R. J. Senter

Increased preference for ethanol in rats following alcohol deprivation

Depriving rats of alcohol, following a prolonged period of access to the solution, produced a much higher alcohol preference than did continual access. This “alcohol deprivation effect” is seen as possibly demonstrating a “need” for alcohol.

Electrodermal responses in the sociopath

Sociopathic Ss were compared to a non-sociopathic control group with respect to base level and magnitude and frequency of elicited and emitted GSRs. The sociopathic Ss’ GSR patterns did not differ significantly from controls on the measures of base level and elicited GSR. The sociopaths’ rate of spontaneous GSR emission was not significantly altered by the introduction of shock anticipation and was significantly lower than controls under the same shock threat stress condition.

Self-maintenance of intoxication in the rat: A modified replication

Variable interval schedules of food reinforcement were found to produce excessive drinking of both EtOH solution and Sucaryl. The polydipsia during training did not increase subsequent preferences for the solutions. It is concluded that excessive drinking of alcohol associated with such treatment is not analogous to alcoholic habituation.

An Investigation of “Bizarre” Imagery as a Mnemonic Device

The present study was designed to examine the role of bizarre mental imagery as a mnemonic device in the learning of 2 serial verbal lists. This was accomplished through the use of various instruction conditions, i.e., free learning (FL), paired-associate learning (PA), and mnemonic techniques (MN). In addition, number of stimulus lists and type of material to be learned were investigated. The instructions and test materials were presented in printed form to a group of 179 introductory psychology students. The results indicated that the mnemonic instruction condition facilitated performance when compared with the other conditions. No significant effects were found for number of stimulus lists or type of material. Support for the use of bizarre mental imagery in mnemonic systems for the learning of serial verbal lists is presented.

An experimental study of a mnemonic system

The learning of a 20 item CVC list by serial anticipation of Ss receiving a 30 min training session in a commercial mnemonic technique known as the “hook” or “peg” system was compared with the performance of untrained Ss. Trained Ss performed significantly better, with respect to number of correct anticipations, than did untrained Ss receiving the same trigrams. Trained Ss who learned high (100%) association trigrams exhibited a distortion of the classical serial position effect.

Ethanol ingestion as an operant response

Data are reported for laboratory rats required to ingest a 7% EtOH solution to avoid shock, attain food, or for no primary reinforcement. When alcohol ingestion was coupled with shock avoidance or no reinforcer, no increase in ad lib alcohol consumption resulted. The use of ethanol ingestion as a food producing operant, however, yielded a significant but temporary increase in voluntary EtOH consumption subsequent to the conditioning procedure. The use of a positive reinforcing agent as an inducement toward voluntary EtOH consumption in the rat is suggested as possibly being superior to the more traditional stress avoidance techniques.

Induced alcohol consumption through positive reinforcement

Fourteen male, hooded, 90–110 day old rats were conditioned to ingest either a 7% EtOH solution or a Sucaryl solution to gain access to a strong positive incentive environment. The tendency to select the correct solution in preference to water resisted extinction for 42 days of nonreinforcement. The group conditioned to drink EtOH consumed significantly greater quantities of their test solution during extinction than did their Sucaryl counterparts.

Alcohol consumption in domestic and wild rats

A group of domestic rats and a group of wild pack rats were exposed to food and a 20% alcohol solution continuously for 20 weeks. Subsequently, both groups were exposed to food, alcohol solution, and water for nine weeks. No major changes in alcohol consumption rates occurred in either group within either of the two periods. Alcohol consumption decreased for both groups when the choice situation (alcohol vs water) was instituted. This decrease was more pronounced for domestic rats than for wild rats. The results are discussed in terms of potential physiological or other pre-experimental factors affecting alcohol consumption rate.

Learning time with a mnemonic system

Subjects trained in the use of a commercial mnemonic technique (“hook” or “peg” system) and Ss trained by a traditional rote procedure were tested on the total time required to leant a list of 20 concrete nouns. Mnemonically trained Ss learned the list in significantly less time than did rote-control Ss. Results do not support the “total time” hypothesis.

An Experimental Investigation of a Mnemonic System in Recall

The present study was an attempt to test the effectiveness of using a mnemonic system in the learning of several serial verbal lists. Examination of the results indicated that: (a) groups given instructions in use of a mnemonic system performed at a level superior to that of groups having equivalent rote practice using their own methods, (b) the uninstructed group exhibited a well-defined classical serial position effect, whereas the mnemonics groups exhibited a reduction or distortion of the effect, (c) groups having printed peg lists available during training and testing performed no better than those groups which did not have the printed pegs available, and (d) the mnemonics groups performed at a superior level when the lists were of homogeneous content while the untrained groups performed at a superior level when the list contained random words, indicating a single hook might be used to learn several lists if the lists can be easily discriminated. The findings suggest that a mnemonic system might act as a type of coding procedure.