Grace and McLean (2006) proposed a decision model for acquisition of choice in concurrent chains which assumes that after reinforcement in a terminal link, subjects make a discrimination whether the preceding reinforcer delay was short or long relative to a criterion. Their model was subsequently extended by Christensen and Grace (2008, 2009a,…

(Hulse and Dorsky, 1977) and (Hulse and Dorsky, 1979) found that rats, like humans, learn sequences following a simple rule-based structure more quickly than those lacking a rule-based structure. Through two experiments, we explored whether two additional species--domesticated horses ("Equus callabus") and chickens ("Gallus domesticus")--would…

Although the transcription factor CREB has been widely implicated in memory, whether it is sufficient to produce spatial memory under conditions that do not normally support memory formation in mammals is unknown. We found that locally and acutely increasing CREB levels in the dorsal hippocampus using viral vectors is sufficient to induce robust…

The effectiveness of a fixed-ratio (FR) escalation procedure, developed by Pinkston and Branch (2004) and based on interresponse times (IRTs), was assessed during lever-press acquisition. Forty-nine experimentally naive adult male Long Evans rats were deprived of food for 24 hr prior to an extended acquisition session. Before the start of the…

A current controversy in memory research concerns whether recognition is supported by distinct processes of familiarity and recollection, or instead by a single process wherein familiarity and recollection reflect weak and strong memories, respectively. Recent studies using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses in an animal model have…

Arts integration in science has benefits of increasing student engagement and understanding. Lessons focusing on form and function of animal skulls provide an effective example of how handicrafts integrated with science instruction motivate students and support learning. The study involved students ages 9-12 during a week-long summer day camp.…

The STEM team at the University of Worcester support STEM activities in schools in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Part of this help includes suggesting activities for STEM clubs. As the biologist on the team author, Sue Howarth was asked by teachers for ideas to use in biology clubs. This article was prompted by feedback that these ideas might…

Introduction: The use of horses in therapy has a fairly long history. There are many references to the therapeutic benefits of this activity. Such therapies have been undergoing a boom internationally in recent years. However scientific research into the effective use of this activity in children with autism is still in the early stages of…

Our research examined the use of supplementary materials in six environmental science disciplines: atmospheric sciences, biology, fisheries, forestry, geology, and plant sciences. Ten key journals were selected from each of these disciplines and the number of supplementary materials, such as data files or videos, in each issue was noted over a…

An adjusting-delay procedure was used to study the choices of pigeons and rats when both delay and amount of reinforcement were varied. In different conditions, the choice alternatives included one versus two reinforcers, one versus three reinforcers, and three versus two reinforcers. The delay to one alternative (the standard alternative) was…

A sensitivity to the intentions behind human action is a crucial developmental achievement in infants. Is this intention reading ability a unique and relatively recent product of human evolution and culture, or does this capacity instead have roots in our non-human primate ancestors? Recent work by Call and colleagues (2004) lends credence to the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of instruments defined as artefacts, rules, models or norms, in the articulation between knowing-in-practice and knowledge, in learning processes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on a distributed, knowledge-intensive and instrumented activity at the core of any collective…

In the Gulf of Mexico, the overfished population of red snapper ("Lutjanus campechanus") is a major source of revenue resulting in a dichotomy between maintaining the health of the fishery and meeting the demands of the local economies. In order to govern marine fisheries the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of…

The NMDA receptor partial agonist d-cycloserine (DCS) enhances the extinction of learned fear in rats and exposure therapy in humans with anxiety disorders. Despite these benefits, little is known about the mechanisms by which DCS promotes the loss of fear. The present study examined whether DCS augments extinction retention (1) through reductions…

Five past great mass extinctions have occurred during Earth's history. Humanity is currently in the midst of a sixth, human-induced great mass extinction of plant and animal life (e.g., Alroy 2008; Jackson 2008; Lewis 2006; McDaniel and Borton 2002; Rockstrom et al. 2009; Rohr et al. 2008; Steffen, Crutzen, and McNeill 2007; Thomas et al. 2004;…