Pavol Prokop | University of Trnava (original) (raw)

Papers by Pavol Prokop

by Hassan El Mouden, Jean-marie Ballouard, T. Slimani, Marco A. L. Zuffi, Xavier Santos, Pavol Prokop, juan m pleguezuelos, Mónica Feriche, Jelka Crnobrnja-Isailovic, Mehmet Erdogan, and Rastko Ajtic

For cultural reasons and due to the narrow vision of environmental policy makers, most conservati... more For cultural reasons and due to the narrow vision of environmental policy makers, most conservation efforts focus on a few charismatic species and consequently neglect the majority of others under threat; many unpopular species are even killed in large numbers with little concern. Redressing this bias through educational programs is therefore important. Snakes are unpopular animals; they suffer from human harassment in most places and many populations have declined worldwide. Consequently, they provide suitable substrate to better improve conservation education in schoolchildren. Responses to a questionnaire administered to 2,570 schoolchildren (7-14 years old) from 10 countries showed that many children liked snakes and that most of the students wanted to see snakes protected. Such counterintuitive results were supported by the explanations given by the children, notably the reasons they liked or disliked snakes. Previous physical contact with snakes was often associated with snake likeability. We also found strong and expected differences between countries: for instance, where venomous snakes represented a health risk, most children declared to be afraid of snakes. Overall, our results negate the simplistic, and previously unverified, adult view that snakes are necessarily perceived as frightening animals, thereby justifying their persecution. This study provides an encouraging message, suggesting that it is not compulsory to focus on charismatic animals to convince children to protect wildlife.

Children's knowledge about human anatomy can be examined through several differ- ent ways. Ma... more Children's knowledge about human anatomy can be examined through several differ- ent ways. Making a drawing of the internal features of the human body has been fre- quently used in recent studies. However, there might be a serious difference in results obtained from a general instruction to students ( What you think is inside your body ) and specific (e.g.

The research deals a problem of primary pupils' preconceptions about a child prenatal development... more The research deals a problem of primary pupils' preconceptions about a child prenatal development. Even the pupils cannot experience the phenomenon and can get only mediate information; their idea about the prenatal development is quite well constructed. The quality of the preconceptions depends mainly upon variety of informational sources kept at their disposal and on their own personality.

Recent studies proposed that the colouration of diurnal orbweaving spiders can attract hymenopter... more Recent studies proposed that the colouration of diurnal orbweaving spiders can attract hymenopteran prey. The main assumption behind the prey-attraction hypothesis is that orbweavers might lure pollinators by mimicking floral images. However, the visual appearance of spiders hunting in webs seems to mimic foliage, soil or a dead leaf. Here, we performed a field experiment with artificial webs to test the hypothesis that the appearance of diurnal orbweavers serves to attract pollinating insects. We predicted that if the presence of diurnal spiders attracts prey, the nets containing diurnal Argiope bruennichi should intercept more prey than both empty nets and the nets with nocturnal Larinioides cornutus. Alternatively, if diurnal spiders are cryptic to diurnal prey, Argiope nets should collect more prey than Larinioides nets, but Argiope's capture success should be similar to that of empty nets. We found that Argiope webs collected more insects than Larinioides webs, yet their capture success was comparable to that of the nets containing no spider. Also, Argiope showed less saturated colouration than Larinioides. Our work supports the hypothesis that the physical appearance of diurnal orbweavers might have evolved to camouflage them in their hunting habitat.

Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 2010

Having pets at home provides various social, health, and educational benefits to children. The qu... more Having pets at home provides various social, health, and educational benefits to children. The question of how keeping pets at home affects the attitudes of children toward wild animals still has not been answered, due to various methodological issues, such as ignorance of some attitude dimensions and/or questionnaires that include items focused on very different animals. We conducted three independent research surveys (using three independent samples) of Slovakian primary school children aged 10 to 15 years (n = 1297). These surveys focused on the effects of keeping pets on the attitudes of children towards, and knowledge of, three unpopular animals in Slovakia. These animals were pests (potato beetle) (Study 1), predators (wolf) (Study 2), and those that pose a threat of disease to humans (mouse) (Study 3). Each survey also included a popular animal (ladybird beetle, rabbit, and squirrel, respectively), which served as a "control"; these were compared by pair-wise statistics. Results consistently showed that children had better knowledge of, but less favorable attitudes towards, unpopular animals compared with popular ones. Having pets at home was associated with more positive attitudes to, and better knowledge of, both popular and unpopular animals. Girls were less favorably inclined than boys to animals that may pose a threat, danger, or disease to them. Implications for humane education are discussed, especially in terms of keeping pets, the link between knowledge and attitudes, and children's understanding of ecological adaptations.

Archives of Sexual Behavior

Humans (Homo sapiens) are unique primates due to a lack of a thermally insulating fur covering, t... more Humans (Homo sapiens) are unique primates due to a lack of a thermally insulating fur covering, typical of all other primates. Our primary goal was to examine the "ectoparasite avoidance mediated by mate choice hypothesis" suggesting that women prefer men lacking chest hair in order to avoid ectoparasite loads. We predicted that women living in areas with high prevalence of pathogens (n = 161) would be less likely to show a preference for a male with chest hair in comparison with women living in areas with low pathogen prevalence (n = 183). We found that overall preference for man chest hair was low, but there were no significant associations between perceived vulnerability to diseases or disgust sensitivity and preference of men who have had experimentally removed chest hair. Women who lived in an environment with a high parasite prevalence rate (Turkey) showed a similar preference for man chest hair as did women from an environment with low parasite prevalence (Slovakia)...

