Integrating disinhibition and learning risk for alcohol use.

In this study the authors tested the acquired preparedness model of problem drinking, which holds that trait disinhibition, defined as neurotic extraversion by C. M. Patternson and J. P. Newman (1993), leads to the biased formation of positive over negative alcohol expectancies. Positive expectancies thus mediate disinhibition's influence on drinking. The authors also hypothesized that disinhibition moderates the expectancy–drinking relationship such that disinhibited individuals are more likely to act on their positive expectancies. In Study 1, positive expectancies both mediated and moderated the disinhibition–drinking relationship. In Study 2, learning task results indicated that disinhibited individuals sought reward, even when passive avoidance of punishment was indicated. Study 2 also replicated Study 1 hypotheses for men but generally not for women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in the acquisition of affectively valenced associations

Two studies were conducted to test the predictions derived from the behavioral activation system and behavioral inhibition system theory of personality that trait anxiety is positively related to the speed of acquisition of punishment expectancies and impulsivity is positively related to the speed of acquisition of reward expectancies. Both studies used a standard approach-avoidance discrimination task with self-report measures of expectancies. Both studies found support for the hypothesized relation between trait and acquisition of punishment expectancies but not for the hypothesized relation between impulsivity and acquisition of reward expectancies. Study 2 suggested that the relation between trait anxiety and punishment expectancy is affected by the type of incentive and the type of trait anxiety measure used. The results suggest that highly trait anxious individuals are more susceptible to developing new sources of anxiety than others.     

Health risk behaviors of adolescent and young adult siblings.

The present study tested the effects of older siblings' outcome expectancies, health risk behaviors, and consequences on the behavior and health-related expectancies of their younger adolescent siblings. Data were analyzed for 140 matched pairs of younger (n?=?147) and older (n?=?195) siblings. Younger siblings' alcohol use and expectancies were significantly associated with perceptions of their older siblings' drinking. Younger siblings' positive expectancies for other health risk behaviors (e.g., sex without a condom) were associated with their perceptions about the positive consequences their older sibling had experienced and with their older siblings' positive expectancies. These results suggest that vicarious learning from an older sibling is one mechanism through which adolescents form expectancies about health risk behaviors. Prevention strategies are discussed that focus on expectancies and older sibling influence on adolescent involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of responsiveness to vicarious reinforcement.

98 children in 2 age-groups between 2 yrs 6 mo and 5 yrs were pretrained and then performed a 2-choice discrimination problem in which a puppet model and the S responded alternately. Ss were exposed to a model who was either rewarded or punished on each trial. There was more imitation on vicarious reward than on vicarious punishment trials. Ss who demonstrated no initial responsiveness to vicarious reinforcement were then assigned to either a natural or reversed S-consequence condition and to 1 of 3 model consequence conditions (reward, punishment, or mixed). The finding of significantly fewer errors in the natural than in the reversed condition supports the mediational interpretation of vicarious reinforcement, not the J. L. Gewirtz (1971) operant interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination learning in juvenile delinquents.

Tested 45 delinquent and 45 nondelinquent males in a 2-choice discrimination task with either reward for correct responses, punishment for incorrect responses, or reward and punishment for correct and incorrect responses, respectively. A modified Wisconsin General Test Apparatus was used. Results indicate a significant Group * Reward interaction in which nondelinquent Ss learned best for punishment and delinquent Ss learned best for reward. Results are interpreted as reflecting possible group differences in reward expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of visual attention and recall in observational learning by preschoolers and second graders.

Asked 72 preschoolers and 72 2nd graders (equal numbers of boys and girls), who had observed a male or female model choose his "favorites" in a series of common object trios, to recall the model's choices. All Ss individually witnessed the procedure under a fixed level of distraction, under informed or uninformed instructions, and under 1 of 3 vicarious consequence treatments (reward, neutral, and punishment). Ss' overt visual attention to the modeled activity and their recall were analyzed. Results indicate (a) highly significant correlations between attention and recall, (b) a facilitation of attention and recall with informed instructions, (c) a facilitation of attention and recall under vicarious reward and vicarious punishment treatments only under uninformed instructions, and (d) an increase with age in relevant overt attention and recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive functions, information sampling, and decision making in narcolepsy with cataplexy.

