Effects of a flavor-placement reversal test after different modalities of taste aversion learning

Taste aversion learning is induced through two different behavioral procedures: a short-term or concurrent (two-daily flavors) and a long-term or sequential (one-daily flavor) procedure. For the concurrent group of animals, two gustatory/olfactory stimuli are presented separately but at the same time on a daily basis. One is paired with simultaneous intragastric administration of hypertonic NaCl and the other with physiological saline. For the sequential group, the two stimuli are presented on alternate days, one of them followed by intragastric injection of the aversive stimulus and the other by saline, both after a delay of 15 min. The two groups learned the task, but when they were subjected to a flavor-placement reversal test only the sequential group was successful in achieving it. In a second experiment, three groups of animals had to learn concurrent or sequential discrimination tasks (with either simultaneous or delayed administration of the visceral stimulus) using only spatial/proprioceptive cues. The data show that none of the groups learned them under these conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the different modalities of learning. Short-term and long-term taste aversion learning are different in the anatomical structures involved, the number of trials required for acquisition and, as shown in this paper, flexibility.     

Exemplary efforts in psychology to recruit and retain graduate students of color

Many psychology departments are striving for a greater representation of students of color within their graduate preparation programs with the aim of producing a more diverse pool of psychological service providers, scientists, and educators. To help improve the minority pipeline in psychology, the authors identify and describe recruitment and retention strategies used at 11 departments and programs considered to be making exemplary efforts to attract and retain minority students of color. The strategies most consistently used included engaging current minority faculty and students in recruitment activities, offering attractive financial aid packages, having faculty members make personal contacts with prospective students, creating linkages with historical institutions of color, having (or approached having) a critical mass of faculty and students of color, offering a diversity issues course, and engaging students in diversity issues research. Despite the similarities, the programs and departments were each distinctive and innovative in their overall approaches to student recruitment and retention. Highlighting the strategies used at successful institutions may help others develop plans for improving the minority pipeline within their own departments and programs.     

Response to commentary on the multimodal treatment study of ADHD (MTA): mining the meaning of the MTA

In the December 2000 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, we published a set of papers presenting secondary analyses of the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA), and R. A. Barkley (2000) provided a commentary. A critique of the design of the study (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999) was presented based on a theoretical perspective of a behavioral inhibition deficit that has been hypothesized as the core deficit of ADHD (R. A. Barkley, 1997). The commentary questioned the design and analysis of the MTA in terms of (1) the empirical criteria for selection of components of behavioral (Beh) intervention, (2) the effectiveness of the Beh intervention, (3) the methods for analyses at the group and individual level, (4) implications of the MTA findings for clinical practice, (5) the role of genetics in response to treatment, and (6) the lack of a nontreatment control group. In this response, we relate the content of the papers to the commentary, (1) by reviewing the selection criteria for the Beh treatment, as outlined by K. C. Wells, W. E. Pelham, et al. (2000), (2) by addressing the myth that the MTA Beh treatment was ineffective (Pelham, 1999), (3) by describing the use of analyses at the level of the individual participant, as presented by J. S. March et al. (2000) and W. E. Pelham et al. (2000) as well as elsewhere by J. M. Swanson et al. (2001) and C. K. Conners et al. (2001), (4) by relating some of the suggestions from the secondary analyses about clinically relevant factors such as comorbidity (as presented by J. S. March et al., 2000) and family and parental characteristics (as presented by B. Hoza et al., 2000, S. P. Hinshaw et al., 2000, and K. C. Wells, J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), (5) by discussing the statistical concept of heritability and the lack of a significant difference in the presence of ADHD symptoms in parents of the MTA families compared to parents in the classmate-control families (as presented by J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), and (6) by acknowledging that an ethically necessary weakness of the MTA design is that it did not include a no-treatment control group. We discuss the use of secondary analyses to suggest how, when, and for what subgroups effectiveness of the Beh treatment may have been manifested. Finally, we invite others to use the large and rich data set that will soon be available in the public domain, to perform secondary analyses to mine the meaning of the MTA and to evaluate theories of ADHD and response to treatments.     

