Age-related impairments of new memories reflect failures of learning,not retention

Learning impairments and the instability of memory are defining characteristics of cognitive aging. However, it is unclear if deficits in the expression of new memories reflect an accelerated decay of the target memory or a consequence of inefficient learning. Here, aged mice (19–21-mo old) exhibited acquisition deficits (relative to 3–5-mo old mice) on three learning tasks, although these deficits were overcome with additional training. When tested after a 30-d retention interval, the performance of aged animals was impaired if initial learning had been incomplete. However, if trained to equivalent levels of competence, aged animals exhibited no retention deficits relative to their young counterparts. These results suggest that age-related “memory” impairments can be overcome through a more effective learning regimen.Aging is associated with broad deficits in the acquisition of new knowledge (Matzel et al. 2008; see, for review, Gallagher and Rapp 1997; Rosenzweig and Barnes 2003), as well as impairments in the retrieval of both old and newly acquired information. While it is clear that old memories (i.e., ones obtained prior to age-related cognitive declines) do in fact become less stable with age (Gallagher 1997), it is less clear whether newly attained memories are inherently less stable in aged animals, or whether age-related memory deficits reflect a secondary consequence of inefficient learning.The majority of published data regarding cognitive aging describes impairments of animals'' learning abilities (Gage and Dunnett 1984; Markowska et al. 1994; Meliska et al. 1997; Nalbantoglu et al. 1997; Vogel et al. 2002; Matzel et al. 2008), although a smaller percentage of these studies also report animals'' performances after long retention intervals. Of those studies that report retention deficits, in most of those studies the initial learning upon which the long-term memory was based was impaired relative to young animals (e.g., Barnes and McNaughton 1985; Kinney et al. 2001a,b; Gould and Feiro 2005). Interestingly, in those few studies in which initial learning was equated across young and old animals, including studies of spatial water maze performance and appetitive instrumental responding, no retention deficits were observed, even after retention intervals as long as 21 d (Soffie and Lejeune 1991; Martinez-Serrano et al. 1996; Port et al. 1996).Although suggestive, the above experiments were not systematically designed to assess the stability of memory in aged animals as a function of the level of initial learning. In the present study, young (3–5 mo) and old (19–21 mo) male Balb/C mice were trained in three learning tasks (a spatial water maze, an egocentric Lashley III maze, and a three-choice odor discrimination). When trained to pre-asymptotic levels, aged animals exhibited both learning and retention deficits (assessed 30 d after initial training). However, when aged animals were trained to levels of competence comparable to their young counterparts, both young and old animals exhibited statistically indistinguishable levels of retention.Sixty Balb/C mice arrived in our laboratory at 2.5 mo (n = 30) or 18.5 mo (n = 30) of age. Each age category was divided into two groups of 15, one of which would receive subasymptotic training on each of the three learning tasks, and one of which would receive extended training on those tasks. Two aged mice became ill during the course of testing and were excluded from all analyses. Young mice ranged from 19.8 to 29.1 g, and aged mice from 26.2 to 37.3 g. Maintenance, food deprivation, and training conditions were as previously described (Matzel et al. 2006, 2003). Behavioral testing of young and aged mice was concluded at ∼5 and 21 mo of age, respectively.All animals were tested in three independent learning tasks. Briefly, the spatial water maze encourages mice to integrate spatial information to efficiently escape from a pool of water. In odor discrimination, animals must use a target odor (from a group of three odors) to guide their search for food. In the Lashley III maze, animals learn an egocentric sequence of turns to obtain a food reinforcer. Training on each task required 2–10 d (depending on the task and the level of training), and animals received four days of rest between tasks. A retention test was administered 30 d after the last training trial of each task.A Lashley III maze was constructed from black Plexiglas. A 3-cm-diameter white disk was located in the center of the goal box, and a 45 mg Bio-Serv food pellet (dustless rodent grain) was placed at the center of the disk and served as the reinforcer. Food-deprived animals received a day of acclimation to the maze, followed by either one or two days of training (four trials/day). On the day prior to the acclimation, animals received three Bio-Serv pellets in their home cage (thus mitigating any neophobia to the food on subsequent exposures). On the acclimation day, each mouse was confined in each of the first three alleys of the maze for 4 min, and in the final alley (containing the goal box) for 6 min. On this acclimation day, three Bio-Serv pellets were placed in the goal box. On the subsequent training day(s), each animal was placed in the start box and allowed to freely navigate the maze, during which time the number of errors to reach the goal box were recorded. (An error was constituted by a turn in the wrong direction or a retracing of a previously completed path.) Upon consuming the food pellet, the animal was returned to its home cage for a 25-min intertrial interval (ITI). All animals completed four trials during the first training day. Half of those animals then received an additional four training trials on the following day. Twenty-nine days after the last training trial, all animals received three Bio-Serv pellets in their home cages, and on the subsequent day were again tested in the maze.For the water maze, a round pool (140 cm diameter, 56 cm deep) was filled to within 20 cm of the top with water that was clouded with a water soluble black paint. A hidden 14-cm-diameter black platform was located in a fixed position 1 cm below the surface of the water. The pool was enclosed by a ceiling high black curtain on which five different light patterns (which served as spatial cues) were fixed at various positions. These light cues provided the only illumination of the maze, which was 60 Lux at the water''s surface.On the day prior to training, each animal was confined for 360 sec to the platform by a clear Plexiglas cylinder that fits around the platform. For either one or two training days (six trials Day 1, five trials Day 2), the animals were started from one of three positions, such that no consecutive trials started from the same position. After locating the platform or swimming for 90 sec, the animals were left or placed on the platform for 10 sec, after which they were placed in a holding box (for 12 min) before the start of the next trial. After the sixth or 11th training trial, animals were returned to their home cages for 3 h, and were then administered a 30-sec “probe” test in which the escape platform was removed from the maze and the time spent searching in the target quadrant was recorded. One hour later each animal received an additional training trial (intended to re-establish the search strategy employed by the animal prior to the probe test). Animals were then returned to their home cages, where a 30-d retention interval began.In odor discrimination, mice navigate through a field using unique odors to guide them. The animals learn to choose the food cup that contains the target smell when given three choices. The food cup locations are rearranged on each trial, but the accessible food is always marked by the same target odor (in this case mint). The chamber consisted of a black Plexiglas 60-cm-square field with 30-cm-high walls, which was located in a dimly lit room with high ventilation. A food cup was located in three corners. The target cup had accessible food (30 mg of chocolate puffed rice), while the remaining cups contained food that could not be accessed. A cotton tipped swab (2-cm long) was loaded with 25 μL of lemon-, mint- (the target odor), or almond-flavored extract and extended vertically from the back corner of each cup.Each animal had one day of acclimation and one day of training (consisting of four training trials). (In this task, both young and old animals reached asymptotic levels of performance [near errorless] within four training trials.) On Day 1 (adaptation), each mouse was placed in the box for 20 min with no food cups present. On the subsequent training day, a food cup was placed in three corners of the field, but only the cup associated with the mint odor contained accessible food. Each animal received four trials in which they were placed in the corner of the training chamber that did not contain a food cup. A trial continued until the animal obtained the food from the target location, at which time the animal was returned to its home cage to begin a 20 min ITI. At the end of each trial the food cups were rearranged, but mint always remained as the target odor. For each trial, the number of errors (contact with or sniffing within 2 cm of an incorrect food cup) was recorded. After the fourth training trial, the animal was returned to its home cage for a 30-d retention interval. On the 29th retention day, all animals received three pieces of chocolate flavored rice in their home cages, and on the subsequent day were again tested as in original training.     

