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Throughout the 21st century, economic inequality is predicted to increase as we face new challenges, from changes in the technological landscape to the growing climate crisis. It is crucial we understand how these changes in inequality may affect how people think and behave. We propose that economic inequality threatens the social fabric of society, in turn increasing moralization-that is, the greater tendency to employ or emphasize morality in everyday life-as an attempt to restore order and control. Using longitudinal data from X, formerly known as Twitter, our first study demonstrates that high economic inequality is associated with greater use of moral language online (e.g. the use of words such as "disgust", "hurt", and "respect'). Study 2 then examined data from 41 regions around the world, generally showing that higher inequality has a small association with harsher moral judgments of people's everyday actions. Together these findings demonstrate that economic inequality is linked to the tendency to see the world through a moral lens., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.)

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) procedures entail the response-independent, time-based delivery of a reinforcer (e.g., delivery of a reinforcer on a fixed-time 15 s schedule - FT 15 s). Although NCR has been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment of undesired behaviours in human learners, very few studies have examined it in nonhuman animals. We investigated how NCR with and without extinction (another well-studied behavioural intervention) affected an arbitrary response in companion dogs. The 'stepping on a rug' response was shaped and established in lieu of a problem behaviour in six dogs. Stepping was then exposed to fixed-interval (FI 15 s), fixed-time (FT 15 s), a combination of these schedules of reinforcement (FT 15 s + FI 15 s), and an extinction-only condition. The results indicated that NCR was effective in reducing the target behaviour in three out of the six dogs. These effects were greater in the NCR-with-extinction procedure than in the NCR-without-extinction condition. Future research should investigate the effects of schedule thinning and other schedules of reinforcement (e.g., variable-time schedules) on the behaviour of companion dogs., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Happiness is a valuable experience, and societies want their citizens to be happy. Although this societal commitment seems laudable, overly emphasizing positivity (versus negativity) may create an unattainable emotion norm that ironically compromises individual well-being. In this multi-national study (40 countries; 7443 participants), we investigate how societal pressure to be happy and not sad predicts emotional, cognitive and clinical indicators of well-being around the world, and examine how these relations differ as a function of countries' national happiness levels (collected from the World Happiness Report). Although detrimental well-being associations manifest for an average country, the strength of these relations varies across countries. People's felt societal pressure to be happy and not sad is particularly linked to poor well-being in countries with a higher World Happiness Index. Although the cross-sectional nature of our work prohibits causal conclusions, our findings highlight the correlational link between social emotion valuation and individual well-being, and suggest that high national happiness levels may have downsides for some., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Interteaching is a behavioral teaching method that departs from the traditional lecture format (Boyce & Hineline in BA 25:215-226, 2002). We updated and expanded previous interteaching reviews and conducted a meta-analysis on its effectiveness. Systematic searches identified 38 relevant studies spanning the years 2005-2018. The majority of these studies were conducted in undergraduate face-to-face courses. The most common independent variables were manipulations of the configuration of interteaching or comparisons to traditional-lecture format. The most common dependent variables were quiz or examination scores. Only 24% of all studies implemented at least five of the seven components of interteaching. Prep guides, discussions, record sheets, and frequent assessments were the most commonly implemented. Meta-analyses indicated that interteaching is more effective than traditional lecture or other control conditions, with an overall large effect size. Furthermore, variations in the configuration of the interteaching components do not seem to substantially limit its effectiveness, as long as the discussion component is included. Future research informed by the present review includes: (a) investigating the efficacy of interteaching in additional academic areas, online environments, workplace training, and continuing education, (b) testing alternative outcome measures, generalization, and procedural integrity, (c) conducting systematic component analyses, and (d) measuring social validity from the instructor's perspective., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10864-021-09452-3., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021.)

