Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

Behavioral And Neuropharmacological Characterization Of Nicotine As A Conditional Stimulus, Jennifer E. Murray, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In rats, the pharmacological (interoceptive) effects of 0.4 mg/kg nicotine can serve as a conditional stimulus in a Pavlovian conditioning task. Nicotine administration is paired with intermittent access to a liquid sucrose unconditional stimulus; sucrose is withheld on saline sessions. An increase in sucrose receptacle entries (goal tracking) on nicotine sessions indicates conditioning. Rats were trained on a nicotine dose ((-)-1-Methyl-2-(3-pyridyl)pyrrolidine; 0.1, 0.2, or 0.4 mg base/kg, s.c.). Generalization was examined using 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 mg/kg nicotine and saline. Some behavioral effects of nicotine have been attributed to dopamine and glutamate. Accordingly, potential blockade of the nicotine …

A Latent Growth Curve Analysis Of Prosocial Behavior Among Rural Adolescents, Gustavo Carlo, Lisa J. Crockett, Brandy A. Randall, Scott C. Roesch

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study was designed to investigate stability and changes in pro-social behavior and the parent and peer correlates of prosocial behavior in rural adolescents. Participants were from a rural, low SES community in the Eastern United States. The participants were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades at Time 1 and 10th, 11th, and 12th grades at Time 4, and completed measures of prosocial behavior and quality of parent and peer relationships. Latent growth curve modeling revealed that despite moderate stability in individual differences in prosocial behavior and slight increases in quality of peer and parent relationships, level of prosocial …

The Interoceptive Pavlovian Stimulus Effects Of Caffeine, Jennifer E. Murray, Chia Li, Matthew I. Palmatier, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present research sought to test whether caffeine functioned as a Pavlovian cue in two ways—as a positive drug feature or as a conditional stimulus (CS). As a positive feature (Experiment 1), brief light presentations were followed by sucrose only on sessions in which caffeine (10 mg/kg) was administered. On intermixed saline sessions, light presentations were not followed by sucrose. The light came to control robust goal-tracking (i.e., conditioned responding) only in caffeine sessions. Thus, caffeine disambiguates when the light was paired with sucrose. Decreasing the dose of caffeine decreased the conditioned responding evoked by the light (ED₅₀=4.16 …

Child Abuse In The Eyes Of The Beholder: Lay Perceptions Of Child Sexual And Physical Abuse, Brian H. Bornstein, Debra L. Kaplan, Andrea R. Perry

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective: The purpose was to explore the effects of victim and perpetrator gender, type of abuse, and victim-perpetrator relationship on university students’ and non-students’ perceptions of different kinds of child abuse.

Method: One hundred and ninety-nine participants (including university students and non-student adults) evaluated each of 24 vignettes (within-subjects design) describing an abusive interaction between a child and an adult. The following four variables were manipulated: the victim’s gender, the perpetrator’s gender, the type of abuse (physical, relatively mild sexual, or relatively severe sexual), and the perpetrator’s relationship to the victim (parent or babysitter). Participants rated each vignette on a …

Nicotine Does Not Produce State-Dependent Effects On Learning In A Pavlovian Appetitive Goal-Tracking Task With Rats, Rick A. Bevins, Rachel D. Penrod, Carmela Reichel

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Past research has shown that when rats received 0.4 mg base/kg nicotine paired reliably with intermittent sucrose delivery that anticipatory sucrose-seeking behavior (i.e., goal tracking) was differentially displayed in the nicotine state relative to intermixed saline sessions in which no sucrose was delivered. The present research extended this observation to a lower dose of nicotine (i.e., 0.2 mg base/kg) and tested a state-dependent learning account of differential conditioned responding. According to this account, the increase in goal tracking on nicotine sessions reflects a chambersucrose association that is only recalled when in the nicotine state. We used a 2 × 2 …

