Name: experimental paradigm for measuring the effect of induced emotion on grammar learning
Uploaded: 2020-01-29T15:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning at JoVE.com

This study was supported by the key project [18AYY003] of the National Social Science Foundation of China, the National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education (MOE Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Universities), Beijing Foreign Studies University, and the post-funded project of Beijing Foreign Studies University [2019SYLHQ012].

The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Foreign Studies University and it complied with the guideline for experiments with human subjects. All subjects in this research provided written informed consent.
1. Stimuli construction
<ol>
	<li>Design experimental stimuli based on the specific research questions. As this study is intended to examine foreign language learning using a semi-artificial language, create the experimental sentences by rearranging sentences in the pa...

<ol>
	<li>Arnold, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=.">.</a> Affect in Language Learning. , (1999).</li><li>Egidi, G., Caramazza, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mood-dependent+integration+in+discourse+comprehension:+Happy+and+sad+moods+affect+consistency+processing+via+different+brain+networks.">Mood-dependent integration in discourse comprehension: Happy and sad moods affect consistency processing via different brain networks.</a> NeuroImage. 103, 20-32 (2014).</li><li>Hinojosa, J. A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Negative+induced+mood+influences+word+production:+An+event-related+potentials+study+with+a+covert+picture+naming+task.">Negative induced mood influences word production: An event-related potentials study with a covert picture naming task.</a> Neuropsychologia. 95, 227-239 (2017).</li><li>Hinojosa, J. A., Moreno, E. M., Ferr&#233;, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Affective+neurolinguistics:+towards+a+framework+for+reconciling+language+and+emotion.">Affective neurolinguistics: towards a framework for reconciling language and emotion.</a> Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. , 1-27 (2019).</li><li>Kuperman, V., Estes, Z., Brysbaert, M., Warriner, A. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotion+and+language:+valence+and+arousal+affect+word+recognition.">Emotion and language: valence and arousal affect word recognition.</a> Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 143 (3), 1065-1081 (2014).</li><li>Rodr&#237;guez-Ferreiro, J., Davies, R. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+graded+effect+of+valence+on+word+recognition+in+Spanish.">The graded effect of valence on word recognition in Spanish.</a> Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. , (2018).</li><li>Vinson, D., Ponari, M., Vigliocco, G. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=How+does+emotional+content+affect+lexical+processing.">How does emotional content affect lexical processing.</a> Cognition and Emotion. 28 (4), 737-746 (2014).</li><li>Kotz, S. 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A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Processing+words+with+emotional+connotation:+an+FMRI+study+of+time+course+and+laterality+in+rostral+frontal+and+retrosplenial+cortices.">Processing words with emotional connotation: an FMRI study of time course and laterality in rostral frontal and retrosplenial cortices.</a> Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 16 (2), 167-177 (2004).</li><li>Hinojosa, J. A., M&#233;ndez-B&#233;rtolo, C., Carreti&#233;, L., Pozo, M. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotion+modulates+language+production+during+covert+picture+naming.">Emotion modulates language production during covert picture naming.</a> Neuropsychologia. 48 (6), 1725-1734 (2010).</li><li>Larsen, K. 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I., Anwander, A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+brain+differentiates+human+and+nonhuman+grammars:+Functional+localization+and+structural+connectivity.">The brain differentiates human and nonhuman grammars: Functional localization and structural connectivity.</a> Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 103, 2458-2463 (2006).</li><li>Williams, J. N., Kuribara, C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Comparing+a+nativist+and+emergentist+approach+to+the+initial+stage+of+SLA:+An+investigation+of+Japanese+scrambling.">Comparing a nativist and emergentist approach to the initial stage of SLA: An investigation of Japanese scrambling.</a> Lingua. 118, 522-553 (2008).</li><li>Grey, S., Williams, J. N., Rebuschat, P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Individual+differences+in+incidental+language+learning:+Phonological+working+memory,+learning+styles,+and+personality.">Individual differences in incidental language learning: Phonological working memory, learning styles, and personality.</a> Learning and Individual Differences. 38, 44-53 (2015).</li><li>Williams, J. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Learning+without+awareness.">Learning without awareness.</a> Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 27, 269-304 (2005).</li><li>Leung, J. H. C., Williams, J. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+implicit+learning+of+mappings+between+forms+and+contextually+derived+meanings.">The implicit learning of mappings between forms and contextually derived meanings.</a> Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 33, 33-55 (2011).</li><li>Leung, J. H. C., Williams, J. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Constraints+on+implicit+learning+of+grammatical+form-meaning+connections.">Constraints on implicit learning of grammatical form-meaning connections.</a> Language Learning. 62, 634-662 (2012).</li><li>Pratt, N. L., Kelly, S. D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Emotional+states+influence+the+neural+processing+of+affective+language.">Emotional states influence the neural processing of affective language.</a> Social Neuroscience. 3 (3-4), 434-442 (2008).</li><li>Chwilla, D. J., Virgillito, D., Vissers, C. T. W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+relationship+of+language+and+emotion:+N400+support+for+an+embodied+view+of+language+comprehension.">The relationship of language and emotion: N400 support for an embodied view of language comprehension.</a> Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 23 (9), 2400-2414 (2011).</li><li>Williams, J. N., Paciorek, A., Mackey, A., Marsden, E. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Indirect+tests+of+implicit+linguistic+knowledge.">Indirect tests of implicit linguistic knowledge.</a> Advancing Methodology and Practice: The IRIS Repository of Instruments for Research into Second Languages. , 25-42 (2016).</li><li>Rebuschat, P., Williams, J. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Implicit+and+explicit+knowledge+in+second+language+acquisition.">Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language acquisition.</a> Applied Psycholinguistics. 33, 829-856 (2012).</li><li>Liu, X., Xu, X., Wang, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+effect+of+emotion+on+morphosyntactic+learning+in+foreign+language+learners.">The effect of emotion on morphosyntactic learning in foreign language learners.</a> PloS One. 13 (11), 0207592 (2018).</li><li>Bradley, M. M., Lang, P. 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The results indicate that participants rated their emotions to be significantly more positive after being exposed to the positively-valenced music. These subjects were significantly happier than the control group. This suggests that our emotion manipulation was successful. Participants in the positive-emotion group were found to be significantly less accurate and efficient than those in the control group. One possible reason is that participants employed an inductive strategy in grammar learning, resulting in a strong re...

