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Extinction of a response in the presence of one stimulus in an equivalence class can transfer to other related stimuli, but difficulties in establishing extinction can compromise analyses. The present study evaluated the transfer of avoidance extinction with two extinction procedures. In particular, avoidance or nonavoidance was always (Experiment 1) and never (Experiment 2) followed by point loss in the crucial extinction test phase. Both experiments began with the establishment of two equivalence classes with four abstract figures in each (A1-B1-C1-D1 and A2-B2-C2-D2). Clicking a button to avoid loss of points was trained with B1 and subsequently observed without direct training in the presence of C1 and D1. Extinction was then conducted with one group of participants with stimuli that underwent avoidance training (direct extinction with B1 and B2) and with another group with stimuli who did not undergo avoidance training (derived extinction with C1 and C2). Finally, the transfer of extinction was evaluated with stimuli from both classes. In Experiment 1, 10 of 14 participants met the avoidance extinction criteria, and the transfer of extinction occurred for 2 (1 in the direct and 1 in the derived extinction group). In Experiment 2, 10 of 13 participants met the avoidance extinction criteria, and the transfer of extinction occurred for 6 (5 in the direct and 1 in the derived extinction group). Overall, the transfer of extinction occurred only with the combination of an extinction procedure without aversive events and direct extinction. Keywords Avoidance * Extinction * Equivalence * Transfer * Fear * Human, According to Sidman (1994), equivalence classes are established when arbitrary conditional relations between stimuli are trained (e.g., A-B and B-C), and new relations that were not directly trained emerge in [...]

Basic research on avoidance by Murray Sidman laid the foundation for advances in the classification, conceptualization and treatment of avoidance in psychological disorders. Contemporary avoidance research is explicitly translational and increasingly focused on how competing appetitive and aversive contingencies influence avoidance. In this laboratory investigation, we examined the effects of escalating social-evaluative threat and threat of social aggression on avoidance of social interactions. During social-defeat learning, 38 adults learned to associate 9 virtual peers with an increasing probability of receiving negative evaluations. Additionally, 1 virtual peer was associated with positive evaluations. Next, in an approach-avoidance task with social-evaluative threat, 1 peer associated with negative evaluations was presented alongside the peer associated with positive evaluations. Approaching peers produced a positive or a probabilistic negative evaluation, while avoiding peers prevented a negative evaluation (and forfeited a positive evaluation). In an approach-avoidance task with social aggression, virtual peers gave and took money away from participants. Escalating social-evaluative threat and aggression increased avoidance, ratings of feeling threatened and threat expectancy and decreased ratings of peer favorableness. These findings underscore the potential of coupling social defeat and approach-avoidance paradigms for translational research on the neurobehavioral mechanisms of social approach-avoidance decision-making and anxiety.

Contingency management (CM) is an evidence-based behavioral intervention highly effective at promoting behavior change. Despite evidence of its efficacy, the extension of CM to the treatment of harmful gambling has been slow. Wider dissemination of CM may be facilitated through identification of perceived obstacles and barriers. The present study developed items for a new scale, the Contingency Management for Gambling Provider Survey (ConGam-PS), to measure the views of gambling treatment providers of CM for gambling. In a mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) based approach, N = 111 UK gambling treatment providers were surveyed about their positive, negative, and neutral beliefs about CM. Descriptive analyses found that participants were open to using and receiving training in CM, and supported research on CM for treatment of gambling. Common concerns involved the potential negative consequences for clients when incentives are withdrawn and the feasibility of objectively verifying gambling abstinence. No significant associations were found between participant characteristics and CM beliefs. Overall, there is openness toward CM among treatment providers and further research and evaluation of CM for harmful gambling is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several nonhuman animal species have been claimed to successfully pass tests indicative of relational matching and to therefore engage in analogical reasoning. Here, we address these claims by focusing on one recent case study. We illustrate several potential methodological limitations that make it uncertain as to whether the subjects in this particular study were indeed showing relational matching. To the extent that similar or analogous limitations apply in other studies, this undermines the claim of relational matching. Apart from this, however, even if relational matching was to be conclusively demonstrated in non-humans, this behavior alone is profoundly different from analogical reasoning as performed by humans. Substantial converging evidence now suggests a critically important difference between humans and nonhumans at the level of behavioral process that explains why nonhumans do not engage in complex language and therefore do not engage in processes that require complex language, including analogy. In accordance with both these arguments, we suggest that caution is needed in the comparative cognition literature when extrapolating from nonhuman to human cognitive capacity.

