1,720,984 research outputs found
Fair play and its connection with social tolerance, reciprocity and the ethology of peace
Full text linkThe concept of peace, with its corollary of behaviours, strategies and social implications, is commonly
believed as a uniquely human feature. Through a comparative approach, we show how social
play in animals may have paved the way for the emergence of peace. By playing fairly, human and
nonhuman animals learn to manage their social dynamics in a more relaxed and tolerant way that
results in a more effective management of conflicts. We show that play promotes tolerance, cooperation,
fairness and reciprocity, which are essential elements of the so-called positive peace. This
kind of peace is reached through an evolving process in which individuals continually modify social
relationships to attain peaceful coexistence. In conclusion, we assume that the concept of peace
has deep biological roots that constitute the basis for more sophisticated cultural constructions
Are horses capable of mirror self-recognition? A pilot study
Full text linkMirror Self-Recognition (MSR) unveils complex cognitive, social and emotional skills and it
has been found only in humans and few other species, such as great apes, dolphins, elephants
and magpies. In this pilot study, we tested if horses show the capacity of MSR. Four
subjects living socially under naturalistic conditions were selected for the experiment. We
adopted the classical mark test, which consists in placing a coloured mark on an out-of-view
body part, visible only through mirror inspection. If the animal considers the image as its
own, it will use its reflection to detect the mark and will try to explore it. We enhanced the
classical paradigm by introducing a double-check control. Only in the presence of the
reflecting surface, animals performed tactile and olfactory exploration of the mirror and
looked behind it. These behaviors suggest that subjects were trying to associate multiple
sensory cues (visual, tactile and olfactory) to the image in the mirror. The lack of correspondence
between the collected stimuli in front of the mirror and the response to the colored
mark lead us to affirm that horses are able to perceive that the reflected image is incongruent
when compared with the memorized information of a real horse. However, without replication
of data, the self-directed behavior towards the colored marks showed by our horses
cannot be sufficient per se to affirm that horses are capable of self-recognition
Emotionality and intentionality in bonobo playful communication
No full textGreat apes show very complex systems for
communicating emotions and intentions. Whereas gestures
are intentional signals, facial expressions can disclose both
emotions and intentions. The playful context is a good field
to explore the possible dichotomy between intentionally
and emotionally driven signals as it has been suggested that
one of its functions is to learn producing and decoding
communicative patterns. To understand how signals are
produced during play and how they are modified in the
course of ontogeny, we investigated the use of playful
facial expressions and gestures in bonobos (Pan paniscus),
a tolerant species showing a high propensity to play even as
adults. Our results showed that the use of play faces and
gestures is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the
play session. Both play faces and gestures were more often
performed when social play involved physical contact and
when the receiver was visually attending, thus suggesting
that both signals can be strategically employed when
communicating becomes more urgent. Compared to play
faces, gestures were more frequent during dyadic than
polyadic sessions, when a unique receiver was involved.
Being gestures not context specific, they are probably used
more selectively by the sender. On the contrary, play faces
are context specific and transmit an unequivocal positive
message that cannot be misconceived. These features
legitimize a broad use of playful facial expressions, independently
of the number of playmates. The similarities and
differences in the production of these signals are probably
linked to the different degree of emotionality and intentionality
characterizing them
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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