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Behavioral Neuroscience Apr 2019Occasion setting refers to the ability of 1 stimulus, an occasion setter, to modulate the efficacy of the association between another, conditioned stimulus (CS) and an... (Review)
Review
Occasion setting refers to the ability of 1 stimulus, an occasion setter, to modulate the efficacy of the association between another, conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) or reinforcer. Occasion setters and simple CSs are readily distinguished. For example, occasion setters are relatively immune to extinction and counterconditioning, and their combination and transfer functions differ substantially from those of simple CSs. Similarly, the acquisition of occasion setting is favored when stimuli are separated by longer intervals, by empty trace intervals, and are of different modalities, whereas the opposite conditions typically favor the acquisition of simple associations. Furthermore, the simple conditioning and occasion setting properties of a single stimulus can be independent, for example, that stimulus may simultaneously predict the occurrence of a reinforcer and indicate that another stimulus will not be reinforced. Many behavioral phenomena that are intractable to simple associative analysis are better understood within an occasion setting framework. Besides capturing the distinction between direct and modulatory control common to many arenas in neuroscience, occasion setting provides a model for the hierarchical organization of memory for events and event relations, and for contextual control more broadly. Although early lesion studies further differentiated between occasion setting and simple conditioning functions, little is known about the neurobiology of occasion setting. Modern techniques for precise manipulation and monitoring of neuronal activity in multiple brain regions are ideally suited for disentangling contributions of simple conditioning and occasion setting in associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Animals; Association Learning; Basolateral Nuclear Complex; Brain; Conditioning, Psychological; Cues; Discrimination Learning; Extinction, Psychological; Humans; Models, Neurological; Models, Psychological; Motivation; Neural Pathways; Nucleus Accumbens; Prefrontal Cortex; Transfer, Psychology
PubMed: 30907616
DOI: 10.1037/bne0000306 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Dec 2016Reward-related cues are an important part of our daily life as they often influence and guide our actions. This paper reviews one of the experimental paradigms used to... (Review)
Review
Reward-related cues are an important part of our daily life as they often influence and guide our actions. This paper reviews one of the experimental paradigms used to study the effects of cues, the Pavlovian to Instrumental Transfer paradigm. In this paradigm, cues associated with rewards through Pavlovian conditioning alter motivation and choice of instrumental actions. The first transfer experiments date back to the 1940s, but only in the last decade has it been fully recognised that there are two types of transfer, specific and general. This paper presents a systematic review of both the neural substrates and the behavioral factors affecting both types of transfer. It also examines the recent application of the paradigm to study the effect of cues on human participants, both in normal and pathological conditions, and the interactions of transfer with drugs of abuse. Finally, the paper analyses the theoretical aspects of transfer to build an overall picture of the phenomenon, from early theories to recent hierarchical accounts.
Topics: Conditioning, Classical; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; Humans; Motivation; Reward; Transfer, Psychology
PubMed: 27693227
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.09.020 -
International Journal of Nursing... Jan 2023This study examined the possible correlation between metacognition and learning experience transfer of nursing students after engaging in an urgent and cognitively...
OBJECTIVES
This study examined the possible correlation between metacognition and learning experience transfer of nursing students after engaging in an urgent and cognitively demanding clinical situation.
METHODS
This is a one-group post-test- only study design in which participants engaged in an emergency care scenario simulation and completed the Meta-Cognitive Awareness Scale - Domain Specific (MCAS-DS).
RESULTS
Study results revealed that participants' metacognitive awareness is significantly correlated to the learning transfer (p=0.0001) and GPA (p=0.006). There is also a positive correlation between learning transfer and GPA (p=0.04), clinical settings-based training experience (p=0.021) and metacognitive confidence (p=0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS
This study may imply that academic achievement can be used as a potential screening tool to identify students requiring metacognitive training. It may also imply that metacognitive abilities can be enhanced indirectly through considering factors that may influence the transfer of learning such as increasing the hours of clinical training.
Topics: Humans; Metacognition; Transfer, Psychology; Uncertainty; Learning; Students, Nursing
PubMed: 38073587
DOI: 10.1515/ijnes-2023-0038 -
Cognitive Research: Principles and... 2016Comparison and reminding have both been shown to support learning and transfer. Comparison is thought to support transfer because it allows learners to disregard...
