Specific and nonspecific effects in the biofeedback treatment of tension headache: 3-Year follow-up.

In a previous study by the present authors (see record 1980-32946-001), 39 tension headache sufferers were assigned either to no treatment, standard biofeedback, or 1 of 2 biofeedback control procedures to test factors mediating the effectiveness of biofeedback. No differences were found between the 3 biofeedback conditions, indicating that learned reductions of frontal EMG activity had little to do with the observed treatment effect. Three-year follow-up collected from 28 of the 39 original Ss revealed high levels of maintenance for all biofeedback groups but again showed that reductions in EMG activity were unrelated to long-term maintenance. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that cognitive and behavioral factors may underlie biofeedback's treatment effect. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postnatal high-peak blood ethanol concentration and external cue-based discrimination learning and reversal in the preweanling rat: Comparison with memory-based discrimination learning.

Postnatal exposure to ethanol that produces high-peak blood ethanol concentrations in artificially reared infant rats affects hippocampal neuroanatomy and discrimination learning based on memorial cues from a patterned (single) alternation (PA) schedule in preweanling rats as found by P. L. Greene et al (see record 1993-16537-001). In the present experiments, discrimination by preweanling rats exposed to ethanol in the same way was tested with nonmemorial, external cues. In this external cue-based discrimination and in its reversal, ethanol-exposed rats were not different from normal or artificially reared controls whether the cues were presented in a PA or random manner, although there was some evidence that the memorial cues from the PA schedule contributed to learning a discrimination based on external cues, suggesting that the deficit reported earlier in ethanol-exposed rats is a memorial deficit and not a general discrimination deficit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbalization effects in discrimination learning of pictures and words.

Compared discrimination learning of pairs of pictures (line drawings) and their verbal labels as a function of various verbalization conditions in a study with 128 undergraduates. Ss either (a) verbalized each item of a pair once (condition C1) or twice (condition C2), (b) verbalized the right item 3 times and the wrong item once (condition R), or (c) verbalized the right item once and the wrong item 3 times (condition W). The R and W conditions affected discrimination learning of both pictures and words in a way predictable from frequency theory, but pictures were easier to discriminate than words in conditions C1, R, and W. It is suggested that the results reflect the joint operation of verbal frequency and visual encoding processes in picture discrimination. (French summary) (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Decision making in the rat: Response-choice and response-time measures of discrimination reversal learning.

Tested 6 water-deprived male albino rats in 6 consecutive light-dark simultaneous discrimination reversals in a T maze. Measurements were obtained of (a) the animal's choices, (b) the time from the start box to the choice point, (c) the time in the choice point, and (d) the time from the choice point to the water spout at the end of the arm. Results indicate that response times were a reliable indicator of discrimination reversal learning and that the discrimination process was composed of separate prechoice, choice, and postchoice components. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response–reinforcer associations after caudate-putamen lesions in the rat: Spatial discrimination and overshadowing–potentiation effects in instrumental learning.

Exp I, with 12 male hooded rats, demonstrated that Ss with caudate-putamen lesions exhibited an impairment in the acquisition and reversal of a spatial maze task when compared with unoperated control Ss. Exp II, with 24 Ss, investigated leverpress responding supported by a VI schedule in 3 groups of Ss: a group with caudate-putamen lesions, a group with lesions of the posterior cortex, and an unoperated control group. The presentation of a 0.5-sec, response-contingent light correlated with reinforcement generated an elevated response rate in the 2 operated groups but tended to suppress responding in the control group, perhaps by overshadowing the response–reinforcer relation. Only the group with cortical lesions maintained the elevated rate when the light was uncorrelated with food delivery. Exp III confirmed for these same Ss that caudate-putamen lesions produced a spatial learning deficit. No deficit was observed in the posterior cortex group. It is suggested that caudate-putamen lesions disrupt the mechanism underlying the response–reinforcer association on which spatial maze learning and free operant responding in part depend. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrapair imagery effects in verbal discrimination and incidental associative learning.

Administered 4 study-test trials to 80 17-38 yr. Old students on a verbal discrimination learning (vdl) task where the items varied in imagery (i) value. Ss were then tested for incidental associative learning. The 32-pair mixed list consisted of 8 pairs of high-i and 8 pairs of low-i nouns, and 16 pairs in which 1 item was high-i and the other low-i. For 1/2 of the latter pairs the high-i word was correct. Significantly more errors occurred during vdl with homogeneous low-i pairs than with the other 3 pair types, which did not differ reliably from each other. Incidental associative learning was highest for homogeneous high-i pairs, and stimulus i was more effective than response i when the stimuli had been wrong but not when they had been right during prior vdl. The latter condition was characterized particularly by sharply depressed performance on high-i-low-i pairs. The vdl results are discussed in terms of imagery and frequency hypotheses, and the associative memory data in terms of the effects of the experimental conditions on the amount of attention devoted to 1 or both members during vdl. (french summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feature-positive discrimination learning.