Emotions play a crucial role in various cognitive activities such as perception, learning, reasoning, memorization, and problem solving. Because language learning requires attention, reasoning, and memorization, emotions may have significant influence on language learning outcomes1. Several prior studies have explored the effect of induced emotions on word production or text comprehension2,3, and have consistently found that emotion had a crucial influence on the two language processes. For example, Egidi and Caramazza found that positive emotion increased the sensitivity to inconsistency in text comprehension in the brain areas specific for inconsistency detection, whereas negative emotion increased the sensitivity to inconsistency in less specific areas2. Hinojosa et al. examined the effect of induced mood on word production and discovered that negative mood impaired the retrieval of phonological information during word production3. In spite of the evidence showing that emotions have a marked impact on text comprehension and word production, it is still not clear whether emotions affect grammar learning, one of the essential aspects of language learning. The present study aimed to explore the effect of learners&#39; emotional states on grammar learning.
Language and emotion are two primary components of human experience4. Their relationships have mostly been explored by studies in affective neurolinguistics. At the single word level, previous studies have consistently found that emotional features, such as arousal or valence, significantly affect the processing of individual words5,6,7. Specifically, some studies have identified a significant advantage for positive words5, and other studies have found an advantage for both positive and negative words7. Although some studies have reported an interaction between valence and arousal, a lack of significant interaction was reported in other research4. The picture is more complex at the level of sentence processing. Previous studies have explored issues concerning the interaction between emotional content and syntactic or semantic unification processes during sentence comprehension. Emotional information has been found to exert different influences on the processing of gender or number features4. Further, positive and negative emotion was connected with different agreement effects4. For instance, positive emotional features facilitated number agreement processing, whereas negative emotional features inhibited these processes4. At the semantic level, emotional features influenced semantic unification processes in both sentence and discourse contexts through the activation of the brain regions involved in single word processing and combinatorial semantic processes4. A review of the previous literature indicates that most prior research has focused on the effects of emotional information on the comprehension of words, sentences, and texts8,9, or the neural basis of emotional effects on language production10,11. However, how individuals&#39; affective states might influence language processing or learning has been largely overlooked.
The most frequently used approach to the studies of emotions in grammar learning is the artificial grammar learning paradigm. Several studies have used artificial grammar tasks to examine the effect of emotion on the learning of a new language12. First introduced by Reber in 196713, the artificial grammar learning paradigm is characterized by the use of non-meaningful materials, such as number strings or non-word letter strings, which are in fact generated by an underlying grammar. Researchers usually exposed participants in different emotional states (positive, neutral, or negative) to the number strings or letter strings presented either visually or audibly and measured their learning outcomes. Studies with the artificial grammar approach typically consist of a training session and a testing session. In the training session, participants are instructed to observe or memorize a list of symbol sequences that are generated from a finite state grammar. Participants are informed that the sequences follow a particular set of rules, but they are not given any details regarding these rules. In the testing session, participants are presented with new symbol sequences, some of which are grammatical and others are not. They are then required to judge whether the strings are grammatical or not. Artificial grammar tasks allow the instantiation of various theories of learning, such as rules, similarity, and associative learning theories14. This approach can effectively minimize the influence of lexical factors on the learning of grammatical rules, as artificial languages are made up of numbers, letters, or other meaningless symbols, rather than words in natural languages. However, many researchers have argued that the knowledge acquired in artificial grammar learning may represent statistical properties that are different from the features of natural grammar used by human beings15. Evidence from neurological studies shows that the grammars in natural languages are processed differently from the finite-state grammars used in artificial grammar learning tasks16,17. Therefore, artificial grammar learning tasks may not reflect the learning of human languages. Studies of the emotion effect on grammar learning using artificial grammars are more likely to reveal how emotion influences statistical learning, rather than the learning of natural grammars in human languages. It is not entirely clear whether findings from the meaningless stimuli can be generalized to foreign language learning.