Acute alcohol intoxication paired with aversive reinforcement: ethanol odor as a conditioned reinforcer in rat pups

Previous research has suggested that infant rats process ethanol sensory properties during acute alcohol intoxication. The present study was designed in order to examine if alcohol odor could act as an aversive conditioned stimulus after the organism experiences the state of intoxication paired with nociceptive stimulation (footshock). In a first experiment 11-day-old pups received intragastric alcohol administration (1.5 g/kg). At different postabsorptive intervals footshock was presented (0-30, 30-60, 60-90, or 90-120 min). An explicitly unpaired control group which experienced footshock prior to the state of intoxication was also employed. All animals were subsequently tested in terms of alcohol intake and ethanol locational odor preferences. Both assessments indicated that pups which were exposed to the unconditioned peripheral stimulus 30-60 min after receiving ethanol expressed strong alcohol aversions. In a second experiment pups were exposed to footshock during this postabsorptive interval. Twenty four hours later, pups experienced ambient ethanol odor paired with soft or rough texture surfaces. Differential texture aversions were registered in experimental animals when compared with controls which suffered the state of intoxication explicitly unpaired with footshock, or unpaired presentations of ethanol odor and the tactile stimuli under consideration. These results appear to support the hypothesis concerning orosensory processing during an acute state of intoxication. Additionally it seems that the hedonic value of sensory attributes of this drug varies as a function of associative processes occurring during such a state.     

Interactions between perinatal and neonatal associative learning defined by contiguous olfactory and tactile stimulation

Tactile stimulation of the neonate, as performed by the mother during and after delivery, has been described as an effective unconditioned stimulus during early ontogeny (Leon, 1987; Ronca & Alberts, 1994). The present experiments examined the interaction between perinatal and neonatal learning determined by the explicit association between alcohol odor and vigorous body stimulation of the perinatal organism. In Experiment 1, rat fetuses were exposed to either alcohol or saline 10 min prior to cesarean delivery. The alcohol administration procedure here employed was sufficient to provide sensory contamination of the amniotic fluid but avoid fetal alcohol intoxication. Pups in the two prenatal treatments later experienced the smell of alcohol, tactile stimulation, or both stimuli explicitly paired or unpaired. Other postnatal groups were composed of pups that had no explicit experience with either experimental stimulus. Pups subjected to alcohol odor in utero displayed more overall motor activity in response to that odor than saline controls. The increased motor responses were further potentiated in pups that experienced additional postnatal alcohol odor paired with tactile stimulation. In Experiment 2, pups were exposed to alcohol in the amniotic fluid 10 or 30 min prior to birth. As previously demonstrated the memory acquired in utero appears highly dependent upon contingency between exposure to this particular scent and delivery procedures. Pups in both prenatal treatment groups were then exposed to alcohol odor paired or unpaired with tactile stimulation. Some control animals received no further experience with either stimuli. Those pups exposed to alcohol odor paired with tactile stimulation both pre- and postnatally later showed maximum motor activity elicited by the odor of alcohol. The results support the notion of fetal associative learning comprising alcohol's chemosensory cues and behaviorally activating stimuli. Furthermore, the conditioned response under analysis is potentiated whenever neonates are reexposed to contingent presentations of the elements that defined the original associative memory.     

Early (preweanling) recognition of alcohol's orosensory cues resulting from acute ethanol intoxication

Three experiments were conducted in order to analyze the possibility that during acute alcohol intoxication, preweanling rats process ethanol's orosensory cues. Intragastric administration of an ethanol dose equivalent to 3.0 g/kg resulted in peak blood alcohol levels greater than 250 mg% (Experiment 1). Twenty-four hours after receiving this dose, 11-day-old pups expressed an ethanol odor aversion in a locational test. This aversion response was not observed when pups were previously administered an ethanol dose resulting in blood alcohol levels lower than 150 mg% (Experiment 2). Nevertheless when subjects received such a lower dose and 30 to 60 min after administration suffered nociceptive stimulation, alcohol aversions were also detected in terms of alcohol ingestion patterns and ethanol odor aversions (Experiment 3). These results appear to indicate that orosensory ethanol processing takes place during acute ethanol intoxication probably due to ethanol elimination via respiration, salivation, and/or hematogenic olfaction processes.     

Maternal Parenting and Toddler Temperament: Predictors of Early School Age Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Related Behaviors

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Detection of early risk for developing childhood attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) symptoms, inattention and hyperactivity, may be...     

Self‐Efficacy Among Adults in Substance Abuse Treatment: The Role of Religious Coping

In substance abuse treatment, general self‐efficacy and religiousness are factors that may support positive outcomes. The authors surveyed clients receiving substance abuse treatment (N = 121) and found that religious coping predicted general self‐efficacy scores. Clinical implications are discussed.