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Avoidance And Depression: Evidence For Reinforcement As A Mediating Factor, John Paul Carvalho Dec 2011

Avoidance And Depression: Evidence For Reinforcement As A Mediating Factor, John Paul Carvalho

Doctoral Dissertations

Behavioral Activation theory (Martell, Addis, & Jacobson, 2001) posits that a pattern of excessive use of avoidant coping strategies removes an individual from environmental sources of reward and reinforcement and subsequently leads to the development (or maintenance) of depressive symptoms. This investigation examined this theory by establishing measures of environmental reward as mediators between avoidance and depression, while further demonstrating that there is a strong connection between avoidance and depression independent of anxiety. Reward was measured by both self-report questionnaire (Reward Probability Inventory; Carvalho et al., under review) and daily activity diary ratings (Hopko, Bell, Armento, Hunt, & Lejuez, 2003), …


Specific Contributions Of Ventromedial, Anterior Cingulate, And Lateral Prefrontal Cortex For Attentional Selection And Stimulus Valuation., Daniel Kaping, Martin Vinck, R Matthew Hutchison, Stefan Everling, Thilo Womelsdorf Dec 2011

Specific Contributions Of Ventromedial, Anterior Cingulate, And Lateral Prefrontal Cortex For Attentional Selection And Stimulus Valuation., Daniel Kaping, Martin Vinck, R Matthew Hutchison, Stefan Everling, Thilo Womelsdorf

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Attentional control ensures that neuronal processes prioritize the most relevant stimulus in a given environment. Controlling which stimulus is attended thus originates from neurons encoding the relevance of stimuli, i.e. their expected value, in hand with neurons encoding contextual information about stimulus locations, features, and rules that guide the conditional allocation of attention. Here, we examined how these distinct processes are encoded and integrated in macaque prefrontal cortex (PFC) by mapping their functional topographies at the time of attentional stimulus selection. We find confined clusters of neurons in ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) that predominantly convey stimulus valuation information during attention shifts. …


The Effects Of Culture And Friendship On Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Michelle Ya Hui See, Xiang Yu Gao Nov 2011

The Effects Of Culture And Friendship On Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Michelle Ya Hui See, Xiang Yu Gao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present research explores whether the type of relationship one holds with deceptive or honest actors influences cross-cultural differences in reward and punishment. Research suggests that Americans reward honest actors more than they punish deceptive perpetrators, whereas East Asians reward and punish equally (Wang & Leung, 2010). Our research suggests that the type of relationship with the actor matters for East Asians, but not for Americans. East Asians exhibit favoritism toward their friends by rewarding more than punishing them, but reward and punish equally when the actors are strangers (Experiment 1 and 2); Americans reward more than they punish regardless …


Distress Tolerance, Experiential Avoidance, And Negative Affect: Implications For Understanding Eating Behavior And Bmi, Christen Nicole Mullane Aug 2011

Distress Tolerance, Experiential Avoidance, And Negative Affect: Implications For Understanding Eating Behavior And Bmi, Christen Nicole Mullane

Doctoral Dissertations

Distress tolerance and experiential avoidance are important aspects of the coping process. In the current study, both were examined in relation to Body Mass Index and self-reported disturbances in mood and eating behavior. Distress tolerance was measured behaviorally and via self-report to elucidate the manner in which a) the ability to tolerate emotional distress, and b) the ability to persist behaviorally in the presence of stress-inducing stimuli were related to self-reported levels of depression, anxiety, maladaptive eating habits, and bodily concerns. A sample of 73 undergraduate students participated, and height, weight, and waist circumference were measured. Increased experiential avoidance was …


Reward, Punishment, And Cooperation: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel Balliet, Laetitia B. Mulder, Paul A. M. Van Lange Jul 2011

Reward, Punishment, And Cooperation: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel Balliet, Laetitia B. Mulder, Paul A. M. Van Lange

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How effective are rewards (for cooperation) and punishment (for noncooperation) as tools to promote cooperation in social dilemmas or situations when immediate self-interest and longer term collective interest conflict? What variables can promote the impact of these incentives? Although such questions have been examined, social and behavioral scientists provide different answers. To date, there is no theoretical and/or quantitative review of rewards and punishments as incentives for cooperation in social dilemmas. Using a novel interdependence-theoretic framework, we propose that rewards and punishments should both promote cooperation, and we identify 2 variables-cost of incentives and source of incentives-that are predicted to …


Reward, Punishment, And Cooperation: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel Balliet, Laetitia B. Mulder, Paul A. M. Van Lange Jul 2011

Reward, Punishment, And Cooperation: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel Balliet, Laetitia B. Mulder, Paul A. M. Van Lange

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How effective are rewards (for cooperation) and punishment (for noncooperation) as tools to promote cooperation in social dilemmas or situations when immediate self-interest and longer term collective interest conflict? What variables can promote the impact of these incentives? Although such questions have been examined, social and behavioral scientists provide different answers. To date, there is no theoretical and/or quantitative review of rewards and punishments as incentives for cooperation in social dilemmas. Using a novel interdependence-theoretic framework, we propose that rewards and punishments should both promote cooperation, and we identify 2 variables-cost of incentives and source of incentives-that are predicted to …


Reward Probability And The Variability Of Foraging Behavior In Rats, W. David Stahlman, Aaron P. Blaisdell Jan 2011

Reward Probability And The Variability Of Foraging Behavior In Rats, W. David Stahlman, Aaron P. Blaisdell

Psychological Science

The connection between reduced reinforcement probability and increased behavioral variability hasbeen well established in recent years (Gharib, Gade, & Roberts, 2004; Stahlman, Roberts, & Blaisdell, 2010). Researchers have hypothesized that this relationship is an adaptive one - it is beneficial for animals to increase behavioral variability in response to low likelihood of success,because this increase in variability potentially allows them to discover new behavioral options that are more highly rewarded. We conducted a study to investigate the relationship between behavioral variability and reward probability in an ecologically valid experimental task. We trained rats to search for hidden food in the …