The objective of the present study was to evaluate emotional responses to emoji faces through physiological and self-report measures, and evaluate possible differences between men and women. One hundred participants (50 women) observed pictures of happy, neutral, and angry emoji faces, while activity of the zygomatic and corrugator muscles, skin conductance, and heart rate were measured. Self-report measures of emotional experience were also recorded. The results showed an increase in zygomatic muscle activity toward happy emoji faces. An increasing trend in corrugator muscle activity toward angry emoji faces was observed; however, this trend was only marginally significant. Happy emoji faces generated an increase in the skin conductance response. The emotional experience of the participants was also consistent with the emotions that were expressed by the emoji faces. No differences were found between sexes. Overall, the results suggest that emoji faces can especially induce pleasant affective states., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nathan H. Azrin (1930-2013) contributed extensively to the fields of experimental and applied behavior analysis. His creative and prolific research programs covered a wide range of experimental and applied areas that resulted in 160 articles and several books published over a period of almost 6 decades. As a result, his career illustrates an unparalleled example of translational work in behavior analysis, which has had a major impact not only within our field, but across disciplines and outside academia. In the current article we present a summary of Azrin's wide ranging contributions in the areas of punishment, behavioral engineering, conditioned reinforcement and token economies, feeding disorders, toilet training, overcorrection, habit disorders, in-class behavior, job finding, marital therapy, and substance abuse. In addition, we use scientometric evidence to gain an insight on Azrin's general approach to treatment evaluation and programmatic research. The analysis of Azrin's approach to research, we believe, holds important lessons to behavior analysts today with an interest in the applied and translational sectors of our science., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40614-020-00278-4., (© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2021.)

A conditioned reinforcer is a stimulus that acquired its effectiveness to increase and maintain a target behavior on the basis of the individual's history-e.g., pairings with other reinforcers. This systematic review synthesized findings on conditioned reinforcement in the applied animal training field. Thirty-four studies were included in the review and six studies were eligible for a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of behavioral interventions that implemented conditioned reinforcement (e.g., clicks, spoken word, or whistles paired with food). The majority of studies investigated conditioned reinforcement with dogs (47%, n = 16) and horses (30%, n = 10) implementing click-food pairings. All other species (cats, cattle, fish, goats, and monkeys) were equally distributed across types of conditioned (e.g., clicker or spoken word) and unconditioned reinforcers (e.g., food, water, or tactile). A meta-analysis on the effectiveness of conditioned reinforcement in behavioral interventions found a medium summary effect size (Tau-U 0.77; CI 95% = [0.53, 0.89]), when comparing baseline, where no training was done, and treatment levels. Moderators of conditioned reinforcement effectiveness were species (e.g., horses) and research design (e.g., multiple-baseline designs). The small number of intervention-focused studies available limits the present findings and highlights the need for more systematic research into the effectiveness of conditioned reinforcement across species.

Emotional memory has been primarily studied with fear-conditioning paradigms. Fear conditioning is a form of learning through which individuals learn the relationships between aversive events and otherwise neutral stimuli. The most-widely utilized procedures for studying emotional memories entail fear conditioning in rats. In these tasks, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is a footshock presented once or several times across single or several sessions, and the conditioned response (CR) is freezing. In a version of these procedures, called cued fear conditioning, a tone (conditioned stimulus, CS) is paired with footshocks (US) during the training phase. During the first test, animals are exposed to the same context in which training took place, and freezing responses are tested in the absence of footshocks and tones (i.e., a context test). During the second test, freezing is measured when the context is changed (e.g., by manipulating the smell and walls of the experimental chamber) and the tone is presented in the absence of footshocks (i.e., a cue test). Most cued fear conditioning procedures entail few tone-shock pairings (e.g., 1-3 trials in a single session). There is a growing interest in less common versions involving an extensive number of pairings (i.e., overtraining) related to the long-lasting effect called fear incubation (i.e., fear responses increase over time without further exposure to aversive events or conditioned stimuli). Extended fear-conditioning tasks have been key to the understanding of fear incubation's behavioral and neurobiological aspects, including its relationship with other psychological phenomena (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder). Here, we describe an extended fear-conditioning protocol that produces overtraining and fear incubation in rats. This protocol entails a single training session with 25 tone-shock pairings (i.e., overtraining) and a comparison of conditioned freezing responses during context and cue tests 48 h (short-term) and 6 weeks (long-term) after training.

