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Little is known about why people behave the way they do in threatening situations. Some theories invoke a transfer of responses from unconditioned stimuli (US) to conditioned stimuli (CS), but this principle goes astray because responses to the US and CS can differ substantially. The idea that we introduce here is that the pattern of responses to a newly established CS does not come from the US but (at least partly) transfers from how one (learned to) respond(s) to previously encountered stimuli with threat value. So, we conceptualize threat value as a stimulus feature that allows responses to transfer between stimuli that share this feature (in the same way as, for example, overlap in color or shape can support transfer). In contrast to prevailing views, this new perspective focuses on the relation between the CS and already established threat signals rather than on the relation between the CS and the US. We discuss how this shared features perspective on human fear responding can inspire future directions in both the laboratory and clinical practice.

This article is directed to identify learners needs and organize the further procedure of language teaching and learning. To this extend, teachers should identify the learner’s personality, character, and learning styles, they may comprehensively organize lesson procedures and use various methods in an appropriate manner and finally, they will be able to receive high outcomes in the field of language teaching.

Current research suggests that cognitive offloading influences both short-term memory as well as long-term memory (Risko & Gilbert, 2016). On the one hand, studies showed that using cues to offload intentions or store information externally, which would otherwise have to be stored in short-term memory, increases the number of fulfilled intentions or remembered information in a subsequent memory task (Gilbert, 2015; Risko & Dunn, 2015). On the other hand, engaging in offloading behavior can also be harmful for the long-term retention of information. For example, Fenech, Drews, and Bakdash (2010) discovered that participants using a navigation device in order to fulfill a task remembered significantly less details about their surroundings than participants who had to do the navigation themselves. This indicates that participants who engaged in cognitive offloading had fewer long-term memory traces than those who did not. This raises the question whether humans are actually capable of using this knowledge in order to achieve the optimal outcome. So far, few studies have taken on this quest and their results are inconclusive (e.g. Karpicke, 2009). Gilbert et al. (2020) found participants to engage in offloading behavior even though it did not benefit their performance. Thus, we aim at answering the question whether participants can make use of the explicit knowledge of costs and benefits of cognitive offloading by adapting their strategies depending on the goal focus. To address this question, we will measure participants’ offloading behavior with varying goal focus. Additionally, we will analyze whether subjective metacognitive performance has an influence on strategy use in order to answer the following questions: How does information about potential costs and benefits of cognitive offloading influence offloading behavior? What is the relationship between subjective metacognitive performance and the ability to optimize the use of cognitive offloading behavior?

Past research indicates that people judge repeated statements as more true than new ones. An experiential consequence of repetition that may underly this “truth effect” is processing fluency: Processing statements feels easier following their repetition. In three preregistered experiments (N = 684), we examined the effect of merely instructed repetition (i.e., not experienced) on truth judgments. Experiments 1–2 instructed participants that some statements were present (vs. absent) in an exposure phase allegedly undergone by other individuals. We then asked them to rate such statements based on how they thought those individuals would have done. Overall, participants rated repeated statements as more true than new statements. The instruction-based repetition effects were significant but also significantly weaker than those elicited by the experience of repetition (Experiments 1 and 2). Additionally, Experiment 2 clarified that adding a repetition status tag in the experienced repetition condition did not impact truth judgments. Experiment 3 further showed that the instruction-based effect was still detectable when participants provided truth judgments for themselves rather than estimating other people’s judgments. We discuss the mechanisms that can explain these effects and their implications for advancing our understanding of the truth effect.