Objective: Narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) affects neurotransmitter systems regulating emotions and cognitive functions. This study aimed to assess executive functions, information sampling, reward processing, and decision making in NC. Method: Twenty-one NC patients and 58 healthy participants performed an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Results: NC patients scored as controls in executive function tasks assessing set shifting, reversal learning, working memory, and planning. Group differences appeared in a task measuring information sampling and reward sensitivity. NC patients gathered less information, tolerated a higher level of uncertainty, and were less influenced by reward contingencies than controls. NC patients also showed reduced learning in decision making and had significantly lower scores than controls in the fifth block of the IOWA gambling task. No correlations were found with measures of sleepiness. Conclusions: NC patients may achieve high performance in several neuropsychological domains, including executive functions. Specific differences between NC patients and controls highlight the importance of the hypocretin system in reward processing and decision making and are in line with previous neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking and drinking: Alcohol-related cognitions across stages of adolescent alcohol involvement.

Alcohol-related cognitions, particularly expectancies for drinking and nondrinking and motives for nondrinking, are involved in the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of alcohol use and are hypothesized to play key roles in adolescent decision making. This study explored (a) the relationships between alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives; (b) the roles of these cognitions across hypothesized developmental stages of adolescent alcohol use; and (c) the relationships between these cognitions and recent or intended future changes in drinking behavior in a cross-sectional sample. Surveys assessing alcohol use behaviors and attitudes were administered to 1,648 high school students. Heavier drinkers reported more positive alcohol use expectancies and fewer nondrinking motives than did lighter drinkers or nondrinkers; however, nondrinking expectancies only differed between nondrinkers and rare drinkers and all subsequent drinking classes. Alcohol use expectancies, nondrinking expectancies, and nondrinking motives differentiated students who recently initiated alcohol from those who had not, while nondrinking expectancies and nondrinking motives differentiated binge-drinking students who had made recent efforts to reduce/stop their drinking from those who had not. Intentions to initiate or reduce drinking in the coming month were also associated with these alcohol-related cognitions. Drinking and nondrinking expectancies and motives for not drinking may play critical roles in decisions to alter alcohol-use behavior during adolescence. Future exploration of temporal relationships between changes in alcohol-related cognitions and behavioral decision making will be useful in the refinement of effective prevention and intervention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The contributions of attributional style, expectancies, depression, and self-esteem in a cognition-based depression model.

Used structural equation modeling to examine the relations among attributional style (AS), outcome expectancies for future life-events, depression, and self-esteem among 195 college students. Ss completed questionnaires assessing AS, outcome expectancies, depression, and self esteem. Consistent with the hopelessness and self-regulation theories of depression, the 1st series of models illustrated that positive attributional styles (PAS) and negative attributional styles (NAS) had direct influences on expectancies, and that expectancies had a direct influence on depression. An NAS influenced depression independent of one's expectancies for the future. A 2nd series of models, which included the latent construct of self-esteem, showed that the previously modeled relations showing a PAS and an NAS having direct influence on expectancies and expectancies having a direct inverse effect on depression remained consistent. A PAS had an indirect positive influence on self-esteem via expectancies. A PAS also had a direct positive effect on self-esteem, an unexpected finding according to self-regulation theory. The final model also showed that self-esteem was inversely influenced by depression. A LISREL correlation matrix is appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of a social cognitive model for middle school students: Math and science.