Facilitation By Drug States Does Not Depend On Acquired Excitatory Strength, Matthew I. Palmatier, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Three experiments examined the effects of drug-extinction when a drug state served as a conditional stimulus (CS) for sucrose delivery or as a positive feature for pairings between a discrete CS (e.g., 15-s light-on) and sucrose. Some conditioning models predict that drug-state will facilitate the conditional response (CR) based on an association with sucrose whether the drug is trained as a CS or as a facilitator. If so, repeated presentation of the drug state alone (drug-extinction) should decrease the CR in both situations. Nicotine (0.4 mg/kg), amphetamine (AMP, 1 mg/kg), and chlordiazepoxide (CDP, 5 mg/kg) facilitated a goal-tracking conditioned response …

Naltrexone Renders One-Session Exposure Therapy Less Effective: A Controlled Pilot Study, Andrea T. Kozac, C. Richard Spates, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Katherine C. Bailey, Kristin L. Schneider, Michael R. Liepman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In vivo exposure has become the gold standard treatment for specific phobia. The endogenous opioid system is one mechanism proposed to explain why exposure provides such quick and effective treatment for specific phobia. The effect of naltrexone on fear and avoidance behavior was investigated among 15 specific phobia participants who received exposure treatment. Participants were randomly assigned to receive naltrexone, placebo, or no drug prior to attending one-session exposure treatment. Mixed effects regression results revealed that across time, the naltrexone group tolerated significantly less time in the room with the feared animal (Behavioral Avoidance Index) as compared to the placebo …

Developmental Risks And Psychosocial Adjustment Among Low-Income Brazilian Youth, Marcela Raffaelli, Silvia H. Koller, Elder Cerqueria-Santos, Normanda Araujo De Morais

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Exposure to developmental risks in three domains (community, economic, and family), and relations between risks and psychosocial well-being, were examined among 918 impoverished Brazilian youth aged 14-19 (M = 15.8 years, 51.9% female) recruited in low-income neighborhoods in one city in Southern Brazil. High levels of developmental risks were reported, with levels and types of risks varying by gender, age, and (to a lesser extent) race. Associations between levels of risks in the various domains and indicators of psychological (e.g., self-esteem, negative emotionality) and behavioral (e.g., substance use) adjustment differed for male and female respondents. Findings build on prior …

Elder Research: Filling An Important Gap In Psychology And Law, Eve M. Brank

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the past few decades, psychology-law as a discipline has made great strides in understanding and guiding public policies on issues related to eyewitnesses, confessions, juries, judges, juveniles, the mentally ill, and many others. As a field, we have largely neglected the oldest subset of the population, with only a few scholars focusing specifically on elder issues or systematically including elders in their studies. The current article is a call to research. It first outlines why elders should be considered as a specific subset of the population even though they have not been an area of focus in the field. …

Will They Tell? Weapons Reporting By Middle-School Youth, Eve M. Brank, Jennifer L. Woolard, Veda E. Brown, Mark Fondacaro, Jennifer L. Luescher, Ramona G. Chinn, Scott A. Miller

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Adding to the body of research that describes students who will bring weapons to school, the current research examined middle-school students’ willingness to report when they know someone has a weapon at school. The sample included 1,957 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from 27 schools in five states. Overall, a majority of students indicated that they would be willing to report; however, there were significant effects for the conditions of reporting (such as anonymity) and effects for some demographic characteristics. Furthermore, students who perceived adult or parental involvement in their lives were more willing to report. In contrast, students with …

Depression Vulnerability Within Smoking Research: How Accurate Are One-Item Screening Items?, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Jessica Werth Cook

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Epidemiological and large scale treatment studies within smoking research have utilized many one-item screening items to examine the influence of current depressive symptoms on smoking behavior and quitting. Little is known about that concurrent validity of screening items that may reflect depression vulnerability independent of current symptoms. The present paper evaluated the concurrent validity of two one-item screening items that were essential for diagnosing past episodes of major depression. Screening questions were administered to seventy seven nicotine dependent participants via a telephone screening interview. Smokers then returned to the laboratory for a comprehensive structured assessment of depressive vulnerability. Vulnerability measures …

Effect Of Impulsivity On Cardiovascular And Subjective Reactivity To Smoking Cues, Neal Doran, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Bonnie Spring

