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This study sought to replicate a model developed to explain the problem-solving process through insight with human participants. This process happens when an organism solves a problem by producing a behavior chain with at least two operant behaviors that share similar consequences during acquisition but in different contexts. We recruited six participants aged between 20 and 30 years old with a low level of previous experience in first-person video games. They also did not have significant experience with the Portal 2 game and had adequate structural conditions to participate in the experiment remotely. The procedure has five phases: familiarization, pretest, practicing of behaviors not necessary for problem solving, practicing of behaviors necessary for problem solving, and posttest. As a result, three participants solved the problem only in the posttest, one solved it in the pretest phase, and two did not solve it in any of their presentations. However, all participants issued the necessary behaviors to solve the problem. For future experiments, it is encouraged that changes in the problem-solving situation occur that seek to increase the probability of solving the problem once the participant emits the necessary behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conditioned fear can substantially reduce the likelihood that an individual will engage in reward‐related behavior––a phenomenon coined conditioned suppression. Despite the unmistakable relevance of conditioned suppression for excessive fears and their adverse consequences, the phenomenon has primarily been observed in animal models and is not yet well understood. Here, we aimed to develop a conditioned suppression paradigm that enables a robust quantification of the effect of Pavlovian fear on subsequent reward‐related behavior in humans and assess its potential relation to physiological measures of fear. In phase 1, an instrumental response was incentivized with monetary rewards. In phase 2, one of two conditioned stimuli (CS+) was reinforced with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US, i.e., electric stimulus). During Pavlovian fear learning we assessed differential skin conductance (SCR) and fear‐ potentiated startle responses (FPS). Lastly, we tested the effect of the fear conditioned CS+ on the response rate of the instrumental response in a transfer phase. Despite strong Pavlovian fear conditioning, as indicated by large effect sizes in differential SCR and FPS, we did not find any evidence for conditioned suppression: that is, there was no significant reduction of instrumental responding in the presence of the CS+ compared to a new control stimulus. This lack of conditioned suppression is in line with previous studies that reported difficulties inducing conditioned suppression and points toward a general challenge in investigating conditioned suppression in humans. Implications and directions for future research on the highly relevant behavioral effects of fear and anxiety are discussed. In humans, little is known about the effect of fear conditioned cues on formally unrelated instrumental behavior, so called aversive Pavlovian‐to‐Instrumental (PIT). Here, we aimed to investigate one form of aversive PIT, conditioned suppression, but found no evidence for suppression after fear conditioning or for a link between physiological measures of fear and conditioned suppression. We complement previous research indicating that conditioned suppression is not a robust effect after Pavlovian fear conditioning in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of the beneficial effects of ketogenic diet (KD) on alcohol withdrawal symptoms in humans and alcohol intake in rodents. Topics discussed include the mortality rate and the physiological consequences of alcohol use disorder (AUD), the emphasis of the study on the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and MRI, and ability of KD to reduce neuroinflammation.

Our modern environment is said to be obesogenic, promoting the consumption of calorically dense foods and reducing energy expenditure. One factor thought to drive excess energy intake is the abundance of cues signaling the availability of highly palatable foods. Indeed, these cues exert powerful influences over food-related decision-making. Although obesity is associated with changes to several cognitive domains, the specific role of cues in producing this shift and on decision-making more generally, remains poorly understood. Here we review the literature examining how obesity and palatable diets affect the ability of Pavlovian cues to influence instrumental food-seeking behaviors by examining rodent and human studies incorporating Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) protocols. There are two types of PIT: (a) general PIT that tests whether cues can energize actions elicited in the pursuit of food generally, and (b) specific PIT which tests whether cues can elicit an action that earns a specific food outcome when faced with a choice. Both types of PIT have been shown to be vulnerable to alterations as a result of changes to diet and obesity. However, effects appear to be driven less by increases in body fat and more by palatable diet exposure per se. We discuss the limitations and implications of the current findings. The challenges for future research are to uncover the mechanisms underlying these alterations to PIT, which appear unrelated to excess weight itself, and to better model the complex determinants of food choice in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent theories of instrumental behavior postulate that the correlation between response and reward rate is a critical factor in instrumental goal-directed performance. However, it is still not clear whether human actions can be sensitive to rate correlation. Using a novel within-subject design, participants were trained under ratio and interval contingencies of reinforcement matching both reward probabilities and reward rates between conditions. The impact of rate correlation on performance was evident in the higher performance observed under ratio contingencies for both types of matching. Moreover, there was no difference in performance between two classes of interval schedules with equivalent correlational properties but different reward probabilities. These results are discussed in terms of a recent dual-system model of instrumental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recurrence of negatively reinforced responding of humans was studied in three experiments. In each experiment during Baseline, key-pressing produced 3-s timeouts from a requirement to exert finger pressure on a force cell according to variable- or fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. In Experiment 1, resurgence was studied by arranging a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior schedule in the second phase, and extinction in the Test phase. In Experiment 2, ABA renewal was studied by extinguishing responding in the second phase in a different context and, in the Test phase, by presenting the Baseline-phase context when extinction still was in effect. In Experiment 3, reinstatement was studied by arranging extinction in the second phase, followed by the delivery of response-independent timeouts in the Test phase. Resurgence and renewal occurred consistently for each participant in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. In Experiment 3, reinstatement was observed less consistently in four participants. The results of these experiments replicate and extend to negatively reinforced responding previous findings of the resurgence and renewal of positively reinforced responding obtained mainly with nonhuman animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the hypothesis that the motivation to behaviorally thermoregulate in humans is dependent on the magnitude of changes in mean skin temperature. Ten healthy subjects (22 ± 3 y, 5 females) underwent 60 min of seated rest in a 32±1 °C or 42±1 °C environment (20% relative humidity). Trials were completed in a counterbalanced order. The motivation to behaviorally thermoregulate was measured using an operant behavior task on a fixed ratio schedule, in which subjects received thermal reinforcement after clicking a button 100 times. The reinforcer was 30 s of cooling on the dorsal aspect of the neck. The motivation to behave was defined as the cumulative number of button clicks over time and behavioral thermoregulation was defined as the change in neck skin temperature. Mean skin temperature was higher throughout the 42 °C versus the 32 °C trial (at 60 min: 36.3±0.5 °C vs. 34.5±0.5 °C, P  < .01) and core temperature