Autonomy support enhances performance expectancies,positive affect,and motor learning

ObjectivesAccording to the OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016), autonomy support contributes to successful performance and learning in part by enhancing learners' expectancies. The present study was designed to test expectancy-related predictions. Specifically, we examined the effects of practice with autonomy support on learners’ self-efficacy, positive affect, and thoughts during practice.DesignExperimental study with two groups. Movement form was assessed in two different experimental phases, supplemented by questionnaire data.MethodTen-year old children were shown a sequence of 5 ballet positions they were asked to learn: Preparatory position, demi plié, tendu with arms and legs in second position, passé with arms in first position, and elevé with feet in first position. In the autonomy-support (AS) group, participants were able to choose video demonstrations throughout practice, while control (C) group participants were provided with demonstrations based on their yoked counterparts’ choices. One day after practice, participants performed in a retention test.ResultsThe AS group demonstrated greater improvements in movement form during practice and enhanced learning relative to the C group. Furthermore, AS participants had higher self-efficacy and greater positive affect than the C group. Also, AS participants reported having more positive thoughts during practice relative to C group participants, who reported more negative and self-related thoughts.ConclusionsThe present findings are in line with OPTIMAL theory predictions. They highlight the motivational underpinnings of the learning benefits that are seen when learners are given choices.     

Assessment of pointer dog behavior

Studies of behavioral traits of the “Arkansas Line of nervous pointer dogs” are well documented (Murphreeet al., 1969). Demonstrations of drug effects on these traits, as measured on the standardized behavior test and expressed as “Morbidity Score,” have been disappointing, despite other evidence of effectiveness of drug treatments such as modification of operant performance (Murphreeet al. 1974c). A simple reproducible test with high interrater reliability is presented here. Subjects were nine nervous dogs that received placebo, pimozide, and chlordiazepoxide in a double-blind crossover design. Both drugs significantly attenuated “human avoidance,” a nervous trait. Placebo had no effect. The chlordiazepoxide effect was maximal on the first day of administration, returning to baseline three to four days after the last dose. The pimozide maximal effect was on day 4, with return to baseline six to nine days after the last dose. In addition to the aberrant behavior of the nervous pointer, hyperresponsiveness to dopaminergic stimulation and increased levels of L-DOPA in the cisternal spinal fluid were observed.     

The effect of punishment on a factor I stuttering behavior

On each of five days the subject of this experiment read aloud different material during an 18-min A₁ (base rate), B (experimental), and A₂ (extinction) period. No stimulation was delivered during the first three days. On the fourth day, the nonsense word “norg” was presented noncontingently during the experimental period. There was no statistically significant difference between the A₁ and B periods on any of these four days. On day five, “wrong” was made contingent on Factor I prolongations during the experimental period. As a result, there was a statistically significant increase in their frequency. When the response consequence was removed in the A₂ priod, there was a reliable reduction in prolongations and the frequency closely approximated that found in the A₁ period. These data suggest that response-contingent negative stimulation is contraindicated as a clinical tactic for use with Factor I prolongations. It not only failed to suppress them, it increased their frequency.     

Simple and contingent aftereffects of perceived duration in vision and audition

After repeated presentations of a long inspection tone (800 or 1,000 msec), a test tone of intermediate duration (600 msec) appeared shorter than it would otherwise appear. A short inspection tone (200 or 400 msec) tended to increase the apparent length of the intermediate test tone. Thus, a negative aftereffect of perceived auditory duration occurred, and a similar aftereffect occurred in the visual modality. These aftereffects, each involving a single sensory dimension, aresimple aftereffects. The following procedures producedcontingent aftereffects of perceived duration. A pair of lights, the first short and the second long, was presented repeatedly during an inspection period. When a pair of test lights of intermediate duration was then presented, the first member of the pair appeared longer in relation to the second. A similar aftereffect occurred in the auditory modality. In these latter aftereffects, the perceived duration of a test light or tone is contingent—dependent—on its temporal order, first or second, within a pair of test stimuli. An experiment designed to test the possibility of cross-modal transfer of contingent aftereffects between audition and vision found no significant cross-modal aftereffects.     