The present study intended to adopt a semi-artificial language paradigm to investigate the effect of emotion on grammar learning. Semi-artificial language tasks were first introduced by Williams and Kuribara to examine language learning. A semi-artificial language is generated with the combination of lexicon in the learners&#39; native language and the grammar of a different language. An example of such language can be found in Williams and Kuribara&#39;s study18. Williams and Kuribara designed a novel semi-artificial language, Japlish, which followed the word order and case-marking rules of Japanese but used English vocabulary18. Sample Japlish sentences in their study are provided in Table 1.
<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Structure</td>
			<td>Examples</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SV</td>
			<td>Horse-ga when fell?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SOV</td>
			<td>Pilot-ga that runway-o saw</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SIOV</td>
			<td>Student-ga dog-ni what-o offered?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>S when what-o V?</td>
			<td>Bill-ga when what-o sang?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>S who-ni what-o V?</td>
			<td>That doctor-ga who-ni what-o showed?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>S [SOV]V</td>
			<td>John-ga angrily Mary-ga that ring-o lost that said.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>OS[SV]V</td>
			<td>That disease-o vet-ga cow-ga have that declared.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
Table 1: Sample sentences in a semi-artificial language. The sentences were generated with English lexis and Japanese syntax. The sentences in the table are from Williams and Kuribara&#39;s study18.
As shown in the table, although English words are used, they are combined into sentences in accordance with the Japanese word order and case-marking rules. The Japlish sentences are all verb-final and nouns are case-marked for subject (-ga), indirect object (-ni), or object (-o). A detailed description of Japlish can be found in Grey et al.&#39;s study19. Semi-artificial language tasks involve a training phase and a testing phase. During the training phase, participants are instructed to learn a new language, and in the testing phase, they are required to perform acceptability judgment tasks or sentence-picture matching tasks. The accuracy and reaction times (RTs) of their responses are recorded to assess their learning performance.
Semi-artificial language tasks have mainly three advantages: First, as semi-artificial languages are created using grammatical rules in a new language, the tasks can minimize the influence of prior knowledge of the structures as well as language transfer19. Second, the tasks enable us to control and manipulate the type and amount of exposure participants receive19. In this way, they allow for more accurate assessment of the learning effects. Finally, as the grammars used in semi-artificial language tasks are from human languages, the tasks allow us to measure how participants acquire natural grammars, rather than artificial ones. In this aspect, they are more advantageous than artificial grammar tasks in which sequences of numbers or letters are used instead of real words. The use of natural grammar makes us more confident to conclude that the findings obtained are applicable to natural language learning. Given that prior studies have demonstrated learning effects using the semi-artificial language paradigm20,21,22, it is a useful approach to investigating issues in language learning that are difficult to isolate in the complex context of natural language research. However, semi-artificial language tasks are only applicable to foreign languages that are structurally different from learners&#39; native languages. If the tested language is structurally similar to the learners&#39; native language, it might make the former indistinguishable from the latter.
Compared with the tasks using natural languages, semi-artificial language tasks allow for a more objective assessment of the effects of emotion on grammar learning. This is because words in natural languages are closely associated with specific grammatical functions. For example, inanimate nouns (e.g., desk, nail) are more likely to function as the patients of verbs. Thus, it is difficult to differentiate the performance of vocabulary learning from that of grammar learning because the two are interrelated and inseparable in natural languages. As emotions have been found to have vital influence on word processing23,24, they may have indirect influence on grammar learning. Therefore, it is not easy to clearly differentiate the effect of emotion on vocabulary learning from that on grammar learning. This problem can be easily solved in semi-artificial language tasks because these tasks allow for the separation of vocabulary from grammar, and thus enable us to identify the effect of emotion on grammar learning, without having to worry about the interference from lexical learning.
Although the semi-artificial language paradigm has been used in some studies to investigate linguistic knowledge in second language acquisition25,26, this approach has rarely been used to explore learners&#39; individual differences in emotional conditions in foreign language learning. In this study, we intended to explore how positive induced emotion influences grammar learning using a semi-artificial language. Findings from this study have important implications for foreign language teaching and learning.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>E-prime</td>
			<td>PST</td>
			<td>2.0.8.22</td>
			<td>Stimulus presentation software</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Computer</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Used to present stimuli and record subjects&#39; responses</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Used to assess subjects&#39; affective states. From Lang (1980)29</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

