Objective The effects of selenium on behavioral consequences of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection in rats was assessed. Materials and methods The animals were randomized into the following four groups (n = 8 in each): (1) control group, (2) LPS group (that received 1 mg/kg of LPS two hours before conducting the behavioral tests), and (3 and 4) LPS- Sel 100 and LPS- Sel 200 groups (that were treated

It has been suggested that relapse after exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder is related to the renewal effect. This study aimed to investigate whether the renewal effect occurs in fear conditioning utilizing social stimuli and the quantitative predictions obtained by the Rescorla-Wagner and Bouton’s model using Bayesian modeling fit their data. A total of 63 students participated in this study

Adult rats learn to be shy away from a taste paired with the ingestion of lactose solution. This study thus aimed to elucidate the nature of this shyness learning. Specifically, by measuring kaolin clay consumption, which is as a good maker of nausea in rats, the study attempted to find out whether lactose produces nausea. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a lactose solution, as well as a lithium chloride

Depression is a state of low mood that can seriously affect the quality of life of society. Therefore, finding new antidepressant agents with high efficacy is needed. Dextromethorphan (DXM) is an antitussive drug that has a potential effect on treating mood disorders, especially depression. However, because of limited data that relies on a few experimental animal studies mechanisms of action are yet

Behavioral variability (BV) is proposed as a general adaptation process to environmental changes related to adjustments for the search of reinforcement sources. During extinction procedures, BV is reflected by increases of the number, topography, or sequences of behaviors. Inhibitory drugs have been found to decrease BV during radial arm-maze extinction procedures. The present research explores the

A previously reinforced and then extinguished response can recur following a change in the environmental context despite extinction remaining in effect, often referred to as renewal. Using zebrafish, the present study examined how adding a punishment contingency to the training context affected the level of renewal. In Context A, responding was reinforced during Phase 1a and then exposed to either

It is well known that animals can learn escape responses when exposed to aversive stimuli. Additionally, it has been described that as effective behaviors to reduce contact with aversive stimuli are developed, the level of arousal decreases. However, the avoidance tasks, typically described, are based on the learning of simple motor patterns that do not allow a detailed description of the process of

Approach-avoidance behaviours play a major role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders as repeated avoidance behaviours are assumed to prevent fear extinction. Approach-avoidance decisions (Conditioned Stimulus (CS)-avoidance and Unconditioned Stimulus (US)-avoidance) and their effect on fear extinction and renewal were investigated using a novel Virtual Reality fear conditioning procedure

The purpose of the study was to test the impact of a two-minute physical exercise that was applied at the beginning and in the middle of lectures on university students’ state motivation and academic learning performance. There were three cohorts of religion education teacher candidates. Three cohorts were randomly assigned to the experimental, Hawthorne, and control groups. Throughout the semester

The neuroimmune system has been suggested to play a role in the ethiology of depression and anxiety. Frankincense extract is an herb that has been considered to be an anti-inflammatory agent potentially useful in the treatment of specific neuroimmune system disorders. The present study examined the effects of frankincense ethyl acetate extract on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) - induced depression and anxiety-like

Conceptions of learning science are described as epistemological beliefs that represent student beliefs about school science and science learning in general. Previous studies do not simultaneously take into account the role of students’ lower- and higher-level conceptions of learning science in their motivation and self-regulation. As a new contribution to the literature, the purpose of current study

Although difficult learning processes like tests are beneficial for later learning outcomes, learning situations including tests or quizzes can also be perceived as acute stressors leading to more pressure, anxiety, and stress. Thus, we suppose that participants evaluate learning situations with tests, contrary to reading tasks, as more negative and experience more stress. This should be especially

This experiment examined the effects of a redundant cue that predicted the target response to a target stimulus in a response conflict procedure using a flanker task. Participants received trials with five-character arrays with a central target character and distractor flanker characters that matched (compatible) or did not match (incompatible) the central target. Participants’ expectancies for compatible

The purpose of this study was to examine learned helplessness (LH) experienced by junior secondary students in English language learning classes in Iranian public schools. Through administering the Learned Helplessness Scale (LHS) and the Student Behavior Checklist (SBC) to 126 students in a public school in Tehran, we identified 44 students with LH characteristics. The sample was randomly assigned

The Black-legged Kittiwake gull (Rissa tridactyla) is noted for its suite of evolutionary adaptations to its extreme cliff-nesting habitat (Cullen, 1957) which distinguish it behaviourally in a number of ways from other gulls (Laridae). One such behaviour we observed was siblicide, the death of one chick from falling out of the nest as a consequence of agonistic harassment by the other (Dickins et

