Another example of a paradigm clash: A reply to Bixenstine's "criticisms."

Responds to V. E. Bixenstine's (1977) critique of W. W. Tryon's (see record 1977-04654-001) article on models of behavior disorder. The formal analysis paradigm from which Tryon operated is restated, and the way in which Bixenstine operated from the different phenomenology paradigm is demonstrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the logic of logical form: A criticism of Tryon's models of behavior disorder.

Comments on the model of behavior disorder of W. W. Tryon (see record 1977-04654-001), agreeing that a systematic examination of the binary combinations of P. J. Woods's (see record 1975-00351-001) taxonomic classes of operant conditioning is of potential profit. However, Tryon has leapt from this beginning far too rapidly into models of behavior disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear, Conditioning, and Aging: Theoretical Comment on LaBar et al. (2004).

Age-related impairments in associative learning have been found in studies using classical conditioning of motor responses. However, it is as yet unclear whether conditioning of fear responses is similarly affected by aging. K. S. La Bar et al. (2004; see record 2004-19432-004) aimed to address this issue by studying age effects on fear conditioning applying a discrimination paradigm. Considering these results, this commentary discusses methodological issues in investigating fear conditioning as well as similarities and differences between associative learning of motor and autonomic responses with respect to neuronal substrates, susceptibility to aging, and the role of awareness of stimulus contingencies in mediating aging effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Tryon.

The author responds to Tryon's article, "Psychology in Flux: The Academic-Professional Bipolarity" (American Psychologist, 1963, 18, 134-143; see record 1964-01637-001) in which Tryon writes, "It is doubtful that academic psychology does or should have much direct [sic] applicability to real life situations [p. 142]." The present author takes issue with this, stating that the fallacy inherent in such statements must be recognized, as well as how these only serve to perpetuate a straw man in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tone-induced changes in excitability of abducens motoneurons and of the reflex path of nictitating membrane response in rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).

Tested excitability of the reflex nictitating membrane (NM) response to air puff and of the abducens motoneurons (final common path) to direct electrical stimulation (measured as amplitude of the evoked NM response) in 16 New Zealand albino rabbits at various times after onset and offset of a 350-msec tone. Excitability to air puff showed a substantial increase during tone on and a gradual decrease following tone off, in agreement with J. R. Ison and D. W. Leonard (see record 1971-22356-001). Excitability of motoneurons showed a similar marked increase during tone on, a transient decrease immediately following tone off, and then a gradual decrease. It is suggested that these excitability changes, which parallel closely the interstimulus-interval conditionability function reported by I. Gormezano (1966) for the same preparation, may provide an independent measure of the "molar stimulus trace." Excitability of abducens motoneurons tested in the intertrial intervals during subsequent tone-air-puff conditioning showed no consistent changes. Surprisingly, Ss given tone-abducens nucleus shock testing developed conditioned responses. In subsequent conditioning, using standard tone-air-puff training, they showed 85% savings in acquisition relative to nonstimulated controls. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Central and basolateral amygdala neurons crash the aversive conditioning party: Theoretical comment on Rorick-Kehn and Steinmetz (2005).

Rorick-Kehn and Steinmetz (2005) (see record 2005-13804-012) report that neurons in the central and basolateral nuclei of the amygdala exhibit learning-related spike firing to conditional stimuli associated with shock in 3 different aversive conditioning paradigms: eyeblink conditioning, fear conditioning, and signaled avoidance conditioning. Central nucleus neurons responded in all 3 tasks, whereas basolateral nucleus neurons were more activated by fear and avoidance conditioning. These results reveal that amygdala neurons are differentially engaged by aversive conditioning, but questions remain concerning the associative basis and functional role for these unit responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Isolation reduces contextual but not auditory-cue fear conditioning: A role for endogenous opioids.

Isolation for several hours after fear conditioning reduces contextual but not auditory-cue fear conditioning (J. W. Rudy, 1996). This isolation effect is reversed by both centrally and peripherally acting opioid receptor antagonists. As in isolation, systemically administered morphine given immediately after conditioning also reduces contextual fear conditioning. Morphine's effect is also reversed by both centrally and peripherally acting opioid receptor antagonists. Exposure to the conditioning context has been shown to eliminate the effect of isolation on contextual fear conditioning (J. W. Rudy, 1996). Context preexposure also eliminated the effect of morphine on contextual fear conditioning. These results imply that opioids released in the periphery play an important role in producing the isolation effect and that they do so by disrupting the postconditioning memory consolidation processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test of the conditioning model of neurosis: Differential aversive conditioning of angry and neutral facial expressions in anxiety disorder patients.