experimental paradigm for measuring the effect of induced emotion on grammar learning

Previous studies have found that emotion has significant influence on the learning of foreign language vocabulary and textual comprehension. However, little attention has been given to the effect of induced emotion on grammar learning. This research examined the influence of positive induced emotion on the learning of Japanese grammatical rules among a group of learners with Chinese as their native language, using a semi-artificial language (i.e. Chipanese), which combines the grammatical rules of Japanese and the vocabulary of Chinese. Music was used to invoke positive emotional conditions in participants. Participants were required to learn Chipanese sentences in a training session through practice and then a grammaticality judgment task was administered to measure learning outcomes. We found that participants in positive emotional states performed less accurately and efficiently than those in the control group. The findings suggest that the protocol is effective in identifying the effect of positive induced emotion on grammar learning. The implications of this experimental paradigm for investigating foreign language learning are discussed.

The aim of this study is to explore the effect of positive induced emotion on foreign language grammar learning. For this purpose, two groups of participants were recruited to participate in the experiment, including a positive-emotion group (15 female, Mage = 20.20, age range: 18&#8211;27) and a control group (16 female, Mage = 20.33, age range: 18&#8211;26). Each group consisted of 30 participants. The two groups did not differ significantly in age, t (58) = -0.215, ...

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Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Here, we present a protocol to measure the effect of positive induced emotion on grammar learning in foreign language learners using a semi-artificial language that integrates the grammatical rules of a foreign language with the lexicon of the learners&#39; native language.

Previous studies have found that emotion has significant influence on the learning of foreign language vocabulary and textual comprehension. However, ...

