Differential induction of c-Jun and Fos-like proteins in rat hippocampus and dorsal striatum after training in two water maze tasks

Research examining the neuroanatomical bases of memory in mammals suggests that the hippocampus and dorsal striatum are parts of independent memory systems that mediate "cognitive" and stimulus-response "habit" memory, respectively. At the molecular level, increasing evidence indicates a role for immediate early gene (IEG) expression in memory formation. The present experiment examined whether acquisition of cognitive and habit memory result in differential patterns of IEG protein product expression in these two brain structures. Adult male Long-Evans rats were trained in either a hippocampal-dependent spatial water maze task, or a dorsal striatal-dependent cued water maze task. Ninety minutes after task acquisition, brains were removed and processed for immunocytochemical procedures, and the number of cells expressing Fos-like immunoreactivity (Fos-like-IR) and c-Jun-IR in sections from the dorsal hippocampus and the dorsal striatum were counted. In the dorsal hippocampus of rats trained in the spatial task, there were significantly more c-Jun-IR pyramidal cells in the CA1 and CA3 regions, relative to rats that had acquired the cued task, yoked controls (free-swim), or na?ve (home cage) rats. Relative to rats receiving cued task training and control conditions, increases in Fos-like IR were also observed in the CA1 region of rats trained in the spatial task. In rats that had acquired the cued task, patches of c-Jun-IR were observed in the posteroventral striatum; no such patches were evident in rats trained in the spatial task, yoked-control rats, or na?ve rats. The results demonstrate that IEG protein product expression is up-regulated in a task-dependent and brain structure-specific manner shortly after acquisition of cognitive and habit memory tasks.     

Social dominance orientation,prejudice, and discrimination: A new computer-based method for studying discriminatory behaviors

A number of studies have shown that the scale of social dominance orientation (SDO), used to measure the degree of preference for inequality among social groups, is a predictive measure of social and political attitudes toward stigmatized outgroups. However, the relationship between SDO and discrimination has received little attention. The main goal of this study was to assess the validity of a new computer-based method used to measure discriminatory behaviors in a laboratory setting. An additional goal was to test the mediating role of prejudice in the relation between SDO and discrimination. The results provide a first validation of this new method and demonstrate that the effect of SDO on discrimination is mediated by prejudice.     

Another evaluation of touch and helping behavior

Although positive effect of touch on compliance has been widely reported, new evaluation was made with an unusual request. 80 male bus drivers were solicited by a male or a female confederate to take the bus despite having too little money for the fare. Bus drivers were briefly touched by the confederate during solicitation. Analysis showed that bus drivers who were touched accepted the request more favorably but only when made by a female.     

Time-to-contact estimation of accelerated stimuli is based on first-order information

The goal of this study was to test whether 1st-order information, which does not account for acceleration, is used (a) to estimate the time to contact (TTC) of an accelerated stimulus after the occlusion of a final part of its trajectory and (b) to indirectly intercept an accelerated stimulus with a thrown projectile. Both tasks require the production of an action on the basis of predictive information acquired before the arrival of the stimulus at the target and allow the experimenter to make quantitative predictions about the participants' use (or nonuse) of 1st-order information. The results show that participants do not use information about acceleration and that they commit errors that rely quantitatively on 1st-order information even when acceleration is psychophysically detectable. In the indirect interceptive task, action is planned about 200 ms before the initiation of the movement, at which time the 1st-order TTC attains a critical value.     

On discontinuities in motor learning: a longitudinal study of complex skill acquisition on a ski-simulator

The qualitative behavioral reorganizations that occurred during the acquisition of a complex motor skill were examined. Five novice participants practiced for 39 sessions of ten 1-min trials on a modified version of the ski-simulator. Analyses focused on the motion of the apparatus platform, modeled as a self-sustained oscillator. At the beginning of the experiment, all participants adopted a behavior that could be modeled with a highly nonlinear stiffness function and a Rayleigh damping function. The behavior in the final part of the experiment was captured by a qualitatively different model, with a linear stiffness function and a van der Pol damping behavior. The transition from the initial to the final model was gradual and was marked in most cases by an abrupt increase of oscillation frequency. During the transition stage, the 2 damping behaviors seemed alternately exploited within each trial. The results are discussed in the framework of the dynamical systems approach to motor coordination and learning, considering motor skill acquisition as a phase transition.     

