Dataset Information

Testing the convergent validity, domain generality, and temporal stability of selected measures of people's tendency to explore.

ABSTRACT: Given the ubiquity of exploration in everyday life, researchers from many disciplines have developed methods to measure exploratory behaviour. There are therefore many ways to quantify and measure exploration. However, it remains unclear whether the different measures (i) have convergent validity relative to one another, (ii) capture a domain general tendency, and (iii) capture a tendency that is stable across time. In a sample of 678 participants, we found very little evidence of convergent validity for the behavioural measures (Hypothesis 1); most of the behavioural measures lacked sufficient convergent validity with one another or with the self-reports. In psychometric modelling analyses, we could not identify a good fitting model with an assumed general tendency to explore (Hypothesis 2); the best fitting model suggested that the different behavioural measures capture behaviours that are specific to the tasks. In a subsample of 254 participants who completed the study a second time, we found that the measures had stability across an 1 month timespan (Hypothesis 3). Therefore, although there were stable individual differences in how people approached each task across time, there was no generalizability across tasks, and drawing broad conclusions about exploratory behaviour from studies using these tasks may be problematic. The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 2nd December 2022 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21717407.v1 . The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/64QJU .

SUBMITTER: Anvari F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11375013 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Testing the convergent validity, domain generality, and temporal stability of selected measures of people's tendency to explore.

Anvari Farid F Billinger Stephan S Analytis Pantelis P PP Franco Vithor Rosa VR Marchiori Davide D

Nature communications 20240904 1

Given the ubiquity of exploration in everyday life, researchers from many disciplines have developed methods to measure exploratory behaviour. There are therefore many ways to quantify and measure exploration. However, it remains unclear whether the different measures (i) have convergent validity relative to one another, (ii) capture a domain general tendency, and (iii) capture a tendency that is stable across time. In a sample of 678 participants, we found very little evidence of convergent val ...[more]

PMID: 39231941

Similar Datasets

Project description:Aggression among group housed male mice continues to challenge laboratory animal researchers because mitigation strategies are generally applied at the cage level without a good understanding of how it affects the dominance hierarchy. Aggression within a group is typically displayed by the dominant mouse targeting lower ranking subordinates; thus, the strategies for preventing aggression may be more successful if applied specifically to the dominant mouse. Unfortunately, dominance rank is often not assessed because of time intensive observations or tests. Several correlates of dominance status have been identified, but none have been directly compared to home cage behavior in standard housing. This study assessed the convergent validity of three dominance correlates (urinary darcin, tube test score, preputial gland to body length ratio) with wound severity and rankings based on home cage behavior, using factor analysis. Discriminant validity with open field measures was assessed to determine if tube test scores are independent of anxiety. Cages were equally split between SJL and albino C57BL/6 strains and group sizes of 3 or 5 (N = 24). Home cage behavior was observed during the first week, and dominance measures were recorded over the second. After controlling for strain and group size, darcin and preputial ratio had strong loadings on the same factor, which was a significant predictor of home cage ranking showing strong convergent validity. Tube test scores were not significantly impacted by open field data, showing discriminant validity. Social network analysis revealed that despotic power structures were prevalent, aggressors were typically more active and rested away from cage mates, and the amount of social investigation and aggression performed by an individual were highly correlated. Data from this study show that darcin and preputial ratio are representative of home cage aggression and provide further insight into individual behavior patterns in group housed male mice.

Project description:Aggression among group housed male mice continues to challenge laboratory animal researchers because mitigation strategies are generally applied at the cage level without a good understanding of how it affects the dominance hierarchy. Aggression is typically displayed by the dominant mouse, targeting lower ranking subordinates, thus strategies may be more successful if applied specifically to the dominant mouse. Unfortunately, dominance rank is often not assessed because of time intensive observations or tests. Several dominance measures have been developed, but none directly compared to home cage behavior in standard housing. This study assessed the convergent validity of three dominance measures (urinary darcin, tube test score, preputial gland to body length ratio) with wound severity and rankings based on home cage behavior, using factor analysis. Discriminant validity with open field measures was assessed to determine if tube test scores are independent from anxiety. Cages were equally split between SJL and albino C57BL/6 strains and group sizes of 3 or 5 (N=24). During the first week, home cage behavior was observed, and the dominance measures were recorded over the second week. After controlling for strain and group size, darcin and preputial ratio had strong loadings on the same factor as home cage ranking and were significant predictors of home cage ranking showing strong convergent validity. Tube test scores were not significantly impacted by open field data, showing discriminant validity. Social network analysis was also done to reveal that despotic power structures were prevalent, aggressors were typically more active and rested away from cage mates, and the amount of social investigation and aggression performed by an individual were highly correlated. Data from this study show that darcin and preputial ratio are representative of home cage aggression and provide further insight on individual behavior patterns in group housed male mice.

Dataset Information

Testing the convergent validity, domain generality, and temporal stability of selected measures of people's tendency to explore.

Publications

Testing the convergent validity, domain generality, and temporal stability of selected measures of people's tendency to explore.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets