Fear Develops to the Conditioned Stimulus and to the Context during Classical Eyeblink Conditioning in Rats

In classical eyeblink conditioning, non-specific emotional responses to the aversive shock unconditioned stimulus (US), which are presumed to coincide with the development of fear, occur early in conditioning and precede the emergence of eyeblink responses. This two-process learning model was examined by concurrently measuring fear and eyeblink conditioning in the freely moving rat. Freezing served as an index of fear in animals and was measured during the inter-trial intervals in the training context and during a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) presented in a novel context. Animals that received CS-US pairings exhibited elevated levels of fear to the context and CS early in training that decreased over sessions, while eyeblink conditioned responses (CRs) developed gradually during acquisition and decreased during extinction. Random CS-US presentations produced a similar pattern of fear responses to the context and CS as paired presentations despite low eyeblink CR percentages, indicating that fear responding was decreased independent of high levels of learned eyeblink responding. The results of paired training were consistent with two-process models of conditioning that postulate that early emotional responding facilitates subsequent motor learning, but measures from random control animals demonstrate that partial CS-US contingencies produce decrements in fear despite low levels of eyeblink CRs. These findings suggest a relationship between CS-US contingency and fear levels during eyeblink conditioning, and may serve to clarify further the role that fear conditioning plays in this simple paradigm.     

Just the facts or just for fun? Children's understanding of and sensitivity to retelling contexts

Adults appear to recognize that different memory sharing contexts, such as telling a story to a friend at a party versus providing eyewitness testimony, vary in their accuracy demands and adjust their retellings accordingly. There is less evidence that children are able to make the same distinctions. In the present two‐part experiment, we first tested 6–8‐year‐old children's beliefs about the accuracy requirements of different memory sharing contexts that varied on the listener's implicit expectation about accuracy. Children were then read a short story and were given retelling instructions that emphasized accuracy or entertainment. Results from the first task indicated that children evidence a significant truth bias, suggesting that they believe accurate retellings are preferred regardless of context. Despite this, children did appear to adjust their retellings as a function of context, with retellings in the high accuracy condition including more verbatim and less error statements. Finally, children who evidenced a stronger truth bias were less likely to employ the language of storytelling by producing lower‐quality narratives. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Peer Observed Interaction and Structured Evaluation (POISE): A Canadian Experience with Peer Supervision for Genetic Counselors

Peer observation, while often used in other professions, has not been formally applied in genetic counseling. The objective of this study was to pilot a method of peer evaluation whereby genetic counselors observed, and were observed by, each other during patient interaction. All of the available genetic counselors participated in both rounds of the pilot study (six in round one, seven in round two). The genetic counselors that observed the session used an observation room. Most participants reported learning a new skill. Sensitivity to, and comfort with, the feedback process improved. We conclude that Peer-Observed Interaction and Structured Evaluation (POISE) provides an opportunity to refresh counseling approaches and develop feedback skills without causing undue team discord. This new approach to peer supervision in genetic counselling offers a live observation approach for genetic counsellor supervision.     

The tooth,the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth: how belief in the Tooth Fairy can engender false memories

To examine how children's fantasy beliefs can affect memory for their experiences, 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds with differing levels of belief in the reality of the Tooth Fairy were prompted to recall their most recent primary tooth loss in either a truthful or fun manner. Many of the children who fully believed in the existence of the Tooth Fairy reported supernatural experiences consistent with the myth under both sets of recall instructions, whereas those who realized the fictionality of the myth recalled mainly realistic experiences. However, those children with equivocal beliefs evidenced a different pattern under each set of instructions, recalling mainly realistic experiences when asked to be truthful and reporting many fantastical experiences when prompted to relate the tooth loss in a fun manner. These findings suggest that children's beliefs in the reality of fantastic phenomena can give rise to genuine constructive memory errors in line with their fantasies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resurgence Following Higher or Lower Quality Alternative Reinforcement

Resurgence is a temporary increase in a previously suppressed target behavior following a worsening in reinforcement conditions. Previous studies have examined how higher rates or magnitudes of alternative reinforcement affect suppression of the target behavior and subsequent resurgence. However, there has been no investigation of the effects of higher versus lower qualities of alternative reinforcement on resurgence. Using a three-phase resurgence preparation with rats, the present experiments examined the effects of an alternative reinforcer that was of higher (Experiment 1) or lower (Experiment 2) quality than the reinforcer that had previously maintained the target behavior. The results of both experiments showed greater reductions in target behavior with a higher quality alternative reinforcer and larger increases in target responding when a higher quality alternative reinforcer was removed. Along with prior findings with higher rates and magnitudes of alternative reinforcement, these findings suggest that variations in reinforcer dimensions that increase the efficacy of alternative reinforcement also tend to increase resurgence when alternative reinforcement is removed. The results are discussed in terms of the resurgence as choice in context model and in terms of potential clinical implications.     

