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Handedness has long been tied to personality, but detailed explanations for the association are lacking. Importantly for purposes of theory development, measures of approach and withdrawal associated with Big Five personality traits have also been traced back to activity in brain areas that relate to handedness. Specifically, increased right-hemisphere frontal activity appears to be linked to both withdrawal motivation and left/inconsistent-handedness, while increased left-hemisphere frontal activity is associated with approach motivation and right/consistent-handedness. Cerebral motivational asymmetries therefore present one plausible mechanism by which approach and withdrawal motivation could mediate the relationship between handedness and personality. We tested this possibility in a large online study (N = 499) in which participants completed multiple survey measures. Results indicated that approach/withdrawal motivation partially accounts for relationships between handedness and personality.

The role of resting frontal alpha-asymmetry in explaining neural-mechanisms of affect and approach/withdrawal behavior is still debatable. The present study explores the ability of the quasi-stable resting EEG asymmetry information and the associated neurovascular synchronization/desynchronization in bringing more insight into the understanding of neural-mechanisms of affect and approach/withdrawal behavior. For this purpose, a novel frontal alpha-asymmetry based on microstates, that assess quasi-stable EEG scalp topography information, is proposed and compared against standard frontal-asymmetry. Both proposed and standard frontal alpha-asymmetries were estimated from thirty-nine healthy volunteers resting-EEG simultaneously acquired with resting-fMRI. Further, neurovascular mechanisms of these asymmetry measures were estimated through EEG-informed fMRI. Subsequently, the Hemodynamic Lateralization Index (HLI) of the neural-underpinnings of both asymmetry measures was assessed. Finally, the robust correlation of both asymmetry-measures and their HLI’s with PANAS, BIS/BAS was carried out. The standard resting frontal-asymmetry and its HLI yielded no significant correlation with any psychological-measures. However, the microstate resting frontal-asymmetry correlated significantly with negative affect and its neural underpinning’s HLI significantly correlated with Positive/Negative affect and BIS/BAS measures. Finally, alpha-BOLD desynchronization was observed in neural-underpinning whose HLI correlated significantly with negative affect and BIS. Hence, the proposed resting microstate-frontal asymmetry better assesses the neural-mechanisms of affect, approach/withdrawal behavior.

Research suggests that temperamental approach-withdrawal is subject to parenting influences, but few studies have explored how specific parenting behaviors and contextual novelty contribute to the observed pattern of effects. The present study examined associations between infant temperamental approach, mother behavior while introducing novel objects (12 months) and temperamental approach-withdrawal in toddlerhood (18 months) in a sample of 132 infants (68 males). Maternal positive affect predicted more toddler approach-withdrawal for high-approach infants and maternal stimulation predicted less toddler approach-withdrawal for low-approach infants; however, these patterns varied with intensity of novelty in both parenting and toddler outcome contexts. Thus, maternal behavior may lead to stronger associations between earlier and later measures of approach-withdrawal; however, these effects are tied to contexts of measurement.

Gain or omission/termination of loss produces approach; while loss or omission/termination of gain produces withdrawal. Control of approach/withdrawal motivation is distinct from valuation of gain/loss and does not entail learning – making “reward” and “punishment” ambiguous. Approach-withdrawal goal conflict engages a neurally distinct Behavioural Inhibition System, which controls “anxiety” (conflict/passive avoidance) but not “fear” (withdrawal/active avoidance).

This study investigated whether temperamental approach–withdrawal underlies infants' responses to novel foods. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of mother–infant dyads (n = 136). Approach–withdrawal responses to novel foods and novel toys were coded when infants were 6 and 12 months of age. When infants were 18 months of age, approach–withdrawal behaviors, positive affect, and negative affect were used in a latent profile analysis to identify groups of toddlers who exhibited similar responses to novelty. As predicted, novel food and novel toy responses were concurrently associated at 12 months and followed a similar developmental pattern across the 1st year. Furthermore, novel food acceptance at 12 months of age, but not 6 months, predicted greater toddler approach.

