The sensory basis of avoidance responding in the rat : Relative dominance of auditory or visual warning signals and safety signals

Three experiments determined the relative degree of stimulus control exerted by the elements of a compound auditory-visual stimulus when this stimulus was presented in various temporal relationships to a barpress avoidance response. When the compound discriminative stimulus for barpress avoidance responding consisted of onset of white noise and onset of either light or darkness, the white noise always exerted dominant control. When the compound discriminative stimulus consisted of offset of white noise and onset of light, neither element controlled avoidance responding. On the other hand, when a barpress avoidance response produced a compound feedback stimulus consisting of onset of white noise and onset of either light or darkness, the visual element always exerted dominant control. When the compound feedback stimulus consisted of offset of white noise and onset of light, both elements exerted stimulus control.     

Language acquisition following hemidecortication: Linguistic superiority of the left over the right hemisphere

The language development of three 9- and 10-year-old children possessing only a right or a left hemisphere was studied. Surgical removal of one brain half antedated the beginning of speech, so each child has acquired speech and language with only one hemisphere. Different configurations of language skill have developed in the two isolated hemispheres: phonemic and semantic abilities are similarly developed but syntactic competence has been asymmetrically acquired. In relation to the left, the right brain half is deficient in understanding auditory language, especially when meaning is conveyed by syntactic diversity; detecting and correcting errors of surface syntactic structure; repeating stylistically permuted sentences; producing tag questions which match the grammatical features of a heard statement; determining sentence implication; integrating semantic and syntactic information to replace missing pronouns; and performing judgments of word interrelationships in sentences. Language development in an isolated right hemisphere, even under seizure-free conditions, results in incomplete language acquisition.     

Cooperation or Tension? Dyadic Coping in Cystic Fibrosis

Following a rise in the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, many adults with CF form couple relationships. Yet, dyadic coping has not been previously examined in people with CF. This study examined how adults with CF and their partners cope as a couple with the illness, and what meanings each partner and the couple as a unit attribute to the experience. Seventeen adult CF patients and their partners participated in separate semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. Two main patterns of dyadic coping with CF were identified as follows: cooperation and tension. For couples in cooperation, the marital relationship served as a resource for adaptive coping. These couples were characterized by similarities in their perception of the place of CF in their lives and of their roles in the marital relationship. Couples in tension described the couple relationship as strained by difficulty of accepting the disease, proliferation of negative emotions, and a sense of burden and loneliness in the process of coping. Findings point to the importance of mutual empathy, clear and accepted division of roles between the partners, and open communication for facilitating coping as a couple.     

The neural pathways mediating quiet-biting attack behavior from the hypothalamus in the cat: A functional autoradiographic study

Electrical stimulation of the region of the lateral hypothalamus produced a consistent form of quiet-biting attack behavior in cats. In one series of experiments, cats, implanted with electrodes from which attack had been elicited, were anesthetized and then were injected with a bolus of ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose at the same time as electrical stimulation was delivered through the attack electrodes. Brains prepared for X-ray autoradiography revealed that lateral hypothalamic stimulation activated the classical medial forebrain bundle pathway supplying the septal region, diagonal band, lateral preoptic area, and ventral tegmental region. Stimulation of quiet-attack sites in perifornical hypothalamus resulted in the activation of a much more extensive projection system which included the central and lateral tegmental fields of the midbrain and pons, and central gray region, as well as the structures described above. In a second series of experiments, ³H-leucine was placed into the region of the electrode tip from which attack was elicited in order to identify more precisely the pathways arising from that site. In general, tritiated amino acid radioautography replicated the ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose findings. In addition, the amino acid radioautographic data revealed the presence of extensive projections from perifornical hypothalamus to such pontine structures as the nucleus locus coeruleus, motor nucleus of NV , and the lateral pontine tegmental field. The functional connections between the lateral hypothalamic “attack region” and lateral preoptic zone were also confirmed by electrophysiological methods.     

语言熟练度对Stroop效应的影响——不平衡双语者的任务态fMRI研究

目的:探讨语言熟练度对Stroop效应的影响及其背后的脑机制。材料与方法:17位被试参与本研究。被试母语为汉语,第二语言为英语。在被试完成中英文的stroop色字的任务过程中对被试进行fMRI扫描。结果:在色字相一致的条件下,中文任务与英文任务相比,双侧背侧枕叶及右侧背外侧前额叶有更强的激活; 反向比较,双侧腹侧枕叶有更强的激活。在色字不一致的条件下,中文任务与英文任务相比,双侧背外侧前额叶、右侧枕下回有更强的激活; 反向比较,并无显著激活的脑区。此外,中文Stroop效应引起左侧额下回显著的激活。英文Stroop效应中,左侧额下回无显著激活。结论:结合前人研究,我们得出,语言熟练度影响了对注意控制有重要作用的背外侧前额叶以及与反应抑制有关的左侧额下回在Stroop任务中的参与程度,进而影响了Stroop任务的表现     

Using the UTAUT2 model to explain public acceptance of conditionally automated (L3) cars: A questionnaire study among 9,118 car drivers from eight European countries

We investigated public acceptance of conditionally automated (SAE Level 3) passenger cars using a questionnaire study among 9,118 car-drivers in eight European countries, as part of the European L3Pilot project. 71.06% of respondents considered conditionally automated cars easy to use while 28.03% of respondents planned to buy a conditionally automated car once it is available. 41.85% of respondents would like to use the time in the conditionally automated car for secondary activities. Among these 41.85%, respondents plan to talk to fellow travellers (44.76%), surf the internet, watch videos or TV shows (44%), observe the landscape (41.70%), and work (17.06%). The UTAUT2 (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) was applied to investigate the effects of performance and effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and hedonic motivation on the behavioural intention to use conditionally automated cars. Structural equation analysis revealed that the UTAUT2 can be applied to conditional automation, with hedonic motivation, social influence, and performance expectancy influencing the behavioural intention to buy and use a conditionally automated car. The present study also found positive effects of facilitating conditions on effort expectancy and hedonic motivation. Social influence was a positive predictor of hedonic motivation, facilitating conditions, and performance expectancy. Age, gender and experience with advanced driver assistance systems had significant, yet small (<0.10), effects on behavioural intention. The implications of these results on the policy and best practices to enable large-scale implementation of conditionally automated cars on public roads are discussed.     

Environnement psycho-technologique (EPT) et comportements d’apprentissage avec les technologies (CAT) : developpement et adaptation française de deux mesures

The 4th industrial revolution and the omnipresence of technologies have largely modified the work context and more specifically the learning process. We postulate the emergence of a new psycho-technological environment, which is characterized by more opportunities to learn and more accessible technologies. To our knowledge, no measurement can capture the perception of psycho-technological environment (PTE) and learning behaviors with technologies (LBT). The aim of this study is therefore to compensate for this lack of tools with the development of French-language. Two studies that combine 389 students were conducted. In the first study, based on a sample of 151 students, two scales were developed via an explanatory factorial analysis. In the second study, based on a sample of 238 students, a confirmatory factorial analysis confirmed the psychometric qualities of our scales. This first validation study shows good validity and fiability with the good psychometric qualities of our scales.