The effects of expectations on pain perception are often studied using large differences in pain probabilities between experimental conditions, although they may be far more subtle in clinical contexts and, therefore, more difficult to detect. The current study aimed to investigate at which point subtle differences in pain probabilities can be detected and lead to differentiable expectations and perceptions. Furthermore, we investigated whether instructions can aid learning from experience and enhance subsequent pain modulatory effects. During a predictive learning task, participants were presented with 5 different cues, followed by either a high and low noxious stimulus. They learned about the different cue-stimulus contingencies either solely through experience (LEARN, N = 40) or a combination of experience and explicit information about the cue-stimulus contingencies (INSTRUCT, N = 40). We found that without explicit information, picking up the different pain probabilities was challenging, while explicit instruction significantly improved their detection. As revealed by drift diffusion modeling, learning from experience was insufficient for the development of a bias towards low pain even when it was highly likely. By contrast, when explicit information was provided, perception became more nuanced with the direction and extent of bias, capturing the subtle differences in pain probabilities. These findings highlight that the use of instructions to foster the detection of subtle pain improvements during pain treatment to enhance their cognitive pain modulatory effects warrant further investigation. ispartof: Pain vol:163 issue:1 pages:137-145 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Contains fulltext : 227913.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Background: Neuropsychological feedback is an important part of the neuropsychological assessment process. However, patients have difficulties remembering this information. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a web-based visual tool to improve the understanding of neuropsychological results, information retention, and psychologist-patient communication. Methods: The visual tool was developed and optimized using an iterative three-phase stepwise approach to determine its usability, technology acceptance, and feasibility in a memory clinic population. Feedback from different user perspectives (patients, family members, and psychologists) was obtained in each phase using a multimethod approach (e.g., a multidisciplinary brainstorm session, think-aloud sessions, focus groups). The prototype was subsequently tested in a pilot study. Results: The first phases offered insights that led to optimization of the prototype. On a scale ranging from 0 to 100, psychologists evaluated the usability as high [88.1±7.6,70-87]. During the pilot study, both patients and significant others gave positive feedback, but information retention in patients remained low. All participants thought the benefits of the visual tool included seeing cognitive strengths and weaknesses with a translation to daily life all at one glance and receiving feedback on paper to take home. Important barriers were mentioned by psychologists, such as a limited set of tests included and no integration with hospital systems. Conclusion: Overall, patients, family members, and psychologists reported that a visual display of the cognitive profile with insights into daily life had added value to clinical practice. Feedback from the pilot study was adopted in the tool for future implementation purposes. 14 p.

Using video-recordings from one day of a theater project for young adults, this paper investigates how the meaning of novel verbal expressions is interactionally constituted and elaborated over the interactional history of a series of activities. We examine how the theater director introduces and instructs the group in the Chekhovian technique of acting, which is based on “imagining with the body,” and how the imaginary elements of the technique are “brought into existence” in the language of the instructions. By tracking shifts in the instructor’s use of the key expressions invisible/imaginary/inner body or movement through a series of exercises, we demonstrate how they are increasingly treated as real and perceivable bodily conduct. The analyses focus on the instructor’s attribution of factual and agentive properties to these expressions, and the changes that these properties undergo over the series of instructions. This case demonstrates the significance of longitudinal processes for the establishment of shared meaning in social interaction. The study thereby contributes to the field of interactional semantics and to longitudinal studies of social interaction. Using video-recordings from one day of a theater project for young adults, this paper investigates how the meaning of novel verbal expressions is interactionally constituted and elaborated over the interactional history of a series of activities. We examine how the theater director introduces and instructs the group in the Chekhovian technique of acting, which is based on "imagining with the body," and how the imaginary elements of the technique are "brought into existence" in the language of the instructions. By tracking shifts in the instructor's use of the key expressions invisible/imaginary/inner body or movement through a series of exercises, we demonstrate how they are increasingly treated as real and perceivable bodily conduct. The analyses focus on the instructor's attribution of factual and agentive properties to these expressions, and the changes that these properties undergo over the series of instructions. This case demonstrates the significance of longitudinal processes for the establishment of shared meaning in social interaction. The study thereby contributes to the field of interactional semantics and to longitudinal studies of social interaction.

