to accommodate others, even when such adjustments contradict one’s initial intentions.
Three studies were conducted. The first two examined various domains of Having Others in Mind in children and adults. Study 1a explored this tendency in 4- to 7-year-old UK children, using behavioral tasks assessing spontaneous sensitivity to others’ bodies, goals, needs, and expectations. Some children showed early signs of Having Others in Mind, and this increased with age. No significant interrelations were found among tasks. Study 1b extended the investigation to adults, assessing Cognitive and Affective Perspective Taking, Emotional Contagion, Obligation, Self-other Correspondence, Considerateness, and Guilt using a questionnaire. Here, interrelations were found among most of the subscales.
Chapter 3 focused on Having Others in Mind in the moral domain. Five-year-old Chinese and UK children evaluated individuals who failed to fulfill their obligations and the reasons they gave, in varying contexts. Chinese children showed a stronger preference for individuals who provided good reasons than UK children and expressed more normative force in their justifications. In short, young children showed a flexible interpretation of the strengths of obligations when obligation and cultural contexts vary.
Together, these studies point to a potential unifying tendency, Having Others in Mind, that begins in early childhood and spans across perceptual, action, affective, and moral domains. This thesis thus provides new insights into an everyday yet often unnoticed tendency that may play a crucial role in facilitating smooth and precise coordination between individuals: Having Others in Mind
“I think office environments aren't really conducive to physical activity” : a qualitative interview study with participants of a workplace physical activity programme
Get PDFFunding: Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (ESRC/UKRI).Background There is a wealth of evidence surrounding the positive impacts of exercise on health and wellbeing, however, sedentary behaviour is still prevalent, particularly in the workplace. This has led to the development and popularity of workplace programmes intended to increase activity levels. An example is Step Count Challenge (SCC) available to all workplaces nationwide across Scotland. In SCC, teams of five colleagues attempt to complete as many steps as possible during either a four- or eight-week period in Autumn and Spring. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore SCC participants’ experiences and the impact of participation on exercise behaviours, using the COM-B model. Methods Previous SCC participants (n=15) took part in one-to-one semi-structured interviews via Microsoft Teams or phone call, with conversation particularly centred around activity behaviours, both during the SCC and beyond the challenge. The interview schedule was structured such that each element of the COM-B model was addressed, and responses were analysed using a hybrid deductive-inductive analytic approach to reflexive thematic analysis. Results Five salient themes (and subthemes) were generated to represent the data, each mapped to an element of the COM-B Model. These overarching themes were: 1) Beliefs about capability impacted by experiences and performance, both personal and those of others, 2) SCC presents the opportunity for a Physical Activity behaviour change, 3) General physical activity barriers, 4) SCC impacting Physical Activity Motivation, and 5) Why do we do it? Conclusions Participants believed that they benefitted from the SCC, and that their physical activity levels were positively impacted as a result of their participation. This positive impact seemed to be largely affected by the notions of competition and team driving motivation to exercise, and therefore these should be considered when designing future programmes. As well as the positive influence of the Motivational aspects of SCC, Capability and Opportunity were also impactful, but these were also labelled as being prone to uncontrollable barriers to activity. Flexible workplace physical activity programmes like SCC have the potential to be effective at changing behaviours and increasing physical activity levels.Peer reviewe
Towards a staging of James Hogg's 'Private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner'
No full textThis practice-based research project stages a multi-modal engagement with James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), approaching the novel not as a narrative to be adapted but as a textual resource to be mined for performance material. Drawing on Manny Farber’s concept of “termite art,” the work privileges exploratory, process-led creation over the pursuit of a fixed artistic vision, embracing digression, incompleteness, and productive cul-de-sacs.
The project comprises three principal strands. Text Experiments interrogate Hogg’s layered, metafictional structure through procedural and algorithmic manipulation, including John Cage–inspired mesostics, concordances, “contextics,” and Markov chain “drunk walks.” These techniques reframe the novel’s language in abstract forms, fostering an intimate, tactile knowledge of the text while resisting reductive interpretation.
sung songs all translates the textual experiments into vocal sketches, deliberately countering operatic traditions of narrative and emotional saturation. Fragments derived from algorithmic text processes form the basis for restrained voice–language interplay, maintaining semantic tension and inviting collaborative development into staged performance with dance and live video. The approach draws on the theatrical philosophies of Pina Bausch, Raimund Höghe, and Michael Clark, privileging spatial, gestural, and sonic composition over linear storytelling.