This method could provide important insight into how learners acquire foreign language grammar, as well as about the rule of individual differences in affective states in grammar learning. This technique separates vocabulary from grammar. So it allows us to assess the effects of induced emotion of grammar learning without having to worry about interference from lexical learning.Have the participant sit in front of a computer and ask the participant to read and sign the written consent forms. Next, give the participant the pencil and paper version of the self-assessment Manikin pictorial rating scale and ask the participant to use a pencil to rate their emotion by marking the corresponding manikin. Have the participants in the experimental group listen to positively valenced music through headphones for 10 minutes.At the end of the emotion induction period, ask the participant to rate their emotional state on a new self-assessment Manikin scale. Before beginning the training task, present written instructions for the task on the screen of the computer in the native language of the participant. The instructions should read, Welcome to our experiment.In this experiment, you will be required to learn a novel language that contains native language words and new grammar. When you are ready, press any key to proceed to the experiment. After the participant has pressed a key, a new set of instructions should appear.Next, you will see some sentences. Please read them carefully and decide whether they are grammatically correct or not. Press one if the sentences are grammatical and zero if they are ungrammatical.After each response you will receive feedback, correct or incorrect, and the correct sentence will be presented. Press any key to proceed to the learning task. The participant should then judge the grammatical acceptability of the sentences on the computer screen as directed and the feedback should be presented on the screen after the participant's response followed by the correct sentence.When all of the trials have been completed, the text, The learning task is finished, should appear on the screen. At the end of the training, give the participant the pencil and paper version of the self-assessment Manikin scale and ask them to rate their emotional condition. When the training task is complete, present the testing session instructions on the computer screen.The instructions should read, Please continue to answer questions similar to those observed during the training. Decide whether the grammatical structures of the following sentences are correct. Press one if you think they are correct and press zero if you think they are incorrect.Press any key to start the experiment. Have the participant read the sentences shown on the screen and judge whether the sentence's structures are grammatical correct as instructed. When all of the trials have been completed, text should appear on the screen that reads, The end.Thank you for participating. Then ask the participant to fill out a questionnaire about their demographic details. In this representative analysis, participants in the positive emotion group reported being significantly happier than those in the control group, indicating a successful emotion induction.Further, the emotional states of the participants in each group were sustained during the training phase. Assessment of the mean accuracy of the grammar learning by the two groups revealed a significant affective emotion and sentence type with the participants in the control group performing significantly more accurately than those in the positive emotion condition group. In addition, subject indirect object direct object verb and subject object verb subject verb structures were comprehended less accurately than subject object verb and object subject verb subject verb structures.Reaction time analysis indicating that there was a significant affective emotion and sentence type with the participants in the control group reacting faster than those in the positive emotional state group. Subject object verb structures were recognized faster than the other three structures and subject indirect object direct object verb structures were recognized more slowly than other structures. It is essential to design a semi-artificial language that contains the lexicon of the participant's native language and the grammar of the tested foreign language.This protocol can also be used to explore the effects of other affective variables on grammar learning, such as anxiety or motivation.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

A Procedure to Study the Effect of Prolonged Food Restriction on Heroin Seeking in Abstinent Rats

In human drug addicts, exposure to drug-associated cues or environments that were previously associated with drug taking can trigger relapse during abstinence. Moreover, various environmental challenges can exacerbate this effect, as well as increase ongoing drug intake.
The procedure we describe here highlights the impact of a common environmental challenge, food restriction, on drug craving that is expressed as an augmentation of drug seeking in abstinent rats.
Rats are implanted with chronic intravenous i.v. catheters, and then trained to press a lever for i.v. heroin over a period of 10-12 days. Following the heroin self-administration phase the rats are removed from the operant conditioning chambers and housed in the animal care facility for a period of at least 14 days. While one group is maintained under unrestricted access to food (sated group), a second group (FDR group) is exposed to a mild food restriction regimen that results in their body weights maintained at 90% of their nonrestricted body weight. On day 14 of food restriction the rats are transferred back to the drug-training environment, and a drug-seeking test is run under extinction conditions (i.e.&#160;lever presses do not result in heroin delivery).
The procedure presented here results in a highly robust augmentation of heroin seeking on test day in the food restricted rats. In addition, compared to the acute food deprivation manipulations we have used before, the current procedure is a more clinically relevant model for the impact of caloric restriction on drug seeking. Moreover, it might be closer to the human condition as the rats are not required to go through an extinction-training phase before the drug-seeking test, which is an integral component of the popular reinstatement procedure.

A procedure that allows a demonstration of robust augmentation of drug seeking in food-restricted rats is described. Following heroin self-administration training, rats go through an abstinence period, in a drug-free environment, during which they are mildly food restricted. Drug seeking is then tested in the drug-associated environment.

In human drug addicts, exposure to drug-associated cues or environments that were previously associated with drug taking can trigger relapse during ...

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach

The main goal of this study was to assess the usability of a tablet-computer-based application (EmoCogMeter) in investigating the effects of age on cognitive functions across the lifespan in a sample of 378 healthy subjects (age range 18-89 years). Consistent with previous findings we found an age-related cognitive decline across a wide range of neuropsychological domains (memory, attention, executive functions), thereby proving the usability of our tablet-based application. Regardless of prior computer experience, subjects of all age groups were able to perform the tasks without instruction or feedback from an experimenter. Increased motivation and compliance proved to be beneficial for task performance, thereby potentially increasing the validity of the results. Our promising findings underline the great clinical and practical potential of a tablet-based application for detection and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction.

We tested the usability of a tablet-computer-based application (EmoCogMeter) in investigating the effects of age on cognition. Results show an age-related cognitive decline, thereby proving the usability of our application. Findings underline the great clinical and practical potential of a tablet-based application for detection and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction.