© 2020 the American Physiological Society Many motor skills are learned with the help of instructions. In the context of complex motor sequences, instructions often break down the movement into chunks that can then be practiced in isolation. Thus, instructions shape an initial cognitive representation of the skill, which in turn guides practice. Are there ways of breaking up a motor sequence that are better than others? If participants are instructed in a way that hinders performance, how much practice does it take to overcome the influence of the instruction? To answer these questions, we used a paradigm in which participants were asked to perform finger sequences as fast and accurately as possible on a keyboard-like device. In the initial phases of training, participants had to explicitly remember and practice two- or three-digit chunks. These chunks were then combined to form seven 11-digit sequences that participants practiced for the remainder of the study. Each sequence was broken up into chunks in a way such that the instruction was either aligned or misaligned with the basic execution-level constraints. We found that misaligned chunk instruction led to an initial performance deficit compared with the aligned chunk instruction. Overall, instructions still influenced the temporal pattern of performance after 10 days of subsequent training, with shorter interpress intervals within a chunk compared with between chunks. However, for the misaligned instructed sequences, this temporal pattern was altered more rapidly, such that participants could overcome the induced performance deficit in the last week. At the end of training, participants found idiosyncratic, but interindividually stable, ways of performing each sequence. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Instructions often break down motor sequences into smaller parts, such that they can be more easily remembered. Here, we show that different ways of breaking down a finger sequence can subsequently lead to better or worse performance. The initial instruction still influenced the temporal performance pattern after 10 days of practice. The results demonstrate that the initial cognitive representation of a motor skill strongly influences how a skill is learned and performed.

Enhancing jumping ability can lead to substantial benefits in sports performance and physical activity. Previous studies indicate that directing an individual’s attention externally before the jump is an effective way to improve jumping performance, especially when the standing long jump (SLJ) and vertical jumps (VJs) are performed. To scrutinize reported findings, we systematically reviewed studies that compared the effects of attentional manipulations on jumping performance in adults. Four electronic databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, SPORTSDiscus, and Web of Science) were searched for original research publications. A priori defined inclusion criteria were: (a) participants were healthy adults with a mean age > 18 years, (b) an external (EF) or an internal focus (IF) of attention instruction was used, (c) the study compared an external focus intervention with an internal focus intervention or an external focus with a control (no attentional; CON) intervention or an internal focus intervention with a control intervention, (d) jumping performance was tested, and (e) an immediate effect of focus of attention intervention was evaluated. Of the 380 papers identified, 14 studies were used in 3 part meta-analyses (EF vs. IF, EF vs. CON, and IF vs. CON) that involved 24 comparisons in total. The findings of this analysis revealed that the EF condition displayed superior jumping performance relatively to the IF (p < 0.05) and CON (p < 0.05) conditions. There were no significant (p > 0.05) differences between the IF and CON conditions. These findings suggest that EF instructions should be incorporated into testing procedures when jumping performance is assessed.

I’ve been a medical writer and author’s editor for 45 years. I have read the instructions for authors in dozens of medical journals. I know what authors (and author’s editors) think of these instructions, at least among those who know that journals actually have instructions for authors. For almost as long, I’ve been a member of four professional societies concerned with scientific publishing, and I know a lot of editors-in-chief of medical journals. I appreciate their desire to have authors follow the instructions when preparing manuscripts, at least among those editors who remember that their journals have such instructions and insist, at least occasionally, that they be followed.

Abstract. It is generally assumed that relational knowledge is the foundation of higher cognition such as (analogical and conditional) reasoning, language, the use of relational categories, and planning. Dual-system models (e.g., Kahneman, 2011 ) that divide the realm of cognition into two systems with opposing properties (e.g., fast vs. slow, intentional vs. unintentional, conscious vs. unconscious, associative vs. propositional) foster the view that other psychological phenomena are not relational in nature. In this paper, I argue that the impact of relational knowledge is more widespread than dual-system models imply. More specifically, I review evidence suggesting that also Pavlovian conditioning, implicit evaluation, and habitual responding are mediated by relational knowledge. Considering the idea that relational knowledge underlies also fast, unintentional, unconscious, and seemingly associative psychological phenomena is not only theoretically important but also reveals new opportunities for influencing thinking and behavior.