Comparison and reminding have both been shown to support learning and transfer. Comparison is thought to support transfer because it allows learners to disregard non-matching features of superficially different episodes in order to abstract the essential structure of concepts. Remindings promote memory for the individual episodes and generalization because they prompt learners to retrieve earlier episodes during the encoding of later related episodes and to compare across episodes. Across three experiments, we compared the consequences of comparison and reminding on memory and transfer. Participants studied a sequence of related, but superficially different, proverb pairs. In the comparison condition, participants saw proverb pairs presented together and compared their meaning. In the reminding condition, participants viewed proverbs one at a time and retrieved any prior studied proverb that shared the same deep meaning as the current proverb. Experiment 1 revealed that participants in the reminding condition recalled more proverbs than those in the comparison condition. Experiment 2 showed that the mnemonic benefits of reminding persisted over a one-week retention interval. Finally, in Experiment 3, we examined the ability of participants to generalize their remembered information to new items in a task that required participants to identify unstudied proverbs that shared the same meaning as studied proverbs. Comparison led to worse discrimination between proverbs related to studied proverbs and proverbs unrelated to studied proverbs than reminding. Reminding supported better memory for individual instances and transfer to new situations than comparison.
PubMed: 28180171
DOI: 10.1186/s41235-016-0028-1 -
Topics in Cognitive Science Jul 2017A central question in human development is how young children gain knowledge so fast. We propose that analogical generalization drives much of this early learning and...
A central question in human development is how young children gain knowledge so fast. We propose that analogical generalization drives much of this early learning and allows children to generate new abstractions from experience. In this paper, we review evidence for analogical generalization in both children and adults. We discuss how analogical processes interact with the child's changing knowledge base to predict the course of learning, from conservative to domain-general understanding. This line of research leads to challenges to existing assumptions about learning. It shows that (a) it is not enough to consider the distribution of examples given to learners; one must consider the processes learners are applying; (b) contrary to the general assumption, maximizing variability is not always the best route for maximizing generalization and transfer.
Topics: Child; Humans; Knowledge; Learning; Transfer, Psychology
PubMed: 28621480
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12278 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Nov 2020Recent reviews yield contradictory findings regarding the efficacy of working memory training and transfer to untrained tasks. We reviewed working memory updating (WMU)... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
AIMS
Recent reviews yield contradictory findings regarding the efficacy of working memory training and transfer to untrained tasks. We reviewed working memory updating (WMU) training studies and examined cognitive and neural outcomes on training and transfer tasks.
METHODS
Database searches for adult brain imaging studies of WMU training were conducted. Training-induced neural changes were assessed qualitatively, and meta-analyses were performed on behavioural training and transfer effects.
RESULTS
A large behavioural training effect was found for WMU training groups compared to control groups. There was a moderate near transfer effect on tasks in the same cognitive domain, and a non-significant effect for far transfer to other cognitive domains. Functional neuroimaging changes for WMU training tasks revealed consistent frontoparietal activity decreases while both decreases and increases were found for subcortical regions.
CONCLUSIONS
WMU training promotes plasticity and has potential applications in optimizing interventions for neurological populations. Future research should focus on the mechanisms and factors underlying plasticity and generalisation of training gains.
Topics: Adult; Brain; Humans; Learning; Memory, Short-Term; Neuroimaging; Transfer, Psychology
PubMed: 32738262
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.027 -
Journal of Vision Jan 2017What is new in perceptual learning? In the early days of research, specificity was the hallmark of perceptual learning; that is, improvements following training were...
What is new in perceptual learning? In the early days of research, specificity was the hallmark of perceptual learning; that is, improvements following training were limited to the trained stimulus features. For example, training with a stimulus improves performance for this stimulus but not for the same stimulus when rotated by 90° (Ball & Sekuler, 1987; Spang, Grimsen, Herzog, & Fahle, 2010). Because of this specificity, learning was thought to be mediated by neural changes at the early stages of vision. In the last decade, many procedures were discovered in which transfer occurs from trained to untrained conditions under certain conditions. The location of learning is now often thought to occur in higher stage of vision and decision-making. This special issue shows how the field has progressed along these lines.
