Awareness of prostate cancer among patients and the general public: results of an international survey.

The objective of this study was to assess the level of awareness of prostate cancer (PCa) among the general public and PCa patients in Europe and North America. A survey was undertaken across four European countries (UK, Germany, Italy and Spain), and across the United States and Canada in late 2007. In total, 1008 men with PCa and their partners (the 'prostate sample'), and 911 men without PCa and their partners (the 'well sample') participated in the survey, all aged > or =50 years. Interviews were conducted through telephone, pen and paper, and online. Many people surveyed (53%) thought that breast cancer is more common than PCa. Moreover, 1 in 10 people from the well sample (10%) thought that PCa affects both men and women. When the prostate sample was asked about their perceived level of risk of PCa before diagnosis, 50% believed that they/their husband or partner were previously at low or very low risk, before they were diagnosed. Awareness of the major risk factors for PCa (age and family history) was generally good, but respondents were less clear about the role of other potential factors, such as smoking and drinking alcohol. This international survey, thought to be largest of its type, shows that although patient and public awareness of PCa is generally satisfactory, there is still a considerable lack of clarity about PCa risk factors, and a danger for people to underestimate their own/their partner's perceived risk for PCa. Programmes to responsibly educate and inform men and their partners about risk factors, prevalence and screening tools for PCa are required.

Observational learning of instrumental discriminations in the rat: the role of demonstrator type.

In two experiments, observer rats saw a pretrained demonstrator rat of either the same or a different strain engaging in a discrimination task in which the presentation of a discriminative stimulus indicated whether performing a particular response (pulling a chain) would be reinforced. In both experiments an effect of demonstrator familiarity was found: Observers of a demonstrator from a different strain behaved in a manner that was consistent with the demonstrator whereas observers of a demonstrator from the same strain did not. These results suggest that an effect akin to latent inhibition operates in the social domain: Familiarity with the demonstrator retards the readiness with which observational learning proceeds.

Imitative learning of stimulus-response and response-outcome associations in pigeons.

A novel automated procedure was used to study imitative learning in pigeons. In Experiments 1 and 2, observer pigeons witnessed a demonstrator pigeon successfully performing an instrumental discrimination in which different discriminative stimuli indicated which of 2 topographically distinct responses (R1 and R2) resulted in the delivery of seed. The observers were then presented with the discriminative stimuli and given access to the response panel. Observer pigeons' behavior during the discriminative stimuli was influenced by how the demonstrator had responded during these stimuli. In Experiment 3, observers witnessed demonstrator pigeons performing R1 for Outcome 1 and R2 for Outcome 2. Observers then received a procedure designed to devalue Outcome 1 relative to Outcome 2 and were subsequently less likely to perform R1 than R2. These results suggest that pigeons can learn both stimulus response and response-outcome associations by observation.