The current study examined 98 participants' preferences for five pictorial stimuli. The researchers used a verbal multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (VMSWO) preference assessment with each participant to identify high-preference and low-preference pictorial stimuli. Next, participants viewed each pictorial stimulus in a randomized order on a computer while using a hand dynamometer that measured the amount of force they exerted to increase or maintain the visual clarity of each image. The results indicate that over 75% of participants' force response ranks corresponded with participants' VMSWO high-preference stimuli, VMSWO low-preference stimuli, or both. The results of the current study provide further evidence for the use of conjugate schedules in the assessment of stimulus preference with potential for use as a reinforcer assessment. Implications along with directions for future research and limitations of the findings are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jeab.926 | DOI Listing |
Neurobiol Learn Mem
January 2025
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address:
Humans and animals use information about future access to rewards to influence their behaviour in the present, however the evidence for this is largely anecdotal. Here we use the nicotine intravenous self-administration paradigm to ask whether rats can use an auditory stimulus signalling a long (450 s) signalled time-out on the next trial to influence their nicotine intake in the present. Rats were trained to choose between low (15 µg/kg/infusion), medium (30 µg/kg/infusion) or high (60 µg/kg/infusion) doses of nicotine on any given trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehav Anal Pract
December 2024
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY USA.
Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to extend the limited research on group stimulus preference assessment (SPA) procedures. The study occurred in two sections of a middle school special education classroom and included 20 students with multi-categorical disabilities. A paired stimulus group SPA was used to identify a preference hierarchy for each class, and results were validated using single case designs in which baseline conditions were compared to group contingency conditions with alternating sessions of the highest-preferred (high-p) and lowest-preferred (low-p) consequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Primatol
January 2025
Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, USA.
An individual shows handedness when they consistently prefer one hand over the other for tasks that can be performed with either hand. Humans have a population-level right-hand preference, and past research shows that a variety of nonhuman primate species also show hand preferences. More complex manual tasks elicit stronger hand preferences than less complex manual tasks, but not much is known about hand preferences during a cognitive task in nonhuman primates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neurophysiol
January 2025
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215.
Visuocortical responses are regulated by gain control mechanisms, giving rise to fundamental neural and perceptual phenomena such as surround suppression. Suppression strength, determined by the composition and relative properties of stimuli, controls the strength of neural responses in early visual cortex, and in turn, the subjective salience of the visual stimulus. Notably, suppression strength is modulated by feature similarity; for instance, responses to a center-surround stimulus in which the components are collinear to each other are weaker than when they are orthogonal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFiScience
November 2024
Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan.
Positive affect promotes mental health and physical well-being, which may involve modifications in the autonomic nervous system activity. Here, we examine, using chemogenetic techniques, the effects of nucleus accumbens (NAc) activation on affect and body temperature regulation as a proxy of autonomic function. A conditioned place preference test revealed that nucleus accumbens activation induced positive affect.
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