Philip J. Corr

Reinforcement sensitivity theory and personality

A fully fledged neuroscience of personality is beginning to emerge, shaped and guided in large measure by the seminal work of Jeffrey A. Gray over a period of 40 years. In this Festschrift, I trace the theoretical development of Grays approach--now known as Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST)--out of the Eysenckian tradition to its most recent articulation. Experimental attempts to test RST are reviewed and the theoretical problems raised by this literature discussed. Also presented are data relating to a recent clarification of RST, viz. the joint subsystems hypothesis, which postulates a fundamental interdependence of appetitive and aversive systems in the typical human laboratory. The value of Grays general approach to building behavioural theories on the bases of both the conceptual nervous system and the real nervous system is validated in personality, which has long been thought a philosophical mystery rather than a standard problem to be tackled by scientific method.

The reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality

1. Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST): introduction Philip J. Corr 2. The neuropsychology of fear and anxiety: a foundation for Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Neil McNaughton and Philip J. Corr 3. Animal cognition and human personality Neil McNaughton and Philip J. Corr 4. The behavioural activation system: challenges and opportunities Alan D. Pickering and Luke D. Smillie 5. Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory and personality Philip J. Corr and Neil McNaughton 6. Reinforcement sensitivity scales Rafael Torrubia, Cesar Avila and Xavier Caseras 7. Performance and conditioning studies Cesar Avila and Rafael Torrubia 8. Psychophysiological studies Vilfredo De Pascalis 9. Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory and mood induction studies Rapson Gomez and Andrew Cooper 10. Neuro-imaging and genetics Martin Reuter 11. Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory and psychosomatic medicine Liisa Keltikangas-Jarvinen 12. RST and clinical disorders: anxiety and depression Richard E. Zinbarg and K. Lira Yoon 13. RST and psychopathy: associations between psychopathy and the behavioral activation and inhibition systems John F. Wallace and Joseph P. Newman 14. Behavioural activation and inhibition in social adjustment Gennady G. Knyazev, Glenn D. Wilson and Helena R. Slobodskaya 15. Reinforcement sensitivity in the work-place: BIS/BAS in business Adrian Furnham and Chris Jackson 16. Formal and computational models of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Alan D. Pickering 17. Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: a critique from cognitive science Gerald Matthews 18. The contribution of Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory to personality theory William Revelle.

J. A. Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory: tests of the joint subsystems hypothesis of anxiety and impulsivity ☆

Abstract Two experiments tested a new perspective on J. A Grays Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) which postulates that the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioural approach system (BAS) exert two separate effects on behaviour: (1) facilitatory (BIS−punishment, BAS−reward), and (2) antagonistic (BIS−reward, BAS−punishment). This joint subsystems hypothesis was contrasted with the conventional separable subsystems hypothesis of independent effects of the BIS and BAS in two paradigms: (1) affective modulation of the acoustic startle reflex (n=70), to measure the induction of emotional state; and (2) a visual information processing task with manipulations of reinforcement (feedback-alone vs. punishment of commission errors) and arousal (500 mg caffeine citrate vs. placebo; n=120), to measure behavioural inhibition/disinhibition. Consistent with the joint subsystems hypothesis: (1) high anxiety strengthened affective (electromyographic) reactions in the presence of unpleasant (compared with neutral) slides (i.e. fear potentiation), but this effect was stronger in low impulsivity participants (i.e. high impulsivity seemed to antagonise this BIS−mediated reaction); and (b) avoidance of punishment of incorrect responses was poorest in low anxiety, high impulsivity participants, pointing to a disinhibited pattern of reaction in individuals who, putatively, have a weak BIS and a strong BAS (this effect was found only in the caffeine group, suggesting that high levels of arousal may be necessary for the invigoration of disinhibitory behaviour). The implications of the joint subsystems hypothesis and the present data for Grays reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality are discussed.

Testing problems in J.A. Gray's personality theory: A commentary on Matthews and Gilliland (1999)

In their comparative review of H. J. Eysenck’s arousal and J. A. Gray’s reinforcement theories of personality, Matthews and Gilliland [(1999) Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 583–626] concluded that “Cognitive constructs may be more appropriate than biological ones for explaining the majority of behaviours, so that explanations of the kind offered by the Eysenck and Gray theories are relevant to a restricted range of phenomena only” (p. 620). In this commentary, I address a number of problems in Gray’s account of the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioural Approach System (BAS) that need to be tackled before we can conclude that cognitive accounts of personality should supersede, rather than complement, biologically-based ones. I focus on two broad sets of issues. (1) Practical (operational) problems, that call for further experimental work, relating to: (a) BIS/BAS and conditioning/learning; (b) reinforcement parameters (i.e., defining reward/punishment, reinforcement expectancies, schedules of reward, sources of reinforcement, cues versus feedback); and (c) psychometric measures of BIS/BAS functioning. (2) The theoretical nature of BIS/BAS effects, that call for an elaboration of Gray’s theory. I propose a two-process model that postulates that the BIS and BAS exert two effects: facilitatory, the BIS mediates responses to aversive stimuli, the BAS to appetitive stimuli; and antagonistic, the BIS and BAS impair responses mediated by the alternate reinforcement system. Specific directions for future research are given. I conclude that, in several crucial respects, Gray’s reinforcement theory has yet to be adequately tested; and that closer attention to operational definitions, and the mutual interplay of the BIS and BAS, may enhance its experimental precision.

