Learning
The Role of the Hippocampus in Instrumental Conditioning
Laura H. Corbit and Bernard W. Balleine
The rational for the study is to shed light on a fundamental process occurring in instrumental learning that has not been well-researched. The authors hypothesize that instrumental learning consists of stimulus response (SR) processes and action-outcome (AO) processes. SR associations are encoded into procedural memory, whereas AO associations are encoded into declarative memory. The authors cite research that has stated that declarative memory is hippocampal dependent. Thus, the authors hypothesize that damage to the hippocampus should interfere with AO associations while not interfering with SR associations. In experiment 1A rats with dorsal hippocampal lesions and sham lesions (the IV) are tested for their sensitivity to outcome devaluation with a satiety treatment protocol (the DV) after being trained to press levers for two types of reinforces. The hypothesis was that lesioned rats would demonstrate a weakened devaluation effect. There was no effect in experiment 1A; in other words lesioned rats demonstrated a clear devaluation effect.
In experiment 1B the rats were exposed to different tasting reinforcers as some...
Brain Factors That Influence Psychopathy Psychopathy is among the conditions that burden the performance of most global states in the current contemporary society. A variety of factors causes psychopathy. The factors include biological, environmental, and brain factors. Psychopathy presents with different symptoms including, violence, deceitfulness, aggression, irresponsibility, lack of guilt, and impulsiveness among other symptoms associated with it. Significant researches conducted in the past have failed to create an understanding of
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