This study tested Propositions 1, 3, and 4 of the R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, and G. Hackett (see record 1994-47157-001) social cognitive model with ethnically diverse middle school students (N?=?380): that an individual's vocational interests are reflective of his or her concurrent self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations, that self-efficacy beliefs affect choice goals and actions, and that outcome expectations affect choice goals and action. R. W. Lent et al. also proposed that demographic and individual difference variables (such as gender or race-ethnicity) mediate learning experiences that play a role in forming self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations. The study investigated a model in which age and gender were represented as antecedent conditions to learning experiences. Self-efficacy was modeled to have both a direct influence on interests and an indirect influence on interests through outcome expectancies. Finally, intentions were modeled to be influenced by self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and interests. Results support the R. W. Lent et al. Propositions 1, 3, and 4 for this middle school population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactive personality-environment transactions and adult developmental trajectories.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 42(6) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2006-20488-034). In the article, Figures 2 and 3 are reversed. The figure and caption that appear on page 882 are incorrectly labeled "Figure 2" when they should be labeled "Figure 3." The figure and caption that appear on page 883 are incorrectly labeled "Figure 3" when they should be labeled "Figure 2."] The possibility, which is based on the concept of reactive personality-environment transactions, that individuals learn different things from the same experience as a function of personality differences may help explain individual differences in adult developmental trajectories. In an analogue, longitudinal design, business students were taught about stock market investing, and they engaged in 5 practice investment sessions. Although all participants earned the same returns on their investments, they varied in the expectancies they formed about stock investing as a function of their personality status. As anticipated, behavioral inhibition (heightened sensitivity to punishment) facilitated formation of negative investing expectancies and antagonized formation of positive investing expectancies, and behavioral activation (heightened sensitivity to reward) facilitated formation of positive investing expectancies and antagonized formation of negative investing expectancies. Differential learning in a task that approximated skill acquisition for a developmental transition implies that personality may help shape individual developmental trajectories in the adult years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response inhibition deficit is involved in poor decision making under risk in nonamnesic individuals with alcoholism.

Individuals with alcoholism exhibit poor decision making as reflected by their continued alcohol use despite encountering problems and by low performance in laboratory tasks of decision making. Here, the authors investigated the relative contribution of several distinct processes of executive functions in performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) in recently detoxified individuals with alcoholism. Compared to matched healthy participants, individuals with alcoholism showed below-normal scores in the last 20 trials of the IGT as well as on other tasks of executive functions, specifically those assessing the capacity to manipulate information stored in working memory, detect abstract rules, or inhibit prepotent responses. Prepotent response inhibition best predicted performance in the late trials of the IGT, that is, when participants have likely acquired knowledge about the reward/punishment contingencies of the task. These results underline the important role that response inhibition plays in decision making, especially in risky situations, when knowledge of the probability of a given outcome becomes available (i.e. decisions under risk). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rewarding and punishing by mothers: The influence of progressive changes in the quality of their sons' apparent behavior.

30 mothers (Ms [24–45 yrs old]), separated from their sons (4–7.5 yrs old), were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions in which the proportion of their children's correct to incorrect responses on a learning task appeared to vary systematically. The boys' (Bs) performances either progressively improved, declined, or remained stable over 90 trials. Signals from the researchers defined successes and errors for which Ms respectively presented or removed up to 9 candies. Systematic trends in Bs' simulated responses exerted differential control over Ms' patterns of reward and punishment. When performances improved, the magnitude of reward increased while the intensity of punishment did not change. In the stable-response condition, patterns of both reward and punishment remained unchanged over trials. When Bs' performances appeared to decline, the magnitudes of both reward and punishment increased. At times, Ms chose neither to reward nor to punish; on these rare occasions, errors were more often overlooked than were successes. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderating effects of sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward on associations between marijuana effect expectancies and use.

The study examined associations between sensitivity to reward (SR), sensitivity to punishment (SP), positive and negative expectancies, and marijuana use in a college sample (N = 809). Marijuana users (n = 227) reported lower SP and greater SR than nonusers. SR attenuated the association between SP and the probability of marijuana use. SP attenuated the association between positive expectancies and the probability of marijuana use as well as the frequency of use among users. SP potentiated the association between negative expectancies and use. The results indicate that SP and SR have interactive effects and that SP moderates the strength of positive and negative cues for risk behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Projective methods and verbal learning.