MFSB (for soprano and live video), developed with singer Lea Shaw, extends the text-mining approach into a fully staged work. It uses concordances of selected words as structural anchors, juxtaposing fixed-notation and open-score sections to foreground performer–composer dialogue. The integration of live video projection, rehearsal footage, and colour-coded improvisation frameworks explores the novel’s themes of doubling at textual, musical, and visual levels, while maintaining a minimal technical footprint for versatile staging.
A Justified Movie is an experimental film retracing Robert Wringhim’s final journey through the Scottish Borders, shot on location with minimal equipment. Parallel to the text experiments, algorithmic “random walk” editing in MaxMSP/Jitter generated non-narrative sequences, juxtaposing static durational shots with point-of-view footage. Found location sound—wind noise, incidental field recordings—was processed into the final soundtrack, reinforcing the visual dialectic of movement and stasis.
The commentary reflects on the practical, theoretical, and philosophical dimensions of working in abstract form, informed by supplementary studies in performance philosophy and aesthetic theory. Procedural constraints and minimal materials are shown to open creative possibilities, foregrounding form as a primary carrier of meaning in the absence of narrative. The project reframes opacity, contingency, and non-linearity not as barriers but as conditions for open-ended performer and spectator engagement. By constructing frameworks rather than delivering closed statements, the work seeks to create performance spaces that invite personal interpretation, emotional resonance, and a sustained, termite-like engagement with both process and material
"The cellos are coming back" : an exploration of trad cello learning and teaching practices
Get PDFThe latter half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st have seen a marked rise in the involvement of the cello in Scottish traditional music. Spurred by prominent trad cellists such as Natalie Haas, recent decades have seen the cello both reoccupy its historical role as an accompaniment instrument, and inhabit new roles as contemporary techniques and trends have shaped its performance. However, there currently exist few publicly available teaching resources for the Scottish trad cello and a review of literature, as well as discussions with Scottish trad cello educators and students, suggests that trad cello pedagogy has not been sufficiently explored.
Accordingly, this research examines teaching and learning practices for the Scottish trad cello, taking into account its relationship to its classical counterpart and contemporary trad cello performance practice. In doing so, a review of literature is conducted, both of historical literature surrounding the Scottish trad and classical cello and of contemporary pedagogical literature in each of these idioms. Data has also been collected through ethnographic methods (semi-structured interviews, lesson observations, a student questionnaire, and autoethnographic interviews), action research, and a review of literature. Analysis of interviews has been conducted in accordance with grounded theory.
Ultimately, a theoretical framework for trad cello learning and teaching practices has been developed, with a cycle of Experimentation, Development of Voice, and Creative Empowerment at its core. This cycle is also supported by the Trad Cello Toolkit, the set of techniques, repertoire, and performance knowledge developed by the trad cello learner. The components of this Toolkit, their associated learning and teaching practices, and their relation to the Core Cycle are explored in detail
Virtually capable : investigating chimpanzees' cognitive abilities in competition and hunting using virtual environments
No full textChimpanzees’ way of life places strong demands on their cognitive abilities. But debate has long existed over whether their cognition is in any way mentalistic—based on high-level processes, comparable to that of humans—or whether their behaviour is more parsimoniously explained by lower-level processes. This portfolio comprises four papers in which I leveraged Virtual Environments as an experimental paradigm to explore this question with respect to two specific aspects of chimpanzee cognition. First, their hunting strategies—particularly the extent to which they attempt to predict their prey’s behaviour. Second, their social strategies—particularly how far they view their competitors as agents and consider their minds. In the first paper presented here, I challenged chimpanzees with navigating a three-dimensional Virtual Environment, avoiding obstacles, and capturing moving virtual prey. They learned to do so rapidly, succeeding at far higher rates than when the environment was instead shown from a two-dimensional, top-down viewpoint. In the second paper, I tasked chimpanzees with capturing a fast-moving virtual prey that could not be caught by chasing. Two subjects learned to intercept the prey by anticipating its trajectory, and this ability proved robust and flexible across follow-up tasks. In my third study, I failed to find evidence that chimpanzees could attribute preferences to competitors. When challenged with approaching the correct virtual prey depending on which of two virtual competitors was present, they chose randomly, or according to side biases. Finally, I examined chimpanzees’ attribution of agency to novel virtual competitors, which either resembled animals or simple geometric shapes. I found evidence that, similarly to human infants, chimpanzees use animal features to distinguish agents from mere physical objects, and do not rely on self-propulsion cues. Together, my results contribute towards the perspective that chimpanzees are capable of sophisticated cognition, but also make use of simpler strategies; and that apparently intelligent behaviour that appears reminiscent of our own is not necessarily underpinned by the same mental processes. I conclude by adding my voice to those calling for increased sensitivity to ecological and motivational validity in the designing of cognition experiments so as to better ensure that negative or positive results are truly reflective of chimpanzees’ minds."This work was supported by the University of St Andrews (School of Psychology and Neuroscience). This work was supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation (grant ID TWCF-2020-20540)."--Fundin
