Multiple systems for spatial learning: dead reckoning and beacon homing in rats

Rats homed with food in a large lighted arena. Without visual cues, they used dead reckoning. When a beacon indicated the home, rats could also use the beacon. Homing did not differ in 2 groups of rats, 1 provided with the beacon and 1 without it; tests without the beacon gave no evidence that beacon learning overshadowed dead reckoning (Experiment 1). When the beacon was at the home for 1 group and in random locations for another, there was again no evidence of cue competition (Experiment 2). Dead reckoning experience did not block acquisition of beacon homing (Experiment 3). Beacon learning and dead reckoning do not compete for predictive value but acquire information in parallel and are used hierarchically.     

The Relationship of School Climate Factors to Counselor Self-Efficacy

A survey of school counselors was conducted to measure the relationship of Bandura's (1977b) concept of self-efficacy with school climate, counselor roles, and a variety of demographic variables. Results indicated that supportive staff and administrators were the strongest predictors of high counselor efficacy expectancy. In addition, outcome expectancy for school counselor behavior was predicted by both a similarly high degree of support from staff and administrators and fewer nonrelated counseling activities performed by school counselors. Discussion of results and implications for research and practice are presented.     

A comparative outcome study of four cognitive therapies in the treatment of social anxiety

This clinical outcome study compared four separate cognitive behavioral and one behavioral treatment for reducing social anxiety with a waiting list control. Subjects were adults who responded to advertisements for treatment. In the cognitive-behavioral conditions, subjects were trained to modify their disruptive cognitions and/or emit adaptive cognitions relevant to interpersonal behavior with the specific content and techniques determined by the particular cognitive therapy. In the behavioral condition, subjects modeled and rehearsed appropriate social interpersonal behaviors. Subjects were assessed pre and post-treatment on self-report measures of social anxiety, measures of general anxiety, clinical scales of anxiety, depression and hostility, and behavioral, and physiological concomitants of social anxiety. Subjects in all active treatment conditions showed improvement on the measures of social anxiety and the behavioral measure. However, only those in the cognitive treatment conditions, demonstrated treatment effects on general anxiety and the clinical scales. The results indicate the efficacy of both cognitive and behavioral approaches to the reduction of social anxiety. However, they fail to demonstrate clear distinctions between the various cognitive therapies.     

INCREASING COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTIONS OF YOUNG CHILDREN WITH AUTISM USING A VOICE OUTPUT COMMUNICATION AID AND NATURALISTIC TEACHING

We evaluated the effects of a voice output communication aid (VOCA) and naturalistic teaching procedures on the communicative interactions of young children with autism. A teacher and three assistants were taught to use naturalistic teaching strategies to provide opportunities for VOCA use in the context of regularly occurring classroom routines. Naturalistic teaching procedures and VOCA use were introduced in multiple probe fashion across 4 children and two classroom routines (snack and play). As the procedures were implemented, all children showed increases in communicative interactions using VOCAs. Also, there was no apparent reductive effect of VOCA use within the naturalistic teaching paradigm on other communicative behaviors. Teachers' ratings of children's VOCA communication, as well as ratings of a person unfamiliar with the children, supported the contextual appropriateness of the VOCA. Probes likewise indicated that the children used the VOCAs for a variety of different messages including requests, yes and no responses, statements, and social comments. Results are discussed in regard to the potential benefits of a VOCA when combined with naturalistic teaching procedures. Future research needs are also discussed, focusing on more precise identification of the attributes of VOCA use for children with autism, as well as for their support personnel.     

Event-related potentials in a two-interval forced-choice detection task

In an attempt to elucidate the nature of the subject’s strategy in a two-interval forcedchoice auditory detection task, event-related potentials were studied at two intensities which yielded mean accuracies of 82% and 98%. Subjects reported the observation interval in which they judged the signal to be present and the confidence of the judgment. Principal components varimax analyses yielded four components: a CZ maximal P300, a Slow Wave, a slow negative shift, and a late negative component. The P300 amplitude findings suggest that different strategies are utilized for high-confidence and low-confidence detections. At high confidence, P300 amplitude is large for the observation interval in which the signal is presented, indicating a strategy involving serial independent detection. However, the P300 latency findings at high confidence suggest that absence of the signal in the first observation interval is nonetheless noted: P300 latency in response to signal presence is shorter for the second observation interval than for the first observation interval. At low confidence, P300 is small or absent for both observation intervals, indicating a deferred decision, presumably arrived at through comparison of the two percepts.     

When is it wrong to eat animals? The relevance of different animal traits and behaviours

Research suggests that animals’ capacity for agency, experience, and benevolence predict beliefs about their moral treatment. Four studies built on this work by examining how fine‐grained information about animals’ traits and behaviours (e.g., can store food for later vs. can use tools) shifted moral beliefs about eating and harming animals. The information that most strongly affected moral beliefs was related to secondary emotions (e.g., can feel love), morality (e.g., will share food with others), empathy (e.g., can feel others' pain), social connections (e.g., will look for deceased family members), and moral patiency (e.g., can feel pain). In addition, information affected moral judgements in line with how it affected superordinate representations about animals’ capacity for experience/feeling but not agency/thinking. The results provide a fine‐grained outline of how, and why, information about animals’ traits and behaviours informs moral judgements.     

Resurgence and downshifts in alternative reinforcement rate

Resurgence refers to an increase in a previously suppressed target behavior with a relative worsening of conditions for a more recently reinforced alternative behavior. This experiment examined the relation between resurgence and the magnitude of a reduction in the rate of reinforcement for the alternative behavior. Groups of both male and female rats initially pressed a target lever for food on a variable-interval (VI) 30-s schedule. In a second phase, responding to the target lever was extinguished for all groups and pressing an alternative lever was reinforced on a VI 10-s schedule. Next, the rate of reinforcement for alternative behavior was reduced differentially across groups by arranging extinction, VI 80-s, VI 40-s, VI 20-s, or continued VI 10-s reinforcement. Target responding increased as an exponential function of the magnitude of the reduction in alternative reinforcement rates. With the exception that males appeared to show higher rates of target responding in baseline and higher rates of alternative responding in other phases, the overall pattern of responding across phases was not meaningfully different between sexes. The pattern of both target and alternative response rates across sessions and phases was well described quantitatively by the Resurgence as Choice in Context model.     

Age and culture modulate object processing and object—scene binding in the ventral visual area

Behavioral differences in the visual processing of objects and backgrounds as a function of cultural group are well documented. Recent neuroimaging evidence also points to cultural differences in neural activation patterns. Compared with East Asians, Westerners’ visual processing is more object focused, and they activate neural structures that reflect this bias for objects. In a recent adaptation study, East Asian older adults showed an absence of an object-processing area but normal adaptation for background areas. In the present study, 75 young and old adults (half East Asian and half Western) were tested in an fMR-adaptation study to examine differences in object and background processing as well as object—background binding. We found equivalent background processing in the parahippocampal gyrus in all four groups, diminished binding processes in the hippocampus in elderly East Asians and Westerners, and diminished object processing in elderly versus young adults in the lateral occipital complex. Moreover, elderly East Asians showed significantly less adaptation response in the object areas than did elderly Westerners. These findings demonstrate the malleability of perceptual processes as a result of differences in cohort-specific experiences or in cultural exposure over time.