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Results for “Choice Behavior”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1975

Psychosexual and cultural determinants of fertility choice behavior.

Although traditional societies in Oceania direct their fertility choice behavior (if any) toward spirits rather than sexual intercourse, closer observation shows that these fertility choice behaviors, while groping and magical, sometimes have empirical value. The author notes that the alternative to effective fertility control in these societies has sometimes been population regulation of the Malthusian variety (e.g., murder and starvation). Efforts aimed at spacing the family in a less savage and more effective manner deserve encouragement, the author believes.

Australia↗
PubMed1976

The influence of moral reasoning on behavioral choices.

This study examined the ways in which exposure to moral reasoning statements affected the subsequent behavioral choices of 144 seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade boys at different stages of moral judgment. The subjects were divided among 4 experimental conditions, each of which attempted to isolate and relate behavioral choice and reasoning in specific ways. The presentation of reasoning had different effects on the behavioral choices of subjects at 2 different stages. The findings were considered in terms of their implications for developmental change as well as for a developmental analysis of the relationship between moral reasoning and moral behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Behavioral choice: neural mechanisms in Pleurobranchaea.

In the marine mollusk Pleurobranchaea, it is known that feeding occurs and withdrawal from tactile stimuli is suppressed when the sensory stimuli for feeding and withdrawal are presented simultaneously. This "dominance" of feeding behavior over withdrawal behavior occurs because the central nervous network controlling feeding inhibits the central nervous network controlling withdrawal. The inhibition is mediated by a bilaterally symmetrical pair of reidentifiable feeding neurons that are members of the "corollary discharge" population in the buccal ganglion. This study supports the hypothesis that inhibitory interactions between competing motor systems are responsible for the "singleness of action" that characterizes animal behavior.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of ethanol self-administration on choice behavior: money vs. socializing.

Volunteer chronic alcoholic subjects were exposed to a discrete-trail choice procedure within a residential research setting. Twelve daily trials occurred at 20 min intervals. In each trial a subject chose between 2 mutually exclusive options involving either receipt of money or the opportunity for socializing. The effect of ethanol self-administration was evaluated by requiring randomly over days that a subject consume either 8 drinks of orange juice or 8 drinks of ethanol (89.12 g ethanol total). For all 4 subjects, the mean rate of choosing socialization over money was significantly greater on sessions involving ethanol self-administration than on sessions involving orange juice self-administration.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Choice behavior in rhesus monkeys: cocaine versus food.

Rhesus monkeys were allowed to choose between intravenous injections of cocaine and food reinforcement for lever pressing. A choice trial was available every 15 minutes continuously for 8 days. The animals chose cocaine almost exclusively, which resulted in high cocaine intake, decreased food intake, weight loss, and marked behavioral toxicity. The study provides evidence of the reinforcing efficacy of cocaine.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Radial maze type as a determinant of the choice behavior of rats.

Spatial memory of rats was examined in two types of radial mazes in which animals had to obtain food from 6-, 8-, or 12-different arms without repeating choices. In Maze 1 with tubular channels closed at the far end rats returned to the central platform by backing out from the just visited alley. In Maze 2 the tubular channels were equipped with one-way doors at both ends and the central platform was raised 5 cm above the floor. Rats leaving the far end of the alley returned to the central platform through a circular hole in its center. Performance was almost perfect in both apparatuses, but rats preferred to enter adjacent alleys in Maze 1 and widely separated alleys in Maze 2. These behaviors were significantly different from computer-simulated random choice from the set of correct solutions of the task. It is concluded that Maze 2 is better suited for repeated experiments with the same animal because the obligatory return to the center of the platform precludes the simplification of the task by response chaining.

Animals↗
PubMed2026

A lipid-sensitive food choice behavior influences aging outcomes from a longevity-promoting diet.

Organisms utilize sophisticated neurocircuitry to select optimal food sources. Methylobacterium is a lifespan-promoting diet for C. elegans that drives faster development and longevity; however, after ingestion, C. elegans consistently choose any other food option available. A screen for genetic regulators of this avoidance behavior toward Methylobacterium identified the AWB/AWC sensory neurons and the odr-1 guanylate cyclase expressed in those four ciliated neurons as mediators of the aversive response. Metabolic profiling of the Methylobacterium diet reveals enrichment for saturated fats, and here, we show that C. elegans sense and integrate signals related to these ingested lipids that subsequently cue food-related behaviors. Moreover, disruption of endogenous lipid metabolism modifies the intensity of the avoidance from Methylobacterium, suggesting the current state of lipid homeostasis influences food preference. Taken together, our work reveals that C. elegans modify food choice contemporaneously based in part on the chemosensory capacity to detect and utilize dietary lipids, which has longevity-promoting consequences.

AWB↗
PubMed1977

Behavior therapy: a promising drug abuse treatment and research approach of choice.