Molecular genetics support Gray's personality theory: the interaction of COMT and DRD2 polymorphisms predicts the behavioural approach system.

The present study provides the first direct molecular genetics support for Grays Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST), which is one of the most influential biologically oriented personality theories. It was investigated whether the DRD2 TaqIA and the COMT polymorphisms were related to the dimensions of Grays personality theory, as measured by the Carver and White BIS/BAS scales. In a sample of 295 healthy subjects results revealed significant DRD2xCOMT interactions (i.e. epistasis) for the total BAS scale (related to positive emotionality) and for the subscales Drive (D) and Fun Seeking (FS). High BAS scores were observed if the catabolic enzyme activity and the D2 receptor density as indicated by the two polymorphisms were in disequilibrium, i.e. in the presence of the Val-/A1- (low enzyme activity/high receptor density) or the Val+/A1+ (high enzyme activity/low receptor density) alleles. In a random subsample (n=48), it could be demonstrated that those allele combinations of COMT and DRD2 associated with high BAS scores also had significantly lower prolactin levels under resting conditions, indicating high dopamine activity, compared to those allele combinations with low BAS scores. Furthermore, two-way interactions of DRD2 TaqIAxsmoking status and of the Met allele of COMTxsmoking status on FS and Metxgender on BIS could be shown.

The Cambridge handbook of personality psychology

The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology - Libros de Medicina - Personalidad/Evaluacion y Tratamiento Psicologico - 106,87

Personality and reinforcement in associative and instrumental learning

A two-stage (associative and instrumental) learning task was developed to examine the role of personality in mediating: (1) the development of appetitive and aversive CS-UCS associations; and (2) passive avoidance of aversive CSs, and approach to appetitive CSs, in instrumental learning. The results showed: (1) that harm avoidance [as measured by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ)] predicted aversive CS-UCS associations, while [TPQ] reward dependence predicted appetitive CS-UCS associations (no personality factors predicted neutral CS-UCS associations); and (2) that subjects high in impulsivity [as measured by the IVE scale of the Eysenck Personality Scales (EPS)] showed poor passive avoidance to the aversive-CS, while subjects high in trait anxiety [as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)] showed poor approach behaviour to the appetitive-CS. A correlational study with TPQ and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire [EPQ] factors revealed the structural comparability of these two descriptive systems. The results suggest that associative and instrumental learning under appetitive and aversive conditions do not reflect a general (arousal-based) learning factor, and that specific personality factors mediate reward and punishment in the two stages of learning. The findings are discussed in relation to Eysencks, Grays, Cloningers, and Newmans models of personality.

Fear and anxiety as separable emotions: An investigation of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality

The Gray and McNaughton (2000) theory draws on a wide range of animal data to hypothesize that the emotions of fear and anxiety are separable. The authors tested their hypothesis in two studies. The first study examined associations between scores on questionnaire measures of fear, anxiety, and neuroticism; correlational analysis revealed that fear and anxiety are not interchangeable constructs. The second study examined associations between scores on questionnaire measures of fear/anxiety and performance in a military training setting; regression analysis revealed that fear captured significant variance in performance that was not shared with anxiety. These results imply that hypotheses derived from nonhuman animal data may hold important implications for understanding human emotion and motivation, especially in relation to fear and anxiety.

Effects of nicotine and amphetamine on latent inhibition in human subjects.

Latent inhibition (LI) is a phenomenon in which repeated non-reinforced exposure to a stimulus retards subsequent conditioning to that stimulus; it reflects a process whereby irrelevant stimuli become ignored, and has been the subject of study concerning attentional abnormalities in schizophrenia. Low doses of the indirect dopamine (DA) agonists, amphetamine and nicotine, disrupt LI in the rat. These drugs are believed to disrupt LI via DA release in the nucleus accumbens; LI in amphetamine- and nicotine-treated rats is reinstated by administration of the DA antagonist haloperidol. In human subjects, low doses of amphetamine abolish LI, and more recently haloperidol has been shown to potentiate LI. The present study investigated the effects of nicotine on LI in human subjects, and also attempted to replicate the abolition of LI by amphetamine. Nicotine failed to affect LI when administered either subcutaneously or by cigarette smoking. LI was, however, abolished in a group of subjects given 5 mg amphetamine 90 min before testing. Supplementary analyses of the data pooled from all three experiments showed that, in contrast to an earlier report, LI was no weaker in smokers than in non-smokers.

Reliability of smooth pursuit, fixation, and saccadic eye movements.

The present study investigated the reliability and susceptibility to practice effects of oculomotor tasks. Smooth pursuit, fixation, antisaccade, and prosaccade tasks were administered to 31 healthy participants to assess internal consistency (Cronbachs alpha) and within-session practice effects. Twenty-one of these participants were retested after an average interval of 57.86 days to assess temporal stability and between-session practice effects. Internal consistencies were high for most measures, with few within-session performance changes. Test-retest reliabilities of most measures were good. Between-session practice effects were most consistently observed on the antisaccade task, indicated by reduced error rate and improved spatial accuracy at retest. Magnitude of improvement on these measures was related to performance, indicating that poor performers benefited most from repeated assessment. These findings support the trait nature of oculomotor function and point to the need to take into consideration between-session practice effects on the antisaccade task in longitudinal studies.