Memories of reward and nonreward regulate the extinction and reacquisition of both excitatory and inhibitory associations

The memories of the unconditioned stimulus (US) and its absence (No US), symbolized as S^R and S^N, respectively, may be retrieved on US or No US trials giving rise to four types of associations, S^R → US, S^R → No US, S^N → US, and S^N → No US. Here, following acquisition under partial reward (PRF), rats were shifted either to different schedules of PRF (Experiment 1) or extinction (Experiments 1 and 2). Inhibitory S^R → No US associations formed in acquisition survived extinction and shifts to one, but not another type of PRF schedule (Experiments 1 and 2). Excitatory S^R → US associations also survived extinction (Experiment 2). These findings, as well as the acquisition findings of Experiment 2, are consistent with the sequential model but not with the only other two theories said to be able to explain PRF findings, the frustration hypothesis of Amsel and the attention hypothesis of Mackintosh [see Haselgrove, M., Aydin, A., & Pearce, J. M. (2004). A partial reinforcement extinction effect despite equal rates of reinforcement during Pavlovian conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 30, 240–250]. Also, the reacquisition findings obtained here are inconsistent with two views applied to several learning phenomena, the rule-learning view and the position-item view.     

State and Trait Anger Predicting Creative Process Engagement—The Role of Emotion Regulation

Drawing on the specific emotion approach, and based on the emotional regulation theory and cognitive and activation perspectives on emotions, this study examined the differentiated impact of state and trait anger on creative process engagement (CPE) and the moderating influences of emotion reappraisal and suppression. Data were obtained from daily surveys (N = 422) of 98 employees from three consultancy companies. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis revealed that trait anger has a stronger impact on CPE than state anger does. Furthermore, the relationship between state anger and CPE is stronger when emotion reappraisal is lower, rather than higher, and the relationship between trait anger and CPE is also stronger when emotion suppression is lower, rather than higher.     

Spontaneous head positions in infants during the first 9 postnatal months

The developmental organization of spontaneous head positioning over the first 9 postnatal months of life was investigated in a study of 35 infants. Head positions assumed by infants while at rest were recorded at 11 observation period: at 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks of age, and every 4 weeks thereafter until the infant was 36 weeks old. Results indicated an overall tendency toward a head-right position, which was strongest during the neonatal period, but declined with age. The head-right position bias was qualified by familial handedness.     

Witnessing postevents does not change memory traces,but can affect their retrieval

The results of three experiments suggest that a memory trace for an event is not altered by witnessing similar events, but that postevents can interfere with its retrieval. On an immediate recall test, details from an original story (e.g. wrench) were recalled less often if a subsequent story mentioned a ‘screwdriver’ than if it did not. The interference effect occurred if people were asked to recall details fromboth stories (tool —— ——), but not if people were asked to recall primarily from the first story. Thus, the interference effect in immediate recall was averted if the target trace could be activated selectively (Experiments 1a and 1b). A more general interference effect was found after a day. Fewer targets from the original story were recalled if the second story was presented just before the test than if both stories occurred a day earlier. Thus, the second story interfered with recall only if it emphasized contextual retrieval cues that did not match the trace for the targets (Experiment 2). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mechanical knowledge does matter to tool use even when assessed with a non-production task: Evidence from left brain-damaged patients

In the literature on apraxia of tool use, it is now accepted that using familiar tools requires semantic and mechanical knowledge. However, mechanical knowledge is nearly always assessed with production tasks, so one may assume that mechanical knowledge and familiar tool use are associated only because of their common motor mechanisms. This notion may be challenged by demonstrating that familiar tool use depends on an alternative tool selection task assessing mechanical knowledge, where alternative uses of tools are assumed according to their physical properties but where actual use of tools is not needed. We tested 21 left brain-damaged patients and 21 matched controls with familiar tool use tasks (pantomime and single tool use), semantic tasks and an alternative tool selection task. The alternative tool selection task accounted for a large amount of variance in the single tool use task and was the best predictor among all the semantic tasks. Concerning the pantomime of tool use task, group and individual results suggested that the integrity of the semantic system and preserved mechanical knowledge are neither necessary nor sufficient to produce pantomimes. These results corroborate the idea that mechanical knowledge is essential when we use tools, even when tasks assessing mechanical knowledge do not require the production of any motor action. Our results also confirm the value of pantomime of tool use, which can be considered as a complex activity involving several cognitive abilities (e.g., communicative skills) rather than the activation of gesture engrams.     