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Individuals with high levels of impulsivity are more likely to smoke and may have greater difficulty quitting than other smokers. Although the specific mechanisms mediating this relationship are not explicitly known, one candidate is disproportionate cigarette craving in response to environmental smoking cues. We assessed the effect of impulsivity on three measures of cue reactivity. Regular smokers (n=75) were exposed to a smoking cue and a neutral cue in 2 counterbalanced experimental sessions. Cigarette craving, heart rate (HR), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were used to index cue reactivity. More impulsive smokers exhibited a disproportionate response to the …

Impulsivity And The Reinforcing Value Of Cigarette Smoking, Neal Doran, Dennis E. Mcchargue, Lee Cohen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study tested the hypothesis that impulsivity would predict perceptions of positive and negative reinforcement from smoking. The secondary hypothesis was that the relationship between impulsivity and smoking reinforcement expectations would be mediated by the character trait of self-directedness. College students (n= 202) who reported smoking cigarettes participated in the survey study. Hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that impulsivity predicted expectations about positive (β = .22, p = .001) and negative (β = .25, p = .001) reinforcement from smoking. These relationships were also mediated by self-directedness. Results suggest that impulsive smokers in the early stages of dependence …

How Do I Feel About The Behavior? The Interplay Of Affective Associations With Behaviors And Cognitive Beliefs As Influences On Physical Activity Behavior, Marc T. Kiviniemi, Amy M. Voss-Humke, April L. Seifert

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Individuals have affective associations with health behaviors. In other domains such associations have been shown to influence behavior, but affective associations with health behaviors are not included in current health decision-making models. The authors examined whether affective associations with exercise predicted individuals’ activity behavior and, if so, how they interfaced with other decision-making constructs to influence behavior. Adult participants (N = 433) reported their current physical activity behavior and affective associations with physical activity. Health belief model and theory of planned behavior constructs were also assessed. More positive affective associations with activity significantly predicted greater activity behavior. Moreover, the …

Granny, (Don’T) Get Your Gun: Competency Issues In Gun Ownership By Older Adults, Edith Greene, Brian H. Bornstein, Hannah Dietrich

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This article explores the possible risks associated with gun ownership by older adults. We summarize existing regulations on who may own firearms, especially with respect to age. We then present data on older gun owners and violence committed by older adults in general, followed by a discussion of gun violence perpetrated by gun owners whose functional and cognitive abilities have declined, perhaps as a result of dementia. For comparison purposes, we review regulations on driving among older adults, drawing parallels to gun ownership. The paper concludes with recommendations for ensuring the safety of older gun owners and others, balanced against …

Cognitive Psychology And Survey Methodology: Nurturing The Continuing Dialogue Between Disciplines, Robert F. Belli, Frederick G. Conrad, Daniel B. Wright

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

For quite some time, survey researchers have sought to understand the causes of re¬sponse errors, that is the difference between what respondents report and the truth of their circumstances (O’Muircheartaigh, 1997). Within the past 20 years, a dialogue has emerged between cognitive psychologists and survey researchers to explore the role that cognition plays in response errors (Jabine, Straf, Tanur, & Tourangeau, 1984; Jobe & Mingay, 1991). The dialogue has been known as the cognitive aspects of survey methodology (CASM) movement. Of course, to survey researchers, the aim is to reduce response errors. By adopting perspectives and methods from cognitive psychology, …

Concordance Of Self-Report And Informant Assessment Of Emotional Well-Being In Nursing Home Residents With Dementia, Ann M. Kolanowski, Lesa Hoffman, Scott M. Hofer

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The emotional well-being of persons with dementia is an aspect of their quality of life. We examined the stability of informant-rated and self-reported emotion, and the influence of mental status and physical dependence on ratings; we modeled concordance between ratings at both the within- and between-person levels of analysis. We used multilevel modeling to examine data collected over 12 days from 31 nursing home residents. We found significant within-person variation in both informant-rated and self-reported emotion, such that between 40% and 60% of the overall variance in each occurred within persons. We found little correspondence between or within persons between …

