Manipulation of response-contingent unconditioned-stimulus intensity in human eyelid conditioning: A two-phase model analysis

Four groups of human subjects were given 360 classical eyeblink conditioning trials. All groups received the same UCS (unconditioned stimulus) intensity on[Formula: see text] (nonconditioned response) trials but differed in the intensity presented on CR trials. Response probability increased as a positive function of UCS intensity on CR trials. Phase 1 of the two-phase model was longer when no UCS was presented on CR trials, but did not differ in duration among the remaining three groups. Most subjects could be described with a single operator in Phase 2, the operator limit increasing as a positive function of CR-contingent UCS intensity. For subjects requiring different operator limits on CR and[Formula: see text] trials, the latter was lower with high CR-trial intensities but higher with low CR-trialintensities. The results were interpreted to be more consistent with drive theory than with "law-of-effect" or two-factor theories.     

Defensive burying, nest relocation, and pup transport in lactating female rats

A wire-wrapped wooden dowel was inserted through the wall of the nest compartment of a two-compartment box. There were four conditions. Some lactating female rats were shocked by the dowel when they first touched it, and some were not, after which the dowel was either immediately withdrawn from the chamber or left in place for the duration of the ensuing 30-min test period. Three defensive behaviours were observed during the tests: the mothers buried the shock source with bedding from the floor of the chamber, they transported their pups to the adjoining “safe” chamber, and they built a new nest in the safe chamber from material salvaged from their original nest. The shocked mothers that were confronted with the shock source throughout the test period displayed significantly more of each of these three defensive behaviours than did the mothers in the other three conditions. The methods used in this study provide a simple, reliable, safe paradigm for studying maternal defensive behaviour; the results indicate that the defensive capacities of the rat extend far beyond stereotypical flight, freeze, and fight responses, which have been the focus of most research on rodent defense.     

Mood-congruent biases in facial emotion perception and their gender dependence

Due to mood-congruency effects, we expect the emotion perceived on a face to be biased towards one's own mood. But the findings in the scant literature on such mood effects in normal healthy populations have not consistently and adequately supported this expectation. Employing effective mood manipulation techniques that ensured that the intended mood was sustained throughout the perception task, we explored mood-congruent intensity and recognition accuracy biases in emotion perception. Using realistic face stimuli with expressive cues of happiness and sadness, we demonstrated that happy, neutral and ambiguous expressions were perceived more positively in the positive than in the negative mood. The mood-congruency effect decreased with the degree of perceived negativity in the expression. Also, males were more affected by the mood-congruency effect in intensity perception than females. We suggest that the greater salience and better processing of negative stimuli and the superior cognitive ability of females in emotion perception are responsible for these observations. We found no evidence for mood-congruency effect in the recognition accuracy of emotions and suggest with supporting evidence that past reports of this effect may be attributed to response bias driven by mood.     

Understanding the Progression from Early Alcohol Use Experimentation to Alcohol Use Disorder: Testing Vulnerability by Experience Interactions Using a Two-Part Latent Growth Curve Model

Most adolescents experiment with alcohol, but a smaller percentage advance to heavy alcohol use (AU) and AU disorder (AUD). Understanding for whom and how early risk leads to AUD is of interest to prevention, treatment, and etiology of AUD. Informed by developmental and behavioral neuroscience theory, the current study tested whether temperament (effortful control, surgency, and negative affect), peer AU (multi-reporter), and AU with parents’ permission interacted to distinguish youth who experiment with alcohol from those who escalate to AUD. Community adolescents (N?=?765, 53% female) were assessed annually for seven years (M_age?=?11.8, range: 10–13 at Year 1; M_age?=?18.7; range?=?17–20 at year 7). Temperament by early experience interactions were expected to predict amount of AU. Amount of AU was expected to mediate the relationship between the interactions and AUD symptoms (assessed at Years 3 and 7, M_age?=?13.8 and 18.7) above and beyond a range of confounds (e.g., problem behavior and parental AU and AUD). Supporting hypotheses, effortful control and surgency interacted with AU with parents’ permission and peer AU, respectively, to predict higher amount of AU (R²?=?0.47) and AUD symptoms (R²?=?0.03). Results support developmental and behavioral neuroscience theory. High surgency and low effortful control in conjunction with peer AU and AU with parents’ permission were associated with large effects on AU and moderate mediated effects through AU to AUD. AU with parents’ permission was risky at low and high effortful control and protective when peers used alcohol.

     

Valuing the Spiritual

Journal of Religion and Health - Identifying reforms that minimize US healthcare costs is imperative. This commentary explores one intervention with potential cost-saving implications that has...     

To Be or Not: A Brief History of the Health Humanities Consortium

The Health Humanities Consortium (HHC) was established in 2015 to “promote health humanities scholarship, education, and practice through transdisciplinary methods and theories that focus on the intersection of the arts and humanities, health, illness, and healthcare.” As the founding co-chairs of the HHC, we provide a history of the founding of this organization in this article, describing the journey of its creation, the choices and challenges it faced as a new organization, and our hopes for a rich future.

     

Development and Implementation of a Transdiagnostic,Stepped-Care Approach to Treating Emotional Disorders in Children via Telehealth

Stepped-care interventions may increase the accessibility of evidence-based treatments but remain relatively underexplored in the child mental health literature. Further, while the feasibility and efficacy of stepped-care interventions have been examined for specific diagnoses or classes or disorders, transdiagnostic stepped-care interventions have not yet been developed. We discuss the development and initial implementation of a transdiagnostic approach to emotional disorders using the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children (UP-C; Ehrenreich-May et al., 2018). A case series is presented to illustrate the delivery of UP-C stepped care (UPC-SC) via telehealth, using a collaborative decision-making process to inform step-up/step-down decisions. Lessons learned are discussed to guide refinements of UPC-SC and inform a larger trial.     

Correction to: Classroom goal structures and communication style: the role of teacher immediacy and relevance-making in students’ perceptions of the classroom”

Social Psychology of Education - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09628-9     

Aggression-consistent, -inconsistent,and -irrelevant priming effects on selective exposure to media violence

Priming with aggressive concepts increases males' attraction to media violence. It was hypothesized that priming with schema-irrelevant concepts would decrease interest relative to the effects of schema-relevant concepts, whether or not the schema-relevant concepts were also schema-consistent. Thirty male undergraduates used lists including aggressive (schema-consistent and schema-relevant), positive or prosocial (schema-inconsistent yet relevant), or entirely neutral (schema-irrelevant) words to write short stories (priming task), then received an opportunity to select videotaped film clips for viewing. Subjects primed by aggressive word lists included more aggression, anger, fear, and violence in their stories than did those in the aggression-inconsistent and aggression-irrelevant conditions, whereas aggression-inconsistent priming yielded more fun, helping, and joy than did other conditions. Aggressively primed subjects expressed more interest in films containing violence and hostility than did neutrally primed subjects, whereas aggression-inconsistent priming did not differ significantly from either aggressive (schema-consistent) or neutral (schema-irrelevant) priming. Findings indicate that the aggressive priming activates aggressive concepts that make violence and hostility more salient to individuals. Because male undergraduates typically express interest in violence, enhanced salience leads to increased interest. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.