Behavior therapy appears a promising drug abuse treatment and research approach of choice, reporting effective pilot studies utilizing such techniques as token economy, aversive conditioning, relaxation training, contract writing, covert conditioning, and combinative approaches. Behavior therapy appears to merit considerable investment of funds, time, and facilities to design and to execute carefully controlled research studies with systematic follow-up. Behavioral research and treatment is also consistent with presently available diagnostic techniques--the highly structured interview and the Synanon Game--and seems eminently applicable in specific work sites, to problems of staff selection and training, and to patient screening problems.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1977

Binomial assessment of behavioral-phenotypic variations: constancy of choices, trial effects, and social interaction effects in mass-screened color preferences of quail chicks (Coturnix coturnix japonica).

Individual variations in repeated approach choices between colors by quail chicks were efficiently and reliably identified by methods of binary mass screening and binomial assessment. Choices between a pair of identical white stimuli showed only random variations, which indicated that position habit, systematic alternation, and extraneous stimulus factors did not influence performances. Choices between blue and red colors showed significant individual variations, which were free of influences from changes in the probabilities of choices on repeated trials, interdependence between trials, and interdependence between individual performances of mass-screened subjects. Genetic determination of individual variations were shown by strong responses to bidirectional genetic selection of choices between blue and red, which also introduced small social interaction effects in mass-screened performances. Results are discussed in relation to the use of binomial distribution for identifying phenotypic units and variations in choice behaviors.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Ontogeny of cholinergic mediation of behaviors in the rat.

In a series of six experiments, cholinergic mediation of behavior was studied in immature rats. It was found that although scopolamine disrupted discriminative choice behavior in both 15- and 23-day-old rat pups, it increased latency to choice in 15-day-olds and decreased latency to choice in 23-day-olds. This disruption of discriminated choice behavior was not due to differential shock thresholds or differences in locomotor activity between drug-treated and control animals, nor was it specific to a T-maze shock-escape discrimination task. These results suggest that central cholinergic mediation of different behaviors may mature at different rates.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed1979

Effects of difficulty and diagnosticity on choice among tasks in relation to achievement motivation and perceived ability.

The experiment is a partial replication of a study conducted by Trope. It investigates the effects of two person characteristics (achievement motive and perceived own ability) and two task characteristics (difficulty and diagnostic value about own ability) on choice among achievement tasks. In accordance with the results of Trope, it was found that high-diagnostic tasks were preferred to low-diagnostic tasks, independent of their difficulty. Trope's finding that high resultant achievers choose high-diagnostic tasks over low-diagnostic tasks to a greater extent than low resultant achievers was not replicated. However, the perceived degree of own ability affected choice behavior: When easy and difficult tasks were both high in diagnosticity, subjects high in perceived ability preferred difficult over easy tasks, whereas subjects low in perceived ability preferred easy over difficult tasks. From this latter finding it is concluded that a self-informational conception of choice behavior has to include the subjective probability of success at tasks as a determinant of choice, in addition to objective difficulty and diagnostic value.

Achievement↗
PubMed1979

Medically-related absenteeism: random or motivated behavior?

The present study examined alternative measures of absence proneness related to organizationally-defined measures of absenteeism. A typical distinction among various types of absences is to separate medically-related absences from other types, since medically-related absences are believed to reflect random or unsystematic causes of behavior rather than voluntary choice behavior of the employee. The present study defined absence proneness as the degree to which individuals repeat their behavior. Three years of absence data for a sample of employees from one company were examined to discover the degree of absence proneness present in organizationally-defined forms of medically-related and voluntary absenteeism. In addition, a survey was administered to the sample to measure employee perceptions of work and non-work-related factors which were believed to be motivational determinants of absenteeism. A multiple discriminant analysis was developed in an attempt to classify employees to a survey designed to measure motivational determinants of absenteeism. The classification results supported the view that medically-related absenteeism has motivational determinants related to employee work and non-work preferences. Implications for management are discussed.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1977

Interpersonal distance behavior of mentally retarded and nonretarded children.

The investigators compared interpersonal-distance choice behavior of 60 mildly retarded children and 60 nonretarded children of comparable MAs to a male adult stranger. Contrary to the original prediction, stemming from Zigler's negative-reaction tendency formulation, interpersonal distance by retarded children was not generally different from that of nonretarded children. However, analysis of the interaction between IQ group and approach condition (child approaching adult or adult approaching child) indicated that retarded children preferred greater distance from the approaching adult than did nonretarded children. This result raises the possibility that perception of lessened personal control by retarded children stimulated a stronger avoidance reaction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Sensory discriminability comparisons in human and monkey with implications for the study of central nervous correlates.

Psychophysical measurements of sensory discriminability were obtained from rhesus monkeys and humans to suprathreshold electrical cutaneous stimulation by employing a two-choice discrimination task and a signal detection theoretical analysis. Sensory discriminatory capacities were found to be similar for monkeys and humans. Choice-latency data permitted the construction of relative operating characteristic (ROC) functions for both groups. These functions provided similar descriptions of the hypothetical sensory process underlying the discrimination performance of both species. Theoretical predictions were made concerning characteristics of the underlying sensory activity and tested by a joint analysis of behavior and somatosensory evoked potentials obtained from monkeys. Results indicated that the magnitude of an average evoked component with peaks at 40 and 70 msec in one monkey, and 60 and 100 msec in the other, correlated well with behavioral choices and choice latencies. The evidence obtained in these studies was discussed in the context of neural coding of sensation in humans and monkeys.

Animals↗