Generalization of learning from picture books to novel test conditions by 18- and 24-month-old children

Researchers know little about whether very young children can recognize objects originally introduced to them in a picture book when they encounter similar looking objects in various real-world contexts. The present studies used an imitation procedure to explore young children's ability to generalize a novel action sequence from a picture book to novel test conditions. The authors found that 18-month-olds imitated the action sequence from a book only when the conditions at testing matched those at encoding; altering the test stimuli or context disrupted imitation (Experiment 1A). In contrast, the 24-month-olds imitated the action sequence with changes to both the test context and stimuli (Experiment 1B). Moreover, although the 24-month-olds exhibited deferred imitation with no changes to the test conditions, they did not defer imitation with changes to the context and stimuli (Experiment 2). Two factors may account for the pattern of results: age-related changes in children's ability to utilize novel retrieval cues as well as their emerging ability to understand the representational nature of pictures.     

Comparison of Single Unit Responses to Tone, Light, and Compound Conditioned Stimuli during Rabbit Classical Eyeblink Conditioning

Unit recordings and lesion studies have implicated the cerebellum as an essential site for the acquisition and maintenance of the conditioned eyeblink response. The current study looked at the neural characteristics of conditioned stimulus (CS) processing in the interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum after training New Zealand white rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in one of two conditioning paradigms: (a) compound conditioning (CMP), a compound CS consisting of light and tone paired with an air puff unconditioned stimulus (US); or (b) stimulus compounding (ALT), alternating blocks of tone CS and light CS trials paired with the air puff US. Single unit responses were recorded during five sessions after the animals had reached an asymptotic level of responding. Animals were tested for behavioral and neural responses to CS alone trials that included tone alone, light alone, and compound tone-light trials. For the CMP group, the compound CS elicited 80 to 90% conditioned eyeblink responses (CRs), whereas the individual tone and light CSs elicited only 40 to 50% CRs. For the ALT group, all three CSs (tone, light, and compound) elicited very high levels of responding of at least 80% CRs. For the CMP group, there were roughly equal numbers of cells responding to all of the CSs. This includes cells that responded exclusively to one, and only one, of the three stimuli and also those cells that responded to combinations of two or more. Cells from the ALT group were far more likely to respond exclusively to only one of the CSs. Both the behavioral and physiological results suggest that the compound tone-light stimulus was processed as a distinct stimulus, separate from the component tone and light. These results are discussed in the context of multisensory processing.     

Medical students' and residents' gender bias in the diagnosis, treatment, and interpretation of coronary heart disease symptoms.

Two competing hypotheses explaining gender bias in cardiac care were tested. The first posits that women's coronary heart disease (CHD) symptoms are simply misinterpreted or discounted. The second posits that women's CHD symptoms are misinterpreted when presented in the context of stress. In two studies, medical students and residents randomized to 2 (male vs. female) x 2 (stress vs. nostress) experiments read vignettes of patients with CHD symptoms and indicated their diagnosis, treatment, and symptom origin interpretation. Both studies disconfirmed the first hypothesis and strongly supported the second. Only when stress was added did women receive significantly lower CHD diagnoses and cardiologist referrals than men and did the origin interpretation of women's CHD symptoms (e.g., chest pain) shift from organic to psychogenic. Neither participants' gender nor their attitude toward women influenced assessments.     

Gun attitudes on campus: United and divided by safety needs

All people share a need for safety. Yet people’s pursuit of safety can conflict when it comes to guns, with some people perceiving guns as a means to safety and others perceiving guns as a threat to safety. We examined this conflict on a U.S. college campus that prohibits guns. We distinguished between people (N = 11,390) who (1) own a gun for protection, (2) own a gun exclusively for reasons other than protection (e.g., collecting, sports), and (3) do not own a gun. Protection owners felt less safe on campus and supported allowing guns on campus. They also reported that they and others would feel safer and that gun violence would decrease if they carried a gun on campus. Non-owners and non-protection owners felt the reverse. The findings suggest that protection concerns, rather than gun-ownership per se, account for diverging perceptions and attitudes about guns and gun control.