Negative Associations

Source: Julian Wills & Jay Van Bavel—New York University One of the core constructs in social psychology is the notion of an attitude toward an object or person. Traditionally, psychologists measured attitudes by simply asking people to self-report their beliefs, opinions, or feelings. This approach has limitations, however, when measuring socially sensitive attitudes, like racial prejudice, because people are often motivated to self-report unprejudiced, egalitarian beliefs (despite...

A negative externality occurs when an economic transaction imposes unintended costs on third parties who are not directly involved in the market transaction. These external costs are not captured in the market price. Negative Externalities and Market Failure Consider a chemical manufacturing plant that produces industrial chemicals for sale. The plant's private costs include raw materials, labor, equipment, and maintenance, which are reflected in the market price of the chemicals. However,...

Work is done on an object when energy is transferred to the object. In other words, work is done when a force acts on a body that undergoes a displacement from one position to another. By definition, the work done by a force is the integral of the force with respect to the displacement along its path. Forces can vary as a function of position, and displacements can occur along various paths between two points. The magnitude of a force multiplied by the cosine of the angle that the force makes...

Here, we present a protocol to test associative learning by performing classical conditioning in the model organism C. elegans. The paradigm is based on pairing the concentration of salt in the environment with the presence or absence of food, which alters their chemotaxis towards or away from salt.

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning. Classical conditioning, also known...