Topics: Conditioning, Psychological; Humans; Learning; Transfer, Psychology; Visual Perception
PubMed: 28114502
DOI: 10.1167/17.1.23 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2022Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with unclear etiology, and due to the lack of effective treatment, ASD patients bring enormous economic... (Review)
Review
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with unclear etiology, and due to the lack of effective treatment, ASD patients bring enormous economic and psychological burden to families and society. In recent years, many studies have found that children with ASD are associated with gastrointestinal diseases, and the composition of intestinal microbiota (GM) is different from that of typical developing children. Thus, many researchers believe that the gut-brain axis may play an important role in the occurrence and development of ASD. Indeed, some clinical trials and animal studies have reported changes in neurological function, behavior, and comorbid symptoms of autistic children after rebalancing the composition of the GM through the use of antibiotics, prebiotics, and probiotics or microbiota transfer therapy (MMT). In view of the emergence of new therapies based on the modulation of GM, characterizing the individual gut bacterial profile evaluating the effectiveness of intervention therapies could help provide a better quality of life for subjects with ASD. This article reviews current studies on interventions to rebalance the GM in children with ASD. The results showed that may be an effective strain for the probiotic treatment of ASD. However, the greater effectiveness of MMT treatment suggests that it may be more important to pay attention to the overall balance of the patient's GM. Based on these findings, a more thorough assessment of the GM is expected to contribute to personalized microbial intervention, which can be used as a supplementary treatment for ASD.
PubMed: 35712154
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.862719 -
The Primary Care Companion For CNS... Feb 2018Factitious disorder can present in multiple health care settings, with patients intentionally producing symptoms to assume the sick role. This assumption of the sick... (Review)
Review
Factitious disorder can present in multiple health care settings, with patients intentionally producing symptoms to assume the sick role. This assumption of the sick role can result in multiple hospitalizations with unnecessary diagnostic workup, as well as invasive diagnostic procedures that can lead to worrisome side effects. Differential diagnoses that should be ruled out include malingering, somatic symptom disorder, and anxiety disorders. For many providers, patients with factitious disorder can be a challenge to treat because the etiology of the disorder remains unclear. There are multiple psychological theories that attempt to explain the motivation and thought process behind the voluntary production of symptoms. Some of these theories have addressed disruptive attachments during childhood, possible intergenerational transfer of the disorder, personal identity conflicts, somatic illness as a form of masochistic activity toward oneself, and intrapsychic conflicts. Confrontation and psychotherapy with a multidisciplinary team has been proposed as a form of treatment. An understanding of the psychological factors associated with factitious disorder can help providers understand the rationale behind the patient's presentation and aid in the formulation of a treatment plan.
Topics: Anxiety Disorders; Diagnosis, Differential; Factitious Disorders; Humans; Malingering
PubMed: 29489075
DOI: 10.4088/PCC.17nr02229 -
Behavioural Processes Sep 2018A basic assumption of most researchers is that behavior is generally functional, and indeed, in most instances the function is obvious. But in a number of cases, some... (Review)
Review
A basic assumption of most researchers is that behavior is generally functional, and indeed, in most instances the function is obvious. But in a number of cases, some behaviors of neurophysiologically 'normal' organisms appear to be maladaptive. Considerable research has been conducted to understand the basis of such behavior as well as how the frequency of such behavior can be reduced. Here we provide a brief panoramic review of the major sources of maladaptive behavior in neurophysiologically 'normal' organisms: a) altered environmental contingencies relative to those faced by ancestral generations in their environment of evolutionary adaptation, b) altered environmental contingencies within the lifespan of the animal, c) linked behaviors in which the dysfunctional behavior is a linked companion of a more valuable beneficial trait, and d) the labeling of some behaviors as 'maladaptive' when more careful examination finds that they provide net benefit. Most of our attention is on the consequences of altered contingencies across and within a generation, with altered contingencies within a generation constituting a form of associative interference. The central issue in these two cases can be framed in terms of insufficient or excessive transfer of training resulting in maladaptive behavior. We discuss the functional basis of successful and unsuccessful near transfer (i.e., stimulus and response generalization) and far transfer (including rule learning and abstraction).
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Biological Evolution; Environment; Transfer, Psychology
PubMed: 29274378
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.12.017