The taste is a vital sense in humans, because of its active role in regulating nutrition or avoiding harmful substances. Several studies showed the important role of the brain Pre-Frontal Cortex in decoding information coming from the gustatory system. It is also widely known, in neuroscientific literature, that the asymmetry of Pre-Frontal Cortex Activity is closely linked to the feeling of pleasantness experienced by the subject during sensorial stimulation. In this regard, from the electroencephalographic (EEG) signal it is possible to estimate the Approach/Withdrawal (AW) index, which has been largely investigated and validated in scientific literature, regarding visual, acoustic and olfactory stimuli.

Cigarettes smoking continues to exact a devastating roll of society of entire world. Recent estimates suggest that about 5.8 trillion cigarettes were smoked worldwide and cigarette consumption is still on the rise. This behavior occurs in spite of well-documented evidence indicating that cigarette smoking can lead to severe health consequences, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease and, for this reason, preventing smoking is a public health priority. Furthermore, the 90% of smokers are estimated to have begun smoking before the age of 18, therefore it is necessary to reduce the number of youths who start smoking before this age, in order to reduce the total number of smokers and harm done to society. Studies have been done to understand what factors make an advertisement more effective and more readily internalized by smokers. The aim of this study is to evaluate the reaction of subjects during the watching of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) against smoking, with the gathering of the electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms variations. Nowadays, public service announcements (PSAs) are considered “Effective”, “Ineffective” or “Awarded” on the basis of official reports concerning behavioral/attitudinal changes toward healthier patterns and health-related savings following the exposure to the PSA. Results showed the Effort index varied significantly during the observation of picture PSAs and TV advertising one. During the observation of the pictures PSAs, ANOVA results showed a statistical increase for the Effort Index related to the perception of the “Effective” PSAs and “Ineffective” one (p=0.0001), and “Effective” and “Awarded” one (p=0.01). During the observation of video PSAs, ANOVA analysis highlighted a statistically significance difference between Ineffective and Awarded stimuli (p=0.010). In addition, for the observation of images PSAs, the main results of interaction Category (Effective, Ineffective and Awarded) x Smoking Attitude (Heavy Smoker, Low Smoker and No Smoker) have been reported within the Heavy Smoker group in response to the different PSAs (all p

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether temperamental approach/withdrawal processes were concurrently and longitudinally associated with parent ratings and behavioral observations of food neophobia at 4.5 years of age. Additionally, maternal feeding practices were examined as potential moderators of the association between toddler temperament and food neophobia. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study following individuals (n = 82) from infancy through early childhood. At 18 months of age, toddlers were observed in an unfamiliar laboratory setting with an experimenter and their reactions were coded. At 4.5 years of age, the children were again observed in an unfamiliar setting and were also offered three novel foods (lychee, nori, and haw jelly). The number of foods they refused to taste was used as a measure of behavioral neophobia. Finally, mothers reported on their child's food neophobia and temperament, as well as their own feeding practices. As expected, temperament was associated with concurrent measures of food neophobia at 4.5 years of age. Also, low approach children who exhibited high negative affect and low positive affect in response to novelty at 18 months of age had higher levels of food neophobia at 4.5 years of age compared to their peers. Furthermore, evidence emerged to show that these neophobic tendencies in low approach children were strengthened by a maternal pressuring feeding style. Collectively, the results of this study emphasize that children who have low levels of temperamental approach are at a heightened risk for developing food neophobia during childhood.

This work is a pilot study that used neurometric indexes during the listening of selected pieces of Dante’s “Divina Commedia” in 20 participants. Half of them had a literary formation (Humanist; university students of literature) while the other half of is attending other university courses (Not Humanist). The study applied the electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms variations, the heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) during the listening of the excerpts. The neurometric indexes here employed were the Approach Withdrawal (AW), the Cerebral Effort (CE) and the Emotional indexes (EI). Results for the comparisons of the estimated AW, CE and EI related to the perception of the canticas showed as the Humanist group reported higher AW and EI values when compared to the Not Humanist sample (p < 0.03 and p < 0.01, respectively). Results suggest that the perception of the aesthetic experience is significantly modulated by the previous specific knowledge experienced by the participants. Finally, results of this kind of research could find application in the implementation of software and devices based on symbiotic relation with the perspective reader or listener of a literature opera, in order to personalize and maximize the fruition of them.