The aim of the study is to explore the effect of instructions for promoting cooperative learning (CL) in EFL classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore teachers’ behaviors and perceptions while applying procedures and instructions to encourage CL in their teaching practice. A total of nine teachers participated in the study. This study adopted mixed methods as follows: quantitative data from structured observations during EFL lessons and qualitative data from the teachers’ daily reports and open-ended questionnaire answers. The findings revealed that most of the teachers found that the instructions helped them support their students and encourage them to work effectively and cooperatively in groups. Further, the findings indicated that the instructions helped the EFL teachers increase their students’ interaction and communication by prompting them to apply CL procedures. However, the majority of the teachers did not appropriately encourage their EFL learners to engage in CL even though they were aware of the procedures.

Professions such as radiology and aviation security screening that rely on visual search—the act of looking for targets among distractors—often cannot provide operators immediate feedback, which can create situations where performance may be largely driven by the searchers’ own expectations. For example, if searchers do not expect relatively hard-to-spot targets to be present in a given search, they may find easy-to-spot targets but systematically quit searching before finding more difficult ones. Without feedback, searchers can create self-fulfilling prophecies where they incorrectly reinforce initial biases (e.g., first assuming and then, perhaps wrongly, concluding hard-to-spot targets are rare). In the current study, two groups of searchers completed an identical visual search task but with just a single difference in their initial task instructions before the experiment started; those in the “high-expectation” condition were told that each trial could have one or two targets present (i.e., correctly implying no target-absent trials) and those in the “low-expectation” condition were told that each trial would have up to two targets (i.e., incorrectly implying there could be target-absent trials). Compared to the high-expectation group, the low-expectation group had a lower hit rate, lower false alarm rate and quit trials more quickly, consistent with a lower quitting threshold (i.e., performing less exhaustive searches) and a potentially higher target-present decision criterion. The expectation effect was present from the start and remained across the experiment—despite exposure to the same true distribution of targets, the groups’ performances remained divergent, primarily driven by the different subjective experiences caused by each groups’ self-fulfilling prophecies. The effects were limited to the single-targets trials, which provides insights into the mechanisms affected by the initial expectations set by the instructions. In sum, initial expectations can have dramatic influences—searchers who do not expect to find a target, are less likely to find a target as they are more likely to quit searching earlier.

Pakistani schools in Sultanate of Oman use the whole word approach in the practices of English language reading instructions and lack phonetics’ knowledge of. Regardless, whether the approach is practical or not, teaching reading skills through these practices at an early age is questionable. This paper will focus on observation and evaluation as research tools, and will concentrate on a phonetics and a phonological analysis of a first -grade learner as a case study. The learner’s reading of a text is compared with the reading of a native speaker. The focus of the paper is on two main characteristics of pronunciation; segmental and super-segmental. The analysis demonstrates a significant variation in speech sounds of the learner. The training opportunities in spoken language and reading skills for the teachers may fix the problem. Keywords: phonetics and phonology, segmental and super-segmental, International Phonetic

Under some conditions, people persist in their attempts to control their pain even when no such control is possible. Theory suggests that such pain-control attempts arise from actual pain experiences. Across 3 experiments we examined how (1) losing control over pain and (2) instructions concerning pain, moderated pain-control attempts. In each experiment, participants completed a learning task. Before the task, one group of participants received instructions outlining a strategy through which they could control pain, whereas another group had to develop such a strategy through trial-and-error learning. During the first half of the task, the pain-control instructions allowed participants to successfully control pain, whereas during the second half of the task, this was no longer the case. Instead, participants lost control over pain because of an unannounced change in the learning task. Results indicated that when participants lost control over pain, they generally stuck to the previously effective pain-control strategy, and that this tendency was larger if they received instructions from others than when they developed a strategy by themselves. These findings suggest that when pain is no longer controllable, very persistent pain-control attempts might be the result of adherence to previously effective pain-control instructions.

