Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Individual differences in spelling ability may lead to differential orthographic processing during reading (Andrews & Low, 2013), and may contribute to nonsignificant effects when individual differences are not considered (Andrews & Hersch, 2010). The hypothesis of the current study was to investigate whether such differences in spelling ability may influence phonological processing during silent reading. One hundred and thirty-two participants were given tests of spelling ability and reading comprehension ability. Using a masked priming procedure, participants made lexical decisions on words (e.g. FROG), that is judging whether a letter string is a real word or not, that were briefly preceded by a semantic associate (e.g. TOAD) or a homophone of the associate (e.g. TOWED). These associates acted as primes – related words that would speed processing of the subsequent target word. Overall, not considering individual differences and consistent with prior literature (Lukatela & Turvey, 1994), only the semantic associate primed the target word. However, individual differences analyses indicated that spelling ability differentially influenced priming in this task. Participants with low spelling ability, regardless of reading ability, demonstrated priming from both prime types. Participants with high spelling ability, regardless of reading ability, only demonstrated priming from the semantic associate. Thus, spelling ability not only contributes to differences in orthographic processing, but also to differences in phonologically mediated semantic activation during reading.

Latina adolescents are at increased risk for developing symptoms of psychological distress. They often face higher levels of poverty and lower education levels than other adolescent groups, in addition to experiencing acculturative stressors associated with immigration. Adolescent Latina mothers also experience additional stressors related to parenting at a young age. Social support has been shown to reduce risk for psychological distress; however, there are several factors that influence this relation. In the current study, the association of perceived social support from adolescent mothers’ own mothers and fathers on psychological distress was examined. Familism, a traditional family-centric Latino value, was examined as a potential moderator in the relation between social support and distress, as mothers who endorse more familistic values may take advantage of support provided by grandmothers and grandfathers better than mothers who endorse fewer values.

Preliminary correlations revealed that support from adolescents’ own mothers and fathers was associated with lower distress. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for maternal age, economic strain, and negative life events, mother support was no longer associated with lower distress; father support was still associated with lower distress. Additionally, familism did not moderate the relationship between social support and distress for mother or father support. Findings contribute to body of research on father support, but further research is needed to examine the quality and importance of support providers to determine why there were differences in distress symptoms between those perceiving mother and father support.

We examined serial pattern retention in rats focusing on retention for a single pattern element that violated pattern structure. Violation elements were targeted because they are typically unusually difficult to learn, contrasting with rule-learning in the structured pattern. They are also sensitive to selective manipulation of central neurotransmitter and plasticity systems. Adult male and female rats were trained in a serial multiple choice task to perform nosepoke responses for water in receptacles mounted on the 8 walls of an octagonal chamber. Rats learned to nosepoke in the pattern, 123-234-345-456-567-678-781-818, where digits represent the clockwise position of successive correct receptacles, dashes indicate brief pauses, and the final “violation element” is inconsistent with pattern structure. Rats were trained twice to an 85% correct criterion on the violation element prior to testing after 4-week and 2-week retention intervals, respectively. After each retention interval, rats received a 1-day 10-pattern retention test on the same pattern. Results indicated that rats had approximately 57% retention of the violation element after 2 weeks and 28% retention after 4 weeks. Sex differences were not significant. The results indicate that serial pattern memory, particularly violation element memory, can be assessed by characterizing forgetting curves using traditional methods.

We assessed the effect of a cholinergic challenge on serial pattern extrapolation in rats. Male and female rats learned a rule-based serial pattern of nosepoke responses in receptacles on the walls of an octagonal operant chamber. The training pattern consisted of 7 chunks of a rule-based serial pattern (123-234-345-456-567-678-781). After learning to a criterion of 90% correct responses on all elements of the pattern, rats were given i.p. injections of 0.6 mg/kg scopolamine hydrobromide 30 minutes before testing on a transfer pattern consisting of the training pattern with an added eighth chunk that was either consistent with pattern structure (chunk “812”) or contained a terminal element that violated pattern structure (chunk “818”). Under scopolamine, and even with impaired performance throughout the pattern, rats in both groups extrapolated known pattern structure, producing approximately 60% rule-consistent responses on the terminal element of both added chunks. Despite scopolamine exposure, both male and female rats extrapolated well-learned pattern structure to a new chunk. In the case of the chunk containing the violation element, when confronted with a new trial requiring a response inconsistent with already learned pattern structure, rats attempted to apply the well-learned rule.

Every day, humans face the complex cost-benefit analysis of integrating numerous different incentives to pursue behavioral goals. Impairments in cognitive control (and particularly an abnormal response to motivation) underlie disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and addictions; as such it is important to illustrate how differing motivational cues are processed in healthy humans. Research has made great progress in discovering the behavioral and neural mechanisms that underlie motivation and cognitive control. However, a significant question that remains to be addressed is whether rewards and punishments utilize the same or different neural substrates to yield motivational effects. In the current study, participants performed a cued-task switching paradigm during two fMRI scanning sessions, with liquid incentives serving as either a reward for desirable performance or a punishment for failure to complete the task quickly and accurately. Reward and punishment incentives resulted in comparable behavioral task performance. Upon contrasting reward and punishment, our analysis revealed several regions of interest that appear to be distinct between the conditions. This analysis utilized data quality checks, a standard preprocessing analysis, and GLM contrasts to illuminate these neural substrates of reward vs. punishment motivation. Results suggesting the utilization of different neural substrates between reward and punishment conditions give reason to apply the more sensitive Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis approach to further clarify and support these findings in the future.