Stimulus selection in discriminative taste-aversion learning in the rat

In three experiments, rats were presented compound solutions consisting of a common element, saccharin, mixed with one of two different flavor elements, cinnamon and wintergreen. Rats in the experimental groups consistently received a toxicosis-inducing injection following one compound solution but not following the other compound solution. Rats in the control groups received toxicosis-inducing injections half the time following each of the compound solutions. After training in each experiment, there were tests for conditioning to the saccharin alone. The experimental groups drank significantly more than the control groups, indicating that the aversion to the partially reinforced saccharin in isolation was less when the different flavor cues were more highly correlated with reinforcement. In Experiment III, there was also a test for conditioning to the cinnamon or wintergreen flavor alone. The experimental group drank significantly less of the continuously reinforced flavor than the control group did of the partially reinforced flavor. These results are similar to those reported within more traditional conditioning paradigms.     

The role of US novelty in retention interval effects in single-element taste-aversion learning

Retention interval effects are seen in taste-aversion learning when single-element aversions are significantly weaker 24 h after conditioning compared with tests at later intervals. This report contains three experiments which suggest that the source of the increased drinking at the 1-day interval is nonassociative interference produced by the novel conditioning episode. In Experiment 1, a parametric analysis demonstrated that aversion strength increased monotonically over a 30-h period following conditioning, and that by 48 h after conditioning it was stabilized. In Experiment 2, a single US preexposure was used to reduce the novelty of the US prior to conditioning. As a result, animals preexposed to the US had stronger taste aversions than did non-preexposed controls at a 1-day retention interval; however, no differences were seen at a 5-day interval. Experiment 3 investigated whether the counterintuitive outcome of Experiment 2 was due to the summation of environment-illness and taste-illness associations at the 1-day test. The results ruled out the summation argument; the US preexposure did not need to be presented in the conditioning context to strengthen the aversion at the 1-day interval. Collectively, these results suggest that the presentation of a surprising US can interfere with the retrieval of the taste-illness association for a short period after conditioning, and that this contributes to the retention interval effect.     

Exteroceptive cues in taste-aversion learning,no artifact: Reply to Holder

Holder (1988) has raised several objections to our work on the role of exteroceptive contextual stimuli in taste-aversion learning by rats. Our main conclusion from that work is that tongue-tactile stimuli from the drinking spout constitute the likely basis for findings of contextual bottle control over learned taste aversions. Holder suggests that our results are confounded by taste cues from the fluid containers. We refute this suggestion by presenting data from two experiments showing contextual bottle control, even though potential taste cues from the drinking bottles were eliminated. We also point to the fact that some of Holder’s criticisms are based on misreadings of our various reports.     

Taste and emotionality in rats selectively bred for high versus low saccharin intake

Rats were selectively bred for high versus low saccharin ingestion, a putative measure of enhanced stress and emotionality (Dess, 1991). In Experiment 1, third-generation Occidental high-saccharin (HiS) and low-saccharin (LoS) rats were tested for saccharin ingestion and emotionality. The saccharin test confirmed that the lines differed on the selection phenotype. In addition, LoS rats were more emotional, as evidenced by longer emergence latencies and more defecation in a modified open-field test. In Experiment 2, LoS rats had lower quinine preference scores and drank saccharin-adulterated glucose less avidly. These outcomes are reminiscent of the behavior shown by inescapably shocked rats. Unlike helpless rats, however, LoS rats drank less avidly during a dilute sucrose test, an effect more reminiscent of chronic mild stress. The lines did not differ reliably on intake of concentrated glucose or Polycose, even when the latter was mixed with saccharin. In Experiment 3, LoS rats preferred saccharin less strongly than did HiS rats at concentrations of 0.05% to 0.7% and had an aversion to a 1.0% solution. In Experiment 4, LoS rats were affected more by shock, as assessed by stress-induced anorexia. These and other recent findings support the notion of shared mechanisms for taste, emotionality, and stress vulnerability.     