Recent research findings indicate that human fear conditioning is affected by instructions, particularly those concerning the contingency between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US). However, whether or not such instructions were provided to participants often remains unsaid in fear conditioning studies. In the current study (N=102), we investigated whether conditioned fear acquisition depends on CS-US contingency instructions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group was instructed about the precise CS-US contingency before conditioning. The second group was instructed to discover the CS-US contingency. The third group did not receive any contingency instructions. We found facilitated fear acquisition (using skin conductance and startle) and increased contingency awareness in the first and second group compared to the third group. Furthermore, contingency reversal instructions immediately reversed conditioned responses. Based on these results, we advise to systematically report the used contingency instructions in fear conditioning research. ispartof: Biological Psychology vol:158 pages:1-40 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: Published online

Research has demonstrated that disgust can be installed through classical conditioning by pairing neutral conditioned stimuli (CSs) with disgusting unconditioned stimuli (USs). Disgust has been argued to play an important role in maintaining fear-related disorders. This maintaining role may be explained by conditioned disgust being less sensitive to extinction (i.e., experiencing the CS in the absence of the US). Promising alternatives to extinction training are procedures that focus on the devaluation of US memory representations. In the current study, we investigated whether such devaluation procedures can be successful to counter conditioned disgust. We conducted two laboratory studies (N = 120 and N = 51) in which disgust was conditioned using audio-visual USs. Memory representations of the USs were devalued by having participants recall these USs while they performed a taxing eye-movement task or executed one of several control tasks. The results showed successful conditioned disgust acquisition. However, no strong evidence was obtained that an US memory devaluation procedure modulates disgust memory and diminishes conditioned disgust as indicated by subjective, behavioral, or psychophysiological measures. We discuss the relevance of our results for methodological improvements regarding US memory devaluation procedures and disgust conditioning. ispartof: JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS vol:82 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: published

Up to now, support for the idea that a controlled component exists in creative thought has mainly been supported by correlational studies, to further shed light on this issue, we employed an experimental approach. We used four alternate uses tasks that differed in instruction type (&ldquo, be fluent&rdquo, vs. &ldquo, be creative&rdquo, ) and concurrent secondary workload (load vs. no load). A total of 51 participants (39 female) went through all tasks and generated ideas for a total of 16 different objects, their responses were scored in terms of fluency (number of responses generated), creative quality, and flexibility. We did find, as expected, that the be-creative instruction resulted in fewer and more creative ideas, as well as more flexible idea sets, but neither of the expected interaction effects became significant. Specifically, fluency was not affected more strongly by secondary workload in the be-fluent instruction condition than in the be-creative instruction condition. Further, the performance drop evoked by the secondary workload was not stronger in the be-creative instruction condition compared to the be-fluent instruction condition when creative quality or flexibility were examined as dependent variable. Altogether, our results do not confirm that be-creative instructions involve more cognitive load than be-fluent instructions. Nevertheless, the analysis of the serial order effect and additional correlational examinations revealed some promising results. Methodological limitations which may have influenced the results are discussed in light of the inherent suspense between internal and external validity (i.e., most likely the applied self-paced dual-task approach increased external validity, but undermined internal validity) and potentially guide future research.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most widely used measure to assess automatic evaluations. One classic phenomenon that has been well established both using the IAT and self-report measures of liking is evaluative conditioning (EC), which refers to a change in the evaluation of a stimulus due to its pairing with another stimulus. Research has documented that EC can also occur when participants are merely informed about upcoming stimulus pairings. In a recent study, participants reported a more negative evaluation of non-words that were instructed to be followed by an unpleasant sound compared to non-words that would not to be followed by this sound (De Houwer, Mattavelli, & Van Dessel, 2019). Interestingly, however, an unexpected pattern was observed on an IAT, that is, a preference for the stimulus said to be followed by the sound. We report three pre-registered experiments (N = 650) in which we manipulated different aspects of the procedure such as the stimuli, instructions, and the measure, but that still revealed the same dissociation. Based on three pilot experiments (N = 92), we then conducted a registered report study (Experiment 4) testing whether the unexpected effect depends on how the USs are labelled in the instructions. Although describing the aversive sound as negative eliminated the unexpected IAT effect, the type of instruction only had a weak impact on IAT effects. These results are in line with prior evidence showing that IAT scores are malleable.

