Journal of Comparative Psychology 

About: Journal of Comparative Psychology is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Gorilla & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 0093-4127. Over the lifetime, 2872 publications have been published receiving 106140 citations. The journal is also known as: The Journal of comparative psychology.

Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection: The role of symmetry and averageness.

Abstract: We hypothesized from the parasite theory of sexual selection that men (Homo sapiens) would prefer averageness and symmetry in women's faces, that women would prefer averageness and symmetry in men's faces, and that women would prefer largeness (not averageness) of the secondary sexual traits of men's faces. We generated computer images of men's and women's faces and of composites of the faces of each sex, and then had men and women rate opposite-sex faces for 4 variables (attractive, dominant, sexy, and healthy). Symmetry, averageness, and the sizes of facial features were measured on the computerized faces. The hypotheses were supported, with the exception of the hypothesized effects of averageness of female and male faces on attractiveness ratings. This is the first study to show that facial symmetry has a positive influence on facial attractiveness ratings. Although adult facial attractiveness ratings are replicable, even cross-culturally (see reviews and discussions in Jones & Hill, 1993, and Langlois & Roggman, 1990), there has been considerable controversy around attempts to identify in research the facial features that actually cause faces to be judged attractive or unattractive. As discussed by Langlois and Roggman, studies of individual facial features (e.g., nose size) often have yielded inconsistent results between studies. Faces created by combining individual faces into composites have been shown to be more attractive than the individual faces, which is felt to be a preference for average facial features (Langlois & Roggman, 1990; Symons, 1979). Averageness effaces can be calculated metrically or constructed photogrammetrically. Gallon (1879) constructed composites of individual pictures with the photographic method of simply projecting them one over the other on a negative. According to Gallon, this method "enables us to obtain with mechanical precision a generalized picture; one that represents no man in particular, but portrays an imaginary figure possessing the average features of any given group of man" (1879, p. 341). Indeed, Treu (1914) had the impression that these composites are "singularly beautiful" (p. 441). However, as Alley and Cunningham (1991; see also Benson & Perrett, 1991) pointed out, composites are also more symmetrical and rather free of

Classical conditioning of proboscis extension in honeybees (Apis mellifera).

Abstract: Extension of the proboscis was conditioned in restrained honeybees with odor as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and sucrose solution--delivered to the antenna (to elicit extension of the proboscis) and then to the proboscis itself--as the unconditioned stimulus (US). In a first series of experiments, acquisition was found to be very rapid, both in massed and in spaced trials; its associative basis was established by differential conditioning and by an explicitly unpaired control procedure (which produced marked resistance to acquisition in subsequent paired training); and both extinction and spontaneous recovery in massed trials were demonstrated. In a series of experiments on the nature of the US, eliminating the proboscis component was found to lower the asymptotic level of performance, whereas eliminating the antennal component was without effect; reducing the concentration of sucrose from 20% to 7% slowed acquisition but did not lower the asymptotic level of performance; and second-order conditioning was demonstrated. In a series of experiments on the role of the US, an omission contingency designed to eliminate adventitious response-reinforcer contiguity was found to have no adverse effect on acquisition. In a series of experiments designed to analyze the resistance to acquisition found after explicitly unpaired training in the first experiments, no significant effect was found of prior exposure either to the CS alone or to the US alone, although the unpaired procedure again produced substantial resistance that was shown to be due to inhibition rather than to inattention; extinction after paired training was found to be facilitated by unpaired presentations of the US. The relation between these results for honeybees and those of analogous experiments with vertebrates is considered.

Antipredator defensive behaviors in a visible burrow system.

Abstract: Analyzed defensive behaviors in a seminatural setting through videorecordings of groups of 4 male and 4 female rats. Before cat exposure dominant males showed more offensive behavior, eating, drinking, and use of the open area than subordinates. Presentation of a cat in the open area produced changes in four subpatterns of defense over a 24-hr period: withdrawal; immobility and movement constraint; risk assessment; and suppression of nondefensive behaviors. All Ss showed pronounced and consistent changes in each of these patterns, but dominant males alone showed increased risk assessment-related corner runs. These results provide an extensive description of rat defensive behaviors in a seminatural and relatively unstructured situation and suggest that the anxiety process is initially associated with withdrawal and movement arrest, giving way to a crucial and long-lasting risk-assessment stage that provides information leading to either further defensiveness or a return to nondefensive behaviors. This analysis suggests new models for the study of anxiety.