became higher in this trial 40 min into heat exposure (at 60 min: 37.2±0.2 °C vs. 37.1±0.1 °C, P  ≤ .04), but did not differ from pre- heat exposure ( P  = .81). Neck skin temperature was lower in the 42 °C compared to the 32 °C trial starting at 30 min (33.7±0.8 °C vs. 35.3±0.5°C, P  < .01), which was maintained thereafter ( P  ≤ .04). Cumulative responding for thermal reinforcement was greater in the 42 °C trial compared to the 32 °C trial at 20 min (180±155 clicks vs. 0±0 clicks, P  < .01), which persisted thereafter (P < .01). These data indicate that the motivation to behaviorally thermoregulate during passive heat exposure in humans is dependent on the magnitude of increases in skin temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of post-extinction recovery effects in humans has received significant attention. For instance, research on reinstatement has increased in the last decade. However, most of the studies focus on the return of fear responses. In the present experiments, we used a videogame task to explore the reinstatement of operant behavior in human participants. In Experiment 1, after participants learned to shoot at enemies, they received an extinction procedure that eliminated the shooting behavior. However, the mere reintroduction of the outcome reinstated the original response. Experiment 2 showed that the reinstatement of instrumental behavior is contextually modulated. Finally, in Experiment 3 we found that presenting a reminder for extinction attenuated the response recovery effect. The overall pattern of results suggests that reinstatement of voluntary actions in humans could be explained by an interference memory framework. In addition, the present data suggest that therapies that use brief reminders of therapeutic intervention could help prevent the reinstatement of unhealthy instrumental behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habituation has recently been addressed within the operant conditioning paradigm. While the literature on this topic is growing, the examination of dishabituation, a fundamental characteristic of habituation, remains limited. This study expanded research on habituation of operant responding in non-human animals to research involving humans. Specifically, dishabituation and stimulus specificity were examined under a variety of conditions involving changes in the reinforcer type, reinforcement schedule, reinforcer amount, and selected properties of the antecedent stimuli for a computerized task with 46 undergraduate students. An additional 3 participants were exposed to a control condition. Evaluation of within session patterns of responding indicates that the introduction of stimulus changes into the operant context reliably produced dishabituation of operant responding in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory models of relapse provide methods for evaluating challenges to behavioral treatments with differential reinforcement of an alternative response (DRA). Resurgence occurs with the worsening of conditions of reinforcement for appropriate behavior and renewal occurs when transitioning out of a treatment context. Across five experiments, participants recruited via online crowdsourcing pressed onscreen buttons to earn points exchangeable for money and contexts sometimes changed through changes in the background image. Returning to the training context (ABA, Experiment 1) and transitioning to a novel context (ABC, Experiment 2) produced greater resurgence when removing alternative reinforcement in comparison with remaining in the treatment context (ABB). In contrast, we observed little difference in resurgence among AAA, ABB, and AAC context manipulations (Experiment 3) and ABA, ABC, and AAC context manipulations (Experiment 4). In Experiment 5, we evaluated relative contributions of the presence versus absence of context changes (ABA vs. ABB) in combination with or without the removal of alternative reinforcement. Both changing context and removing alternative reinforcement increased responding in isolation and the combination produced greater-than-additive effects. Overall, the present findings demonstrate a consistent effect of removing alternative reinforcement on relapse that, under certain conditions, can be enhanced by context change. • We evaluated effects of context changes on resurgence of a button press with humans. • ABA and ABC context changes enhanced resurgence relative to ABB context changes. • Similar levels of resurgence occurred with AAA, ABB, and AAC context changes. • Similar levels of resurgence occurred with ABA, ABC, and AAC context changes. • Context changes and extinction produced greater-than-additive response increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. We demonstrate that Barred-Rock and Isa-Brown hens can discriminate between the presence of 2 different humans and use this information as a cue for whether or not to make an operant response. 2. This demonstration in domestic fowl, the first of its kind in any avian subject, is consistent with a growing body of evidence that many species, including agricultural animals, are surprisingly adept at differentiating between humans. 3. Such a discriminative ability carries considerable implications for issues related to husbandry, production and welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive behavior involves interactions between systems regulating Pavlovian and instrumental control of actions. Here, we present the first investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying aversive Pavlovian--instrumental transfer using fMRI in humans. Recent evidence indicates that these Pavlovian influences on instrumental actions are action-specific: Instrumental approach is invigorated by appetitive Pavlovian cues but inhibited by aversive Pavlovian cues. Conversely, instrumental withdrawal is inhibited by appetitive Pavlovian cues but invigorated by aversive Pavlovian cues. We show that BOLD responses in the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens were associated with behavioral inhibition by aversive Pavlovian cues, irrespective of action context. Furthermore, BOLD responses in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex differed between approach and withdrawal actions. Aversive Pavlovian conditioned stimuli modulated connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the caudate nucleus. These results show that action- specific aversive control of instrumental behavior involves the modulation of fronto-striatal interactions by Pavlovian conditioned stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instrumental behavior can be controlled by goal-directed action- outcome and habitual stimulus-response processes that are supported by anatomically distinct brain systems. Based on previous findings showing that stress modulates the interaction of "cognitive" and "habit" memory systems, we asked in the presented study whether stress may coordinate goal-directed and habit processes in instrumental learning. For this purpose, participants were exposed to stress (socially evaluated cold pressor test) or a control condition before they were trained to perform two instrumental actions that were associated with two distinct food outcomes. After training, one of these food outcomes was selectively devalued as subjects were saturated with that food. Next, subjects were presented the two instrumental actions in extinction. Stress before training in the instrumental task rendered participants' behavior insensitive to the change in the value of the food outcomes, that is stress led to habit performance. Moreover, stress reduced subjects' explicit knowledge of the action- outcome contingencies. These results demonstrate for the first time that stress promotes habits at the expense of goal-directed performance in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To review briefly the methods, assumptions, models, accomplishments, drawbacks and future directions of research using drug self-administration in animals and humans. Background The use of drug self-administration to study addiction is based on the assumption that drugs reinforce the behavior that results in their delivery. A wide range of drug self-administration techniques have been developed to model specific aspects of addiction. These techniques are highly amenable to being combined with a wide variety of neuroscience techniques. Conclusions The identification of drug use as behavior that is reinforced by drugs has contributed greatly to the understanding and treatment of addiction. As part of a program of pre-clinical research that also involves screening with a variety of simpler behavioral techniques, drug self-administration procedures can provide