Facilitation of retention by self-stimulation and by experimenter-administered stimulation.

73 male hooded rats were trained on a 1-trial appetitive learning task, given various posttraining brain stimulation treatments of the lateral hypothalamus, and tested for retention 24 hrs later. Posttraining trial treatments of 1,000 trains of self-stimulation or 30 trains of experimenter (E)-administered stimulation facilitated retention. Treatments of 1,000 trains of E-administered stimulation or 30 trains of self-stimulation did not facilitate retention. Two possible hypotheses are discussed as explanations of this pattern of results. The concept of reinforcement from an optimum level of arousal can explain the data, if it is assumed that a self-stimulating rat regulates its rate of responding so as to control its own level of arousal. Alternatively, the facilitation of retention by 1,000 trains of self-stimulation and by 30 trains of E-administered stimulation may each represent the function of an independent neural substrate of reinforcement, each with its own set of requirements for activation. (French summary) (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation and excitation.

Conducted 3 experiments using an autoshaping procedure in 46 female Carneaux pigeons to examine the facilitation that develops to B in an ABA+ paradigm. Results indicate that when B is a diffuse stimulus and A is a localized key light, this paradigm results in B's facilitating the pecking at A. Prior Pavlovian excitatory conditioning of B interfered with its developing facilitation. However, prior Pavlovian excitatory conditioning of A allowed even an excitatory B to develop facilitation. Results suggest that there is a functional reciprocal relation between B's excitation and facilitation. However, that relation is apparently mediated by the conditioning of A. To the degree that B develops excitatory strength, it can block the conditioning of A. That in turn will undermine B's ability to develop facilitory control over responding to A. As a result, an ABA+ discrimination can be solved either by B's becoming excitatory (and A's remaining neutral) or by B's becoming a facilitator (of the excitatory A). However, no evidence was found for an inherent competition between excitation and facilitation. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reaction time measures of spelling: Testing a two-strategy model of skilled spelling.

Two strategies have been suggested to be important in skilled English spelling: a lexical strategy, which relies on word-specific graphemic information, and a rule strategy, which relies on phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences. Limitations in the usefulness of spelling accuracy as a dependent variable make it difficult to test claims about how the strategies might work together. Two experimental paradigms that measure both spelling accuracy and time are suggested to be useful. Results produced with the paradigms were consistent with the claims that skilled spellers make use of both strategies and that the lexical strategy is more useful than the rule strategy. Working memory may be important in combining products of both strategies. Results were inconsistent with the claim that the rule strategy is invoked only when the lexical strategy fails to produce a complete spelling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation and inhibition.

The reciprocal relation between conditioned inhibition and conditioned facilitation was explored in both learning and performance. In five autoshaping experiments, pigeons were trained with a facilitation procedure in which a keylight was followed by food only in the presence of a diffuse stimulus. Under the conditions, the birds came to peck the keylight primarily in the presence of the diffuse stimulus (facilitator). In Experiments 1 and 2 such a facilitator was found to counter the performance decrement otherwise produced by a conditioned inhibitor. Moreover, the facilitator did so more successfully than did a simple Pavlovian excitor. In Experiments 3, 4, and 5 facilitation training was found to affect the learning of inhibition. In Experiment 3 pretraining with a facilitation paradigm was found to slow the subsequent development of conditioned inhibition more than did pretraining with an excitatory procedure. In Experiments 4 and 5 facilitation training was found to attenuate previously established inhibition more than did excitatory training. These results suggest that under some circumstances facilitation, rather than excitation, is the natural conceptual opposite to inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation of word recognition by semantic priming in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenic (n?=?21), bipolar (n?=?18), and normal control subjects (n?=?21) were compared on a word recognition measure of semantic priming. The task involved the presentation of related, neutral, and unrelated word pairs; the second word (target word) in each pair was presented in a degraded form. Facilitation was defined as the accuracy of target word recognition for the related word pairs minus accuracy for the neutral word pairs. Titration, achieved by manipulating the degradation of the target word, was used to maintain each subject's overall accuracy for related and neutral items at approximately 50%. This procedure minimized the artifactual effects of overall accuracy on the difference score. Schizophrenics exceeded both normal control subjects and bipolar subjects on facilitation. Bipolar subjects did not differ from control subjects. The results support Maher's hypothesis that semantic priming effects are heightened in schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early first-language reading and spelling skills predict later second-language reading and spelling skills.

