Classical conditioning of aggressive display in Siamese fighting fish

Unconditioned aggressive-display behavior elicited by the mirror image of a male Siamese Fighting Fish was brought under the control of a previously ineffective stimulus by classical conditioning. A stimulus light repeatedly paired with mirror presentation came to elicit the complex aggressive-behavior sequence. Relative rates of acquisition of four components of the display were compared. Fin erection and undulating movements were acquired most rapidly while gill-cover erection and frontal approach were acquired most slowly. A discriminative conditioning procedure revealed that the response was specifically elicited by the conditioned stimulus, and not a sensitization artifact.     

Visual-reinforcer color-and operant behavior in Siamese fighting fish

Male Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens) were conditioned to emit an operant response sequence reinforced by presentation of a model of a male Siamese Fighting Fish in aggressive display. Operant response rate varied as a function of the color of the model with respect to the color of the subject.     

Impact of Commitment Upon Performance of College Students

The retention, academic achievement, and change in college plans of students committed to a field of study as freshmen are compared with those who were not sure of their interest. A survey form administered to all the freshmen in the class of 1964, College of Agriculture, was readministered to all those still enrolled seven semesters later. The original hypothesis that the committed student was different from the uncommitted tended to be upheld. The committed student who was dedicated to the study of agriculture was more persistent in his interest in his chosen field; fewer committed students changed majors; fewer withdrew from college.     

Occupational Values of High School Students

Responses of high school students as freshmen and later as sophomores in this study support the belief that the characteristics of a vocation that are important to students may be internalized relatively early in life. There were differences between what girls and boys thought was important in an occupation; however, little difference was found between the group means of these students when freshmen and a year later when sophomores. Most students did not change occupational preference between the freshman and sophomore year. Students in the study as freshmen, but transferring out or withdrawing a year later, differed little in occupational values or in occupational choice from the sophomores. These findings agree only in part with work of other researchers in this field.     

Healing the betrayed: Issues in psychotherapy with child victims of trauma

Over the last few years there has been a tremendous upsurge of research on child victims of trauma. However, very little has been reported on the process of psychotherapy with traumatized children. The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of countertransference and the use of a treatment parameter that has been tried in several individual cases of victimized children and found to be of value.     

Downward comparison, prejudice, and evaluations of others: effects of self-esteem and threat

In two studies, we explored the effects of trait self-esteem and threats to the self-concept on evaluations of others. In Study 1, subjects high, moderate, and low in self-esteem received either success, failure, or no feedback on a test and later evaluated three pairs of targets: in-groups and out-groups based on a minimal intergroup manipulation, those who scored above average and those who scored below average on the test, and themselves and the average college student. Study 2 explored the effects of self-esteem and threat on in-group favoritism in a real-world setting, campus sororities. Together, the results of these studies indicate that individuals high in self-esteem, but not those low in self-esteem, respond to threats to the self-concept by derogating out-groups relative to the in-group when the group boundaries have evaluative implications.     

Remembering words and how often they occurred in memory-impaired patients

Memory &; Cognition - The recent memory impairments in Korsakoff’s (KD), Huntington’s (HD), and Alzheimer’s (SDAT) diseases are qualitatively different from one another. All...     

Physical Fitness as a moderator of cognitive work capacity and fatigue onset under sustained combat-like operations

A study was devised to investigate the role of physical fitness in moderating both cognitive work capacity and fatigue onset under sustained combat operations. Sixteen male ROTC cadets were followed through a 2.5-day, Pre Ranger Evaluation exercise. Prior to the start of the exercise, the cadets’ overall level of physical fitness was assessed by using five fitness indices (Harvard Step Test, chin-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and two-mile run). Cognitive performance and subjective measures of fatigue state were assessed at regular intervals before, during, and 1 day after the exercise. The results suggest that fitness may attenuate decrements in cognitive work capacity for certain tasks requiring prolonged mental effort, particularly as the cumulative effects of sleep loss and other stressors begin to mount. Similarly, the results suggest that as overall stress levels increase, fitness may have a beneficial effect in moderating fatigue rate. Fitness did not significantly enhance the recovery process with respect to cognitive work capacity, and actually appeared to hinder recovery from fatigue.