Successive reversals of a discriminated preference for signaled tailshock

Three rats received unmodifiable tailshock at random intervals in a shuttlebox. In a continuous-choice situation, Ss could choose between an auditory signal immediately preceding or immediately following the tailshock. Over repeated daily 3-h sessions, each S acquired a spatial discrimination indicating a strong preference for the signal preceding tailshock. This preference continued undiminished through two successive reversals of the position associated with signaled shock. This demonstration precludes explanations of the preference-for-signaled-shock phenomenon based upon primary reinforcement value or acquired value of the signal, position preferences, and overt modification of the aversiveness of the reinforcer through such means as postural adjustments. An explanation of recent failures to obtain the preference-for-signaled-shock effect is offered.     

Journalism training in Sri Lanka: meeting the needs of working journalists

The ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka since the 1980s has been deeply damaging to Sri Lankan journalism, whose traditions of impartiality and professionalism have been seriously undermined. The BBC World Service Trust has attempted to address these issues through a European‐funded training programme aimed at a broad range of media practitioners in Sri Lanka. This article seeks to assess how successful this programme has been and what lessons can be drawn by training organisations elsewhere who are seeking to implement similar projects.     

Designing informal learning experiences for early career academics using a knowledge ecosystem model

This article presents a ‘knowledge ecosystem’ model of how early career academics experience using information to learn while building their social networks for developmental purposes. Developed using grounded theory methodology, the model offers a way of conceptualising how to empower early career academics through (1) agency (individual and relational) and (2) facilitation of personalised informal learning (design of physical and virtual systems and environments) in spaces where developmental relationships are formed, including programmes, courses, events, community, home and social media. It is suggested that the knowledge ecosystem model is suitable for use in designing informal learning experiences for early career academics.     

Girls in science — An evaluation of one school's approach to the gender bias in science

Conclusions As the pilot project has only been in operation for one semester there are no profound statements that can be made. What we have at present is the base information for comparison of all data over the duration of the project. Cross tabulation of the data to date has begun. However it should be re-iterated here that there appears to be a lack of understanding by the parents' as to the reason for the all-girls classes at the school and that this situation may be due to the fact that in this school community we have the typical sex-stereotyping roles and attitudes existing. The big question is, Will this intervention strategy of single-sex science classes be effective in altering the girls views about what is appropriate for them to study or follow as a career?     

Comparing active delay and procrastination from a self-regulated learning perspective

Researchers have proposed that the act of postponing academic work may be divided into a traditional definition of procrastination, viewed as maladaptive, and adaptive forms of delay. Adaptive forms of delay may be more consistent with certain facets of self-regulated learning. The current study investigated this issue by examining whether the relations between aspects of self-regulated learning and active delay may be distinct from the relations these aspects of self-regulated learning have with procrastination. Among 206 undergraduates, procrastination was positively predicted by mastery-avoidance goals and negatively by metacognitive strategy usage, whereas active delay was negatively predicted by avoidance goals and positively by self-efficacy. Furthermore, students who reported higher levels of active delay also received better grades. These findings provide support that active delay is a distinct form of delay from procrastination that may be more positive due to its associations with some adaptive self-regulatory processes and academic achievement.     

Two components of responding in Pavlovian lick suppression

The present research examined the temporal distribution of responding in a lick suppression paradigm. In Experiment 1, rats were trained with either a 30- or a 120-s conditioned stimulus (CS), which was followed either by a footshock (unconditioned stimulus [US]) or nothing. Licking during the CS was suppressed only in the former condition. Suppression was more pronounced early in the CS. In Experiment 2, rats were exposed to two 30-s or two 120-s CSs, with delivery of the shock being contingent on CS1 for half of the animals and on CS2 for the other half. For both the paired and the unpaired conditions, suppression at the beginning of CS1 was observed for all the groups. By discounting the possibility of generalization between CS1 and CS2, it appears that this initial suppression was not a conditioned response to the CS, but an unconditioned one due to mere exposure to the shock US.     

Some determinants of second-order conditioning

In a Pavlovian conditioning situation, an initially neutral stimulus may be made excitatory by nonreinforced presentations in compound with an established conditioned excitor [i.e., second-order conditioning (SOC)]. The established excitor may be either a punctate cue or the training context. In four conditioned suppression experiments using rats, we investigated whether SOC phenomena parallel other cue interaction effects. In Experiment 1, we found that the response potential of a target stimulus was directly related to the intertrial interval when SOC was mediated by a punctate cue, and inversely related to the intertrial interval when SOC was mediated by the training context. Experiment 2 demonstrated that punctate- and context-mediated SOC are oppositely affected by posttraining context extinction, and Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that context- and punctate-mediated SOC are differentially affected by conditioned stimulus (Experiment 3) and unconditioned stimulus (Experiment 4) preexposure treatments. These findings parallel phenomena in conditioned inhibition and cue competition situations.     

Recovery from the overexpectation effect: Contrasting performance-focused and acquisition-focused models of retrospective revaluation

In four Pavlovian conditioned lick-suppression experiments, rats had two conditioned stimuli (CSs X and A) independently paired with footshock, followed by pairings of a compound of A and X with the footshock. On subsequent tests with CS X, less conditioned suppression was observed than in control subjects that lacked the compound AX→footshock trials. Thisoverexpectation effect was reversed through posttraining extinction of CS A, a result consistent with both performance- and acquisition-focused models of retrospective revaluation. However, only performance-focused models could account for how posttraining increases or decreases in the A-footshock temporal interval attenuate the overexpectation effect.