an important last step in testing potential treatments for addiction. There is currently a concerted effort to develop self-administration procedures that model the extreme nature of the behavior engendered by addiction. As advances continue to be made in neuroscience techniques, self-administration should continue to provide a means of applying these techniques within a sophisticated and valid model of human drug addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Undergraduate students were assessed on a videogame task. • Using three virtual contexts during extinction reduced ABA renewal of operant performance. • Conducting extinction in multiple contexts might enhances the generalization of the extinction learning to other contexts. In one experiment with human participants, we investigated the effects of using multiple contexts during extinction on the renewal of operant responses. Undergraduate students played a videogame in which they learned to shoot at enemies in Context A. Then, all participants experienced an extinction training. For half of the participants, extinction trials were conducted in a single context, whereas the other half received extinction in three different contexts. Finally, all participants were tested in Context A. We observed that conducting extinction in multiple contexts attenuated ABA renewal. The present results suggest that conducting extinction in multiple contexts can be used as a behavioral technique to reduce operant renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effects of different physical-effort requirements on resistance to change was assessed with humans. • Responding was maintained under a multiple VI VI schedule with equal reinforcement rates. • Extinction was used as disrupting operation during Test conditions. • Human operant behaviors tend to persist more in relatively low-effort conditions. The effects of different physical-effort requirements on behavioral resistance to change were examined with undergraduate students engaging in a computer task for points exchangeable for money. In Baseline, button pressing was maintained on a multiple variable interval (VI) 45-s VI 45-s schedule of reinforcement with two physical-effort requirements: 10 N in the Low-Effort Component and 50 N in the High-Effort Component. In Test, button pressing was disrupted by a multiple extinction (EXT) EXT schedule plus anagrams as a concurrent task for five participants. For other two participants, button pressing was disrupted only by a multiple EXT EXT in one test, and both disruptors were implemented together in the second test. Baseline and Test conditions were replicated in an ABAB design. Resistance to change was greater in the presence of discriminative stimuli associated with the Low-Effort Component to six participants during the first test and to four participants during the second test. The present findings suggest differences in physical-effort can contribute to differences in resistance to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effects of a masking task on schedule discrimination and extinction in humans. Prevention of discriminative rate differences between two operant schedules with vastly different reinforcement rates; Five possible sources of behavioral control in human operant responding.

• Examined reinforcement and extinction using crowdsourcing across six experiments. • Adding response cost for all button presses facilitated extinction. • Demonstrated ABA renewal when changing background contexts across phases. • Demonstrated resurgence of a target when extinguishing alternative-button presses. • Crowdsourcing showed promise for examining reinforcement and extinction processes. Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing marketplace providing researchers with the opportunity to collect behavioral data from remote participants at a low cost. Recent research demonstrated reliable extinction effects, as well as renewal and resurgence of button pressing with MTurk participants. To further examine the generality of these findings, we replicated and extended these methods across six experiments arranging reinforcement and extinction of a target button press. In contrast to previous findings, we did not observe as reliable of decreases in button pressing during extinction (1) after training with VR or VI schedules of reinforcement, (2) in the presence or absence of context changes, or (3) with an added response cost for button pressing. However, we found that that a 1-point response cost for all button presses facilitated extinction to a greater extent than the absence of response cost. Nevertheless, we observed ABA renewal of button pressing when changing background contexts across phases and resurgence when extinguishing presses on an alternative button. Our findings suggest that MTurk could be a viable platform from which to ask and address questions about extinction and relapse processes, but further procedural refinements will be necessary to improve the replicability of control by experimental contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel paradigm examined operant responding patterns for visual reinforcers. • A stimulus specificity manipulation did not influence declines in responding. • Increasing rate of stimulation did not facilitate declines in responding. • Several habituation characteristics were not replicated in humans. Research suggests that repetitive reinforcers wane in their ability to maintain operant behavior in a manner consistent with habituation. Weaker reinforcers, including sensory stimuli common in human work, may be most impacted by repetition. The present research examined within-session operant responding patterns for visual stimuli in humans from two experiments assessing multiple characteristics of habituation. In Experiment 1, declines in reinforced responding were assessed and stimulus specificity was evaluated to test habituation's contribution to these declines. Seventy-three participants completed two visits, both including a reinforcement paradigm using pictures. With repetition, operant responding declined. The stimulus specificity manipulation did not enhance responding, suggesting that habituation did not contribute to response declines. Several methodological concerns may have contributed to the absence of a stimulus specificity effect. Experiment 2 assessed a separate habituation characteristic, rate of stimulation, to address these methodological concerns and further evaluate habituation. Twenty-eight participants completed the reinforcement paradigm over three visits. Decline in responding was partially supported, but the rate of stimulation did not alter declines. In sum, habituation's contribution to within-session declines for sensory reinforcers was not evident in either experiment. These results suggest that assessment of habituation of sensory reinforcers in humans may require parametric evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial reversal-learning procedures are simple preparations that allow for a better understanding of how animals learn about environmental changes, including flexibly shifting responding to adapt to changing reinforcement contingencies. The present study examined serial reversal learning with humans by arranging both midsession and variable contingency reversals across two experiments. We also examined the effects of extinction by adding nonreinforced trials at the end of later sessions and provided the first evaluation of effects of win-stay/lose-shift versus counting strategies on accuracy and response latency of humans' reversal-learning performance. In each experiment, responding tracked contingency reversals, primarily with participants using either win-stay/lose-shift or counting strategies. Introducing variable reversal points in the second experiment resulted in near-exclusive win-stay/lose-shift responding among participants and eliminated counting of trials. Each experiment also revealed an immediate shift from S2 to S1 after experiencing extinction during the initial test trial, indicating resurgence of the initial response through a win-stay/lose-shift response pattern. Therefore, the present study replicates and extends prior findings of a win-stay/lose shift response pattern in situations of greater uncertainty. These findings suggest that differences in environmental certainty induce qualitatively different decision-making strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the results of two experiments with human subjects which investigated the effects of response cost on several unpunished free-operant responses. Definitions of punishment; Dunham's studies; Long-term effects; Immediate effects; Baseline stage and response-cost stage.