Social learning and innovation are positively correlated in pigeons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis>)

When animals show both frequent innovation and fast social learning, new behaviours can spread more rapidly through populations and potentially increase rates of natural selection and speciation, as proposed by A.C. Wilson in his behavioural drive hypothesis. Comparative work on primates suggests that more innovative species also show more social learning. In this study, we look at intra-specific variation in innovation and social learning in captive wild-caught pigeons. Performances on an innovative problem-solving task and a social learning task are positively correlated in 42 individuals. The correlation remains significant when the effects of neophobia on the two abilities are removed. Neither sex nor dominance rank are associated with performance on the two tasks. Free-flying flocks of urban pigeons are able to solve the innovative food-finding problem used on captive birds, demonstrating it is within the range of their natural capacities. Taken together with the comparative literature, the positive correlation between innovation and social learning suggests that the two abilities are not traded-off.     

IVR Test & Survey: A computer program to collect data via computerized telephonic applications

Several studies have demonstrated the advantages of using interactive voice response (IVR) technology to collect self-report data from research participants and recipients of psychological/medical services. IVR allows participants to phone a computer and respond to recorded questions by pressing the appropriate touch-tone keys on their telephone. Because this technology offers substantial benefits in terms of cost and efficiency, it is surprising that it has not been more widely utilized by researchers and practitioners. Along with the automation of the administration and scoring of tests or surveys, IVR provides for questioning to be adapted to the participants’ responses. One possible explanation for the failure to exploit this technology is the absence of easy-to-use software that does not require programming knowledge. This article describes IVR Test & Survey, a program to facilitate the administration, scoring, and analysis of information collected with the use of IVR technology.     

Reconsidering Absolute Omnipotence

Philosophical debate about the problem of evil derives, in part, from differing definitions of almighty power or omnipotence. Modern atheists such as John McTaggart, J. L. Mackie, Earl Condee, and Danny Goldstick maintain that an omnipotent God must be able to accomplish anything, even if it entails a contradiction. On this account, the Christian God cannot be omnipotent and benevolent, for a benevolent, omnipotent God would have forced free agents to desist from evil and this prevented the introduction of suffering into the world. It does not matter if the idea of creating free agents that were forced to be good entails a contradiction. On this account, a God who is truly omnipotent can perform contradictory feats.
In this paper, I argue that the atheistic tradition is mistaken. In the first place, even an absolutely omnipotent God could, as an act of benevolence, create a world in which there is suffering. In the second place, I argue that the concept of absolute omnipotence is fatally flawed. An absolutely omnipotent God would lack, in a decisive sense, power. He would be weak rather than strong. So the atheist's argument fails when it is evaluated in light of a more rational account of omnipotence and when it is carefully considered on its own terms.     

The functions of freezing in the social interactions of juvenile high‐ and low‐aggressive mice

Selectively bred low‐aggressive mice are frequently observed to freeze on social contact, despite the fact that this behavior was never a direct target of selection. To elucidate this finding, the present research aimed to identify the possible functions freezing may serve in social interactions. It was hypothesized that freezing may modify social interactions through self‐regulatory mechanisms and/or via its modulating effects on the actions of social partners. These hypotheses were evaluated with respect to the sequential changes observed over the course of a 10‐min dyadic test in freezing, social reactivity, and approaches among juvenile (24–30‐day‐old) mice from the NC900 and NC100 high‐ and low‐aggressive lines. Analyses of the patterns of social interactions between subjects and partners revealed two primary results. First, freezing was more than an expression of fear; it also functioned as a regulator of emotional arousal, as suggested by the substantial reduction of reactive behaviors seen in animals that showed high levels of freezing. Second, freezing functioned to facilitate high levels of affiliative social interaction with social partners. The implications of these results for understanding how the differentiation of the NC900 and NC100 occurred within microevolution and development are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 27:463–475, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Further extensions of precision medicine to behavior analysis: A demonstration using functional communication training

The potential applicability of concepts and methods of the paradigm of precision medicine to the field of applied behavior analysis is only beginning to be explored. Both precision medicine and applied behavior analysis seek to understand and classify clinical problems through identification of their causal pathways. Both aim to develop treatments directly targeting those causal pathways, which also requires an understanding of the mechanisms by which treatments produce change (treatment-action pathways). In the current study, we extend the data-analytic methods and concepts described by Hagopian et al. (2018) toward the identification of variables that predict response to functional communication training (FCT). We discuss emerging conceptual issues, including the importance of distinguishing predictive behavioral markers from predictor variables based on their purported involvement in the causal or treatment-action pathways. Making these discriminations is a complex undertaking that requires knowledge of these mechanisms and how they interact.     

Using psychodramatic techniques in structural family therapy

This article describes how psychodramatic techniques can be used in structural family therapy sessions. After a preliminary discussion of the therapist's spontaneity and role functions in both psychodrama and family therapy, specific action techniques are then discussed using case examples. Auxiliary Ego, Role Reversal, Double, Use of Space, Physicalization, Warm-up, Soliloquy, Surplus Reality, and Future Projection are illustrated.