The present review assessed the current knowledge regarding caregiver- training effectiveness for human and human-canine dyads. Most canine-related sources (66%; n = 19) were case studies reporting a decrease of learner undesired behavior when using oral instruction (21%; n = 6). Most human-related research used single-case designs (57%; n = 26) reporting an increase in desired learner behavior (22%; n = 10) when caregivers received multi-component training packages (17%, n = 8). The meta-analysis (n = 18) revealed that interventions had a large effect (Hedges' g = 0.88, 95%CI [0.68-1.07]), with packages yielding a slightly larger moderate effect (Hedges' g = 0.76, 95%CI [0.60-0.91]) than oral instruction alone (Hedges' g = 0.74, 95%CI [0.32-1,15]). Although the effectiveness of caregiver training is promising, the results should be interpreted cautiously. Due to the preponderance of case studies within canine literature and the insufficient reporting of data across sources, only few studies could be included in the meta-analysis. Overall, more systematic and comparative research regarding the efficacy of caregivers in behavior change programs across species is needed.

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of procedures successfully used in human related applied behaviour analysis practices to the field of clinical animal behaviour. Experiment 1 involved functional analyses to identify the reinforcement contingencies maintaining jumping up behaviour in five dogs. Experiment 2 comprised teaching dog owners a noncontingent reinforcement intervention (i.e., time-based reinforcement) via behavioural skills training. Single-case experimental methods were implemented in both experiments. The results of Experiment 1 showed that access to a tangible (dogs D01, D02, D03, and D04) and owner attention (dog D05) were reliably maintaining the jumping up behaviour. Experiment 2 demonstrated that noncontingent reinforcement effectively reduced jumping in three out of four dogs (Tau -0.59, CI 90% [-1-0.15], p = 0.026, Tau -1, CI 90% [-1--0.55], p = 0.0003, and Tau -0.32, CI 90% [-0.76-0.11], p = 0.22 for dyads D01, D02, and D05, respectively), and that behavioural skills training was successful in teaching owners to perform a dog training intervention with high fidelity. Although the results are promising, more canine-related research into functional analysis and noncontingent reinforcement, as well as implementation of behavioural skills training with animal caregivers, is needed.

This paper describes the behavioral data of an experiment in which water flows (WFs) were first used as replacement of the traditional electric shocks to test free-operant avoidance in Betta splendens (Hurtado-Parrado et al. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2018.10.021). WFs with a duration of 10 s each were delivered with 30-s flow-flow (F-F) and response-flow (R-F) intervals in a custom-made shuttle tank. Fish escaped or avoided the WFs by changing compartments. Crossings during the WFs, interrupted the flows, were automatically scored as escape (Esc), and initiated a new R-F interval. Crossings that occurred during R-F or F-F intervals were scored as avoidance responses and also reset the R-F interval. We compared the effect of adding a warning stimulus - curtains of air bubbles - to the last 5 s of the R-F interval; i.e., signaled versus unsignaled avoidance. A unique development of the WFs procedure, and thus the data here described, is that crossings were further differentiated into subcategories; namely, early avoidance (EA) if a crossing occurred during the first 25 s of the R-F interval; late avoidance (LA) if a crossing occurred during the last 5 s of the R-F interval; and Flow-Flow avoidance (FF) if a crossing occurred anytime during the F-F interval. Here we present the data of six bettas across the different phases of the experiment; namely, baseline (BL - no WFs programmed), signaled avoidance (SA - warning stimulus scheduled), and unsignaled avoidance (UA - no warning stimulus scheduled). The dataset available at the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository (http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FMHXD (Hurtado-Parrado et al., 2019)) includes for each fish and per 20-min daily session the total number of crossings; frequency of each type of crossing (Esc, EA, LA, FF); total WF frequency and duration, the total time spent in each compartment, and an index of preference for each compartment based on the proportion of time spent in the tank's compartments.