• Response recovery effects are shown in a human instrumental learning task. • An extinction cue reduces the response recovery in all cases. • These effects seem to be caused by failures to retrieve the extinction learning. Changes in the temporal as well as the physical context produces the reappearance of extinguished behaviors. Furthermore, combining both kinds of contextual stimuli often causes greater levels of recovery. The current experiment explored the impact of extinction reminders on spontaneous recovery, renewal, and a combination of both effects using an instrumental learning task with humans. All participants learned to shoot at enemies in a videogame. Then, throughout extinction, the instrumental response was eliminated. We found a return of the extinguished behavior by introducing a retention interval of 48 h, by changing the physical background and by testing participants in a spatiotemporal context different from the extinction context. However, we also found that the presentation of a stimulus directly associated with extinction attenuates all three forms of operant reoccurrence. These results are consistent with the perspective that emphasizes that context plays a key role in response-recovery phenomena. Moreover, our findings may be promissory for therapeutic strategies involving relapse treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operant behavior involves many physical dimensions, including time, force, location, and distance. Energy is an important dimension in foraging behavior or motor response. Kono ( Learning & Behavior, 41, 425-432, 2013) developed a schedule in which the controlling variable was the energy of responses, calculated by dividing the squared value of the distance between two consecutive responses by the squared value of the interresponse time, or the elapsed time between the two responses. This energy schedule demonstrated the possibility of differential reinforcement of the energy of responses, but the effect was relatively weak. Kono ( Learning & Behavior, 41, 425-432, 2013) proposed that this weak effect could have been caused by two features of the adjusting procedure: the use of two or more schedules and variation in the reinforced energy of responses across trials depending on the subjects' previous choice. The present study employed a single energy schedule whose requirement was fixed throughout the session. The results showed that the energy of responses increased as the requirement of the energy schedule increased. In addition, the degree of increase was greater for distance of responses than for time of responses. These results suggest that the energy schedule is a suitable method for controlling the energy of behavior, and the distance of responses has a greater effect than time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Social behaviour plays a key role in mental health and wellbeing, and developing greater understanding of mechanisms underlying social interaction—particularly social motivation—holds substantial transdiagnostic impact. Common rodent behavioural assays used to assess social behaviour are limited in their assessment of social motivation, whereas the social operant conditioning model can provide unique and valuable insights into social motivation. Further characterisation of common experimental parameters that may influence social motivation within the social operant model, as well as complementary methodological and analytical approaches, are warranted. Methods: This study investigated the effects of biological sex, housing condition, and time-of-day, on social motivation using the social operant model. This involved training rats to lever press (FR1) for 60-s access to a social reward (same-sex conspecific stimulus). Subjects were male and female Wistar rats, housed under individual or paired conditions, and sessions were conducted either in the mid-late light phase (ZT6-10) or early-mid dark phase (ZT13-17). A behavioural economics approach was implemented to measure social demand and the influence of stimulus partner sex (same- vs. opposite-sex stimulus) on social operant responding. Additionally, video tracking analyses were conducted to assess the degree of convergence between social appetitive and consummatory behaviours. Results: Biological sex, housing conditions, the interaction between sex and housing, and stimulus partner sex potently influenced social motivation, whereas time-of-day did not. Behavioural economics demonstrated that sex, housing, and their interaction influence both the hedonic set-point and elasticity of social demand. Video analysis of social interaction during social operant sessions revealed that social appetitive and consummatory behaviours are not necessarily convergent, and indicate potential social satiety. Lastly, oestrus phase of female experimental and stimulus rats did not impact social motivation within the model. Conclusions: Social isolation-dependent sex differences exist in social motivation for rats, as assessed by social operant conditioning. The social operant model represents an optimal preclinical assay that comprehensively evaluates social motivation and offers a platform for future investigations of neurobiological mechanisms underlying sex differences in social motivation. These findings highlight the importance of continued consideration and inclusion of sex as a biological variable in future social operant conditioning studies. Plain English summary: Humans are social creatures—our everyday interactions with others and the support this provides play a key role in our wellbeing. For those experiencing mental health conditions, people's motivation to engage with others can wane, which can lead them to withdraw from those who support them. Therefore, to develop better treatment strategies for these conditions, we need to gain a deeper understanding of social motivation. Studying social behaviour in animals can facilitate this investigation of social motivation as it allows for a causal understanding of underlying neurobiology that is not possible in human experiments. An optimal way to study social motivation in animals is using the social operant conditioning model, where rats learn to press a lever that opens a door and allows them to interact with another rat for a short time. This study characterised the social operant model by testing whether sex, housing conditions, time-of-day, and the sex of the stimulus partner influence rats' motivation to seek interaction with another rat. We found that female rats were more socially motivated than males, and that rats living alone were more motivated than those living with another rat; interestingly, this effect of housing affected females more than males. Regardless of sex, rats were more motivated to interact with a rat of the opposite sex. These findings provide insights into sex differences in social motivation in rats and new insights into the social operant model which will help guide future research into social motivation and other mental health conditions. Highlights: Female Wistar rats exhibited greater social motivation than male rats in the social operant conditioning model. Isolated housing produced higher social motivation than paired housing, but this isolation-induced increase was either more marked for, or only present in, female rats. Both female and male rats demonstrate higher motivation for opposite-sex than same-sex stimulus conspecifics. Time-of-day and oestrus phase (of female experimental and stimulus rats) did not appear to impact social motivatio. Both between- and within-session behavioural economics in conjunction with video tracking analyses can be applied to better assess social motivation and interaction during social operant conditioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the findings of a study which examines the link between self-reported binge-eating behavior and responding in a food-reinforcement operant task performance under a fasting and fed condition. The study revealed that operant task performance is associated with hunger rating after water preload consumption across all subjects and with binge eating disorder (BED) status after caloric preload. Also stated is the association between food break point (BP) and beck depression inventory (BDI) under noncaloric preload condition.