Quality of life before and after lung transplantation in patients with emphysema versus other indications

Whether lung transplantation improves Health-related Quality of Life in patients with emphysema and other end-stage lung diseases before and after lung transplantation was examined. Between 1992 and 1999, 23 patients with emphysema and 19 patients with other indications completed self-administered questionnaires before lung transplantation, and at 4, 7, 13, and 25 mo. after transplantation. The questionnaire included the Nottingham Health Profile, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Self-rating Depression Scale, the Index of Well-being, the self-report Karnofsky Index, and four respiratory-specific questions. Neither before nor after transplantation were significant differences found on most dimensions of Health-related Quality of Life between patients with emphysema and other indications. Before transplantation, both groups report major restrictions on the dimensions Energy and Mobility of the Nottingham Health Profile, low experienced well-being, depressive symptoms, and high dyspnea. About 4 mo. after transplantation, most Health-related Quality of Life measures improved significantly in both groups. These improvements were maintained in the following 21 mo.     

Introducing psychology as an academic discipline in France: Théodule Ribot and the Collège de France (1888-1901)

This paper describes the context in which the teaching of psychology as an autonomous discipline was introduced in France, and reproduces the first psychology lecture given in France by Théodule Ribot on 9 April 1888 at The Collège de France. In France, this recognition was delayed because of the negative influence of spiritualist philosophy. It took both the acknowledged status of a man (Ribot) and a minister's decision for this new type of teaching to be accepted in France. After describing the events that took place at the Collège de France and at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, we reproduce in full Ribot's inaugural lecture at the Collège, an important document for the history of French psychology. We conclude by describing the circumstances in which this teaching came to its end in 1901.     

Using finite mixture of GLMs to explore variability in children's flexibility in a task-switching paradigm

The present study illustrates the usefulness of finite mixture of generalized linear models (GLMs) to examine variability in cognitive strategies during childhood. More precisely, it addresses this variability in set-shifting situations where task-goal updating is endogenously driven. In a task-switching paradigm 5–6-year-olds had to switch between color- and shape-matching rules as a function of a predetermined, predictable task sequence. A finite mixture of GLMs was fitted to explore individual differences in performance. The statistical model revealed five response profiles, defined by accuracy and response times. These response profiles likely correspond to different cognitive strategies with varying efficiency and differential relations to working memory capacity (assessed by backward digit span). These results illustrate the heuristic value of statistical modeling to reveal the behavioral and cognitive variability in the temporal dynamics of children's cognitive functioning.     

Inhibitory control in number-conservation and class-inclusion tasks: A neo-Piagetian inter-task priming study

We investigated whether success in number-conservation and class-inclusion tasks relies on a general ability to inhibit misleading strategies. Two groups of 10-year-olds performed inter-task priming between computerized versions of class-inclusion and number-conservation tasks (Experiment 1). In one group, the class-inclusion task served as a prime and the number-conservation task as an assessment probe and vice versa in the other group. Response times were shorter in the number-conservation task when performed after the class-inclusion task (and vice versa in the other group) than in control prime-probe sequences in which the primes did not require the inhibition of a misleading strategy. Experiment 2 showed that these inter-task priming effects did not simply reflect that class inclusion and number conservation rely on the reversibility of concrete operations as Piaget would have hypothesized. Taken together the results are consistent with the neo-Piagetian assumption that cognitive development is rooted in both the acquisition of knowledge of incremental complexity and the ability to resist (inhibit) previous knowledge. Critically, the present finding suggests that the inhibitory ability is not domain- or strategy-specific.