The SDSS-V black hole mapper reverberation mapping project : multi-line dynamical modeling of a highly variable active galactic nucleus with decade-long light curves
Get PDFFunding: Z.S. and Y.S. acknowledge support from NSF grant AST-2009947. C.R. acknowledges support from Fondecyt Regular grant 1230345 and ANID BASAL project FB210003.We present dynamical modeling of the broad-line region (BLR) of the highly variable active galactic nucleus (AGN) SDSS J141041.25+531849.0 (z = 0.359) using photometric and spectroscopic monitoring data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Reverberation Mapping project and the current fifth-generation SDSS Black Hole Mapper program, spanning from early 2013 to early 2023. We model the geometry and kinematics of the BLR in the Hβ, Hα, and Mg ɪɪ emission lines for three different time periods to measure the potential change of structure within the BLR across time and line species. We find a moderately face-on (full-state = 29.68+4.74-3.62 deg) thick-disk (θopn,full-state = 42.04+4.32-3.96 deg) geometry for most BLRs, with a joint estimate for the mass of the supermassive black hole for each of three time periods, yielding log10(MBH/M☉) = 8.10+0.03-0.03 when using the full data set. The inferred individual virial factor f ∼ 1.6 is moderately smaller than the average factor for a local sample of dynamically modeled AGNs. There is strong evidence for nonvirial motion, with over 70% of clouds on inflowing/outflowing orbits. We analyze the change in model parameters across emission lines, finding the radii of BLRs for the emission lines are consistent with the following relative sizes RHβ ≲ RMgII ≲ RHα. Comparing results across time, we find Rlow-state ≲ Rhigh-state, with the change in BLR size for Hβ being more significant than for the other two lines. The data also reveal complex, time-evolving, and potentially transient dynamics of the BLR gas over a decade-long timescale, encouraging for future dynamical modeling of fine-scale BLR kinematics.Peer reviewe
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s career as a colonial officer : learning the 'colonial way of war'?
Get PDFPaul von Lettow-Vorbeck is best known as commander of the Schutztruppe in German East Africa during the First World War, where his campaign earned him the nickname ‘Lion of Africa’. His previous career as a colonial officer with deployments in the Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901) and during the Herero and Nama uprising in German Southwest Africa (1904-1906) has received much less scholarly attention. This article asks whether Lettow-Vorbeck’s experience as a colonial officer offered him opportunities to acquire knowledge that he could bring to bear on the campaign in German East Africa. The theoretical perspective that the article is based on brings together the concept of imperial biographies with notions of transimperial knowledge exchange and the ‘imperial cloud’. Based on Lettow-Vorbeck’s diaries and autobiographical writings, my research demonstrates that Lettow-Vorbeck saw himself as an officer who learned through formal and informal knowledge exchange, who acquired skills through experience and who was also aware of the limits of the transferability of knowledge. It evidences that learning and knowledge exchange were not simply processes that enabled imperial governance; rather, they were part of a performative repertoire that allowed actors to become experts on colonial war, thereby also demarcating the boundaries between metropole and the colonies.Peer reviewe
The Zuo1 C-terminal domain stabilizes DNA guanosine quadruplex (G4) structures located on chromosome IX in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Get PDFFunding: The Fritz Thyssen Stiftung supported this work by a fellowship to K.P. This work has further been supported by the DFG graduate research program CLiC (GRK 1986) and by DFG project (SCHW 701/29-1, 531012774) to I.B. and H.S. KP and CP thank the University of Bonn and the University of St Andrews for a joint grant through their Global Office collaboration programme.Deoxyguanosine quadruplexes (G4s) form stable non-B-DNA structures that can affect transcription, replication, and genome stability. Depending on various factors including cation binding, G4s can fold into different topologies, which can be linked to distinct function. In cells, G4 folding, function, and unfolding is affected by proteins that specifically target G4s. Zuo1 is a G4-binding protein in yeast. To investigate Zuo1 binding and its consequences on G4 formation and topology, we characterized Zuo1’s interaction with G4s, both in vitro and in vivo. The C-terminus (Zuo1348-433) of Zuo1 interacts with the G4s. We characterized this interaction by combining nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET), and in vivo experiments with G4IX that is located on yeast chromosome IX. The Zuo1–G4IX interaction stabilizes this G4 structure and triggers conformational shifts depending on the cation environment. The data presented here demonstrate that Zuo1 targets a specific conformation state of G4 IX, modulates G4 toppology.Peer reviewe
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage St Andrews Research Repository? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!