Control of negative emotions (e.g., anger and fear) by political cues perpetuate intractable conflict by mobilizing public support for aggressive actions. Halperin et al. (2013) found that reappraisal - an adaptive form of emotion regulation - decreased negative emotions triggered by anger-inducing information related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and increased support for conciliatory statements. We tested these effects in the context of the conflict between the Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP). Reappraisal training reduced negative emotions produced by a presentation that illustrated FARC's violent actions, and increased support for conciliatory statements (with overall moderate effect magnitudes). We also found that negative emotions mediated the effects of reappraisal on the support for aggressive and conciliatory statements. These findings indicate a high degree of generality of the phenomena, especially considering the differences between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Colombian conflict. Our findings also show promise for replicating these effects on other types of intergroup conflicts and guiding effective public policy.

Despite the wide implementation of the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test to assess anxiety-related behaviors in rodents, the interpretation of these measures in gerbils has received limited attention. Here, male gerbils were treated with vehicle or diazepam, followed by a 20-min EPM session. EPM data were subjected to minute-by-minute, 5-min bins and factor analyses. During the first 5-min, gerbils avoided the closed arms in favor of the open arms and diazepam increased open-arms entries; furthermore, a single factor (escape behavior) explained all the analyzed measures. Only after 5-min, gerbils reduced open-arms exploration and three independent factors emerged for each subsequent 5-min bin. These findings suggest that EPM data from gerbils should be analyzed in at least two 5-min bins. Measures from the standard 5-min session seem to be related to an escape response from the EPM through the open arms. Once habituated, measures from the second 5-min bin seem to be related to a conflictive situation: keep trying to escape unsuccessfully (due to open-arms height) or seek protection in the closed arms (unsafe places). Diazepam seems to reduce this conflict by mitigating the escape response (Factor 1 - Anxiety) and increasing closed-arms approach (Factor 2) and risk assessment (Factor 3). Unlike mice and rats, a decrease in open-arms exploration and an increase in risk assessment could be interpreted as an anxiolytic-like effect in gerbils.

The vast majority of research on aversive control of behavior using animal models employs electric-shock based procedures with avian and mammalian species. Notwithstanding that pragmatic aspects explain this prominence in the field, there is still a need for testing well-established facts about shock-based aversive control using other, perhaps more ecologically valid or biologically relevant, forms of stimulation with other species. Following up on an observation that water disturbances appear to be aversive to Betta splendens (bettas), we developed a preparation for studying free-operant avoidance with this species in which water flows (WFs) replaced electric shocks. Fish changed compartments in a shuttle tank to escape or avoid 10-s WFs, which were delivered with 30-s flow-flow and response-flow intervals. We tested the effect of adding a warning stimulus (curtains of air bubbles) to the last 5 s of the response-flow interval (i.e., signaled avoidance) on the bettas' temporal distribution of crossings and swimming patterns. Escape was the predominant response, which importantly reduced the exposure to the WFs. Avoidance responses rarely exceeded the frequency of escape. The warning stimulus did not produce the expected postponement of responses to the last segment of the response-flow interval. Distinctive swimming patterns emerged, dissipated, and reappeared during baseline and treatment conditions. These findings confirm the aversive function of WFs for bettas and expand the generality of negative reinforcement phenomena using non-shock-based procedures with a less-frequently studied species. Further developments of the WFs paradigm show promise for replicating other aversive control phenomena (e.g., punishment), and analyzing spatiotemporal patterns produced by aversive contingencies., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Despite step-down inhibitory avoidance procedures that have been widely implemented in rats and mice to study learning and emotion phenomena, performance of other species in these tasks has received less attention. The case of the Mongolian gerbil is of relevance considering the discrepancies in the parameters of the step-down protocols implemented, especially the wide range of foot-shock intensities (i.e., 0.4-4.0 mA), and the lack of information on long-term performance, extinction effects, and behavioral patterning during these tasks. Experiment 1 aimed to (a) characterize gerbils' acquisition, extinction, and steady-state performance during a multisession (i.e., extended) step-down protocol adapted for implementation in a commercially-available behavioral package (Video Fear Conditioning System-MED Associates Fairfax, VT, USA), and (b) compare gerbils' performance in this task with two shock intensities - 0.5 vs. 1.0 mA-considered in the low-to-mid range. Results indicated that the 1.0 mA protocol produced more reliable and clear evidence of avoidance learning, extinction, and reacquisition in terms of increments in freezing and on-platform time as well as suppression of platform descent. Experiment 2 aimed to (a) assess whether an alternate protocol consisting of a random delivery of foot shocks could replicate the effects of Experiment 1 and (b) characterize gerbils' exploratory behavior during the step-down task (jumping, digging, rearing, and probing). Random shocks did not reproduce the effects observed with the first protocol. The data also indicated that a change from random to response-dependent shocks affects (a) the length of each visit to the platform, but not the frequency of platform descends or freezing time, and (b) the patterns of exploratory behavior, namely, suppression of digging and rearing, as well as increments in probing and jumping. Overall, the study demonstrated the feasibility of the extended step-down protocol for studying steady performance, extinction, and reacquisition of avoidance behavior in gerbils, which could be easily implemented in a commercially available system. The observation that 1.0 mA shocks produced a clear and consistent avoidance behavior suggests that implementation of higher intensities is unnecessary for reproducing aversive-conditioning effects in this species. The observed patterning of freezing, platform descents, and exploratory responses produced by the change from random to periodic shocks may relate to the active defensive system of the gerbil. Of special interest is the probing behavior, which could be interpreted as risk assessment and has not been reported in other rodent species exposed to step-down and similar tasks., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests.