International audience; Loudness is the magnitude of the auditory sensation that a listener experiences when exposed to a sound. Several sound attributes are reported to affect loudness, such as the sound pressure level at the listener's ears and the spectral content. In addition to these physical attributes of the stimulus, some subjective attributes also appear to affect loudness. When presented with a sound, a listener interacts with an auditory object and can focus on several aspects of the latter. Loudness appears to differ depending on how listeners apprehend this object, notably whether they focus on the sound that reaches their ears or that is produced by the source. The way listeners focus on the auditory object may depend on the stimulus itself. For instance, they might be more likely to focus on the sound emitted by the source if the latter is visible. The instructions given by the experimenters can also explicitly direct the listener's focus on the sound reaching the ears or emitted by the source. The present review aims at understanding how listeners focus on the auditory object depending on the stimuli and instructions they are provided with, and to describe how loudness depends on this focus.

Background Adherence to inaccurate rules has been viewed as a characteristic of human rule-following (i.e., the rule-based insensitivity effect; RBIE) and has been thought to be exacerbated in individuals suffering from clinical conditions. This review intended to systematically examine these claims in adult populations. Methodology We screened 1464 records which resulted in 21 studies that were deemed eligible for inclusion. Each of these studies was examined to determine: (1) if there is evidence for the RBIE in adults and (2) if this effect is larger in those suffering from psychological problems compared to their non-suffering counterparts. In addition, we investigated how (3) different operationalizations of the RBIE, and (4) the external validity and risks of bias of the experimental work investigating this effect, might influence the conclusions that can be drawn from the current systematic review. Results (1) Out of the 20 studies that were relevant for examining if evidence exists for the RBIE in adults, only 11 were eligible for vote counting. Results showed that after the contingency change, the rule groups were more inclined to demonstrate behavior that was reinforced before the change, compared to their non-instructed counterparts. Critically, however, none of these studies examined if their no-instructions group was an adequate comparison group. As a result, this made it difficult to determine whether the effects that were observed in the rule groups could be attributed to the rules or instructions that were manipulated in those experiments. (2) The single study that was relevant for examining if adults suffering from psychological problems demonstrated larger levels of the RBIE, compared to their non-clinical counterparts, was not eligible for vote counting. As a result, no conclusions could be drawn about the extent to which psychological problems moderated the RBIE in that study. (3) Similar procedures and tasks have been used to examine the RBIE, but their precise parameters differ across studies; and (4) most studies report insufficient information to evaluate all relevant aspects affecting their external validity and risks of bias. Conclusions Despite the widespread appeal that the RBIE has enjoyed, this systematic review indicates that, at present, only preliminary evidence exists for the idea that adults demonstrate the RBIE and no evidence is available to assume that psychological problems exacerbate the RBIE in adults. The systematic review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42018088210).

The ability to update responding to threat cues is an important adaptive ability. Recently, Morriss et al. (2019) demonstrated that participants scoring high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) were more capable of threat reversal. The current report aimed to conceptually replicate these results of Morriss et al. (2019) in an independent sample using a comparable paradigm (n = 102). Following a threat conditioning phase, participants were told that cues associated with threat and safety from electric shock would reverse. Responding was measured with skin conductance and fear potentiated startle. We failed to conceptually replicate the results of Morriss et al. (2019). Instead, we found that, for participants who received precise contingency instructions prior to acquisition, lower IUS (controlling for STAI-T) relative to higher IUS was associated with greater threat reversal, indexed via skin conductance responses. These results suggest that IU and contingency instructions differentially modulate the course of threat reversal.

