Equivalence classes formation applied to learning musical notes

Three experiments involving training and application of equivalence classes were carried out. In the first of them, with 6-6 years old children, and applying the equivalence classes logic to musical symbols and sounds learning, the necessary relations to build three equivalence classes (do, mi, sol) of five members each were acquired. In second and third experiments, five and seven equivalence classes (musical notes) of five member each were obtained. Six and a half years old children and one 17 years old Down syndrome diagnosed child took part in them, respectively. Results highlight the theoretical meaning of equivalence classes as explanation of human symbolic behavior, as the educational incomes of improving learning of basic elements in artistic skills.     

Parenting practices and adolescent social anxiety: A direct or indirect relationship?

Background/ObjectivesAccording to existing evidence, parental educational practices and social anxiety are to some degree connected. However, the possibility that this relationship is an indirect one and is mediated by individual factors such as self-esteem or emotional regulation has not yet been explored. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the relationship between maternal and paternal educational practices and social anxiety, and test both the direct and the indirect pathways. Method: The representative sample consisted of 2,060 Andalusian students (47.7% girls, M_age = 14.34) who filled in various self-reports. Results: The structural equation models confirmed that a direct relationship, with a low effect size, exists between parental educational practices and social anxiety and that there is also an indirect relationship, mediated by negative self-esteem and emotional suppression (the emotional regulation strategy), which accounted here for 49.1% of the variance in social anxiety. Conclusions: Parental education practices seem to act as a family asset which either promotes or hinders the development of basic attitudes and competencies such as self-esteem or emotional regulation and, by doing this, either encourages or prevents the emergence of problems such as social anxiety.     

Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) cool sensitivity measured by a signal detection method

Two rhesus monkeys were trained to detect cool stimuli (decrements in skin temperature from the adapted temperature) presented to the palm of the left hand after the skin had been preadapted to a 33°C temperature. The procedure was analogous to the signal detection “yes-no” method used with human observers. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated by varying the a priori probability of stimulus oecurrence. The proportion of hits and of false alarms increased with increases in the a priori probability of stimulation. The points of isosensitivity of both subjects for cool intensities of 0.3°C, but not at greater intensities, yielded straight lines with slopes of approximately one when plotted on normal-normal coordinates. The values of the d’_s detectability index decreased from 3.52 to 0.75 for one subject and from 2.81 1to 1.28 for the other as the stimulus intensity was decreased from 0.8° to 0.15° cooling from the adapting temperature. Cool thresholds for each subject of 0.19° and 0.12°C were computed from classical psychometric functions when threshold was defined as 50% hits at a 50% probability of stimulus occurrence. These thresholds are comparable to published reports of the cool threshold for the rhesus.     

Transfer of control between causal predictive judgments and instrumental responding

Four experiments were conducted to explore outcome-specific transfer from causal predictive judgments to instrumental responding. A video game was designed in which participants had to defend Andalusia from navy and air force attacks. First, they learned the relationship between two instrumental responses (two key on a standard keyboard) and two different outcomes (destruction of the ships or destruction of the planes). Then they learned to predict which of two different stimuli predicted which outcome. Finally, they had the opportunity of making either of the two instrumental responses in the presence of either stimulus. Transfer was shown as a preference for the response that shared an outcome with the current stimulus. The presentation of the stimulus during the test produced a decrease in the overall rate of response. Responding to a neutral stimulus in Experiments 2 and 3 suggested that this overall decrease in responding was due to a combination of the time needed to process the meaning of the stimulus and the activation of the representation of the outcome in the presence of the stimulus during the test. Transfer between predictive judgments and instrumental responding mirrors the outcome-specific Pavlovian instrumental transfer observed in conditioning studies with rats.     

Delayed recall of fear extinction in rats with lesions of ventral medial prefrontal cortex

Extinction of auditory fear conditioning is thought to form a new memory. We previously found that rats with vmPFC lesions could extinguish fear to the tone within a session, but showed no recall of extinction 24 h later. One interpretation is that the vmPFC is the sole storage site of extinction memory. However, it is also possible that lesioned rats were unable to retrieve extinction memory stored in other structures. To determine if a latent extinction memory could be retrieved with additional training, we repeated the experiment but added an additional 5 d of extinction reminder trials. Replicating our previous findings, vmPFC-lesioned rats extinguished normally on day 1, but showed no recall of extinction on day 2. Over the next 5 d, however, lesioned rats showed significant savings in their rate of re-extinction. Thus, the vmPFC is not the only site where extinction memory is stored. Nevertheless, lesioned rats receiving only two extinction trials per day required twice as many days to initiate extinction as controls. Although recall of extinction is possible without the vmPFC, it is significantly delayed. We suggest that the vmPFC accelerates extinction by permitting access to recently learned extinction trials, thereby maximizing behavioral flexibility.     

Determinants of picture naming times in Icelandic

Numerous studies have found that word frequency has a significant effect on the time it takes to name an object or read a word. Recently, claims have been made that this frequency effect is perhaps more correctly interpreted as an age of acquisition effect. This paper reports an experiment in which naming times in Icelandic for 175 stimuli from the Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set were determined. A multiple regression analysis of naming times against a number of independent factors showed that objective age of acquisition was the strongest predictor of naming time, with familiarity and name agreement also showing a significant effect. The effect of word frequency was, however, not significant. Possible reasons for this are discussed.     

Effect of the similarity between target and global and local levels in hierarchical stimuli processing

The hypothesis of global precedence was investigated by manipulating the similarity between target and relevant level, and between target and global and local levels of hierarchical stimuli, both in divided and selective attention conditions. The similarity was measured on the basis of the amount of shared contour between two visual forms. The stimuli were circles, right-facing semicircles, i.e., 1/2 of the circumference missing, and right-facing partial circles with a 1/4 of the circumference missing. The circle was used as a target and, consequently, the similarity between target and semicircle and between it and the partial circle was 50% and 75%, respectively. In the divided attention condition, the results showed a local advantage in the two similarity conditions between target and distractor level (50% and 75%) and a bidirectional and symmetrical interference at both levels of similarity. However, in the 'selective attention condition', a local reaction time advantage was only found when the similarity between target and irrelevant level was of 50%. When attention was directed towards the global level, local interference increased depending on the decrease in the degree of the local level similarity. When the attention was directed towards the local level, there was global interference but it was independent of the degree of the global level similarity. These results show the importance of the physical shape of the local elements used in experiments with hierarchical stimuli, since they may determine the relative speed of global processing, facilitating or impairing it.