Human males provide facultative paternal investment to their offspring; that is, the male care is... more Human males provide facultative paternal investment to their offspring; that is, the male care is not necessary for the survival of his offspring. It is expected that the degree of male investment (1) increases with growing paternity certainty, (2) increases when investment increases the survival and later reproductive prospect of offspring and (3) declines when there are opportunities to mate with multiple females. Using a large sample of adult offspring and their fathers (n= 245), we first investigated the role of two factors possibly involved in the assessment of paternity and subsequently regulating the level of paternal investment: (a) father-child facial resemblance and (b) assortative mating for eye colour. Second, because mating opportunities are inversely related to paternal investment, we also investigated how male facial attractiveness (a cue of mate opportunities) correlates with paternal investment. In line with paternal investment theory, male investment positively correlated with offspring facial resemblance. However, paternal investment were neither higher among blue-eyed couples, nor there were preferences of blue-eyed men to marry with blue-eyed women. Moreover, father facial attractiveness was unrelated to paternal investment. These results indicate that resemblance between offspring and their fathers still plays an important role in paternal investment decision later in offspring's life.

PLoS ONE, 2012

Background: Co-evolutionary struggles between dangerous enemies (e.g., brood parasites) and their... more Background: Co-evolutionary struggles between dangerous enemies (e.g., brood parasites) and their victims (hosts) lead to the emergence of sophisticated adaptations and counter-adaptations. Salient host tricks to reduce parasitism costs include, as front line defence, adult enemy discrimination. In contrast to the well studied egg stage, investigations addressing the specific cues for adult enemy recognition are rare. Previous studies have suggested barred underparts and yellow eyes may provide cues for the recognition of cuckoos Cuculus canorus by their hosts; however, no study to date has examined the role of the two cues simultaneously under a consistent experimental paradigm.

International Journal of Science Education, 2007

This study examined university students' knowledge of and attitudes (n = 378) toward biotechnolog... more This study examined university students' knowledge of and attitudes (n = 378) toward biotechnology in Slovakia, a conservative country where the distribution of genetically engineered products are banned by law. We found a significant positive correlation between attitudes and the level of knowledge; however, although students enrolled in biology courses have better knowledge of biotechnology, their attitudes toward genetic engineering were similar than those of students who do not study biology. Females showed poorer knowledge and lower acceptance of genetically engineered products than did males. Overall, Slovakian students have poor knowledge and numerous misunderstandings about what genetic engineering means, which suggests that science curriculum with respect to this topic should be greatly re-evaluated and teaching strategies should be improved accordingly.

The present study with an international perspective, investigated the state of knowledge, percept... more The present study with an international perspective, investigated the state of knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes among young students toward bioenergy in Finland, Slovakia, Taiwan, and Turkey. A total of 1,903 students with an average age of 15 years from 19 rural and urban schools participated in this study. The study found statistically significant differences in students' bioenergy knowledge with respect to the countries. Only a small percentage of the students in each country were able to demonstrate a high level of bioenergy knowledge. In overall, the gender and rural-urban differences did not play a significant role in determining students' level of bioenergy knowledge. The students appeared to be very critical of bioenergy and especially of the issues related to bioenergy production from forests. They demonstrated positive attitudes in terms of their willingness to learn about bioenergy and its use in their daily life. The study found statistically significant effects of gender and locality on students' perceptions of bioenergy. Most knowledgeable students in bioenergy appeared to be most critical in their perceptions and attitudes toward bioenergy. The principal component analysis revealed three distinct dimensions of students' perceptions and attitudes toward bioenergy viz., "motivation", "critical", and "practical". A broader societal support is needed for the introduction of bioenergy in many countries and young generation's positive attitudes to this matter is certainly important for people who will create policies in this area. More efforts are needed to support young students so that they understand the multi-dimensional issues related to bioenergy by allowing them to have practical experiences with bioenergy.

Ecological Psychology, 2010

Evolutionary arms races between humans and parasites resulted in a set of behavioral adaptations ... more Evolutionary arms races between humans and parasites resulted in a set of behavioral adaptations that serve as parasite-avoidance mechanisms. We investigated associations among reported health of the respondent, antiparasite behavior, and sensitivity to disgust and fear of disease-relevant and irrelevant animals. Ninety-seven participants (15–19 years old) rated their fear and disgust at 25 colorful pictures of disease-relevant and disease-irrelevant invertebrates.

