Self-testing strategies have powerful effects on learning and long-term retention. One popular method of self-testing is by using flashcards. Indeed, forty percent of students report using flashcards to study material (Karpicke, Butler, & Roediger, 2009). However, there has not yet been any research exploring differences in how learners use physical flashcards versus electronic flashcards. There may be a learning benefit for electronic flashcards because individuals are able to put more information on a card more quickly. However, there may be a learning benefit for physical flashcards because individuals can compensate for time with better quality information. In the present experiment, we investigated the potential differences in how individuals construct flashcards on index cards compared to electronic cards.
Participants were instructed to make flashcards over an article about how Hollywood films portray history (materials provided by Rawson & Kintsch, 2005). In the physical flashcard condition, participants were given 40 index cards and participants in the electronic flashcard condition were given a laptop to access Quizlet. All participants were instructed to make flashcards over the material as they would if they were preparing for a test over the material in the future. Participants in the electronic flashcard condition made more flashcards than did participants in the index card condition, and they also constructed flashcards in a method that promoted self-testing more than did participants in the index card condition. There were no differences in time spent making the flashcards between the two conditions. Thus, the way learners construct flashcards is different depending on if flashcards are being created physically or electronically. Future work is needed to explore potential differences in the quality of information placed on physical flashcards versus electronic flashcards.

Transfer of Change Detection to Novel Changes with Pigeons
Kenneth Leising, Lauren Cleland, Kierany Shelvin, Jackson White, & Cheyenne Elliott

The nature of working memory is frequently studied using change detection tasks. Change detection tasks involve presenting a sample and test display and asking subjects to report on changes in one or a group of stimuli across the delay; the changes can range from location to size, shape, color, and more. In this study, pigeons were trained with a location (“where”) change detection task using a touchscreen-equipped monitor. On each trial, reinforcement was delivered when a pigeon pecked at a visual object (colored circle) that changed position over a brief delay (0, 100, 1000 ms). Once training was complete, transfer tests with novel changes (size, shape, or color) were given. On a test trial, two sample items that differed in one of the dimensions were followed by a short delay (0 or 1000 ms) and then one of the two items changed within the same dimension (e.g., a square and a circle followed by two circles). The changed item now matched the non-changed item in every dimension. We found that pigeons were unable to transfer detection of location to detecting items that changed in the untrained dimension at test. Most recently, the pigeons underwent retraining for both location and color change-detection tasks. All subjects performed at or above chance on the color-change training within only a few sessions, but again failed to transfer at test. Subsequent tests focused on determining the source of this discrepancy.

Life History Theory predicts that growing up in certain environmental circumstances should promote the development of adult phenotypes that can survive in similar circumstances. Researchers have recently proposed that growing up poor should encourage eating strategies that promote survivability in resource scarce environments, with individuals reared in poorer circumstances eating comparable amounts of calories, regardless of energy need. Additional research indicates that childhood experiences with parental inconsistency, dangerous neighborhoods, development of an unpredictability schema (e.g., a mindset about the world, people, and future outcomes as unpredictable), and lowered body awareness predict this same pattern of results in adulthood. The purpose of the current research was to examine the impact of environmental conditions such as pregnancy stress experienced by the mother, family financial struggles, and predictability of the childhood environment on the emergence of eating in the absence of hunger in children ages 3-14. Results indicate that increased pregnancy stress and environmental unpredictability significantly predict eating in the absence of hunger.

Keywords: psychosocial stress, eating behavior, self-regulation, evolutionary psychology, health

Anxiety is an increasingly widespread mental health issue affecting a significant portion of the United States population. Further research in the field of mental health is beneficial to understanding the mechanisms that drive anxiety, and to discovering novel, therapeutic interventions. Using a rodent model to conduct this research is practical due to the morphological similarity of the rat brain to the human brain. We will examine anxiety- and fear-related responses in both male and female subjects that are subjected to either unpredictable or predictable threat. Unpredictable threats generate a state of anxiety, and predictable threats produce fear. Threat predictability will be manipulated by administration of temporally inconsistent, or temporally consistent foot shocks in an operant chamber. Equal numbers of males and females will be included within each group and the rats will be randomly assigned to either the temporally consistent or temporally inconsistent footshock condition. Animals will be tested over the course of three days; Day 1 is the contextual conditioning test day wherein the animal is exposed to the novel environment and the initial presentation of the foot shocks. Day 2 is the memory test day, where animals are returned to the test chamber, but no shock is given; day 3 . Day 3 is the reinstatement test where the animal is placed back into the chamber and one footshock is administered. Anxiety and fear will be assessed by measuring rearing (anxiety-related) and freezing (fear-related) behaviors in the test chamber on each test day. Sex differences in anxiety and fear that are generated by varying threat predictability will be determined. These results will provide insights into the role of potential sex differences in anxiety and fear-related behaviors.

It is commonly understood that as we age, memory tends to decline. Memory failures can have severe consequences for older adults if they forget important things, such as taking daily medication. Recently, researchers have found that younger and older adults tend to remember forgotten information as having been less important than remembered information (Castel et al., 2012; Witherby, Tauber, Rhodes, & Castel, in prep). This effect is called the forgetting bias. In the present experiment, we investigated why older and younger adults show the forgetting bias.
Older and younger adults studied words that were assigned a value indicating the importance of remembering the word. Following study, they took a free-recall test. After repeating the study-test procedure four times, participants took a surprise test. On the test, they were shown each word and asked (1) if they remembered it on the free-recall test and (2) to recall the point value assigned to it during the study phase. Younger and older adults used their memory judgment on the surprise test as an anchor for recalling the value. Specifically, words that were judged as remembered were given high values, whereas words judged as forgotten were given low values. Thus, one reason why both older and younger adults show the forgetting bias is because they rely on their memory of past test performance. Future work is needed to examine whether a forgetting bias is shown with more meaningful information as well as ways to eliminate the bias.