Biomedical subjects

J Bruce Overmier

Publications and source records attributed to J Bruce Overmier.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Differential outcomes effect in children and adults with down syndrome.

In previous studies, researchers have demonstrated that learning of symbolic relations is facilitated when a particular outcome is associated with each relation to be learned. In the present study, we extend this differential outcomes procedure to children and adults with Down syndrome who had to learn a symbolic conditional discrimination task. Participants showed a better terminal accuracy and a faster learning of the task when the alternative correct responses were each followed by unique different outcomes than when nondifferential outcomes were arranged. These findings confirm that the differential outcomes procedure can be a useful tool to ameliorate discriminative learning deficits and demonstrate the benefits of this procedure for people with Down syndrome.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Sensitization, conditioning, and learning: can they help us understand somatization and disability?

This paper reviews those features of non-associative and associative forms of learning, as elaborated in the experimental literature, that might contribute to experienced and reported discomfort in the workplace. Emphasis is given to sensitization, while noting that some models of habituation (e.g. the opponent process model) also produce sensitization-like effects as a by-product that could contribute to persistent complaints. Also noted are ways in which these non-associative processes may enhance associative learning of workplace-avoidance behaviors that are exceptionally persistent - even in the absence of further somatic discomfort.

Conditioning, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

On learned helplessness.

"Learned helplessness" and its Pavlovian analog, learned irrelevance, are phenomena thought integral to understanding depression, PTSD, psychosomatic vulnerability, and a variety of diseases and immune disorders. The origin and development of research on learned helplessness is briefly overviewed with attention to the reasons for the controversy that surrounds the study of learned helplessness and derived physiological, psychological, and behavioral phenomena. The need to remedy past focus on American research and English language journals in this area is noted. The heuristic value as well as the wide ranging empirical value of the research domain is lauded. The meretricious emerging social and legal barriers to this research are noted to be unrealistic and unfortunate.

Animals↗