Social Aggression on Television and Its Relationship to Children's Aggression in the Classroom

A survey was conducted with over 500 children in grades K‐5 to examine whether exposure to socially aggressive content was related to children's use of social aggression. The results of the survey revealed a significant relationship between exposure to televised social aggression and increased social aggression at school, but only for girls and not for boys. Although this relationship was dependent on the sex of the child, the study is the first to provide evidence that viewing social aggression on television is related to an increased tendency for elementary school children to perpetrate such behaviors in the classroom. The findings are discussed in terms of social cognitive theory and information processing theory.     

Quality of Life and Adjustment in Youths with Asthma: The Contributions of Family Rituals and the Family Environment

This cross‐sectional study explored the relationships among family ritual meaning, cohesion, conflict, and health‐related quality of life (both specific to chronic health conditions and in general), and the emotional and behavioral problems reported by youths with asthma. Participants included 149 Portuguese children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 who had been diagnosed with asthma and attended outpatient services at three public hospitals. The results showed that stronger family ritual meaning predicted a more positive family environment (i.e., higher cohesion levels and lower conflict levels), better health‐related quality of life, and fewer emotional and behavior problems in youths. Furthermore, family cohesion and conflict mediated the links between family ritual meaning and health‐related quality of life, and emotional and behavioral problems. These results did not change after controlling for participant age, gender, and asthma severity. The findings of this study suggest that family ritual meaning contributes to the adaptation of youths with asthma via its positive association with the family environment. The implications for multicontextual interventions with families are briefly discussed with regard to the positive role of family rituals and of their potential as a modifiable factor in families with increased health challenges.     

The relationship between the youth psychopathic traits inventory and psychopathology in a U.S. community sample of male youth

The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) is a self-report measure of juvenile psychopathic traits. Validity data for this measure are limited, especially for nonreferred samples. This report investigated the concurrent validity of the YPI by assessing 171 nonreferred male youth (M age = 12.96 years) with a battery of self-, parent-, and peer-report measures including the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD), and a peer-sociometric measure of aggression. Results confirmed the expected correlations between the YPI and measures of proactive aggression, other externalizing and internalizing behavior, and parent-report psychopathic-like traits. In addition, cluster analyses of YPI scores revealed 2 groups of youth (low vs. high) who scored differently on measures of externalizing behavior. This study supports the utility of the YPI as a research tool for assessing juvenile psychopathic traits.     

MULTIPLE‐RESPONDENT ANECDOTAL ASSESSMENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERRATER AGREEMENT AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH ANALOGUE ASSESSMENT OUTCOMES

We evaluated interrater agreement across multiple respondents on anecdotal assessments and compared cases in which agreement was obtained with outcomes of functional analyses. Experiment 1 evaluated agreement among multiple respondents on the function of problem behavior for 27 individuals across 42 target behaviors using the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) and the Questions about Behavioral Function (QABF). Results showed that at least 4 of 5 respondents agreed on the primary maintaining consequence for 52% (22 of 42) of target behaviors with the MAS and 57% (24 of 42) with the QABF. Experiment 2 examined correspondence between the anecdotal assessment results and functional analysis results for 7 individuals for whom at least 4 of 5 respondents showed agreement in Experiment 1. Correspondence with functional analysis results was observed in 6 of 7 cases with the QABF and in 4 of 7 cases with the MAS. Implications of these outcomes for the utility of anecdotal assessments are discussed.