Three experiments investigated the symbolic generalization (transformation) of discriminative (bar-pressing) functions in accordance with a five-member arbitrary relational comparative network (A-B-C-D-E) in adults. Following nonarbitrary relational training and testing to establish the contextual functions of MORE-THAN and LESS-THAN for two abstract images, participants received arbitrary relational training and testing. One group received training on 'More-than' baseline relations (e.g., B > A, C > B, D > C, and E > D) and another group received training on 'Less-than' baseline relations (A < B < C < D < E). Both groups were then tested on a combination of 'More-than' and 'Less-than' relations (e.g., C > A and A < C, etc.) and exposed to a bar-press training phase, which trained a low, steady rate bar-pressing response function to the middle stimulus (C) in the relational network. In Experiment 1, testing involved a quasi-random order of presentation of probe stimuli and half of the participants responded in accordance with the predicted relational network (i.e., pressed less to A and B and more to D and E, than to C). In Experiment 2, none of the participants showed the predicted performance when the probe stimuli were presented in a fixed order (A-B-C-D-E), whereas three out of four participants in Experiment 3 responded in accordance with the predicted relational network when the test was repeated. These findings indicate the importance of identifying methodological factors that may potentially influence the symbolic generalization of discriminative functions. Keywords Symbolic generalization * Transformation of functions - Comparative * More than/less than -Discriminative functions * Humans, Symbolic generalization, or transformation of functions, refers to an empirical phenomenon whereby, when a psychological function is acquired by one member of a network of derived relations, the functions of [...]

Relational memory is the ability to flexibly organize and integrate multiple sources of information to produce emergent outcomes. In tests for one type of relational memory--stimulus equivalence--arbitrary stimuli become related in ways not explicitly trained. Little is known, however, about whether stimulus equivalence-based relational memory ability differentially emerges during offline periods of either sleep or wake. In this study, 51 healthy young adults learned a series of interconnected conditional relations involving arbitrary visual images (A-B, A-C, and A-D), and were immediately tested for maintenance of these relations. Following a 12-hour offline period consisting of either sleep or wake, both groups were tested for novel inferences--symmetry (B-A, C-A, and D-A) and equivalence relations (B-C, C-B, C-D, and D-C)--as well as retention of the trained relations. Results from delayed testing, supported by Bayesian statistics, showed that accuracy did not differ between the sleep and wake groups. Potential limitations of this preliminary investigation and directions for future research are discussed. Keywords Relational memory * Stimulus equivalence * Sleep * Wake * Humans, Long considered to be a hallmark of human cognition, relational memory is the ability to flexibly organize and integrate multiple sources of information (Fantino & Stolarz-Fantino, 2013; Vasconcelos, 2008). Numerous [...]

Objectives: Little is known about whether distress tolerance and anxiety mediate the relationship between comorbid complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and alcohol use among military veterans. Here, we investigated the contribution of distress tolerance and anxiety on the strength of the CPTSD and alcohol use association. We hypothesized that the impact of a two‐factor model of CPTSD derived from subscale scores on the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ)—namely ITQ PTSD and ITQ Disturbances in Self Organization (DSO; e.g., issues with affective regulation/self‐belief and shame)—on alcohol use severity would be mediated by anxiety but not by distress tolerance. Methods: Participants included 403 community‐dwelling United Kingdom (UK) veterans (91.64% male, Mage = 51.15 years, SD = 12.48) recruited as part of a larger, online study. Results: Findings indicated that the influence of CPTSD symptoms on alcohol use severity was mediated by anxiety, not by distress tolerance, with greater relative impact due to ITQ DSO status than ITQ PTSD status. Conclusions: We identified the mediational influence of anxiety and distress tolerance on the association between CPTSD subscales and alcohol use in UK veterans. Interventions for anxiety may be adapted for reducing problematic alcohol use and the impact of CPTSD symptoms in veterans with comorbid PTSD and alcohol use disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]