This is the first study examining the developmental roots of leadership potential in a longitudinal framework from age 2 to 29 years. Data are derived from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Using structural equation modeling (N = 106), the direct and indirect effects of adolescent personality (extraversion) and intelligence (IQ) on adult social skills and leadership potential were investigated. In addition, we examined their joint effect on leadership potential using both a variable and a pattern approach. The relation between adolescent extraversion and adult leadership potential was completely mediated by adult social skills. Adolescent IQ had neither a direct nor an indirect relationship with adult leadership potential, nor did it interact with extraversion in predicting adult leadership potential. Utilizing longitudinal data from early childhood through adulthood, we delineated a specific developmental pathway to adult leadership potential spanning the first three decades of life. A pathway beginning in early childhood with temperamental approach/withdrawal shows stability throughout childhood and leads to extraversion in adolescence, which in turn relates to leadership potential in adulthood via adult social skills.

Seven hundred and seventy nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB), and baseline electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal EEG asymmetry. Positively reactive infants exhibited significantly more approach behavior than controls and exhibited a pattern of left frontal asymmetry. Results support the notion that approach-withdrawal bias underlies reactivity in infancy.

This article provides a selective review of the literature and current theories regarding the role of prefrontal cortex, along with some other critical brain regions, in emotion and motivation. Seemingly contradictory findings have often appeared in this literature. Research attempting to resolve these contradictions has been the basis of new areas of growth and has led to more sophisticated understandings of emotional and motivational processes as well as neural networks associated with these processes. Progress has, in part, depended on methodological advances that allow for increased resolution in brain imaging. A number of issues are currently in play, among them the role of prefrontal cortex in emotional or motivational processes. This debate fosters research that will likely lead to further refinement of conceptualizations of emotion, motivation, and the neural processes associated with them.

The nature of mother–child interaction in autism and the maternal approach characteristics that elicit social response in children with autism were examined in two studies. Mother–child play sessions of 24 preschool children with autism and 24 typically developing preschoolers were compared in Study 1, and play sessions of 9 mothers with their autistic child and with their nonautistic child were compared in Study 2. Mother–child interactions were coded using the Approach Withdrawal Interaction Coding System to quantify maternal approach behaviors and child responses. Results of Study 1 indicate that, although the quantity of approaches did not differ between mothers with their autistic children and mothers with their nonautistic children, there were qualitative differences. Mothers used more physical contact, more high-intensity behaviors, and fewer social verbal approaches with autistic children. Results of Study 2 replicated these findings with mothers showing a similar pattern of approach toward their autistic children but not their nonautistic children. Although autistic children displayed lower contingency to maternal approaches in general, they showed greater responsiveness to approaches involving increased physical proximity and/or containing nonverbal object use. Mothers socially engaged both autistic and nonautistic children. The implications for parent training and intervention are discussed.

Since the introduction of empirical methods for studying facial expression, the interpretation of infant facial expressions has generated much debate. The premise of this article is that action tendencies of approach and withdrawal constitute a core organizational feature of emotion in humans, promoting coherence of behavior, facial signaling, and physiological responses. The approach/withdrawal framework can provide a taxonomy of contexts and the neurobehavioral framework for the systematic, empirical study of individual differences in expression, physiology, and behavior within individuals as well as across contexts over time. By adopting this framework in developmental work on basic emotion processes, it may be possible to better understand the behavioral principles governing facial displays, and how individual differences in them are related to physiology and behavioral function in context.

In a longitudinal study, 14 mentally ill women were compared to a sample of 24 somatically ill women. Both samples were admitted to hospital within six months after delivery. Further, 76 healthy women were included as controls. Infants in the psychiatric sample showed less affiliative responses and more negative behavior in the ?sociability situation? than infants in the healthy sample and infants in the somatic sample. There was a tendency that infants in the psychiatric sample showed more fear than infants in the healthy and somatic samples in the ?fear of stranger situation?. Infants in the somatic sample did not differ from infants in the healthy sample neither on measures of sociability nor on measures of fear of stranger.

Facial approach signals in speechreading were studied in three experiments. Experiment 1 investigated effects on speechreading performance of different emotional content (sad and happy) in sentences combined with facial expression. The experiment also investigated the effect of script information on speechreading of emotionally charged sentences. In Experiment 2 the effect of emotional sentences on speechreading performance was investigated when no or very limited script information was given. Happy sentences were superior to sad sentences, except in the sad script where no difference between sad and happy was found. Experient 3 investigated the effect of articulation (overarticulation vs. underarticulation) on speechreading of emotional sentences. Happy sentences were again generally superior to sad sentences. As happy sentences were superior to sad sentences both when overarticulated and underarticulated the superiority of the happy sentences was explained in light of the approach hypothesis.

