Matching Items (7)
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- All Subjects: Learning
- Creators: Neisewander, Janet
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Many behaviors are organized into bouts – brief periods of responding punctuated by pauses. This dissertation examines the operant bouts of the lever pressing rat. Chapter 1 provides a brief history of operant response bout analyses. Chapters 2, 3, 5, and 6 develop new probabilistic models to identify changes in response bout parameters. The parameters of those models are demonstrated to be uniquely sensitive to different experimental manipulations, such as food deprivation (Chapters 2 and 4), response requirements (Chapters 2, 4, and 5), and reinforcer availability (Chapters 2 and 3). Chapter 6 reveals the response bout parameters that underlie the operant hyperactivity of a common rodent model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). Chapter 6 then ameliorates the SHR’s operant hyperactivity using training procedures developed from findings in Chapters 2 and 4. Collectively, this dissertation provides new tools for the assessment of response bouts and demonstrates their utility for discerning differences between experimental preparations and animal strains that may be otherwise indistinguishable with more primitive methods.
ContributorsBrackney, Ryan J (Author) / Sanabria, Federico (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Brian H. (Thesis advisor) / Neisewander, Janet (Committee member) / Killeen, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The current study investigated the task of coloring static images with multimedia learning to determine the impact on retention and transfer scores. After watching a multimedia video on the formation of lightning participants were assigned to either a passive, active, or constructive condition based on the ICAP Framework. Participants colored static images on key concepts from the video, passive condition observed the images, active condition colored the images by applying the concepts, and the constructive condition colored the images by generating new ideas and concepts. The study did not support the hypothesis that the constructive condition would have increased retention and transfer scores over the active and passive conditions. The mental effort measures did not show significance among groups in relation to learning but perception measures did show an increase in participants enjoyment and engagement. Since the coloring craze has become more accepted for adults then could coloring be a way to increase participants learning through engagement.
ContributorsWilliams, Jennifer S (Author) / Craig, Scotty D. (Thesis advisor) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Branaghan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Nicotine use is an outstanding public health problem with associated social and economic consequences. Nicotine is an active alkaloid compound in tobacco and is recognized as a psychoactive drug. Preclinically, nicotine addiction and relapse can be modeled using a self-administration-reinstatement paradigm. Here, we used a nicotine self-administration and contingent cue-induced reinstatement model to examine rapid, transient synaptic plasticity (t-SP) induced by nicotine cue-triggered motivation. Although preliminary, treatment with the NMDA GluN2B subunit antagonist, ifenprodil, reduced reinstated nicotine seeking, and increased the percentage of spines with smaller head diameters. Thus, future studies are needed to fully parse out the role of NAcore GluN2B receptors in cued nicotine seeking and t-SP.
ContributorsMccallum, Joseph John (Author) / Gipson-Reichardt, Cassandra (Thesis director) / Neisewander, Janet (Committee member) / Olive, Michael Foster (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Animals must learn to ignore stimuli that are irrelevant to survival, which is a process referred to as ‘latent inhibition’. This process has been shown to be genetically heritable (Latshaw JS, Mazade R, Sinakevitch I, Mustard JA, Gadau J, Smith BH (submitted)). The locus containing the AmTYR1 gene has been shown through quantitative trait loci mapping to be linked to strong latent inhibition in honey bees. The Smith lab has been able to show a correlation between learning and the AmTYR1 receptor gene through pharmacological inhibition of the receptor. In order to further confirm this finding, experiments were designed to test how honey bees learn with this receptor knocked out. Here this G-protein coupled receptor for the biogenic amine tyramine is implemented as an important factor underlying latent inhibition in honey bees. It is shown that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and Dicer-substrate small interfering RNA (dsiRNA) that are targeted to disrupt the tyramine receptors specifically affects latent inhibition but not excitatory associative conditioning. The results therefore identify a distinct reinforcement pathway for latent inhibition in insects.