Examined 20 drug-free adult patients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) diagnosis of an anxiety disorder (anxiety neurosis) and 20 age- and education-matched controls in a differential electrodermal conditioning paradigm. Conditioned stimuli (CSs) were pictures of angry and neutral facial expressions; the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) was a mild electric shock. Findings indicate that, prior to conditioning, there were no significant differences in phasic skin conductance responses to the angry vs neutral expressions or in the responses of the anxious vs the control Ss. However, during conditioning both groups of Ss acquired greater responses to the angry but not to the neutral expressions when they were the reinforced stimuli (CS+). During the extinction phase of the experiment, anxious Ss in the angry CS+ condition continued to show greater responses to the angry expressions compared to the neutral expressions, despite removal of the shock electrodes and instructions that no further shocks were possible; controls did not show this effect. Responses to the angry expressions during extinction correlated positively with anxiety as measured by the Hamilton Anxiety Scale and negatively with extraversion (Eysenck Personality Inventory). Results support the value of the concept of preparedness and offer partial confirmation of H. J. Eysenck's (see record 1980-31368-001) conditioning model of neurosis. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the formation of psychological traits.

Discusses mechanisms whereby the traits identified through factor analysis may be formed. R. C. Tryon's 3-pronged analysis of the origin of traits, the overlapping of psychological components, correlations between independent environmental fields, and correlations between independent gene blocks are examined. Subsequent theoretical developments in terms of such mechanisms as transfer, generality of concepts, learning sets, Piaget's operations, problem-solving styles, and cognitive strategies are also discussed. Relevant research following developmental, comparative, and experimental approaches is surveyed. (72 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioned-reflex facilitation in young and older adults

Young (18-30 years) and elderly (63-88 years) human subjects received 70 trials of single-cue classical eyeblink conditioning (paired group), or 70 explicitly unpaired presentations of the tone conditioned stimulus (CS) and airpuff unconditioned stimulus (unpaired group). Before and after conditioning, reflex-eliciting white noise and corneal airpuff stimuli were presented alone or paired with the CS to investigate the effects of conditioning on eyeblink reflex amplitude. The results showed increased conditioned responses in the paired group compared to the unpaired group for the young but not the elderly subjects. There was, however, evidence of conditioned facilitation of noise-elicited reflexes in both young and elderly subjects. These data indicate that conditioned facilitation of the startle reflex may be a sensitive indicator of classical conditioning processes in human subjects.     

Are college students "real people"?

Comments on the verbal conditioning study of W. Oakes (see record 1973-05728-001) in which, contrary to his earlier findings with college students, he failed to find a reinforcement effect with volunteers. The 2 populations differed in awareness of the experimental purpose and intention to perform, probably due to differences in recruitment procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential contribution of amygdala and hippocampus to cued and contextual fear conditioning.

The contribution of the amygdala and hippocampus to the acquisition of conditioned fear responses to a cue (a tone paired with footshock) and to context (background stimuli continuously present in the apparatus in which tone–shock pairings occurred) was examined in rats. In unoperated controls, responses to the cue conditioned faster and were more resistant to extinction than were responses to contextual stimuli. Lesions of the amygdala interfered with the conditioning of fear responses to both the cue and the context, whereas lesions of the hippocampus interfered with conditioning to the context but not to the cue. The amygdala is thus involved in the conditioning of fear responses to simple, modality-specific conditioned stimuli (CS) as well as to complex, polymodal stimuli, whereas the hippocampus is only involved in fear conditioning situations involving complex, polymodal events. Findings suggest an associative role for the amygdala and a sensory relay role for the hippocampus in fear conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motor cortex lesions do not affect learning or performance of the eyeblink response in rabbits.

The possible modulatory role of motor cortex in classical conditioning of the eyeblink response was examined by ablating anterior neocortex in rabbits and training them with an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) and an airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US) in either a delay (Experiment 1) or a trace (Experiment 2) conditioning paradigm. Topographic measures such as amplitude and onset latency were assessed during conditioning sessions for conditioned responses (CRs) and on separate test days for unconditioned responses (URs) by using a range of US intensities. No lesion effects were observed for learning or performance measures in acquisition or retention of either delay or trace conditioning. During trace conditioning, lesioned rabbits did, however, exhibit a trend toward impairment and demonstrated significantly longer CR latencies. Damage to motor and frontal cortex does not significantly affect eyeblink response performance or learning in either a delay or a trace conditioning paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naloxone induces multiple effects on aversive Pavlovian conditioning in rabbits.

Five experiments examined the effects of iv naloxone treatment on aversive Pavlovian conditioning of eye-blink and heart-rate responses, and related unconditioned behaviors, in 143 male albino rabbits. Naloxone (NX) treatment before testing attenuated bradycardiac orienting responses to tones used as CSs. NX also attenuated conditioned bradycardia when administered either before or after training sessions, but it potentiated conditioned bradycardia during extinction of discriminative conditioning. NX did not influence acquisition or extinction of discriminative eye-blink conditioning or somatic or cardiac responses to shocks used as UCSs, but it did decrease locomotor activity. NX immediately after training sessions facilitated acquisition of eye-blink responses. It is concluded that NX influences aversive Pavlovian conditioning in more than one way: (a) During training, it appears to alter reception and processing of signals but does not affect subsequent development of somatic responses to the Pavlovian conditioning contingency. (b) After training, NX apparently affects consolidation of both somatic and autonomic conditioning. (c) NX also appears to delay extinction of Pavlovian conditioning; this effect may similarly involve changes in a stimulus-processing mechanism or in memory functions, but it apparently does not involve changes in somatomotor responsivity. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learned expectancies are not adequate scientific explanations.