In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, pigeons were trained with an ABC+ BCo discrimination, in which three stimuli, A, B, and C, were presented together and paired with food, and the compound BC was followed by nothing; they were also trained with a DEF+ Eo Fo discrimination in which stimuli E and F were presented separately and followed by nothing, whereas the compound DEF was paired with food. On completion of discrimination training, test trials with the feature A consistently revealed a higher rate of responding than with D. In Experiment 4, reinforced presentations of D were intermixed with the DEF+ Eo Fo discrimination. Test trials revealed that E enhanced responding when it was paired with F, but it had the opposite effect when paired with D. The results are seen as being more consistent with a configural than an elemental model of conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific and nonspecific factors in the effectiveness of a treatment system.

The paradox of the placebo concept is used to evaluate both specific and nonspecific treatment components responsible for the effectiveness of North Carolina's statewide program for the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children (Division {teacch}). Empirical studies used to demonstrate specific treatment procedures of structured teaching and parent training are reviewed. The use of extended field trials to avoid negative side effects and short-lived fads characteristic of many specific treatment techniques is discussed. The enthusiastic response of the program's constituency, or the nonspecific effects of the {teacch} system, are evaluated from personal observation, to reduce their vagueness and potential for misunderstanding. Central program concepts and structures that generate and support this nonspecific response of enthusiasm are discussed. It is concluded that empirical research demonstrating specific treatment techniques must be evaluated in the broader context of nonspecific treatment effects. Implications for other service programs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Configural associations in discrimination learning.

In 4 experiments, Sprague-Dawley rats and homing pigeons received training with an A+ AB0 BC+ discrimination, in which food (+) accompanied trials with A and BC. Food was not presented (0) on trials with the compound AB. Subsequent test trials revealed that responding during C by itself, or the compound ABC, was slower than during either A or BC. Responding during the ABC compound was also found to be slower after training with the A+ AB0 BC+ than an A0 AB+ BC+ discrimination. We argue that these findings demonstrate the importance of configural associations in discrimination learning. Two accounts for the way in which these associations exert their influence are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contrasting effects of three forebrain ablations on discrimination learning and reversal in chicks.

Following the ablation of 1 of 3 telencephalic regions, 93 White Leghorn baby chicks were given discrimination and reversal training. Dorsomedial ablations which included a chick's hippocampus impaired reversal training but did not affect the initial acquisition. Ablations that included tissue homologous with and adjacent to the amygdala interfered with early stages of acquisition but did not increase the number of trials to criterion and had no effects on reversal learning. Frontal ablations decreased the response rate while causing no significant learning deficits. These results and previous findings suggest that homologous avian and mammalian limbic-system structures play similar roles in learning. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific and nonspecific factors in psychotherapy: A problematic paradigm for psychotherapy research.

Discusses the specific/nonspecific hypothesis—a paradigm that has guided psychotherapy research for the last 3 decades—and suggests that underlying this hypothesis is the assumption that research can ultimately separate and assess the relative contributions to psychotherapeutic outcome of specific and nonspecific factors. This assumption, in turn, has held the promise that specific, active ingredients of psychotherapy could be identified. Categorical rejection of the specific/nonspecific hypothesis is advocated. It is suggested that the identity of psychotherapy with its interpersonal context must be acknowledged. In this way, the goal of psychotherapy research shifts from the search for active ingredients toward efforts to identify fundamental principles of human interaction that underlie the interpersonal conditions essential for therapeutic change. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in animal discrimination learning.

2 classes of experiment on the role of attention in discrimination learning are reviewed: (a) Investigations of the effect of attention on the amount learned about different cues have been interpreted as disproving noncontinuity theory (according to which animals attend to only 1 cue at a time). The fact that animals learn something about a 2nd cue, however, does not prove that attention has no effect on learning, and more recent evidence shows that it does. (b) If animals do not automatically attend to all cues, part of what they must learn in order to solve a discrimination problem is to attend to the relevant cue. Experiments on the acquired distinctiveness of cues, transfer along a continuum, and reversal learning provide evidence for the importance of such classificatory learning. (155 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual control in discrimination reversal learning.

In 3 human predictive learning experiments, the authors examined contextual control of responding in discrimination reversal learning. In Phase 1, a discrimination between 2 stimuli (A+, B-) was trained in Context 1. During Phase 2, participants received discrimination reversal training (A-, B+) in Context 2. Testing occurred in Context 1 and Context 2 (Experiments 1A and 1B) or in Context 1 and Context 3 (Experiment 2). During the test phase, performance in Context 1 and Context 2 reflected the contingencies trained during Phase 1 and Phase 2, respectively. When testing occurred in Context 3, there was no discriminative responding between A and B. In addition, the experiments demonstrated that discriminating stimuli with a consistent reinforcement history were also affected by contextual manipulations. Results indicate that each training context acquires the ability to control performance. Unique-cue and configural approaches account for a major part of the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative effects of early rearing environment and genotype on discrimination learning in house mice.