The main goal of this study was to assess the usability of a tablet-computer-based application (EmoCogMeter) in investigating the effects of age on ...

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood

Effective regulation of emotion is one of the most important skills that develops in childhood. Research interest in this area is expanding, but empirical work has been limited by predominantly correlational investigations of children's skills. Relatedly, a key conceptual challenge for emotion scientists is to distinguish between emotion responding and emotion regulatory processes. This paper presents a novel method to address these conceptual and methodological issues in child samples. An experimental paradigm that assesses the effectiveness with which children regulate emotion is described. Children are randomly assigned to use specific emotion regulation strategies, negative emotions are elicited with film clips, and changes in subsequent psychophysiology index the extent to which emotion regulation is effective. Children are instructed to simply watch the emotion-eliciting film (control), distract themselves from negative emotions (cognitive distraction), or reframe the situation in a way that downplays the importance of the emotional event (cognitive reappraisal). Cardiac physiology, continuously acquired before and during the emotional task, serves as an objective measure of children's unfolding emotional responding while viewing evocative films. Key comparisons in patterns of obtained physiological reactivity are between the control and emotion regulation strategy conditions. Representative results from this approach are described, and discussion focuses on the contribution of this methodological approach to developmental science.

A detailed protocol for an experimental paradigm to assess the effectiveness with which children regulate emotion is described. Children are randomly assigned to use specific emotion regulation strategies, negative emotions are elicited with film clips, and changes in subsequent psychophysiology index the extent to which emotion regulation is effective.

Effective regulation of emotion is one of the most important skills that develops in childhood. Research interest in this area is expanding, but empirical ...

A Method to Test the Effect of Environmental Cues on Mating Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

An individual's sexual drive is influenced by genotype, experience and environmental conditions. How these factors interact to modulate sexual behaviors remains poorly understood. In Drosophila melanogaster, environmental cues, such as food availability, affect mating activity offering a tractable system to investigate the mechanisms modulating sexual behavior. In D. melanogaster, environmental cues are often sensed via the chemosensory gustatory and olfactory systems. Here, we present a method to test the effect of environmental chemical cues on mating behavior. The assay consists of a small mating arena containing food medium and a mating couple. The mating frequency for each couple is continuously monitored for 24 h. Here we present the applicability of this assay to test environmental compounds from an external source through a pressurized air system as well as manipulation of the environmental components directly in the mating arena. The use of a pressurized air system is especially useful to test the effect of very volatile compounds, while manipulating components directly in the mating arena can be of value to ascertain a compound's presence. This assay can be adapted to answer questions about the influence of genetic and environmental cues on mating behavior and fecundity as well as other male and female reproductive behaviors.

A Method to Test the Effect of Environmental Cues on Mating Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

We demonstrate an assay to analyze the environmental and genetic cues that influence mating behavior in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

An individual's sexual drive is influenced by genotype, experience and environmental conditions. How these factors interact to modulate sexual behaviors ...

Evaluating the Anti-depression Effect of Xiaoyaosan on Chronically-stressed Mice

In addition to the standardized use of antidepressant medications and psychotherapy, the usage of traditional Chinese medicine has lead to an overall improvement of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish the mouse depressive model, observe the behavior changes associated with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), and then evaluate the anti-depression effect of Xiaoyaosan. Mice were randomly divided into four groups: a control group, a model group, a treatment group with Xiaoyaosan, and a treatment group with fluoxetine. All mice were individually kept in cages, and depression was induced in the mice by exposing them to several designed manipulations of CUMS for 21 days, as described in the protocol. Mice in the control group and model group received 0.5 mL of distilled water, while mice in the treatment groups received either Xiaoyaosan (0.25 g/kg/day) or fluoxetine (2.6 mg/kg/day). The drugs used in the study were given intragastrically daily during the entire three weeks. To estimate the depressive-like behaviors, a series of parameters including the coat state, body weight, open field test score, and sucrose preference test score were recorded. Data analysis showed that behaviors of model mice were significantly changed compared to behaviors of mice in the control group, which were improved by the treatment of Xiaoyaosan and fluoxetine. The current findings demonstrated the anti-depression effects of Xiaoyaosan on the behaviors of CUMS-induced mice and revealed that compounds from the Xiaoyaosan prescription may be worthwhile for treating depression, considering their beneficial effects on depressive-like behaviors.

Here, we present a protocol to establish the mouse depressive model, observe the behavior changes associated with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), and evaluate the anti-depression effect of Xiaoyaosan.

