Recovery of conditioned suppression after backward pairings

In four conditioned suppression experiments with rats (Rattus norvegicus), backward pairings of a shock unconditioned stimulus (US) and a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) eliminated an already established conditioned response (CR), but there was recovery of the CR if the shock was later withheld. In Experiment 1, there was recovery after backward pairings, regardless of whether the period after the US was normally shock free or not. In Experiment 2, the occurrence of recovery depended on the CS’s being presented closely after the US in response elimination. Levels of recovery were positively correlated with the resistance of the response to elimination during backward pairings (Experiments 3 and 4). Taken together, these data support the notion that recovery after backward pairings is a form of renewal (see, e.g., Bouton, 1991) and is not due toprotection from extinction.     

Learning about qualitatively different outcomes during a blocking procedure

In four experiments, rat subjects were used in appetitive Pavlovian magazine-approach and instrumental conditioning procedures. Experiments 1 and 2 found successful blocking of the Pavlovian conditioning of X when it was reinforced in an AX compound after prior conditioning of A. This occurred whether the outcome following AX was the same as or qualitatively different from what followed A. Experiment 3 repeated those findings but also used a transfer procedure to identify the individual associations between X and outcomes. Stimulus X developed an association with the outcome following AX when that outcome differed from that following A alone but not when it was the same as that following A alone. Experiment 4 repeated that pattern of observations for the case of an X that was an instrumental discriminative stimulus. These results suggest that different associative structures may result from a qualitatively changed and unchanged outcome in a blocking experiment. The results are related to comparable findings for the case of overexpectation.     

An Assessment of Environmental Literacy and Analysis of Predictors of Responsible Environmental Behaviour Held by Secondary Teachers in the Hualien Area of Taiwan

This study assessed teachers' environmental literacy and analysed predictors of teachers' responsible environmental behaviour (REB). A nine page instrument was administered by mailed questionnaire to 300 randomly selected secondary teachers in the Hualien area of Taiwan with a 52.3% effective response rate. As a result of stepwise multiple regression analyses, the most parsimonious set of predictors of REB for all teachers included: perceived knowledge of environmental action strategies (KNOW), intention to act, area of residence and perceived skill in using environmental action strategies (SKILL, total r² = 0.3867). For urban teachers, the most parsimonious set of predictors included: intention to act, SKILL, major sources of environmental information and membership in environmental organisations (total r² = 0.4711). For rural teachers, the most parsimonious set of predictors included: KNOW, intention to act and perceived knowledge of environmental problems and issues (total r² = 0.3200). Implications for programme development and instructional practice are presented. Recommendations for further research are also provided.