Pavlovian influences on goal-directed behavior in mice: the role of cue-reinforcer relations

Two experiments refined procedures to study Pavlovian influences on goal-directed behavior in mice and studied the effects of CS-US relations in Pavlovian-instrumental interactions. Independent groups of mice underwent Pavlovian training to associate either a 10-sec or 2-min auditory stimulus (CS) with reward. We next assessed the ability of the response-contingent CS presentations to reinforce novel instrumental responding (conditioned reinforcement; CRf) or the ability of noncontingent CS presentations to increase ongoing instrumental responding (Pavlovian-instrumental transfer; PIT). Whereas 10-sec training conditions produced strong CRf (and no PIT), 2-min training conditions produced robust PIT (but no CRf).     

The Adult Attachment Interview and self-reports of attachment style: an empirical rapprochement

Although 10 studies have been published on the empirical overlap of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and measures of self-reported attachment style, results in this literature have been inconsistently interpreted in narrative reviews. This report was designed as a rapprochement of the AAI and attachment style literatures and includes 3 studies. Study 1 (combined N = 961) is a meta-analytic review showing that by J. Cohen's (1992) criteria (mean r = .09), the association between AAI security and attachment style dimensions is trivial to small. Study 2 (N = 160) confirms meta-analytic results with state-of-the-art assessments of attachment security and also examines attachment dimensions in relation to the Big 5 personality traits. Finally, Study 3 is an investigation of 50 engaged couples that shows that developmental and social psychological measures of attachment security predict somewhat distinct--though theoretically anticipated--aspects of functioning in adult relationships.     

CONSTRUCTING AND DERIVING RECIPROCAL TRIGONOMETRIC RELATIONS: A FUNCTIONAL ANALYTIC APPROACH

Participants were pretrained and tested on mutually entailed trigonometric relations and combinatorially entailed relations as they pertained to positive and negative forms of sine, cosine, secant, and cosecant. Experiment 1 focused on training and testing transformations of these mathematical functions in terms of amplitude and frequency followed by tests of novel relations. Experiment 2 addressed training in accordance with frames of coordination (same as) and frames of opposition (reciprocal of) followed by more tests of novel relations. All assessments of derived and novel formula‐to‐graph relations, including reciprocal functions with diversified amplitude and frequency transformations, indicated that all 4 participants demonstrated substantial improvement in their ability to identify increasingly complex trigonometric formula‐to‐graph relations pertaining to same as and reciprocal of to establish mathematically complex repertoires.     

Culture-fair prediction of academic achievement

A theoretically based, culture-fair test of new learning ability is predictive of academic achievement. A sample of 633 adults, 121 of minority status, drawn from urban private universities, colleges, and community colleges were given information as to the meanings of previously unknown words, sayings, similarities, and analogies. They were also tested for their existing knowledge of vocabulary, opposites, and analogies with a brief version of the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). New learning ability proved to be culture-fair, reliable, and predictive of grades and of the brief version of the SAT.     

Numerical reproduction in pigeons

Pigeons were trained to match the number of responses made during a production phase to the number of keylight flashes (2, 4, or 6) in a previous sample phase. In Experiment 1, there were 2 conditions in which the flashes were programmed to occur at a constant rate or within a constant overall duration. For both conditions, although accuracy was relatively low, responding increased linearly with flash number and coefficients of variation decreased. Positive transfer to novel numbers was obtained only when test and baseline trials had the same temporal organization, but multiple regressions revealed significant control by number independently of temporal cues. In Experiment 2, flashes were programmed to occur pseudorandomly to degrade the validity of temporal cues. Results were similar to in Experiment 1. A prototype response class model accounted for the major features of the data. According to the model, responses during the production phase are shaped into higher order units that are associated with different stimulus numbers and function as a rough category scale of numerosity.     

Persistent symptoms among survivors of Hodgkin's disease: an explanatory model based on classical conditioning.

