The antiemetic drug ondansetron interferes with lithium-induced conditioned rejection reactions, but not lithium-induced taste avoidance in rats

Conditioned rejection reactions displayed in the taste reactivity test are exclusively produced by treatments that elicit nausea. The present experiments demonstrate that pretreatment with the antinausea agent ondansetron interferes with both the establishment and the expression of conditioned rejection reactions. Ondansetron did not interfere with lithium-induced taste avoidance in either a 1-bottle or a 2-bottle test. In fact, when rejection reactions were measured during a consumption test, ondansetron selectively attenuated rejection reactions, with only a slight modification of consumption. These results suggest that conditioned rejection reactions, but not conditioned taste avoidance, reflect nausea in rats that can be attenuated by ondansetron pretreatment.     

Reducing the Effects of Performance Expectations on Behavioral Ratings

In this study, we develop and test two strategies for reducing the effects of performance expectations on behavioral ratings. A 3 × 3 experimental design (N = 169), manipulating preobservation performance cues (positive, negative, or none) and the type of intervention (halo error training, structured recall memory, or none), was conducted. The results of this study indicate that both interventions reduced the effects of performance expectations on behavioral ratings. However, analyses of rating accuracy and measures from both recognition memory and recall memory tests suggest that the structured recall memory intervention has distinct advantages. These analyses indicate that the structured recall intervention can reduce raters' reliance on heuristics and increase the correspondence between raters' memory and their subsequent ratings.     

Structure and stimulus familiarity: a study of memory in chess-players with functional magnetic resonance imaging

A grandmaster and an international chess master were compared with a group of novices in a memory task with chess and non-chess stimuli, varying the structure and familiarity of the stimuli, while functional magnetic resonance images were acquired. The pattern of brain activity in the masters was different from that of the novices. Masters showed no differences in brain activity when different degrees of structure and familiarity where compared; however, novices did show differences in brain activity in such contrasts. The most important differences were found in the contrast of stimulus familiarity with chess positions. In this contrast, there was an extended brain activity in bilateral frontal areas such as the anterior cingulate and the superior, middle, and inferior frontal gyri; furthermore, posterior areas, such as posterior cingulate and cerebellum, showed great bilateral activation. These results strengthen the hypothesis that when performing a domain-specific task, experts activate different brain systems from that of novices. The use of the experts-versus-novices paradigm in brain imaging contributes towards the search for brain systems involved in cognitive processes.     

Maladaptive conflict monitoring as evidence for executive dysfunction in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

Using an adaptation of the Attentional Networks Test, we investigated aspects of executive control in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DS22q11.2), a common but not well understood disorder that produces non-verbal cognitive deficits and a marked incidence of psychopathology. The data revealed that children with DS22q11.2 demonstrated greater difficulty than controls in locating and processing target items in the presence of distracters. Importantly, children with DS22q11.2 showed a deficit in the ability to monitor and adapt to stimulus conflict. These data provide evidence of inadequate conflict adaptation in children with DS22q11.2, a problem that is also present in schizophrenia. The findings of specific executive dysfunction in this group may provide a linkage between particular genetic abnormalities and the development of psychopathology.     

On the Tedium of the Good

It seems to be a phenomenon of contemporary life that we consider goodness embarrassing and rather dull. In contrast, the activities and inner lives of villains are deemed more complex and fascinating than those of good people. This paper attempts to understand the conception of goodness that underlies this phenomenon, and I suggest that informing it is the combination of two ideas, in tension with each other: firstly, a distorted understanding of the ancient conception of full virtue as the absence of all inner conflict; and secondly, the intuition that real goodness is only apparent and generated in inner conflict. In response, I offer an alternative picture of goodness as an ongoing, active and progressive relation to value, and conclude that in order to render goodness attractive again we need more adequate portraits of goodness from both philosophy and art.     

Weathering the storm: children's long-term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3-4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9-10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for children's developing memory of stressful events are discussed.     

Parent-adolescent relations and adolescent functioning: self-esteem, substance abuse, and delinquency

The present study examined parental support and monitoring as they relate to adolescent outcomes. It was hypothesized that support and monitoring would be associated with higher self-esteem and less risky behavior during adolescence. The diverse sample included 16,749 adolescents assessed as part of the National Educational Longitudinal Study. Both high parental support and parental monitoring were related to greater self-esteem and lower risk behaviors. The findings partially confirm, as well as extend, propositions in attachment theory.     

Longitudinal effects of lean production on employee outcomes and the mediating role of work characteristics

The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N = 368), which suggest negative effects on employee outcomes after the implementation of 3 lean production practices: lean teams, assembly lines, and workflow formalization. Employees in all lean production groups were negatively affected, but those in assembly lines fared the worst, with reduced organizational commitment and role breadth self-efficacy and increased job depression. A nonequivalent control group had no negative changes in outcomes. Mediational analyses showed that the negative effects of lean production were at least partly attributable to declines in perceived work characteristics (job autonomy, skill utilization, and participation in decision making). The study also shows the longitudinal effects of these work characteristics on psychological outcomes. Implications for lean production, work design, and employee well-being are discussed.     

The origins of height fear: an evaluation of neoconditioning explanations

The present research sought to establish a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the relevance of neoconditioning factors (e.g. latent inhibition, UCS inflation/revaluation, prior fear levels, prior expectancies of harm, fear and pain levels experienced during supposed learning events), in the development of human fear. Fifty-four undergraduate height-fearful students completed the new origins instrument (OQ-II), while 54 matched controls completed a modified version (OQM-II) that examined their prior experiences with heights. In general, few differences between groups were found. Height-fearful and control subjects did not differ on trait anxiety, the frequency of negative encounters with heights, the age at which these events had occurred, prior fear levels, prior expectancies of harm, or reports of UCS inflation/revaluation procedures. However, in a finding directly opposite to that expected from a conditioning account, the mean fear and pain scores reported by subjects who had experienced direct conditioning events were significantly higher in the non-fearful group than in the height-fearful group. These findings are discussed in terms of associative and non-associative models of fear.