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Full-Text Articles in Psychology
Validation And Optimisation Of A Touchscreen Progressive Ratio Test Of Motivation In Male Rats, Jonathan M. Hailwood, Christopher J. Heath, Trevor W. Robbins, Lisa M. Saksida, Timothy J. Bussey
Validation And Optimisation Of A Touchscreen Progressive Ratio Test Of Motivation In Male Rats, Jonathan M. Hailwood, Christopher J. Heath, Trevor W. Robbins, Lisa M. Saksida, Timothy J. Bussey
Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications
© 2018, The Author(s). Rationale: Across species, effort-related motivation can be assessed by testing behaviour under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement. However, to date, PR tasks for rodents have been available using traditional operant response systems only. Objectives: Touchscreen operant response systems allow the assessment of behaviour in laboratory rodents, using tasks that share high face validity with the computerised assessments used in humans. Here, we sought to optimise a rat touchscreen variant of PR and validate it by assessing the effects of a number of manipulations known to affect PR performance in non-touchscreen paradigms. Methods: Separate groups …
Effort-Related Decision Making In Comt Variant Mice: Pharmacological Studies And Genetic Susceptibility To Motivational Dysfunction, Suzanne Cayer
Effort-Related Decision Making In Comt Variant Mice: Pharmacological Studies And Genetic Susceptibility To Motivational Dysfunction, Suzanne Cayer
Honors Scholar Theses
Effort-related decision making tasks in animals can model motivational symptoms in humans, which are a set of symptoms spanning a multitude of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder and the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The present studies aimed to evaluate the effort-related effects of the Val158Met polymorphism of human catechol-methyltransferase (COMT), by testing mice carrying either the human COMT Val (n=8) or Met allele (n=8) with Wild-Type control mice (n=15) by using concurrent FR2 and FR4/pellet choice tasks in a touchscreen operant conditioning apparatus. The Val158Met polymorphism has been repeatedly associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, and the Val allele has …
Play Like You Mean It: Motivational Predictors Of Female Student Athletes' Practice And Game Performance, Zipporah Rebekah Foster
Play Like You Mean It: Motivational Predictors Of Female Student Athletes' Practice And Game Performance, Zipporah Rebekah Foster
Online Theses and Dissertations
The current study explores how motivational reasons for goals influence athletic performance on a women's basketball team. The purpose of the current study was to expand on past research associated with fluctuation of motivation in practice and game performance throughout a season. Participants (n = 15) in the current study were female student-athletes, who completed a motivational survey that measured Relationally-Autonomous Reasons (RARs), Personally-Autonomous Reasons (PARs), and Controlled Reasons (CRs). Athletic performance was measured by examining daily practice performance and game statistics for each athlete. The results of the current study showed that RARs were associated with game performance (p < .05), however PARs and CRs were not. RARs were positively associated with game performance whereas PARs were not. The association for RARs and game performance was stronger than RARs and practice performance. Overall, the findings confirm that RARs are associated with game performance in women's sports.