Persistent symptoms of nausea, distress, and vomiting triggered by reminders of cancer treatment were examined among 273 Hodgkin's disease survivors, 1 to 20 years posttreatment. Prevalence rates were high for distress and nausea but low for vomiting. Retrospective report of anticipatory symptoms during treatment was the strongest predictor of persistent symptoms, suggesting that treatment-induced symptoms are less likely to persist if conditioning does not occur initially. Time since treatment was also a significant predictor, with patients more recently treated more likely to experience persistent symptoms. Thus, an explanatory model based on classical conditioning theory successfully predicted presence of persistent symptoms. Symptoms also were associated with ongoing psychological distress, suggesting that quality of life is diminished among survivors with persistent symptoms. Recommendations for prevention and treatment of symptoms are discussed.     

Apriority and applied mathematics

I argue that we need not accept Quine's holistic conception of mathematics and empirical science. Specifically, I argue that we should reject Quine's holism for two reasons. One, his argument for this position fails to appreciate that the revision of the mathematics employed in scientific theories is often related to an expansion of the possibilities of describing the empirical world, and that this reveals that mathematics serves as a kind of rational framework for empirical theorizing. Two, this holistic conception does not clearly demarcate pure mathematics from applied mathematics. In arguing against Quine, I present a formal account of applied mathematics in which the mathematics employed in an empirical theory plays a role that is analogous to the epistemological role Kant assigned synthetic a priori propositions. According to this account, it is possible to insulate pure mathematics from empirical falsification, and there is a sense in which applied mathematics can also be labeled as a priori.I am especially indebted to Michael Friedman for his valuable suggestions and criticisms of this paper. I would also like to thank Mark Wilson, Anil Gupta, and Arthur Fine for their comments and encouragement.     

People's awareness of their age-related sensory and cognitive deficits and the implications for road safety

Inevitable declines in sensory abilities may put older drivers and pedestrians at risk unless they become aware of these changes and can safeguard themselves by modifying their behaviour. A questionnaire designed to evaluate older people's awareness of their sensory abilities with regard to road use was administered to 80 individuals aged from 50 to 79 years, who were also given eyesight and hearing tests. Despite marked declines in their objective sensory efficiency, people in their 70s did not rate their sensory abilities as poor any more than did people in their 50s. Individuals of any age who did subjectively perceive declines in their sensory abilities also reported that they had made very sensible adjustments in their road-use behaviour, for example, avoiding complex junctions. Those individuals who reported taking such precautions also reported fewer recent accidents. One month after completing the questionnaire, and being given the results of their eyesight and hearing tests, two-thirds of individuals reported that they had made important changes in their behaviour on the roads. Many now avoided or took particular care in dangerous situations, and some had started to wear prescribed spectacles more appropriately. The implications of older people's lack of awareness of changes in their sensory abilities to their safety on the roads, and in general, are discussed. Factors causing the age-related mismatch between actual and subjectively perceived sensory abilities are discussed.     

The Effects of Feature Identity in Operant Serial Feature-Negative Discriminations

The effects of feature identity in an operant serial feature-negative discrimination (F1 T1−, T1+) were examined in two experiments with rats. In Experiment 1, rats were trained with two operant serial feature-negative discriminations in which different operants were reinforced during two auditory target cues (T1 and T2). The features (F1 and F2) were two neutral cues (visual or auditory stimuli), two motivationally significant cues (flavored sucrose solutions, also used as the operant reinforcers), or one neutral and one motivationally significant cue. Experiment 1 showed that discrimination acquisition, transfer performance, and feature–target interval testing were facilitated with a flavored sucrose feature. Experiment 2 showed that flavored sucrose-alone presentations, more than flavored sucrose trained in a pseudodiscrimination (F1 T1+, T1+), shared several similarities with a standard flavored sucrose feature. The results suggest flavored sucrose rapidly acquires inhibitory properties, which facilitates operant serial feature-negative discrimination performance.     

Lack of sex differences with the Baldwin illusion

Responses of college students (16 men and 16 women) to the Baldwin illusion showed a significant effect for size of square but not for sex. Findings are consistent with those reported previously by Porac, Coren, Girgus, and Verde for adults and for the oldest group of children tested by Pressey and Wilson.