Experiential factors in the enhancement of saccharin intake after shifts to water

The present experiment examined the enhancement of saccharin consumption observed after a temporary shift to water. An 8-day adaptation period of continuous access to saccharin was used. It was found that the avidity of albino rats for saccharin, as measured by daily consumption, can be increased significantly both by periods of saccharin deprivation and by social living conditions.     

Age dependency in neophobia: Its influence on taste-aversion learning and the flavor-preexposure effect in rats

Learning & Behavior - Five experiments were conducted to evaluate various aspects of stimulus preexposure effects on conditioned saccharin aversion in rats of three age groups: weanling...     

学习风格与英语学习策略及学习成绩的相关研究

在英语学习中,学生的学习风格与学习策略、学习成绩具有一定的联系。经过实践研究发现,学习者的学习风格对其学习成绩并不会产生直接性的影响,或此种影响非常微小,而学习者的学习风格将对其学习策略产生显著的影响。本文就对此进行简单分析。     

网络环境下大学生英语学习策略与学习效能的相关性研究

本研究采用问卷调查的方法,分别对网络环境下的英语学习策略和传统学习环境下的一般学习策略的使用情况进行了调查与分析,比较两种不同学习环境中大学生英语学习策略使用的异同,并探究了网络学习环境下英语学习策略与学习效能之间的相关性,旨在探讨如何培养大学生基于网络的学习策略意识,有效地构建网络环境下的英语学习策略,从而提高学习效能。     

高中生英语学习策略与自主学习能力的相关性探究

通过对浙江省某重点高中256名学生进行问卷调查,探究了学习策略与自主学习能力之间的相互关系。双变量相关分析发现,英语学习策略与自主学习能力之间的相关性较高;多元线性回归分析显示,在六个学习策略维度中,只有情感策略、社交策略和记忆策略对自主学习能力具有较强的预测力;英语学习策略与自主学习能力所建立的递归模型具有较好的拟合度。基于研究结果,尝试为高中生学习策略的培养以及提高其自主学习能力提供一些参考。     

Socially mediated attenuation of taste-aversion learning in Norway rats: Preventing development of “food phobias”

After interacting with rat demonstrators that had eaten a novel, palatable diet, many observer rats exhibited either attenuation or total blockade of their subsequent acquisition of a lithium-chloride-induced aversion to that diet. In natural circumstances, such social attenuation of aversion learning could prevent new recruits to a population (weanlings or recent immigrants) from learning maladaptive aversions (“food phobias”) to tainted or spoiled samples of normally safe foods that others of their social group were eating.     

小学生学习中的积极情感作用及培养方法探究

积极的学习情感在小学生学习中有着举足轻重的作。在学习的过程中情感起着很重要的作用,学习中的情感一般表现出两种。第一是积极情感,这种情感可以帮助小学生在学习方面提高主动性,增强学习兴趣,提高学习效率。第二是消极情感,这种情感能降低小学生学习的学习效率,阻碍小学生学习自觉性的发展。因此,值得我们深思的是现代教育教学中,应该注重培养小学生学习中的积极情感,本文笔者就这一个教育问进行了探讨。     

高中生师生关系与英语学习动机的相关性研究

师生关系是教育活动中最基本、最活跃也是最重要的人际关系系统。近年来对师生关系的研究也成为教育学和心理学领域研究者所关注的重要课题之一,但从起研究方法上来看,描述性的研究较多,实证研究相对来说偏少。本研究将采用问卷调查法对普通高中270名学生进行调查,探讨高中生师生关系的现状及其对英语学科学习动机的影响。     

Superlatent inhibition and spontaneous recovery: Differential effects of pre- and postconditioning CS-alone presentations after long delays in different contexts