Backward evaluative conditioning has been shown to result in assimilative effects where backward conditional stimuli (CS) acquire the valence of the unconditional stimulus (US) or in contrast effects where backward CSs acquire valence opposite to the US. The current experiments were designed to assess whether the nature of evaluative backward conditioning varies as a function of US offset predictability

Playback of audio recordings is a well-established method of eliciting behavioural responses in the wild. The effects of audio playback on the behaviour of wild European herring gulls (Larus argentatus) has not been well researched however. The present study was conducted in order to address this using playback of recordings of European herring gull alarm calls, European herring gull food begging calls

Using stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH) as an assay of stress levels, the effects of physical contact with conspecifics on restraint stress and the recovery from it were examined in mice. Restrained mice surrounded by freely moving cage mates showed enhanced SIH due to social inequality aversion. However, this stress enhancement was not observed when the subject was physically separated from cage mates

Token economies are commonly used in educational and clinical settings as tools for reinforcing appropriate behavior. However, little applied research has been conducted to investigate the behavioral mechanisms involved. What’s more, research with non-human animals suggests that tokens may serve discriminative functions which may actually suppress responding under high schedule requirements. This study

Depression has been linked to weakened perceptions of control. The experimental evidence derives from tasks with exposure to stable action-outcome contingencies. One assumption has been that performance represents a general cognitive bias that might manifest itself by a global performance difference. Another view is that people have specific situational perceptions of control reflecting their recent

Mental health symptoms tend to correlate with one another within individuals. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on responses to five questionnaires related to depression, anxiety, trauma and perceived stress to determine which items related most highly to a common underlying construct in women with HIV (n = 35). Individual responses were further analyzed with respect to ruminations, which

Sensory-specific satiation is the transient loss of reward value of a recently eaten food versus recently uneaten foods. In this study, participants (n = 70 young women and men with healthy body weight) were randomised to eat a fixed portion of either cream cheese bagel or chocolate chip brioche for breakfast. They were also randomised to one of four ‘mindset’ manipulations (attention, distraction

Classic instances of evaluative learning require the spatio-temporal contingency between source and target stimuli. However, people can learn to like stimuli in a more indirect fashion. Moreover, many of our preferences are self-referential: we tend to like the objects that are related to ourselves. For instance, it is demonstrated that performing the Self-Referencing task, a categorization task based

Sign-tracking and goal-tracking are behavioral tendencies in which Pavlovian conditioned responses are directed either toward the cue for an unconditioned stimulus (sign-tracking) or toward the location of an unconditioned stimulus delivery (goal-tracking). The current study examined operant response rates in sign- (n = 7) and goal-tracking (n = 11) Wistar rats under a restricted feeding schedule,

Pavlovian conditioning results in individual variation in the vigor and form of acquired behaviors. Here, we describe a general-process model of associative learning (HeiDI; How excitation and inhibition determine ideo-motion) that provides an analysis for such variation together with a range of other important group-level phenomena. The model takes as its starting point the idea that pairings of a

Rats exposed to spaced (S) conditions of training, with intertrial intervals (ITIs) averaging 90 s, acquired autoshaping performance (contact with a retractable lever presented 10 s before the response-independent delivery of 5 food pellets) faster than rats exposed to massed (M) training, with ITIs averaging 15 s. Gradual or abrupt transitions between S and M training were followed by concomitant

Why do some individuals learn more quickly than others, or perform better in complex cognitive tasks? In this article, we describe how differential and experimental research methods can be used to study intelligence in humans and non-human animals. More than one hundred years ago, Spearman (1904) discovered a general factor underpinning performance across cognitive domains in humans. Shortly thereafter

Introduction Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder characterized by the presence of an extra chromosome, which is typically associated with motor and cognitive changes that interfere with the ability to perform daily activities. To enable gains in motor skills in individuals with DS, one option is to use new technologies such as mobile phone tasks in a virtual reality environment. Objective To explore

Rats trained in a 2-lever autoshaping situation with large and small rewards, prefer the lever signaling the large reward in simultaneous free-choice tests. However, after a large-to-small reward devaluation, choice switches to the unshifted lever that always offered the small reward (Conrad & Papini, J Exp Psychol: Anim Learn Cog, 2018). Such revaluation of an option signaling an unshifted reward

Mindset interventions are designed to encourage students to adopt a growth mindset, reflecting the belief that one’s intelligence can be improved in an effort to increase academic achievement. How do these interventions exert their effects? We assessed the effects of an online mindset intervention on mindset and four outcome variables, grit, locus of control, challenge-seeking behavior, and cognitive

