scholarly journals Flexible decision-making in grooming partner choice in sooty mangabeys and chimpanzees

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 172143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mielke ◽  
Anna Preis ◽  
Liran Samuni ◽  
Jan F. Gogarten ◽  
Roman M. Wittig ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Partner Choice ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Choice Situation ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Multiple Partner ◽  
Sooty Mangabeys

Living in permanent social groups forces animals to make decisions about when, how and with whom to interact, requiring decisions to be made that integrate multiple sources of information. Changing social environments can influence this decision-making process by constraining choice or altering the likelihood of a positive outcome. Here, we conceptualized grooming as a choice situation where an individual chooses one of a number of potential partners. Studying two wild populations of sympatric primate species, sooty mangabeys ( Cercocebus atys atys ) and western chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes verus ), we tested what properties of potential partners influenced grooming decisions, including their relative value based on available alternatives and the social relationships of potential partners with bystanders who could observe the outcome of the decision. Across 1529 decision events, multiple partner attributes (e.g. dominance ranks, social relationship quality, reproductive state, partner sex) influenced choice. Individuals preferred to initiate grooming with partners of similar global rank, but this effect was driven by a bias towards partners with a high rank compared to other locally available options. Individuals also avoided grooming partners who had strong social relationships with at least one bystander. Results indicated flexible decision-making in grooming interactions in both species, based on a partner's value given the local social environment. Viewing partner choice as a value-based decision-making process allows researchers to compare how different species solve similar social problems.

scholarly journals Adolescents' Health Literacy and Decision-making: A Qualitative Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-408
Author(s):  
Sasha A. Fleary ◽  
Patrece Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Subjective Health ◽  
Lifestyle Behaviors ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Health Decision Making ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Health Decision

Objective: Adolescents assume increased responsibility for their health, particularly regarding health decision-making for lifestyle behaviors. Prior research suggests a relationship between health literacy (HL) and health behaviors in adolescents. Yet, the specific role of HL in adolescents' health decision-making is unclear. This study qualitatively explored adolescents' use of HL in their health decision-making. Methods: Six focus groups with adolescents (N = 37, Mage = 16.49, 86% girls) were conducted. Adolescents' responses to questions about their HL use were coded using thematic analysis. Results: Adolescents identified passive and active HL engagement and several individual (eg, future orientation, risk perception) and environmental (eg, access to resources/information, media) factors that influenced their use of HL in health decision-making. Feedback from others, subjective health, and ability to navigate multiple sources of information also determined adolescents' confidence in their HL skills. Conclusions: Our results support expanding the types of HL studied/measured in adolescents and provide insight on how HL can be leveraged to improve adolescents' health decision-making. Though there was no guiding theory for this study, results support using the Information-Motivation-Behavior Skills model to assess the HL/health decision-making relationship in adolescence.

Parents of Students with Disabilities and Open Enrollment: Characteristics and Reasons for Transfer

1994 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Ysseldyke ◽  
Cheryl M. Lange ◽  
Deborah J. Gorney
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Open Enrollment ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Special Education Needs ◽  
Education Needs

This study examines the characteristics of students with disabilities who participate in Open Enrollment (one of seven enrollment options available in Minnesota), the reasons they participate, and the sources of information and decision-making process involved with choosing another district. Surveys of 347 parents revealed three primary reasons for transferring their children: The child's special education needs being better met at the new district, more personal attention from the teacher, and dissatisfaction with the resident school. Other factors, such as disability category, parents' income, and location, were also analyzed.

Decision-making experiences of public library CEOs

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (8/9) ◽  
pp. 644-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Stenstrom
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Interpersonal Influence ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the decision-making practices of public library managers in the context of interpersonal influence and evidence-based information sources, and to investigate the relationship between models of evidence-based practice and interpersonal influence in the decision-making process of public library managers. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through short audio blog posts participants made about their everyday decisions and coded considering the facets of three existing evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP) models as well as the facets of interpersonal influence. Findings – The findings show that public library CEOs decision-making behaviours reflect the use of a variety of practices from analytical to intuitive as is expected of managers in any sector; however, a stronger reliance on gathering objective information may be present than in other sectors. Seeking multiple sources of information and a tendency towards rationalism may indicate a more sophisticated approach to decision making, but be less indicative of the practices employed more broadly. A possible outcome of these tendencies may result in discordance with external partners and collaborators. Practical implications – The findings from this study may inform the work of associations, library and information science (LIS) educators, and library managers in developing strategic directions and instructional strategies within their organisations. It is also the first study to jointly examine models of interpersonal influence and evidence-based decision-making practices in any field. Originality/value – While the study of the decision-making practices of various groups is growing, little previous research has been conducted with public library managers, and none has been undertaken in Canada.

scholarly journals Confidence Predictions Affect Performance Confidence and Neural Preparation in Perceptual Decision Making.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marike Schiffer ◽  
Annika Boldt ◽  
Florian Waszak ◽  
Nick Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Color Discrimination ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Confidence Judgments ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Preparation And Evaluation ◽  
Confidence Estimate

The decisions we make are usually accompanied by a feeling of being wrong or right – a confidence estimate regarding the correctness of our decisions. The questions which information this confidence estimate is based on, and what confidence is used for, have increasingly become a focus of research into decision-making. This research has largely focused on confidence regarding current or past decisions, and successfully identified for example how characteristics of the stimulus affect confidence, and how communicating confidence can affect group decisions. Here, we report two studies which implemented a color-discrimination task which introduced a novel metacognitive measure: predictions of confidence for future perceptual decisions. Using behavioral measures, computational modeling, and EEG, we tested the hypothesis that experience-based confidence predictions are one source of information which affects how confident we are in future decision-making and that one key purpose of confidence is to prepare future encounters of a task. Results from both studies show that participants develop precise confidence predictions informed by confidence experienced in past trials. Notably, our results show a bi-directional link between predicted and experienced (performance) confidence: confidence predictions are not only informed by, but can also modulate performance confidence; this finding supports our recent proposal that confidence judgments are based on multiple sources of information, including expectations. We found further support for this bi-directional link in neural correlates of stimulus-preparation and processing. EEG measures of preparatory neural activity (contingent negative variation; CNV) and evidence accumulation (centro-parietal positivity; CPP) show that predicted confidence affects neural preparation for stimulus processing, supporting the proposal that one purpose of confidence judgments may be to learn about performance for future encounters and prepare accordingly.Taken together, our results suggest that confidence integrates information from various sources, and affects neural processing profoundly. The bi-directional link between performance confidence and predicted confidence suggests that confidence signals are exploited to increase precision in preparation and evaluation of future decisions.

scholarly journals Robust Averaging Protects Decisions from Noise in Neural Computations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vickie Li ◽  
Santiago Herce Castañón ◽  
Joshua A Solomon ◽  
Hildward Vandormael ◽  
Christopher Summerfield
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Ideal Observer ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Healthy Humans ◽  
Neural Computations ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Orientation Boundary

AbstractAn ideal observer will give equivalent weight to sources of information that are equally reliable. However, when averaging visual information, human observers tend to downweight or discount features that are relatively outlying or deviant (‘robust averaging’). Why humans adopt an integration policy that discards important decision information remains unknown. Here, observers were asked to judge the average tilt in a circular array of high-contrast gratings, relative to an orientation boundary defined by a central reference grating. Observers showed robust averaging of orientation, but the extent to which they did so was a positive predictor of their overall performance. Using computational simulations, we show that although robust averaging is suboptimal for a perfect integrator, it paradoxically enhances performance in the presence of “late” noise, i.e. which corrupts decisions during integration. In other words, robust decision strategies increase the brain’s resilience to noise arising in neural computations during decision-making.Author SummaryHumans often make decisions by averaging information from multiple sources. When all the sources are equally reliable, they should all have equivalent impact (or weight) on the decisions of an “ideal” observer, i.e. one with perfect memory. However, recent experiments have suggested that humans give unequal weight to sources that are deviant or unusual, a phenomenon called “robust averaging”. Here, we use computer simulations to try to understand why humans do this. Our simulations show that under the assumption that information processing is limited by a source of internal uncertainty that we call “late” noise, robust averaging actually leads to improved performance. Using behavioural testing, we replicate the finding of robust averaging in a cohort of healthy humans, and show that those participants that engage in robust averaging perform better on the task. This study thus provides new information about the limitations on human decision-making.

