Need to train your rat? There is an App for that: A touchscreen behavioral evaluation system

The increasing demand for highly automated and flexible tasks capable of assessing visual learning and memory in nonhuman animals has led to the exciting development of a wide array of prefabricated touchscreen-equipped systems. However, the high cost of these prefabricated systems has led many researchers to develop or modify their own preexisting equipment. We developed a freely downloadable App, the Touchscreeen Behavioral Evaluation System (TBES) for use in conjunction with an iPad (Apple, Cupertino, California) as an alternative to prefabricated touchscreen systems. TBES allows for stimulus presentation and data collection on an iPad. The touchscreen technology offered by the iPad is attractive to researchers due to its affordability, reliability, and resistance to false inputs. We highlight these, as well as the feasibility and procedural flexibility of TBES, in an effort to promote our system as a competitive alternative to those currently available.     

Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning in combat veterans with and without post-traumatic stress disorder

Several recent studies have investigated relationships between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and learning and memory problems. These reports have found in general that not only does PTSD affect trauma-related memories, but when patients with PTSD are compared with similar trauma patients without PTSD, general memory impairments have been found. The present paper reports a study in which associative learning, using Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning, was investigated in combat veterans with and without chronic PTSD, using interstimulus intervals of 500 and 1000 msec in two separate experiments. Although several recent reports suggest that larger-magnitude autonomic conditioned responses occur in patients with PTSD during Pavlovian conditoning, the present study found evidence of impaired Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning in combat veterans with and without PTSD, compared to non-combat veterans. Although these data suggest that combat leads to an impaired associative learning process regardless of whether PTSD is apparent, a group of community-dwelling combat veterans not under medical treatment showed normal conditioning, suggesting that variables other than prior combat must also be involved.     

Determining informative priors for cognitive models

The development of cognitive models involves the creative scientific formalization of assumptions, based on theory, observation, and other relevant information. In the Bayesian approach to implementing, testing, and using cognitive models, assumptions can influence both the likelihood function of the model, usually corresponding to assumptions about psychological processes, and the prior distribution over model parameters, usually corresponding to assumptions about the psychological variables that influence those processes. The specification of the prior is unique to the Bayesian context, but often raises concerns that lead to the use of vague or non-informative priors in cognitive modeling. Sometimes the concerns stem from philosophical objections, but more often practical difficulties with how priors should be determined are the stumbling block. We survey several sources of information that can help to specify priors for cognitive models, discuss some of the methods by which this information can be formalized in a prior distribution, and identify a number of benefits of including informative priors in cognitive modeling. Our discussion is based on three illustrative cognitive models, involving memory retention, categorization, and decision making.     

Leveling up the analysis of the reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory: A new approach based on multilevel multinomial models

In many studies of autobiographical memory, participants are asked to generate more than one autobiographical memory. The resulting data then have a hierarchical or multilevel structure, in the sense that the autobiographical memories (Level 1) generated by the same person (Level 2) tend to be more similar. Transferred to an analysis of the reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory, at Level 1 the prediction of whether an autobiographical memory will fall within the reminiscence bump is based on the characteristics of that memory. At Level 2, the prediction of whether an individual will report more autobiographical memories that fall in the reminiscence bump is based on the characteristics of the individual. We suggest a multilevel multinomial model that allows for analyzing whether an autobiographical memory falls in the reminiscence bump at both levels of analysis simultaneously. The data come from 100 older participants who reported up to 33 autobiographical memories. Our results showed that about 12% of the total variance was between persons (Level 2). Moreover, at Level 1, memories of first-time experiences were more likely to fall in the reminiscence bump than were emotionally more positive memories. At Level 2, persons who reported more emotionally positive memories tended to report fewer memories from the life period after the reminiscence bump. In addition, cross-level interactions showed that the effects at Level 1 partly depended on the Level 2 effects. We discuss possible extensions of the model we present and the meaning of our findings for two prominent explanatory approaches to the reminiscence bump, as well as future directions.     

Five-item Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity: construct and nomological validity and internal consistency among Colombian college students

The Spanish version of the five-item Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity is a refinement of the short version of the Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity. The scale is a good measurement for intrinsic religiosity. It has been applied previously among Colombian adolescent students. The internal consistency and construct and nomological validity were tested among a sample of 1349 Colombian college students from Santa Marta, Colombia. Participants were aged between 18- and 30-years-old; 51% were men; and 68% were social science students. Exploratory analysis factor, Cronbach alpha and omega McDonald were computed. The scale showed high internal consistency (both alpha and omega = .96) and excellent construct and nomological validity (one factor which explained for 88% of variance; women scored higher than men; and Protestants scored higher than Catholics and students with other religion filiations). The five-item Francis scale can be used further researches in Hispano-America among college students.