The efficacy of brief treatments for media-recruited pathological gamblers was tested in a randomized clinical trial design (N = 314). Two self-directed motivational interventions were compared with a 6-week waiting list control and a workbook only control. Brief motivational treatment involved a telephone motivational interview and a mailed self-help workbook. Brief motivational booster treatment involved a telephone motivational interview, a workbook, and 6 booster telephone calls over a 9-month period. Primary outcomes were gambling frequency and dollar losses. As hypothesized, brief and brief booster treatment participants reported less gambling at 6 weeks than those assigned to the control groups. Brief and brief booster treatment participants gambled significantly less often over the first 6 months of the follow-up than workbook only participants. However, the workbook only participants were as likely to have significantly reduced their losses over the year and to have not met criteria for pathological gambling. Contrary to the hypothesis, participants in the brief booster treatment group showed no greater improvement than brief treatment participants. These results provide further support for the value of brief motivational treatments for pathological gambling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In humans, frustrating experiences are known to trigger relapse events and individuals with higher frustration intolerance show increased risk of developing substance use disorders (SUDs). Despite this clear relationship, frustration-related behavior is seldom studied concurrently with self-administration behavior in rodent models. A major obstacle has been the lack of robust, quantitative assays of frustration-related operant behavior thus far. In previous work, we identified increased bar press (BP) durations in response to frustrating conditions in rats self-administering natural or drug rewards. Here, to propose BP durations as a measure of frustration-related behavior, we conducted an operant successive negative contrast (oSNC) study and found that increases in BP durations are observed in the absence of increased effort, providing evidence that this is a psychological phenomenon. Moreover, we assess the viability of widespread use of BP duration measurements as a behavioral tool by quantifying performance as it pertains to sensitivity, robustness, replicability, and sex differences. We conclude that increases in BP durations are a highly sensitive psychological response to frustrating conditions and that this measure is robust, replicable, and applicable to both sexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Octave equivalence describes the perceived similarity of notes separated by an octave or a doubling in frequency. In humans, octave equivalence perception is used in vocal learning, enabling young children to approximate adult sounds where the pitch lies outside of their vocal range. This makes sense because the octave is also the first harmonic of any tonal sound including the human voice. We hypothesized that non-human animals may also need octave equivalence perception in vocal mimicry, the copying of other species or environmental sounds, to approximate sounds where the pitch lies outside their vocal range. Thus, in the current study, we tested budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), a vocal mimicking species, for octave equivalence perception. Budgerigars were trained and tested in a go/no-go operant task previously verified in humans. Budgerigars did not show evidence of octave equivalence perception. This result suggests that vocal-mimicking does not necessarily facilitate or presuppose octave equivalence perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social stress is a widely experienced problem in the contemporary world; it is diverse and is determined by specific living conditions in both humans and animals. Isolation stress and crowding stress are chronic states which are actively and effectively modeled in rodents. The aim of the present work was to study the influences of these types of social stress in rats on the rate of learning to complete an operant food-procuring behavior alone and in cooperation with a conspecific. Blood corticosterone and ACTH levels were measured to assess the state of the stress-mediating hypothalamo-hypophyseal-adrenocortical system (HHACS); neurotrophins and proinflammatory cytokines were also estimated. Isolation stress, in contrast to crowding, decreased learning effectiveness – formation of a new skill – in both individual and cooperative behavior. No increases in HHACS functioning were seen in stressed animals of either group. Furthermore, animals in crowded conditions showed significant reductions in corticosterone and increases in the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β. These results suggest that the mechanisms of action of chronic isolation and crowding stress are different both at the level of the stress-mediating system of the body and at the level of their influences on integrative brain activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In games of chance, a near miss is said to occur when feedback for a loss approximates a win. For instance, obtaining "cherry-cherry-lemon" on a slot machine could be considered a near miss. Sixty-six years ago, B.F. Skinner first proposed the idea that near-miss events might reinforce continued play in slot machines, and despite some inconsistencies in the experimental literature, belief in this "near-miss effect" has remained strong. In the present manuscript, we will review this literature and present experimental assessments of the near-miss effect on the frequency of the gambling response. Experiment 1 used a tightly controlled resistance-to-extinction procedure in pigeons to evaluate the putative reinforcing effect of near misses relative to a control "far-miss" reel pattern. Experiment 2 extended Experiment 1's procedure to human participants. The results of both experiments failed to support the near-miss effect hypothesis. Experiment 3 used a further simplified procedure to assess the validity of the resistance-to-extinction paradigm when a probable conditional reinforcer was present on the reel stimuli. Although a clear conditional response was obtained from the reel, subsequent testing in extinction revealed no conditionally reinforcing function of this stimulus on operant response frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic alcohol consumption can lead to tolerance and escalation of drinking in humans and animals, but mechanisms underlying these changes are not fully characterized. Preclinical models can delineate which mechanisms are involved. The chronic intermittent ethanol exposure (CIE) procedure uses forced exposure to vaporized alcohol that elicits withdrawal and increased responding for alcohol in operant tasks in C57BL/6J inbred mice. Chronic two-bottle choice (2BC) drinking in the same strain elicits abstinent-related depression-like behavior, suggestive of allostatic changes. Selected lines such as crossed High Alcohol Preferring (cHAP) mice voluntarily drink to blood alcohol concentrations comparable to those attained in CIE and could be used to assess how alcohol affects these same endpoints without the confounds of involuntary vapor inhalation. In three experiments, we assess how 2BC drinking in cHAP mice affects abstinence-related depressive- and anxiety-like behavior, operant responding for alcohol, and binge consumption using