In addition to the standardized use of antidepressant medications and psychotherapy, the usage of traditional Chinese medicine has lead to an overall ...

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior

Collective human behavior such as group movement frequently shows surprising patterns and regularities, such as the emergence of leadership. Recent literature has revealed that these patterns, often visible at the global level of the group, are based on self-organized, individual behaviors that follow several simple local parameters. Understanding the dynamics of human collective behavior can help to improve coordination and leadership in group and crowd scenarios, such as identifying the ideal placement and number of emergency exits in buildings.
In this article, we present the experimental paradigm HoneyComb, which can be used to systematically investigate conditions and effects of human collective behavior. This paradigm uses a computer-based multi-user platform, providing a setting that can be shaped and adapted to various types of research questions. Situational conditions (e.g., cost-benefit ratios for specific behavior, monetary incentives and resources, various degrees of uncertainty) can be set by experimenters, depending on the research question. Each participant's motions are recorded by the server as hexagonal coordinates with timestamps at an accuracy of 50 ms and with individual IDs. Thus, a metric can be defined on the playfield, and movement parameters (e.g., distances, velocity, clustering, etc.) of participants can be measured over time. Movement data can in turn be combined with non-computerized data from questionnaires garnered within the same experiment setup.
The HoneyComb paradigm is paving the way for new types of human movement experiments. We demonstrate here that these experiments can render results with sufficient internal validity to meaningfully deepen our understanding of human collective behavior.

Here, we present the computer-based, multi-agent game HoneyComb, which enables experimental investigations of collective human movement behavior via black-dot-avatars on a virtual 2D hexagonal playfield. Different experimental conditions, like variable&#160;incentives on goal fields or vision radius, can be set, and their effects on human movement behavior can be investigated.

Collective human behavior such as group movement frequently shows surprising patterns and regularities, such as the emergence of leadership. Recent ...

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Self-distancing (i.e., creating mental distance between the self and a stimulus by adopting a less egocentric perspective) has been studied as a way to improve adolescents' and adults' emotion regulation. These studies instruct adolescents and adults to use visual imagery or language to create distance from the self before engaging in self-regulation tasks and when thinking about past and future events. For example, adults are asked to recall past, negative emotional experiences from either a first-person perspective (no distance) or a third-person perspective (self-distanced). These studies show that a self-distanced perspective allows adults to cope more adaptively when recalling negative feelings. However, the self-distancing paradigm used with adults was not developmentally appropriate for young children. This modified self-distancing paradigm involves instructing children to think about their thoughts, feelings, and actions from different perspectives that vary in their distance from the self while completing a self-regulation task. The paradigm involves randomly assigning children to use one of three perspectives: self-immersed, third-person, or exemplar. In the self-immersed condition, children are asked to think about themselves using the first-person perspective (e.g., "How am I feeling?") and no distance is created from the self. In the third-person condition, children are asked to create distance from the self by using the third-person perspective (e.g., "How is [child's name] feeling?"). In the exemplar condition, the greatest distance from the self is created by asking children to pretend to be a media character and to think about that character's thoughts and feelings (e.g., "How is Batman feeling?"). Studies using the self-distancing paradigm with 4-6-year-olds have found that as the amount of distance from the self increases (self-immersed &lt; third-person &lt; exemplar), children perform better on self-regulation tasks. These findings suggest that the strategies implemented in the self-distancing protocol may be useful to include in self-regulation interventions for young children.

An experimental paradigm was created to measure the effects of self-distancing in young children (4-6-year-olds). Self-distancing is a process through which individuals adopt a less egocentric perspective. This paradigm has been used to examine the effects of self-distancing on young children&#39;s self-regulation.

Self-distancing (i.e., creating mental distance between the self and a stimulus by adopting a less egocentric perspective) has been studied as a way to ...

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

We discuss the use of the preferential looking paradigm in eye tracking studies in order to study how infants develop, understand, and attend to the world around them. Eye tracking is a safe and non-invasive way to collect gaze data from infants, and the preferential looking paradigm is simple to design and only requires the infant to be attending to the screen. By simultaneously showing two visual stimuli that differ in one dimension, we can assess whether infants show different looking behavior for either stimulus, thus demonstrating sensitivity to that difference. The challenges in such experimental approaches are that experiments must be kept brief (no more than 10 min) and be carefully controlled such that the two stimuli differ in only one way. The interpretation of null results must also be carefully considered. In this paper, we illustrate a successful example of an infant eye tracking study with a preferential looking paradigm to discover that 6-month-olds are sensitive to linguistic cues in a signed language despite having no prior exposure to signed language, suggesting that infants possess intrinsic or innate sensitivities to these cues.