Background and Objectives Addictive behaviors are gaining recognition in the clinical community, leading to more attention for the effects of problematic porn use. As many addictive behaviors are characterized by automatically activated approach-tendencies for disorder-relevant stimuli, we tested whether such tendencies are also present for erotic images and whether these are related to problematic

During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic panic buying of food was reported by the media. Panic buying has received little attention within behavioural science. In this paper we suggest that optimality models of foraging under risk and uncertainty would be a fruitful place to begin developing useful and testable hypotheses about this behaviour. In making this case we relate panic buying to a general increase

To maintain water balance, terrestrial amphibians are motivated to seek water when dehydrated and to avoid hypertonic solutions that promote water loss to the environment. Thus, dehydration and hypertonic solutions both act to promote positive water balance through opposite appetitive and aversive mechanisms. In one experiment, we tested if appetitive and aversive stimuli interact to facilitate learning

Flow has been described as a perceived balance between task demands and personal skills, during which individuals become completely immersed in activities. The current study manipulated three levels of task demands to examine the preconditions of flow in an educational context and aimed to explore the neural correlates of flow by adopting event-related potential (ERP). A total of 23 participants performed

This article reports on a study which aimed to see how different sequencing strategies for video modeling examples and inquiry tasks influenced EFL learners' willingness to communicate (WTC), anxiety, and communication competence. To this end, four general English classes (N = 80) were randomly assigned to video-task, task-video, video-video, and task-task conditions. Quantitative analyses showed that

Rats and pigeons exhibit different extinction profiles after instrumental acquisition with large vs. small rewards. In rats, extinction is faster after large-reward training, but in pigeons, extinction is faster after small-reward training. Two experiments extended these findings to a progressive-ratio schedule with acquisition training with two reward magnitudes administered either between or within

Prediction error (PE) is an important boundary condition for memory reconsolidation; however, while it is clear that a prediction error is necessary for reactivation, the parameters for what constitutes a prediction error are unclear. In the present study, participants watched a video with a positive emotional valence, followed by a baseline free recall test. One day later, participants completed one

Low motivation to learn in undergraduate general education courses hinders learning. Research has identified strategies that increase motivation to learn before students are asked to learn content (e.g., outlining the utility of the course material for future careers). Extending this work, we propose that learning any material in a course may beget motivation to learn more, in line with the notion

A variety of reconsolidation boundary conditions exist for the destabilization of memory, including memory strength, prediction error, trace dominance, and memory age. The vast majority of studies examining boundary conditions have employed aversive tasks. The current study expands the literature on reconsolidation boundary conditions by employing an appetitive odor discrimination task and a delay

As L2 motivation and resilience have been found to play a critical role in second language learning, this study takes the initiative to investigate and verify the structural relationship between resilience, L2 learning motivation and L2 proficiency at beginner, intermediate and advanced level. To collect the data, the participants (N = 132 EFL learners) were administered a placement test and two questionnaires

Owing in part to the implications of resurgence for issues surrounding human health and adaptive problem solving, a substantial amount of laboratory research has been dedicated to understanding why this form of relapse occurs and what factors affect it. This research, however, has never been extended to mice, leaving unknown the specific experimental parameters that are appropriate for studying resurgence

Taking appropriate measures to enhance the positive connection of implicit attitudes towards exercise could be of some significance for the promotion of physical activity. Computerized evaluative conditioning (EC) is a strategy commonly used to alter individual implicit cognition. The aim of these studies was to explore the effects of an EC procedure on implicit attitudes and physical activity behavior

Antecedent- and consequence-based procedures decrease errors during conditional discrimination training but are not typically guided by error patterns. A framework based in behavioral-choice and signal-detection theory can quantify error patterns due to (1) biases for certain stimuli or locations and (2) discriminability of stimuli within the conditional discrimination. We manipulated levels of disparity

General cognitive ability (or general intelligence; g) is a latent variable that describes performance across a broad array of cognitive skills. This general influence on cognitive ability varies between individuals and shares a similar structure in both humans and mice. Evidence suggests that much of the variation in general intelligence is related to the efficacy of the working memory system. We

Scopolamine (SCOP), an anticholinergic drug, is commonly used for inducing a cognitive deficiency in experimental animal models. Ninety six Wistar male rats were divided into six groups [Control, Control + Levothyroxine (L-T4, 100), SCOP + Vehicle, SCOP + L-T4 (50 and 100), SCOP + donepezil (DP)]. During 21 consecutive days, SCOP (1 mg/kg, i.p.) was used with the purpose of inducing an animal model