Developing effective academic accommodations in higher education: A collaborative decision-making process

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feilin Hsiao ◽  
Shelly Zeiser ◽  
Daniel Nuss ◽  
Keith Hatschek
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Academic Accommodations ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Collaborative Decision Making ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Collaborative Decision

This case study describes a collaborative decision-making process for developing effective academic accommodations for a music major with a disability, whose prior accommodations suggested by the Disability Support Services (DSS) failed to address her needs. Cross-departmental collaboration between the DSS and the School of Music, as well as dynamic interactions among students with disabilities (SWDs), faculty members, peer tutors, and DSS specialists are emphasized. Multiple sources of information were collected, including in-depth/semi-structured interviews and a review of all relevant documentation such as case reports, weekly logs, email correspondence, results of psychological testing and academic portfolio contents. The themes that emerged from the data include resistance to the unknown, the language of negotiation, the decision-making process, and transformation (with three sub-themes: from fear of stigmatization to self-advocacy, from resentfulness to acceptance and commitment, and from reaction to pro-action). Key elements contributing to the collaborative process consist of effective communication among all members, the promotion of self-advocacy skills for SWDs, and faculty’s recognition of SWDs’ potential to succeed and while engaging flexible methods for delivering course content and assessing outcomes. A framework for delivering viable services for music majors with disabilities is outlined and discussed.

scholarly journals Bystanders intervene to impede grooming in Western chimpanzees and sooty mangabeys

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 171296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mielke ◽  
Liran Samuni ◽  
Anna Preis ◽  
Jan F. Gogarten ◽  
Catherine Crockford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Dominance Rank ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Sooty Mangabeys ◽  
Lower Ranking ◽  
Cercocebus Atys ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Grooming interactions benefit groomers, but may have negative consequences for bystanders. Grooming limits bystanders' grooming access and ensuing alliances could threaten the bystander's hierarchy rank or their previous investment in the groomers. To gain a competitive advantage, bystanders could intervene into a grooming bout to increase their own grooming access or to prevent the negative impact of others' grooming. We tested the impact of dominance rank and social relationships on grooming intervention likelihood and outcome in two sympatric primate species, Western chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes verus ) and sooty mangabeys ( Cercocebus atys atys ). In both species, rather than increasing their own access to preferred partners, bystanders intervened mainly when an alliance between groomers could have a negative impact on them: when the lower-ranking groomer was close to the bystander in rank, when either groomer was an affiliation partner whose services they could lose, or the groomers were not yet strongly affiliated with each other. Thus, bystanders in both species appear to monitor grooming interactions and intervene based on their own dominance rank and social relationships, as well as triadic awareness of the relationship between groomers. While the motivation to intervene did not differ between species, mangabeys appeared to be more constrained by dominance rank than chimpanzees.

scholarly journals Complexity in decision making: Determining university library opening hours

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 488-496
Author(s):  
Clare Ravenwood ◽  
Graham Walton ◽  
Derek Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
University Library ◽  
The Uk

Making decisions on academic library opening hours is complex with many pressures on managers. This research surveys senior academic library managers from the UK, using a questionnaire to reveal views on library opening hours, the decision-making process, and the pressures which influenced their decisions. A variety of factors were found, in particular satisfying undergraduate demands. The research also revealed the sources of information important in making decisions on opening hours and the influence of ‘political’ issues in the decision-making process. Some institutions remove complexity by utilising 24/7 opening, though this is not an option for many.

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