Reared 768 house mice from 6 inbred strains and their F1 crosses in enriched or smaller laboratory cages for the 1st 6 wk. of life. Performance was then measured on black-white and vertical-horizontal discrimination, transfer of training, nonvisual T maze, and reversal learning tasks. Results indicate a strong degree of directional dominance on all but 1 task. On all tasks, early enrichment and maternal effects were extremely small relative to the amount of normal genetic variation found among the strains. Few Genotype * Environment interactions were found. A high genetic correlation was found between visual discrimination tasks, which in turn were negatively correlated with nonvisual T-maze performance. (45 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of success and failure on the discrimination learning of normal and retarded children.

30 normal and 30 retarded children learned a 3-choice size discrimination following exposure to experimental tasks under conditions of success, failure, or neutrality. Both normal and retarded children learned more quickly following success and failure than under the neutral condition. In a 2nd study, 32 normal and 32 retarded children learned the same criterion task under success or failure conditions. Here, both success and failure again facilitated the performance of both normal and retarded Ss. Also, social responsivity interacted with intelligence and exeprimental conditions in influencing the children's learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer effects of cue-related movement reversal in discrimination reversal learning with rhesus monkeys.

Investigated the relative influence of directional movement reversal on the learning of discriminations and discrimination reversals using 36 macaque monkeys in 2 experiments. The learning tasks involved comparisons among movement feedback, brightness, and spatial location as discriminanda. Results indicate that differential directional movements, when related to or serving as discriminative cues, produce a persistent elevated level of postreversal errors within a discrimination reversal task. Further, the brightness dimension was relatively easy for reversal and generally superior to spatial location and movement feedback. It is suggested that the transfer difficulty produced by cue-related differential movement might be attributed to proactive interference from the reorganization of response-response sequences within the response. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of neonatal striate lesions and visual experience on form discrimination in the rat.

In two experiments the behaviour of light- and dark-reared infant- and adult-operated striate rats was compared on four discrimination tasks and a variety of related transfer and discrimination reversal tests. Infant-operated rats learned all of the discriminations significantly faster and with less failure than did adult-operated animals. Post-operative rearing condition was not found to play a significant role in this performance difference due to age of operation. Though results of transfer tests for neonatal striate animals were comparable to those of controls, results of initial discrimination (and reversal) revealed significant differences in performance between infant operates and control groups. These results are discussed in terms of specification of the nature of the partial "recovery" of sensory and non-sensory functions by the neonatal operate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class and the nature of the incentive in discrimination learning.

"… it… [was] predicted that an interaction exists between social class and the nature of the incentive. Supecifically, it was believed that a nonmaterial incentive is as effective as a material incentive for middle-class Ss, whereas, for lower-class Ss a material incentive is more effective than a nonmaterial one." This belief was tested and results indicate that middle-class "children learn more quickly when given a nonmaterial incentive than when given a material incentive, while the reverse [was] true of lower-class children." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elemental associability changes in human discrimination learning.

Participants initially completed a discrimination task (D1) involving categorization of patterns with multiple common features, each feature being partly predictive of the correct response. In a subsequent target discrimination task (D2), these features were redistributed across new discriminative stimuli. The relative predictiveness of the features in D1 was either maintained in D2 (i.e., features were equally informative in D1 and D2) or switched (i.e., more informative features in D1 were made less informative in D2, and vice versa). Differential performance on D2 suggested that features most predictive of the correct D1 responses became more highly associable than features that were less predictive in D1. This finding suggests that the associability of individual stimulus elements changes as a consequence of their role in discrimination learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Object discrimination learning in aged Japanese monkeys.

The authors investigated the behavioral aging effects of Japanese macaques in 3-object discrimination learning tasks: learning-set (LS) formation, go/no-go discrimination learning, and multiple discrimination reversals. Aged monkeys showed deteriorated performance in these tasks compared with younger controls. Hypothesis analysis of LS showed that aged monkeys had difficulty learning the lose-shift component of the hypothesis win-stay-lose-shift with respect to object. Deficits in go/no-go successive discrimination were clear in no-go trials only in the first 2 pairs of 5 tasks. Performance of aged monkeys was severely disturbed from a chance to criterion level in discrimination reversals. These results are attributed not only to increased tendency for perseveration but also to difficulty in associating the reward and the object in aged monkeys and may be related to the decline in the functions of the ventral frontal cortex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)