This prospective study examined early first-language (L1) predictors of later second-language (L2) reading (word decoding, comprehension) and spelling skills by conducting a series of multiple regressions. Measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, and listening comprehension administered in the 1st through 5th grades were used as predictors of L2 reading (word decoding, comprehension) and spelling skills in high school. The best predictor of L2 decoding skill was a measure of L1 decoding, and the best predictors of L2 spelling were L1 spelling and L1 phonological awareness. The best predictor of L2 reading comprehension was a measure of L1 reading comprehension. When L2 word decoding skill replaced L1 word decoding as a predictor variable for L2 reading comprehension, results showed that L2 word decoding was an important predictor of L2 reading comprehension. The findings suggest that even several years after students learn to read and spell their L1, word decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension skills transfer from L1 to L2. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From reading to spelling and spelling to reading: Transfer goes both ways.

This study compares the effects of practice spelling and reading specific words on the orthographic representations in memory involved in reading both practiced words and new, unfamiliar words. Typically developing readers in Grade 2 (mean age = 7 years, 7 months) participated in a training study examining whether transfer can occur between reading and spelling following a series of reading and spelling practice sessions. Practice consisted of either repeated reading or repeated spelling of words with shared orthographic rime patterns. A series of mixed analyses of variance was used to examine generalization within skill and transfer across skill. Following practice, word-specific transfer across skill was found. Specifically, children were better able to spell words they had practiced reading and to read words they had practiced spelling. In addition, generalization to new words with practiced rime units was found both within a skill and across skills. However, transfer from spelling to reading was greater than transfer from reading to spelling. Results indicate that the orthographic representations established through practice can be used for both reading and spelling. Subsequently, reading and spelling curricula should be coordinated to benefit children maximally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contribution of spelling instruction to the spelling, writing, and reading of poor spellers.

The contribution of supplemental spelling instruction to spelling, writing, and reading was examined. Second-grade children experiencing difficulties learning to spell participated in 48 20-min sessions designed to improve their spelling skills. In comparison with peers in a contact control condition receiving mathematics instruction, students in the spelling condition made greater improvements on norm-referenced spelling measures, a writing-fluency test, and a reading word-attack measure following instruction. Six months later, students in the spelling treatment maintained their advantage in spelling but not on the writing-fluency and reading word-attack measures. However, spelling instruction had a positive effect at maintenance on the reading word-recognition skills of children who scored lowest on this measure at pretest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation of instrumental behavior by a Pavlovian appetitive conditioned stimulus.

In Exp I, 16 New Zealand white rabbits were trained to perform an instrumental head-raising response for sucrose reward. A jaw-movement CR was established to a 2-sec CS by pairing it with sucrose; a control stimulus was unpaired with sucrose. Instrumental responding maintained by a VI 40-sec schedule was enhanced during 10-sec presentations of the paired, but not the unpaired, CS. Responding on a VR 15 schedule was unaffected except on trials on which the pre-CS baseline response rate was low; in such cases the paired CS caused a long-lasting acceleration of responding. Noncontingent presentation of the sucrose reinforcer itself briefly suppressed responding but had no long-term effect. In Exp II (6 Ss), a CS that had been conditioned at a 10-sec duration produced the same pattern of effects as in Exp I, indicating that facilitation resulted from CS presentation rather than from the frustrative effects of nonreinforcement of the CS. In Exp III (16 Ss), an inhibitory CS blocked facilitation by the excitatory CS but did not itself affect instrumental responding. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamic object perception by pigeons.