This paper presents a historical and conceptual analysis of a group of research strategies known as the Single-Case Methods (SCMs). First, we present an overview of the SCMs, their history, and their major proponents. We will argue that the philosophical roots of SCMs can be found in the ideas of authors who recognized the importance of understanding both the generality and individuality of psychological functioning. Second, we will discuss the influence that the natural sciences' attitude toward measurement and experimentation has had on SCMs. Although this influence can be traced back to the early days of experimental psychology, during which incipient forms of SCMs appeared, SCMs reached full development during the subsequent advent of Behavior Analysis (BA). Third, we will show that despite the success of SCMs in BA and other (mainly applied) disciplines, these designs are currently not prominent in psychology. More importantly, they have been neglected as a possible alternative to one of the mainstream approaches in psychology, the Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST), despite serious controversies about the limitations of this prevailing method. Our thesis throughout this section will be that SCMs should be considered as an alternative to NHST because many of the recommendations for improving the use of significance testing (Wilkinson & the TFSI, 1999) are main characteristics of SCMs. The paper finishes with a discussion of a number of the possible reasons why SCMs have been neglected.

To study the influences between basic and applied research in behavior analysis, we analyzed the coauthorship interactions of authors who published in JABA and JEAB from 1980 to 2010. We paid particular attention to authors who published in both JABA and JEAB (dual authors) as potential agents of cross-field interactions. We present a comprehensive analysis of dual authors' coauthorship interactions using social networks methodology and key word analysis. The number of dual authors more than doubled (26 to 67) and their productivity tripled (7% to 26% of JABA and JEAB articles) between 1980 and 2010. Dual authors stood out in terms of number of collaborators, number of publications, and ability to interact with multiple groups within the field. The steady increase in JEAB and JABA interactions through coauthors and the increasing range of topics covered by dual authors provide a basis for optimism regarding the progressive integration of basic and applied behavior analysis., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities are able to reliably express their likes and dislikes through direct preference assessment. Preferred items tend to function as rewards and can therefore be used to facilitate the acquisition of new skills and promote task engagement. A number of preference assessment methods are available and selecting the appropriate method is crucial to provide reliable and meaningful results. The authors conducted a systematic review of the preference assessment literature, and developed an evidence-informed, decision-making model to guide practitioners in the selection of preference assessment methods for a given assessment scenario. The proposed decision-making model could be a useful tool to increase the usability and uptake of preference assessment methodology in applied settings.