‘Feeling of knowing’ and cued recall

This study investigates further the relationship between an individual's ‘Feeling of Knowing’ (FOK) that a memory response is stored, and evidence of later retention. Following the presentation of a test list, in which Ss were required to recall capitals of countries, unretrieved items were immediately subject to a further retrieval attempt. Items still unretrieved were then subject to first letter cueing. Finally, items still unretrieved were subject to first and second letter cueing. Results indicate that degree of expressed FOK is significantly related to later retrieval following both first, and first and second letter cueing. This finding thus extends the earlier findings of Hart (1965) and Freedman and Landauer (1966) concerning the relationship between FOK and later measured retention, as in both these studies retention was measured by a recognition procedure. Where Ss reported ‘not knowing’ a capital on the test list, there was nevertheless a substantial probability of recall following cueing (0.33). Finally, it was shown that wrong responses given during the test list presentation were highly indicative of a correct response following cueing.     

Reducing Test Anxiety in School Settings: A Controlled Pilot Study Examining a Group Format Delivery of the Attention Training Technique Among Adolescent Students

Researchers have called for the examination of test anxiety interventions that extend beyond the delivery of individual services by a trained professional. Following from conceptual models and research findings underscoring the importance of metacognitive beliefs to test anxiety, a controlled pilot study examined whether a group format delivery of the attention training technique (ATT) component of metacognitive therapy reduces test anxiety among eighth-grade students. Students completed baseline study measures and were allocated based upon class period to five sessions of ATT (n = 39) or a music listening control (n = 34) delivered within a group format during a school week. Students completed postintervention study measures on the final day of the intervention and completed follow-up study measures approximately 3 weeks following the intervention. As predicted, students receiving ATT reported less postintervention test anxiety than the control when they held stronger baseline metacognitive beliefs about worry. The patterns of findings held at the follow-up and when specifically examining the cognitive (i.e., worry) dimension of test anxiety. Study results suggest that ATT may be a viable test anxiety intervention for students holding heightened metacognitive beliefs about worry. Future directions are discussed.     

Ultrasounds produced by rats accompany decreases in intraspecific fighting

Male intruder rats were placed individually into the cage of an established resident on 2 occasions separated by a 7–8 day interval. Residents readily attacked intruders and both animals lost weight during the first encounter. In contrast, no serious fighting occurred on the second encounter, and both intruders and residents maintained their body weight during the 24-hr test. Observation of the intruder's behavior during the first 30 min of each encounter indicated that defensive-submissive postures represent a response to an attack that only temporarily inhibits aggression whereas the emission of 22 kHz calls by the intruder is associated with a relatively permanent decrease in the resident animal's aggressive response.     

Relationships among behavioural regulations,physical activity,and mental health pre- and during COVID–19 UK lockdown

A nationwide survey was conducted during the first UK lockdown to further understanding of the degree to which motives for exercise were associated with physical activity (PA) behaviours and, in turn, how PA behaviours were associated with mental health. A cross-sectional design was employed and data were collected by use of a one-off online survey (N = 392; 18–85 years; MBMI = 25.48; SD_BMI = 5.05; 314 women). Exercise motives, PA, and mental health were measured by use of the Behavioural Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire-3, Brunel Lifestyle Physical Activity Questionnaire, and General Health Questionnaire-12, respectively. Participants were also asked to specify their average step count per day, if they used a mobile device for this purpose (n = 190). Analyses comprised hierarchical regressions and partial correlations. Results indicated that behavioural regulations were more strongly associated with planned PA pre-lockdown, compared to during lockdown. There were no differences observed in explained variance between pre- and during lockdown for unplanned PA and steps per day. Planned and unplanned PA were significant explanatory variables for mental health both pre- and during lockdown, but sedentary behaviour was not. Partial correlations, with BMI and age partialled out, showed that steps per day were not correlated with mental health either pre- or during lockdown. The range of variables used to explain planned and unplanned PA and mental health suggest that people's motives to exercise were tempered by lockdown. For those who routinely measured their steps per day, the step count was unrelated to their mental health scores both pre- and during lockdown. It appears that engagement in regular PA confers some minor benefits for mental health.     

Developmental changes in apportionment of study time among items in a multitrial free recall task

First grade, third grade, and college Ss attempted to memorize a single set of items over the course of 5 trials, each trial consisting of a 45-sec study period followed by a free recall test. On all trials but the first, S was allowed to have available during his study period only half of the total set of items, but was free to select whichever items he wished to include in this half. Third grade and college Ss were significantly more prone than first grade Ss to select for study items not recalled in the immediately preceding recall test. The results suggest that the strategy of deliberately concentrating one's study activities on the less well mastered segments of materials to be learned, like other elementary memory strategies (e.g., rote rehearsal), cannot automatically be assumed to be part of a young child's repertoire of learning techniques.     

