Second-order conditioning of human causal learning

This article provides the first demonstration of a reliable second-order conditioning (SOC) effect in human causal learning tasks. It demonstrates the human ability to infer relationships between a cause and an effect that were never paired together during training. Experiments 1a and 1b showed a clear and reliable SOC effect, while Experiments 2a and 2b demonstrated that first-order extinction did not affect SOC. These results were similar to those found in animal and human conditioning and suggested that a similar associative mechanism could explain these effects. However, they can also be used to look into the underlying causal mental model people build and store while they are learning this task. From a cognitive view, overall results suggest that an independent rather than a chain causal mental model is stored after second-order learning in human causal tasks.     

The rubber hand illusion depends on a congruent mapping between real and artificial fingers

The rubber hand illusion (RHI), in which a visible artificial hand is touched (or moves) synchronously with the participant's unseen own hand, indicates that body representations can undergo rapid changes. While several constraints for this illusion have been described, some reports highlight a remarkable flexibility of body representations, even contradicting a priori assumptions regarding body appearance and anatomy (e.g., the subjective embodiment of a third arm).     

Enhancing exposure-based therapy from a translational research perspective

Combining an effective psychological treatment with conventional anxiolytic medication is typically not more effective than unimodal therapy for treating anxiety disorders. However, recent advances in the neuroscience of fear reduction have led to novel approaches for combining psychological therapy and pharmacological agents. Exposure-based treatments in humans partly rely on extinction to reduce the fear response in anxiety disorders. Animal studies have shown that D-cycloserine (DCS), a partial agonist at the glycine recognition site of the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor facilitates extinction learning. Similarly, recent human trials have shown that DCS enhances fear reduction during exposure therapy of some anxiety disorders. This article discusses the biological and psychological mechanisms of extinction learning and the therapeutic value of DCS as an augmentation strategy for exposure therapy. Areas of future research will be identified.     

Rôle du contexte dans l'extinction du jugement causal : implications pour la thérapie comportementale

The article describes an experimental series on causal judgment showing that the extinction can recover: 1) where the extinction has not been learned; 2) with time following extinction; 3) during a simple exposition to the stimulus not presented during extinction. Bouton's theory (1993, 1994) is referred to account for these three conditions about the recovery of the extinguished response. The aim is to offer an experimental and theoretical framework for the study of relapse following a behavioural therapy based upon extinction.     

The resistance of renewal to instructions that devalue the role of contextual cues in a conditioned suppression task with humans

The renewal of extinguished conditioned behaviour appears to reflect context-dependent learning. The present research used a conditioned suppression task with humans to examine whether instructions concerning the context could influence renewal. Pairings of a conditional stimulus (CS) and unconditional stimulus (US) were made in one context, followed by extinction trials of CS alone in a second context, and test trials of CS alone upon return to the original learning context. Four experiments tested whether the renewal of conditioned suppression observed during test would be attenuated if participants were instructed that the context changes were irrelevant to the predictive relationship between the CS and US. Using a differential conditioning design, no attenuation was found when the instructions were given prior to conditioning (Experiment 1) or immediately prior to the test trials (Experiment 2). The latter result was replicated with a single-cue conditioning design and further controls for exposure to the extinction contexts (Experiment 3). The collection of on-line ratings about the relationship between the contextual changes and the predictive nature of the CS indicated that participants did attend to and believe the instructions (Experiment 4). The results point to the resistance of renewal to explicit instructions that attempt to devalue the role of the contextual cues.     

d-Serine facilitates the effects of extinction to reduce cocaine-primed reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior

Male Sprague Dawley rats were allowed to self-administer cocaine (0.5 mg/kg) during 90 min sessions for a period of 15 days. On day 16, rats were either held abstinent in their home cage environment or experienced an extinction session in which the active lever had no programmed consequences. Facilitating N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activity with the coagonist d-serine (100 mg/kg i.p.) before or following the extinction session significantly reduced the subsequent cocaine-primed reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior tested on day 17. d-Serine significantly reduced drug-primed reinstatement only when combined with extinction, and its effectiveness when administered following the training session suggested that an enhancement of consolidation of extinction learning had occurred. In contrast, d-serine treatment did not reduce sucrose-primed reinstatement, indicating that the beneficial effects of this adjunct pharmacotherapy with extinction training were specific to an addictive substance (cocaine) and did not generalize to a natural reward (sucrose).     