ContributorsPetersen, Mary Margaret (Author) / Smith, Brian H. (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Ying (Committee member) / Neisewander, Janet (Committee member) / Sinakavich, Irina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Sensory gating is a process by which the nervous system preferentially admits stimuli that are important for the organism while filtering out those that may be meaningless. An optimal sensory gate cannot be static or inflexible, but rather plastic and informed by past experiences. Learning enables sensory gates to recognize stimuli that are emotionally salient and potentially predictive of positive or negative outcomes essential to survival. Olfaction is the only sensory modality in mammals where sensory inputs bypass conventional thalamic gating before entering higher emotional or cognitive brain regions. Thus, olfactory bulb circuits may have a heavier burden of sensory gating compared to other primary sensory circuits. How do the primary synapses in an olfactory system "learn"' in order to optimally gate or filter sensory stimuli? I hypothesize that centrifugal neuromodulator serotonin serves as a signaling mechanism by which primary olfactory circuits can experience learning informed sensory gating. To test my hypothesis, I conditioned genetically-modified mice using reward or fear olfactory-cued learning paradigms and used pharmacological, electrophysiological, immunohistochemical, and optical imaging approaches to assay changes in serotonin signaling or functional changes in primary olfactory circuits. My results indicate serotonin is a key mediator in the acquisition of olfactory fear memories through the activation of its type 2A receptors in the olfactory bulb. Functionally within the first synaptic relay of olfactory glomeruli, serotonin type 2A receptor activation decreases excitatory glutamatergic drive of olfactory sensory neurons through both presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms. I propose that serotonergic signaling decreases excitatory drive, thereby disconnecting olfactory sensory neurons from odor responses once information is learned and its behavioral significance is consolidated. I found that learning induced chronic changes in the density of serotonin fibers and receptors, which persisted in glomeruli encoding the conditioning odor. Such persistent changes could represent a sensory gate stabilized by memory. I hypothesize this ensures that the glomerulus encoding meaningful odors are much more sensitive to future serotonin signaling as such arousal cues arrive from centrifugal pathways originating in the dorsal raphe nucleus. The results advocate that a simple associative memory trace can be formed at primary sensory synapses to facilitate optimal sensory gating in mammalian olfaction.
ContributorsLi, Monica (Author) / Tyler, William J (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Brian H. (Thesis advisor) / Duch, Carsten (Committee member) / Neisewander, Janet (Committee member) / Vu, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The relationship between user experience, learning, and psychology is complex. There are many rules and concepts that guide experience design. It is likely that some of the guidance is valid whereas other guidance is not. This explores some of that guidance and evaluates how they are linked to learning. Do the guidance’s made 25, 50, 100 years ago still hold true today? Additionally, the psychological background behind the way someone holds memory is important. Knowing how information is stored and processed helps educators provide the best learning experience possible. With an eye toward perception and cognition, this paper examines the relevance of the various pieces of guidance. The results suggest that, overall, this guidance is still valid and valuable to current learning trends and designs. This suggests that user experience designers for education need to pay attention to the guidance provided by psychology when designing learning management systems, placing content in a course, and choosing which aesthetics to follow.
ContributorsLapujade, Lily Ann (Author) / Branaghan, Russell (Thesis director) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Human Systems Engineering (Contributor, Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The relationship between video games and education is something that has been studied extensively in academia. Based upon these studies a new concept was created, gamification. Gamification is the next step in video game research to analyze why video games enhance learning. The interest and research into this concept have developed so much so that it has become its own topic area for research. This study is looking to analyze the effect that gamification has on not only learning, but also self-efficacy. Through a choose your own adventure game, the knowledge and self-efficacy of participants will be examined to observe the differences when learning difficult engineering concepts with and without gamification. It is expected that participants that experienced training through gamification will demonstrate deeper learning and higher self-efficacy than trained through a video. Furthermore, it is anticipated that some video trained participants’ self-efficacy will increase; however, their comprehension will be less than participants trained through gamification. The results of this study can help promote the interest in researching gamification and education, while influencing educators to corporate gamification elements when designing their courses. Moreover, this study continued through adaptation and integration into a statics forces class, investigated if the same results can be found within a classroom setting.
ContributorsKanechika, Amber (Author) / Craig, Scotty (Thesis director) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05