PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B A Christiansen

Publications and source records attributed to B A Christiansen.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Expectancy for social facilitation from drinking: the divergent paths of high-expectancy and low-expectancy adolescents.

Using a 3-wave longitudinal design, adolescents were studied over a 2-year period during which many first began to drink. Covariance structure modeling showed that teens' expectancy for social facilitation from alcohol and their drinking experience influenced each other in a reciprocal, positive feedback fashion: the greater the expectancy endorsement, the higher subsequent drinking levels, and the higher the drinking levels, the greater the subsequent expectancy endorsement. This model fit the data quite well; comparison models, in which expectancy (or drinking) had no independent influence on future drinking (or expectancy), showed significantly poorer fit than the present model. Initial nondrinkers' social expectancy predicted individual differences in the rate of drinking increase over the 2 years. Results bolster the hypothesis that expectancy actively influences drinking and point to the importance of expectancy-based intervention efforts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Latent inhibition of the rat eyeblink response: effect of hippocampal aspiration lesions.

The effect of hippocampal aspiration lesions on latent inhibition of eyeblink conditioning in the restrained rat preparation was examined. Rats received either sham, cortical control, or hippocampal aspiration lesions. Control animals, but not animals with hippocampal lesions, showed slower conditioning after being preexposed to the conditioned stimulus (latent inhibition). Together with previous results regarding the effect of hippocampal lesions in acquisition and extinction of delay conditioning, the present study suggests that the restrained rat preparation may serve as a reliable way of investigating hippocampal participation in different classical conditioning paradigms.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Hippocampectomy disrupts the topography of the rat eyeblink response during acquisition and extinction of classical conditioning.

The effect of hippocampal lesions on acquisition and extinction of eyeblink conditioning in rats was examined with the procedure described by Schmajuk and Christiansen (Physiol. Behav., 48 (1990) 755-758). Male Long-Evans rats received either sham, cortical control or hippocampal lesions. Animals were trained in a delay conditioning paradigm with a 500-ms, 98-dB, white noise conditioned stimulus; a 150-ms, 5-psi air puff unconditioned stimulus; a 350-ms interstimulus interval; and a 60-s average intertrial interval. Each animal received 50 trials daily until it reached a criterion of 80% conditioned responses (CR) on a given day. After acquisition criterion was reached, extinction began the next day and continued until each animal achieved a criterion of one CR in a block of 10 consecutive trials. Although hippocampal lesions affected neither acquisition nor extinction rates, hippocampal lesioned animals showed significantly shorter CR onset latency during acquisition and extinction, and larger CR peak amplitude during acquisition. The results are discussed in terms of hippocampal modulation of cerebellar learning.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Alcoholism and memory: broadening the scope of alcohol-expectancy research.

Current biopsychosocial research on the etiology of alcoholism has begun to focus on memory processes as a possible common pathway for drinking decisions. The alcohol-expectancy construct is rooted both in cognitive psychology and alcohol research and can serve as a vehicle for this study. Reexamination of one recent review of issues in alcohol-expectancy research provides an opportunity to broaden the scope of this research with theoretical and methodological alternatives to those suggested in that review. Most importantly, this article shows that expectancy findings, discussed by Leigh (1989a) as reflecting "psychometric" limitations, are instead quite consistent with recent network models of memory structure. Such models can provide an informative guide to future research activities. It is also recommended that alcohol-expectancy research remain open to inputs from expectancy theories already developed in several psychological domains, as well as to theories of social cognition and attitude structure in addition to those advanced by Leigh.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1990

Eyeblink conditioning in rats.

Acquisition of eyeblink conditioned responses to a tone was studied in restrained male albino rats. Animals were placed in a modified restraining cage with their heads immobilized by surgically implanting a small bolt at the top of the skull and fastening it to the cage. Eyeblink responses were measured by a phototransistor which detected changes in the level of light reflected by eyelid closure. The conditioned stimulus was a 2,000-Hz, 90-dB, 500-ms tone; the unconditioned stimulus was a 4-psi, 150-ms air puff directed at the cornea; and the interstimulus interval was 350 ms, with a 60-s intertrial interval. Animals received 50 trials daily. All conditioned animals reached a criterion of 80% conditioned responses by Day 10. Pseudoconditioned control animals showed few conditioned responses by Day 10. The topography of the conditioned responses was comparable to those responses found with the nicitating membrane response in the rabbit. The data suggest that eyeblink conditioning in the rat can be used as a preparation to examine the attributes of classical conditioning as well as the neuroanatomical basis of associative learning.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Using alcohol expectancies to predict adolescent drinking behavior after one year.

An accumulating literature has shown the influence of childhood experiences associated with alcohol use on later drinking practices. Recent studies have suggested that alcohol-related expectancy may serve as an intervening variable to connect these early experiences with the later, proximal decision to drink when opportunities for actual alcohol consumption arise. Those studies, however, have collected expectancy and drinking data concurrently, whereas the present study for the first time reports on the power of expectancies measured in early adolescents (seventh and eighth grades) to predict self-reported drinking onset and drinking behavior measured a full year later. Results show that five of seven expectancy scores readily discriminated between nonproblem drinkers and those subsequently beginning problem drinking and accounted for a large portion of the variance in a continuous quantity/frequency index and a problem drinking index. The strength of these timelagged relations strengthens the case for inferring that expectancies have causal power on drinking behavior and suggests prevention strategies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire: an instrument for the assessment of adolescent and adult alcohol expectancies.

Alcohol-related expectancies can influence the behavioral effects of alcohol and decisions regarding alcohol use. A standard measure of expectancies is needed for research and clinical work in the alcohol arena; the development and current status of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ) is summarized. The adolescent and adult forms of this instrument are designed to measure the degree to which individuals expect alcohol to produce a variety of general and specific effects. Research with the AEQ indicates a consistent relationship between alcohol expectancies and alcohol consumption, alcohol abuse and behavior while drinking. Data bearing on the psychometric properties and clinical and research utility of the AEQ are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Cross-cultural comparisons of Irish and American adolescent drinking practices and beliefs.

The drinking behavior and alcohol expectancies of 168 Irish adolescents aged 15-18 were compared with those of a group of American adolescents matched on age and sex. The Irish adolescents reported less frequent social drinking and less problematic drinking. However, unlike American adolescents, those Irish youth who did drink in a social, frequent manner also reported drinking-related problems Irish adolescents expect less social benefit, less improvement of cognitive and motor functioning and less sexual enhancement, but greater increase in aggression as a consequence of drinking. These findings are discussed as possible etiological clues to established differences between Irish adult drinking and drinking by adults in other countries.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1985

The differential development of adolescent alcohol expectancies may predict adult alcoholism.

To investigate changes in adolescent's alcohol expectancies as a function of increasing age and drinking experience, we compared the degree to which 12-14, 15-16, and 17-19 year old adolescents from normal seventh to twelfth grade classrooms (N = 1580) affirmed items comprising seven alcohol-expectancy scales. Results showed that adolescents increasingly believe alcohol improves social behavior, increases arousal, and decreases tension as they age. In contrast, the belief that alcohol improves cognitive and motor functioning increased and then decreased in a general adolescent sample, but remained high in problem drinking adolescents. The subsequent discovery of this same factor in 305 hospitalized alcoholics suggests that strong affirmation of this expectancy in late adolescence may have prognostic, and perhaps etiologic significance for the development of alcoholism.

Adolescent↗