drinking-in-the-dark (DID). We hypothesized that cHAPs with home-cage drinking experience would exhibit more depressive behavior after abstinence, increased responding for alcohol in the operant box, and increased DID intake. Of these, a drinking history increased DID intake in female cHAPs only and increased sucrose preference and intake following abstinence, but had no effects on operant responding or NSFT latency and FST immobility following forced abstinence. These results are consistent with recent findings using slice electrophysiology showing tolerance to alcohol's actions on the dorsolateral striatum following 2BC drinking in female, but not male cHAP mice. Overall, these data suggest that cHAPs may require procedures allowing rapid intoxication, such as DID, to demonstrate changes in alcohol's rewarding effects. • Up to 3 weeks of abstinence from 2BC drinking did not induce affective disturbance. • Alcohol drinking experience did not change operant responding for alcohol. • Alcohol drinking experience did not change extinction responding for alcohol. • Alcohol experience increased intake in drinking-in-the-dark in female cHAPs only. • During DID, alcohol experience caused more persistent binge-like behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is concerned with whether the reductio of the natural-harm-argument can be avoided by disvaluing non-human suffering and death. According to the natural-harm-argument, alleviating the suffering of non-human animals is not a moral obligation for human beings because such an obligation would also morally prescribe human intervention in nature for the protection of non-human animal interests which, it claims, is absurd. It is possible to avoid the reductio by formulating the moral obligation to alleviate non-human suffering and death with two constraints: The first concerns the practicability of intervention and establishes a moral obligation to intervene only in cases where this is humanly possible. The other constraint acknowledges that lack of competence in humans can risk producing more harm than good by intervening. A third way of avoiding the problematic version of the natural-harm-argument considers whether human and non-human suffering and death are sufficiently different to allow different types of responses. I argue that the attempt to avoid the reductio of the natural-harm-argument by disvaluing non-human death can only work with an anthropocentric bias, which accords to non-human suffering and death a fundamentally different value and that it fails to dismiss the moral obligation created by the harm that non-human animals face in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resurgence occurs when a worsening of conditions for an alternative response (e.g., extinction) increases a previously reinforced and subsequently extinguished target response. In contrast, renewal is an increase in a response previously eliminated by extinction following a contextual change. Moreover, arranging contextual changes during resurgence tests has enhanced relapse compared with the absence of contextual changes. Several laboratory studies evaluating resurgence in humans have included interruptions of operant tasks by presenting instructions or "blackouts" immediately prior to phase changes in which reinforcement contingencies change. Such interruptions could enhance relapse during testing similarly to changes in contextual stimuli. We tested this possibility in the present study with human participants recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk by interrupting the task across groups with 1-s blackouts every 12 s, 60 s, between phases, or by arranging no blackouts in a control group. We found that blackouts prior to phase changes increased resurgence effects relative to no blackouts, suggesting that blackouts between phases are a type of contextual manipulation serving to increase the salience of contingency changes. • Evaluated whether blackouts serve as contextual stimuli to enhance resurgence. • Brief blackouts between phase changes increased resurgence compared to no blackouts. • Between-phase blackouts could increase salience of contingency changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: The use of the recreational drug gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) has increased over the past decade, concomitantly leading to a higher incidence of GHB use disorder. Evidence-based treatment interventions are hardly available and cognitive effects of long-term GHB use remain elusive. In order to study the development of GUD and the causal effects of chronic GHB consumption, a GHB self-administration model is required. Experimental approach: Long Evans rats had access to GHB in their home cage according to a two-bottle choice procedure for 3 months. Intoxication and withdrawal symptoms were assessed using an automated sensor-based setup for longitudinal behavioral monitoring. Rats were trained in an operant environment according to a fixed ratio (FR) 1, 2, and 4 schedule of reinforcement. Addiction-like behaviors were assessed through progressive ratio-, non-reinforced-, and quinine-adulterated operant tests. In addition, the novel object recognition test and elevated plus maze test were performed before and after GHB self-administration to assess memory performance and anxiety-like behavior, respectively. Key results: All rats consumed pharmacologically relevant levels of GHB in their home cage, and their intake remained stable over a period of 3 months. No clear withdrawal symptoms were observed following abstinence. Responding under operant conditions was characterized by strong inter-individual differences, where only a subset of rats showed high motivation for GHB, habitual GHB-seeking, and/or continued responding for GHB despite an aversive taste. Male rats showed a reduction in long-term memory performance 3 months after home-cage GHB self-administration. Anxiety-like behavior was not affected by GHB self-administration. Conclusion and implications: The GHB self-administration model was able to reflect individual susceptibility for addiction-like behavior. The reduction in long-term memory performance upon GHB self-administration calls for further research into the cognitive effects of chronic GHB use in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A new procedure to study human operant conditioning is described using a rest force period as reinforcer when high force was required. [•] Experiment 1 reports evidence that the rest force period acts as a reinforcer. [•] Experiment 2 demonstrates sensitivity to delay as a parameter of choice in a self-control paradigm. [•] The results of the two experiments indicate a functional similarity between primary reinforcers used in non-human subjects and the present reinforcer. [•] So this procedure is well-suited to study operant conditioning in humans. