Dataset Information

Contextual control of chained instrumental behaviors.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies suggest a significant role for context in controlling the acquisition and extinction of simple operant responding. The present experiments examined the contextual control of a heterogeneous behavior chain. Rats first learned a chain in which a discriminative stimulus set the occasion for a procurement response (e.g., pulling a chain), which led to a second discriminative stimulus that occasion-set a consumption response (e.g., pressing a lever) that produced a food-pellet reinforcer. Experiment 1 showed that, after separate extinction of procurement and consumption, each response increased when it was returned to the acquisition context (ABA renewal) or was tested in a new context (AAB renewal). In addition, procurement responding, but not consumption responding, was decreased by changing the context after acquisition. Experiment 2 demonstrated ABA and AAB renewal of procurement and consumption following extinction of the whole chain. This time, the context-switch after acquisition weakened both procurement and consumption. Experiment 3 found that return to the context of the behavior chain renewed a consumption response that had been extinguished separately. Finally, in Experiment 4, rats learned 2 different discriminated heterogeneous chains; consumption extinguished outside its chain was only renewed on return to a chain when it was preceded by its associated procurement response. The results suggest a role for context in the extinction of chained behavior. They also support the view that procurement is influenced by the physical context and that consumption is controlled primarily by the response that precedes it in the chain. (PsycINFO Database Record

SUBMITTER: Thrailkill EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5061624 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Contextual control of chained instrumental behaviors.

Thrailkill Eric A EA Trott Jeremy M JM Zerr Christopher L CL Bouton Mark E ME

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition 20160905 4

Recent studies suggest a significant role for context in controlling the acquisition and extinction of simple operant responding. The present experiments examined the contextual control of a heterogeneous behavior chain. Rats first learned a chain in which a discriminative stimulus set the occasion for a procurement response (e.g., pulling a chain), which led to a second discriminative stimulus that occasion-set a consumption response (e.g., pressing a lever) that produced a food-pellet reinforc ...[more]

PMID: 27598060

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Project description:Past research on the associations between area-level/contextual social capital and health has produced conflicting evidence. However, interpreting this rapidly growing literature is difficult because estimates using conventional regression are prone to major sources of bias including residual confounding and reverse causation. Instrumental variable (IV) analysis can reduce such bias. Using data on up to 167,344 adults in 64 nations in the European and World Values Surveys and applying IV and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, we estimated the contextual effects of country-level social trust on individual self-rated health. We further explored whether these associations varied by gender and individual levels of trust. Using OLS regression, we found higher average country-level trust to be associated with better self-rated health in both women and men. Instrumental variable analysis yielded qualitatively similar results, although the estimates were more than double in size in both sexes when country population density and corruption were used as instruments. The estimated health effects of raising the percentage of a country's population that trusts others by 10 percentage points were at least as large as the estimated health effects of an individual developing trust in others. These findings were robust to alternative model specifications and instruments. Conventional regression and to a lesser extent IV analysis suggested that these associations are more salient in women and in women reporting social trust. In a large cross-national study, our findings, including those using instrumental variables, support the presence of beneficial effects of higher country-level trust on self-rated health. Previous findings for contextual social capital using traditional regression may have underestimated the true associations. Given the close linkages between self-rated health and all-cause mortality, the public health gains from raising social capital within and across countries may be large.

Dataset Information

Contextual control of chained instrumental behaviors.

Publications

Contextual control of chained instrumental behaviors.

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