After multiple pairings of a cue and a rewarding event, animals will begin to attend to both the reward and the cue. Reports from Brown and Jenkins (1968) first described pigeons that began to track key lights predictive of food reward. Subsequently the phenomenon of conditioned cue approach has been reported across a variety of species including pigeons, quail, rats, monkeys, and stickleback fish (Brown and Jenkins, 1968; Cetinkaya and Domjan, 2006; Holland, 1977; Jenkins and Rowland, 1996; Sidman and Fletcher, 1968). More recently, investigations of individual differences in the expression of these behaviors have begun, as well as exploration into how these differences relate to other cognitive and neurological variations (Lesaint et al., 2014; Lovic et al., 2011; Meyer et al., 2012; Paolone et al., 2013). The objective of this dissertation was to characterize individual differences in rats’ propensity for orienting towards a light-cue predictive of reward. I also aimed to describe how these differences related to the behavior’s vulnerability to memory updating, extinction learning, a variety of cognitive functions, and behavioral and neurological responses to drug challenge. I report that all rats showed conditioned approach toward the site of food-reward delivery, but only a subset also showed robust rearing and/or orienting toward a light predictive of food (Orienters). Those rats that showed only conditioned reward approach were termed Nonorienters. Following memory update procedures, Orienters were more likely than Nonorienters to attenuate conditioned food approach, though conditioned rearing remains unaffected. Orienters were also more likely to make impulsive and risky decisions, enter a novel and risky environment, and be distracted during an attention assay. They also emitted more ultrasonic vocalizations than Nonorienters when exposed to amphetamine. Moreover, while both Orienters and Nonorienters preferred a context previously paired with drug to a context paired with saline, Orienters emitted more ultrasonic vocalizations during the preference test. Finally, while Orienters and Nonorienters showed behavioral differences after amphetamine injection, these differences were not reflected in the activity of the brain regions responsible for the conditioned orienting response. Overall, these findings suggest that Orienters are more apt to memory update, make more impulsive and risky decisions, are more vulnerable to distraction, and that amphetamine has more impact upon the behavior of Orienters. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-215).

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Successful adaptation to changes is of great importance to today’s workforce and for organizations. Built on the I-ADAPT theory (Ployhart & Bliese, 2006), this dissertation research explored the relationships among ability and personality factors, adaptability, and adaptive performance. Using a relatively simple skill acquisition task, the noun-pair lookup task, this research examined whether those relationships would be affected by the skill acquisition stages at which a change is introduced. As such, unexpected changes were introduced at different performance stages of the noun-pair lookup task. In one condition, participants experienced an unexpected change to the varied mapping (VM) version of the noun-pair lookup task at early stages of consistent mapping (CM) task learning. In the other condition, the change from the CM task to the VM task was introduced at late stages of the CM task learning. Two hundred and twenty five participants completed the noun-pair lookup task in one of two conditions. They also completed measures of two Big Five factors (openness to experience at the construct level and conscientiousness at the facet level), the I-ADAPT-M measure of adaptability, and tests of working memory capacity and perceptual speed. It was found that the timing of introducing a change did matter. Controlling for pre-change performance, participants had greater performance decrements when the change was introduced at late stages of the CM task practice than when it was introduced at early stages of the CM task practice. Ability factors and personality traits were found to be predictive of strategy choice in the CM task. There was no evidence of the moderating effect of the performance stage at which a change was introduced on the relationship between ability factors and adaptive performance. The mediation effect of adaptability on the relationship between ability and personality factors and adaptive performance was not supported. Adaptability as measured by I-ADAPT-M was also correlated with personality traits but not with ability factors or performance on the noun-pair lookup task. In conclusion, this dissertation showed the importance of making a clear distinction between adaptability and adaptive performance, and taking into consideration skill acquisition stages in task-related adaptive performance.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Psychology. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Keith Hutchison. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-39).