Acculturative Stress, Social Support, And Coping: Relations To Psychological Adjustment Among Mexican American College Students, Lisa J. Crockett, Maria I. Iturbide, Rosalie A. Torres Stone, Meredith Mcginley, Marcela Raffaelli, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examined the relations between acculturative stress and psychological functioning, as well as the protective role of social support and coping style, in a sample of 148 Mexican American college students (67% female, 33% male; mean age = 23.05 years, SD = 3.33). In bivariate analyses, acculturative stress was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Moreover, active coping was associated with better adjustment (lower depression), whereas avoidant coping predicted poorer adjustment (higher levels of depression and anxiety). Tests of interaction effects indicated that parental support and active coping buffered the effects of high acculturative stress on …

Child Sexual Abuse, David J. Hansen, Kathryn R. Wilson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although definitions can vary across legal, clinical, and research contexts, sexual abuse is commonly defined as sexual acts between a youth and an older person (e.g., by 5 years or more) in which the dominance of the older person is used to exploit or coerce the youth. Behaviors may include noncontact (e.g., exposure) and contact (e.g., intercourse) offenses.

Planning “Discrete” Movements Using A Continuous System: Insights From A Dynamic Field Theory Of Movement Preparation, Anne R. Schutte, John P. Spencer

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The timed-initiation paradigm developed by Ghez and colleagues (1997) has revealed two modes of motor planning: continuous and discrete. Continuous responding occurs when targets are separated by less than 60° of spatial angle, and discrete responding occurs when targets are separated by greater than 60°. Although these two modes are thought to reflect the operation of separable strategic planning systems, a new theory of movement preparation, the Dynamic Field Theory, suggests that two modes emerge flexibly from the same system. Experiment 1 replicated continuous and discrete performance using a task modified to allow for a critical test of the single …

On The Use Of Multilevel Modeling As An Alternative To Items Analysis In Psycholinguistic Research, Lawrence Locker Jr., Lesa Hoffman, James A. Bovaird

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The use of multilevel modeling is presented as an alternative to separate item and subject ANOVAs (F₁ x F₂) in psycholinguistic research. Multilevel modeling is commonly utilized to model variability arising from the nesting of lower level observations within higher level units (e.g., students within schools, repeated measures within individuals). However, multilevel models can also be used when two random factors are crossed at the same level, rather than nested. The current work illustrates the use of the multilevel model for crossed random effects within the context of a psycholinguistic experimental study, in which both subjects …

The Meaning Of Good Parent–Child Relationships For Mexican American Adolescents, Lisa J. Crockett, Jill Brown, Stephen Russell, Yuh-Ling Shen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Perceptions of good parent–adolescent relationships were explored among 19 Mexican American high school students aged 14–17 who participated in focus group interviews on what it means for Mexican American teenagers to have good relationships with parents. Using a grounded theory approach, five general themes emerged in the responses, corresponding to open communication, instrumental and emotional support, indirect expressions of caring, parental control, and valued relationship qualities. Both genders described distinct relationships with mothers and fathers. Relationships with mothers were closer and more open than relationships with fathers, and mothers were seen as being more affectionate, lenient, and emotionally supportive, whereas …

Multilevel Models For The Experimental Psychologist: Foundations And Illustrative Examples, Lesa Hoffman, Michael J. Rovine

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although common in the educational and developmental areas, multilevel models are not often utilized in the analysis of data from experimental designs. This article illustrates how multilevel models can be useful with two examples from experimental designs with repeated measurements not involving time. One example demonstrates how to properly examine independent variables for experimental stimuli or individuals that are categorical, continuous, or semicontinuous in the presence of missing data. The second example demonstrates how response times and error rates can be modeled simultaneously within a multivariate model in order to examine speed–accuracy trade-offs at the experimental-condition and individual levels, as …

Population Inference With Mortality And Attrition In Longitudinal Studies On Aging: A Two-Stage Multiple Imputation Method, Ofer Harel, Scott M. Hofer, Lesa Hoffman, Nancy L. Pedersen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Although there are numerous challenges for the investigation of aging-related changes in older adults, statistical analysis with incomplete data and the conceptualization of population processes related to mortality is one of the most difficult. Selective attrition and mortality selection within longitudinal studies on aging are intrinsically related to many aging-related changes and must be carefully considered in the analysis and interpretation of results (e.g., Baltes, 1968; Hofer & Sliwinski, 2006; Schaie, Labouvie, & Barrett, 1973). A key distinction is made between attrition (i.e., selective dropout) and mortality selection (i.e., selective survival) in that attrition affects characteristics of the …