从视觉知觉与行为的分离看行为的计划-控制模型

知觉与行为的分离现象最早是从临床病例中发现的,以后研究者在正常人身上利用错觉实验范式继续探索该现象,并由此发展了4个模型进行解释。其中,计划-控制模型得到了众多实验事实的支持。该模型认为：行为分为计划和控制两个阶段,每个阶段都有独立的加工模块,每个模块使用不同的视觉表征;错觉影响计划阶段,但是不影响在线控制阶段。本文重点回顾了动态错觉效应对计划-控制模型的实验验证,并进行了评价和展望     

福至心灵：幸运感知对消费行为的影响及其理论解释

寻求幸运的行为从古至今广泛存在于人类生活的方方面面,幸运感知如何影响消费行为的理论成果为消费研究领域做出了重要贡献。通过系统回顾相关文献发现,个体的幸运感知会对冒险行为、独特性寻求、传染效应、特定事物的态度和幸运消费产生影响。归因理论、人格特质理论、认知启动理论、反事实思维、社会比较理论、控制感理论和启发式决策可以用于解释幸运感知对消费行为的影响。未来研究应深化幸运感知影响消费行为的作用机制并拓展边界条件及其双向结果。     

Biased judgments of the effects of speed change on travel time,fuel consumption and braking: Individual differences in the use of simplifying rules producing the same biases

The main purpose of this study was to identify different cognitive rules that lead to a particular judgment bias. To fulfill this purpose, a new method Spectral analysis was introduced and applied. Participants judged time saved by driving faster, fuel saved by replacing a car and braking capacity at different speeds. These problems invite the time saving bias (e.g., time saved from speed increases at higher speeds overestimated), the miles per gallon, MPG illusion (misjudgment of fuel saved by replacing a car) and the braking capacity bias (overestimation of braking capacity after speed increase). The average results replicated the biases. Spectral analysis of individual participants and problems showed that a speed difference rule explained about half of the time saving judgments and about three fourth of the MPG judgments. A difference between speeds rule described about one third of the biased braking judgments and a ratio/proportion rule about one fifth of the time saving and MPG judgments. All rules give biased judgments in all three domains. The paper ends with a discussion of hierarchies of cognitive rules, applications of the results, and how to mitigate or avoid the biases and the risks associated with the biases.     

视动刺激生理心理反应的实验研究

３０名男性军校学员。在两种指导语指导下,经受了一系列视动跃跃刺激（５、１０、１５、２０、３０、４０、６０、８０、１００、１２０度／秒）,每个刺激持续２０秒。用磁带机记录被试的视动性眼震信号,同时,记录被试视动性错觉出现的潜伏期和错觉量。视动性眼震信号在７Ｔ１７信息处理仪上进行脱机采样处理,错觉量用模糊集途径进行量化。主要结论如下：１．视动性眼震的快相速度、慢性速度、快相幅度、慢性幅度均随刺激速度增加而增大,在６０－１２０度／秒范围达到峰值后,基本维持稳定状态,而快慢相时间却有相反的变化趋势,其随刺激速度增加而减小,在６０度／秒达到最低值,然后略有回升。２．在５－１２０度／秒内,视动性错觉随刺激速度的增加而增大,呈直线上升。３．视动性眼震与视动性错觉不存在因果关系。低速度视动刺激下,当视动性眼震被抑制时,错觉量明显增大,说明视动性眼震减轻了视动性错觉。