Habituation during exposure treatment: Distraction vs attention-focusing

To investigate the effects of distraction and attention-focusing during in-vivo exposure to feared stimuli, the responses of 16 obsessive-compulsives with washing rituals were studied. A cross-over design was employed in which 6 of the subjects underwent exposure with attention focusing on the first day followed by exposure with distraction on the second day. The remaining subjects received the reverse order. Habituation of both heart rate and subjective anxiety was observed under both conditions, the rate of habituation tending to remain constant throughout the 90-min exposure. Greater between-session habituation and greater synchrony between the psychophysiological and the subjective measures of anxiety was observed when attention-focusing preceded distraction. Since habituation and synchrony have previously been found to be positively related to treatment outcome, the present results suggest that treatment by exposure to feared stimuli may be more effective if attention-focusing is promoted.     

Operant reinforcement of an autonomic response: two studies

Two successive studies were conducted to determine the possibility of operant reinforcement of nonspecific galvanic skin resistance responses. In the first study, with five experimental and three control subjects who served for 20 to 30 min a day for 10 days, all experimental subjects learned to emit more nonspecific galvanic skin resistance responses than their ad hoc matched controls. In a second study, nine experimental and nine control subjects were matched for first-day levels of reactivity and yoked for operant reinforcement schedules. Significant differences between the two groups were found on the last day of conditioning and during extinction. Six of the nine experimental subjects showed higher cumulative rate curves than their matched and yoked controls. The concomitant measures (basal resistance, heart rate, etc.) all supported this finding. It was suggested that operant reinforcement of autonomic response tends to maintain a certain level of responding in contrast to persistent adaptation in the control group.     

Visual spatial perception and paternal deprivation

College men and women who were father deprived for at least 1 year from birth to 18 years of age or non-deprived were compared on the Spatial Relations Test of the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT), the Identical Blocks Test (IBT) and the Water Level Test (WLT). There was a significant sex difference favoring men—as expected—on the IBT and WLT but not on the DAT. There was no significant effect of father deprivation on the mean performance on any test but there was a correlation between years of deprivation and WLT performance for men (r = 0.48,P < 0.001). No other correlation between deprivation and test performance was significant.     

Resistance to extinction in the goldfish following schedules of continuous and variable interval reinforcement

Four goldfish (Carassius auratus, comet) were reinforced with food when they intercepted a beam of light. Each fish performed on both CRF and VI 50-sec schedules. In subsequent extinctions, the CRF schedule produced more responses on the first day than did VI, but after the first day the post-CRF rate dropped much more rapidly. These results agree with those previously obtained in birds and mammals.     

An animal analogue to systematic desensitization and elimination of avoidance

Rats first acquired a two-way avoidance response to a discrete warning signal (80 db white noise.) The effects of 3 experimental and 3 control treatments on elimination of the response were evaluated on a nonshock posttreatment extinction test. Group Systematic Desensitization (SD) received graded exposure to the warning signal while they were eating. Rats in Graded Hierarchy (GH) and Extinction (Ext) groups were yoked to Ss in the SD group such that GH and Ext treatment was identical with that of SD except that neither group ate and the Ext group was exposed to the full intensity warning signal (nongraded exposure) on all trials. None of the control groups was exposed to the warning signal between acquisition and the posttreatment test. Results indicated that SD, while interfering with avoidance during treatment, did not differ in effectiveness from control treatment and was significantly less effective than GH and Ext, when avoidance was tested in extinction. It was suggested that the present analogue SD technique impaired S's reception of (exposure to) the warning signal during treatment.     

Comparison of Parent Versus Child-Report of Child Impulsivity Traits and Prediction of Outcome Variables

Five personality traits that dispose individuals to rash or ill-advised action (i.e., sensation seeking, negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of planning, and lack of perseverance), can be reliably and validly assessed in children. This paper reports on the first test of parental reports of these traits. In a sample of 94 children (ages 7–13, mean age 10.6), the authors found the following. First, parental reports of the five traits in their children appeared to be reliable. Second, there was moderate convergent validity: parent and child reports of the same traits had a median correlation of r?=?.30. Third, there was adequate discriminant validity: within-parent reports on different traits had a median correlation of r?=?.11. Fourth, concurrent prediction of child behavior from parental reports generally was inconsistent with prior findings. Fifth, discrepancies between the two reporters did predict dysfunctional child behavior. There are advantages to securing both child self-report and parental report of personality dispositions to rash action, although there is limited evidence for the concurrent validity of parental reports.     