Resumen Las estrategias evaluativas alternativas como el portafolio, estudios de caso y proyectos, están tomando auge en contraposición a la tradicional prueba escrita. En este estudio, se analizaron las 307 orientaciones académicas de las asignaturas que se ofertaron durante el año 2015 en la Escuela de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (ECEN) de una universidad costarricense, para determinar el tipo de estrategia evaluativa y la presencia de instrucciones y criterios de evaluación “sumativa”. Por otra parte, se indagó mediante una encuesta el parecer de los Encargados de Cátedra de la ECEN con respecto a las estrategias alternativas de evaluación y la prueba escrita. Se encontró que la prueba escrita se utilizó durante el 2015 en menor medida que otras estrategias evaluativas (T de Student, p ≤ 0,0001) siendo las más comunes el proyecto, el informe de gira y laboratorio, el foro académico y el estudio de caso. Los encargados de cátedra consideran conveniente combinar estrategias alternativas de evaluación con la prueba escrita, pero se encontró una tendencia a utilizar más las estrategias alternativas. Se recomienda incluir estrategias que fomenten el aprendizaje significativo y reforzar la retroalimentación. Abstract Alternative evaluation strategies, such as portfolios, case studies and projects, are increasingly used instead of the traditional written tests. In this study, 307 academical orientations offered by the Exact and Natural Sciences Faculty (ECEN) at UNED, Costa Rica, during 2015, were reviewed to determine the most common type of evaluative strategy that is being used, what kind of instructions are provided, and “summative evaluation” criteria used. We also surveyed ECEN chiefs regarding evaluation alternative strategies and written tests. In 2015 written tests were used less frequently (Student T, p ≤ 0,0001) than alternative strategies such as projects, tours and laboratory reports, discussion forums and case studies. Teachers believe that alternative evaluations, combined with written tests, are the best option for their courses.

Unlike other animals, humans have the unique ability to share and use verbal instructions to prepare for upcoming tasks. Recent research showed that instructions are sufficient for the automatic, reflex-like activation of responses. However, systematic studies into the limits of these automatic effects of task instructions remain relatively scarce. In this study, the authors set out to investigate whether this instruction-based automatic activation of responses can be context-dependent. Specifically, participants performed a task of which the stimulus-response rules and context (location on the screen) could either coincide or not with those of an instructed to-be-performed task (whose instructions changed every run). In 2 experiments, the authors showed that the instructed task rules had an automatic impact on performance-performance was slowed down when the merely instructed task rules did not coincide, but, importantly, this effect was not context-dependent. Interestingly, a third and fourth experiment suggests that context dependency can actually be observed, but only when practicing the task in its appropriate context for over 60 trials or after a sufficient amount of practice on a fixed context (the context was the same for all instructed tasks). Together, these findings seem to suggest that instructions can establish stimulus-response representations that have a reflexive impact on behavior but are insensitive to the context in which the task is known to be valid. Instead, context-specific task representations seem to require practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

Rule-governed behavior and derived relational responding have both been identified as important variables in human learning. Recent developments in the relational frame theory (RFT) have outlined a number of key variables of potential importance when analyzing the dynamics involved in derived relational responding. Recent research has explored the impact of one of these variables, level of derivation, on persistent rule-following and implicated another, coherence, as possibly important. However, no research to date has examined the impact of coherence on persistent rule-following directly. Across two experiments, coherence was manipulated through the systematic use of performance feedback, and its impact was examined on persistent rule-following. A training procedure based on the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) was used to establish novel combinatorially entailed relations that manipulated the feedback provided on the trained relations (A-B and B-C) in Experiment 1, and on the untrained, derived relations (A-C) in Experiment 2. One of these relations was then inserted into the rule for responding on a subsequent contingency-switching match-to-sample (MTS) task to assess rule persistence. While no significant differences were found in Experiment 1, the provision or non-provision of feedback had a significant differential impact on rule-persistence in Experiment 2. Specifically, participants in the Feedback group resurged back to the original rule for significantly more responses after demonstrating contingency-sensitive responding than did the No-Feedback group, after the contingency reversal. The results highlight the subtle complexities that appear to be involved in persistent rule-following in the face of reversed reinforcement contingencies.

The concept of rule-governed behavior or instructional control has been widely recognized for many decades within the behavior-analytic literature. It has also been argued that the human capacity to formulate and follow increasingly complex rules may undermine sensitivity to direct contingencies of reinforcement, and that excessive reliance upon rules may be an important variable in human psychological suffering. Although the concept of rules would appear to have been relatively useful within behavior analysis, it seems wise from time to time to reflect upon the utility of even well-established concepts within a scientific discipline. Doing so may be particularly important if it begins to emerge that the existing concept does not readily orient researchers toward potentially important variables associated with that very concept. The primary purpose of this article is to engage in this reflection. In particular, we will focus on the link that has been made between rule-governed behavior and derived relational responding, and consider the extent to which it might be useful to supplement talk of rules or instructions with terms that refer to the dynamics of derived relational responding.

