The role of context in the inhibitory conditioning of honeybees

Conditioned inhibition or CI training (A+/AB-) was compared with S- training (A+/B-) in three experiments on proboscis-extension conditioning in harnessed honeybees. The purpose was to test the Rescorla-Wagner assumption, widely credited in the vertebrate literature, that a nonreinforced stimulus acquires inhibitory properties in proportion to the excitatory value of the context in which it is presented. In prior work with free-flying honeybees pretrained with sucrose to come of their own accord to the experimental situation, no differences were found in the consequences of CI and S- training, perhaps because A added little to the excitatory value of the context (already very high) in which B occurred. In the new experiments, with harnessed subjects brought involuntarily into the training situation, negative results again were obtained. The possibility is considered that inhibitory conditioning in honeybees is independent of the excitatory value of the context.     

When My Object Becomes Me: The Mere Ownership of an Object Elevates Domain‐Specific Self‐Efficacy

Past research on the mere ownership effect has shown that when people own an object, they perceive the owned objects more favorably than the comparable non‐owned objects. The present research extends this idea, showing that when people own an object functional to the self, they perceive an increase in their self‐efficacy. Three studies were conducted to demonstrate this new form of the mere ownership effect. In Study 1, participants reported an increase in their knowledge level by the mere ownership of reading materials (a reading package in Study 1a, and lecture notes in Study 1b). In Study 2, participants reported an increase in their resilience to sleepiness by merely owning a piece of chocolate that purportedly had a sleepiness‐combating function. In Study 3, participants who merely owned a flower essence that is claimed to boost creativity reported having higher creativity efficacy. The findings provided insights on how associations with objects alter one's self‐perception.