Fearful behaviour, fears and worries of young children are central not only to normal development, but also to the development of anxiety disorders. In a community sample, consistency from age 4.5 to 7 years was significant for all measures of behavioural approach/withdrawal, as well as for the degree of reported fears and worries. Observed approach/withdrawal behaviour was not correlated with fears and worries reported by either mothers or children. There were no sex differences in the levels of measures or their consistency, with one exception: maternal reports of worries were less consistent but possibly more valid for girls than for boys. When interviewed at 7 years, girls expressed worries about family members, while boys tended to worry about their own performance.

Kinetic dialogs are presented in this paper, which may help to decipher ambiguous stimuli during interactions of individuals that possess extremely antagonistic interests, such as predators and prey. Predators and prey tend not to be perceived by one another because natural selection penalizes any signal that announces their presence. Therefore, available signals for making adequate decisions may be scarce. I propose that within this impoverished signalization system the way each party reacts to a sudden movement of the other, strongly depends upon its own ongoing condition of motion immediately before the movement is perceived. The proposed signalization system is based on the temporal correlation of movements of the parties (contingency) and on sign (approach–withdrawal). If, after the animal moves, an object approaches, it should flee. But if the object withdraws, it should attack. I studied the behaviour of a fish (Brachydanio rerio) in response to a simple stimulus that approached or withdrew contingently with the fish movements. This was accomplished by means of a closed loop system in which the movements of the fish swimming in a glass tank were detected by a high-speed video camera connected to a computer. A real-time operating algorithm kept track of the movements of the fish. When movement was detected, a 4 mm clay ball was directed towards (predator program), or withdrawn from (prey program), the fish. Two different measurements of the `antipredator' behaviour tested (i.e., frequency of turns after the stimulus and number of halts per stimulus) showed significantly higher values under the approaching condition than under the withdrawing condition. This differential reaction of the fish to two different values of the predator/prey variable suggests that specific predator/prey channels of communication are being manipulated with this method.

Summary Thirty-eight preschool children (20 male, 18 female; mean age four years, four months) were filmed in an interaction with an adult male E during which the adult made a series of approaches and withdrawals. Both child and adult were seated on chairs at a 90[ddot] angle about 40 cm apart. Detailed analysis of simultaneous movements revealed a highly significant behavioral pattern consisting predominantly of approaches and withdrawals by both members of the dyad. This approach-withdrawal-approach behavior, seen also with infants, seems to persist as a mechanism of personal space regulation in older children and adults. Qualitative differences in the interaction at different distances from the child give support to the existence of Hall's intimate and personal zones in children as young as preschool age.

Albino rats were tested for approach and eating behavior on a floor on which they previously received shocks, in order to ascertain whether or not the presence of an anesthetized rat could induce eating behavior in the SS. However, at the time of the test, the grid was not electrified. The results indicated that the mere presence of an anesthetized rat could not induce approach behavior to the food cup. However, an anesthetized rat placed near the food cup could at least induce approach behavior to the food cup. Further, a demonstrator rat which ate rice grains induced more consumption of rice grains in the SS.

The Ss were 10 male albino rats. After being trained to eat grains of rice from a food cup on the grid floor, the Ss which stepped onto the grid floor received electric shocks, and were tested alone or with a demonstrator which approached and ate the grains of rice. These results, unlike other studies, indicated that pairing with only one demonstrator could induce eating behavior in the Ss.