Knowledge of animals may influence children"s beliefs and behaviour toward them, thus building po... more Knowledge of animals may influence children"s beliefs and behaviour toward them, thus building positive attitudes toward animals is one of main goals of environmental education programmes. Although keeping animals contributes to the increase of children"s positive attitudes toward wild animals, pet owners show similar negative attitudes toward less popular animals such as insects, bats or rats than non-pet owners. Moreover, some of these animals are emblazoned with various myths (hereafter alternative conceptions) which may have a negative impact on children"s attitudes toward them. We used a novel approach with two questionnaires with nearly identical items for identifying attitudes to bats and spiders in a sample of primary school participants (N = 196) aged 10 -16 years. Score from each questionnaire was factor analysed and then compared with a pair-wise statistic. Children (especially girls) showed more negative attitudes toward spiders in comparison with bats. Both knowledge and alternative conceptions were distributed randomly irrespective of children"s age or gender. We found a moderate, but significant correlation between alternative conceptions and attitudes, whereas more alternative conceptions resulted in more negative attitudes. Interestingly, the link between attitude and knowledge was found just for bats, but not for spiders perhaps due to greater fear from spiders. Implications of the study for the science education practise are discussed.

Journal of environmental protection and ecology

Cognitive abilities, namely memory mechanisms, are energy consuming and, thus, sen- sitive to sur... more Cognitive abilities, namely memory mechanisms, are energy consuming and, thus, sen- sitive to survival-relevant information. Dangerous events are expected to receive greater attention than non-dangerous events because information processing about them and consequent behaviour ultimately increases the individual fitness. Biology textbooks provide a rich source of potentially dangerous and harmless animals. Here, we investigated whether potential danger from some animals influences school children memory about information relevant to survival. As predicted, participants scored better in information about dangerousness of animals relative to survival-irrelevant informa- tion (food and habitat requirement). Emotions (perceived disgust and fear) negatively correlated with participant willingness to protect them and there were some correlations (both positive and negative) between emotions and animal knowledge scores. Visual exposure to colour photographs of animals positively influenced ...

Wetlands Ecology and Management, 2014

Reed passerine birds are strict habitat specialists inhabiting reedbed habitats. In Europe, many ... more Reed passerine birds are strict habitat specialists inhabiting reedbed habitats. In Europe, many of these species are threatened due to loss and degradation of natural reedbeds. Another important factor that can negatively affect the abundance of reed passerines is commercial reed harvesting. Previous studies have shown negative impacts of large-scale winter reed cutting on passerine breeding assemblages and arthropod communities. The effect of reed cutting on a small scale, however, has not been studied experimentally to date. The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how small-scale, mosaic reed cutting influences prey abundance and nest predation rate of reed passerines. In June, after the reed had reached maturity, we conducted nest predation experiments with artificial nests and arthropod sampling using pan traps in cut reed patches, adjacent uncut reed patches and unmanaged reedbed. We found no differences in the risk of egg predation between three types of reedbeds. In contrast, the abundance of arthropods in cut and adjacent uncut reed patches was significantly higher than that in unmanaged reedbed. We assume this was caused by habitat heterogeneity, small size of cut patches and their rapid recolonization by arthropods from adjacent uncut patches. Our results suggest that in contrast to large-scale reed cutting, small-scale, mosaic reed cutting has no negative effect on nest survival and food abundance of reed passerine birds. However, given that we performed all experiments in June, i.e., when the reed was mature, our findings cannot be generalized to whole breeding period of all reed passerine birds. Therefore, temporal variation in nest predation rate and arthropod abundance in managed and unmanaged reedbeds during the entire breeding season should be examined in future studies.

Society & Animals, 2009

Th ere is an increasing amount of research focusing on the origin of the human fear of animals. H... more Th ere is an increasing amount of research focusing on the origin of the human fear of animals. However, other dimensions of human views of frightening animals have been largely neglected. Th is study investigated attitudes toward snakes. Th e Snake Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), which consisted of 58 Likert-type items (Cronbach's α = 0.91), was administered in a sample of students from two countries (Turkey and Slovakia). Students showed negative attitudes toward snakes, especially within the Negativistic and Naturalistic dimensions. Turkish students showed more positive Scientistic and Naturalistic attitudes than Slovakian students, and females showed more negative attitudes toward snakes than males. Although biology majors had more positive attitudes, compared with nonbiology majors, knowledge of snakes and beliefs about untrue myths were similar between these two subgroups. Our research indicates that fear of snakes negatively infl uences other attitudinal dimensions (especially naturalistic and scientifi c attitudes) although no students had been injured by a snake. Keeping various pets at home was associated with less fear of snakes. Nature protection actions should combine direct contact with these controversial animals with interventions against belief in untrue myths about snakes.

Research in Science Education, 2007

Research into children's ideas showed that children's interpretations of natural phenomena often ... more Research into children's ideas showed that children's interpretations of natural phenomena often differ from those of scientists. The aim of our study was to identify children's ideas of various age classes (7/8-14/15) about birds. A questionnaire with 31 multiple choice and open ended questions and eight photographs were administered to 495 children from 10 elementary schools in Slovakia. Children's ideas were examined in six dimensions (bird classification, food, senses, communication, migration and breeding including parental care). We found several misconceptions, some of them with both anthropomorphical and teleological reasoning of the children about birds within each dimension. In general, misconceptions were more frequently found in younger children, but several misconceptions were similarly distributed across all age classes.