Eye tracking studies using a preferential looking paradigm can be used to study infants&#39;&#160;emerging understanding of, and attention to, their external visual world.

We discuss the use of the preferential looking paradigm in eye tracking studies in order to study how infants develop, understand, and attend to the world ...

Investigating the Effect of Visual Imagery and Learning Shape-Audio Regularities on Bouba and Kiki

This article presents a protocol for investigating the role of visual imagery in the bouba/kiki-effect, whether training in noticing the bouba/kiki shape-audio regularities affects the bouba/kiki-effect and the recognition of individual bouba and kiki shapes, and finally what mental images these regularities produce. To generate bouba/kiki shape-audio regularities, there were two types of shapes (filled; outlined) and two types of audio (word; non-word sound). Three groups of individuals participated in three experiments: Blind, blindfold, and vision. The experiments were conducted in fixed order across participants, with no break between them. In Experiment 1 (pre-test-post-test design with three repeated within-group measures) the participants were asked to pick out the shape they associated with the auditory bouba/kiki; in Experiment 2 (within-subject design), to name one shape and some audio (sometimes congruous; sometimes incongruous) as &#8216;bouba&#8217; or &#8216;kiki;&#8217; and in Experiment 3 (post-test only design), to draw the shape they associated with the auditory bouba/kiki. The results suggest that the blindfold-group draw upon visual imagery to solve new problems, but not long term; that training in noticing bouba/kiki shape-audio regularities affects the bouba/kiki-effect and the recognition of individual bouba and kiki shapes, but differently in each experimental group; and that all experimental groups create mental images of the most characteristic shape feature of bouba (curve) and kiki (angle). In fact, the effect of visual imagery is robust across tasks, but not long term; the effect of learning shape-audio regularities is robust long term, but not across tasks. The presented protocol is appropriate for investigating the effect of visual imagery and learning shape-audio regularities, when they occur and how robust they are; in specific individuals and groups of individuals. This protocol is unique in that it keeps under control both the visual imagery and the sensory information during training and testing.

The aim of the presented protocol is to investigate the role of visual imagery in the bouba/kiki-effect, whether training in noticing the bouba/kiki shape-audio regularities affects the bouba/kiki-effect and the recognition of individual bouba and kiki shapes, and finally what mental images these regularities produce.

This article presents a protocol for investigating the role of visual imagery in the bouba/kiki-effect, whether training in noticing the bouba/kiki ...

Online Explorative Study on the Learning Uses of Virtual Reality Among Early Adopters

Virtual reality (VR) has shown great educational potential because it makes it possible to simulate any desired situation or event, thus playing an important role in addressing current educational challenges. Despite the unlimited learning possibilities that VR may offer, unless users are willing to apply virtual devices to education, the investment of time, money, and effort will be fruitless. It is therefore crucial to assess the educational interest of the first generation of VR users and to identify their current needs. To this end, in this study we designed an online questionnaire and applied it through the SaaS (Software as a service) of a private server. The sample consisted of 117 early VR adopters recruited via a main portal of communication and information technologies in Spain. In order to engage participants, we posted a thread in the main forum, which is dedicated to the advances and potential uses of VR. Once the responses were gathered, we analyzed the relationship between 12 variables (mean contrasts with Snedecor&#39;s F, and contingency analysis with chi-square and Sommer&#39;s d). The results showed that the current profile of a VR user is a male over 35 years old, with university studies, and who has purchased his viewer recently (&#60;1 year). As for the learning and teaching applications that these users were interested in, only 13.7% of the participants in this study use VR for educational purposes, although 28.2% were interested, indicating that perhaps the lack of applications or learning experiences may be hampering the use of VR within education. Almost half of the early adopters surveyed would like to learn using VR technology and are somehow optimistic about the relationship between VR and education, particularly those who are younger.

This article describes the profile of Spanish early adopters of virtual reality and their interests and preferences regarding learning and educational applications for this technology. To this aim, we designed an online questionnaire and interviewed 117 users of the main virtual reality forum on the Internet.

Virtual reality (VR) has shown great educational potential because it makes it possible to simulate any desired situation or event, thus playing an ...