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Everything that we see belongs to one of the four 'orders' i.e. Material Order, Plant/Bio Order, Animal Order, Human (Knowledge) Order. Material order is the most abundant in nature and exists in the form of all the soil mixtures, metal and compounds, various gases, water and other liquids etc., Plant/Bio order exists as the smallest seeds to the plentiful grass, the various plants and trees and the all the vegetarian in the ocean. There are several cyclical processes that we can see in nature. The quantity of water on the surface of earth remains conserved by itself, no need for human intervention. Breeds of plants and animals are similarly self-regulated in their environment. This phenomenon is termed as selfregulation. These two characteristics namely, cyclical nature and self regulation provide us with some clues of harmony that is in nature. When we consider humans and animals, we can understand that they are as a coexistence of the Self ('I') and the Body. If we look at the body, we find that in its fundamental unit, there is a cell. The cell belongs to the plant/Bio order. As humans, each one of us also has desires that we pursue an ability to think and the ability to make choices. In this Desire, Thought and Selection, we exhibit more activities than any unit in the animal order. As a result, humans are in a separate order than animals. Thus, in human beings, 'I' has the activities of Desiring, Thinking, and Selecting/ Tasting, with a possibility or need for Understanding and Realization. Only humans have the need to know and that is why it is called the Knowledge Order. This Knowledge, this right understanding is what we have been the process of self-verification in us, we have to start becoming more aware, and start exploring into the proposals at all four levels of our living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the success of exposure-based psychotherapies in anxiety treatment, relapse remains problematic. Resurgence, the return of previously eliminated behavior following the elimination of an alternative source of reinforcement, is a promising model of operant relapse. Nonhuman resurgence research has shown that higher rates of alternative reinforcement result in faster, more comprehensive suppression of target behavior, but also in greater resurgence when alternative reinforcement is eliminated. This study investigated rich and lean rates of alternative reinforcement on response suppression and resurgence in typically developing humans. In Phase 1, three groups (Rich, n = 18; Lean, n = 18; Control, n = 10) acquired the target response. In Phase 2, target responding was extinguished and alternative reinforcement delivered on RI 1 s, RI 3 s, and extinction schedules, respectively. Resurgence was assessed during Phase 3 under extinction conditions for all groups. Target responding was suppressed most thoroughly in Rich and partially in Lean. Target responding resurged in the Rich and Lean groups, but not in the Control group. Between groups, resurgence was more pronounced in the Rich group than the Lean and Control groups. Clinical implications of these findings, including care on the part of clinicians when identifying alternative sources of reinforcement, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review summarizes the 6 studies with nonhuman animal subjects that have appeared in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and offers suggestions for future research in this area. Two of the reviewed articles described translational research in which pigeons were used to illustrate and examine behavioral phenomena of applied significance (say-do correspondence and fluency), 3 described interventions that changed animals' behavior (self-injury by a baboon, feces throwing and spitting by a chimpanzee, and unsafe trailer entry by horses) in ways that benefited the animals and the people in charge of them, and 1 described the use of trained rats that performed a service to humans (land-mine detection). We suggest that each of these general research areas merits further attention and that the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis is an appropriate outlet for some of these publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research details the application of non-verbal communication display behaviors to an autonomous humanoid robot, including the use of proxemics, which to date has been seldom explored in the field of human-robot interaction. In order to allow the robot to communicate information non-verbally while simultaneously fulfilling its existing instrumental behavior, a ?behavioral overlay? model that encodes this data onto the robot's pre-existing motor expression is developed and presented. The state of the robot's system of internal emotions and motivational drives is used as the principal data source for non-verbal expression, but in order for the robot to display this information in a natural and nuanced fashion, an additional para-emotional framework has been developed to support the individuality of the robot's interpersonal relationships with humans and of the robot itself. An implementation on the Sony QRIO is described which overlays QRIO's existing EGO architecture and situated schema-based behaviors with a mechanism for communicating this framework through modalities that encompass posture, gesture and the management of interpersonal distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental studies in Behavior Analysis have consistently demonstrated the effect of reinforcement contingencies on the increase in behavioral variability in nonhumans and humans. Despite their regularity and generality, the data presented in the literature have given rise to a variety of interpretations, leading to controversies over how to account for reinforced behavioral variability. The present study systematized the literature about variability with the aim of identifying and characterizing these interpretations, their underpinnings, and the criticisms directed at them. We identified interpretations involving the notion of variation as an operant behavior or, at least, as an operant dimension of behavior, and interpretations that dismissed this notion in characterizing the increase in variability as a secondary effect of behavioral processes present in variation contingencies. Not all interpretations found were based on established empirical bases, and only some were commented on or criticized by authors in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral contrast occurs when a change in the rate of reinforcement in one context results in a change in behavior in the opposite direction in another context. Research findings with nonhumans regarding the symmetry of positive and negative contrast have been mixed, especially regarding the relative influence of preceding and following schedules of reinforcement. Research has also been mixed regarding the extent to which systematic within-session contrast is demonstrated. Despite applied implications of contrast, the vast majority of research has been conducted with nonhumans. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the differential influence of preceding- and following-schedules of reinforcement on positive and negative behavioral contrast, as well as within-session contrast, with adult humans with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in a 3-component human-operant arrangement. Positive contrast was found in 5 of 6 cases, whereas negative contrast was found in only 2 of 6. The effect of the following schedule was larger with positive contrast, but the effect of the preceding schedule was larger with negative contrast. There were no systematic within-session effects characteristic of behavioral contrast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer ( PIT) paradigm probes the influence of Pavlovian cues over instrumentally learned behavior. The paradigm has been used extensively to probe basic cognitive and motivational processes in studies of animal learning. More recently, PIT and its underlying neural basis have been extended to investigations in humans. These initial neuroimaging studies of PIT have focused on the influence of appetitively conditioned stimuli on instrumental responses maintained by positive reinforcement, and highlight the involvement of the striatum. In the current study, we sought to understand the neural correlates of PIT in an aversive Pavlovian learning situation when instrumental responding was maintained through negative reinforcement. Participants exhibited specific PIT, wherein selective increases in instrumental responding to conditioned stimuli occurred when the stimulus signaled a specific aversive outcome whose omission negatively reinforced the instrumental response. Additionally, a general PIT effect was observed such that when a stimulus was associated with a different aversive outcome than was used to negatively reinforce instrumental behavior, the presence of that stimulus caused a non-selective increase in overall instrumental responding. Both specific and general PIT behavioral effects correlated with increased activation in corticostriatal circuitry, particularly in the striatum, a region involved in cognitive and motivational processes. These results suggest that avoidance-based PIT utilizes a similar neural mechanism to that seen with PIT in an appetitive context, which has implications for understanding mechanisms of drug-seeking behavior during addiction and relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User susceptibility to phishing messages on social media is a growing information security concern. Contingency factors that can influence this susceptibility and the theoretical mechanisms through which they operate need more scholarly attention. To bridge this gap, we present a temptation and restraint (TR) model (a specific manifestation of the dual–system theory) of social media phishing susceptibility, which explains it as an outcome of a struggle between users' temptation toward engaging with a social media phishing message and their cognitive and behavioral restraint against it. The balance in this struggle is a function of various situational contingencies. First, via a Delphi study, we identify four key situational contingency factors in the context of social media that can influence this balance: (1) poor sleep quality, (2) social media ostracism, (3) source likability, and (4) fear appeals. Next, via five randomized controlled experiments using an ostensible social media paradigm with social media users, we show that the TR model explains (a) why and how users engage with social media phishing messages, and (b) when users are more or less susceptible to it based on key situational contingency factors. Our findings offer a nuanced perspective on social media phishing susceptibility, elucidate the fundamental roles of situational contingencies in the genesis of social media phishing victimization, and delineate important directions for future research in this area [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse is implicated in maladaptive behaviors such as impaired cognition in humans. In a rat model, our lab has shown that testosterone decreases preference for a large/uncertain reward in probability discounting. Other studies have shown that androgens decrease dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens shell, a region important for decision-making behavior in probability discounting. Thus, we attempted to restore selection of the large/uncertain reward in testosterone-treated rats by administering the D2 receptor agonist quinpirole or the D1 receptor agonist SKF81297 and testing probability discounting. Methods Adolescent male Long-Evans rats were treated chronically with high-dose testosterone (7.5 mg/kg) or vehicle (13% cyclodextrin in water), and tested for probability discounting after injections of saline, 0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg of quinpirole or SKF81297. Rats chose between a small/certain reward (1 sugar pellet, 100% probability) and a large/uncertain reward (4 pellets, decreasing probability: 100, 75, 50, 25, 0%). Results Testosterone-treated rats selected the large/uncertain reward significantly less than vehicle-treated controls after saline injection. However, acute injection with 0.1 mg/kg quinpirole increased large/uncertain reward preference in testosterone-treated rats only, indicated by a testosterone x quinpirole interaction. At 0.5 mg/kg, quinpirole increased large/uncertain reward preference in all rats. Acute injection with SKF81297 at 0.1 or 0.5 mg/kg rescued large/uncertain reward preference in testosteronetreated rats by eliminating the difference between groups. Conclusions It appears that altered probability discounting behavior in testosterone-treated rats is due to both decreased D1 and D2 receptor function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi published the highly influential "Positive Psychology: An Introduction" in American Psychologist, and with it, they advocated for a strengths-based approach for helping people live a "good life". Building on that work, positive psychology was further conceptualized as consisting of meta-psychological and practical aspects. The meta-psychological constitutes the aims or "grand vision" of what positive psychology stands for, whereas the practical constitutes the "nuts-and-bolts" elements that should be focused on in developing interventions. In the present commentary, we build on this previous work to propose a "positive psychology pragmatic framework" to develop strengths-based interventions (SBIs) for use with special student populations; in this case, students with special needs and P-3 and gifted students. Relatedly, we review the empirical and theoretical/conceptual literature relevant to the use of SBIs within each subpopulation as well as discuss some characteristics that make each subpopulation unique. Consequently, to the highest degree possible, we advocate for integrating intrapersonal, interpersonal, contextual/environmental, systemic, and developmental factors in developing SBIs and we make specific recommendations for future research through the lens of this proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has shown a growing interest in robots as well-being coaches. However, insightful guidelines for the design of robots as coaches to promote mental well-being have not yet been proposed. This article details design and ethical recommendations based on a qualitative analysis drawing on a grounded theory approach, which was conducted with a three-step iterative design process which included user-centered design studies involving robotic well-being coaches, namely: (1) a user-centred design study conducted with 11 participants consisting of both prospective users who had participated in a Brief Solution-Focused Practice study with a human coach, as well as coaches of different disciplines, (2) semi-structured individual interview data gathered from 20 participants attending a Positive Psychology intervention study with the robotic well-being coach Pepper, and (3) a user-centred design study conducted with 3 participants of the Positive Psychology study as well as 2 relevant well-being coaches. After conducting a thematic analysis and a qualitative analysis, we collated the data gathered into convergent and divergent themes, and we distilled from those results a set of design guidelines and ethical considerations. Our findings can inform researchers and roboticists on the key aspects to take into account when designing robotic mental well-being coaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]