Responds to a comment by J. W. Fagen (see record 1994-08950-001) on the article by J. L. Gewirtz and M. Peláez-Nogueras (see record 1993-12989-001) on behavior theory as an explanation of the operant conditioning of infant behavior. Fagen's assertion that the principles of reinforcement are ususally not enough to explain infant learning and behavior is challenged. As an alternative to his suggested use of the concept of expectancy, an experimental analysis of the behavior–environment relations is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phobias and preparedness: Phobic versus neutral pictures as conditioned stimuli for human autonomic responses.

Exposed 64 undergraduates to pictures of phobic (snakes) and supposedly neutral (human faces or houses) objects as conditioned stimuli (CSs) in a classical conditioning experiment with shock as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and skin conductance responses as the dependent variable. One group was shocked on the phobic and another on one of the neutral sets of pictures. During 10 acquisition trials both groups showed equal conditioning on CS and pre-UCS responses. During extinction, however, there were lasting conditioning effects in CS and, to a lesser extent, post-UCS responses to phobic but not to neutral stimuli. Instructions that no more shocks would be given seemed ineffective in modifying CS, but not post-UCS, responses. It is concluded that the present experimental situation may serve as an experimental analog of phobias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some uncertainty regarding uncertainty reduction.

Tryon (1991a) has proposed the definition of a scientific explanation as an explanation that reduces uncertainty, and relates this to the reduction of statistical variance. Lamiell (1991) criticizes Tryon on several grounds, arguing that the reduction of criterion variance does not yield knowledge of the sort Tryon desires. This paper comments on Tryon's proposal, including his reply (1991b) to Lamiell's criticisms. It is concluded that explanation as uncertainty reduction is a simple recapitulation of the Hempelian model of explanation at the theoretical level, and an erroneous conception of statistical epistemology at the methodological level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of performance factors in the active avoidance-conditioning deficit in autoimmune mice.

Prior studies with autoimmune mice demonstrated deficits in 2-way active avoidance conditioning that correlated with the degree of autoimmunity. In this study, autoimmune female NZB?×?NZW F1 hybrid (B/W) mice were tested in shock-motivated discrimination learning, 1-way avoidance conditioning, and a modified 2-way avoidance task and compared to nonautoimmune female NZW mice. The discrimination and 1-way conditioning results indicated that B/W mice can learn shock-motivated tasks that involve minimal fatigue and no conflict. B/W mice were also able to learn the 2-way avoidance task when it was made easier by increasing conditioned-stimulus cue salience, clarifying contingencies, and increasing trial spacing to decrease possible cognitive, emotional, and physical fatigue. Thus, poor performance in 2-way avoidance appears to be a consequence of altered attention, motivation, or emotionality and can be overcome by altering task parameters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of bed nucleus of the stria terminalis lesions on conditioned anxiety: Aversive conditioning with long-duration conditional stimuli and reinstatement of extinguished fear.

Four experiments investigated the effects of lesions of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) on conditioned fear and anxiety. Though BNST lesions did not disrupt fear conditioning with a short-duration conditional stimulus (CS; Experiments 1 and 3), the lesion attenuated conditioning with a longer duration CS (Experiments 1 and 2). Experiment 3 found that lesions attenuated reinstatement of extinguished fear, which relies on contextual conditioning. Experiment 4 confirmed that the lesion reduced unconditioned anxiety in an elevated zero maze. The authors suggest that long-duration CSs, whether explicit cues or contexts, evoke anxiety conditioned responses, which are dissociable from fear responses to shorter CSs. Results are consistent with behavioral and anatomical distinctions between fear and anxiety and with a behavior-systems view of defensive conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus contingencies that permit classical conditioning of opioid activity in the rat fetus.

In a prenatal model of classical conditioning, rat fetuses received presentations of an artificial nipple (conditioned stimulus; CS) paired with milk (unconditioned stimulus). Infusion of milk promotes activity in the kappa opioid system of the fetus, but after 2, 3, or 6 pairings with the artificial nipple, milk evoked both kappa and mu opioid activity. The nipple CS has no effect on opioid activity, but after pairing with milk evoked a mu opioid response. Conditioned mu opioid activity was evident in 60% of subjects tested after I paired conditioning trial. Significantly more fetal subjects (90%) exhibited conditioned opioid activity if preexposed to the nipple twice before conditioning. CS preexposure altered behavior during the conditioning trial, with preexposed fetuses showing more pronounced responses to milk infusion. Exposure to familiar stimuli facilitates classical conditioning of physiological responses, including opioid activity, during the first suckling episode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)