Appetitive conditioning in Octopus cyanea

The performance of Octopus cyanea was studied in 3 appetitive conditioning situations. In Experiment 1, 2 groups were trained in a runway; a large reward produced faster acquisition when reinforcement was consistent and better subsequent performance on a partial schedule than did a small reward. In Experiment 2, activity in the vicinity of a feeder was measured, and in Experiment 3, latency and probability of response were measured in an automated version of a traditional conditioned attack situation (Boycott & Young, 1950). There was evidence of acquisition with continuous reinforcement in both experiments but in neither with partial reinforcement. All of the results can be understood in terms of growth and decline in the strength of stimulus-reinforcer associations with reinforcement and nonreinforcement.     

Withdrawal From Coparenting Interactions During Early Infancy

This study examines early withdrawal in the coparenting system, and the utility of a brief problem‐solving discussion about coparenting responsibilities as a means for evaluating such withdrawal. One hundred and fifteen couples were evaluated both prenatally and at 3 months postpartum. During prenatal assessments, parents rated their personalities and completed marital assessments. After the baby arrived, they completed a negotiation task in which they discussed disputes about parenting roles and responsibilities, and interacted together with the baby in a triadic play assessment. Fathers' but not mothers' withdrawal during coparenting negotiations was associated with greater disengagement and less warmth during triadic play and with fathers' feelings that mothers did not respect their parenting. Fathers' but not mothers' withdrawal during coparenting negotiations was also forecast by low ego resilience and by an increase in depressive symptomatology during the postpartum. As the negotiation task appeared to be an effective provocateur of withdrawal when confronting coparenting disagreement, it may prove useful for eliciting this aspect of coparental process in work with couples.     

Peripheral pain enhances the effects of incentive downshifts

Physical pain (induced by tissue damage) and psychological pain (induced by surprising incentive loss) share a set of common neural substrates, but little is known about their interactions. The present research studied such interactions using the formalin test to induce physical pain and consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) to induce psychological pain. In the formalin test, animals receive an intradermal injection of formalin (1%) in a hind paw. In cSNC, rats with free access to 32% sucrose show a sharp suppression of drinking behavior after a downshift to 4% sucrose, compared to rats that always receive 4% sucrose. In Experiment 1, formalin administration before the first and second 32-to-4% sucrose downshift trials enhanced cSNC. In Experiment 2, a similar treatment before the first downshift trial after a 16-to-4% sucrose downshift, which normally produces little or no evidence of cSNC, significantly increased cSNC. In Experiment 3, using a 32-to-4% sucrose downshift procedure similar to that of Experiment 1, no effects were observed following formalin administration immediately after Trial 11. Thus, no evidence was found that the effects of physical pain on cSNC were caused by changes in memory consolidation. The procedures used in these experiments offer a new approach to study the neural substrates of interactions between physical and psychological pain.     

DIMENSIONS AND CORRELATES OF THE PERSONNEL AUDIT AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT TOOL

This study analyzes the measurement properties of the personnel audit as an organizational assessment tool and the extent to which audit results relate to important organizational criteria. The findings reported here indicate that nine dimensions can effectively summarize 37 audit measures. The composite factor scores for these dimensions predict executive perceptions of "overall organizational performance" and "overall contribution of Personnel Function," employee "overall satisfaction with personnel services," and to a lesser extent, "profitability per capita." The personnel budget allotted per capita is in turn related to executive perceptions of Personnel's contributions.     

Early adolescent age and gender differences in patterns of emotional self-disclosure to parents and friends

This study explored adolescent age and gender differences in patterns of emotional self-disclosure to parents and friends. The sample consisted of 174 junior high school students between the ages of 12 and 15. Results revealed that females exhibited greater emotional self-disclosure to parents and peers than did males, and that emotional self-disclosure to friends was greatest among older adolescents. In addition, while younger adolescents preferred to disclose information about their emotional state to parents, older adolescents chose friends. Exploratory hierarchical regression analyses revealed that emotional disclosure to parents was most strongly associated with adolescent perceptions of the openness of family communication, family cohesion, and satisfaction with family relationships. Emotional disclosure to friends was associated with adolescent self-esteem in the peer context and identity development. The results are discussed in terms of the complementary socializing processes that may operate within the contexts of family and friends.     

Role of nonreinforcement in the fixed-interval performance of pigeons

Fixed-interval (FI) schedules have been used extensively to study timing abilities. In FI schedules, animals typically show higher response rates immediately after nonreinforced (N) cycles rather than reinforced (R) cycles (the reinforcement-omission effect), and they exhibit the highest rate approximately at the time when the reinforcer is scheduled to occur (peak performance). The present experiments were designed to determine the extent to which factors other than timing contribute significantly to these two learning phenomena. Pigeons were trained in an FI 16-sec schedule in which half the cycles were R and half were N. When successive cycles were separated by a 2-sec interval, responding early in the FI interval was higher after an N cycle than after an R cycle. This reinforcement-omission effect was eliminated when the interval between cycles was increased to 12 sec, because of an increase in performance after R cycles. In addition, timing of the 16-sec interval was assessed by interpolating 32-sec test cycles (all N cycles) at two rates—either 1 test cycle every other session, or 25 test cycles per session. Peak performance, presumably indexing the animal’s ability to time the 16-sec interval, emerged only with 25 test cycles per day, but not with 1 test cycle every other day, despite extensive training with the target, 16-sec-long interval. These results suggest that transient demotivation and time-based discrimination contribute significantly to the reinforcement-omission effect and peak performance, respectively.