Immediate and delayed effects of victim suffering on the attacker's aggression

On the first day of a two-day experiment, male undergraduates were either angered or not, and they were given either high, low, or no metered pain feedback after each shock they supposedly delivered to their previous evaluator for his errors on a learning task. After the learning task the subjects made a number of ratings, including how much they had enjoyed this first session. On the second day, all subjects were simply required to administer shocks to a different person for his mistakes on the same learning task. The angered subjects were more punitive on both days toward both learners than the nonangered men. On the first day the angered men also increased the intensity of the shocks they delivered over trial blocks. Most interestingly, the angered men showed more enjoyment of the first session of the experiment as their victim's pain increased, and this enjoyment rating was related to the angered subjects' level of aggression on the second day of the experiment when they punished an “innocent” victim. The results were interpreted as consistent with the hypothesized reinforcement process which essentially states that signs and/or knowledge of the victim's suffering can reinforce impulsive or angry aggressive behavior.     

Is banara really a word?

Bowers, Davis, and Hanley (Bowers, J. S., Davis, C. J., & Hanley, D. A. (2005). Interfering neighbours: The impact of novel word learning on the identification of visually similar words. Cognition, 97(3), B45-B54) reported that if participants were trained to type nonwords such as banara, subsequent semantic categorization responses to similar words such as banana were delayed. This was taken as direct experimental support for a process of lexical competition during word recognition. This interpretation assumes that banara has been lexicalized, which predicts that masked form priming for items such as banara-banana should be reduced or eliminated. An experiment is reported showing that the trained novel words produced the same amount of priming as untrained nonwords on both the first and the second day of training, suggesting that the interference observed by Bowers et al was not due to word-on-word competition.     

Acute effects of mindful interval exercise on cognitive performance in a higher education setting

Interval exercise (IE) has been shown to have acute facilitating effects on cognition; however, the existing literature has been limited to laboratory settings and has focused on manipulating the parameters of exercise bouts during IE. This study included two classroom-based experiments to (1) investigate the effect of an acute bout of IE delivering mindfulness activity during its recovery intervals (mindful IE) on cognitive performance, and (2) compare cognitive performance following acute bouts of mindful IE with non-mindful IE. Experiment 1: Using a class-based within-subject crossover design, 59 participants completed the Stroop, d2, and trail-making tests to measure inhibitory control, attention, and cognitive flexibility, after a 30-min non-exercise or mindful IE session on separate counterbalanced days. Experiment 2: Using a similar design, 70 participants were assigned to two groups to receive a non-exercise and an IE session with (mindful) or without (non-mindful) mindfulness-based recovery intervals on separate counterbalanced days. Results from Experiment 1 showed superior d2 performance following the mindful IE than the non-exercise session. Although Experiment 2 found exercise-related decreases in commission error rate during the d2 test in both groups, the non-mindful group showed additional decreases in omission and total error rates. Further, higher scores on the nonreactivity facet of dispositional mindfulness were correlated with larger decreases in omission and total error rates during the d2 test for the mindful IE group. No exercise-related effect was found for outcomes of the Stroop and trail-making tests in both experiments. These findings in the selective improvements in d2 test performance are the first to suggest the feasibility of integrating mindfulness activity into the recovery intervals of IE for enhanced cognitive performance that may depend on individual differences in dispositional mindfulness.     

Emergence of temperament in the neonate: neonates who cry longer during their first bath still cry longer at their next bathings

We observed that neonates who cried during bathing on day 2 still cried on days 3 and 4. The correlation coefficient, for example, between day 2 and day 3 was r = 0.410, p < 0.001, n = 100. Neonates may already have a distinct temperament (withdrawal and adaptability) as early as day 2 after birth.     

Startle responding and context conditioning

The possibility that acoustic startle stimuli could support a conditional response (freezing) to contextual stimuli was investigated. Rats were exposed to three acoustic startle stimuli on the first day, and one on the second day. On day 1, 20 rats received naloxone pretreatment and another 20 received saline (placebo) pretreatment. Half of each group received a high-intensity acoustic stimulus, the other half a low-intensity acoustic stimulus. Both the higher stimulus intensity and the naloxone pretreatment led to greater freezing behavior during the 3-minute test period before the single startle stimulus on day 2. These findings support the notion that increased actual or perceived intensity of the acoustic startle stimulus increases conditioning to contextual stimuli as indexed by freezing behavior.