Early life stress has shown to be related to an increased preference for smaller, more quickly acquired rewards over larger, delayed rewards—or an inability to delay gratification—a fundamental component of impulsivity. Beyond this, impulsivity is also characterized by difficulty concentrating and exercising self-control and has been found to significantly impact learning and memory. Specifically, in children, higher impulsivity is associated with greater learning difficulties, such as with reading. Previous research has also shown that adults with higher levels of inflammation portray higher impulsivity. The current study aims to investigate the relationship between impulsivity, inflammation, and childhood environmental conditions within children between the ages of 3-17. Saliva samples were collected from 248 children visiting the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in order to measure current levels of proinflammatory cytokines, which indicate immune activation. Children then participated in a series of tasks that measured their ability to concentrate, learn to inhibit their responses, and delay gratification, while background and demographic information was collected from their parents. Results will reveal whether children growing up in stressful environments also have higher levels of inflammation and impulsivity.

Attitude Representation Theory (Lord & Lepper, 1999) asserts that individuals evaluate attitudes based on a subset of associations. As this subset of associations varies, attitudes can vary as well. Previous research demonstrated that people can mistake self-generated information for provided information, through source monitoring errors (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993), after extrapolating beyond the information given (Lu, 2015). We sought to apply ART and cognitive tasks (e.g., extrapolation, embellishment, and validity) by having participants judge the actions of fictitious groups. Although these groups are fictitious, they allude to current political viewpoints. We tested the effects of extrapolation (thinking about additional attributes of a target group; Experiment 1), embellishment (convincing a friend not to join the target group; Experiment 2), and biased assimilation (testing truth and validity of sources; Experiment 3) on polarization of moral judgments. Compared to a control group, embellishment polarized negative attitudes toward the group. The current set of studies could shed some insight about how people view issues, self-radicalize judgments, and understand thoughts of lone-wolf terrorists.

There are many benefits for children to receive music education. Research shows that note reading and music playing skills are positively correlated with cognitive development, motor proficiency, and self-esteem (Bilhartz, Bruhn, & Olson, 1999; Costa-Giomi, 2004; Schellenberg, 2004). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) to teach elements of music to children who have no music background in the age range of 4-7 years. The children first learned to relate the name of a note (e.g. “quarter”, “half”) to the length of the note as well as a picture of the note. They were also taught to name the lengths and names of sequences of notes (e.g. “quarter, quarter, half”). In the second part of this study, the children learned letter names of notes (e.g., “A”), keyboard placement, and what finger (e.g. thumb) goes with each letter name and piano key. Finally, we tested for emergent relations from part one and part two. Date collection in progress, but we predict to see emergence of relations between what was taught in part one and what was taught in part two. For example, when told “play this sequence on A,” participants will be able to use the correct finger on the correct piano key to play the notes in the sequence at the correct lengths.

Since the 1920s, it has been recognized that nonhuman animals are capable of forming expectations about rewards and exhibit emotional responses when those expectations are violated—when obtained rewards have lower value than expected rewards. Our lab utilizes a rodent model for coping with unexpected reward loss with a specific interest in furthering our understanding of the underlying neural correlates. Frustration effects in rats are commonly and reliably produced using the consummatory successive negative contrast (cSNC) procedure, where rats are given access to a highly preferred 32% sucrose solution followed by an unexpected downshifted to 4% sucrose. Such surprising nonreward leads to a suppression of behavior compared to a control group that always received the less-preferred, 4% sucrose solution. Studies involving neurological manipulation indicate that permanent lesion or reversible deactivation of the central amygdala (CeA) and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) eliminate the cSNC effect. While these studies are important for identifying key structures, they provide little information about the underlying circuitry. The present research examined the role of the neural pathway between the BLA and CeA in the cSNC task using a chemogenetic approach known as Designer Receptor Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs). Inhibitory DREADDs are intracranially infused into the key structures and later activated by intraperitoneal injections of clozapine N-oxide (CNO). Both groups of rats received unilateral inactivation of the BLA and CeA. The experimental (contralateral) group has one functioning area in each hemisphere, a procedure that disrupts communication between the two areas. The control (ipsilateral) group has one hemisphere disrupted while the other is left intact. Preliminary results indicate a disconnecting the BLA-CeA pathway reduces the cSNC effect in contralateral rats compared to ipsilateral rats. The BLA-CeA pathway is necessary to respond to surprising nonreward. These results add to the hypothesized model of circuity underlying unexpected reward loss in mammals. Because the amygdala circuitry is highly conserved across species, these results inform us about the neural circuitry engaged by similar instances of frustrative nonreward in the human brain.

According to Terror Management Theory, religious people are motivated to cling to their religious beliefs when reminded of their death. Quest motivated religious people, however, value doubt in their beliefs and are uncertain about the validity of their religion. The purpose of the present work was to examine medical decision making among individuals who actively question their religious beliefs when death concerns are salient. Specifically, we found that individuals who are quest motivated reject traditional faith healing in favor of more scientific medical practices. These effects were exacerbated by death awareness. These findings support previous research suggesting that quest individuals are motivated to embrace their religious doubts in when faced with existential concerns.