Resumo Buscou-se verificar os efeitos da formação de classes de estímulos equivalentes e de dois procedimentos de facilitação na emergência de respostas de analogia, comparando os resultados obtidos nos testes de analogia de acordo com o procedimento de facilitação e com o fornecimento de instrução. Participaram 30 universitários. Foram ensinadas as relações AB e AC entre figuras abstratas e testadas as relações de simetria, transitividade e analogia. Os participantes que não apresentaram essas relações foram expostos aos procedimentos de facilitação. Doze participantes responderam por analogia antes do procedimento de facilitação, cinco de oito (62%), após Facilitação 1 e três de dez (33%), após Facilitação 2. Dos sete participantes expostos à instrução, seis responderam por analogia. A formação das classes não foi suficiente para a emergência das respostas de analogia e alguns participantes podem ter respondido ao Teste de Analogia sob controle de apenas alguns aspectos dos pares de estímulos. Abstract The goals were to verify the effects of the formation of equivalent stimulus classes and two facilitation procedures on the emergence of analogy responses and to compare the results obtained in the analogy tests according to the facilitation procedure and the provision of instruction. Participants were 30 undergraduate students. AB and AC relations were taught with abstract pictures, then symmetry, transitivity, and analogy relations were tested. Participants who did not show these relations were exposed to the facilitation procedures. Twelve participants responded by analogy before the facilitation procedure, five of eight (62%) after Facilitation 1 and three of ten (33%) after Facilitation 2. Of the seven participants exposed to the instruction, six responded by analogy. Class formation was not enough for the emergence of analogy responses, and some participants might have responded to the Analogy Test under the control of only some aspects of the stimulus pairs.

Skilled performance is traditionally thought to develop via overt practice. Recent research has demonstrated that merely instructed stimulus-response (S-R) bindings can influence later performance and readily transfer across response modalities. In the present study, we extended this to include instructed category-response (C-R) associations. That is, we investigated whether merely instructed C-R bindings can trigger an unpracticed response (in a different modality) on perception of a novel (previously unseen) stimulus. In a learning-test design, participants had to classify stimuli by comparing them to perceptual category templates (Experiment 1) or semantic category descriptions (Experiment 2) presented prior to each block. During learning blocks, participants had to respond manually, respond vocally, or listen passively to the correct response being spoken. A manual response was always required at test. In test blocks, the categories could either be novel or repeated from the learning block, whereas half of the stimuli were always novel and half were always repeated from the learning block. Because stimulus and category repetitions were manipulated orthogonally, it was possible to directly compare the relative contribution of S-R and C-R associations to performance. In Experiment 1, test performance was enhanced by repeating the C-R bindings independently of the stimulus. In Experiment 2, there was also evidence of an S-R repetition benefit independent of the classification. Critically, instructed associations formed in one response modality were robust to changes in the required response, even when no overt response was required during training, indicating the need to update the traditional view of associative learning.

For almost a century now, conditioning research has provided important insights in the etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders. Nevertheless, doubts were raised about whether anxiety disorders are related to conditioning. In this paper, I focus on distinguishing different claims about the relation between anxiety disorders and conditioning as well as ways of evaluating the merits of these claims. More specifically, a distinction is made between the claim that anxiety disorders are conditioning effects and the claim that anxiety disorders are due to a specific type of conditioning mechanism (i.e., the formation and activation of S-R associations, S-S associations, or propositions). Based on a brief review of the literature, I clarify which pieces of evidence are relevant for which claims and illustrate that different claims are differentially supported by the available evidence. Finally, I discuss two strategic reasons for conceptualizing anxiety disorders as conditioning effects rather than as effects of a particular conditioning mechanism.