Some animals are more equal than others: Validation of a new scale to measure how attitudes to animals depend on species and human purpose of use.

Globally, many millions of animals are used by humans every year and much of this usage causes public concern. A new scale, devised to measure attitudes to animal use in relation to the purpose of use and species, the Animal Purpose Questionnaire (APQ), was completed by in total 483 participants, 415 British nationals and 68 participants from 39 other countries. The APQ was presented in two survey formats, alongside an established Animal Attitudes Scale (AAS).

Alexithymia predicts loss chasing for people at risk for problem gambling.

Background and aims The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and loss-chasing behavior in people at risk and not at risk for problem gambling. Methods An opportunity sample of 58 (50 males and 8 females) participants completed the Problem Gambling Severity Index and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). They then completed the Cambridge Gambling Task from which a measure of loss-chasing behavior was derived.

Overshadowing depends on cue and reinforcement sensitivity but not schizotypy.

There is evidence for impaired selective learning mechanisms in individuals high in schizotypy. Overshadowing provides a direct test of selective learning based on cue salience and has previously been reported to be impaired in relation to schizotypy scores. The present study tested for overshadowing using food allergy and Lego construction task variants.

Loss-Chasing, Alexithymia, and Impulsivity in a Gambling Task: Alexithymia as a Precursor to Loss-Chasing Behavior When Gambling.

Objective: To examine the relationship between loss-chasing, the propensity to continue gambling to recover from losses, alexithymia, a personality trait associated poor emotional processing and impulsivity, the tendency to act quickly without reflection or consideration of the consequences.

Method: Two experiments are reported (E1: N = 60, Males, 11; Age, 21.6 years.

Fast to forgive, slow to retaliate: intuitive responses in the ultimatum game depend on the degree of unfairness.

Evolutionary accounts have difficulty explaining why people cooperate with anonymous strangers they will never meet. Recently models, focusing on emotional processing, have been proposed as a potential explanation, with attention focusing on a dual systems approach based on system 1 (fast, intuitive, automatic, effortless, and emotional) and system 2 (slow, reflective, effortful, proactive and unemotional). Evidence shows that when cooperation is salient, people are fast (system 1) to cooperate, but with longer delays (system 2) they show greed.

Health specific traits beyond the Five Factor Model, cognitive processes and trait expression: replies to Watson (2012), Matthews (2012) and Haslam, Jetten, Reynolds, and Reicher (2012).

In this article we reply to the issues raised by the three commentaries on Ferguson's (2012) article. Watson argues that the four traits identified by Ferguson (2012) - health anxiety, alexithymia, empathy and Type D - do not lie outside the Five Factor Model (FFM). We present factor analytic data showing that health anxiety forms a separate factor from positive and negative affectivity, alexithymia forms a factor outside the FFM and while emotional empathy loads with agreeableness, cognitive empathy forms a separate factor outside the FFM.

Do personality traits predict individual differences in excitatory and inhibitory learning?

Conditioned inhibition (CI) is demonstrated in classical conditioning when a stimulus is used to signal the omission of an otherwise expected outcome. This basic learning ability is involved in a wide range of normal behavior - and thus its disruption could produce a correspondingly wide range of behavioral deficits. The present study employed a computer-based task to measure conditioned excitation and inhibition in the same discrimination procedure.

Openness to experience and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis and r(equivalent) from risk ratios and odds ratios.

Objectives: To test the prediction that Openness to Experience (O) is a protective factor with respect to all-cause mortality. To provide a method of calculating a standard effect size estimate (r(equivalent) ) from relative risk (RR) and odds ratios (OR).

Methods: A meta-analysis of 11 (N= 19, 941) studies linking O to all-cause mortality is reported.

Temporal changes in greenspace in a highly urbanized region.

The majority of the world's population now lives in towns and cities, and urban areas are expanding faster than any other land-use type. In response to this phenomenon, two opposing arguments have emerged: whether cities should 'sprawl' into the wider countryside, or 'densify' through the development of existing urban greenspace. However, these greenspaces are increasingly recognized as being central to the amelioration of urban living conditions, supporting biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision.

Alexithymia, cumulative feedback, and differential response patterns on the Iowa Gambling Task.

Although the role of emotional processing is central to contemporary models of risky decision making, to date the role of trait emotional understanding has not been explored experimentally in this context. The current experiment (N=326) explores the role of alexithymia with respect to performance on the standard Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and a version where cumulative financial feedback is obscured. Standard learning on the IGT was observed for those low in alexithymia.

An application of the theory of planned behaviour to truck driving behaviour and compliance with regulations.

A questionnaire study was conducted with truck drivers to help understand driving and compliance behaviour using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Path analysis examined the ability of the TPB to explain the direct and indirect factors involved in self-reported driving behaviour and regulation compliance. Law abiding driving behaviour in trucks was related more to attitudes, subjective norms and intentions than perceived behavioural control.

Modeling how, when, and what is learned in a simple fault-finding task.

We have developed a process model that learns in multiple ways while finding faults in a simple control panel device. The model predicts human participants' learning through its own learning. The model's performance was systematically compared to human learning data, including the time course and specific sequence of learned behaviors.

Car drivers' attitudes towards motorcyclists: a survey.

Motorcyclists are over-represented in UK traffic accident statistics. Many car-motorcycle accidents are however due to the inappropriate actions of car drivers. It is predicted that car drivers at risk of collision with motorcycles have divergent attitudes and beliefs about motorcyclists compared to safer drivers, which may lead to a deficient mental model guiding their interactions with motorcyclists.

Memory bias in health anxiety is related to the emotional valence of health-related words.

Objectives: A model based on the associative strength of object evaluations is tested to explain why those who score higher on health anxiety have a better memory for health-related words.

Method: Sixty participants observed health and nonhealth words. A recognition memory task followed a free recall task and finally subjects provided evaluations (emotionality, imageability, and frequency) for all the words.

Odors and sounds as triggers for medically unexplained symptoms: a fixed-occasion diary study of Gulf War veterans.

Background: Both laboratory studies on healthy volunteers and epidemiological evidence from patient samples indicate that odor can act as a trigger for the reporting of medically unexplained symptoms (MUSs).

Purpose: The relationship between concurrent experiences of odor and MUSs has not been explored in a patient sample.

Methods: This study used an 8-day fixed-occasion diary study, in which 17 veterans of the Persian Gulf War completed diary assessments of (a) the intensity and duration of odor and sound and (b) MUS severity.

Toward the use of a standardized assessment for young children with autism: current assessment practices in the UK.

Little is known about the progress of autistic children following specific interventions in England. Nor do we know how frequently standardized assessments are used to monitor progress or to evaluate specific educational interventions. The reports of 75 children with autism, for whom special educational provision had been determined by a local education authority, were reviewed.

Predicting future blood donor returns: past behavior, intentions, and observer effects.

A prospective design was used to explore the efficacy of 6 factors (e.g., intentions) to predict the number of future blood donations in an initial sample of 630 blood donors.

Progress and outcomes for children with autism receiving parent-managed intensive interventions.

Parent-managed behavioral interventions for young children with autism are under-researched. We analysed data from 66 children served by 25 different early intervention consultants. After a mean of 31.