Children show heightened memory for threatening social actions

Three experiments investigated whether a negativity bias in social perception extends to preschool-aged children's memory for the details of others' social actions and experiences. After learning about individuals who committed nice or mean social actions, children in Experiment 1 were more accurate at remembering who was mean compared with who was nice. In Experiment 2, children showed a memory advantage for the specific details of actions committed by mean individuals compared with nice individuals. In Experiment 3, children exhibited better memory for the details of mean actions compared with nice actions when the vignettes were presented from the perspective of the recipients instead of the perpetrators of these actions. Taken together, these findings suggest that children show heightened memory for the details of negative social actions over positive social actions. Such a memory bias may be advantageous in helping children to predict potentially threatening situations in the future.     

Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults

Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another’s gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.     

Individualism and the metaphysics of actions

I examine an intuitive property of folk-psychological explanations I call self-sufficiency. I argue that individualism cannot honor this property and work toward distilling an account of psychological explanation that does honor it, given some fairly standard assumptions. In doing so, my preference for an Externalist individuation of intentional state will emerge unambiguously. The assumptions I rely on are fairly standard but not uncontroversial. Yet not always do I attempt to defend them from objections. My goal is an account of folk psychology consistent with our every-day practices rather than the deduction of an idealized psychology from first principles. I conclude with some applications offered as evidence that the goal was achieved.     

Blocking with serial compound stimuli: The role of local context and second-order associations

Blocking was studied with rats in two serial conditioning experiments in which CS1 was followed by CS2 and then shock. Experiment 1 demonstrated that pretraining with CS1 was able to block conditioning to CS2 when the pretraining consisted of trace conditioning. But when serial conditioning was used for pretraining, with a third stimulus as the second element of the compound, then blocking was not detected during the subsequent phase. In Experiment 2 the effect of pretraining with CS2 on blocking with CS1 was examined. Blocking was effective, but only when steps were taken to minimize the growth of second-order associations resulting from the pairing of CS1 with CS2. These results are consistent with a principle stating that the ability of a pretrained stimulus to block the added stimulus in a compound depends on the relative contiguity of each stimulus to the US.     

Resurgence Following Higher or Lower Quality Alternative Reinforcement

Resurgence is a temporary increase in a previously suppressed target behavior following a worsening in reinforcement conditions. Previous studies have examined how higher rates or magnitudes of alternative reinforcement affect suppression of the target behavior and subsequent resurgence. However, there has been no investigation of the effects of higher versus lower qualities of alternative reinforcement on resurgence. Using a three-phase resurgence preparation with rats, the present experiments examined the effects of an alternative reinforcer that was of higher (Experiment 1) or lower (Experiment 2) quality than the reinforcer that had previously maintained the target behavior. The results of both experiments showed greater reductions in target behavior with a higher quality alternative reinforcer and larger increases in target responding when a higher quality alternative reinforcer was removed. Along with prior findings with higher rates and magnitudes of alternative reinforcement, these findings suggest that variations in reinforcer dimensions that increase the efficacy of alternative reinforcement also tend to increase resurgence when alternative reinforcement is removed. The results are discussed in terms of the resurgence as choice in context model and in terms of potential clinical implications.     

Incentive learning following reinforcer devaluation is not conditional upon the motivational state during re-exposure