I. The frequency of mobbing vocalizations (chips, squeaks, chitters) and wing-beating was increased by the presence of a strange object (a small wooden cylinder) in the cage. The relative increase produced by the cylinder was much greater in birds that were partially isolated from the sounds as well as the sight of others than in birds only visually isolated. 2. The number of mobbing displays given by 20-hour food-deprived birds in response to the cylinders was sharply reduced by simultaneous presentation of food (even though the birds did not eat) but remained significantly above that given to food alone. This effect was observed in all lesioned birds as well as in intact controls. 3. A peculiar vocalization is described and termed "singing" because of some resemblance to subsong of passerines. It included all the vocalizations encountered in mobbing but occurred mostly in birds that appeared drowsy and was inhibited by stimuli that produced mobbing. 4. Brain lesions that destroyed the medial archistriatum bilaterally greatly reduced the frequency of mobbing displays in response to unfamiliar objects, and simultaneously decreased withdrawal and avoidance and increased some approach behavior. 5. Lesions of the hyperstriatum increased mobbing displays and probably increased the inhibitory effect of the cylinders on feeding compared to intact birds.

* Accepted for publication by George D. Stoddard of the Editorial Board, and received in the Editorial Office on March 21, 1938.

This paper reviews displacement theory and animal research as derived from approach-withdrawal response competition (AW-RC), with a selected emphasis on clinical implications. AW-RC displacement is seen as part of the larger area of behavior modification while nevertheless distinguished from the larger area by a singular model and methodology. It is suggested that a lack of operational analysis of AW-RC displacement and behavior modification is responsible for some confusion about the two areas, has retarded developments and conclusions about behavior modification, and has contributed to, or produced, termination of research on AW-RC displacement. This review uncovers two major sets of results and one interesting observation. First, the displacement effect and the extinction effect of displacement are strongly supported, but the therapeutic effect of displacement is not supported. Second, time-delay that is characterized by eating under deprivation in an irrelevant situation does appear to produce true therapeutic effects of large magnitude. Berkun's observation, opening to other nondisplacement but AW-RC related observations and findings, suggests separable aspects of AW-RC behavior that are not correspondingly observable with other methodologies.

The basic responding nature of organisms is emphasized in an integration of concepts from comparative, physiological, and social psychology. A formulation is offered which states that organisms will make expansive approach responses to stimuli slightly or moderately deviant from the adaptation level and that such responses involve innervation of extensor muscles and are associated with positive affect. Conversely, stimuli strongly deviant from the adaptation level will evoke restrictive withdrawal responses which involve innervation of flexor muscles and are associated with negative affect. An integration of these concepts is used to explain phenomena and data from various areas of psychology.

Publisher Summary The biphasic approach/withdrawal (A/W) theory was designed to account for the development of approach/withdrawal patterns in animals. The derivation of this theory for vertebrates is explained in the chapter. The theory is applied to postnatal behavioral development in precocial and altricial vertebrates. The three early stages of A/W theory are differentiated, in which the developmental roles of the factors of experience and of maturation are viewed as intimately related in a changing progression. These factors, with their trace effects, contribute to (1) an embryonic stage in which sensory integrations and feedback effects give rise to crude directional vectors; (2) a stage in the maturing embryo and the neonate in which these processes elaborate, come under the control of new, extrinsic stimuli, and influence the formation of early contiguity-type conditioning; and (3) a further postnatal stage in which behavioral development is marked by progressive contiguity conditioning and the entrance of selective learning. The chapter describes stages 1, 2, and 3 of behavioral development; they are prerequisite for attaining the degree of higher-level central neural control indicated for adult vertebrates by evidence from implanted electrode research and by concepts, such as the Pavlovian neuronal model.

Summary A total of forty-one dogs divided into age groups of 5–6, 8–9 and 12–13 weeks of age were tested for their approach responses to a human. Control subjects received approximately 5 sec contact and shocked subjects received 5 sec electroshock provided they approached the observer and made contact with his extended hand. In the control subjects, slowest approach responses occurred in the 8–9 week old group. Traumatic experience (shock) had its greatest effect (i.e. slowest recovery rates) in the 8–9 week age group, in those shocked subjects that developed avoidance responses. Half of the pups in this age group did not avoid shock, however, but instead approached. This ambivalency was attributed to individual differences in the amount of human contact prior to testing, having a socializing effect in some, in that they ran into shock. Shock did not cause avoidance in older subjects at 12–13 weeks of age, suggesting an increment in socialization or emotional attachment to man. Similar treatment at 5–6 weeks of age caused avoidance, but rapid recovery when retested without shock indicating poor retention or unstable conditioned avoidance. These findings support the critical period of socialization hypothesis and Pavlovian concepts of the ontogeny of external inhibition.