Classical Delay Eyeblink Conditioning in in 4- and 5-Month-Old Human Infants

Abstract-Simple delay classical eyeblink conditioning, using a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US), was studied in cross-sectional samples of 4- and 5-month-old healthy, full-term infants. Infants received two identical training sessions, 1 week apart. At both ages, infants experiencing paired tones and air-puffs demonstrated successful conditioning over two sessions, relative to control subjects who had unpaired training. Conditioning was not evident, however, during the first session. Two additional groups of 5-month-olds received varied experiences during Session 1, either unpaired presentations of the CS and US or no stimulus exposure, fol-lowed by paired conditioning during Session 2. Results from these groups suggest that the higher level of conditioning observed following two sessions of paired conditioning was not the result of familiarity with the testing environment or the stimuli involved but, rather, the result of retention of associative learning not expressed during the first conditioning session.     

Television Situation Comedies: Female Body Images and Verbal Reinforcements

A content analysis of 28 different prime-timetelevision situation comedies examined the body weightsof 52 central female characters (88% White, 10% Black,2% Asian), the verbal comments they received from other characters as a function of bodyweight, and their self-comments with respect to theirown body weight, shape and dieting behaviors. Comparedwith the general population, below average central female characters were over-represented insituation comedies; above average weight characters wereunder-represented. Below average weight femalecharacters received significantly more positive verbal comments from male characters with regards tobody weight and shape than their heavier counterparts.Dieting female characters gave themselves significantlymore verbal punishment for their body weight and shape than those less involved in dieting.This combination of modeling the thin ideal and theverbal reinforcement associated with this modelinglikely contributes to the internalization of the thin ideal and may put some young female viewers atrisk for developing eating disorders.     

Developmental changes in associations between auditory-visual events

The goal of the present study was twofold: to examine the influence of two amodal properties, co-location and temporal synchrony, on infants' associating a sight with a sound, and to determine if the relative influence of these properties on crossmodal learning changes with age. During familiarization 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-month-olds were presented two toys and a sound, with sights and sounds varying with respect to co-location and temporal synchrony. Following each familiarization phase infants were given a paired preference test to assess their learning of sight-sound associations. Measures of preferential looking revealed age-related changes in the influence of co-location and temporal synchrony on infants' learning sight-sound associations. At all ages, infants could use temporal synchrony and co-location as a basis for associating an auditory with a visual event and, in the absence of temporal synchrony, co-location was sufficient to support crossmodal learning. However, when these cues conflicted there were developmental changes in the influence of these cues on infants' learning auditory-visual associations. At 2 and 4 months infants associated the sounds with the toy that moved in synchrony with the sound's rhythm despite extreme violation of co-location of this sight and sound. In contrast, 6- and 8-month-olds did not associate a specific toy with the sound when co-location and synchrony information conflicted. The findings highlight the unique and interactive effects of distinct amodal properties on infants' learning arbitrary crossmodal relations. Possible explanations for the age shift in performance are discussed.     

The effects of a self-management treatment package on daily step count in university students with depressive symptoms

Research demonstrates that exercise can decrease depressive symptoms, yet it is infrequently prescribed as an intervention. Self-management techniques offer an effective and cost-efficient approach to increase engagement in physical activity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of goal setting, self-monitoring, and feedback for increasing daily step count in university students (N = 4) reporting depressive symptoms. The treatment was efficacious for increasing steps for three participants with varying levels of consistency. All participants showed a decrease in some depression symptoms on the University Student Depression Inventory. Expert ratings on the Clinical Global Impression Scale indicated improvement in global functioning for three participants. Additional research is needed to determine the efficacy of this intervention package for increasing daily steps and the relation to depression symptoms.     

Imagination inflation is a fact, not an artifact: A reply to Pezdek and Eddy

Pezdek and Eddy (2001) claim to prove that imagination inflation is a spurious effect caused by regression to the mean (RTM). They make four predictions about what patterns of data would demonstrate a genuine effect for imagination versus those that would be explainable by RTM. We review each of those predictions, and demonstrate significant problems with them. We conclude that imagination inflation is a genuine effect, and that Pezdek and Eddy’s work has contributed to the growing research showing that when people imagine fictitious events from long ago, they become more confident that those false events were genuine experiences.     

Is the Effect of Behavioral Synchrony on Cooperative Behavior Mediated by Pain Threshold?

Synchronized behavior results in a variety of prosocial behaviors. Research has also implicated that interpersonal synchrony affects pain thresholds, inferred as indicative of endorphin levels. The current study was designed to see if these pain threshold effects mediated the effect of synchrony on interpersonal cooperation. Twenty six individuals were randomly assigned to complete a 30 minute run on a treadmill in either a synchronized or nonsynchronized condition. Pain threshold was measured both before and after exercise as an indicator of endorphin activity. A postrun social investment game measured interpersonal cooperation. Analyses showed that there was a significant direct relationship between condition and cooperation but that this effect was not mediated by pain threshold.     

Comparing instructor-led,video-model,and no-instruction control tutorials for creating single-subject graphs in Microsoft Excel: A systematic replication and extension

Visual inspection of single-subject data is the primary method for behavior analysts to interpret the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable; however, there is no consensus on the most suitable method for teaching graph construction for single-subject designs. We systematically replicated and extended Tyner and Fienup (2015) using a repeated-measures between-subjects design to compare the effects of instructor-led, video-model, and no-instruction control tutorials on the graphing performance of 81 master's students with some reported Microsoft Excel experience. Our mixed-design analysis revealed a statistically significant main effect of pretest, tutorial, and posttest submissions for each tutorial group and a nonsignificant main effect of tutorial group. Tutorial group significantly interacted with submissions, suggesting that both instructor-led and video-model tutorials may be superior to providing graduate students with a written list of graphing conventions (i.e., control condition). Finally, training influenced performance on an untrained graph type (multielement) for all tutorial groups.     

Maintenance rehearsal: the key to the role attention plays in storage and forgetting

Research with the maintenance-rehearsal paradigm, in which word pairs are rehearsed as distractor material during a series of digit recall trials, has previously indicated that low frequency and new word pairs capture attention to a greater degree than high frequency and old word pairs. This impacts delayed recognition of the pairs and interferes with immediate digit recall. The effect on immediate digit recall may provide the missing converging evidence for the role of attention in memory. In the current study, 3 experiments were conducted to further investigate the role of attention capture and novelty in storage and forgetting. In addition to the previously established effects, the novelty of switching rehearsal between 2 pairs was found to impair both digit recall and memory for the first pair. The attentional effects we obtained were dependent upon participant expectation, and forgetting appears to be due to interference with consolidation rather than decay or traditional associative interference. Finally, the attentional effects we observed in associative recognition were primarily reflected in a lowering of the false alarm rate with increases in the strength of the parent pairs. Although dual-process models can accommodate this finding on the assumption that recollection is invoked at test alongside familiarity, we showed that the level of recall in this paradigm is so small that recollection can be ruled out. Accordingly, our results are challenging for the existing models of associative recognition to accommodate.