INSTINCT DISTORTION OR WAR NEUROSIS

Musicality: Instinct or Acquired Skill?

Is the human tendency toward musicality better thought of as the product of a specific, evolved instinct or an acquired skill? Developmental and evolutionary arguments are considered, along with issues of domain-specificity. The article also considers the question of why humans might be consistently and intensely drawn to music if musicality is not in fact the product of a specifically evolved ...

Nutcracker, neurosis, or sampling bias?

Does Learning or Instinct Shape Habitat Selection?

Habitat selection is an important behavioural process widely studied for its population-level effects. Models of habitat selection are, however, often fit without a mechanistic consideration. Here, we investigated whether patterns in habitat selection result from instinct or learning for a population of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Alberta, Canada. We found that habitat selection and related...

"Experimental neurosis" in cats: fact or artifact?

In an attempt to assess the validity of the phenomenon of "animal neurosis," the behavior of cats exposed to the type of conflict Masserman specified as being critical to the development of "experimental neurosis" was contrasted with that of cats simply confined in the conditioning apparatus for the same length of time. Comparison of the groups on the basis of the "symptoms" Masserman considere...

Gut instinct

Barriers to the use of selective digestive decontamination include concerns about emergence of resistant organisms, over-estimation of current performance in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), alternative methods of preventing VAP, and misunderstanding of mechanisms of action. A definitive cluster-randomised trial should be undertaken that incorporates practitioner concerns and e...