"This experiment investigated the question of whether some methods of measuring verbal learning were more sensitive than others in revealing the effects of frequency and consequence. It was found that the effects of frequency were homologous, regardless of the test used to measure verbal learning. The methods were not equivalent in revealing the effects of consequence (reward and punishment). The more difficult the particular test used to measure verbal learning, the lower was S's absolute score and the more likely to appear were the effects of reward and punishment." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power to the people: Using learner control to improve trainee reactions and learning in web-based instructional environments.

This experimental study investigated the mechanisms by which learner control influences learning in an e-learning environment. The authors hypothesized that learner control would enhance learning indirectly through its effect on trainee reactions and learner engagement (in particular, off-task attention), such that learners who were more satisfied with the training and devoted more cognitive resources toward the instructional content versus off-task thoughts would possess greater posttraining knowledge. The study also examined the role of individual differences (training motivation and goal orientation) in the prediction of these 2 mediating variables. A sample of 274 undergraduates completed an e-learning program, either with or without interactive, learner control tools. Results suggest that both training satisfaction and off-task attention predicted subsequent learning. Learner control had a positive impact on training satisfaction but was not related to off-task attention. The individual difference variables had a differential impact on the mediating variables. In particular, performance orientation was linked to off-task attention, whereas mastery orientation was found to indirectly influence satisfaction via its direct effect on training motivation. Implications for the design and further study of e-learning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elimination of vicarious reinforcement effects within an implicit reward situation.

The presence of cognitive evaluations of reward conditions in vicarious reward situations set in typical classrooms has been suggested in theoretical literature. The present study investigated this suggestion by examining the effect of free- versus no-talk conditions between target and peer Ss under vicarious reward conditions. Ss were 18 boys and 14 girls from a typical 4th-grade classroom. Data collected on a task involving reproduction of the letters of the alphabet showed that vicarious reinforcement effects occurred when verbal communication of reward enjoyment to nonreward Ss was possible but not when such communication was restricted. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive moderators of the relationship between behavioral intentions and behavior.

A prospective study associating prior behavioral intentions with subsequent actual behaviors explored whether locus-of-control expectancies and values on the outcome of the behavior would influence the relationship between behavioral intentions and behavior. Survey questionnaires were mailed to 115 15–68 yr old prospective adult female patients at a weight reduction clinic immediately prior to their beginning treatment; 79 respondents completed the 6-wk program. The strength of the relationship between initial behavioral intentions and actual behavior was influenced both by expectancies for control of weight loss and by values relevant to weight reduction. Weight-locus-of-control internals with high outcome values for physical appearance or health were significantly more likely than externals with high outcome values to translate their intentions to lose weight into successful actions. More generally, it may be the case that among individuals who believe that certain behaviors lead to highly valued outcomes, internals are more likely than externals to perform those behaviors. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonrational processes in ethical decision making.

Most current ethical decision-making models provide a logical and reasoned process for making ethical judgments, but these models are empirically unproven and rely upon assumptions of rational, conscious, and quasilegal reasoning. Such models predominate despite the fact that many nonrational factors influence ethical thought and behavior, including context, perceptions, relationships, emotions, and heuristics. For example, a large body of behavioral research has demonstrated the importance of automatic intuitive and affective processes in decision making and judgment. These processes profoundly affect human behavior and lead to systematic biases and departures from normative theories of rationality. Their influence represents an important but largely unrecognized component of ethical decision making. We selectively review this work; provide various illustrations; and make recommendations for scientists, trainers, and practitioners to aid them in integrating the understanding of nonrational processes with ethical decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and punishment.

An experiment to test the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with deficient passive avoidance learning under punishment. 75 High Pd and 75 Low Pd female undergraduates, equated for intelligence, learned a list of 10 nonsense syllables under 1 of 3 conditions of reinforcement: verbal reward, verbal punishment, and absence of comment by E. Punishment significantly retarded the learning of Low Pd Ss, but not that of High Pd Ss. No significant differences occurred under reward or neutral conditions. The hypothesis was considered confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)