scholarly journals Retrieval-extinction within the memory reconsolidation window does not influence appetitive choice

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akram Bakkour ◽  
Tom Schonberg ◽  
Ashleigh Hover ◽  
Russell Poldrack

Influencing choice behavior is key to achieving behavioral change. Traditional means to influence choice behavior rely on effortful self control, which is known to be fragile under several circumstances, rendering these methods ineffectual in maintaining any change in behavior over time. Behavioral maintenance efforts are likely more effective over the long term if they target more automatic processes such as attention or memory. Memories are not set in stone and are vulnerable to change and updating under certain circumstances when retrieved. It is possible to target specific memories for updating. In two studies, we sought to update the memory for an appetitive choice by way of reversal learning following retrieval of the targeted choice behavior. We found that targeting memories of a choice behavior for updating shortly after a reminder did not significantly attenuate the renewal of the targeted choice under extinction conditions. Possible explanations and suggested future directions are discussed.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akram Bakkour ◽  
Rotem Botvinik-Nezer ◽  
Neta Cohen ◽  
Ashleigh M. Hover ◽  
Russell A. Poldrack ◽  
...  

AbstractThe maintenance of behavioral change over the long term is essential to achieve public health goals such as combatting obesity and drug use. Previous work by our group has demonstrated a reliable shift in preferences for appetitive foods following a novel non-reinforced training paradigm. In the current studies, we tested whether distributing training trials over two consecutive days would affect preferences immediately after training as well as over time at a one-month follow-up. In four studies, three different designs and an additional pre-registered replication of one sample, we found that spacing of cue-approach training induced a shift in food choice preferences over one month. The spacing and massing schedule employed governed the long-term changes in choice behavior. Applying spacing strategies to training paradigms that target automatic processes could prove a useful tool for the long-term maintenance of health improvement goals with the development of real-world behavioral change paradigms that incorporate distributed practice principles.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 607-613
Author(s):  
Kathleen B. McDermott ◽  
Christopher L. Zerr

Most research on long-term memory uses an experimental approach whereby participants are assigned to different conditions, and condition means are the measures of interest. This approach has demonstrated repeatedly that conditions that slow the rate of learning tend to improve later retention. A neglected question is whether aggregate findings at the level of the group (i.e., slower learning tends to improve retention) translate to the level of individual people. We identify a discrepancy whereby—across people—slower learning tends to coincide with poorer memory. The positive relation between learning rate (speed of learning) and retention (amount remembered after a delay) across people is referred to as learning efficiency. A more efficient learner can acquire information faster and remember more of it over time. We discuss potential characteristics of efficient learners and consider future directions for research.


Author(s):  
Michelle Baddeley

Often our everyday decisions unfold over time and what we want today is not always consistent with what we might want tomorrow. Understanding why many people do not behave in a way that is consistent with their own long-term best interests is a key challenge for behavioural economists and policy-makers. ‘Taking time’ explains how humans (and animals) suffer from present bias: we have a disproportionate preference for smaller, immediate rewards over delayed, larger rewards—a reflection of underlying time inconsistency. It considers the intertemporal tussle between our patient and impatient selves, pre-commitment strategies, and self-control. The behavioural life cycle models of choice bracketing, framing, and mental accounting are also discussed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rotem Botvinik-Nezer ◽  
Tom Salomon ◽  
Tom Schonberg

AbstractBehavioral change studies and interventions focus on self-control and external reinforcements as means to influence preferences. Cue-approach training (CAT) has been shown to induce preference changes lasting months following a mere association of items with a neutral cue and a speeded response, without external reinforcements. We utilized this paradigm to study preference representation and modification in the brain without external reinforcements. We scanned 36 participants with fMRI during a novel passive viewing task before, after and 30 days following CAT. We pre-registered the predictions that activity in regions related to memory, top-down attention and value processing underlie behavioral change. We found that bottom-up neural mechanisms, involving visual processing regions, were associated with immediate behavioral change, while reduced top-down parietal activity and enhanced hippocampal activity were related to the long-term change. Enhanced activity in value-related regions was found both immediately and in the long-term. Our findings suggest a novel neural mechanism of preference representation and modification. We suggest that non-reinforced change occurs initially in perceptual representation of items, which putatively lead to long-term changes in memory and top-down processes. These findings could lead to implementation of bottom-up instead of top-down targeted interventions to accomplish long-lasting behavioral change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 858-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rotem Botvinik-Nezer ◽  
Tom Salomon ◽  
Tom Schonberg