Three experiments analysed the effect of re-exposure to the reinforcer following aversion conditioning on instrumental performance. In the first experiment, groups of hungry and thirsty rats were trained to press a lever for sucrose, which was then followed by a single injection of lithium chloride (LiCl). On the following day, half the animals in each motivational condition received re-exposure to the sucrose solution; the remaining animals were not re-exposed. In a subsequent extinction test animals that had received re-exposure to the sucrose pressed less than animals that were not re-exposed. Moreover, the effect of re-exposure to the sucrose solution was similar following training under hunger and thirst. In the remaining studies, animals were trained to lever-press for sucrose while either hungry or thirsty. They were then injected with LiCl and re-exposed to the sucrose while either hungry or thirsty, i.e. in the same or different motivational state employed during training, or they were not re-exposed. Lever pressing was then tested in extinction in the training motivational state. As in the first experiment, re-exposure to the reinforcer after aversion conditioning enhanced the magnitude of the reinforcer devaluation effect. More importantly, re-exposure to the sucrose produced a comparable effect on instrumental performance, whether re-exposure was given under the same or different motivational state to that employed during training. These results suggest that the instrumental reinforcer devaluation effect depends upon a process of incentive learning, but that this process is not conditional upon the current motivational state of the animal.     

Coping with work and family: How do dual‐earners interact?

Juggling the demands of both work and family has become increasingly difficult, especially for dual‐earner households; nevertheless, families have developed strategies to deal with work‐family challenges. This paper uses couple level analyses (APIM models) with 100 dual‐earner couples to provide insight about partners' mutual influence on the use of work‐family coping strategies. The results show that women's use of coping strategies is more associated with work‐family conflict and work‐family enrichment than men's coping. In addition, using partner coping, having a positive attitude towards multiple roles, using planning and management skills and avoiding having to cut back on professional responsibilities is associated with better outcomes (more enrichment and less conflict). Surprisingly, the use of childcare facilities is associated with women's conflict and partner effects were only found concerning the use of management and planning skills. These skills, however, have distinct effects for men and women's outcomes: their use by men reduces their own conflict but increases their wives', while their use by women decreases their own conflict and increases their own and their partner's enrichment. These results point to the fact that gender roles continue to be a hallmark of work‐family issues. Our design and results point out the need for new interventions that take couple interdependences into account.     

Universal Gravitation and the (Un)Intelligibility of Natural Philosophy

This article centers on Hume's position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. To that end, the controversy surrounding universal gravitation shall be scrutinized. It is very well known that Hume sides with the Newtonian experimentalist approach rather than with the Leibnizian demand for intelligibility. However, what is not clear is Hume's overall position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. It shall be argued that Hume declines Leibniz's principle of intelligibility. However, Hume does not eschew intelligibility altogether; his concept of causation itself stipulates mechanical intelligibility.     

The effects of metabolic stress and vagotomy on emotional learning in an animal model of anxiety

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of the blood glucose (BG) level in emotional learning in the elevated plus maze (EPM), an animal model of anxiety. In Experiment 1, male Wistar rats were submitted to different EPM trial lengths (1- or 5-min). Blood samples were withdrawn before and after the maze exploration, through a polyethylene cannula chronically implanted into the jugular vein. In Experiment 2, the animals received either saline or 2-deoxy-D-glucose, a glucoprivic drug (2-DG, 250 or 500 mg kg(-1)) by i.p. route, 30 min before a 5-min EPM exposure and were retested in the maze (Trial1/Trial2 EPM procedure) 24 h later. In an independent group of rats, blood samples were withdrawn 0, 5, 15, and 30 min after 2-DG administration, through the jugular vein, to determine BG. In Experiment 3, the animals underwent a vagotomy and were tested in a Trial1/Trial2 EPM procedure four weeks later. The results showed that rats exploring the EPM for 5 min displayed increased fear and higher hyperglycemia than those exploring the EPM for 1 min. In addition, rats submitted to 5-min EPM Trial1 length displayed higher level of fear on Trial2, as well as higher percentage of shortening of the %Open arm entries and %Open arm time from Trial1 to Trial2, which characterizes the occurrence of emotional learning. In contrast, rats previously vagotomized or treated with 2-DG (500 mg kg(-1)) showed the same level of fear on both EPM trials and a low percentage of shortening, from Trial1 to Trial2, of the %Open arm entries and %Open arm time, indicating poor emotional learning. The data is discussed regarding the role of glycaemia in emotional learning in the EPM.