Childhood Psychological Maltreatment And Quality Of Marriage: The Mediating Role Of Psychological Distress, Andrea R. Perry, David K. Dilillo, James Peugh

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examined the role of adult psychological distress in mediating associations between childhood psychological maltreatment and marital satisfaction in a sample of 65 newlywed couples. Results indicated that a significant linkage between psychological maltreatment (including emotional abuse and emotional neglect) and marital satisfaction was eliminated when accounting for global psychological distress, hostility, and depression in the overall sample. These findings were moderated by gender, such that for men, the long-term cOl'relates of emotional abuse were mediated by broad psychological distress and paranoia. Conversely, for women, relations between emotional abuse and emotional neglect and later marital satisfaction were mediated by …

Towards An Understanding Of The Process And Mechanisms Of Change In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Linking Innovative Methodology With Fundamental Questions [Editorial], Adele Hayes, Debra A. Hope, Sarah Hayes

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

There is now consistent evidence to support the efficacy of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) to reduce clinical symptoms and improve quality of life across a variety of clinical problems (Butler, Chapman, Formen, & Beck, 2006). This outcome research typically relies on a pretreatment-posttreatment design and follow-up assessments at fixed intervals beyond post-test. These outcome studies have been important in answering questions about if a treatment works and, to some extent, for whom it works. However, these designs provide much less information about the mechanisms of treatment—why or how an intervention works. There has been a resurgence of interest in studying …

A Statistical Taxonomy And Another “Chance” For Natural Frequencies, Adrien Barton, Shabnam Mousavi, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Commentary on Barbey & Sloman: "Base-rate respect"

The conclusions of Barbey & Sloman (B&S) crucially depend on evidence for different representations of statistical information. Unfortunately, a muddled distinction made among these representations calls into question the authors’ conclusions. We clarify some notions of statistical representations which are often confused in the literature. These clarifications, combined with new empirical evidence, do not support a dual-process model of judgment.

When Quantity Trumps Number: Discrimination Experiments In Cotton-Top Tamarins (Saguinus Oedipus) And Common Marmosets (Callithrix Jacchus), Jeffrey R. Stevens, Justin N. Wood, Marc D. Hauser

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The capacity for non-linguistic, numerical discrimination has been well characterized in non-human animals, with recent studies providing careful controls for nonnumerical confounds such as continuous extent, density, and quantity. More poorly understood are the conditions under which animals use numerical versus nonnumerical quantification, and the nature of the relation between these two systems. Here we test whether cotton- top tamarins and common marmosets can discriminate between two quantities on the basis of the amount of food rather than on number. In three experiments, we show that when choosing between arrays containing different numbers and sizes of food objects, both species …

Personal Values As A Mediator Between Parent And Peer Expectations And Adolescent Behaviors, Laura M. Padilla-Walker, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The current study examined the mediating role of adolescents’ personal values on the relation between maternal and peer expectations for prosocial behaviors and adolescents’ self-reported prosocial and antisocial behaviors. One hundred thirty-four adolescents (mean age = 16.22 years, 54% girls) completed measures of their own values and behaviors, as well as their perceptions of the positive expectations that their mother and their best friend(s) had for their (the adolescents’) prosocial behaviors. Stepwise regression analyses suggested that adolescents’ personal prosocial values mediated the relation between adolescents’ perceptions of both maternal and peer expectations and adolescents’ prosocial behaviors. In addition, for boys, …

“Introduction” To Modeling Complex Systems: Volume 52 Of The Nebraska Symposium On Motivation, Bill Shuart, William D. Spaulding, Jeffrey Poland

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Capturing the complexity of human behavior has been a recurring theme in the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation:
We expect behavior to be patterned or integrated, and to make biological sense; and so patterning and biological utility are what we see. And of course what we see is actually there-behavior in general is not chaotic; it is organized. (Nissen, 1954, p. 314)
When fundamental psychologists do make excursions into the human motivational world ... it is rare that they survey the requirements for theory or pre-theory by intensive descriptive analysis of behavior related to such motives as produced by concrete human …