Age-related learning deficits are often attributed to deterioration of hippocampal function. Conversely, a well studied index of hippocampal activity, the rhythm, is known to enhance hippocampal plasticity and accelerate learning rate in young subjects, suggesting that manipulations of activity might be used as a means to counteract impairments related to the aging process. Here, young and olde...

The information generated by one person during volitional study (a sequence of study episodes of their own choosing) is presented to a following participant during “yoked” study blocks. By fixing the order and timing of study opportunities, comparing volitional and yoked encoding measures the effect of making decisions about how to study on memory perormance. Enhancements in memory for “volitio...

Spinally transected rats given leg shock whenever one hindlimb is extended learn to maintain the leg in a flexed position, which minimizes net shock exposure. Yoked rats, that receive an equal amount of shock independent of leg position (noncontingent shock), do not exhibit an increase in flexion duration. Yoked rats also fail to learn when response contingent shock is applied to the previously...

Emotionally abused women experience negative psychological outcomes long after the abusive spousal relationship has ended. This study compares forgiveness therapy (FT) with an alternative treatment (AT; anger validation, assertiveness, interpersonal skill building) for emotionally abused women who had been permanently separated for 2 or more years (M = 5.00 years, SD = 2.61; n = 10 per group). ...

Previous studies have suggested that learning is improved when people actively intervene rather than when they passively observe in causal structure learning tasks. Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether a facilitative effect will occur in the judgment of causal strength. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to learn causal strength in a situation where the target cause and c...