In two pairs of three-stage conditioned taste aversion experiments, we examined the effects of delay interval (1 or 21 days) between the second and third stages, and of context in which the animals spent the delay (same as or different from the context of the other stages) on latent inhibition (LI) and spontaneous recovery following extinction. In the LI experiments (Experiments 1A and 1B), the first stage comprised nonreinforced presentations to saccharin or to water. In the second stage, rats were conditioned by saccharin paired with LiCl. In the extinction experiments (Experiments 2A and 2B), the order of the stages was reversed. For all experiments, Stage 3, the test stage, consisted of three presentations of saccharin alone. There was a super-LI effect in the saccharin-preexposed group that spent the 21- day delay in the different context (Experiment 1A). When the delay was spent in the same context, there was no difference in the amount of LI between the short- and long-delay groups (Experiment 1B). Conversely, there was a spontaneous recovery effect in the long-delay/same-context group (Experiment 2B), but not in the long-delay/different-context group (Experiment 2A). The pattern of results, incompatible with current explanations of delay-induced changes in memory performance, was interpreted in terms of an interaction between the delay conditions (same or different delay context), which modulate the extinction of previously acquired context-CS-nothing associations (during CS-alone presentations), and primacy effects.     

白族高中学生英语学习观念和策略的相关性

研究表明,语言学习观念和学习策略的使用之间具有一定的相关性,语言学习观念在学习过程中相互影响。文章现有的研究基础上,对少数民族白族高中学生的学习观念和学习策略之间的相关性进行实证研究,旨在为少数民族地区英语教育提供一定的理论依据。     

理科生多元智能类型对学习策略的影响

文章通过对贵州某高校114名非英语专业理科生的多元智能类型及语言学习策略使用情况的定量研究发现,理科类学生在智能倾向及各类学习策略使用上存在相关性。这有助于教师在大学英语教学过程中通过引导学生将二者更好地结合起来进行语言学习。     

Detecting the correlation between mobile learning behavior and personal characteristics among elementary school students

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to explore the features of mobile learning behaviors among Chinese elementary school students, and relationships between mobile learning behaviors and personal characteristics in mobile learning environment. The current study designed and developed a game-based educational mobile environment and conducted an experimental research. Eighty-three elementary students participated in this study. The results revealed the features of elementary school students’ mobile learning behavior including: 1) the students had reasonable login frequencies and learning time duration with appropriate guidance from the teachers, and satisfying learning performance by self-learning; 2) higher grade, learning style with active information processing and higher test scores in the conventional Chinese subject course had positive impacts on the mobile learning behaviors, but no gender difference was found. Regrettably, students showed more digital consuming than digital creating in the current study. The results could provide necessary suggestions on mobile learning for young learners.     

Role of exteroceptive background context in taste-aversion conditioning and extinction

In two experiments, saccharin (CS) and lithium chloride (US) were paired in a context consisting of specific visual, auditory, tactual, and olfactory cues. The saccharin aversion was then extinguished in a context free from conditioning-context cues. Later, saccharin preference tests were given in the presence and absence of these cues. The results indicated that the background cues of the conditioning trial controlled the amount of saccharin drunk on extinction trials, and, furthermore, that extinction of the taste aversion was context specific; i.e., groups given extinction trials in a different (from conditioning) context retained their saccharin aversion in the conditioning context only. The results indicate an important role played by the exteroceptive context in taste-aversion conditioning.     

Effects of food deprivation on learning and expression of flavor preferences conditioned by saccharin or sucrose

In four experiments, food deprivation was varied during conditioning and testing of conditioning of flavor preferences by sweeteners. Conditioned preferences for a flavor associated with a more concentrated solution were enhanced by increased deprivation in training whether sucrose or saccharin was used when rats consumed solutions freely during training. When consumption of solutions was controlled and higher deprivation levels were used, preference for the higher concentration of sucrose was still enhanced by increased deprivation in training, but this did not occur with saccharin. We suggest that deprivation may enhance the reinforcing value of sweetness only when calories increase along with sweetness. We also suggest that deprivation can enhance flavor preference learning by increasing consumption and thereby increasing exposure to the flavored solutions.