Abstract Behavioral change studies and interventions focus on self-control and external reinforcements to influence preferences. Cue-approach training (CAT) has been shown to induce preference changes lasting months by merely associating items with neutral cues and speeded responses. We utilized this paradigm to study neural representation of preferences and their modification without external reinforcements. We scanned 36 participants with fMRI during a novel passive viewing task before, after and 30 days following CAT. We preregistered the predictions that activity in memory, top-down attention, and value-processing regions will underlie preference modification. While most theories associate preferences with prefrontal regions, we found that “bottom-up” perceptual mechanisms were associated with immediate change, whereas reduced “top-down” parietal activity was related to long-term change. Activity in value-related prefrontal regions was enhanced immediately after CAT for trained items and 1 month after for all items. Our findings suggest a novel neural mechanism of preference representation and modification. We suggest that nonreinforced change of preferences occurs initially in perceptual representation of items, putatively leading to long-term changes in “top-down” processes. These findings offer implementation of bottom-up instead of top-down targeted interventions for long-lasting behavioral change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 499-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshihisa Kashima ◽  
Paul G. Bain ◽  
Amy Perfors

The psychology of cultural dynamics is the psychological investigation of the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture over time. This article maps out the terrain, reviews the existing literature, and points out potential future directions of this research. It is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on micro-cultural dynamics, which refers to the social and psychological processes that contribute to the dissemination and retention of cultural information. The second part, on micro–macro dynamics, investigates how micro-level processes give rise to macro-cultural dynamics. The third part focuses on macro-cultural dynamics, referring to the distribution and long-term trends involving cultural information in a population, which in turn enable and constrain the micro-level processes. We conclude the review with a consideration of future directions, suggesting behavior change research as translational research on cultural dynamics.


2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1149-1169 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. T. Lumpkin ◽  
Keith H. Brigham

A long–term orientation (LTO) is often associated with family firms, but the LTO construct is underdeveloped. This paper sets forth a framework for studying LTO in family firms including developing three dimensions—futurity, continuity, and perseverance. It identifies LTO as a higher–order heuristic that, in matters of intertemporal choice, provides a dominant logic for decisions and actions. Intertemporal choice refers to decisions with payoffs or outcomes that play out over time. Three mechanisms affecting intertemporal choices are identified—representation, self–control, and anticipation. LTO and intertemporal choice are further examined and discussed in the context of family firms.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn M. Werner ◽  
Brett Quaid Ford

Research on self-control has flourished within the last two decades, with researchers trying to answer one of the most fundamental questions regarding human behaviour – how do we successfully regulate desires in the pursuit of long-term goals? While recent research has focused on different strategies to enhance self-control success, we still know very little about how strategies are implemented or where the need for self-control comes from in the first place. Drawing from parallel fields (e.g., emotion regulation, health) and other theories of self-regulation, we propose a framework that describes self-control as a dynamic, multi-stage process that unfolds over time. In this review, we first provide an overview of this framework, which poses three stages of regulation: the identification of the need for self-control, the selection of strategies to regulate temptations, and the implementation of chosen strategies. These regulatory stages are then flexibly monitored over time. We then propose a series of questions to organize existing literature by highlighting what we already know, what we need to learn, and methodological recommendations for future research. Finally, we conclude by highlighting the need to bridge across disciplines, thereby improving our understanding of how self-control unfolds in everyday life and across different domains.


1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Magnusson

A description of two cases from my time as a school psychologist in the middle of the 1950s forms the background to the following question: Has anything important happened since then in psychological research to help us to a better understanding of how and why individuals think, feel, act, and react as they do in real life and how they develop over time? The studies serve as a background for some general propositions about the nature of the phenomena that concerns us in developmental research, for a summary description of the developments in psychological research over the last 40 years as I see them, and for some suggestions about future directions.


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