Three experiments examined pigeon discrimination of computer-generated three-dimensional (3-D) projections of cube and pyramid objects. Four pigeons were tested using a go/no-go procedure involving static and dynamically rotating presentations of these stimuli. Transfer tests with different types of rotational and featural transformations suggested the pigeons may have used a 3-D representation of the objects as their primary means of performing the discrimination. The comparative implications for object and motion perception in animals are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation of sociomoral reasoning in delinquents.

An intervention involving 60 incarcerated juvenile delinquents (ages 14–18 yrs) yielded significant gains in sociomoral reasoning that were attributable to a dilemma-discussions treatment. The treatment consisted of 8 weekly small-group discussions of sociomoral dilemmas. Ss were pretested on the Sociomoral Reflection Measure (SRM) and the Dilemma Decisions Survey and were assigned to either consensus dilemma-discussion, nonconsensus dilemma-discussion, or no-discussion groups. Pretest results show that Ss initially differed in both sociomoral stage and dilemma opinion. Of the dilemma-discussions Ss, 87.5% were pretested at Modal Stage 2 on the SRM and shifted to Modal Stage 3 on the posttest, whereas only 14.3% of the Modal Stage 2 control Ss did so. Pretest Modal Stage 3 Ss remained at Stage 3 on the posttest. Across the experimental groups, no difference was found between groups where a consensus was required for the discussion and groups having no consensus requirement. Investigations of the possible in-program and postrelease behavioral ramifications of the dilemma-discussions treatment are recommended. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early intervention for spelling problems: Teaching functional spelling units of varying size with a multiple-connections framework.

Poor spellers in 2nd grade (n?=?128) participated in 24 20-min sessions that included (a) direct instruction in the alphabet principle (most frequent phoneme-spelling connections); (b) modeling of different approaches, singly and in combination, for developing connections between spoken and written words for 48 words ordered by sound-spelling predictability; and (c) practice in composing. Results of this multilayered intervention showed that (a) more than 1 way of developing sound-spelling connections is effective in teaching spelling but that after training in the alphabet principle, combining whole word and onset-rime training is most effective in achieving transfer of the alphabet principle across word contexts; (b) functional spelling units of not only a single letter but also 2 or more letters are important in beginning spelling; and (c) training in spelling transfers to composition and word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of consonant letter names in beginning spelling.

Middle-class American children usually learn the names of letters several years before they begin formal instruction in reading and spelling. How does this knowledge affect their subsequent acquisition of spelling? The results of 4 experiments speak against the idea that children go through a stage of spelling development during which they are equally likely to symbolize any sequence of phonemes that matches the name of a letter with the corresponding letter. Although kindergartners and 1st graders sometimes spell the nonword /var/ as "vr," using the letter r to represent both of the phonemes in its name, they are less likely to spell the nonword /vεs/ as "vs" or the nonword /tib/ as "tb." These differences are interpreted as reflecting the phonological or sound properties of the letters' names. Implications for models of spelling development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Morphological effects in children's spelling of French words.

Examined whether primary school children represent morphological information when spelling French words that have silent-consonant endings (e.g., chat). 57 children (mean age 7.5 yrs) in grade 2 and 55 children (mean age 9.6 yrs) in grade 4 spelled regular, morphological, and deep words. The morphological and deep words differed in the presence or absence of derivatives that revealed the nature of the silent-consonant ending. As expected, regular words were the easiest to spell whereas morphological words (for which the silent consonant could be derived) were easier to spell than were deep words (for which the silent consonant must be memorized). It is concluded that children's linguistic knowledge of morphology made a contribution to their spelling of morphological words that was independent of reading experience, vocabulary, spelling ability (i.e., spelling regular words), and phoneme awareness. The proportion of silent-consonant endings spelled correctly as a function of word type for the entire sample and material in the spelling, morphological awareness, and phoneme awareness tasks are appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation and inhibition of the human startle blink reflexes by stimulus anticipation.