Resurgence after different number of sessions (4, 12, or 36) was studied in two experiments using a four-phase procedure –that is, target-response extinction and alternative-response reinforcement occurred in separate phases of the procedure (cf. three-phase procedure). For the first experiment, three groups of rats were exposed to different number of target-extinction sessions while the number of

In a hierarchical society such as India’s, negative teacher behaviors are often part of the routine. However, there is a gap in the literature investigating the influence of negative teacher behaviors (specifically admonishing and dissatisfied behaviors) on students’ mastery goal orientation (MGO) and self-efficacy for learning which are important for student success. Accordingly, we examined these

Gamification, the application of game elements (i.e., motivational affordances) in non-game contexts, has shown a promising potential to increase individuals’ intrinsic motivation and to positively impact their attitudes and behaviors. However, few studies exist that empirically test the effectiveness of gamification applications in a controlled experimental setting. To fill this gap, we compared the

Managing risk is an integral part of life. Whereas risk-taking is sometimes construed as only “bad” (e.g., drug use) or “good” (e.g., investing), the present research focuses on “optimal risk-taking.” In economic settings, optimal risk on an exceedingly large number of repeated wagers can be computed using Kelly’s Formula (Kelly, 1956). We tested whether individual differences in cognitive abilities

Associative cue competition treatments like blocking reduce behavioral control by a target cue at later test. Interestingly, Pavlovian conditioning experiments have documented that two cue competition treatments can counteract when they are administered together, resulting in less competition with and greater behavioral control by a target CS (for a review, see Wheeler & Miller, 2008). The present

Reinstatement of fear is a proposed mechanism for return of fear following exposure therapy. A standard reinstatement procedure in the laboratory involves a conditional stimulus (CS) paired with an unconditional stimulus (US) during acquisition (i.e., CS+), and a CS paired without an US (CS-) during acquisition. In extinction the CS + and CS- are presented alone, then the US is presented without the

Eight female Japanese university students were interviewed using a semi-structured interview framework to determine the effect their personalities and past experiences have on their L2 willingness to communicate (WTC)—a psychological construct deeply connected to self-determination motivation. The eight participants were selected from a group of 69 students based upon both their English proficiency

Children with paediatric feeding disorders may not naturally develop typical chewing skills to eat age-appropriate food textures. There are only a handful of studies on teaching chewing, and even less for children without any chewing history. Additional research is needed on increasing food texture and chewing skills, particularly internationally in settings outside of intensive specialised interdisciplinary

This experiment tests the effectiveness of “sandwich” feedback. 91 university students solved 12 mathematical problems from the secondary-school curriculum. After the time limit, we assigned them randomly to one of three possible treatments. One group received corrective computer-administrated feedback, describing the mistakes with their methods and solutions. The second group received sandwich feedback

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of two approaches of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT) on improving intimacy and reducing Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by extramarital relations (EMR). This was a quasi-experimental research with a control group. The research population

Although humans tend to be risk averse, gambling, an inherently risky behavior, remains exceedingly popular and is an increasingly legal activity. The advent of electronic and online gambling games has further exacerbated the risk of gambling addiction. Given the frequently disadvantageous results of gambling, it is important to explore its evolutionary roots to understand why some individuals engage

There is evidence that both Pavlovian conditioned inhibition training and CS-alone extinction trials result in a CS that passes a summation and retardation test. The present experiments compared the extent that these two procedures produced a CS that could pass these tests. Such a comparison could provide insight into the kind of inhibitory learning that results, specifically whether two CSs on the

Group activity schedules have been used to increase social engagement in children with autism spectrum disorders, but it is not known whether these experiences increase children’s preference for such interactions outside of therapy sessions or with different partners. This study evaluated the effects of training through the use of group activity schedules on children’s social responding in a concurrent

Discrete trial training is one evidence-based instructional procedure within Applied Behavior Analysis. Two important considerations when using this procedure are trial presentation type and treatment integrity. Research has demonstrated both these considerations affect skill acquisition for children with developmental disabilities but has not rigorously examined their independent and interactive impact

Successive negative contrast (SNC) involves a disruption of behavior when the magnitude of a reward is reduced unexpectedly from a large to a small amount, relative to a control always receiving the small amount. In the present study, a cognitive task based on the Raven's Progressive Matrices test was used to induce SNC in humans (college students), analyzing its impact on performance (reaction time