Learning and foraging efficiency in German cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.) (Insecta: Dictyoptera)

We analysed, under laboratory test conditions, how German cockroach larvae oriented their outgoing foraging trip from their shelter. Our results stressed the importance of external factors, like availability and spatial distribution of food sources, in the choice of a foraging strategy within their home range. When food sources were randomly distributed, larvae adopted a random food search strategy. When food distribution was spatially predictable and reliable, cockroaches were able to relate the presence of food with a landmark during a 3-day training period and to develop an oriented search strategy. Cockroaches were able to associate learned spatial information about their home range to the presence of food resources and then to improve their foraging efficiency. However, conflict experiments revealed that detection of food odour overrode learned landmark cues. Received: 16 October 1999 / Accepted after revision: 18 July 2000     

A meta-analysis of aggression in the presence of violent cues: Effects of gender differences and aversive provocation

Meta-analytically examines experimental studies that include violent cues in the setting and assesses the effects of aversive provocation on gender differences in aggression. The results show that when violent cues are present, men are more aggressive than women under neutral unprovoked conditions. However, when they are exposed to both violent cues and aversive provocation, men and women are equally aggressive. Differences in individual reactivity to violent cues as well as the type of aggressive response and the sex of the target also affected the magnitude of gender differences in the presence of violent cues. Aggr. Behav. 23:447–456, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Personality predicts words in favorite songs

Psychologists have long theorized that people actively create, select, or modify experiences and situations to fulfill their individual psychological needs. However, little is known about how people may use forms of art and entertainment such as music to enhance their experiences and shape their environments for need satisfaction. In this research, we measured participants’ personality and the linguistic styles of their favorite songs, and observed significant associations between personality traits and linguistic cues in lyrics. These associations were stronger for participants who generally liked a song because of its lyrics rather than melody. Our study is the first to show how one’s personality is related to linguistic cues in someone else’s writings. It points to the possibility that people may like certain songs because the linguistic cues in the lyrics are congruent with their personality and hence can satisfy personal needs. This expands research on person-situation interaction and literature on personality and language use, and has important practical implications.     

Improving visual spatial working memory in younger and older adults: effects of cross-modal cues

Spatially informative auditory and vibrotactile (cross-modal) cues can facilitate attention but little is known about how similar cues influence visual spatial working memory (WM) across the adult lifespan. We investigated the effects of cues (spatially informative or alerting pre-cues vs. no cues), cue modality (auditory vs. vibrotactile vs. visual), memory array size (four vs. six items), and maintenance delay (900 vs. 1800 ms) on visual spatial location WM recognition accuracy in younger adults (YA) and older adults (OA). We observed a significant interaction between spatially informative pre-cue type, array size, and delay. OA and YA benefitted equally from spatially informative pre-cues, suggesting that attentional orienting prior to WM encoding, regardless of cue modality, is preserved with age. Contrary to predictions, alerting pre-cues generally impaired performance in both age groups, suggesting that maintaining a vigilant state of arousal by facilitating the alerting attention system does not help visual spatial location WM.     

奖赏对海洛因成瘾者执行功能的影响机制

一些研究发现海洛因成瘾者奖赏失调表现为:对海洛因相关线索的注意偏向、渴求感增加,对金钱奖赏表现出"即时收益优先"的高风险决策模式和对长时收益的敏感性降低。另一些研究发现海洛因成瘾者的执行功能存在障碍。奖赏失调和执行功能障碍在成瘾物质使用的维持和复吸中起着重要作用。双重竞争模型认为奖赏和执行功能的交互作用决定着行为的结果,但是奖赏对海洛因成瘾者执行功能的影响机制还不清楚。因此,拟使用事件相关电位技术来考察海洛因相关线索和金钱奖赏对不同戒断期成瘾者执行功能的影响机制,短期(1~3个月)、长期(18个月以上)海洛因戒断者和健康对照组被比较。这不仅有助于构建完善的成瘾理论体系,还有助于确定临床戒断后复吸的风险因素和不同戒断期的治疗目标。     

Consistency between verbal and non-verbal affective cues: a clue to speaker credibility

Listeners are exposed to inconsistencies in communication; for example, when speakers’ words (i.e. verbal) are discrepant with their demonstrated emotions (i.e. non-verbal). Such inconsistencies introduce ambiguity, which may render a speaker to be a less credible source of information. Two experiments examined whether children make credibility discriminations based on the consistency of speakers’ affect cues. In Experiment 1, school-age children (7- to 8-year-olds) preferred to solicit information from consistent speakers (e.g. those who provided a negative statement with negative affect), over novel speakers, to a greater extent than they preferred to solicit information from inconsistent speakers (e.g. those who provided a negative statement with positive affect) over novel speakers. Preschoolers (4- to 5-year-olds) did not demonstrate this preference. Experiment 2 showed that school-age children's ratings of speakers were influenced by speakers’ affect consistency when the attribute being judged was related to information acquisition (speakers’ believability, “weird” speech), but not general characteristics (speakers’ friendliness, likeability). Together, findings suggest that school-age children are sensitive to, and use, the congruency of affect cues to determine whether individuals are credible sources of information.     

不同康复时相戒除者对海洛因相关线索的注意偏向

以84名生理脱瘾后处于不同康复时相的海洛因戒除者为被试,采用情绪Stroop范式,以海洛因相关线索为自变量,考察了海洛因戒除者的注意偏向特性及其动态变化。结果发现:(1)海洛因戒除者对相关线索存在着显著的注意偏向;(2)海洛因戒除者对相关线索的注意偏向随康复期的延长无显著改善。该研究支持了Franken关于药物成瘾的注意偏向模型。     

人脑眶额皮质表征奖赏信息的进展

文章围绕人脑眶额皮质在表征奖赏信息上的核心作用展开,分别从人脑眶额皮质表征奖赏信息的共同神经表征和特异性神经表征特点,奖赏加工和该脑区局部形态特征之间的关系以及眶额皮质表征奖赏信息的时间动态性等角度对最近的重要研究进展进行了一定的梳理和概括。最后,文章讨论了未来研究需要解决的由奖赏类型多样性和脑区间奖赏信息整合复杂性带来的系列问题。     

Implicit attentional orienting in a target detection task with central cues

Studies using Posner’s spatial cueing paradigm have demonstrated that participants can allocate their attention to specific target locations based on the predictiveness of preceding cues. Four experiments were conducted to investigate attentional orienting processes operating in a high probability condition (cues 75% predictive) as compared to a low probability condition (cues 50% predictive) using various types of centrally-presented cues. Spatially-informative cues (arrows and circles with gaps) resulted in cueing effects (CEs) for both probability conditions, with significantly larger CEs in the high probability conditions than the low probability conditions. Participants in the high probability conditions reported little or no awareness of cue–target probabilities after task completion. Our results provide support for an implicit learning account of the proportion valid effect under experimental conditions involving spatially-informative central cues and relatively short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs).