Espen A. Sjoberg

Kristiania University College · Department of Health Sciences

Parental investment theory suggests that women, due to greater investment in child rearing, can be more choosy than men when considering a potential mate. A corollary to this is that women should possess greater inhibition abilities compared to men in contexts related to sex and reproduction. This notion has found support from the inhibition litera...

Background Animal models of human behavioural deficits involve conducting experiments on animals with the hope of gaining new knowledge that can be applied to humans. This paper aims to address risks, biases, and fallacies associated with drawing conclusions when conducting experiments on animals, with focus on animal models of mental illness. Conc...

Any student of psychology is hopefully aware of the meta-analysis procedure. This is a very useful method for getting a quantitative overview over a debated issue that lacks statistical certainty or a quantitative narrative (Rosenthal & Dimatteo, 2001). However, it is not common for psychology students to actually conduct such an analysis as part o...

“Selection by Consequences” is reviewed from a critical standpoint, viewed from an evolutionary perspective. The concept of operant selection suffers from the lack of a clearly defined mechanism of inheritance, except for when cultural transmission is employed, such as in humans and species where parents act as teachers. It is only “selection” when...

Malingering amnesia is a phenomenon in which patients simulate or exaggerate their symptoms of memory loss. The purpose behind faking amnesia is usually for financial gain through insurance fraud or avoiding criminal punishment. This essay outlines various tests that are available to detect patients who may be simulating anterograde amnesia (inabil...

Background ADHD is a disorder where a common symptom is impulsive behaviour, a broad term associated with making sub-optimal choices. One frequently used method to investigate impulsive behaviour is delay discounting, which involves choosing between a small, immediate reinforcer and a delayed, larger one. Choosing the small immediate reinforcer is...

Previous research shows that women outperform men in the classic Stroop task, but it is not known why this difference occurs. There are currently two main hypotheses: (1) women have enhanced verbal abilities, and (2) women show greater inhibition. In two Stroop experiments, we examined the Inhibition hypothesis by adopting a procedure, often used i...

Delay discounting involves choosing between a small, immediate reward, and a larger but delayed one. As the delay between choice and large reward gets longer, people with ADHD tend to become impulsive faster than controls, indicated by a switch in preference from the large to the smaller reward. Choosing the smaller reward when the larger is consid...

From Kunnskapsmagasinet Kristiania: Have you ever looked up at a cloud and thought: “That looks like a sheep”? While this occurrence is very common, the term for it is less so: Pareidolia. This involves seeing a familiar configuration of patterns in random visual or auditory stimuli. It occurs because humans are expert pattern recognizers and our b...

Delay discounting is the loss of the subjective value of an outcome as the time to its delivery increases. It has been suggested that organisms can become more tolerant of this delay when engaging in schedule-induced behaviors. Schedule-induced behaviors are those that develop at a high rate during intermittent reinforcement schedules without the n...

Many measurements in science reflect arbitrary constructs. This works elegantly when the construct represents a physical property in nature or when unified definitions exist, as seen in e.g. mathematics or physics. By contrast, abstract social constructs are often not universally defined, even if they are universally understood. Concepts such as “c...

Psykologien befinner seg i en replikasjonskrise hvor flere eksperimenter, mange av dem klassiske, ikke kan replikeres. Et aspekt av denne krisen som er mindre diskutert er hvordan feilaktig informasjon overlever i pensumbøker. Her tar jeg for meg saken om Kitty Genovese og bystander effekten, som i hovedsak er feil rapportert i psykologiske lærebøk...

In a delay discounting experiment, two choices are available: a small, immediate reinforcer and a larger, delayed reinforcer. The large reinforcer produces the highest amount of rewards. As the delay increases for the large reinforcer, a preference switch occurs. The inter-trial-interval (ITI) that follows the delivery of the reinforcer has not rec...

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek evidence that confirms pre-existing beliefs, as opposed to potentially falsifying it. A classic test of confirmation bias is the Wason Selection Task. When different professions are evaluated, the general finding is that natural sciences show less bias compared to social sciences. Art history has never been...

The delay discounting paradigm involves choosing between a small, immediate reward and a larger, delayed reward. As the delay between response and reinforcer increases for the large reward, people with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) tend to choose the small reward more often than controls. Studies on an animal model of ADHD, the S...

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek evidence that confirms pre-existing beliefs, as opposed to potentially falsifying it. A classic test of confirmation bias is the Wason Selection Task. When different professions are evaluated, the general finding is that natural sciences show less bias compared to social sciences. Art history has never been...

In a delay discounting experiment, an organism is subjected to two choices: a small, immediate reinforcer and a larger, delayed reinforcer. Following the delivery of the reinforcer, an inter-trial-interval (ITI) occurs. Despite its delay, the large reinforcer is optimal as it produces the highest amount of rewards, and expressing a preference for t...

In delay discounting experiments on rats, the animals are exposed to a choice between a small, immediate reinforcer and a larger, delayed reinforcer. A preference for the larger reinforcer tends to negatively correlate with response-reinforcer delay. While we do not dispute the effect of the delay function, we argue that recent learning history, i....

The delay discounting paradigm involves choosing between a small, immediate reward or larger, delayed reward. As the delay between response and reinforcer increases for the large reward, patients with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) tend to choose the small reward more often than controls. This is typically interpreted as impulsive...

Parental investment theory suggests that women, due to greater investment in child rearing, can be more choosy than men when considering a potential mate. A corollary to this is that women should possess greater inhibition abilities compared to men in contexts related to sex and reproduction. This notion has found support from the inhibition litera...

The Stroop test is a measure of inhibition. An extension of parental investment theory propose that women should outperform men, due to females employing a more choosy (inhibiting) mating strategy compared to males. Despite over 80 years of Stroop research, a thorough systematic analysis of gender effects has never been conducted. Using the meta-an...

The evolved inhibition hypothesis proposes that women should outperform men on inhibition tasks due to sex differences in mating strategies. One measure to investigate inhibition is the Stroop Colour-Word task, where previous research has found a small female advantage. However, it is unclear whether this advantage reflects superior inhibition or v...

Parental investment theory suggests that women, due to greater investment in child rearing, can be more choosy than men when considering a potential mate. A corollary to this is that women should possess greater inhibition abilities compared to men in contexts related to sex and reproduction. Here, we present and review the evidence for this hypoth...

The delay discounting paradigm involves choosing between a small, immediate reinforcer (SS) or larger, delayed reinforcer (LL). In an animal model of ADHD, the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR), the rats tend to prefer the smaller reward as time between response and reinforcer increases for the larger reward. This is typically interpreted as imp...

In commemoration of B.F. Skinner’s 35th anniversary of his 1981 article in Science, "Selection by Consequences", I constructed a poem. The rhyme is meant to be a humorous and satirical approach to some of Skinner’s work and influence, as seen from the point of view of someone with a more cognitive background, working in the field of behavior analys...

Natural selection is a process where organisms with the most adaptive properties to their environment have an increased ability to reproduce, and transferring their genes to the next generation. Behaviours that give organisms an advantage in reproduction will be naturally selected, and this behavioural trait will spread in the population. In behavi...

Is it possible to fake amnesia? Indeed, there are cases where patients have simulated or exaggerated their symptoms in order to portray themselves as an amnesiac. This usually occurs for two reasons: 1) avoiding criminal punishment, or 2) insurance compensation. This lecture reviews the efficacy of a variety of methods that can be used to assess wh...

Does the length of the inter-trial-interval affect animals' responses in an experiment? In an animal model of ADHD (the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat), rats are subjected to two choices: a small, immediate reinforcer and a larger, delayed reinforcer. Following the delivery of the reinforcer, an inter-trial-interval occurs. Despite its delay, the l...

Hva er dyremodeller for atferd? Denne presentasjonen tar for seg hvordan forskning på dyr kan fremme kunnskap om menneskelige lidelser, hvordan slik forskning fungerer, og gi eksempler på aktuelle dyremodeller innenfor atferdsanalyse. oh what does animal models show knowledge of humans we will know through this talk will thou see the rats act like...

The delay discounting paradigm involves choosing between a small, immediate reinforcer (SS) or larger, delayed reinforcer (LL). Children with ADHD tend to choose the SS reinforcer more often than controls, which is interpreted as impulsivity. Studies on an animal model of ADHD, the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR), show the same pattern, with S...

When establishing validity for a putative animal model of a human condition, there exists a high risk of false positives. This occurs because an animal model consists of both an experimental group and a control group. When interpreting the results, either group’s performance relative to the other group’s performance can be compared to the original...

This presentation addresses several fallacies and risks in general science, with particular emphasis on animal models. We discuss affirming the consequent, confirmation bias, face validity, mechanistic validity, and steps to reduce bias in scientific reporting.

This lecture explains what the effect size is, as well as its advantages and applications. We also elaborate upon the meta-analysis procedure, explaining how it can be used to establish a mathematical argument about disputes in the literature on the effects of a phenomenon. This procedure also allows to check for publication bias in the field, illu...

b. The Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) is a validated model of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Here, the model is evaluated through a systematic review of delay discounting, which is a measure of impulsivity. Preliminary results show that the SHR is not an accurate reflection of ADHD behavioural deficits, as overall the SHRs d...

c. Scientific research is susceptible to a variety of logical fallacies, as well as errors in data interpretation and experimental design. Research on animal models are no exception, and in this lecture we explain several important principles in scientific research, as well as common fallacies that behavioural analysis and animal researchers may be...

A review of demographic publication trends in the Norwegian Journal of Behavior Analysis was conducted. All articles published between 2006 and 2015 were mapped, and systematic trends regarding authors, institutions, and gender were summarized. The results show that Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences together with the Universi...

Bjorklund & Kipp (1996) suggested that women should have superior inhibition abilities compared to men, due to their differential sexual selection. This involves females being the choosy sex and therefore gain more by inhibiting their own behavior, since their mating strategy may involve evaluating and rejecting potential male partners. Inhibition...

Skinner (1981) requests a psychology that is concerned with levels of selection. Since then Evolutionary Psychology (EP) has developed, an explicit evolutionary selection-based psychological research paradigm. Since EP’s conception, there has been an assumed contrast between evolutionary approaches and learning. We discuss how learning theories fit...

The delay discounting paradigm involves choosing between a small, immediate reinforcer (SS) or larger, delayed reinforcer (LL). Children with ADHD tend to choose the SS reward more often than controls, which is interpreted as a display of impulsivity. Studies on an animal model of ADHD, the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR), show the same patter...

Clinicians sometimes encounter patients they suspect are feigning their symptoms of amnesia, usually in order to achieve financial gain or to avoid criminal punishment. We review current methods available for detecting malingering in cases of amnesia. Certain neuroscientific methods, such as fMRI and pupil dilation measures, show promise in detecti...

Rat models have been used for decades in order to further our knowledge of Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this presentation we elaborate on why rat models are useful in ADHD research, and why the SHR rat is currently the most valid model of ADHD. We also address some critiques and limitations: specifically, the validity of the...

This study aimed to determine any gender effects on the Colour-Word subtask of the Stroop test, where participants are asked to name the ink colour of incongruous colour-words. Despite over 80 years of research on this topic, a systematic analysis of gender effects has never been conducted and previous reviews were based on subjective conclusions....

The evolved inhibition hypothesis proposes that women should outperform men on inhibition tasks due to sex differences in mating strategies. Specifically, females of any given species inhibit their mate choice more often than males, ensuring that the father of her offspring has the best possible genes. One measure to investigate inhibition is the S...

The hunter-gatherer theory suggests that a division of labor existed in early human settlements whereby men were predominantly hunters and women were predominantly gatherers. Support for this theory has come from the observation that females tend to perform better on tasks concerning object location memory, a skill required for successful gathering...

Gender differences in cognitive inhibition experiments have been largely overlooked in the literature. An evolutionary hypothesis proposed that women should outperform men on inhibition tasks due to a differential evolution of mating strategies. In the Stroop task, however, it is believed that a possible female advantage may be due to superior verb...

The hunter-gatherer theory suggests that a division of labor existed in early human settlements whereby men were predominantly hunters and women were predominantly gatherers. Support for this theory has come from the observation that females tend to perform better on tasks concerning object location memory, a skill required for successful gathering...

This study reviews the neuroscientific evidence available for the hunter-gatherer hypothesis. The hunter-gatherer hypothesis attempts to explain observed sex differences in spatial abilities and location memory: it proposes that in early human settlements a labour division existed where men acted as hunters and women as gatherers and so different c...

Hunter-gatherer theory suggests that a labour division existed in early human settlements where men were hunters and women were gatherers. An evolutionary consequence of this would involve men developing a reaction mechanism that would be advantageous for dealing with animal stimuli, and women would evolve a similar mechanism for fruit stimuli. Thi...