The cutaneous eyeblink has 2 electromyographic components, 1 unilateral and early (R1) and 1 bilateral and late (R2), which are served by different neural pathways. These 2 reactions were measured when the eliciting stimulus was expected or relatively surprising. Forewarning was varied in 3 ways: Subjects received notice that the stimulus was about to occur on some trials (Experiment 1); delivered the stimulus to themselves on some trials (Experiments 2 & 3); or experienced a series of trials in which a tone was paired with the eliciting stimulus, followed by tone-alone trials interspersed with test trials (Experiment 4). In each case, forewarning enhanced R1 amplitudes while depressing R2 but reduced the latency of both components. This mixed pattern of effects reveals that the preparatory state provoked by forewarning focuses excitatory and inhibitory processes simultaneously on different reflex pathways: inhibition central and excitation peripheral. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation of extinction by an increase or a decrease in trial duration.

Five experiments examined the effects of altering the duration of a conditioned stimulus (CS) for extinction. For the first 3 experiments, rats received conditioning with a 10-s CS before different groups received extinction with a CS that was either the same duration or longer than that used for conditioning. For the remaining 2 experiments, conditioning was conducted with a 60-s CS before different groups received extinction with a CS of either the same duration or a shorter duration than that used for conditioning. In all experiments, extinction progressed more readily when the CS duration was different for the 2 stages than when it was constant. The results are discussed in terms of rate expectancy theory and associative learning theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitation of conditioned odor aversion by entorhinal cortex lesions in the rat.

This study examined the role of the entorhinal cortex (EC) in conditioned odor aversion learning (COA). Lateral EC lesions did not impair but rather facilitated COA. In the experiments the delay separating the odor cue presentation from the subsequent toxicosis was varied during acquisition. EC-lesioned rats demonstrated COA for delays up to 2 hr, whereas sham-operated rats displayed COA only if toxicosis immediately followed the odor cue. This facilitation was not dependent on the intensity of the odor and corresponded to a facilitated long-delay learning. EC lesion did not affect conditioned taste aversion, confirming that the facilitation effect does not correspond to a general facilitation of conditioned aversion learning. Taken together, these results indicate that the removal of the EC may allow odor-toxicosis associations across longer delays by extending the duration of the olfactory trace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of cooperation and shared feedback on spelling achievement.

A number of studies on cooperative teaching have shown favorable effects on academic achievement. This may be due to better information processing: Low achievers get more explanation, and high achievers have to verbalize the explanation. It may also be due to students' motivation: Students exert peer pressure for better performance. In a field experiment among third-grade students, traditional spelling instruction was compared with two different forms of cooperative classroom instruction, one with individual feedback and one with shared feedback. Cooperative methods had positive effects on spelling achievement and on students' effort as rated by their teachers. Shared feedback did not produce better spelling than did individual feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of bilingual children's early spelling in English.

By using an extended version of R. Treiman, M. Cassar, and A. Zukowski's (1994) flaps spelling task (wa_er, is it t or d in water?), the authors investigated the metalinguistic awareness of 6-year-old bilingual children from 3 different language backgrounds (LBs): English-LB (English-L1, Mandarin-L2), Chinese-LB (Mandarin-L1, English L2), and Malay-LB (Bahasa Malaysia-L1, English-L2). Treiman et al. found that unilingual English-speaking children's performance was poorer on flapped words than on control words and better on /d/ flaps than on /t/ flaps, suggesting phonology is salient even for beginners. The data for bilinguals revealed predictable group differences in the use of orthographic and phonological awareness for early spellings, even though the children were all attending the same English-medium kindergarten. Possible educational implications for linguistic minority children are briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subliminal perception or perception of partial cues.

3 studies are reported aimed at assessing whether perception without awareness involves response to a below-the-threshold stimulus or whether the stimulus, though below the reportable threshold, is nevertheless perceived and S responds to minimal cues. The results favor the latter explanation. There is an intensive theoretical discussion. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)